As a result of his experiences as a psychotherapist, Dr. Peck has witnessed numerous incidents of what he calls "grace", which he defines as a force originating outside the human consciousness that directs and enhances our spiritual growth.

Grace manifests itself in may ways. Evidence clearly exists of the ability of people to overcome extreme childhood emotional distress and to grow up to be mature, healthy, successful adults. The ability we have to find solutions to our problems by exploring the subconscious (especially through psychotherapy) is an established fact. Our intuition, which guides us and provides direction that protects us against dangers we are not even aware of is another example. Consider the experiences of synchronicity, where seemingly miraculous chance events occur that have great meaning and benefit to us. Dreams which give us insight or warnings of future events are another example.

In all of these types of events there are some fundamental commonalties:

they serve to enhance our spiritual and emotional growth,

they are largely unexplainable by modern science,

they occur in everyone's lives but tend to be unappreciated, and

they do not originate inside the human mind.

This force of grace cannot be seen, measured, or located, but it is very real nevertheless. It operates with each of our lives, whether we are aware of it or not. It therefore makes sense to try to understand what grace is and how it operates so we can work with it and therefore benefit from it.