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We are delighted to share with you Watkins’ 2020 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 Spring issue, #61 of Watkins Mind Body Spirit magazine on February 29 (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 Dalai Lama 2 Pope Francis 3 Greta Thunberg 4 Eckhart Tolle 5 Oprah Winfrey 6 Russell Brand 7 Thich Nhat Hanh 8 Desmond Tutu 9 Marianne Williamson 10 David Lynch 11 Paulo Coelho 12 Deepak Chopra 13 Sadhguru (Jaggi Vasudev) 14 Arianna Huffington 15 Mirabai Starr 16 Bob Dylan 17 Edith Eger 18 Alice Walker 19 Neale Donald Walsch 20 Matthew Fox 21 Alejandro Jodorowsky 22 Fethullah Gülen 23 Teal Swan 24 Sandra Ingerman 25 Michael A. Singer 26 Esther Hicks 27 Iyanla Vanzant 28 Elizabeth Gilbert 29 Sri Sri Ravi Shankar 30 Joe Dispenza 31 Ken Wilber 32 Amma | 33 Francis Chan 34 Robin Sharma 35 Don Miguel Ruiz 36 William Bloom 37 Jon Kabat-zinn 38 James Lovelock 39 Erich Von Däniken 40 Vandana Shiva 41 Rupert Sheldrake 42 Michael Bernard Beckwith 43 Rob Bell 44 Graham Hancock 45 Hamza Yusuf 46 Thomas Moore 47 Justin Welby 48 Mooji 49 Zinovia Dushkova 50 Tim Freke 51 Martin Seligman 52 Richard Bach 53 Rowan Williams 54 Karen Armstrong 55 Alex Grey 56 Robert Thurman 57 Pema Chödrön 58 Prem Rawat 59 Rhonda Byrne 60 Gabrielle Bernstein 61 Andrew Weil 62 Steve Taylor 63 Christiane Northrup 64 Richard Rohr 65 Mantak Chia 66 Daniel Goleman 67 Gary Snyder | 68 Jack Canfield 69 Eben Alexander 70 Dan Millman 71 Daisaku Ikeda 72 Andrew Forrest 73 Brian Weiss 74 Julia Cameron 75 Anita Moorjani 76 Gregg Braden 77 Ajahn Brahm 78 Bruce H. Lipton 79 Byron Katie 80 Stanislav Grof 81 Zainab Salbi 82 Robert Bly 83 Jack Kornfield 84 Fritjof Capra 85 Satish Kumar 86 Clarissa Pinkola Estés 87 Caroline Myss 88 Adyashanti 89 James Van Praagh 90 Starhawk 91 David Frawley 92 Elaine Pagels 93 Daniel J. Siegel 94 Qamaruzzaman Azmi 95 Elizabeth Lesser 96 Lee Carroll 97 David Deida 98 Tara Brach 99 Matt Kahn 100 Ervin Laszlo |
To discover more about each spiritual teacher, pick up a copy of issue 61, Spring 2020.
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, 2020
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.
I noticed that ram Dass was not listed the last few years. He died in December 2019. He was one of the influential spiritual leaders in 29 th century up through his passing. Krishna Das should be on this list along with Joseph goldstein and Sharon salzberg
[…] is one of the 100 Most Spiritually Influential Living People on the 2020 list in Watkins Magazine and presents life-changing events internationally and online. His latest books […]
This is fantastic. So helpful to find new inspirational leaders. Would love to see Christina Lopes on this list. Perhaps she is not Googled enough (yet!). I attended her online meditations with 1700+ on the live feed (YouTube). Her videos have been incredibly helpful and healing. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC5t8L3h1U94Ot5fs-8miPAQ
Thank you for the suggestion, Ann – we’ll have to keep an eye out for Christina making waves!
[…] is one of the 100 Most Spiritually Influential Living People on the 2020 list in Watkins Magazine and presents life-changing events internationally and online. His latest books […]
Just curious: where can I find the Nielsen Data that you use. Are they publicly accessible? Great list, by the way! Seems like you put a lot of thought and effort into this.
Paul McCartney belongs on the list! His world class catalog of songs has put more people in great moods than most on the list- period.
Okay. So he puts you in a great mood. That has nothing to do with spirituality. Do you even know what spirituality is?
[…] the past ten years he’s appeared in Watkins’ Mind Body Spirit magazine’s list of “the world’s 100 most spiritually influential living people.” He lives with his wife and […]
Thanks, This was a pretty good list. I was surprised Leo Gura didn’t make it. His work is quite profound.
Eckhart Tolle, Sadhguru, Mooji, Adyashanti… where are the other 96?
How come Rupert Spira isn’t on this list, he is by far the best at explaining non-duality
Nicky Sutton is a spiritual teacher who has great videos.
Thank you for the list.
This must be some sort of joke. Most names are of people no one has heard of – and Greta Thunberg, ranking third? A narcissistic brat at best, used by powerful lobby groups. You are obviously using an extremely broad definition of spiritual, and even so, the methodology for inclusion and ranking appears to be weird.
Christian Meyer
Please consider Jean Houston, spiritual leader for over seven decades, over 80 spiritual books, presently on video classes, lectures, etc.
after years of discounting her myself…ive found Lousie Hay to be the most simple and effective of
teachers
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