Alexis Monette

FIELD

MuseShiftSMSNervous-System Intelligence2025–2026

A nervous-system intelligence instrument over SMS. You text what you are carrying; it reads the state underneath and answers from inside it in under a minute, and it keeps the thread open after the minute ends.

Overview

It reads what the body is already doing.

FIELD is the subscription at the centre of MuseShift. A person texts what they are carrying: what is tight, what will not start, what keeps looping. FIELD reads the nervous-system state underneath the words and answers from inside that state, in under a minute.

It does not reset when the texting stops. The thing a person is dealing with stays open, and the move that helped stays named, so the longer someone uses it, the more it responds like something that has been paying attention. The name is an acronym: felt, intelligence, embodied, living, data.

At a Glance

At a glance.

Role
Creator
Designed the instrument, the state taxonomy and the service ladder.
Channel
SMS
Text in, state out, in under a minute.
Reads
7 states
Six nervous-system states plus one dissociative.
Built on
19,000+ journal entries
Indexed, plus polyvagal theory, somatic experiencing, van der Kolk and embodied cognition.
Pricing
From $0
A seven-day free trial, then $33 a month for FIELD base.

2025–2026

The Loop

Sixty seconds, five stages.

Every pass through FIELD follows the same structure, whether the person is texting it, journaling inside it or asking it for a protocol. Each pass adds data, so the next one is more accurate.

THE LOOP · CAN FINISH IN A MINUTE OR RUN ACROSS A WEEKSMS IN, STATE OUT, UNDER 60 SEC01feedcapture the rawsignal. "i feel…",no editing. thebody speaks first.brain02enterthe classifierreads it. stateassigned, body zonemapped, polyvagalmode named.spine03translatea move comes back,sized to what youcan actually doright now.memory04transmityou move. sound,breath, writing,stillness, whateverthe protocol named.face05fieldthe systemintegrates. thenext loop adaptsand your rhythmgets sharper.soulthe five stages map one to one onto the system layers underneath.every micro-intervention is doable at one percent capacity. every action is capped at five minutes.
SMS IN, STATE OUT, UNDER 60 SEC
01 · layer: brain
feed
capture the raw signal. "i feel…", no editing. the body speaks first.
↓
02 · layer: spine
enter
the classifier reads it. state assigned, body zone mapped, polyvagal mode named.
↓
03 · layer: memory
translate
a move comes back, sized to what you can actually do right now.
↓
04 · layer: face
transmit
you move. sound, breath, writing, stillness, whatever the protocol named.
↓
05 · layer: soul
field
the system integrates. the next loop adapts and your rhythm gets sharper.
The Seven States

A taxonomy of motion.

The classifier places a person on a polyvagal axis. The state names are coined words, not clinical terms, because clinical terms arrive already loaded. Each name describes a state of motion, not a disorder.

THE SIX STATES ON THE POLYVAGAL AXIS, PLUS ONEDORSALshut downSYMPATHETICmobiliseVENTRALregulatedslickveildorsal freezefog, shutdown,numbness. systemoffline, energyconserving.lowlinelow dorsal,deliberatethe quiet floor.cold and chosen.rest that is notcollapse.slipcoresympatheticrisingrestless,buildingmomentum.something istrying to move.fraymarksympathetic toventral thresholdcollision,release,catharsis. thedischarge gate.voltageventral peakcreativeoverflow.coherence andflow, stabilisedinto clarity.clearmarkventral regulatedsettled, clear,present. thequiet after thedischarge.OTHER_PLACEthe seventh reading. where you are when you cannot access or name any of the six. a state that is also not a state.
DORSAL · shut down
dorsal freeze
slickveil
fog, shutdown, numbness. system offline, energy conserving.
low dorsal, deliberate
lowline
the quiet floor. cold and chosen. rest that is not collapse.
SYMPATHETIC · mobilise
sympathetic rising
slipcore
restless, building momentum. something is trying to move.
sympathetic to ventral threshold
fraymark
collision, release, catharsis. the discharge gate.
VENTRAL · regulated
ventral peak
voltage
creative overflow. coherence and flow, stabilised into clarity.
ventral regulated
clearmark
settled, clear, present. the quiet after the discharge.
the seventh reading
OTHER_PLACE
where you are when you cannot access or name any of the six. a state that is also not a state.
The Foundations

Four bodies of work under it.

The classifier is built on four published traditions. Each contributes structure that FIELD relies on.

FOUNDATION 01

polyvagal theory

Stephen Porges · Deb Dana

the autonomic nervous system is a three-state hierarchy: ventral (social engagement), sympathetic (mobilise), dorsal (shut down). safety is a read-out of the vagal brake, not a cognition.

In FIELD: the states map onto ventral, sympathetic and dorsal with finer steps between them.

FOUNDATION 02

somatic experiencing

Peter Levine

trauma lives as an incomplete physiological response. healing is discharge and completion, not narrative re-processing. the body is doing something adaptive.

In FIELD: every state is a current strategy the body is running, never a symptom. FRAYMARK discharges, CLEARMARK settles, SLIPCORE moves.

FOUNDATION 03

embodied cognition

Francisco Varela · Antonio Damasio

the mind is a grounded instrument. cognition emerges from the loop between body, environment and language. language arrives after signal, not before it.

