Alan W. Watts

Alan W. Watts (1915–1973) was the British-born philosopher who became the leading Western populariser of Eastern spirituality in the mid-twentieth century. In Become What You Are he distils his mature teaching — that each person discovers freedom not by escaping the self but by realising what he or she already is.

Watts's genius lay in translating Zen and Taoist ideas into the language of American self-discovery. A charismatic speaker with scores of recorded talks, he influenced psychedelic culture, the human potential movement and generations of seekers, and his books remain perennial bestsellers.