Retained Moro Reflex and Vestibular Issues in Neurological Disorders
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Alternative Views on the Retained Moro Reflex in Neurological Disorders and Mental Illness
Two nights ago, I had a dream that my granddaughter was a tiny 3 month old baby (she’s actually 3 years old). I needed to move her from a chair to the floor quickly for some reason and I picked her up such that her face was in the palm of my hand, causing her back to arch into a mild backbend. This baby, who felt like my granddaughter to me, started having a seizure. In the dream, I was terrified, but there happened to be a doctor standing in the room with me. I called out to him, but he just smiled at me and left the room. He was there to do some kind of work-related test for the men in our family, but as my precious grandbaby was convulsing, unable to breathe, I was absolutely shocked that the doctor hadn’t helped me.
Click here to schedule a health coaching session with us.
I put my finger in my granddaughter’s mouth and then she started to breathe, but one of her eyes turned opaque, as with a cataract. I was in my grandmother’s old house, likely a reference to a child in my ancestry who suffered from epilepsy. At another point in the dream, my granddaughter developed additional “arm buds”. She was growing two other sets of arms, probably in reference to Hindu gods and goddesses that are represented with many arms. I was scared of how the other kids would react to her with these extra arms. And then, she arched her back again and I could see different overlays of people, mostly ancestors or soul parts of other family members overlaying her.
I woke up feeling like what had happened in the dream had happened in real life. (It was a very bad feeling).
Nonetheless, I recognized that the dream was intended to get my attention (which it definitely did do because my granddaughter was a main character) and that it directly related to the “retained Moro reflex”, something Lydi had stumbled across the day before in regard to motion sickness, but also neurological diseases. The Moro reflex is a primitive, involuntary “startle” response that occurs when there are sudden changes in sensory input. A loud noise or a sudden fall could provoke the Moro reflex in infants under 6 months old. Under normal conditions, the Moro reflex “integrates” into a more advanced, or “grown up” version of the Moro reflex known as the “righting reflex”.
Click here to do a free trial of EMDR to Release Trauma.
If the Moro reflex is “retained” for some reason, it can cause various neurological issues including motion sickness. The Moro reflex is essentially a “fight-or-flight” sympathetic nervous system response to sudden changes in regard to motion, light, or noise. Retention of the Moro reflex can cause the nervous system to stay in a state of constant alertness or “fight-or-flight” mode that can lead to emotional dysregulation and mental health issues. A person with a retained Moro reflex might have an extreme sensitivity to sensory data, high levels of anxiety, severe mood swings, or a tendency to get angry or overwhelmed very easily. Some people might also experience poor balance, motion sickness, and poor core strength.
Birth trauma is a common cause of a retained Moro reflex, but falls or head trauma can also cause it to be retained. Physical and occupational therapists use mild back-bending exercises to integrate this Moro reflex, which might also be viewed as a lost soul part, possibly a Core part of the self. The Core Self is the part of the “soul” that exists from the beginning of life and that can call other parts of the soul back if they become lost. In Traditional Chinese Medicine, our life force, the Jing, is located in the kidneys, an organ that is directly related to the ears.
Click here to buy Amanita muscaria mushrooms.
In adults, the “righting reflex” is what makes it possible for us to maintain an upright position against gravity. Both the Moro reflex and the righting reflex are centered in the vestibular system in the ears. When a baby experiences a sudden drop or loss of support, the Moro reflex is triggered, causing their nervous system to be flooded by a fight-or-flight response that’s designed to protect the helpless child. In the book, The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down, the Khmer people believe that startling a baby can cause epilepsy and that seizures represent the soul leaving the body and “wandering” only to return after the seizure ends.
Naing Naing is a good example of how the Moro reflex can be simultaneously “retained” and “unintegrated”, but he still has a very well-developed “righting reflex”. The righting reflex is a more conscious effort to orient the body against gravity to stand upright while the Moro reflex is unconscious.
