by I’m late for my interview with Peter Crone aka The architect of the mind – or, as Chicago Cubs World Series winner Miguel Montero puts it: “The best-minded guy there is.”
My Zoom is working. I text his assistant. “Okay,” I tell myself. His clients include world-famous celebrities and professional athletes. He was the personal trainer for Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman. I’m not on the A list, but this can’t be the first time he’s been kept waiting. Finally, I’m in. He is out of phase. “There she is!” Then they send me the Zoom recording including the delay. A “behind the scenes” moment, if you will, and it’s probably what tells me the most about him. More on that later.
Crone specializes in revealing and then dissolving the “limiting beliefs and subconscious narratives” in people that in turn “dictate and shape behavior, health, relationships, and performance.” He is like a therapist and spiritual guru rolled into one.
It’s not just for A-listers, all kinds of people flock to it, “from the 60-year-old billionaire to the stay-at-home dad” for myriad reasons; whether it is the “chance to become someone or something new”, or to “overcome problems”, whether it is “anxiety, depression, chronic illness or addiction”, or “athletes or artists with unmet expectations”, that they may want to overcome ”. past failures.”
And boy, does Crone have fans. Gwyneth Paltrow says he can “help unlock your potential.” PGA golf champion Charles Howell III says Crone is “without a doubt the person who has had the greatest impact on my day-to-day life.” And one of the most famous faces on the planet recently greeted him in a packed stadium. (He won’t say who. “He’s a dear friend. I wouldn’t want to compromise that.”)
Most of the things you want are simply a reaction to something deeper that you don’t want.
Peter Crone
He also appeared in the 2017 Netflix documentary. Heala Goop podcast, and Rangan Chatterjee’s Feel Better Live More podcast, with Chatterjee asking him a second time, calling their conversation “really powerful.”
The good news: Crone’s coveted wisdom has just been opened up to a much wider audience, with the launch of the ‘Freedom Community,’ a private online community and app for members, where disciples can access exclusive, ” mind-blowing”. content and insights, along with monthly “Ask Me Anything” livestreams with Crone himself.
So what exactly is it that causes such ecstasy in man? And how has he become the reference coach for the best artists from around the world? Crone’s Instagram shows his 309,000 followers a curated montage of his life (golf, workouts, mountain views from his outdoor tub) with videos and photos of mind-blowing wisdom: “Most of the things you want are simply a reaction to something deeper that you don’t want.,” Y “the mind operates on probability. The soul operates from possibility. Big difference.”
On Zoom, she looks exactly the same as she does on her social media: all chiseled cheekbones, big blue eyes, gleaming white teeth, and an energy that seems serene and optimistic. Meeting Crone has been described as meeting Buddha, Einstein and Austin Powers at the same time (author and journalist Edwina Ings-Chambers) and it is exactly so. I am instantly a convert.
I ask him what are the people who come to him looking for? “Freedom…” she answers instantly. “They think they are looking for a better body, more money, better circumstances. But… they want to experience freedom from suffering.”
He goes on to say: “I have realized that there are these fundamental limitations, what I call, subconscious, with which I affirm that every human being is born with.” Like what? Someone may feel “it’s not enough” or “not sure,” she explains. He goes on to say that “we are not here to amass more money, status, fame, a beautiful family. All of these are wonderful, but we are really here to emancipate ourselves from these limitations, so that we can recognize… the depth of our magnificence.”
I first saw Crone on Netflix. Heal documentary and was impressed by the power of her words and her charisma. I tell him how shocking I have found his work. “It’s very sobering to know that a young boy from St Margaret’s Bay, South Kent, orphaned at 17, is sharing content that really moves people.”
Crone’s mother died of cancer when he was seven years old. His father had to “support a son whom he absolutely adored.” I wonder what it was like then. “On the surface, he was a nice guy, he was very nice to me, he was shy, he was very quiet.” And below? I ask later. “I just tried to do everything I could to make sure I keep my dad happy.”
When Crone was 17 years old, his loving father Bob went to work one day and never came home. He was lost in the Zebrugge ferry disaster of 1987. Crone remembers standing in his bedroom, “all alone”. And then he goes on to say: “I think one of the reasons I’ve become so influential in my space is because of the depth of compassion I have, which I would attribute to the fact that I went to the depths of despair with loneliness. .”
How did it get from these depths to where it is now? He gives me a slip. “Immense amount of soccer skill… smart and, you know, a decent student…”
Despite being a standout athlete on the Oxbridge fast track, after his father’s death, one of his “biggest accomplishments was that I didn’t make it to every single college I applied to,” he laughs. It was only after a sabbatical, another failed attempt, and a subsequent phone call (from him) to Dr Ward in the department of human biology, that he secured a place at Loughborough, which “felt like home”, and where he also did a Masters. Here, he was awarded the Sir Robert Martin Award for being an outstanding student in all respects. “That was a nod to mom and dad up there. You know. What, you did it.“…He gushes. “I haven’t told this story in a long time.”
After college, he came a steady stream of jobs in the US (tennis coach, bartender) before becoming certified as a personal trainer, where he “outdid himself”, often putting in 13 hours straight. He ended up with Cruise and Kidman, for “five incredible years,” perfecting their bodies. But he always felt that “as human beings, we had a much deeper set of limitations that needed architecture.”
I’m interested in learning about the actual process you go through with your clients? “The guy has what he thinks is a problem or problem,” he tells me. “First I see it as purely symptomatic. Which means that any problem is a byproduct of his perspective. So once I hear your ‘problem’ I know, usually immediately, which subconscious restriction it is an extension of, or ‘lies within’. So I ask them questions about his past and childhood. Usually that correlates to the same restriction, so I can see where and when that particular relationship they have with life was triggered.”
Someone might be dealing with anxiety. That, to me, is invariably a bedfellow experience of the ‘I’m not safe’ restriction.
Peter Crone
Give me an example. “Someone could be dealing with anxiety. That, to me, is invariably a bed partner experience of the “I’m not sure” constraint. Then I dig into their childhood to see where and with whom they first felt that. This allows them to marry their current life experience with past hurts. That is the genesis of that perspective. I then ask them to investigate the validity of that point of view. It is never a truth, and when they see that, the contents of that world (in this case, anxiety) dissolve.”
Given all that Crone has been through, I wonder if he ever fights. “Sure,” he replies. “Yeah, I mean, less and less over the years. I’m kind of blessed to the extent that I can do this job every day. And then there is a form of reinforcement.
To the lighter things. What is it like working for global celebrities and sports stars? “Perhaps a fundamental reason I get to work with so many of them is that, in the most loving way, I couldn’t care less about who they are in the world. I care who they are as humans.” And as for the countless sports stars he works with: “Ironically, when they’re okay with more failure, (whatever they’re trying to avoid or overcome) tends not to happen.”
Go back to the Zoom recording. When—I see the delay again, Crone is so zen that I repeatedly press play because I’m convinced the recording is stuck. I talk to Cambria, her assistant. “Have you ever seen him angry? Stressed?” I ask.
“No,” she… laughs. One of her quotes comes to mind: “When…you live from a place of freedom, life tends to flow in the most…harmonious way.”
petercrone.com
