Question 1

What is the Inner Compass?

Accepted Answer

The Inner Compass is a tool for understanding where the nervous system is right now. It maps four regulatory states — Connection Mode, Protection Mode, Control Mode, and Domination Mode — that shift in response to perceived safety or threat. It is not a personality test. It is a real-time reading of current state.

Question 2

What are the four modes of the nervous system?

Accepted Answer

The four modes are Connection Mode (safety perceived, open and relational), Protection Mode (threat perceived, defensive but recoverable), Control Mode (persistent threat managed through cognitive override and strategy), and Domination Mode (extreme activation, decisive force when nothing less will do). Everyone moves through all four — health is mobility, not position.

Question 3

Is this a personality test?

Accepted Answer

No. The four modes are nervous system states, not personality types. No one is "a Connection Mode person" or "a Control Mode person." We move through these states depending on context, history, and current safety. The compass shows where the nervous system is right now, not who someone is.