Biography

RALPH WHITE

Pioneer of Holistic Learning, Author,
Speaker on Cultural, Personal and Social Transformation, Conference Director

Ralph White is the prisdent of the freshly launched New Center for Holistic Learning NY. He is also the author of the memoir, The Jeweled Highway: On the Quest for a Life of Meaning. He was co-creator of the New York Open Center, America’s leading urban institution of holistic learning from 1984 to 2022, where his vision and values guided the programs for over thiry years. The New Center NY, just like the Open Center before it, will present leading writers and speakers in the fields of wellness, social/ecological change, inner development, world spiritual traditions, art and creativity.

He has presented internationally on such topics as contemporary spirituality, cultural transformation, and the history of the Western Tradition. He was editor of Lapis magazine, Winner of the Alternative Press Award 2000 from Utne Reader, and taught the first fully accredited course in holistic learning at New York University. For many years he wrote the Open Center catalogue. He also edited and introduced The Rosicrucian Enlightenment Revisited, contributed to What Does It Mean to Be Human, edited by Frederick Franck, and wrote the foreword to The Way of the Wanderer by David Yeadon. His story “A Walk on the Wild Side of Tibet” was published in Tibet: True Stories (Travelers’ Tales 2003). He has also written commentary on the political goals of the Religious Far Right for the Huffington Post, and contributed articles on topics such as alternative community, the national network of holistic centers, the movement for legal renewal, and the philosopher Rudolf Steiner for Dragonfly Media, a network of magazines reaching an audience of 250,000.

He was born in Wales and spent his childhood there and his teenage years in the north of England. After completing a degree in American Studies at the University of Sussex, he came to the United States from Britain in 1970 as a Fulbright scholar. He was program director of Omega Institute for Holistic Studies in Rhinebeck in the early Eighties. He has taught and lectured in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Russia, Poland, Croatia and China. He has also organized many major national and international conferences on a broad range of spiritual and alternative themes, and is considered by those in the field of holistic learning one of the most knowledgeable people in America.

The national and international conferences he has both organized and directed include The Art of Dying 1 to 6, Reimagining Politics and Society at the Millennium, Examining the Real Agenda of the Religious Far Right, Voluntary Simplicity, and Psyche, Spirit and Addiction. He also worked with the International Forum on Globalization to co-create major teach-ins in New York on Technology and Globalization, Indigenous Peoples’ Resistance to Corporate Globalization, and Techno-Utopianism and the Fate of the Earth.

For almost thirty years, he has directed a series of conferences on the Western Tradition known as Esoteric Quests. These include The Rosicrucian Enlightenment Revisited; Prague, Alchemy and the Hermetic Tradition; The Italian Renaissance and the Esoteric Traditions; The Grail and Arthurian Traditions; The Golden Age of Andalusia, Sufis, Kabbalists and Christian Philosophers in Medieval Spain; Ancient Alexandria: Greco-Egyptian Birthplace of the Western Mind; The Mysteries and Philosophy of Greek Antiquity two Esoteric Quests on the Mysteries of the North in Iceland and in the Outer Hebrides of Scotland on the Isle of Lewis; and most recently a Quest in Bulgaria, Crossroads of the Mysteries, in 2019. The series of international Esoteric Quests are widely considered to be among the leading events in the world on the Western Mystical and Esoteric Traditions.

He has made numerous appearances on radio and television, both in the United States and internationally. These include National Public Radio, the BBC World Service, Voice of America, CBS Nightwatch, RAI TV Italy, a broad variety of New York television and radio stations, Greek and Russian television, Polish and Czech radio, and now Chinese internet media. The many centers at which he has taught and spoken include: Hollyhock in British Columbia, Esalen Institute in Big Sur, Findhorn Eco-Village in Scotland, and Sivananda Retreat in the Bahamas. Most recently he lectured at Tsinghua University in Beijing. He was featured in a prominent article in the Los Angeles Times, and been quoted in The New York Times, Time magazine, the New York Daily News, the New York Observer, and many other more holistically oriented publications.

When Lapis magazine won the Alternative Press Award it was cited for its “blending of the modern western mind with an ancient sense of soul” at the heart of Lapis’ editorial alchemy. He received a personal note from the editor of Utne Reader informing him that of all the magazines in Utne’s library, Lapis was his favorite and the one he was most likely to remove for his own private reading.

Ralph hosted a program on WBAI FM radio in New York City for seven years where he interviewed many of the major figures in the holistic world and numerous scholars in the fields of multicultural mysticism and ecology. He is a popular speaker on a wide variety of holistic themes including the Western tradition, the process of transformation to a more holistic and ecological world, the wisdom of the philosopher and reformer Rudolf Steiner, and the overall direction of the consciousness movement. He is recognized as the founder of the annual Holistic Centers’Gathering, which has evolved into the Holistic Centers’ Network and which has drawn leaders from many of the major holistic institutions throughout the world to discuss trends, developments, challenges and successes in the worldwide holistic movement.

He is also a Findhorn Fellow. He advises and consults with emerging centers and holistic initiatives on both a national and international level.

Ralph is delighted to be launching in the fall of 2024, with accomplished colleagues, the New Center NY to continue the essential work of bringing the gifts of holistic learning to the world’s most influential city.

The following websites have more information about Ralphs' work:

newcenterny,org

esotericquest.org

artofdying.org

centersgathering.org

He has been interviewed in Reality Sandwich.

He was featured in a major article in the Los Angeles Times, which can be found here.

He is also the subject of an interview in the magazine Brave New Traveler here.

The multimedia section of this site contains a number of video and radio interviews with Ralph about his life and work.

Audio and Video featuring Ralph White

Co-creator, Program and Conference Director, New York Open Center 1984 to 2022

Program Director: Omega Institute for Holistic Studies. 1981-1983

Author

The Jeweled Highway: On the Quest for a Life of Meaning.

A Walk on the Wild Side of Tibet in Tibet: True Stories

Preface: The Way of the Wanderer

Teacher/speaker

New York University, Gallatin School
Esalen Institute in Big Sur
Hollyhock in British Columbia
Findhorn Eco-Village in Scotland
Sivananda Retreat in the Bahamas
Kalani Honua in Hawaii
Tsinghua University in Beijing.

Conference and Workshop Leader/organizer

Esoteric Quests; Rediscovering the Western Tradition
The Art of Dying Conference 1-6: Spiritual, Scientific and Practical Approaches to Living and Dying
Reimagining Politics and Society at the Millennium
Examining the Real Agenda of the Religious Far Right
Prague, Alchemy and the Hermetic Tradition
The Italian Renaissance and the Esoteric Traditions
Psyche, Spirit and Addiction
Voluntary Simplicity
The Grail and Arthurian Traditions
The Golden Age of Andalusia
Ancient Alexandria
Greco-Egyptian Birthplace of the Western Mind
The Mysteries and Philosophy of Greek Antiquity
An Esoteric Quest for the Mysteries of the North in Iceland.