speaker detail

Marianne Williamson

Marianne Williamson is an internationally acclaimed spiritual teacher. Her latest book, The Age of Miracles hit #2 on the New York Times Bestseller list. Among her other 9 published books, four of them -- including A Return to Love - were #1 New York TimesA Return to Love is considered a must-read of The New Spirituality. A paragraph from that book, beginning "Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure" - often misattributed to Nelson Mandela's Inaugural address - is considered an anthem for a contemporary generation of seekers.

Marianne's other books include Everyday Grace, A Woman's Worth, Illuminata,Healing the Soul of America, The Gift of Change and Emma and Mommy Talk to God.

She has been a popular guest on television programs such as Oprah, Larry King Live, Good Morning America and Charlie Rose.

Marianne is a native of Houston, Texas. In 1989, she founded Project Angel Food, a meals-on-wheels program that serves homebound people with AIDS in the Los Angeles area. Today, Project Angel Food serves over 1,000 people daily. Marianne also co-founded The Peace Alliance, a grass roots campaign supporting legislation to establish a U. S. Department of Peace.

In December 2006, a NEWSWEEK magazine poll named Marianne Williamson one of the fifty most influential baby boomers. According to Time magazine, "Yoga, the Cabala and Marianne Williamson have been taken up by those seeking a relationship with God that is not strictly tethered to Christianity."

Marianne is the author of the following quote often attributed to Nelson Mandela:

'Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It's not just in some of us; it's in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.”

----from A Return to Love, by Marianne Williamson.