100 list

Watkins’ Spiritual 100 List for 2018

We are delighted to share with you Watkins’ 2018 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, #53 of Watkins Mind Body Spirit magazine on February 2 (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.

2018 Spiritual 100 list at a glance:

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

To discover more about each spiritual teacher, get a copy of issue 53, Spring 2018.

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, 2018
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.

3 Responses

Add a Comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *