We speak of visceral experience but what do we know of viscera? Who among us has plunged their hands deep into the bowl of an abdomen and lifted out handfuls of bowel, feeling the slippery coils slide across their fingers? Who knows the gut feeling of feeling gut? The touch, the texture, the weight, the smell.

I came to the study of anatomy through injury. Having lived the fragility of the human body, I was searching for its robustness, its capacity to heal. I came as a sentient being living in this body, not as a technician. In this search, I discovered Integral Anatomy and the dissection workshops of Gil Hedley, ‘dedicated to exploring inner space’. Hedley offers these workshops as a resource for physicians and for hands-on body workers, such as massage therapists and physiotherapists, instructors and practitioners of techniques of the body such as Pilates and yoga, and for anyone who wants to understand better and appreciate their own body.