 My name is Tom Fortes Mayer and I am the founder of the FreeMind Project. Since January 2nd of the year 2000 I have been on a mission to understand why some people can, in one instant , suddenly decide to change their life for good.
I myself, on that day, had a massive life changing moment. I experienced a moment of such complete and utter bliss that I saw the world totally differently and I haven't looked back since. In that moment I understood that all my worries, stresses, upsets, struggles and challenges were all born out of one flawed idea. My whole life and all my maddening machinations, manipulations and strategies were built on the idea that I was a separate being that needed to struggle to survive.
Through an incredible set of coincidences I had been blessed with a moment of clarity that broke through all my conditioned ways of seeing the world. In that one moment I felt connected to everything and everyone that had ever existed. My sense of I was now a sense of all. There was a continuous sensation of oneness with everything that stretched in every direction simultaneously. There was no here and there, no then and now. In that moment I sensed that all of the world's struggles and all of the human suffering (like my own) were all also driven by this idea of separation and survival.
When we operate from the separate and afraid self we go on to cause so much unnecessary difficulty and destruction in the world. Everything that I had previously considered bad or broken I was now able to see as part of a natural, beautiful and balanced process. All of my suffering and seeming dysfunction was simply a reflection of a set of inaccurate ideas that I had been holding onto (unknowingly) that were throwing me off-balance. That imbalance made me behave in (fearful) ways that prevented me from feeling the full force of bliss and perfection that is available to all of us at any given moment.
In that experience of clarity, with those limited ideas at least on hold, I felt the joyful perfection of the universe coursing through every fragment of my extended universal being. I was not part of the universe. There was no separation anymore. I was the universe. What was exquisitely magical was the familiarity I felt at that moment. I was finally home. That was so telling. I knew this place at my core. That was me. Not that other guy. The feeling of oneness was immense. To be all things at once is overwhelmingly enlivening. I experienced the eternal nature of existence and for a moment all fear evaporated from my field of experience.
The bliss was all-consuming and the pointlessness of all of my past pain and effort were hilariously laughable yet I was painfully aware of all of the times I had suffered and struggled needlessly. That became so clear and so pointless that it hurt so deeply- I was brought to my knees as my heart broke wide open. The compassion I felt for myself and all the people in the world suffering was too much to bear. In that field of connection my pain was their pain and, much more overwhelmingly, their pain was my pain.
I felt these two emotions of grief and relief at exactly the same time. The sense of relief was so profound that a deep laugh erupted uncontrollably out of me and I laughed harder than I ever have before, and at exactly the same time I wept inconsolably with the deepest waves of grief and compassion pulling me apart. I was alone on top of one of the most beautiful hills in the world surrounded by sea and colour and I disappeared into the experience completely. I melted flat down onto the ground and let it all in and let it all out. This was the sweetest moment of my life and I still feel those shock waves in my now open heart.
I am sure by many people's perspective it would have looked like a complete and utter breakdown. I guess that is what it was. A total breakdown of an idea, of a position, of a worldview. What was being experienced was clear and pure, complete and perfect.
It totally changed my life in an instant!
Since that sensation of oneness I have understood that my happiness is intrinsically linked with the peace and happiness of the world. They literally are one and the same thing. Since that realisation I have been obsessed with the human condition and how we can all improve how we think and feel. I was also just outright curious as to what can be done to help people to turn their lives around rapidly. I have spent all that time passionately researching epiphanies and how they can be created. Before my epiphany I was not a spiritual person. I was an atheist, I had no belief in anything divine (other than some foods) and I had no kind of a spiritual practice. However, my epiphany had not come from nowhere. I knew how that epiphany had come about. I could track the influences that led to it happening. So, from that moment forward I became obsessed with seeing if I could help other people have that kind of an experience as well. That journey of discovery has taken me all over the world and led me to having a private practice that was dedicated to helping people see themselves and their lives differently.
Using what I had learnt I was able to rapidly help people turn their lives around and I enjoyed that work enormously for a while.
But overtime four things happened:
1. I realised that everyone's challenges could all be solved by learning four cornerstones of wisdom. I call these the Four Pillars and they underpin all human excellence, all happiness and solve all our problems. (Click on our training page to hear more about them)
2. I became frustrated hearing over and over again the same stories about the same root causes for most of our human challenges. (Egotism, Materialism, Poor Parenting, Restrictive Education etc)
3. I discovered an incredible way to combine psychology and music so that people were more likely to experience a really powerful epiphany making it much easier for them to make real and lasting positive changes in their life.
4. I realised that now, with modern technology this combined approach of music and psychology could be recorded, automated and turned into a training and inspiration system that people can use by themselves. At that moment I became really excited about being able to create a system that meant everybody would get access to this important information. Previously it had just been the preserve of the very wealthy.
