Beyond Mattera day's journey inward through the Five Koshas
Yogic philosophy describes a human being as five sheaths, one inside the next: the body you can touch, the breath that animates it, the mind that chatters, the mind that knows, and the still centre. This year's programme travels through all five, in order.
Royal Society of Medicine, 1 Wimpole Street, London
Doors open 08:00
One day, five layers, in the order you'd meet them if you travelled inward.
The morning stays with what can be measured — hormones, oral health, heart-rate variability. After lunch the ground shifts: memory, perception, altered states, intuition. By late afternoon the question is no longer how to live longer, but what a life is for. Each transition is a real break in the day; use them.
Annamaya
Hormones, physiology, the mouth–brain axis. The measurable foundation everything else rests on.
Pranamaya
Breath, nervous system, burnout and recovery — and what heart-rate variability is telling you.
Manomaya
Memory, conditioning, perception, and whether deep patterns can be rewritten.
Vijnanamaya
Intuition and deeper intelligence — the shift from the mind that thinks to the mind that knows.
Anandamaya
Wholeness, meaning, connection. What all of this is ultimately for.
*Please note: times are subject to change.
Arrival
The day begins in the body rather than the head: a blessing, a breath practice, and a keynote that sets out why medicine has built an industry at the bottom of the pyramid and almost nothing at the top.
Registration
Immersive Experience
We start experientially.
MC Introduction & Welcome
Human Potential Revisited
Twelve human achievements, Maslow's hierarchy and Hawkins' map of consciousness. Ash introduces the Five Koshas as the frame for everything that follows.
Annamaya
The physical sheath. Hormones are the invisible architecture behind it; the mouth is proof that it cannot be understood in isolated parts.
The Physical Body: Hormones, Health & the Foundations of Vitality
The physiological foundation the rest of the day builds from.
The Body Is Connected: The Mouth–Brain Axis and the Foundations of Longevity
Why the System Impedes Healing
Pranamaya
Breath, nervous system, recovery. Burnout and exhaustion read through the science of regulation — and placed beside the older idea of prana.
The Vital Energy Body: Why Modern Life Is Draining Human Energy — and How We Restore It
The Energy Body: HRV and the Language of Your Nervous System
Heart-rate variability as a measurable lens on adaptability, resilience and recovery.
Manomaya
Thought, memory, emotion, conditioning. The patterns through which we experience ourselves — and the possibility of changing the ones that no longer serve.
The Mind Body: Rewiring the Brain Through Memory Reconsolidation — Using the Hidden Map in Your Hands
Beyond the Chattering Mind: Psychedelics, Resilience & Human Potential
Perception, emotional patterns and altered states as routes into deeply embedded conditioning.
Vijnanamaya
Insight, discernment, intuition. The distinction between ordinary thought and a deeper intelligence that seems to arrive rather than be worked out.
The Intelligence Within: Stories of Transformation
Consciousness, Intuition & Deeper Intelligence
Anandamaya
Wholeness, connection, bliss. The conversation moves past health optimisation toward meaning — what vitality is for — and then returns the room to stillness.
Beyond Longevity: Wholeness, Consciousness & What It Means to Truly Flourish
The culmination of the day. Beyond lifespan, toward consciousness, connection and meaning.
Closing Remarks
Immersive Experience
The day ends the way it began: back in the body, in awareness, in stillness.
Drinks Reception
Come for the science. Stay for the question it can't answer alone.
One day at the Royal Society of Medicine. Three panels, keynotes and conversations, and a programme that moves from the measurable to the meaningful without leaving either behind.
Book your placeBack to the programme