Mila Mogui

Trajetoria

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The question that has motivated my work is how we become conscious and how our corporeality participates in this process. This question has led me along a multidisciplinary path, weaving together academic research in cognitive science, yoga practice, and bodywork grounded in dance and somatic practices.

The common thread connecting these different endeavors is the study of experience and the cultivation of presence as a state of openness and encounter between body and mind, inner and outer space, and the self and the world.

I am interested in the epistemological challenges that the scientific study of experience entails. More specifically, I seek to foster dialogue between different ways of generating knowledge that can expand our understanding of how body and mind work together.

Academic career

I studied Biology at the University of Chile, where I was deeply influenced by the biology of cognition developed by neuroscientists Humberto Maturana and Francisco Varela. Inspired by Francisco Varela's neurophenomenological approach, I pursued my graduate studies in France. Supported by a Chilean government scholarship, I completed a master's degree at the École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales (EHESS) and a PhD in Cognitive Science at the Université Pierre et Marie Curie in Paris, under the supervision of Kevin O'Regan and Claire Petitmengin. My doctoral research explored the relationship between body awareness and pain by integrating experimental and experiential perspectives.

I subsequently completed a postdoctoral fellowship at the Institute of Complex Systems in Valparaíso, Chile, and worked as a research associate at the Center for Argumentation and Reasoning Studies at Diego Portales University. In 2018, I founded the Body Phenomenology Laboratory in Chile, which I directed until 2023. In 2024, I completed a second postdoctoral fellowship at the Núcleo de Pesquisa em Saúde e Uso de Substâncias (NEPSIS) at the Federal University of São Paulo, Brazil.

I have organized several seminars on the study of experience, including *Technologies of Presence in Times of Absence*. My research, presented in the **Publications** section, has focused on the relationship between bodily awareness and pain, as well as on developing an enactive approach to the scientific study of experience.

During my time in France, I trained with Claire Petitmengin and Pierre Vermersch in the explicitation interview, later developed into the micro-phenomenological interview, a method for investigating lived experience. I have applied this methodology in a variety of research projects and, since 2014, have taught workshops and professional training courses on conducting and analyzing micro-phenomenological interviews. More information about these courses and workshops can be found in the "Microphenomenology" page.

Yoga Practice and Teaching

I began practicing yoga in 2000 with Elisa Garrido in Chile. A few years later, while studying circus arts in England, I discovered Ashtanga Yoga. Upon returning to Chile, I continued my practice for four years with Loreto Cortés at the Ashtanga Yoga Chile school.

During my years in France, I practiced with several teachers, including Charley Bensusan, Kia Naddermier, and Stéphane Collet, and attended workshops with Mark and Joanne Darby, Kino MacGregor, Petri Räisänen, and Dena Kingsberg.

In Mysore, India, I began studying pranayama with B.N.S. Iyengar and the *Yoga Sutras* with Dr. Jayashree and Sri Narasimhan. After moving to Brazil, I studied Kum Nye, a form of Tibetan yoga, at the Nyingma Center of Tibetan Buddhism in Rio de Janeiro. I currently continue my studies with A.G. Mohan, a direct disciple of Sri Krishnamacharya.

I have been teaching yoga since 2007 at a variety of schools and cultural centers, including Shantosha and Yoga Mukti in Santiago, Chile; the Théâtre de Verre cultural center in Paris; the Théâtre du Petit Matin and YAMA in Marseille; Yoga Sadhana in Valparaíso; the Ashtanga Yoga school in Rio de Janeiro; the Arraial d'Ajuda Charitable Association (ABAA) in Brazil; and, currently, at my own school, A MATHA, in Arraial d'Ajuda.

Dance and Somatic Practices

From a young age, I studied contemporary dance with teachers such as Magali Rivano and Makiko Tominaga. I trained in circus techniques and physical theater at Circomedia in Bristol, and in corporeal mime at the International School of Corporeal Mime in London, England. I worked with artist and filmmaker Isabel Rocamora, participating in various internationally renowned works such as Horizon of Exile. In Brazil, I began to delve deeper into somatic practices, training in Thai massage, and the Somatic Experiencing method with teachers Liana Netto and Cornelia Rossi.

In 2024, I participated in the artistic residency Resonancias da dança with Eva Santoro and Dani Lima. Also in 2024, together with artist Robson Vieira, we won the Lei Paulo Gustavo grant for the creation and production of the performance Olhar é Movimento.

