WHO IS JEREMY GRIFFITH?

Jeremy Griffith is an Australian biologist and author who has dedicated his life to addressing and solving the underlying issue in all human affairs of the human condition — our species’ perplexing contradiction of being capable of both extraordinary kindness and destructive behaviour.

Jeremy Griffith — The early years

Jeremy Griffith’s interest in life and nature started early. Born in 1945, he was raised on a sheep station in rural New South Wales and educated at Geelong Grammar School, one of the most highly regarded schools in the world, during which time he spent a year at the school’s unique ‘Timbertop’, an outdoor campus set in the Victorian High Country.

Jeremy gained first class honours in biology in the state matriculation exams, and in 1965 he commenced a science degree at the University of New England in northern New South Wales. While there, Jeremy played representative rugby union football, making the 1966 trials for Australia’s national team, the Wallabies.

In his twenties, Jeremy deferred his university studies to undertake a determined search for the ‘Tasmanian Tiger’ (the Thylacine), seeking to save this remarkable creature from extinction. It was to take six years and ultimately reach the sad conclusion that the ‘Tiger’ was indeed extinct. The search garnered significant media interest, with articles appearing in the American Museum of Natural History’s journal, Natural History, and Australian Geographic, and Jeremy featuring in an episode of the Australian television series A Big Country.

Jeremy went on to finish his BSc in Zoology at the University of Sydney, after which he established Griffith Tablecraft, a highly successful business manufacturing furniture based on his own simple and natural designs rather than the extravagant excesses so commonly produced. In addition to his design work, Jeremy is also an accomplished artist.

Jeremy Griffith’s Change of Focus — from Conserving the Natural World to Understanding the Nature of Man

At the age of 27, Jeremy Griffith came to a powerful realisation: efforts like saving endangered animals or designing the perfect piece of furniture, while worthwhile, weren’t addressing the deeper problem — the real source of the turmoil in human life. He saw that the true issue lay in our species’ contradictory nature, our struggle between good and bad behaviour. What the world truly needed, he felt, was a deeper understanding of ourselves. From that moment on, Jeremy committed himself to uncovering the root of this conflict — what he would come to define as the “human condition” — and it has remained the central focus of his life’s work.

In 1975, Jeremy started writing about the human condition, and in 1983, he founded the World Transformation Movement, a non-profit dedicated to to the study and amelioration of the human condition. Through books, essays, videos, and volunteer-run Centres around the globe, such as this one, the World Transformation Movement makes Jeremy’s work freely available to all.

Jeremy Griffith’s Central Biological Insight

In his central insight Jeremy Griffith explains that humans aren’t driven by selfish or aggressive instincts, as many theories suggest. Instead, our troubled behavior stems from a profound clash between our instinctive nature — which is actually cooperative and loving — and our emerging conscious mind. This internal conflict, he says, is the real source of our species’ psychological suffering.

To elaborate, as early humans developed consciousness, we began to question and defy our instincts. But because our conscious mind couldn’t initially explain our behaviour, this created guilt, alienation, and psychological turmoil. Over time, this inner tension led to the defensive and destructive behaviours we see in history — but Jeremy emphasises that these were never due to bad instincts. In fact, our species is inherently good — and this insight is what makes his explanation so hopeful.

In his landmark book, FREEDOM: The End Of The Human Condition, Jeremy presents this explanation in full, offering a scientifically grounded and ultimately compassionate understanding of our behaviour. He believes that by facing and understanding this clash, we can finally heal the psychological pain that has crippled humanity — and move toward a transformed world.

FREEDOM, published in 2016 and updated regularly, is Jeremy’s definitive work, however, he has also written several books, including The Great Transformation and Transform Your Life And Save The World.

The most widely viewed introduction to his ideas came in 2020, through a powerful interview with British broadcaster Craig Conway titled The Interview That Solves The Human Condition And Saves The World. A multitude of people from all over the world have since watched it, often describing it as life-changing. If you haven’t already, you can watch it here on this Centre’s homepage!

So, who is Jeremy Griffith? He is not just a scientist or author — he is someone who dared to ask the toughest questions about human nature and refused to stop until he found the answer. His work offers not only an explanation for our troubled past, but a roadmap for our species’ psychological rehabilitation.

You can learn more about Jeremy Griffith in his full biography that is available on HumanCondition.com.