The Inner Space Traveler (Paperback)

What if the effort to change is itself the obstacle?

If you have read the books, done the programs, kept the resolutions, and still found yourself unchanged, the problem may not be your discipline. It may be the trying — the effort that quietly strengthens what it aims to undo.

The Inner Space Traveler offers a radical and quietly revolutionary answer to why conventional self-help so often fails — and what actually works instead. Drawing on epigenetics, Buddhist psychology, decades of rigorous self-observation, and his work as a psychotherapist and VA substance use counselor, David Hoefer presents seven principles for transformation that require no technique, no willpower, and no striving.

At the heart of the book is a simple but profound shift: that lasting change arises not from trying harder, but from learning to observe yourself — your reactions and your world — with honesty and without judgment. Impartial self-observation is not merely a practice. It is a way of being that naturally dissolves conditioning and allows your authentic self to emerge.

The Inner Space Traveler shows, through real-life examples, how you can find meaning and growth in any situation. The approach gradually moves you beyond thought while gently addressing your deepest trauma and conditioning. As self-defeating beliefs dissolve, you step into a reality that is more alive and surprising than you could have known to ask for. You become more courageous, present, and aware — not through force or willpower, but through the same effortless unfolding that gave rise to human consciousness itself.

For anyone who has tried to change and found that trying was not enough — and for readers of Eckhart Tolle, Bessel van der Kolk, and Pema Chödrön.

David L. Hoefer is a Colorado-based licensed psychotherapist and substance abuse counselor with prior clinical experience at the VA. He is the founder of Discover The Self Press and facilitates free online healing and sharing groups. The Inner Space Traveler grows directly from his own experience when conventional approaches to healing failed him.Contact: DiscoverTheSelf@yahoo.comWebsite: DiscoverTheSelf.com