AUTHOR

Alan Watts

Politics & Social Sciences | Religion & Spirituality | Health & Wellness
Tap the gear icon above to manage new release emails.
Alan Wilson Watts (6 January 1915 – 16 November 1973) was a British-born American philosopher, writer, and speaker, best known as an interpreter and populariser of Eastern philosophy for a Western audience. Born in Chislehurst, England, he moved to the United States in 1938 and began Zen training in New York. Pursuing a career, he attended Seabury-Western Theological Seminary, where he received a master's degree in theology. Watts became an Episcopal priest in 1945, then left the ministry in 1950 and moved to California, where he joined the faculty of the American Academy of Asian Studies In San Francisco. In 1953 he began his groundbreaking public radio series, first as The Great Books of Asia and later Way Beyond the West, which began airing in Los Angeles in 1959. The radio series, along with his bestselling book, The Way of Zen, launched him into a career as a talented philosophical interpreter and a prolific public speaker, and in the 1960's he was adopted by the Counterculture movement as a spiritual figurehead. He and his peers, including Aldous Huxley, Joseph Campbell, and Gregory Bateson, helped establish the Esalen Institute, which become the epicenter for the Human Potential Movement in the late sixties and seventies. Watts travelled widely between 1965 and his passing in 1973, and his works include 25 books, 250 lectures and interviews, and over 100 workshops and television appearances. His legacy continues with the Alan Watts Org directed by his son, Mark Watts.
Read more Read less

Try Audible membership today. Start enjoying the benefits.

Try Audible for free with an audiobook of your choice.
Try Premium Plus free
Automatically renews at AUD $16.45/mo after 30 days. Cancel anytime.

Leave It Be

Most popular
View Details

Most Popular

Product list
  • Just So cover art

    • Just So

    • An Odyssey into the Cosmic Web of Connection, Play, and True Pleasure
    • By: Alan Watts
    • Narrated by: Alan Watts
    • Length: 10 hrs and 31 mins
    • Release date: 01-01-2017
    • Language: English
    • 5 out of 5 stars 100 ratings

    Non-member price: $26.99 or 1 Credit

    Sale price: $26.99 or 1 Credit

    Try for $0.00
  • You're It! cover art

    • You're It!

    • On Hiding, Seeking, and Being Found
    • By: Alan Watts
    • Narrated by: Alan Watts
    • Length: 12 hrs and 5 mins
    • Release date: 15-01-2010
    • Language: English
    • 5 out of 5 stars 289 ratings

    Non-member price: $26.99 or 1 Credit

    Sale price: $26.99 or 1 Credit

    Try for $0.00
  • Leave It Be cover art

    • Leave It Be

    • Alan Watts on the Art of Meditation
    • By: Alan Watts
    • Narrated by: Alan Watts
    • Length: 7 hrs and 49 mins
    • Release date: 07-01-2020
    • Language: English
    • 5 out of 5 stars 43 ratings

    Non-member price: $26.99 or 1 Credit

    Sale price: $26.99 or 1 Credit

    Try for $0.00
  • Become What You Are cover art

    Non-member price: $21.99 or 1 Credit

    Sale price: $21.99 or 1 Credit

    Try for $0.00
  • Out of Your Mind cover art

    Non-member price: $26.99 or 1 Credit

    Sale price: $26.99 or 1 Credit

    Try for $0.00
  • Eastern Wisdom, Modern Life cover art

    Non-member price: $19.99 or 1 Credit

    Sale price: $19.99 or 1 Credit

    Try for $0.00
  • Reality, Art and Illusion cover art

    Non-member price: $22.99 or 1 Credit

    Sale price: $22.99 or 1 Credit

    Try for $0.00
  • Thusness cover art

    • Thusness

    • By: Alan Watts
    • Narrated by: Alan Watts
    • Length: 3 hrs and 9 mins
    • Release date: 17-12-2014
    • Language: English
    • 5 out of 5 stars 14 ratings

    Non-member price: $22.99 or 1 Credit

    Sale price: $22.99 or 1 Credit

    Try for $0.00
  • This Is It cover art

    • This Is It

    • And Other Essays on Zen and Spiritual Experience
    • By: Alan Watts
    • Narrated by: Sean Runnette
    • Length: 3 hrs and 25 mins
    • Release date: 19-06-2018
    • Language: English
    • 5 out of 5 stars 8 ratings

    Non-member price: $16.99 or 1 Credit

    Sale price: $16.99 or 1 Credit

    Try for $0.00
  • Psychotherapy East and West cover art

    Non-member price: $21.99 or 1 Credit

    Sale price: $21.99 or 1 Credit

    Try for $0.00
  • In My Own Way cover art

    Non-member price: $26.99 or 1 Credit

    Sale price: $26.99 or 1 Credit

    Try for $0.00
  • Four Ways to the Center cover art

    Non-member price: $22.99 or 1 Credit

    Sale price: $22.99 or 1 Credit

    Try for $0.00
  • The Meaning of Happiness cover art

    • The Meaning of Happiness

    • The Quest for Freedom of the Spirit in Modern Psychology and the Wisdom of the East
    • By: Alan Watts
    • Narrated by: Kern Schmidt
    • Length: 7 hrs and 1 min
    • Release date: 23-10-2018
    • Language: English
    • 5 out of 5 stars 8 ratings

    Non-member price: $16.99 or 1 Credit

    Sale price: $16.99 or 1 Credit

    Try for $0.00
  • Still the Mind cover art

    • Still the Mind

    • An Introduction to Meditation
    • By: Alan Watts
    • Narrated by: Alan Watts
    • Length: 1 hr and 18 mins
    • Release date: 14-07-2015
    • Language: English
    • 4.5 out of 5 stars 13 ratings

    Non-member price: $12.99 or 1 Credit

    Sale price: $12.99 or 1 Credit

    Try for $0.00
  • The Wisdom of Insecurity cover art

    Non-member price: $16.99 or 1 Credit

    Sale price: $16.99 or 1 Credit

    Try for $0.00
  • The Power of Space and Reincarnation cover art

    Non-member price: $22.99 or 1 Credit

    Sale price: $22.99 or 1 Credit

    Try for $0.00
  • Still the Mind cover art

    • Still the Mind

    • An Introduction to Meditation
    • By: Alan Watts
    • Narrated by: Alan Watts
    • Length: 1 hr and 18 mins
    • Release date: 04-04-2000
    • Language: English
    • 5 out of 5 stars 5 ratings

    Non-member price: $14.99 or 1 Credit

    Sale price: $14.99 or 1 Credit

    Try for $0.00
  • The Fish Who Found the Sea cover art

    Non-member price: $8.99 or 1 Credit

    Sale price: $8.99 or 1 Credit

    Try for $0.00
  • Weisheit des ungesicherten Lebens cover art

    Non-member price: $16.99 or 1 Credit

    Sale price: $16.99 or 1 Credit

    Try for $0.00