ABOUT ANDREW HARVEY
A Life in Search of the Real
For more than four decades Andrew Harvey has explored one question: what happens when the world’s great mystical traditions are taken seriously — not as private consolation, but as forces capable of transforming how we live?
Why this matters now
A life given to the real is a useful witness when so much around us is not.
ANDREW TEACHING
THE RADICAL MYSTIC
Mysticism is not an escape from reality. It is training for meeting reality completely.
For four decades Andrew Harvey has written, taught and spoken across the great mystical traditions: Rumi, the Divine Mother, Christ, Tantra, Aurobindo and Buddhism. Underneath it all runs one urgent philosophy, Sacred Activism, and one living motif: the fire in the heart.
SACRED ACTIVISM
When awakening becomes action. The inner life is not separate from the fate of the world.
The great mystical traditions were never meant to help us escape the world. They were meant to transform how we meet it.
THE FIRE IN THE HEART
The fire in the heart is love carried into the world.
The living motif of Andrew’s work connects mystical inquiry with the courage to act. Study is an invitation to make that connection part of everyday life.
TIMELINE
A life in search of the real
1952
Born in Coimbatore, south India, where he lives until the age of nine; the roots of his sense of the unity of all religions.
1970s
Wins a history scholarship to Oxford; at 21 he becomes the youngest person ever elected a Fellow of All Souls College, teaching Shakespeare and French literature.
1977
Returns to India, where a series of mystical experiences begin his spiritual path.
1983
In Ladakh, takes the Bodhisattva vows with Thuksey Rinpoche. A Journey in Ladakh wins the Christmas Humphreys Award.
1984
In Paris, begins a decade of study of Rumi and Sufism with Eva de Vitray-Meyerovitch.
1992
Meets Father Bede Griffiths in south India, reconciling the mysticisms of East and West.
1993
The BBC documentary The Making of a Modern Mystic profiles his life.
2005 onward
Turns his work towards Sacred Activism and founds the Institute for Sacred Activism.
2012
Named among Watkins’ 100 Most Spiritually Influential Living People and nominated for the Templeton Prize.
Today
Writes, teaches and directs the Institute for Sacred Activism; his newest book is The Magdalene Revolution (2026).
He has taught at Oxford, Cornell, Hobart and William Smith Colleges and the California Institute of Integral Studies.
Press & media
Interviews, talks and press enquiries. Explore the Archive, or visit Contact for invitations, permissions and correspondence.