Awakening Together in a Fractured World
Across the world, small groups are meeting in quiet, unstructured ways, sensing a deeper possibility of presence and connection. The book, The Space Between Us tells the unfolding story of one such group—and what becomes possible when presence opens the way to connection beyond identity.
This story is still being told. This book is an invitation to join the conversation.
The Space Between Us
Welcome
Welcome. I’m so glad you’re joining the conversation.
This book has grown out of a meeting that is still continuing. It began quietly, at the end of 2022, when a few of us came together over Zoom—without any agenda—just a shared sense of being drawn together. We soon realised we had been joined by something intangible: a sense of presence and immediacy that opened us to a shared intimacy we hadn’t known before, something quietly emerging in the space between us.
Over time, that space deepened. The presence we sensed became the ground we met in—a living, vital, awake field of commonality. It invited us into a kind of deep listening, into a stillness and silence that bubbled with potential.
People have come and gone, but what remains is a deepening field of connection that doesn’t depend on who’s there. It meets us when we show up as we are—trusting, vulnerable, transparent. Not in roles, not with readymade answers, but with a quiet curiosity to see what might unfold between us.
This book isn’t a method. It’s a glimpse of what became possible when we discovered that the space we were meeting in… was also the space we were discovering ourselves to be.
If something stirs in you as you read, it may be that the conversation is already finding you too.
The Space Between Us unfolds in three movements:
Overture & Prelude
An emerging field of consciousness
First Movement: Discovering the Living Field – The Silence Begins to Speak
- Motif 1 – A Spark Ignites – How the Field Came Alive
- Motif 2 – The Flame Quickens – Finding Our Feet as a Group
- Motif 3 – The Fire Spreads – The Courage to Expand
Second Movement: Digging Deeper – Finding the Context
- Motif 4 – The Mystery Between Us – Awakening as Relationship
- Motif 5 – Your Path is the Portal – Authenticity is the Key to the Kingdom
- Motif 6 – The Roots of Separation – Dropping the Masks of Otherness
Third Movement: The Far Horizon – Seeding the New
- Motif 7 – The Emergent Field – Coherence, a Living Mystery
- Motif 8 – A New Way of Awakening – Resonance as Transmission
- Motif 9 – The Future of Interbeing – A Fractal Emergence
Coda and Appendices
- Coda
- Harmonics of Meaning – A Glossary of Terms and Resonances
- Field Notes & Jazz Variations – Appendices
- Appendix I: Glimpses from the Future – Invitations to a Wider Field
- Appendix II: Resonant Echoes
- Appendix III: Living Patterns – Metaphors for the Field in Motion
- Appendix IV: Distilled Wisdom from the Group Field
Also Included
- Dedication
- Foreword
- A Foretone (by Anne Sweet)
- Author’s Biography
- Acknowledgments
Structure of the Book
Concise Overview of the Book
“An invitation to explore the transformative potential of the subtle living field that awakens when we meet in presence.”
The Space Between Us is an expression of an ongoing shared discovery—a subtle field of interconnection that arises when we meet in presence, beyond roles and identities. It is the story of a group of friends drawn together to explore the intimacy of meeting beyond history. Over time, we found ourselves diving into a living mystery that revealed itself as the very ground in which we were meeting—and continue to meet. This field does more than connect us: it transforms us, offering a glimpse of what becomes possible when we begin to discover ourselves held within a shared field of awareness.
Structured in three movements, the book begins with a narrative account of how the group emerged and deepened over time—a living story told from the inside. The second movement explores what made this emergence possible: the unseen architectures of trust, vulnerability, coherence, and the challenges that shape and test any real meeting. The final movement offers a speculative glimpse into what might lie ahead if this way of being together were to take root more widely—how relational presence could become a path of awakening, healing, and cultural renewal.
Each chapter is introduced by a poem—they act as quiet thresholds, helping the reader feel into the field rather than simply read about it.
This is not a method or a map. What is unfolding between us has no agenda, plan, or intention—other than meeting together in not-knowing, and remaining curious about what might emerge. I offer it here as an invitation into possibilities and potentialities—perhaps an echo of something you’ve already sensed but not yet named.
This book was—perhaps cheekily—almost subtitled Volume 1. We sense that what’s unfolding is still in its early stages, and that the deeper dimensions of this shared field are only just beginning to reveal themselves. There may be more to come—but for now, this is our first attempt to give form to something still moving.
From Motif 8 – Continuity Within the Living Field
There is a thread that flows through all our meetings—unbroken, unmistakable.
Each gathering feels connected to the very first, as though we are part of a continuous unfolding.
What we’re carrying together isn’t static—it’s alive, and it’s evolving.
And in some way, it seems to be carrying us, too.
From Motif 5 – Authenticity as Gateway to Presence
Your life, in all its specificity, has prepared you for this moment.
The joys, the failures, the unexpected turns—each one has contributed to a thread of being that only you carry.
