"This is a story of survival from a childhood of emotional and extreme physical abuse ..... surviving four near death experiences ..... my development as a minister, healer and psychic ..... it is the story of the manner by which I came to terms with my gender identity. Finally, it is the story of a lifetime of proving (realizing) that I am worth the room I take up on this earth." - Reverend Paul Lachlan Peck, from the introduction to Worth the Room, An Autobiography of Survival and Service.

Title: Worth The Room: An Autobiography of Survival and Service ISBN: 0-595-33522-5 This book is available online at: Amazon, Barnes & Noble, iUniverse

Forward by Reverend Tom D. Peterson (ret)
United Methodist Church, Saratoga Springs, New York
..... In spite of improbable odds, Paul comes forth in his story walking tall, with meaning spreading out behind his wake. His story is no cheerful dalliance up a mock heroic trail, not at all. Like all human beings, his story is beset with periods when no prospects existed, either of trial or triumph. Agonies of loneliness accompany most of his journey. Any evidence he produced to satisfy the needs of his spirit was laced with uncertainty. Continued indifference, accidents, slights, and rejection by others was forever present, ready-at-hand to undo him. Like any adventure, the outcome was always uncertain. Out of his responses to uncertainty he created a story for our times, a testimony to the irreducible human spirit. But his story becomes our stories as he speaks to us.

A Life of Worth!
Bruce Stores, June 18, 2005
Through the author's autobiography we see an unlikely sequence of events. The first of these is the brutal horror of severe and prolonged child abuse. Amazingly, this did not turn the young Paul Peck against society. But what sets this true story apart from most other abusive situations was the sense of humility he developed on reaching adulthood. This was intertwined with an innate spirituality: a deep love for God and his fellow-man. His intuitive belief in spiritual healing led him to accept Christian Science almost as soon as he heard of it.

While he was highly successful in helping others, he was not spared from carrying a heavy cross in his personal life. This included a difficult marriage, estrangement from his children, and forced separation from the Church he so dearly loved. Much of this was due to his sexual orientation.

"Worth The Room" explains how the author worked through these challenges. I highly recommend "Worth The Room," not only to those looking into different expressions of spiritual practice; it is especially helpful for those facing seemingly impossible obstacles in their own experience.

Bruce Stores is the author of "Christian Science: It's Encounter With Lesbian/Gay America." iUniverse Inc., 2004

Worth The Room is Worth The Read!
Cathy A. Pulsifer, June 9, 2005
 "Worth The Room" is the life story of a survivor! It is a story of abuse, of helping others and of success!

While reading the book, it drove home the philosophy that life is all about choices. We all have the power to change, no matter what our past experiences. In life, there are times when the challenges we face are enormous, but we are the ones that decide upon the choices we make. Paul Lachlan Peck had to make choices; and the choices he made led him to success.

The book also reinforced the point that there is always someone worse off than oneself. If you find that you're feeling sorry for yourself, or if you find yourself overwhelmed, read this book. Paul's childhood was one, which I hope many of us did not have to endure. His life was full of challenges in his work, in his family life, and with his own gender identity. Paul's story is an inspiration, one in which he overcame many challenges, and went on in life to help others lead a more rewarding life.

I found myself still thinking about the book even when I was not reading it. It kept my interest and drew me to keep reading. You may find that some of the ideas in the book will challenge your own thinking.

Reverend Paul Lachlan Peck certainly is "worth the room" he takes up on this earth. He is a man who has given back to others more that he ever had! Truly an inspiring book that I heartily recommend.

Reader Reviews
Nature or nurture, the great dichotomy in the life of man. What of the person who receives no nurturing during his formative years. How does he develop into a man of integrity, intelligence, and good cheer. What keeps him going despite daily abuse and lack of parental love? An undying belief in God is the anchor that kept Paul Lachlan Peck from being swept away into crime or nothingness. How fortunate his nature was that of a loving, caring man who eventually believed in his self worth and lived a life of giving and sharing with his fellow beings. His gifts of healing and understanding human nature have benefited many. His friendships are lasting and deeply felt. The anguish and turmoil of his journey have been tempered by his victories. He lives a satisfying life now and has well deserved it. To read his life will fill you with optimism and admiration.
Audrey Walker, Educator
Verbank, New York

Paul Peck's new book "Worth the Room" is worth the read on several levels. As its subtitle implies, this autobiography of survival and service is the moving record of a man who suffered much abuse in life, particularly in his early years, but who through persistent hope and innate goodness, managed to turn his damaged life into one of service and profit to others. It is a particularly poignant story, told honestly and vividly by its subject, but that alone is not what makes it stand out among other accounts of people who have turned the ill in their lives to good. Also contributing to its interest and value, but again not its uniqueness as a narrative, is the author's account of his struggle to find his gender identity. What does make the whole stand out so remarkably to my reading, however, is the psychical and spiritual dimension of the author's life. Skeptics may attribute the psychic phenomena that Peck describes to delusional impulses caused by the traumas he suffered, but it would take an especially hardened skeptic to attempt to refute in this manner all of the evidences Peck brings forth to the contrary. On the other hand, those who are more open to considering the possibilities of psychic communication and healing will find much here to encourage their own spiritual exploration of the same. And those who are firmly convinced of their reality will find many causes for joy and greater faith among the many episodes recounted in this volume, as well as a challenge to discover what more comfort and healing we as human beings can bring to one another.
Christian Yves Dupont, Ph.D.
Director, Special Collections Research Center
Syracuse University Library, New York

