CUYA™ Institute: Exploring Consciousness Through the Wisdom of the Embodied Knowledge
CUYA™ — The Felicitas D. Goodman Institute is the international home of Ritual Postures and a global center for the exploration of altered states of consciousness through embodied practice, education, and research.
Founded upon the pioneering work of anthropologist Dr. Felicitas D. Goodman, CUYA is an independent 501(c)(3) nonprofit educational organization dedicated to the study of Altered States of Consciousness (ASC) as a natural and meaningful expression of the human experience.
For over five decades, the Cuyamungue Institute has served as the home for the preservation, practice, and exploration of Ritual Body Postures — specific physical positions identified through Goodman’s research into ancient and indigenous art traditions. These postures, combined with rhythmic sound and intentional focus, offer a pathway into expanded states of awareness, personal insight, and transformative experience.
Known historically as Ecstatic Trance Postures, Ritual Postures are part of a worldwide human heritage of sacred practices that explore the relationship between body, consciousness, imagination, and spirit. Through these embodied practices, participants report experiences of deep connection, healing, creativity, and expanded awareness.
Dr. Felicitas Goodman’s groundbreaking work revealed that selected artifacts from ancient cultures could be understood not simply as artistic expressions, but as representations of ritual knowledge — physical forms that preserved instructions for accessing specific states of consciousness.
For generations of CUYA students and practitioners, these Ritual Postures have provided a simple, natural, and drug-free method of exploring what many cultures have recognized as profound states of human experience. Research into these practices has explored physiological changes associated with altered states, including shifts in brainwave activity and the body’s own systems of well-being.
At CUYA, we believe the capacity for expanded awareness is not reserved for a select few. It is part of the deeper potential of being human — an ancient knowing that continues to be remembered through the wisdom of the body.
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It is all about the experiences…
Ritual Body Posture Experiences:
It Works
The reports of thousands of participants have confirmed that ordinary people can have quite extraordinary visionary experiences. Mystical experiences are not for mystics only, but for all of us! The CUYA Method of Ritual Body Postures is a technique with a 40,000 year track record, handed down through time from our earliest ancestors, who recorded ritual instructions in selected artworks the world over. We invite you to join us, and see for yourself!
We may ask, just how RBP works as readily and profoundly as it does? Do we bend our limbs to a specific configuration as we bend an antennae to amplify a specific frequency? Do we activate meridians, chakras, organs or neuronal pathways by placing our hands just so?
What and where is the “Alternate Reality” we enter — is it just between our ears, or are we for a brief spell crossing a magical threshold into a realm where the Universe may speak with us directly? Its dialects are many: direct knowing, visions, gestures, symbols, downloads of energy, emotional resolution, deep insights… all in a spirit journey writ large with meaning and wonder. Why does it feel like a territory we know? As though, having answered its call… we’ve been here before. Our soul knows this language, this place, the beings we meet. And they know us, better than we know ourselves.
Ultimately, while each of us must answer this for ourself, it’s certainly more fun to share our journeys with one another, to ponder it all together. We invite you to join the CI Circle!
C — Consciousness: The exploration of expanded awareness and the field of presence that emerges when we move beyond the isolated self into deeper connection with life, community, and the greater whole.
U — Unity: The recognition that we are inseparable from the rhythms of nature, the living Earth, and the larger cosmos. Unity is the direct experience of belonging within an interconnected web of relationships.
Y — Your Awakening: The personal journey of embodiment, insight, and transformation. Through direct experience, the body becomes a gateway to wisdom, awakening capacities that often lie dormant beneath everyday awareness.
- A — Ancestral Wisdom: The enduring knowledge carried through generations. Inspired by the pioneering research of Dr. Felicitas D. Goodman, we honor the wisdom encoded within ancient traditions and ritual practices while bringing their relevance into the present moment.
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“Mystical experiences are achievable via a normal and natural physiological shift, easily accessible to everyone with a healthy nervous system. Such states are our birthright, independent of any belief system or dogma. Mystical states are not for mystics only — they are for all of us, and have been for the entirety of human existence. This our ancestors knew well, and handed us the keys.”
– Laura Lee Robear
“This isn’t a new truth we are discovering – It’s an ancient knowing we are remembering. Across cultures and throughout human history, people have entered sacred spaces of awareness through ritual, movement, sound, breath, and ceremony. They discovered ways of listening beyond the surface of ordinary experience — ways of sensing the deeper patterns that connect all life.” – Paul Robear CUYA INSTITUTE CUYAINSTITUTE.COM
Practitioners enjoy many benefits
- Feelings of strength
- Reduced anxiety and stress
- The opening of inner portals for continued communication with the greater Universe
- Increase in positivity and synchronicities
- Sense of well-being lasting for hours
- Sense of oneness with all things, the Universe
- Sense of acceptance and belonging
- Awakened creativity
- Aid in memory and concentration
- Have positive immune system responses
- Enhance communication – better understanding and relationship with people in your life
- Support peace of mind
- feelings of comfort, and release of anxiety.
- feelings of expansion – greater intuitive insights into ones life.
Medical Disclaimer: The content on this website is intended for informational and educational purposes only, specifically related to the research and work of the Cuyamungue Institute. It is not a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Always seek the guidance of your physician or other qualified healthcare provider with any questions you may have regarding a medical condition or health objectives. Never disregard professional medical advice or delay in seeking it because of something you have read on this site.
The authors, presenters, and members of the Board of Directors expressly disclaim any responsibility for adverse effects that may result from the use, practice, or application of any information provided on this website, including participation in our online experiential sessions conducted via Zoom or any other virtual platform.
