Arleen Lorrance, an octogenarian resident at Westminster Village in Scottsdale, Arizona, originated the popular phrase “Be the change you want to see happen” in the early 1970s following a spiritual experience near Esalen. The slogan, long misattributed to Mahatma Gandhi, emerged from her epiphany at a Brooklyn high school. Lorrance shared details of her transformative moment and the Love Project she launched.
Arleen Lorrance created the phrase after a profound spiritual encounter while admiring a flower near Esalen, the Big Sur retreat center. “I was the flower and the flower was me,” she recounted, describing a sense of oneness that ended her desires for acting and sex. Returning to Thomas Jefferson High School in Brooklyn, a ray of light prompted her realization to focus on self-change rather than altering others, leading to the slogan: “Be the change you want to see happen, instead of trying to change anyone else.” This became the first of six Love Principles in her school program, the Love Project, which involved teachers and students promoting unconditional love through acts like baking cookies and distributing books. The principal described it as “a kind of human relations club” that improved students, while a superintendent praised its impact after initially doubting it. Lorrance lives at Westminster Village retirement community with life partner Diane Kennedy Pike, widow of Episcopal bishop James Pike. She has authored books including The Love Principles, Buddha from Brooklyn, and Sam Jaffe. The phrase spread widely in self-help, politics—from Barack Obama and Al Gore to Republicans invoking it during Donald Trump's campaigns—and organizations like Be the Change Today Foundation. Though Gandhi expressed a similar idea in 1913, researchers credit Lorrance. The slogan's endurance spans activism, personal growth, and brands, yet Lorrance leads a private life, occasionally correcting strangers wearing Be the Change merchandise.