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Watkins’ Spiritual 100 List for 2017

[dropcap]W[/dropcap]e are delighted to share with you Watkins’ 2017 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 of Watkins Mind Body Spirit magazine on February 7 (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.

2017 Spiritual 100 list at a glance:

1 Pope Francis 35 Vandana Shiva 69 Doreen Virtue
2 Dalai Lama 36 Marianne Williamson 70 Gregg Braden
3 Desmond Tutu 37 Rupert Sheldrake 71 Daniel Pinchbeck
4 Eckhart Tolle 38 Michael Bernard Beckwith 72 Ajahn Brahm
5 Oprah Winfrey 39 Rob Bell 73 Bruce Lipton
6 Sadhguru (Jaggi Vasudev) 40 Graham Hancock 74 Akhtar Raza Khan
7 Paulo Coelho 41 Hamza Yusuf 75 Stanislav Grof
8 Rhonda Byrne 42 Thomas Moore 76 Richard Bandler
9 Bob Dylan 43 Justin Welby 77 Robert Bly
10 Deepak Chopra 44 Mooji 78 Larry Harvey
11 Malala Yousafzai 45 Martin Seligman 79 Teal Swan
12 Thomas S. Monson 46 Richard Bach 80 Steve Taylor
13 Alice Walker 47 Rowan Williams 81 Jack Kornfield
14 Matthew Fox 48 Karen Armstrong 82 Qamaruzzaman Azmi
15 Alejandro Jodorowsky 49 Alex Grey 83 Fritjof Capra
16 Fethullah Gülen 50 Ken Wilber 84 Satish Kumar
17 David Lynch 51 Robert Thurman 85 Clarissa Pinkola Estés
18 Tony Robbins 52 Pema Chödrön 86 Caroline Myss
19 Arianna Huffington 53 Prem Rawat 87 James van Praagh
20 Iyanla Vanzant 54 Gabrielle Bernstein 88 Adyashanti
21 Elisabeth Gilbert 55 Andrew Weil 89 Muhammad Abdul Wahhab
22 Sam Harris 56 Richard Rohr 90 Starhawk
23 Sri Sri Ravi Shankar 57 Thich Nhat Hanh 91 Sogyal Rinpoche
24 Byron Katie 58 Daniel Goleman 92 David Frawley
25 Ram Dass 59 Gary Snyder 93 Elaine Pagels
26 Esther Hicks 60 Neale Donald Walsch 94 Daniel J. Siegel
27 Amma 61 Jack Canfield 95 Elizabeth Lesser
28 Francis Chan 62 Eben Alexander 96 Salman al-Ouda
29 Robin Sharma 63 Dan Millman 97 Lee Carroll
30 Don Miguel Ruiz 64 Daisaku Ikeda 98 Mario Reading
31 Jon Kabat-Zinn 65 Andrew Forrest 99 David Deida
32 Louise L. Hay 66 Brian Weiss 100 Tara Brach
33 James Lovelock 67 Julia Cameron
34 Erich von Däniken 68 Anita Moorjani

To discover more about each spiritual teacher, get a copy of issue 49, Spring 2017.

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, 2017
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.

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