Bringing Daoist Studies to Leeds - Hosting the 16th International Conference on Daoist Studies at Leeds Beckett University

In 2009, when I was still a relatively new member of staff, Leeds Beckett University kindly funded my trip to Wudang Shan, one of the sacred mountains of China, so that I could attend the Fifth International Conference on Daoist Studies.

I recall being deeply impressed at and moved by the depth and variety of scholarship being demonstrated at this conference – Daoist priests conversing with academics from so many different disciplines, experienced practitioners of Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM), Qigong and Tai Chi exploring more holistic approaches to health and well-being, and my own personal interest of promoting a dialogue between Psychology, Psychotherapy and Daoism.

Daoism is an ancient, indigenous Chinese system of cultivation that includes philosophy, psychology, medicine, martial arts and ecology.

The key conference organiser, one of the world’s leading scholars on Daoism, Professor Livia Kohn, seized upon my burgeoning interest and encouraged myself and several others to contribute to a new project addressing the relationships between Daoism and Psychology – this led to a pioneering publication in 2011 ‘Living Authentically – Daoist Contributions to Modern Psychology’.

Over the following years our Social Sciences course teams for BA (Hons) Social Psychology and MA Interdisciplinary Psychology were encouraged to include more research-led teaching to increasingly reflect our growing contributions to Transpersonal Psychology internationally.

Transpersonal Psychology is a small but fertile field of Psychology that encourages the study of spiritual experience – it was the very first Psychological approach to seriously study meditation in the 1960s, some decades prior to the widespread popularity of mindfulness.

Only a couple of years ago I was delighted to be elected as the Chair of the British Psychological Society’s Transpersonal Psychology Section. Our previous Chair, Dr Steve Taylor, also lectures at Leeds Beckett University and is a popular and prolific author.

When Professor Livia Kohn suggested that we might hold the 16th International Conference on Daoist Studies in the UK for the first time, and at Leeds Beckett University I was delighted to accept her invitation.

The Conference was a great success, with over 50 international scholars attending from China, Taiwan, Japan, Korea, Singapore, Romania, Czech Republic, Italy, Germany, Norway, the US and Canada.

Universities represented included Oxford University, Beijing Normal University, Sichuan University, Shandong University, Chinese University of Hong Kong, University of Tampa, Leipzig University, Boston University, Concordia University, Edinburgh University, Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes, and many more.

I was delighted to present a well-received keynote lecture titled 'The Dao of Dialogue: Daoism, Psychology and Psychotherapy' which was partly based on my 2021 book 'The Psychologisation of Eastern Spiritual Traditions' (published by Routledge).

My paper explored how Daoism might transform Psychology through investigating and cultivating our ‘transcognitive capacity’ – our ability to access states of consciousness that go beyond our ordinary thoughts and feelings. These states have an additional advantage of making us more receptive, attuned to and in harmony with our natural environments – moving from an egocentric to more ecocentric mindset.

This keynote, and several other papers, have been selected for publication in the next edition of the Journal of Daoist Studies.

The conference has helped to further establish Leeds Beckett as an emerging, leading, international institution for the study of Psychology, Psychotherapy and Spirituality in the UK.