This intimate autobiography offered a profound insight into Peter Levine’s journey from trauma to transformation. Seeing his process laid out so clearly felt important—almost like a validation of a universal path through suffering and healing. It allowed me to witness a modern-day hero in action.

What resonated most deeply was the opportunity to truly empathize with Levine’s experiences: the betrayal and abandonment, the rigid survival responses, the splitting of parental attachment, and the intergenerational transmission of trauma. His reflections—from musings on Einstein to a dream that guided him to a healing pond—felt personal, relatable, and compelling. The raw honesty of his story—his childhood abuse and his struggles with relationships—held a rare combination of deep wisdom and fearless vulnerability. He is a man willing to reveal everything, to live on the edge, and to walk his talk.

Levine is world-renowned for developing Somatic Experiencing, now supported by extensive research and academic recognition. But as he recounts, this was not always so. He had to stand firm in his convictions even when they challenged the accepted beliefs of his time. One quote in particular struck me:

“Professor,” I muttered to myself, breaking the silence, “in that case, the trick would be to somehow ‘unstick’ enough of these fixation points so the wave front would again become coherent, as the circles continued to move outward, expanding in space and time. Yes! But how to do this?”

He speaks here about discovering a healing insight in conversation with someone already deceased—an exhilarating moment of possibility.

His time with the Krenek in Brazil also left a deep impression. The tribal chief explained that trauma arises from a rupture in the connection between members of the community, and healing requires the entire tribe entering an altered state of consciousness to restore cohesion. Later, Levine notes that the Navajo understood that without addressing war trauma, the unhealed wounds would burden the family, village, and ultimately the entire tribe. As he writes:

“As for myself, I was also made whole by facing, again and again, my internal fragmentation and dissociation. Crucially, I did not do this alone, but with the presence and guidance of another.”

This was another powerful “aha” moment for me.

I found this book both inspiring and thought-provoking. I admired how Peter Levine rose above personal, ancestral, and collective trauma, and chose to share his process with such courage and generosity. Thank you, Peter.

Months ago, when reviewing Ai Weiwei’s sweeping memoir 1000 Years of Joys and Sorrows, I wrote that he was someone I would love to meet for dinner. Peter Levine would now be another.