William Donius

William Donius, known to most people as Bill, spent the larger part of his working life in banking in St. Louis, rising to chief executive. About twenty-five years ago, busy and outwardly successful but feeling stuck, he came across the practice of writing questions with the dominant hand and answering them with the other, a method meant to give the quieter, intuitive side of the mind a voice. He went on to use it in his own life and then with his staff, and he credits it with changing how he led and how he understood himself.

He set out the approach in Thought Revolution, a New York Times best seller first published in 2012 and reissued with new material by Simon & Schuster two years later. Through his Right Brain Institute he runs ideation sessions and talks for companies, and since 2021 he has led weekend workshops at Esalen in Big Sur on intuition and creative insight. His current Esalen programme pairs the handwriting exercises with guidance from the medium Lori Sheridan on inner knowing and spirit guides. His teaching is practical and conversational: a short grounding in the brain research he draws on, then plenty of writing, drawing and group sharing.