Gary Zukav (born October 17, 1942) is an American spiritual teacher and the author of four consecutive New York Times Best Sellers. Beginning in 1998, he appeared more than 30 times on The Oprah Winfrey Show to discuss transformation in human consciousness concepts presented in his book The Seat of the Soul. His first book, The Dancing Wu Li Masters (1979), won a U.S. National Book Award. Gary Zukav was born in Port Arthur, Texas, the elder of two children of Morris Luis 'Morey' and Lorene (née Weinberg) Zukav. His father owned a jewelry store in Pittsburg, Kansas, and his mother was a housewife who raised him and his younger sister. Gary spent his early childhood in San Antonio and Houston. His family moved to Pittsburg, Kansas in 1952, while he was in fourth grade. In 1960, he graduated from Pittsburg High School as valedictorian. During that time he became an Eagle Scout, Governor of Kansas Boy's State, President of the Student Council, and Kansas State Debate championship team member twice. In 1959, Gary received a scholarship to Harvard and matriculated high school in 1960. In his junior year at Harvard he left to motorcycle in Europe, North Africa, and the Middle East before returning the following year. In 1964, he was deeply moved by the murders of Chaney, Goodman, and Schwerner in Philadelphia, Mississippi, and worked as a summer volunteer for the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in Jackson, Mississippi, under the direction of Charles Evers, brother of the slain Medgar Evers. In 1965, he graduated from Harvard. That same year he enlisted in the U.S. Army and entered U.S. Army Infantry Officer Candidate School. He was made a second lieutenant in 1966. He volunteered for the U.S. Army Special Forces (Green Berets), completed parachute training (Fort Benning, Georgia), and U.S. Army Special Warfare School (Fort Bragg, North Carolina), then served as a detachment executive officer in Okinawa and Vietnam, participating in top secret operations in Vietnam and Laos. He left Vietnam after the Tet Offensive of January 1968 and was discharged from the army in 1968 as a first lieutenant. Zukav returned to the U.S. in 1970 and moved to San Francisco, California. He recounts this period as an emotionally volatile time of sexual addiction, motorcycles, anger and drug-abuse. This continued until 1975 when his roommate, Jack Sarfatti, took him to visit the Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory where Zukav became intrigued by quantum physics. He began writing his first book, The Dancing Wu Li Masters, written with extensive help from Jack Sarfatti and other physicists he met through Sarfatti, as described in David Kaiser's book How the Hippies Saved Physics. He later described this book as his 'first gift to Life'. In 1987 he moved to Mount Shasta, California, where he lived in a cabin as a self-described 'secular monk' and spent time in the surrounding wilderness. In 1993 he met and later married Linda Francis. They co-founded the Seat of the Soul Institute in 1998 and moved to Ashland, Oregon, in 2000. Christopher Lehmann-Haupt reviewed The Dancing Wu Li Masters in The New York Times March 28, 1979. He called it 'a book that manages to explain relativity and a lot more without resorting to a single bit of mathematics (except for asking you to grasp the not-too-onerous concept that the velocity of light, a constant 186,000 miles per second, is a product of its frequency and wavelength). After all, Mr. Zukav writes, "The fact is that physics is not mathematics. Physics, in essence, is simple wonder at the way things are and a divine (some call it compulsive) interest in how that is so. Mathematics is the tool of physics, stripped of mathematics, physics becomes pure enchantment."' The review also acclaimed Zukav as 'one of those rare gifted teachers who makes you feel as if you're ahead of the lesson, jumping happily to conclusions he hasn't yet seen (though of course he has)...' Dancing Wu Li Masters was also reviewed by the scientific community. Robert H. March, Professor of Physics at the University of Wisconsin, wrote in Physics Today in August 1979, 'Dealing with general relativity [Zukav] manages to convey the profound mental shift required to reduce physics to geometry. This is a neat trick, considering that he addresses an audience familiar with neither physics nor non-Euclidian geometry.' Martin Gardner, mathematician and science writer for Scientific American, wrote: 'Zukav is such a skillful expositor, with such an amiable style, that it is hard to imagine a layman who would not find this book enjoyable and informative.' Quantum physicist David Bohm