In FIELD: the instrument asks about the body first (intensity, zone, movement) before the story.

FOUNDATION 04

interoception

Bessel van der Kolk · Paul Schulte

the capacity to feel heart rate, breath, tension, warmth and gut tone in real time. it is the raw material for any honest self-report and the prerequisite to regulation.

In FIELD: check-ins ask where in the body, how intense, toward or away. if the body is not named, the reading is not run.

How a Reading Is Made

Three layers, every time.

A reading is not a single label. It is the output of a three-layer pipeline, and each layer has its own literature.

THREE LAYERS RUN EVERY TIME FIELD WRITES A STATE TO THE LOGLAYER 01ecological momentaryassessmentthe reading is taken in themoment, not in recall. recallcompresses and moralises.Shiffman, Stone & Hufford, 2008LAYER 02adaptive follow-upif a check-in is skipped orflagged, the next one changestime, prompt and depth.Lei, Nahum-Shani, Laber &Murphy, 2012LAYER 03retrieval-augmentedinferenceyour own earlier entries arepulled and compared. a thirdSLIPCORE reads differentlythan a first.Lewis et al., 2020areadingso a reading is not a personality test. it is fixed to the moment inside the person, and it moves.
layer 01
ecological momentary assessment
the reading is taken in the moment, not in recall. recall compresses and moralises.
Shiffman, Stone & Hufford, 2008
↓
layer 02
adaptive follow-up
if a check-in is skipped or flagged, the next one changes time, prompt and depth.
Lei, Nahum-Shani, Laber & Murphy, 2012
↓
layer 03
retrieval-augmented inference
your own earlier entries are pulled and compared. a third SLIPCORE reads differently than a first.
Lewis et al., 2020
↓
A READING
Situations and Moves

It tracks the thing, not just the moment.

Most tools treat every message like day one. FIELD opens a situation when something in a life has a shape, and it keeps a library of named moves it can offer one step at a time.

A SITUATION IS A THING THAT HAS A SHAPE: A CONFLICT, A MOVE, A DECISION THAT WON’T CLOSEit opensyou mention the thing twice and FIELDclocks it. it gets a name, a statusand a last-event line.it holdsevery text about it updates thethread. FIELD tracks the escalations,the wins and the pattern underneath.it closeswhen the thing resolves, the situationcloses. what worked stays in yourrecord. the weight does not.UNDER EVERY SITUATIONa mechanism read. not a diagnosis: what is driving the other party, and what loop it is pulling you into.
step 01
it opens
you mention the thing twice and FIELD clocks it. it gets a name, a status and a last-event line.
↓
step 02
it holds
every text about it updates the thread. FIELD tracks the escalations, the wins and the pattern underneath.
↓
step 03
it closes
when the thing resolves, the situation closes. what worked stays in your record. the weight does not.
under every situation
a mechanism read. not a diagnosis: what is driving the other party, and what loop it is pulling you into.

Named moves, a few of thirty-seven. A move arrives one step at a time, never as a pasted list, and once one has worked you can ask for it by name.

the replay cutthaw sequencethe invisible kitthe dischargethe night rampthe boundary line
The Depths

Nine rungs.

The service ladder runs from a free seven-day trial to quoted organisational work. Every price shown is the real price, and each rung is marked live, pilot, designed or coming soon.

NINE RUNGS, FROM $0 TO QUOTED · DEEPER MEANS MORE COMMITMENT01FIELD 7-daytrialfreelive02cosmiccircuitrylite$44 / synthesispilot03FIELD base$33 / monthlive04FIELD +voice$66 / monthcoming soon05the check-in$88 / sessionlive06thecontainer$222 / monthdesigned07creativedirectionquotedlive08theapparatusquotedlive09trustengine, orgquotedpilotMOST START HEREshallow, self-servedeep, long-arc, vetted
shallow, self-serve ↓ deep, long-arc, vetted
01FIELD 7-day trialfreelive
02cosmic circuitry lite$44 / synthesispilot
03FIELD base most start here$33 / monthlive
04FIELD + voice$66 / monthcoming soon
05the check-in$88 / sessionlive
06the container$222 / monthdesigned
07creative directionquotedlive
08the apparatusquotedlive
09trust engine, orgquotedpilot
Limits

What it is not.

The instrument has limits, and they are part of the design.

a taxonomy of motion, not disordernot a personality testno one is diagnosed with SLICKVEIL: they are in it, and it will movedeep nervous-system work requires a human in the loop
Read the System

The full pages live on museshift.com.

The complete taxonomy, methodology and service ladder are published there.

what is FIELD ↗the seven states ↗the methodology ↗the depths ↗
My Role

Creator.

I created FIELD: the instrument, the seven-state taxonomy, the grounding in research and in my own indexed journal, the SMS experience and the service ladder. It runs on my own infrastructure as part of MuseShift.

Credits

MuseShift · Alexis Monette, all of it

  • Researchthe seven-state taxonomy and its grounding
  • Instrument designthe SMS experience and the service ladder
  • Writingthe state language and the copy
  • Engineeringthe pipeline that reads a message and returns a state
your life is your art