Born Knowing: How Children Awaken the Sacred in Everyday Parenting - Hardcover

by Iya Whiteley (Author)

"Whiteley's book is beautiful and meditative. It speaks to parents, and anyone who is interested in the spiritual dimensions of relationships and love." D. W. Pasulka, a professor of religious studies, University of North Carolina, Wilmington.

You've read the parenting books.

You've tried the techniques.

You've sought wisdom on meditation retreats.

You've found moments of clarity in sacred spaces . . . but that serenity, that depth, it dissolves when you return home.

What if the spiritual wisdom you seek isn't found by escaping family life, but by surrendering more fully into it?

A space psychologist who developed training for astronauts to maintain mental clarity cosmic distances from home discovered something revolutionary. The profound teachers you've been seeking are already here, embodied by the small beings living in your home.

In Born Knowing, Dr. Iya Whiteley reveals:

• How children's presence awakens your dormant wisdom
• Why difficult moments invite your own transformation
• The sacred curriculum hidden in family chaos
• How to recognise the teacher in your home

This book offers spiritual depth without spiritual escape, and children as your most demanding, enlightening guides.

Perfect for readers of Braiding Sweetgrass, The Conscious Parent and Women Who Run With the Wolves.

Dr. Iya Whiteley is former Director of the Centre for Space Medicine at University College London. Drawing on ancient wisdom traditions and spiritual practices across cultures, she developed psychological support tools for astronauts on missions to Mars and the Moon. She holds PhD in Cognitive Engineering and Master's in Clinical Psychology. Her work has been featured on PBS, National Geographic, BBC. She invited public speaker at NewScientist LIVE, Wellcome Trust, British Museum, Ri (Royal Institute, London).

How This Work Came to Be and The Journey Ahead?

The seeds of this book were planted during our gatherings where parents asking questions that had no easy answers. "Could you share this understanding more widely?" they asked. "Other parents need to hear this." From those requests, Parenthood as a Spiritual Retreat was born, an online course that has become a sanctuary for mothers, fathers and grandparents learning to recognise their children and grandchildren as those who hold teachings for us in every moment of our life.

Breath mastery sessions: offered individually, in groups, and to organisations. Session offers what astronauts and conscious parents both require: how to use breath as an inner navigation system, an internal compass that remains steady when external references dissolve. This is the practical technology of presence, tapping into inner pre-verbal knowing, the physiological pathway to the wisdom this book describes.

The exploration continues on Substack (driyawhiteley dot substack dot com) at SPICE OF LIFE, a space psychologist's contemplations on consciousness, from babies to astronauts, from living rooms to spacecraft.

Organisations, conferences, and communities seeking speakers who bridge scientific rigour with spiritual depth invite Dr Whiteley, including New Scientist LIVE, British Museum, Wellcome Trust, The Royal Institution, universities and schools worldwide, spaces where science and soul need not live separately.

All offerings: linktree dr iya whiteley and social media