For motion sickness, antihistamines are the primary over-the-counter treatment though scopolamine patches are another popular drug. We discussed scopolamine earlier as the muscarinic blockade drug that’s used in animals to provoke dementia symptoms or psychosis. Acetylcholine, the endogenous neurotransmitter that runs the cholinergic system, works with histamine to control sleep, wakefulness, and also memory.
Click here to learn more about the DreamLight.app, an online guided meditation and brain-entrainment tool.
Some of these concepts, like the Moro reflex, might be familiar to readers, but the way that Lydi and I are thinking about these things is different. Your doctor or physical therapists may have talked to you about an unintegrated Moro reflex, for example, but what we’re suggesting is that this “reflex” is not a reflex at all, but rather an integral part of the patient’s “soul” that has not been properly integrated into the body. Though most of our readers will know what “epilepsy” is in that it is a disease that involves seizures, the shamanic definition of epilepsy as a spiritual “gift” that allows the sufferer to move between different planes of reality, is less well-known and definitely less well-accepted in the modern world.
Click here to subscribe to the Living Database now.
In modern medicine, people are discouraged from working with natural muscarinic receptor agonists like the muscarine in Amanita muscaria. Science, after all, is supposed to be empirical. In science, and in medicine, the only thing that exists is what can be observed directly and measured. But the humans that are alive right now, at the time of this writing, have all lived under this idea that science is the only thing that can prove or disprove that a thing exists and we all know that, in fact, the measurability of a thing does not make it immune to exploitation politically. It’s important to check subjective ideas with knowledge that is shared with the common population, but objectivity is not a reliable source of salvation in solving serious medical problems. In this book, we’ll be providing scientific information that’s buttressed by anecdotal experience and / or perspectives and metaphors that have been given to us through dreams or sacred medicines. That being said though, our material comes from and belongs to our family line. Readers who would like to delve into work with the sacred medicine for the purposes of healing themselves or another person will draw from their own ancestral wisdom that might differ somewhat from ours.
Nonetheless, Amanita muscaria at the proper dose (not too high, not too low) produces a very subjective experience that can be helpful to those who wish to understand dementia, psychosis, vestibular issues, neurological degeneration, and more using another method of knowing that has more dimensions, so to speak, than science. And so it was that I took a high enough dose of Amanita muscaria to produce one of these subjective experiences that helped me better understand the scientific material about neurodegenerative disease.
Resources
Chandrasekara, U. et al. (2024). High-Voltage Toxin-Roll: Electrostatic Charge Repulsion as a Dynamic Venom Resistance Trait in Pythonid Snakes. Retrieved July 22, 2026 from https://www.mdpi.com/2072-6651/16/4/176
Nys, M. et al. (2022). The molecular mechanism of snake short-chain alpha-neurotoxin binding to muscle-type nicotinic acetylcholine receptors. Retrieved July 22, 2026 from ttps://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-022-32174-7
Carlson, A. B. and Kraus, G. P. (2023), Physiology: Cholinergic Receptors. Retrieved July 22, 2026 from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK526134/
Corsini, S. et al. (2016). Nicotinic receptor activation contrasts pathophysiological bursting and neurodegeneration evoked by glutamate uptake block on rat hypoglossal motoneurons. Retrieved July 22, 2026 from https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC5108918/
Rosal, N. et al. (2021). Wooden Chest Syndrome: A Case Report of Fentanyl-Induced Chest Wall Rigidity. Retrieved July 22, 2026 from https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC8312149/
Ruffalo, M. L. (2026). A Brief History of Electroconvulsive Therapy. Retrieved July 22, 2026 from https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/from-freud-to-fluoxetine/201811/a-brief-history-of-electroconvulsive-therapy
Fink, M. (1984). Meduna and the origins of convulsive therapy. Retrieved July 22, 2026 from https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/6147103/
Robinson, R. (2009). Serotonin’s Role in the Pancreas Revealed at Last. Retrieved July 23, 2026 from https://journals.plos.org/plosbiology/article?id=10.1371/journal.pbio.1000227
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Alternative Views on the Retained Moro Reflex in Neurological Disorders and Mental Illness
Two nights ago, I had a dream that my granddaughter was a tiny 3 month old baby (she’s actually 3 years old). I needed to move her from a chair to the floor quickly for some reason and I picked her up such that her face was in the palm of my hand, causing her back to arch into a mild backbend. This baby, who felt like my granddaughter to me, started having a seizure. In the dream, I was terrified, but there happened to be a doctor standing in the room with me. I called out to him, but he just smiled at me and left the room. He was there to do some kind of work-related test for the men in our family, but as my precious grandbaby was convulsing, unable to breathe, I was absolutely shocked that the doctor hadn’t helped me.
