Benjamin W. Decker
Author, Meditation Teacher & Humanitarian
Illuminating the universal principles of compassion, balance, and awakening through the world’s wisdom traditions.
Benjamin W. Decker is an author, spiritual teacher, ordained interfaith minister, energy healer, and humanitarian whose work explores how spiritual practice can deepen our understanding of ourselves and our responsibility to one another.
He is the author of Practical Meditation for Beginners, Daily Mindfulness, Modern Spirituality, and Meditations on Christ, and co-author of the Modern Mythology oracle card deck. He hosts The Modern Spirituality Show.
Benjamin has led retreats in New York, California, Colorado, Bali, Costa Rica, and Egypt. His teaching brings together meditation, spiritual philosophy, energy work, and practical approaches to living with greater awareness, compassion, and purpose.
Drawing on a lifelong engagement with the world’s wisdom traditions, he invites people to explore their spiritual lives through direct experience, thoughtful inquiry, and everyday practice.
A descendant of Mormon pioneer families, Benjamin was raised in a spiritually devoted household within the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and completed its four-year religious seminary program. This early grounding in scripture, spiritual discipline, and community became the starting point for an enduring exploration of faith, consciousness, and the sacred across traditions.
He has since left the LDS tradition, and is now a practitioner within the Gelug tradition of Tibetan Buddhism, as such Benjamin has received teachings from His Holiness the Dalai Lama, the late Thich Nhat Hahn, and the late Lama Zopa Rinpoche.
His background includes a decade of sustained study in esoteric psychology, spiritual philosophy, and ceremonial magic; study with the Theosophical Society; and participation in more than 300 plant medicine ceremonies across multiple indigenous traditions. These contemplative and ceremonial experiences inform his exploration of spiritual transformation and the ongoing work of integrating insight into everyday life.
He served as center director at Rythmia Life Advancement Center in Costa Rica and as spiritual director of Full Circle Venice. He has taught at Los Angeles meditation communities including Unplug Meditation, The DEN Meditation, and Wanderlust Hollywood. A clairvoyant, intuitive, medium, and tarot reader, Benjamin previously offered clairvoyant and tarot readings at Mystic Journey in Venice. His ministry encompasses officiating weddings, handfasting rituals, baptisms, baby blessings, memorials, and funerals, accompanying individuals and families through celebration, transition, and loss.
His humanitarian leadership includes serving as a director at the anti-human-trafficking organization Unlikely Heroes and at Generosity Water, later known as Generosity.org. In 2012, he received the Unlikely Heroes Legacy Award. His humanitarian work has also included support for Children of the Night, the American Red Cross, the Thirst Project, and the Susan G. Komen Foundation. These experiences inform his conviction that spiritual life finds expression in service, human dignity, and our care for one another.
Through his books, conversations, private sessions, and retreats, Benjamin explores interfaith spirituality, meditation, yoga, pranayama, breathwork, chanting, mantra, and energy healing, including tai chi and Shamanic Reiki. His approach welcomes both committed practitioners and those beginning to ask deeper questions, offering space to develop a meaningful personal practice and bring its insights into daily life.
Practical Meditation for Beginners by Benjamin W. Decker is available in 30+ languages all over the world!
Praise for Benjamin W. Decker
“Many will one day remember Ben Decker as having put their feet on a most joyous path.”
Marianne Williamson, 2020 Presidential Candidate, Author, Activist, Lecturer, Co-Founder of Project Angel Food & The Peace Alliance
“Ben’s expert voice is friendly, as though you’re receiving advice from your neighbor over green tea. But this is definitely expert advice. Ben Decker demonstrates his sincere study and the expertise he has honed as a teacher at places including Unplug Meditation, The DEN Meditation, Mystic Journey, Wanderlust, and more."
Felicia Tomasko, Editor in Chief,
LA Yoga Magazine
“Ben Decker has captured the essence of what you need to get started on your mindfulness practice journey.”
Sharon Salzberg, Co-Founder of Insight Meditation Society, New York Times Bestselling Author, Mindfulness Teacher
