I
was born in Germany in 1933, and in 1950 moved to Australia with my parents who had suffered persecution under the Nazis. I studied English Literature and Philosophy in Melbourne and ended up with a Ph.D. (on modern German Drama - later published as a book under the title: 'Drama nach Brecht'), lecturing at Monash University. In the course of my studies I obtained a Humboldt- Fellowship for doing research on modern drama, (and later on Primal Therapy), in West Germany. From 1968 to '71 I lectured in English at the University of Cologne. These were the years of student unrest in Europe, and as I had sided with the students against the academic establishment, my position eventually became untenable. In early 1972 I left Cologne for Berlin, where I co-founded the street theatre company 'Mixed Media Co.', which was then invited to represent West Germany in the cultural programme at the Munich Olympic Games. The production, entitled 'Olympia Towards 2000', was in many ways prophetic about the way the Games were to develop. Two years later, under the auspices of the Goethe Institute - official German cultural Institution - I toured a number of Mediterranean countries as well as Australia and New Zealand, lecturing and showing the film that was made about it.A book I wrote at the time of my involvement in the university conflicts, which was very successful amongst the student generation, was entitled 'Latent Anxiety - the Taboo of Defensive Society'. It was later reprinted by the prestigious Rowohlt Verlag as 'Das Angst-Tabu und die Befreiung' ('The Anxiety Taboo and Liberation'). The first part, under the title 'The Taboo against Living', has also been published in English (by Alternative Book Coop, Sydney 1978).
In 1976 I returned to Australia to begin three years of Primal Therapy (later documented in the book 'Fühlen als Therapie'), as well as training in Rebirthing and intimately acquainting myself with 'A Course in Miracles' and other holistic healing methods (e.g. Stan Grof's 'Holotropic Breathwork'). In 1979 I founded the Yulunga Healing Centre in northern New South Wales, Australia. Originally facilitating Primal Therapy workshops, I then moved beyond Primal to develop the healing process known as
Creative Refocussing ('CR').Since 1983 I have been conducting intensive workshops, teaching and applying CR in Australia and a number of European countries (Germany, Russia, Austria, Italy and Switzerland). I have also written several books about this subject, one in the form of a fairy tale novel, 'Der Weg nach Yulunga', published in Germany but not as yet in English. [For excerpts from the English version, click here:
Journey to Yulunga ] I have five beautiful children: two daughters, two sons (24 years apart, from different mothers) and a step-son. The mother of the four younger ones, from whom I am now divorced, was my reliable co-worker at Yulunga for more than a decade, and I am grateful that we are still enjoying a harmonious friendship. I am also grateful to my children who in their younger years kept prodding me to tell them stories. Some years ago I produced some of these fairy tales as audiocassettes in Germany, and inspired by their success, have recently begun to publish them in English, in a series dedicated to 'Education in Human Values' - i.e. the values of Love, Truth, Peace, Right Conduct and Non-violence. [To view, click here: Fairy Tales ]Although these days somewhat slowed down by Parkinson's Disease, I continue to travel overseas on a regular basis, lecturing and facilitating CR workshops as well as training other practitioners in the technique of Creative Refocussing. I just finished a new book dealing with humanity's fear of
Love, analysing its causes and destructive effects and describing means of finding a way out of our resultant personal and social misery.