Click here to schedule a health coaching session with us.
I put my finger in my granddaughter’s mouth and then she started to breathe, but one of her eyes turned opaque, as with a cataract. I was in my grandmother’s old house, likely a reference to a child in my ancestry who suffered from epilepsy. At another point in the dream, my granddaughter developed additional “arm buds”. She was growing two other sets of arms, probably in reference to Hindu gods and goddesses that are represented with many arms. I was scared of how the other kids would react to her with these extra arms. And then, she arched her back again and I could see different overlays of people, mostly ancestors or soul parts of other family members overlaying her.
I woke up feeling like what had happened in the dream had happened in real life. (It was a very bad feeling).
Nonetheless, I recognized that the dream was intended to get my attention (which it definitely did do because my granddaughter was a main character) and that it directly related to the “retained Moro reflex”, something Lydi had stumbled across the day before in regard to motion sickness, but also neurological diseases. The Moro reflex is a primitive, involuntary “startle” response that occurs when there are sudden changes in sensory input. A loud noise or a sudden fall could provoke the Moro reflex in infants under 6 months old. Under normal conditions, the Moro reflex “integrates” into a more advanced, or “grown up” version of the Moro reflex known as the “righting reflex”.
Click here to do a free trial of EMDR to Release Trauma.
If the Moro reflex is “retained” for some reason, it can cause various neurological issues including motion sickness. The Moro reflex is essentially a “fight-or-flight” sympathetic nervous system response to sudden changes in regard to motion, light, or noise. Retention of the Moro reflex can cause the nervous system to stay in a state of constant alertness or “fight-or-flight” mode that can lead to emotional dysregulation and mental health issues. A person with a retained Moro reflex might have an extreme sensitivity to sensory data, high levels of anxiety, severe mood swings, or a tendency to get angry or overwhelmed very easily. Some people might also experience poor balance, motion sickness, and poor core strength.
Birth trauma is a common cause of a retained Moro reflex, but falls or head trauma can also cause it to be retained. Physical and occupational therapists use mild back-bending exercises to integrate this Moro reflex, which might also be viewed as a lost soul part, possibly a Core part of the self. The Core Self is the part of the “soul” that exists from the beginning of life and that can call other parts of the soul back if they become lost. In Traditional Chinese Medicine, our life force, the Jing, is located in the kidneys, an organ that is directly related to the ears.
Click here to buy Amanita muscaria mushrooms.
In adults, the “righting reflex” is what makes it possible for us to maintain an upright position against gravity. Both the Moro reflex and the righting reflex are centered in the vestibular system in the ears. When a baby experiences a sudden drop or loss of support, the Moro reflex is triggered, causing their nervous system to be flooded by a fight-or-flight response that’s designed to protect the helpless child. In the book, The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down, the Khmer people believe that startling a baby can cause epilepsy and that seizures represent the soul leaving the body and “wandering” only to return after the seizure ends.
Naing Naing is a good example of how the Moro reflex can be simultaneously “retained” and “unintegrated”, but he still has a very well-developed “righting reflex”. The righting reflex is a more conscious effort to orient the body against gravity to stand upright while the Moro reflex is unconscious.