Publicacines A MATHA

Publications

Proyetctos en curso

Ongoing projects

Multidimensional Approach to Presence (MAP): micro-phenomenology, somatic and artistic practices as a contemplative approach to the study of experience

MAP is an action research procedure that places the state of presence as a central element for the study of experience from an enactive/embodied perspective. Its objective is twofold; on the one hand, allow the characterization and better understanding of a given experience, capturing the subjective and intersubjective elements that compose it, and on the other, promote a space for observation, familiarization and awareness of one's own experience.

The proposed procedure articulates different tools that work on the state of presence – somatic exercises, micro-phenomenological interviews and expressive techniques – and different descriptive levels – verbal, gestural and plastic – in a group work where the participants are, at the same time, the researchers of their own experience.

Application of MAP to an Anthropological Study on Child-Rearing Techniques, Memory, and Care in a Shellfish Gatherers' Association in Belmonte-BA, Brazil

This project explores the implementation of the Multidimensional Approach to Presence (MAP) in an anthropological study. To this end, we designed a series of workshops that apply the MAP framework to explore the memory of a group of shellfish-gathering women regarding the practice and transmission of knowledge of their craft, using key moments in their life trajectories as a starting point.

This work is carried out in collaboration with Professor Ana Carneiro from the Federal University of Southern Bahia (UFSB).

Supervisiones y consultorías

Supervisions

Master’s Thesis Review

Maira Dourado - Childhood and Finitude: A Phenomenological Study on the Meanings of a Child’s Death. Postgraduate Program in State and Society, Center for Training in Human and Social Sciences, Federal University of Southern Bahia. Thesis reviewer (January 2019).
Isidoro Astudillo - Chess Expertise from a Phenomenological Perspective. Center for Research in Cognitive Sciences, University of Morelos, Mexico. Thesis reviewer (September 2020).

PhD Thesis Review

Carolina Orellana - Micro-phenomenological Study of the Experience of Vocal Congruence and Incongruence in Trans Women. PhD in Psychology, Diego Portales University. Evaluator for the doctoral qualification panel (January 2025).
Carine Challandes - Conveying Synaesthetic Resonance: The Impact of Jacques Lecoq’s Pedagogy on the Creative Process of Lecoq-Trained Theatre Makers. Doctor of Philosophy in Creative and Performing Arts, University of Newcastle, Australia. Thesis reviewer (August 2024).

Master’s Thesis Supervision

Laura Jereb - Experiential Components of Fibromyalgia: Phenomenological Understanding and Awareness of the Experience of Symptoms. University of Primorska. Co-supervisor (defense in June 2021).

PhD Thesis Supervision

Esteban Fredin - Sharing Weight: A Study on Interpersonal Connection in Contact Improvisation Dance. School of Humanities and Education, Tecnológico de Monterrey, Monterrey Campus. Co-supervision (ongoing).

Talleres

Workshops

Conscious movement and the study of experience

This workshop explores a research procedure that combines the practice and observation of conscious movement with a research methodology called micro-phenomenological interviewing, to investigate the experience of "presence." First, a shared experience of conscious movement inspired by exercises from the theatrical dance form Butoh is proposed. Next, the micro-phenomenological interview is used to obtain verbal descriptions of the participants' experiences, as well as the gestures they use to describe them. Finally, the verbal descriptions and gestures are collectively analyzed to identify invariants among them and outline a possible structure of the studied experience. This work seeks to raise questions about the distinction between "object of study" and "instrument for study" in the context of art-based research, and to what extent the arts, as a means of generating knowledge, can redefine the principles of the scientific method.

Workshop at ABAA - Arriala d´Ajuda - Bahia - Brazil, with Regis Bailux.

Workshop at the Symposium Arts-based Research of the Research Institute for Creative Arts Therapies, Bonn, Germany, with María Isabel Gaete.

Presence and the landscapes of experience

This workshop explores a research procedure that combines the practice and observation of conscious movement with a research methodology called micro-phenomenological interviewing, to investigate the experience of "presence." The work is organized into three stages: in the first stage, the aim is to generate a shared experience using the somatic technique Matching as described by Elizabeth Behnke (Behnke 1995); in the second stage, participants will work in groups of three to describe the experience using micro-phenomenological interviewing and body mapping. Here, one of the group members will take on the role of "observer," paying attention to the gestures made by the interviewee while describing their experience. In the third stage, a collective composition will be created based on verbal, gestural, and pictorial descriptions, combining the identification of invariants from micro-phenomenological analysis and the "witnessing" work as described by Janet Adler (1999).