I’m Peter Shepherd and I run the Tools for Transformation website. I’ve also run a personal blog for several years now, with site news and such, but it’s time to start a new and improved weblog – especially since I have just had a new book, ‘Daring to be Yourself,’ published by Inkstone Press in digital download format. This new blog by the same name will feature excerpts from the ebook, plus my further current view, things that I find on the web or are sent to me, that I feel are interesting or enlightening.

The new book
The aim of ‘Daring to be Yourself’ is to help the reader achieve a ‘wide-awake’ state of consciousness, with integrated use of left and right brain abilities, forming the bedrock for breakthroughs in personal consciousness and spiritual insight. The practice is based on the premise that we have learned disabilities which set boundaries to our action and knowing. But no one need accept that they must remain as they were shaped by their hereditary body-mind and by the conditioning of their childhood and culture.

‘Daring to be Yourself’ is like a “best of” the trans4mind site – but much more than that, it’s also an incredibly powerful program for personal growth. Remove the barriers to self-knowledge and find out who you really are with this step-by-step approach.

For more info about the book (and to read the final chapter online) visit:
Daring to be Yourself.

Daring to be Yourself is also available in ebook (PDF) format for those who kindly make a donation (an amount of your choosing) to support the running of Tools for Transformation…


Your donation is made securely through PayPal. I expect you are aware that when you give from the heart, one way and another you receive that back multiplied. Your donation will certainly be very much appreciated. Be sure to look out for the Continue link after the PayPal transaction, to go to the eBook download page.

Peter and Nicole
With my wife Nicole, February 2006

So you know who I am and where I’m coming from, following is a long extract from the Foreword of the book, ‘Daring to be Yourself’…

When I was five, as a child in England, I perceived little sparkles in the air around me in the garden, and indoors, in one room of the house there was a place where Jesus and some angels always were, to meet me. I also stood on the sofa and gave sermons to the family, as if to a congregation. Where I got these ideas is unclear, because it was before I was told about such things, though I can hypothesize now (past lives, archetypes…).

Outside the window were goblins that scared the life out of me but the angels gave my life back. Phew… either I was crazy or my childish brain had not yet been programmed into perceiving only the consensus reality, as a couple of years later I had none of those experiences but knew well the alphabet and times tables. Nevertheless I’d received my first taste of the spiritual dimension and that has inspired my life ever since, to know and experience more, and to understand how our everyday lives relate to our inner and more subtle lives.

A few years on, after being a choirboy at the local church, it suddenly dawned on me that all these sermons about our sinful nature and the wrath of God, were being made on a totally misguided agenda. I let go of that belief system and it was a huge relief, a huge burden off my back. Going in quite the opposite direction, I studied Buddhism and found there a validation of each individual as a spark of the universal consciousness. There were meditative methods to help the person attain a higher level of that consciousness for themselves. But again I found the orthodox dogma of that religion stifling. I decided to both stay clear of organized religions and also to look for better ways of expanding consciousness that do not take lifetimes to achieve their goal. It was enough for me to perceive of God as the quality of Love, and that when we love (which is to say accept unconditionally) we are part of God. As the saying goes, ‘When we love, we are the universe and the universe lives in us.’

I realized that inner gnosis – intuitive knowledge of spiritual truth – was the way to go, since fundamental truths are simple and graspable when we look inside to our intuitive understanding. What remained complex was the structure of mind, and the million and one ways that mind sneaks in to obscure or corrupt our natural insight.

Although my plan at school was to become a civil engineer, at 17 years I managed to damage my brain playing rugby. I had very severe concussion, and actually this happened three times, one time too many apparently. I lost memory of all the math I’d learned at school and when I started a degree in civil engineering it was completely beyond me. So… I had to make up for those missing brain cells by finding other qualities within myself. I needed to change tack, to go back to basics and follow my own path, not just that which was intended to please others or to match their expectations, which is really what my career direction had been.

