Ego and Soul in Australian Experience


10th June 2024
The recording of Prof. David Tacey's Ego and Soul in Australian Experience is now available on YouTube.

The recording of Prof. David Tacey's Ego and Soul in Australian Experience presented on 22 May 2024 is now available on YouTube.

David describes his presentation, Ego and Soul in Australian Experience

"Some people say we will never be able to understand the Aboriginal Dreaming because it operates at a level of reality we cannot comprehend. I don’t agree with this statement and believe it may be possible for Westerners to understand the Dreaming, if we are prepared to do some inner work and shift our habitual patterns of thought.

The ego has become foundational to Western civilisation, and has brought with it many benefits, such as intellectual enlightenment and an explosion of knowledge. But it has been allowed to dominate the personality and society at great cost.

For indigenous cultures, however, the soul is more important than the ego. The soul values tradition above innovation, pattern thinking above technical thinking, and eternity above time. The development of the ego was available and possible for Aboriginal cultures, but they chose not to take this pathway.''

About the speaker:

Professor David Tacey is a public intellectual, known in the arts, religious and psychotherapy communities. He is often invited to be keynote speaker at conferences and has been commissioned by international editors and publishers to write books and articles. He has published fourteen books and a hundred and fifty articles and chapters; some of his works have been translated into Mandarin, Korean, Spanish, French and Portuguese. He is a frequent commentator on radio and has appeared numerous times on television. 

David grew up in Alice Springs, central Australia, and has maintained a life-long interest in Aboriginal religions, indigenous health and wellbeing. His book Edge of the Sacred was a best-seller and attracted the interest of the Keating government. It was recommended by the poet Les Murray as a work which shaped the direction of Australian society. 

David’s first event with Eremos was a dinner seminar with the poet Les Murray in 1995 at the Steki Taverna Greek Restaurant in Newtown when he spoke about his new book at the time, Edge of the Sacred. In the years that have followed, he has written a further 13 books and led numerous events for Eremos.


Website: View recording here

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