For motion sickness, antihistamines are the primary over-the-counter treatment though scopolamine patches are another popular drug. We discussed scopolamine earlier as the muscarinic blockade drug that’s used in animals to provoke dementia symptoms or psychosis. Acetylcholine, the endogenous neurotransmitter that runs the cholinergic system, works with histamine to control sleep, wakefulness, and also memory.
Click here to learn more about the DreamLight.app, an online guided meditation and brain-entrainment tool.
Some of these concepts, like the Moro reflex, might be familiar to readers, but the way that Lydi and I are thinking about these things is different. Your doctor or physical therapists may have talked to you about an unintegrated Moro reflex, for example, but what we’re suggesting is that this “reflex” is not a reflex at all, but rather an integral part of the patient’s “soul” that has not been properly integrated into the body. Though most of our readers will know what “epilepsy” is in that it is a disease that involves seizures, the shamanic definition of epilepsy as a spiritual “gift” that allows the sufferer to move between different planes of reality, is less well-known and definitely less well-accepted in the modern world.
Click here to subscribe to the Living Database now.
In modern medicine, people are discouraged from working with natural muscarinic receptor agonists like the muscarine in Amanita muscaria. Science, after all, is supposed to be empirical. In science, and in medicine, the only thing that exists is what can be observed directly and measured. But the humans that are alive right now, at the time of this writing, have all lived under this idea that science is the only thing that can prove or disprove that a thing exists and we all know that, in fact, the measurability of a thing does not make it immune to exploitation politically. It’s important to check subjective ideas with knowledge that is shared with the common population, but objectivity is not a reliable source of salvation in solving serious medical problems. In this book, we’ll be providing scientific information that’s buttressed by anecdotal experience and / or perspectives and metaphors that have been given to us through dreams or sacred medicines. That being said though, our material comes from and belongs to our family line. Readers who would like to delve into work with the sacred medicine for the purposes of healing themselves or another person will draw from their own ancestral wisdom that might differ somewhat from ours.
Nonetheless, Amanita muscaria at the proper dose (not too high, not too low) produces a very subjective experience that can be helpful to those who wish to understand dementia, psychosis, vestibular issues, neurological degeneration, and more using another method of knowing that has more dimensions, so to speak, than science. And so it was that I took a high enough dose of Amanita muscaria to produce one of these subjective experiences that helped me better understand the scientific material about neurodegenerative disease.
Resources
Chandrasekara, U. et al. (2024). High-Voltage Toxin-Roll: Electrostatic Charge Repulsion as a Dynamic Venom Resistance Trait in Pythonid Snakes. Retrieved July 22, 2026 from https://www.mdpi.com/2072-6651/16/4/176
Nys, M. et al. (2022). The molecular mechanism of snake short-chain alpha-neurotoxin binding to muscle-type nicotinic acetylcholine receptors. Retrieved July 22, 2026 from ttps://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-022-32174-7
Carlson, A. B. and Kraus, G. P. (2023), Physiology: Cholinergic Receptors. Retrieved July 22, 2026 from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK526134/
Corsini, S. et al. (2016). Nicotinic receptor activation contrasts pathophysiological bursting and neurodegeneration evoked by glutamate uptake block on rat hypoglossal motoneurons. Retrieved July 22, 2026 from https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC5108918/
Rosal, N. et al. (2021). Wooden Chest Syndrome: A Case Report of Fentanyl-Induced Chest Wall Rigidity. Retrieved July 22, 2026 from https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC8312149/
Ruffalo, M. L. (2026). A Brief History of Electroconvulsive Therapy. Retrieved July 22, 2026 from https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/from-freud-to-fluoxetine/201811/a-brief-history-of-electroconvulsive-therapy
Fink, M. (1984). Meduna and the origins of convulsive therapy. Retrieved July 22, 2026 from https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/6147103/
Robinson, R. (2009). Serotonin’s Role in the Pancreas Revealed at Last. Retrieved July 23, 2026 from https://journals.plos.org/plosbiology/article?id=10.1371/journal.pbio.1000227
