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Understanding the Title of Mickey Singer’s Bestselling Book is a Teaching in Itself

Understanding the Title of Mickey Singer’s Bestselling Book is a Teaching in Itself

The meaning of “The Untethered Soul.”

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David Gerken
May 22, 2025
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Understanding the Title of Mickey Singer’s Bestselling Book is a Teaching in Itself
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black hot air balloon under white sky during daytime
Photo by Boopathi Rajaa Nedunchezhiyan on Unsplash

I have an embarrassing confession to make involving my favorite spiritual teacher, Mickey Singer.

While Mickey founded and ran his Temple of the Universe starting in 1975 and wrote two books, he was not well-known in the spiritual world until the publication and eventual massive success of his book The Untethered Soul.

The book, published in 2007, didn’t take off until Oprah Winfrey had Mickey on her show Super Soul Sunday in 2012, after which it spent seven weeks on the New York Times bestseller list.

Reading The Untethered Soul six years ago was what first drew me to Mickey and his teachings.

Subsequent to that, I took his course and listened to any and all talks of his I could find.

Hanging out with Mickey

That was followed by four trips to his temple in Florida over the past few years. These trips yielded some really cool walks with him on the beautiful grounds there as well as some fun dinners at the Temple kitchen.

So, why the embarrassment? Because it wasn’t until the past few months that I really understood the meaning of the actual title of the book that put Mickey on the map.

It was always hazy. Untethered? What does that mean? It always conjured an image of the old playground game, tetherball.

It made no sense

A soul, untethered. I didn’t get it. And since it was my fave teacher and his signature book, I should have gotten it. Or at least dug in and found it. But I didn’t.

Hence, the embarrassment…

Luckily, Mickey brought it up himself in a few of his recent talks. So now I get it.

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