Paul Lachlan Peck is a man who has experienced the collapse of his life a number of times. As a child, severely abused psychologically, spiritually, and physically by a sadistic stepmother; as a husband and father, his discovery that he was gay, with the subsequent loss and estrangement of his wife and his children through divorce; as Vice-President for Development at Syracuse University, raising over one hundred million dollars, and leaving his post because of a serious variance with his superior; losing his post at Fairleigh-Dickinson University through defamation of character; resigned from Manhattan College after an auto crash that found him dead, then revived; resigned from his Christian Science Church because he was gay. In all that time, he also functioned (and still does) as a Christian pastor on the loose in the world, giving of himself; becoming a channel of God's grace and healing; writing a dozen or more inspirational books, "Worth the Room" being the latest. The book is at once raw meat and refined testimony to the Presence of God at work amongst all of us. Hated, scorned, mocked, envied, wounded in the spirit and the flesh, Paul Lachlan Peck emerges from the cauldrons of his suffering a giant of grace and goodwill. I pray the reader will be inspired by his story.
Rev. Frank A. Halse, Jr. (ret)
The United Methodist Church
Brandon, Florida

Reading this incredible life story (Worth the Room) of an incredible human being was an extraordinary experience. It is moving, disturbing, exhilarating, troubling and never dull for a paragraph. It is one of the few life stories I have ever read that is genuinely like real life. It's something you will be thankful you did.
George Mair, Biographer
(Author of 42 books)
CBS Editorial Director (ret)
Dana Point, California

Paul Lachlan Peck’s quiet assertiveness regarding his religious testimony first drew me, an avowed atheist, to him because of his personal certitude and his ability to present his beliefs in such an unassuming manner. Most religionists I’ve met are so aggressive in advancing their beliefs and their desire to convert the listener or reader to their exclusive point of view that their overbearing manner alienates me. Over time, this many-faceted man has modestly revealed his multiplicity of roles—ordained minister, psychic, counselor, mentor, educator, writer and expansive human being. His open arms manner in including others of many dispositions and talents readily stimulates their own growth and insights into their own lives. From whence came a man of such singular qualities? His autobiography, “Worth the Room,” chronicles his journey through life—from the loss at age one of his mother, through many years of life with an abusive stepmother. Only his singing talent, and interest in being a part of a boys’ choir, provided positive stimuli—to sustain him through childhood. He had an adulthood of high accomplishment as an educator and innovative fundraiser, who consorted with the high and mighty. His psychic powers have marked incidents in his life that are truly remarkable. Here, now in his 77^th, year Paul has chronicled a lifetime of survival and service that will inspire the reader, and refute his stepmother’s derisive comment that, “You aren’t worth the room you take up.” Paul’s narrative modestly, but persuasively, trumpets his having more than earned his space on this earth.
Joseph L. McCleary, Ed.D.
Dana Point, California

"The closing years of life are like the end of a masquerade party, when the masks are dropped." - Arthur Schopenhauer, philosopher (1788-1860). In his autobiography Worth the Room, Paul Lachlan Peck not only drops the mask, but stands totally bare, daring the reader to examine every inch of him. He unflinchingly reveals all his wounds, both external and internal. Painstakingly honest at times, it's an incredible story of heartbreak and healing, alienation and acceptance.
Lara Anderson
Dana point, California

"If it doesn't kill you it will make you stronger." Paul Lachlan Peck's autobiography, Worth the Room, begs the truthfulness of that statement. I was reminded of Henry Bergh’s plight in the 1870’s to found ASPCA and later ASPCC. The story of Mary Ellen Wheeler, whose abuse made known to the Courts by Henry Bergh, gained national press attention. Worth the Room moved this reader to tears with each turned page. The child abuse, although painful, found balance in moments of great triumph. Exhilarating conquests of normal and paranormal quests are woven into the fabric of Paul's life experience.
Layton V. Rawlins, Writer
Dana Point, California

An autobiography that’s hard to put down, “Worth the Room” is the fascinating story of a man’s life journey during which he turns extraordinary childhood and adolescent agony into an ever-escalating success through his strong determination to survive and his unconditional belief in his higher power. Revealed in this work are the amazing accomplishments of a very modest and giving man who shares, with the reader, his deepest secrets as he unpeels the onion of life and his own sexuality. Unavoidable periods of doubt and regret, transform into a thrilling story of a person living to help others in one mysterious way after another. Another fascinating aspect of this book is the chronology of events, as it unfolds, in order, by time period and geographical location inspiring many fond and priceless memories from my own past.
Rodney J. Howorth, Consultant
Dana Point, California

A lifetime ago, I was a student in Dr. Donald Davidson's class on writing at Vanderbilt University.  He was describing the nature of the great novels.  They did not deal with a privileged person of outstanding endowments standing on the prow of a ship, as it heads into great and noble adventures.  Instead, the great novels wrestle with a person who, in face of flaws and obstacles, makes a meaningful way through life, such that multitudes of us can identify with the person and find ways to empower our own lives. Paul L. Peck's Worth the Room speaks to such a life. William James, America's outstanding philosopher and of special influence in my life, wrote, "I am done with great things and big plans....  I am for those tiny, invisible loving human forces that work from individual to individual, creeping through the crannies of the world like so many rootlets, or like the capillary oozing of water, yet which, if given time, will rend the hardest monuments of human pride."  (In Zander and Zander, The Art of the Impossible, Boston, Harvard Business School Press, 2000, p. 197) Paul Peck’s story is at once an 'invisible loving human force' that in time rends 'the hardest monuments of human pride.'  I might add, prejudice.
Reverend Thomas D. Peterson (ret)
United Methodist Church
Saratoga Springs, New York