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We are delighted to share with you Watkins’ 2025 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 issue 80, the Winter 2025 edition of Watkins Mind Body Spirit magazine on January 10th 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.
1 – Pope Francis
2 – Dalai Lama
3 – Eckhart Tolle
4 – Sadhguru (Jaggi Vasudev)
5 – Jane Goodall
6 – David Lynch
7 – Marianne Williamson
8 – Dr Joe Dispenza
9 – Gwyneth Paltrow
NEW: 10 – Jordan B. Peterson
11 – Oprah Winfrey
12 – Paulo Coelho
13 – Wim Hof
14 – Alice Walker
15 – Deepak Chopra
16 – Uri Geller
17 – Teal Swan
18 – Gabor Maté
19 – Esther Perel
20 – Graham Hancock
21 – Arianna Huffington
22 – Jay Shetty
23 – Gregg Braden
NEW: 24 – Alan Moore
25 – Sri Sri Ravi Shankar
NEW: 26 – Mel Robbins
27 – Julia Cameron
28 – Rainn Wilson
NEW: 29 – Ryan Holiday
30 – Greta Thunberg
31 – Robert Thurman
32 – Amma (Mata Amritanandamayi)
33 – Mark Manson
34 – Michael Pollan
35 – Rupert Sheldrake
36 – Vandana Shiva
37 – Robin Sharma
38 – Ruby Wax
39 – Rowan Williams
NEW: 40 – Tony Nader
41 – Jon Kabat-Zinn
42 – Richard Rohr
43 – Hamza Yusuf
44 – Esther Hicks
45 – Bessel van der Kolk
46 – Ken Wilber
47 – Michael A. Singer
48 – Daniel Goleman
49 – Martin Seligman
50 – Rhonda Byrne
51 – Thomas Moore
52 – Bruce H. Lipton
53 – Prem Rawat
54 – Richard Bach
55 – Edith Eger
56 – Karen Armstrong
57 – George Noory
58 – Gary Snyder
59 – Alex Grey
60 – Iyanla Vanzant
61 – Bartholomew I of Constantinople
62 – Rob Bell
63 – Andrew Weil
64 – Brian Weiss
65 – Neale Donald Walsch
66 – Seyyed Hossein Nasr
67 – don Miguel Ruiz
68 – Byron Katie
69 – Vishen Lakhiani
70 – Mooji
71 – Eben Alexander
72 – Rupert Spira
73 – Stanislav Grof
74 – Vadim Zeland
75 – Raymond Moody
76 – Jack Kornfield
NEW: 77 – Mark Epstein
NEW: 78 – James Hollis
79 – Matthieu Ricard
80 – Ronald Hutton
81 – Jack Canfield
82 – Elaine Pagels
83 – Caroline Myss
84 – Tara Brach
85 – Anita Moorjani
86 – Gary Lachman
87 – Richard Rudd
88 – Steve Taylor
89 – Vex King
90 – Adyashanti
91 – Fritjof Capra
92 – Susan Cain
NEW: 93 – Pico Iyer
94 – David Wolpe
95 – Dan Millman
96 – David Deida
97 – Daniel J. Siegel
98 – David Frawley
99 – Charles Eisenstein
100 – Starhawk
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 November 2024.
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 80, Winter 2025 here .
