From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Marianne Williamson (born July 8, 1952)^[1] is a spiritual activist, author, lecturer and founder of The Peace Alliance, a grass roots campaign supporting legislation currently before Congress to establish a United States Department of Peace. She is also the founder of Project Angel Food, a meals-on-wheels program that serves homebound people with AIDS in the Los Angeles area.^[2] She has published nine books, including four New York Times #1 bestsellers.

Her newest book, THE AGE OF MIRACLES:Embracing the New Midlife, was published in January 2008 and spent five weeks on the New York Times Best Seller list. Her latest professional venture is a weekly radio show on "Oprah & Friends", which airs on XM Satellite Radio. ^[2]

Biography

Williamson graduated from Pomona College in Claremont, CA, where her roommate was film producer Lynda Obst.

She is currently a minister in the Unity Church.

Philosophy

Williamson's philosophy adopts a New Thought approach to spirituality. She incorporates both established Christianity and Judaism^[expand] with statements such as "You've committed no sins, just mistakes. She also promotes tenets of Zen Buddhism such as the belief that one must empty their mind through enlightenment to truly find God. 

She gained early attention with A Course in Miracles, a step-by-step method for choosing love over fear. She credits her claimed insight to Oprah Winfrey, who invited Williamson to The Oprah Winfrey Show to discuss her first book A Return to Love.^[3]

Popular Culture References

A passage from Williamson's book, A Return to Love, has become popular as an inspirational quote and has been used, amongst other places, in the 2005 film, Coach Carter and the 2006 film, Akeelah and the Bee. It is often incorrectly attributed to Nelson Mandela;^[4] Williamson herself is quoted as saying, "As honored as I would be had President Mandela quoted my words, indeed he did not. I have no idea where that story came from, but I am gratified that the paragraph has come to mean so much to so many people."^[4]

Bibliography

References

External links

• Official Web Site
• "That Famous Speech that Nelson Mandela NEVER Gave"
• An interview with Marianne Williamson
• With You I Am Born Again - George Spink recalls Marianne Williamson's frequent lectures in Los Angeles during the early 1990s.
• Tom Butler-Bowdon's commentary on A Return To Love as a self-help classic
• Sacred Awakening seminar with Marianne

From Wikiquote

Marianne Williamson is the author of A Return to Love.

• "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's 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're liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others." (A Return to Love: Reflections on the Principles of "A Course in Miracles", Harper Collins, 1992. From Chapter 7, Section 3])
  • The famous passage from her book is often erroneously attributed to the inaugural address of Nelson Mandela. About the misattribution Williamson said, "Several years ago, this paragraph from A Return to Love began popping up everywhere, attributed to Nelson Mandela's 1994 inaugural address. As honored as I would be had President Mandela quoted my words, indeed he did not. I have no idea where that story came from, but I am gratified that the paragraph has come to mean so much to so many people."
  • The film Akeelah and the Bee includes this quotation without citing its source. Some viewers have inferred that the source is W.E.B. Du Bois. There is a later scene in the movie in which Akeela reads a passage from The Souls of Black Folk written by Du Bois ("He began to have a dim feeling that, to attain his place in the world, he must be himself, and not another”).
  • The film Coach Carter includes a variation of this quote: “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. 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. It's not just in some of us; it is in everyone. And as we let our own lights shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.”
  • The Israeli bestseller "Badulina" by the author Gabi Nitzan opens with this quote, also attributing it to Nelson Mandela.

External references and links

• Williamson, Marianne (1996). A Return to Love: Reflections on the Principles of A Course in Miracles. New York: HarperCollins. ISBN 0060927488.
• Marianne Williamson's Site
• That Famous Speech that Nelson Mandela NEVER Gave