Michael B. Beckwith

Michael B. Beckwith is a New Thought minister and meditation teacher who started the Agape International Spiritual Center as a small vision group in 1986; it has since grown into a large community based in Los Angeles. Agape calls itself trans-denominational and draws on New Thought alongside the wider wisdom traditions; its Sunday gatherings, held in a Los Angeles theatre and streamed around the world, bring together meditation, affirmative prayer, music and a talk. Known to his congregation simply as Rev, Beckwith dates his own path to an inner awakening in his early twenties, after which he gave himself to meditation, prayer and the study of metaphysical writing.

The heart of his teaching is Life Visioning, a guided inquiry in which students sit in stillness and ask what is trying to unfold through their lives, instead of setting goals by willpower alone. He has written about it in Life Visioning, Spiritual Liberation, The Answer Is You and 40 Day Mind Fast Soul Feast. He hosts the weekly Take Back Your Mind podcast, posts short guided meditations on YouTube, teaches courses on Commune and through Agape University, and leads a New Year meditation retreat. He was a featured teacher in the 2006 film The Secret and was named to Oprah Winfrey's SuperSoul 100 in 2016.