provided a personal endorsement: 'Recommended highly for those who want to understand the essential significance of modern physics, and for those who are concerned with its implications for possible transformation of human consciousness.' Zukav's next book, The Seat of the Soul, published in 1989, was a No. 1 New York Times Best Seller for 31 weeks and remained on the list for three years. In an interview by Jeffrey Mishlove for Thinking Allowed, Zukav described the book as designed to open the heart and explore human evolution from five-sensory beings pursuing external power to multi-sensory spiritual beings evolving through responsible choice and authentic power. In 1998 Zukav began an ongoing conversation with Oprah Winfrey, appearing on her television show 35 times—more than any other guest. Oprah stated: 'The Seat of the Soul is my favorite book of all time, except for the Bible.' His subsequent works include Soul Stories (2000), Thoughts from the Seat of the Soul: Meditations for Souls in Progress (2001), The Heart of the Soul: Emotional Awareness (2002), The Mind of the Soul: Responsible Choice (2003), Self-Empowerment Journal (2003, co-authored with Linda Francis), Soul to Soul: Communications from the Heart (2007), and Spiritual Partnership: The Journey to Authentic Power (2010). In 1999 Zukav and Linda Francis co-founded the Seat of the Soul Institute, which offers programs, retreats, lectures, and workshops to cultivate emotional awareness, responsible choice, intuition, trust, and spiritual partnerships. Zukav introduces the concept of the alignment of personality with soul as the creation of 'authentic power'. He asserts that humanity is undergoing a transformation from a five-sensory species evolving through the pursuit of 'external power' (the ability to manipulate and control) into a multi-sensory species evolving spiritually by creating authentic power. He argues that pursuing external power is now counter-productive and results in violence and destruction. According to Zukav, authentic power requires emotional awareness, responsible choice, intuition, and trust in a Universe described as 'alive, wise, and compassionate'. He defines intention as a fundamental creative act that infuses actions and determines consequences. Zukav distinguishes traditional 'Old Male' and 'Old Female' roles centered on survival from emerging 'New Male' and 'New Female' dynamics that unite in 'spiritual partnership'—defined as a partnership between equals for the purpose of spiritual growth. He posits the 'Universal Human' as the ultimate potential of multi-sensory humanity: an individual beyond nation, religion, race, sex, and economic status whose primary allegiance is to Life. • Universal Human: Creating Authentic Power and the New Consciousness (2021). Atria Books. ISBN 978-1982169879. • Spiritual Partnership (2010). New York: Harper One. ISBN 978-0-06-145850-7. • Soul to Soul (2007). ISBN 0-7432-3700-5. • Self-Empowerment Journal: A Companion to The Mind of the Soul: Responsible Choice (2003), co-author Linda Francis. ISBN 0-7432-5746-4. • The Mind of the Soul: Responsible Choice (2003), co-author Linda Francis. ISBN 0-7432-3698-X (New York Times best seller). • Thoughts from the Heart of the Soul: Meditations for Emotional Awareness (2002), co-author Linda Francis. ISBN 0-7432-3728-5. • The Heart of the Soul: Emotional Awareness (2002), co-author Linda Francis. ISBN 0-7432-3496-0 (New York Times best seller). • Thoughts from the Seat of the Soul (2001). ISBN 0-7432-2789-1. • Soul Stories (2000). ISBN 0-7432-0637-1. • The Seat of the Soul (1989). ISBN 0-671-25383-2 (Number 1 New York Times best seller for 31 weeks, on the list for nearly 3 years). • The Dancing Wu Li Masters: An Overview of the New Physics (1979). ISBN 0-553-26382-X (Winner of the American National Book Award for Science). • Una sedia per l'anima, edizioni Corbaccio, Milano, 1996. Over 6 million copies of Zukav's books are in print across 24 languages. • World Business Academy Pathfinder Award for Contribution to the Ongoing Evolution of Knowledge and Consciousness within the Global Business Community. • American Journal of Psychotherapy and Albert Einstein College of Medicine Einstein Award in Recognition of Outstanding Contributions to the Psychosocial Growth of Humanity. • St. Christopher Foundation Christopher Award for 'Lighting One Candle Instead of Cursing the Darkness'. • Award for Clear Telling of Deep Wisdom by the New York Open Center (2001) for The Seat of the Soul and co-founding Genesis: The Foundation for the Universal Human. • Named to Oprah's SuperSoul100 list of visionaries and influential leaders in 2016.