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We are delighted to share with you Watkins’ 2023 list of the 100 Most Spiritually Influential Living People – spiritual teachers, activists, authors and thinkers that change the world. The list came out in print in the issue 72, Winter 2023 of Watkins Mind Body Spirit magazine on January 12 and you can get a copy of this issue here or take out a full year’s subscription here.
Watkins bookshop in London has been encouraging spiritual discovery and providing seekers with esoteric knowledge for over 120 years. In 2011, we started publishing the 100 list with the goal of celebrating the world’s living spiritual teachers. Our special magazine issue features 16 pages dedicated to interesting details, bios, photos and highlights about each person on the list. As you read through this list, we hope that you feel as inspired as we are by each individual’s significant impact.
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1 – Dalai Lama 2 – Pope Francis 3 – Greta Thunberg 4 – Eckhart Tolle 5 – Sadhguru (Jaggi Vasudev) 6 – Gwyneth Paltrow 7 – Russell Brand 8 – Oprah Winfrey 9 – David Lynch 10 – Jane Goodall NEW 11 – Wim Hof 12 – Paulo Coelho 13 – Alice Walker 14 – Jay Shetty 15 – Teal Swan 16 – Matthew Fox 17 – Deepak Chopra 18 – Michael Pollan 19 – Vandan Shiva 20 – Robert Thurman 21 – Esther Perel 22 – Ruby Wax 23 – Graham Hancock 24 – Justin Welby 25 – Arianna Huffington 26 – Marianne Williamson 27 – Uri Geller 28 – Sri Sri Ravi Shankar 29 – Mark Manson 30 – Amma – Mata Amritanandamayi 31 – Bartholomew I of Constantinople NEW 32 – Rhonda Byrne 33 – Richard Rohr |
34 – Robin Sharma
35 – Esther Hicks 36 – Rowan Williamson 37 – Brené Brown 38 – Jon Kabat-Zinn 39 – Ken Wilber 40 – Hamza Yusuf 41 – Rupert Sheldrake 42 – Vex King NEW 43 – Bessel van der Kolk 44 – Martin Seligman 45 – Thomas Moore 46 – Michael A. Singer 47 – Iyanla Vanzant 48 – Edith Eger 49 – Alex Grey 50 – Julia Cameron 51 – Richard Bach 52 – Vishen Lakhiani 53 – Rob Bell 54 – Karen Armstrong 55 – Daniel Goleman 56 – Prem Rawat 57 – Andrew Weil 58 – Gary Snyder 59 – Mooji 60 – Susan Cain NEW 61 – Byron Katie 62 – Raymond Moody NEW 63 – Seyyed Hossein Nasr 64 – Brian Weiss 65 – Don Miguel Ruiz 66 – Gregg Braden 67 – Neale Donald Walsch |
68 – Stanislav Grof
69 – Daisaku Ikeda 70 – Jack Kornfield 71 – Tara Brach 72 – Bruce H. Lipton 73 – Jack Canfield 74 – Eben Alexander 75 – Matthieu Ricard 76 – Gabrielle Bernstein 77 – Rupert Spira 78 – Drunvalo Melchizedek 79 – Ronald Hutton NEW 80 – Gary Lachman NEW 81 – Steve Taylor 82 – Lee Carroll 83 – Elaine Pagels 84 – Daniel J. Siegel 85 – Sharon Salzberg 86– Dan Millman 87 – Anita Moorjani 88 – Fritjof Capra 89 – Caroline Myss 90 – Yung Pueblo NEW 91 – Morgan Daimler NEW 92 – Ajahn Brahm 93 – Sharon Kleinbaum 94 – David Deida 95 – Rachel Patterson NEW 96 – Ervin Laszlo 97 – Gary Zukav 98 – Starhawk 99 – Pema Chödrön 100 – Theresa Cheung NEW |
There are several factors that were taken into account when compiling the list. The main three criteria are:
1) The person has to be alive as of December, 2022
2) The person has to have made a unique and spiritual contribution on a global scale
3) The person is frequently googled, appears in Nielsen Data, has a Wikipedia page, and is actively talked about throughout the Internet. By taking into account the amount of times that a person is googled or how many times their Wikipedia profile is viewed, the list gains a highly democratic and transparent parameter. Additionally, we were highly selective in creating this list and did our best to remove candidates who spread messages that were hateful or intolerant. Ultimately, this list is meant to celebrate the positive influence of today’s spiritual teachers.
To discover more about each spiritual teacher, pick up a copy of issue 72, Winter 2023 here.
