Jim, a native of New Zealand, has spent the last thirty plus years living in California. He was initially inspired on his quest for freedom by the teachings of J. Krishnamurti, and then in 1984 met European nondual master, Jean Klein, who became his teacher. With Jean’s guidance, he finally realized freedom from the “I,” the “me,” and all its stories in the spring of 1995. Ever since then, he has been dedicated to sharing his message of awakening—of creating a new, more empowering life experience and story—with others.
His own awakening was severely tested by a health challenge, when he suffered three strokes over a period of five months, the third, which put him in the intensive care ward at UCSF Hospital, happening in January, 2004. It took him several years to recover, but throughout the whole process, he just flowed harmoniously with whatever was happening.
As he writes in his book, END YOUR STORY, BEGIN YOUR LIFE(Hampton Roads, 2011) regarding the experience of his strokes:
“As I see it, this is the litmus test of our freedom: how we deal with life’s changes and challenges. The more unconscious and unaware we are, the more such challenges will cause us to spiral down into fear, unhappiness, depression, despair, suffering, and misery. The more conscious and aware we are, the more we discern the difference between real and imaginary challenges.
“From this place of clarity and present-time awareness, we deal with whatever actual challenge may be confronting us, meeting it calmly and confidently, with wisdom and love.”
END YOUR STORY, BEGIN YOUR LIFE contains the essence of his teaching: that while we are a story-telling people, the great freedom or liberation is realizing that we are not our thoughts or stories which, like the emotional reactions they trigger, come and go, but rather the clear, ever-present consciousness that is always here.
In this book, he maintains that most people can realize freedom within a much shorter time than it took him, providing they commit to doing the three-step practice of freedom, which is at the heart of the book and of his teaching work, whenever they experience conflict, upset, or suffering.
He has also published THE WAY OF HARMONY (Avon, 1999), a guide to dealing with relationships, work, and daily life in a conscious way; THE ULTIIMATE CURE (Llewellyn, 1995), his first book on spiritual transformation, which was translated into 4 languages; and, while he was a doctor of chiropractic, SOMATIC TECHNIQUE (www.somatictechnique.com)
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A short novel, FALLING INTO LIGHT, about a fifteen-year old boy’s mystical, magical healing encounter with a wise old woman is published as an eBook and can be previewed at www.fallingintolight.com.
He has taught his work at Esalen Institute, near Big Sur, California, for many years (www.esalen.org), as well as in San Francisco; Boulder; Chicago; Taupo, New Zealand; Perth, Australia: and Los Angeles, where he lives.
There are a number of videos of him talking about his work on www.youtube.com. Just type ‘jim dreaver’ into the search box.