Early Life and Education
Born Ulrich Leonard Tolle in Lünen, Germany in 1948, Tolle describes his childhood as unhappy, particularly his early childhood in Germany. There, his parents fought and eventually separated, and he felt alienated from a hostile school environment. While playing in buildings destroyed by Allied bombs during World War Two, Tolle felt depressed by his experience of "pain in the energy field of the country". At the age of 13, he moved to Spain to live with his father. Tolle's father did not insist that his son attend high school, and so Tolle elected to study literature, astronomy and language at home.
At the age of fifteen Tolle read several books written by the German mystic Joseph Anton Schneiderfranken, also known as Bô Yin Râ. Tolle has said he responded "very deeply" to those books.
At the age of 19, Tolle moved to England and for three years taught German and Spanish at a London school for language studies. Troubled by "depression, anxiety and fear", he began "searching for answers" in his life. At age 22 or so he decided to pursue this search by studying philosophy, psychology, and literature, and enrolled in the University of London. After graduating he was offered a scholarship to do research at Cambridge University as a postgraduate student and was admitted there in 1977.
Read more about this topic: Eckhart Tolle
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