Background and career
Eckhart Tolle ( EK-art TOL-ə; German: [ˈɛkhaʁt ˈtɔlə]; born Ulrich Leonard Tölle, 16 February 1948) is a German “spiritual teacher” and self-help author. His books include The Power of Now: A Guide to Spiritual Enlightenment (1997), A New Earth: Awakening to Your Life's Purpose (2005) and the picture book Guardians of Being (2009). While working toward his doctorate at the University of Cambridge in 1977, Tolle abandoned his studies after experiencing what he has described as a spiritual awakening and later began working as a spiritual teacher. He came to prominence as a self-help author beginning in the 2000s, aided through promotion by Oprah Winfrey. His teachings draw from traditions such as Zen Buddhism, Christian mysticism, Sufism, and Hinduism, although he remains unaffiliated with any particular religion.
Ulrich Leonard Tölle was born in Lünen, a small town north of Dortmund in the Ruhr region of the British-occupied Germany in 1948. In 1961, he moved to Francoist Spain to live with his father, where he "refused all forms of formal education between the ages of 13 and 22, preferring instead to pursue his own creative and philosophical interests". At 15, he was "heavily influenced" by a gift of the five spiritual books by the German mystic Joseph Anton Schneiderfranken.
When he was 19, Tolle moved to England and taught German and Spanish for three years at a London language school. After attending the University of London, he enrolled in a postgraduate program at the University of Cambridge in 1977.
One night in 1977, at age 29, after having suffered long periods of depression, Tolle says he experienced an "inner transformation". That night he awakened from his sleep, suffering from feelings of depression that were "almost unbearable," but then experienced a life-changing epiphany. Recounting the experience, he said: I couldn't live with myself any longer. And in this a question arose without an answer: who is the 'I' that cannot live with the self? What is the self? I felt drawn into a void! I didn't know at the time that what really happened was the mind-made self, with its heaviness, its problems, that lives between the unsatisfying past and the fearful future, collapsed. It dissolved. The next morning, I woke up and everything was so peaceful. The peace was there because there was no self. Just a sense of presence or "beingness," just observing and watching. Tolle recalls going out for a walk in London the next morning and finding that "everything was miraculous, deeply peaceful. Even the traffic." The feeling continued, and he began to feel a strong underlying sense of peace in any situation., and for a period of about two years after this spent much of his time sitting "in a state of deep bliss" on park benches in Russell Square, Central London, "watching the world go by". He stayed with friends in a Buddhist monastery or otherwise slept rough on Hampstead Heath. His family thought him "irresponsible, even insane". He changed his first name to Eckhart; according to some reports this was in homage to the German philosopher and mystic Meister Eckhart. In a 2012 interview he said he saw the name Eckhart on the cover of a book in a dream, and knew he had written the book; soon thereafter, he ran into a psychic friend who called him Eckhart out of nowhere, so he changed his name.
Former Cambridge students and acquaintances began to ask Tolle about his beliefs. He started working as a counselor and spiritual teacher. Students continued to come to him over the next five years. He moved to Glastonbury, a center of alternative living. In 1995, he moved to Vancouver. The Power of Now, Tolle's first book, was published in 1997 by Namaste Publishing. The book was republished on a large scale by New World Library in 1999. In 2000, Oprah Winfrey recommended The Power of Now in her magazine O. In August 2000, it reached The New York Times Best Seller Advice, Miscellaneous and Hardcover list, reaching number one two years later. By 2008, the book had been translated from English into 33 languages. In July 2011, it had appeared on the list of the 10 best selling Paperback Advice & Miscellaneous books for 102 weeks. His second book, Stillness Speaks, was published in 2003. That year, he said he had no intention of creating "a heavy commercial structure" or of setting up an ashram or centre. He believed one "could develop organically" and said "one needs to be careful that the organization doesn't become self-serving". Nevertheless, his website sells his books and "a dizzying range" of materials offering spiritual guidance, and a separate website streams video of monthly group meditations. In 2005, Tolle published A New Earth. In January 2008, Oprah selected it for her book club, and high sales followed. In the four weeks after the announcement, 3.5 million copies were shipped. It was ranked number one on The New York Times Best Seller list 46 times by the end of 2008. In 2008, Tolle partnered with Oprah to produce a series of webinars, each focusing on a chapter from his book A New Earth, with discussions, silent meditations, and questions from viewers via Skype. The third webinar attracted more than 11 million viewers. By October 2009, the webinars had been accessed 35 million times. In September 2009, Tolle appeared with the Dalai Lama at the Vancouver Peace Summit. The same year, he published Guardians of Being, a picture book illustrated by Patrick McDonnell. In January 2025, Oprah selected A New Earth for her book club for a second time, making it the only book to have been chosen twice in the club’s history.
In 2008, The New York Times said that Tolle was "the most popular spiritual author" in the United States. By 2009, total sales of The Power of Now and A New Earth in North America were estimated at 3 million and 5 million copies respectively. In 2011, the Watkins Review (now: Watkins' Mind Body Spirit) ranked him first in the inaugural list of "The 100 Most Spiritually Influential Living People." Since then, he has been included in the top five every year, which only the Dalai Lama has also achieved.
Sources
Net-worth figure: Celebrity Net Worth (October 2026), in USD. Biography and career facts: the person's Wikipedia article and linked reporting. Snapshot date for all StarWorth figures: 28 October 2026.