The problems I was facing spurred a lot of research in the direction of psychology and mind development, to learn about what goes on in my thoughts and feelings and to start to recover my mental abilities. I also continued looking to see if there really is a dimension even more fundamental than the mental: my spiritual self.

I actually then started a career in photography and did that for many years, but alongside I continued to learn about what I was beginning to feel was really my life purpose, and what my circumstances had pointed me in the direction of: to understand the mind and the spirit and to find out how to master these things and to teach what I find out to help others, who may be in the position I was in. So I got an education in psychology and psychotherapy over several years on a part-time basis. My primary teacher and mentor during this period of time, Gregory Mitchell, was a researcher of mind development techniques and he helped me to get my brain functioning well again – and that information forms the basis of the Mind Development courses I offer now.

A transformative moment
It was a time in England when there was a recession. I’d gotten into debt and wasn’t earning enough – the situation spiraled into bankruptcy. I lost my home and business and my relationship collapsed too. I was left with nothing and after having fought this for so long, I felt in despair. But then one day when all was lost, walking on the cliffs by the sea, with half a mind to jump over the edge, I had a sudden ‘aha’ moment. The sun and the grass seemed incredibly beautiful. I felt exhilarated and more powerful than at any time in my life, like I’d suddenly let go of the bonds that were tying me down. I felt grateful to be alive and filled with love.

It was a transformational moment for me because I finally recognized who I was – I got in touch with my heart. So this was actually one of the best moments of my life. I realized that underneath all of this trauma was really a tremendous opportunity; it was clearing the decks for me to do what I’d always really wanted to do, what I was born to do.

And that’s just what I have done. I had received training in Rational-Emotive psychology but now I started to study the ‘transpersonal’ dimension of our consciousness, that which is beyond the Ego personality connecting us with universality, as pioneered by Assagioli, Grof and others. I found these two divergent branches of psychology only really formed the full picture when combined as one. The everyday, rational and behavioral understandings of psychology were just as important as the more esoteric understandings to do with consciousness, and in fact each needed the other to provide a true and holistic picture of things.

I continued by training and participating in a range of personal growth techniques, writing the book ‘Transforming the Mind’ which summarized my knowledge to date, further developing the most effective methods I’d found, moving to France, finding the love of my life who I knew was there, running the web site to reach all those people who are looking for the same things I’d searched so long for – and to be of service in the most valuable way I knew how.

A turning point in your life like that, when you have nothing more to lose, gives you the freedom to turn things around, to move out of your comfort zone, to think outside of the box of your conditioning, to be free of attachments. It provides the chance to be creative, to be yourself.

Of course, I don’t suggest that readers go about losing everything they have, in order to clarify their situation in this way. Far from it. But I think it’s a good idea to imagine yourself in that position… how would you feel? What fears would you have and how could you overcome them? What opportunities would it offer you… and why aren’t you taking advantage of those opportunities now, instead?

One finds, in retrospect, that the bad times had a place in the scheme of things, that you wouldn’t be where you are now without them. Provided you do indeed wake up to your life purpose – otherwise it could all effectively have been for nothing.

To find your life purpose, you need to find within yourself the loving person – because that IS the real you – and the best way to do that is to cultivate acceptance and forgiveness, and that starts at home with oneself. Not to blame oneself or others, but to accept the reality, and to see one’s responsibility for it.

One did make those choices that lead you to the present. But all choices are for what seems the best option at the time; now you may see a wiser view, that the choices were based on fear or greed or whatever… but have compassion for yourself at that time; be easy on yourself. And the same applies for others. You need not judge yourself or others, just accept, with love.

When you have a vision that is based on your true values, and that vision is not Egotistical but based on the greater good, your love expressed unconditionally, then that will empower you to acquire all the skills and knowledge, and give you the courage to take the necessary actions, to progress toward your goals – and the world around you will naturally support that process.

