Figure timeline
Alan Wilson Watts was a British and American writer, speaker, and self-styled "philosophical entertainer", known for interpreting and popularising Buddhist, Taoist, and Hindu philosophy for a Western audience.
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
culture · British and American writer and lecturer (1915–1973) · philosopher · theologian · writer · Anglican priest · dramaturge · musician · videographer · religious studies scholar · opinion journalist · also Alan Watts, Alan Wilson Watts, Watts
Born 6 January 1915 · Died 16 November 1973 · Q354867
41 published statements · 0 followers
See & hear
3 photos
Media from Wikimedia Commons, hotlinked at the source under its own licence — see each file for author and terms.
Live now
Pulling headlines from trusted outlets — this usually takes a few seconds
Checking the wires…
Feed scan
These are live links, not archived citations — they only join the timeline once a collect run verifies and archives them.
Live pulse
Most recent outstanding titles, awards, and quotes
I realized that the difference that I saw between things was the same thing as their unity, because differences (borders, lines, surfaces, boundaries) don't really divide things from each other at all, they join them together, because all boundaries are held in common
He pointed me toward what I now call the distinction between Self and Mind. After my encounter with Alan, the context in which I was working shifted.
76%WikipediaSource
“I realized that the difference that I saw between things was the same thing as their unity, because differences (borders, lines, surfaces, boundaries) don't really divide things from each other at all, they join them together, because all boundaries are held in common”
“He pointed me toward what I now call the distinction between Self and Mind. After my encounter with Alan, the context in which I was working shifted.”
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
“The secret of life is knowing when to stop”
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
WWD: Naomi Watts, Jane Krakowski, Katie Holmes and More Celebrate Michael Kors in the Hamptons
WWD: Katie Holmes, Naomi Watts, Christie Brinkley and More Celebrate the Michael Kors Pop-Up at Swifty’s at The Hedges
instyle.com: Naomi Watts Wore Fall 2026’s Most Divisive Shoe in the Chicest Way—Nicole Kidman Is a Fan, Too
The Guardian: ‘The bed you thought was safe, isn’t safe’: how Zoe Watts survived drug-facilitated rape – and fought back
Public attention spiked: 5,296 Wikipedia readers in one day, 3.4× the usual 1,570, with 0 article edits.
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Released ep “The Wolf”.
Released album “The Profound Words Of Alan Watts”.
A collaboration with the Alan Watts Organization featuring clips from Watts' lectures "World as Play" and "Pursuit of Pleasure"
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Released album “Wattswave II: How to Be a Better Person”.
Released album “Wattswave VI: The Web of Life 2”.
Released album “Wattswave V: The Web of Life”.
Released album “Wattswave IV: Dreams”.
Released album “Face the Facts: Words by Alan Watts”.
“The Syntax of Sorcery: An Interview with Tom Robbins”
Released album “Dhyana, the Art of Meditation, Volume 2”.
Released album “Dhyana, the Art of Meditation, Volume 1”.
Died 1973-11-16.
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
“Trying to define yourself is like trying to bite your own teeth.”
Watts's lectures were broadcast on Sunday mornings on San Francisco radio station KSAN; and even today a number of radio stations continue to have an Alan Watts program in their weekly program schedules
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Watts responded, as he had from the early sixties, that he was not an academic philosopher but rather "a philosophical entertainer
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Released album “Why Not Now (Dhyana—The Art of Meditation)”.
Released album “Om: The Sound of Hinduism”.
Released album “This Is IT”.
Released album “Zen & Senryu”.
Watts toured parts of Europe with his father, meeting the Swiss psychiatrist Carl Jung and the German psychotherapist Karlfried Graf Dürckheim
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
With various research teams led by Keith S
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
“To be free from convention is not to spurn it but not to be deceived by it. It is to be able to use it as an instrument instead of being used by it.”
Watts, then 42, published one of his best-known books, The Way of Zen, which focused on philosophical explication and history
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Began what became a long-running weekly radio program at Pacifica Radio station KPFA in Berkeley
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
“she was granted an annulment, something that would have been difficult for his parents to understand.”
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Watts married Dorothy DeWitt (1921–2020)
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
In 1950, Watts married Dorothy DeWitt (1921–2020).
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
But Watts continued to correspond with his former mother-in-law
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Their marriage ended in 1949, but Watts continued to correspond with his former mother-in-law.
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Left England to live in the United States
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
When her mother, Ruth Fuller Everett, brought her to London to study piano
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Aged 21, he attended the World Congress of Faiths at the University of London, where he met the scholar of Zen Buddhism, D
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Born 1915-01-06.
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Connections