Marilyn Ferguson

American author, editor, and public speaker

Marilyn Ferguson (April 5, 1938, in Grand Junction, Colorado – October 19, 2008) was an American author, editor and public speaker known for her 1980 book The Aquarian Conspiracy, which is connected with the New Age Movement. Ferguson published and edited the well regarded science newsletter Brain/Mind Bulletin from 1975 to 1996. She eventually earned several honorary degrees, served on the board of directors of the Institute of Noetic Sciences, and befriended such diverse figures of influence as inventor and theorist Buckminster Fuller, spiritual author Ram Dass, Nobel Prize winning chemist Ilya Prigogine and billionaire Ted Turner. Ferguson's work also influenced Vice President Al Gore, who participated in her informal network while a senator, and later met with her in the White House. The book was eventually translated into some 16 foreign languages, and Ferguson became a sought after speaker across North America and around the world, eventually traveling as far as Brazil, Sweden and India to convey her hopeful message. In 1985 she was featured as a keynote speaker at the United Nations sponsored "Spirit of Peace" conference, where she appeared along with Mother Teresa and the Dalai Lama of Tibet.

Such validation did not come without a price. Ferguson was attacked in some quarters for excessive optimism. Others alleged that her "new" ideas were merely a repackaging of old notions of positive thinking, and some saw the "New Age" (a term Ferguson herself seldom used) as merely extending the self absorption that had marked much of the 1970s. Most persistently, some religious groups contended that the "conspiracy" was an attempt to subvert Christian views. This view, most notably expressed by author Constance Cumbey in her 1983 book The Hidden Dangers of the Rainbow, was restated as recently as 2007, when one online essayist wrote that the Christian church "rightly discerned the New Age movement, as outlined in Ferguson’s book, to be demonically inspired in anticipation of the ultimate unveiling of . the antichrist." It was inaccurately alleged that Ferguson, herself raised and confirmed a Lutheran, had written the book at the behest of the Stanford Research Institute with the goal of overtaking western culture with Eastern mysticism.

Indirectly supporting both Ferguson and her critics, the New Age movement, as popularly understood, did thrive in the 1980s and into the 1990s, though this was partially through such pop cultural manifestations as the autobiographical works of actress Shirley MacLaine and the "Harmonic Convergence" festival of 1987. While the period was marked by undeniable evolution in the fields of politics, education and medicine, many other ideas and practices were transitory. Through it all Ferguson remained an optimist, albeit one who did not ignore the depth of society's chronic problems. Commenting in advance of the 1988 presidential election, she noted that "there is no panacea for our social maladies" – but there remained the power of belief. "Our ‘foolish illusion’ that we can effect change fosters in us the capacity to act – and therefore to bring about change." ("The Great Depression . The Great Schizophrenia," Brain/Mind Bulletin, October 1988.) In 1987 The Aquarian Conspiracy was reissued, featuring a new introduction by another of her allies, futurist author John Naisbitt (Megatrends). While slowly developing a follow up work, Ferguson returned her primary focus to reporting on scientific research in Brain Mind Bulletin. There she continued to explore the links between body and mind and new theoretical models in neuroscience, physics, psychology, education and health until the newsletter ceased publication in 1996.

The long planned Aquarius Now, after near publication in several previous forms, appeared in 2005. The book, published by Red Wheel/Weiser, was well received, though less commercially successful. Following its release Ferguson continued to develop projects, share ideas and advise other authors. In 2007 she moved to Banning, California, near her son and his family.

Ferguson died unexpectedly of an apparent heart attack on October 19, 2008. The Los Angeles Times described her as a "galvanizing influence," and quoted her U. S. publisher, Jeremy P. Tarcher, who described his own personal epiphany when he first met with Ferguson and recognized the potential of the information she had collected. The New York Times called The Aquarian Conspiracy "the Bible of the New Age," and mused that the once radical ideas of her "benign conspiracy" may now seem commonplace. Offering a tribute on the website beliefnet. com (also on The Huffington Posts website), author Deepak Chopra described Ferguson as "a one woman movement for hope." He recalled being a young doctor who was studying meditation when he came across The Aquarian Conspiracy in the early 1980s, and realized the book had instantly unified a movement that otherwise seemed to be resigned to the fringes. At her death, Chopra wrote, Ferguson could rest in the knowledge that "a watershed had been crossed," and that her "leaderless revolution" had steadily gained force around the world in the generation since the book was written. The Aquarian Conspiracy was re issued in a "Tarcher Cornerstone" edition in August 2009, featuring a new introduction by Jeremy Tarcher. In October 2009, Ferguson received a posthumous Distinguished Alumna award from Mesa State College. Divorced in 1978, Ferguson was subsequently married to Ray Gottlieb from 1983 to 1991. She retained the last name of her first husband who remains unnamed, with whom she had three children: Eric Ferguson (born 1964), Kristin Ferguson Smith (born 1967) and Lynn Ferguson Lewis (born 1969).