Psychotherapy or personal development?
During the years I practiced as a psychotherapist in England, I obtained a lot of useful knowledge and experience. But I was continually working with people who were looking to solve a problem in their lives but without any ambitions beyond that, they usually didn’t have an idea that life could be really, really great. They simply had a problem to solve that they hoped that you could help them with. I tried to get people who were open to it to understand that life is an ongoing learning process, to be happier and more fulfilled, and to achieve things of benefit not just to oneself but to everybody else. My work moved naturally, therefore into personal development, where you haven’t just got somebody who’s feeling sorry for themselves, you’ve got somebody who really wants to make a difference in their own life, and a difference in the world. And that’s a much more exciting thing to do, so I gave up being a psychotherapist and moved into personal development.

Problems can be a disabling or they can be exhilarating challenges to meet and overcome. The two very different ways you can look at problems. Most people could use bit of therapy, in fact, but they are able to handle their emotional and cognitive blocks themselves, in the context of a more positive drive toward self improvement, and start to turn their lives around. To increase their self esteem, to be happier, more fulfilled… People want to know how to do that because there are many conflicting theories in psychology, and many people trying to sell them stuff. The sales spiel for products tends to be exaggerated, which must be very confusing for people that really don’t know. So I try to guide people in this, based on my own experience and the experience of others that I have been able to help.

The issue that I have found people find most difficult to get to grips with is finding their real identity in life, because that’s usually not easy! There’s pressures on you to be a certain way and to follow certain rules. You have a lot of invalidation and criticism, even from people that love you, that are trying to help you. It can knock you, so you don’t know who you really are. And then, just at your most vulnerable time, as a teenager, you have to decide about what career you want to do, and take subjects at school according to that, and that’s an incredibly difficult decision to make, particularly when you’re fighting to find an identity.

It’s something that happens to many people, that they drift one way or another into a career, they drift into relationships, when they haven’t been taught, really, anything about how to communicate, how to understand what goes on in a person to make them behave the way they do. So it’s very hard for them to have good relationships and they can drift into being married with a child, with somebody who they really hardly even know. Relationships are important, and success is important, but the key to success and happiness with those issues is self knowledge – knowing who you are and what you really want yourself, what your talents are, what your abilities are, and knowing the potential that you have. And starting to recognize that you don’t have to believe what everybody else has said about you, and maybe you feel are thinking about you, but start to be objective and find yourself. So this, I think, is the real crux of the matter: the issue of identity and who you are.

This has always been recognized by the philosophers: the classic ‘Know thyself’ is critical. Partly because if you don’t know and accept yourself as you are you can’t love yourself, and if you don’t love yourself it’s very hard to love anybody else as they are, with all their inevitable quirks. If you don’t love yourself it’s hard to forgive yourself for your mistakes, and if you don’t love other people it’s hard to forgive them when they go astray. You can have chips on your shoulder in abundance, both regarding yourself and regarding others. It’s just not the way to a happy life, so self knowledge is the number one thing, I think.

Biofeedback is most commonly used to help stressed-out people to learn to relax and that is an important function. Because the body responds to emotional arousal, that can be measured and the information fed back to the person with audio or visual clues, so they learn how to reduce their stress, what it feels like to do that.

But it also has another important function that works in the other direction. This is the way that I used biofeedback in my psychotherapy practice and in one-to-one mind development, and continue to use in the advanced courses I run…

Biofeedback can be used to indicate when the subconscious mind is repressing an emotionally charged thought or experience – something traumatic one doesn’t want to look at, or something one has done that one wishes one hadn’t – and to stop repressing it and let it out into the open. To learn from those experiences and to re-evaluate the beliefs and decisions that derived from them. It’s this role that is useful to speed up the process of psychotherapy, and also it’s valuable in personal development.

But even without a mechanical aid of this sort, one can take note of the bodily clues – the emotional tensions – that arise when you think about particular experiences, people or topics. The heart beats faster, there’s a tension in the chest, you can feel activity in the brain. So you express that, let it come to the surface, layer by layer. Your emotions are a tremendous resource for knowing yourself better, and this results in insight or gnosis.

Emotional intelligence – intelligence of the heart – is the ability to sense and understand the power of emotions, to channel them as a source of energy, creativity and intuitive insight. Balancing and integrating the head and heart, channeled through the left and right brain – this is the mission of personal growth work.

