The Architecture of Regulatory Coherence - A Multi-Scalar Ecological Homeostasis Model of Trauma and Consciousness

Abstract This paper proposes a formal systems framework in which sustained conscious awareness corresponds to coordinated ecological homeostasis across interacting biological scales. Consciousness is modeled as a stability profile emerging from cross-scale regulatory coupling rather than as a localized neural substrate or metaphysical entity. Complex Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (C-PTSD) is examined as a naturally occurring example of attractor collapse within this architecture. Trauma is modeled as a fold bifurcation in high-dimensional state space, producing capture by survival-oriented maladaptive attractors. Re-coherence corresponds to structural reorganization and restoration of distributed coupling. The framework does not address the metaphysical origin of subjective experience. It specifies the regulatory conditions under which coherent experiential integration is dynamically sustainable. The model is mathematical, observational, and explicitly falsifiable.