I passionately believe that everyone deserves to be given the best chance to bring their best nature to life...
So, thats what I did. From 2005 to 2011 (time when this was written) I dedicated my whole life to gathering together everything I have tried and tested, that really works at getting people to think and feel differently. The more I studied the more I became convinced that music is one of the best ways to accelerate behaviour change. So I then began working really closely with some amazing musicians and I was very fortunate to meet a musical genius called Mike Trim. He is the main composer and soundscape designer for all of the FreeMind recordings. The work he has done has been extraordinary and I am so privileged to have had his interest and dedication on this project. So, all this time Mike and I have been designing , developing and testing these recordings to make them more powerful, more inspiring and as easy and accessible as possible. We have worked really hard to make these recordings appealing and enjoyable for everyday people.
However, let's be clear
this journey has been long and difficult...
My own personal journey has involved so much hardship and heartache. Without realising I brought so many of my own challenges into the work. Having believed that I had discovered the answer to the world's problems, I threw everything into this project. Nothing else mattered. I believed that the world would beat down my door for this valuable solution and I took incredible risks. I put myself and my family under considerable financial and emotional stress. It never ceases to amaze me that sometimes finding your life's passion can sometimes be incredibly dangerous if you don't maintain balance as you work on that "mission". In 2009 I totally lost my way. I found myself acting without any real connection to my integrity. I was no longer perceiving the world as perfect. I was burnt out, frustrated and my marriage totally broke down. I had to admit that in trying to bring peace and happiness to the world, I had lost my own. The irony was not lost on me and if it hadn't been so painful I would have laughed. My behaviour in that period of life still gives me pause for thought. It was a dark night of my soul and I lost many people along the way. I have been deeply humbled by that experience.
It did however, give me the opportunity to truly test these techniques out for myself first hand. I had already helped thousands of other people turn their lives around but now I needed to turn mine around. That time gave me a much deeper appreciation of how hard it can actually be to overcome our difficulties. I will never underestimate that again. This lesson led to a number of vital improvements and additions being made to the FreeMind library making it so much more powerful now.
This also marked a huge change in my beliefs about what is possible in terms of everyone being able to fix themselves. Until that point FreeMind was all about people doing it by themselves. The recordings as stand-alone tools are incredibly powerful and when used diligently can have a profound effect on a person's life but in this difficult time of my life I realised that it was the interactions with some amazing and unconditionally loving people that really enabled me to find my way back to my true self.
In the presence of true love and acceptance, the love we have witheld from ourselves becomes much more obvious. In the company of loving people we discover what we need to do. It is their enlightened or more developed and loving presence that invites us to have a more enlightened and loving relationship with ourselves.
Whilst the recordings we have developed are very powerful it is highly recommended that you regularly connect with loving, positive and supportive people.
That does not mean that you definitely need a Guru or a spiritual facilitator but if you choose the right one (and that is to be done very carefully), they can be hugely helpful. At the same time, so can other people on their own spiritual path. Other developed seekers can also be very effective at holding that deeply healing unconditional space for you.
With this realisation, my passion to start working with people was re-awoken. I went from only wanting to create recordings to being really excited to teach people what I discovered on my journey. I also wanted to start building a community of people that were excited about coming together to inspire and support eachother.
This is what led to the FreeMind Forum coming into existence (see FreeMind Forum page)
The FreeMind Forum enables people to experience both unconditionality in community and direct spiritual guidance. This supports people to make both the internal and external changes in their life that will enable them to reconnect to their purpose, passion and joy.
It then became clear that we needed to celebrate the process... (see the SHINE page)
Over that time I also realised that the process of us becoming our very best is more powerful when it is celebrated. Still today, being in therapy or doing personal development is something that many people are ashamed of. At FreeMind we believe that the process of us overcoming our fears and working out how to be amazing is really exciting! That led to the creation of our SHINE events that showcase and celebrate amazing humans achieving amazing things. When humans overcome their imagined limitations and they dedicate their lives to excellence extraordinary things are possible. People become living breathing, shining examples of human wonderfulness. We have created event guidelines and formats so that people can run these events for themselves.
That means anyone can:
Use the FreeMind recordings
Run a FreeMind Forum
Organise a FreeMind SHINE Celebration
Through the use of these three elements people can come together in their local communities to inspire and support each other to live and love their lives to the full.
However, it is still vital to do something about the bigger social picture and the driving root causes- the institutions and philosophies that underpin our modern world that pedal and promote a world-view that makes it increasingly harder for people to live lives of meaning and fulfilment.
So please go to our vision page to get a clear idea of how we are planning to inspire and empower people to get involved in making the world a better place.
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