Andrew Cohen, Founder of Manifest Nirvana
Andrew Cohen (23rd October 1955 – 25 March 2025) was one of the most influential spiritual teachers of recent times. An author, cultural visionary, and inspirational speaker, his work has been acclaimed by luminaries worldwide, including academics, philosophers, and teachers of all faiths and none.
From 1991 to 2010, Cohen served as the editor-in-chief of the award-winning EnlightenNext (formerly What Is Enlightenment?) magazine, a widely cherished publication that explored the deepest existential questions of our era, featuring dialogues with some of the world’s leading thinkers.
Throughout his life, Cohen engaged thousands of spiritual seekers and adepts globally. His teachings and talks touched people from diverse backgrounds, and his approach continually evolved through direct dialogue with students, fellow spiritual teachers, scholars, and philosophers.
You can read his Obituary here.
About Andrew's work
Andrew became known for his willingness to boldly cast aside the sacred cows of the spiritual world. His work grappled with demystifying the wealth of knowledge found in the great wisdom traditions and with making enlightenment deeply relevant to a post-modern audience.
In his almost four decades of teaching and lecturing, he developed a unique and powerful vision for a truly contemporary spirituality, integrating evolutionary theory and developmental practice with the timeless wisdom of the perennial philosophy. Departing radically from a traditional Eastern approach to enlightenment, Andrew called not for transcendence of the world, but for a deep and heroic responsibility for its evolution.
Uniquely in the field, Andrew reached out far beyond the normal confines of the spiritual world, engaging audiences from a diverse range of work and life circumstances. He saw the transformation of culture as critical to shaping a new and positive future for human beings in the 21st century and beyond.
Evolutionary Enlightenment: A New Path to Spiritual Awakening
Praise for Evolutionary Enlightenment
“Andrew Cohen maps out a path to be the change we not only should want to see in the world but that we objectively and urgently need in the world. Whether we take his path or look to another, we should read what he has to say, for it is based on deep personal experience that has proven meaningful for thousands and thousands.”
— Ervin Laszlo, author of Science and the Reenchantment of the Cosmos
“If the fourteen-billion-year cosmic experiment that resulted in our lives is not to end in the next few centuries, it will require brave and brilliant steps in our spiritual evolution. With instruction at once tough and tender, Andrew Cohen gives us the inspiration and the means to accomplish the greatest of all endeavors for the human spirit. This is a spiritual masterpiece."
— Jean Houston, PhD, author of A Mythic Life
EnlightenNext Magazine
EnlightenNext
THE MAGAZINE FOR EVOLUTIONARIES
Between 1992 and 2011, Andrew Cohen and the EnlightenNext community published what became internationally acknowledged as the leading spiritual periodical of the time.
The award-winning EnlightenNext (formerly What is Enlightenment?) magazine explored and defined a new approach to spirituality in the 21st century. Over nearly two decades of dialogue and enquiry with some of the world’s greatest thought leaders, EnlightenNext redefined spirituality for a whole generation of seekers.
The entire back catalogue of these groundbreaking publications is available free of charge on Andrew Cohen’s website.