Peter Russell
Peter Russell is a leading thinker on consciousness and contemporary spirituality. He is the author of a dozen books, including The Global Brain, Waking Up in Time and From Science to God. His new book, Letting Go of Nothing, was published this August. Peter studied theoretical physics, experimental psychology, and computer science at the University of Cambridge, and meditation and Eastern Philosophy in India. His mission is to distill the essential wisdom on human consciousness found in the world’s various spiritual traditions, and to disseminate their teachings on self-liberation in contemporary and compelling ways.
His latest book is Letting Go of Nothing: Relax Your Mind and Discover the Wonder of Your True Nature. It is a practical and empowering approach to the age-old quest to let go of the thoughts and feelings that block happiness, impede change, and hinder self-acceptance. Anyone who has dipped a toe into any of the world’s spiritual traditions knows that letting go is key. But how? Peter shows that what we get hung up on are generally not the tangible problems in the present, but are instead the thoughts, feelings, beliefs, or expectations we have about them, which in turn stem from our interpretations and point of view. These are not actual things; they exist only in our minds. And we can strip these “no-things” of their power and let them go by making a simple change of mind. Building on many years of teaching meditation and exploring letting go, Peter reframes letting go as letting in and letting be and applies this approach to letting go of judgements and grievances, our fears and our attachments, unhealthy emotions and fixed beliefs, our ego and our assumptions as to what will make us happy. He offers some remarkably easy methods of accepting, acknowledging, recognizing, and even befriending what we tend to run from. Along the way, he explores the essence of forgiveness, the value of kindness, and the perennial question of “Who am I?” and offers simple practices that remove the veils to the peace, joy, and love that are our true nature.
