A Life Fully Lived

Robert Charles Petteway was born March 10, 1945, in Topeka, Kansas to Meredith Baker Petteway from Baton Rouge, Louisiana (a nurse) and Charles Petteway from Lakeland, Florida (a doctor), while his father was on assignment with the Army.  He surprised his parents with an early arrival, impatient to get started on an exceptional life.  

Over his life he was known as Bobby and Bob.  Most of you know him as Robert.

Robert grew up in Lakeland and Reddington Beach, Florida. You could hear his Florida upbringing in his soft drawl. He loved the ocean and took a sailboat to school, across the bay from his home.

After high school, Robert joined the Army. While he served, he was injured by gunshot and received an honorable discharge. After the Army, Robert attended Community College, after which he launched a varied and intensive exploration of life.

Because Robert excelled in many pastimes and careers,  it’s difficult to capture a life so fully and riotously explored. Let’s explore the highlight reel...

Robert was always moving. In junior high school he tied the national record for running the mile; in high school he was the number one place kicker in Florida football and was courted by a professional football team. Over his life he raced cars, rode motorcycles, played classical guitar, and created portraiture, mostly working in charcoal. He was a professional truck driver and managed topless clubs. He learned to sew and made clothes for himself as well as costumes for the club dancers.  There is still one of his beautifully-stitched jackets hanging in the closet. In his 70’s he owned both a red scooter and a recumbent bike, and his neighbors knew him by sight for miles.

Robert was a professional photographer, contracted to do both fashion photography and architectural photography in which he pioneered a technique called “painting with light”. His photos won awards. He taught photography at Massie Business College in Atlanta, Georgia.

In 1980 Robert graduated from massage school in Jacksonville, Florida and began a long and impactful career as a therapeutic bodyworker. He moved to Houston, Texas that year with then-wife Maxine Hirsch. They went on to found and run Houston Massage Center, the very first massage school licensed in the state of Texas. Robert was voted “Best Massage Therapist” in Houston in 1995.

During this time, Robert attended Texas Chiropractic College for a year, learning to adjust the spine. He worked with Dr. Joe Reilly of Downtown Chiropractic Clinic for 10 years. It was here he met Cynthia Moore Zaal who would later become his wife.

During these years Robert completed a 3-year program and received an O.M.D. certification from the Texas College of Oriental Medicine & Acupuncture. He also studied with a local podiatric surgeon to learn how to support the spine by adjusting leg length with the use of orthotics.

Robert developed the Myopractic® line of bodywork, combining deep, detailed therapy with gentle delivery. He and Cynthia taught Myopractic® to massage therapists in cities all over the United States from 1992 to 2000.

Always learning and updating his work, he added power tools to his bodywork using vibration and percussion to produce extraordinarily deep and lasting results.

Throughout his life, Robert was fascinated with exploring the spiritual side of life. He read voraciously and studied with spiritual masters continuously. He learned Transcendental Meditation and practiced the advanced techniques called the Siddhi’s program. He meditated for hours each day.

He also studied human potential in an energetic context and incorporated into his understanding and works insights from Martin Sage, Jerry Stocking, and Warren Barigian.

Robert was a visionary who explored the realms through meditaton and dreaming.  He wrote about his visions and understandings in notes, poetry and short stories.  Boxes full of his writings await full exploration. One of his prize-winning poems is included in this site under the tab "Memories".

The culmination of a full life of continuous learning—by following his heightened intuition, immense curiosity, and sense of wonder—began in 2001 when, encouraged and supported by their friend, Patty Shull, Robert and Cynthia led the first-ever training into deep relaxation for any and all seekers. His premise was that extraordinary and expanded states of being were possible and even predictable from a condition in the body of deep relaxation and increased flow of energy. He achieved these results through combining vibration, breathwork, bodywork, and sound technology along with his ability to hold an expanded space for others to simply join.

He created the Discover Stillness™ audio program using a unique mix of deep tones and binaural beat technology to produce brain states which are less patterned, less reactive, and more fluid than the norms of culture.

The height of Robert’s learning and capabilities in life was embodied in Stillness Technologies, a company formed by Robert and Cynthia, and later joined by businessman and fellow-seeker Michael Mead. Through this company, Robert introduced over 500 people to these stillness technologies, and they became his partners in mapping states of deep relaxation, a condition of Being, and even expanded states of consciousness. Robert considered these co-journeyers his dearest friends.

Robert and Cynthia moved to the tranquil environment of the country outside of Huntsville, Texas in 2002, where they lived on 10 wooded acres until his death on April 23, 2025, at the age of 80.

Robert is survived by his devoted wife, Cynthia. His family also includes his sister, Susan Petteway Miller (Jacksonville, Florida) and her children, Megan Miller and Troy Miller and their children, as well as many cousins in the Lake Charles, Louisiana area. Robert is also survived by his dear biological daughter, Mia Petteway Shull, born to Patty Shull and her husband, Clifford Lykke.

Robert was released from his body after a long, slow decline from dementia and bladder cancer. Now unencumbered, no doubt he is exploring the grand and limitless subtle spaces that he cherished.