SpIRE Library launch

March 11, 2020 in Featured Podcasts, News

‘Journeying with Psyche and Soul in Spirituality’, was the title of Dr Larry Culliford’s inaugural lecture to mark the launch of the SpIRE (Spirituality Institute for Research & Education) Library, on World Book Day, Thursday, 5 March 2020.

The library contains specialist books for applied spirituality studies in Dublin and is home to many of the works once housed in the extensive Milltown Institute library. It contains the very latest articles, journals and books in the field as well as important historical works.

Dr Larry Culliford is a British author, who has written a number of books in the area of psychiatry and spirituality. He is a member of the Royal College of Psychiatrists and a co-founder of their ‘Spirituality and Psychiatry Special Interest Group’, and a former Chair of the Thomas Merton Society of Great Britain and Ireland.

In his lecture, Dr Culliford spoke about his personal and professional journey of integrating the field of spirituality into that of psychiatry. He spoke of his early days as a doctor and subsequently as a psychiatrist with a deep interest in Buddhism and meditation.

He recounted the profound spiritual experience that led him to seek out like-minded people interested in the important link between psychiatry and the spiritual life, and his surprise at the response he received.

Dr Culliford also traced his steps back to his Christian roots in the Anglican Church. And he noted the encouragement and support he gleaned from reading the books of Trappist monk Thomas Merton, who had a special interest in Eastern religion and meditation practices. Listen above to Dr Culliford’s lecture.