When you trust this thread, and stop trying to replicate someone else’s journey, you arrive at a place where your path begins to resonate with others—not because it’s the same, but because it’s real.
From the poem ‘Original Faces’ introducing Motif 3
And then—
I get to sit with others
who have glimpsed their Original Face too.
Together, we cast off our masks
and bask in the quiet glory
that is revealed
when Original Faces
meet each other’s eyes—
and the Vast Universe
looks back at itself.
From Motif 1 – When We Become Available to the Field
The relational field we were meeting in was opening an inner space in each of us—enabling us to listen more deeply, to step aside from our usual selves, and to start to trust something emergent.
The spaciousness we felt began to mirror itself within us, revealing an inner clarity we hadn’t known we were capable of.
It was as if a quiet part of ourselves, long hidden and protected beneath roles and reactions, was being invited to step forward and take its place.
Here are five glimpses into The Space Between Us—drawn from across its three movements. These passages offer a felt sense of how the journey unfolds: from personal insight, to relational depth, to the emergence of something altogether new.
Excerpts from the Book
From the Overture – The Spark of Relational Awakening
For much of my spiritual journey, I sought awakening as something personal—a deepening of insight, a loosening of identity, a realization into the vast openness of awareness.
And yet, it eventually dawned on me that my most profound moments of transformation did not happen in solitude, but in connection.
It was in meeting others beyond the usual constructs of self and other that something truly new emerged.
%20-%20resize.JPG)
About the Author
Peter Mitchell
has walked an unusual path—optometrist, artist, life model, Father Christmas, spiritual seeker. Each role has been part of a long unfolding: one that gradually stripped away old identities and revealed a deeper thread of presence running through it all.
What first catalysed his spiritual search was a deep and restless thirst to travel—an impulse to explore new cultures, new ways of seeing. In the early 1990s, that longing led to a journey back to Nepal. On a flight to Kathmandu, a quiet encounter with the elephant-headed god Ganesha marked a turning point. Something surprising opened—unexpected, subtle, but unmistakable. A new kind of pilgrimage had begun.
That path would lead through beauty, intensity, silence, and shadow—including time spent within a high-demand spiritual community. What remains now is a quiet commitment to inner honesty, relational authenticity, and communicating what is true.
In late 2022, Peter became one of four original members of a small group that met regularly in shared presence. What emerged was not planned, but unmistakably alive: a subtle field of shared awareness that became the seed of The Space Between Us. This is his first full-length book, though he has been writing poems and reflections for a few years.
He now shares new writing through his blog, Facets of the Diamond, and its companion newsletter Reflections from the Diamond. His work speaks to those drawn to the possibility that awakening may be not only personal—but shared.
Curious about the path behind the book?
Read Peter’s story of longing, surrender, and awakening:
Pilgrimage: My ‘Hero’ Journey
Essays
A selection of essays exploring variations on the themes that run through The Space Between Us
What Readers are Saying
Is this book a gentle invitation to step beyond the barriers that keep us apart? Or is it a primal scream - back from the future to wake us up to our collective potential before it's too late? Or is it both?
Is this book describing the dawning of a new way of coming together free from our shared history of division and conflict, or a reemergence of a truth known and shared quietly from the dawn of time? A truth that is always present but often missed? Or is it both?
For me this book is a song of silence, a call to trust in life, each other, and in the space between us.
I don't think any of us really know how consequential the story told here is or can be; the story of a small group of people leaning out into the unknown together, beholden to an intelligence that is flowering between them.
But wouldn't it be great to find out?
Peter Simmons
Casa Mukta, Algarve, Portugal
“If two or three gather in my name, I will be there.” This a timeless truth. And eternally a delightful discovery/experience for those who engage in this sharing. I think this is what you are describing. Your writing bursts with the delight of this discovery. I think it is beautiful and delightful indeed. I enjoyed reading it.
Harry Dijkshoorn
Counsellor
http://harrydijkshoorn.com
Peter has lovingly and accurately captured the essence of what we as participants are finding together as we meet in ‘a living, vital, awake field of commonality’. His book The Space Between Us serves not only as a clear and insightful record of the group experience, but as a lighthouse and inspiration for the potential of human beings to meet and flourish beyond our usual sense of separateness from ourselves and each other.
He describes perfectly the alive field of trust, intelligence, intimacy and care that is always available when we are willing to allow ourselves to be present, authentic and vulnerable. These meetings have been transformative for many in the group, but the potential for this way of relating to touch and transform our wider communities – and perhaps our world – feels truly profound, and it is precisely this possibility that makes The Space Between Us a significant and timely contribution.
Anne Sweet
Everyday Enlightened Living & The End of Seeking
Follow the Book’s Journey
Sign up to the Newsletter (below) and I’ll send the occasional update as the book takes shape — behind-the-scenes glimpses, launch news, and a hint of whatever the next chapter may be.
