We are delighted to share with you Watkins’ 2019 list of the 100 Most Spiritually Influential Living People – spiritual teachers, activists, authors and thinkers that change the world. The list comes out in print in the Spring issue, #57 of Watkins Mind Body Spirit magazine on February 29 (you can get a copy of this issue here or take out a full year 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.
2019 Spiritual 100 list at a glance:
| 1 Pope Francis 2 Oprah Winfrey 3 Dalai Lama 4 Eckhart Tolle 5 Desmond Tutu 6 Rhonda Byrne 7 Edith Eger 8 Alejandro Jodorowsky 9 Neale Donald Walsch 10 Julia Cameron 11 David Lynch 12 Russell Brand 13 Sam Harris 14 Ken Wilber 15 Tony Robbins 16 Thich Nhat Hanh 17 Paulo Coehlo 18 Deepak Chopra 19 Teal Swan 20 Steve Taylor 21 Sadhguru (Jaggi Vasudev) 22 Gabor Maté 23 Arianna Huffington 24 Alice Walker 25 Matthew Fox 26 Fethullah Gülen 27 Brian Weiss 28 Brené Brown 29 Iyanla Vanzant 30 Bob Dylan 31 Elizabeth Gilbert 32 Gabrielle Bernstein 33 Byron Katie 34 Marianne Williamson |
35 Sri Sri Ravi Shankar 36 Ruby Wax 37 Mooji 38 Ram Dass 39 Esther Hicks 40 Amma 41 Francis Chan 42 Robin Sharma 43 Don Miguel Ruiz 44 Jon Kabat-Zinn 45 James Lovelock 46 Erich von Däniken 47 Clarissa Pinkola Estés 48 Vandana Shiva 49 Rupert Sheldrake 50 Michael Bernard Beckwith 51 Rob Bell 52 Graham Hancock 53 Hamza Yusuf 54 Thomas Moore 55 Justin Welby 56 Martin Seligman 57 Richard Bach 58 Abdullah II of Jordan 59 Rowan Williams 60 Karen Armstrong 61 Alex Grey 62 Robert Thurman 63 Pema Chödrön 64 Ervin Laszlo 65 Prem Rawat 66 Andrew Weil 67 Richard Rohr 68 Daniel Goleman |
69 Gary Snyder 70 Jack Canfield 71 Eben Alexander 72 Dan Millman 73 Daisaku Ikeda 74 Andrew Forrest 75 Anita Moorjani 76 Gregg Braden 77 Ajahn Brahm 78 Bruce Lipton 79 Stanislav Grof 80 Zainab Salbi 81 Daniel Pinchbeck 82 Robert Bly 83 Sherin Khankan 84 Jack Kornfield 85 Satish Kumar 86 Caroline Myss 87 Adyashanti 88 Starhawk 89 David Frawley 90 Elaine Pagels 91 Richard Rudd 92 Daniel J. Siegel 93 Tara Brach 94 Elizabeth Lesser 95 Lee Carroll 96 David Deida 97 James Redfield 98 Lorna Byrne 99 Vadim Zeland 100 Sharon Salzberg |
To discover more about each spiritual teacher, get a copy of issue 57, Spring 2019.
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 January 1st, 2019
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.
Source: Watkins Mind Body Spirit Magazine