Any person is of the opinion that he is ‘right’ in what he believes – otherwise he wouldn’t believe it. But he can have all sort of misconceptions, misinterpretations, false information and delusions, and be holding fast onto them in order to be right. The fundamental elements of his belief system, the things that have made sense of past confusions for him, are not changeable by reasoning alone because they are held in place by force – by an unwillingness or inability to face up to certain things.

The only way that I know of to resolve this impasse is through examining the reality of our existence with ruthless honesty. Done with integrity, this can help one to see, bit by bit, the truths underlying our mental distortions. One may gain understanding, and the ability to live consciously, to be one’s true self, in those areas where one had shut off one’s vision.

By increasing understanding one is increasing awareness of truth, and then in life one needs to actually face that reality with equanimity and take responsibility. Without actually putting our insight into action, it soon tends to be forgotten and the body-mind programming (the habit patterns of many years) take over again. Without such integrity of application, even extensive work on ourselves can become a charade.

‘Man has no body distinct from his soul
for that called body is a portion of the soul
discerned by the five senses.’ –William Blake

When I studied Buddhism as a youth, I found there the concept of each individual as a spark of the universal consciousness. There were meditative methods – not at all easy to do – intended to help the person attain a higher level of that consciousness for themselves. Mystical (as opposed to orthodox) Christianity also gave me the concept of God as the quality of Love, and that when we love (which is to say accept unconditionally) we are part of God. As the saying goes, ‘When we love, we are the universe and the universe lives in us’ –O. Pirmez.

Later on, as a psychologist, I found that the rational and behavioral understandings of psychology were just as important as the more esoteric understandings to do with higher consciousness, and in fact each needed the other to provide a true and holistic picture of things. I put my awakening comprehension of all this together in a book, ‘Transforming the Mind,’ that has been freely available on trans4mind.com ever since.

Clearly the mystical and the everyday practicalities of life are just parts of the one picture. God is not to be found only in esoteric concepts but also in the hills and fields, in our hearts and bodies, and in everyday relations. The Creator is equally a part of the Created. Cause and effect are intertwined. Enlightenment is to be found in realizing that the layered or hierarchic structure of our world actually has a unity.

As individuals, our being has several components: consciousness; mental processes; emotions; and the physical. One depends on the other. Even the layers of our brain – the cortex, limbic system and primitive/reptilian – correspond to our head, heart and gut. Each can do nothing much on its own.

At the cosmic level, too, God can be perceived as being of Spirit, Mind and Body. The Spirit is will, under Love, the essential nature. The Mind is non-local fields of information and the integration of all intentions. The feelings of God’s body-mind are the flows of energies between us all. The Body is the Universe. And perhaps this pattern is repeated in several planes, separated by vibrational qualities, but in truth all One.

We function in the world according to our programming. This software is in our minds and the hardware is our brain and nervous system. We are largely unaware that we can actually change this programming, switch one program for another, or actually to rise above the level of mind and write new programs for ourselves as the meta-programmer. We can do this as individuals and we can do this as humanity; it is our God-like spiritual nature. But first we have to come to terms with reality…

My goal in life has been to break free of the consensus trance, to find instead my own truth and to help others find their own truth also. To transform and be free, like a caterpillar becomes a butterfly. Because we are each such different individuals, with personal goals and at different stages on our various paths, I have found there is no singular tool for transformation, their are many, and I’ve tried to select good ones for my web site, Tools for Transformation. Some of the tools have a masculine or feminine feel, a left-brain or right brain dominance, an intellectual or intuitive approach. Ultimately, however, I believe we need to integrate these polarities and develop both sides equally and together, for our being contains all of these. A certain tool may be right for us now but later we will probably need the help of another kind of tool that is not currently appropriate for us. Development is also hierarchic, one skill makes another possible and the correct order needs to be found.

More about my life and work is on trans4mind here: About Peter Shepherd – including a bunch of interviews in mp3 format.

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