The German-born and Vancouver-residing 60-year-old "spiritual teacher" and author has captured the imaginations of a whole host of celebrities since the publication of his first book, The Power of Now, which has since been translated into 33 languages. When in June 2007 Paris Hilton walked into the Century Regional Detention Facility in California, where she served a short sentence for a driving offence, she was clutching one copy of the Bible and one copy of The Power of Now; the former X-Files actress Gillian Anderson chose The Power of Now as her other book (apart from the Bible) on Radio 4's Desert Island Discs and Jeff Goldblum, the actor and fully paid-up member of LA spiritualistic nonsense, is a fan.

"I think he's truly exceptional," says Annie Lennox, another devotee, who also chose The Power of Now as her Desert Island Book. "But in saying that it's almost like I'm putting some kind of label on him, which could be misleading. Perhaps what I should say is that there are many people claiming to be teachers, coaches, guides and gurus, but he has some kind of special quality that I've never encountered before."

But Tolle's most influential celebrity supporter is Oprah Winfrey, whose endorsement of his latest book, A New Earth, on her book club, shifted copies faster than any other of her previous 60 book picks; 3.5 million copies were shipped from Amazon in the month after Tolle was selected.

It now tops bestseller lists across America with The Power of Now not far behind. In The New York Times, A New Earth is at number one in the mega-selling "Advice, How-To and Miscellaneous" section; The Power of Now is at number two.

But Oprah went further with Eckhart Tolle than she has ever gone with a previous author picked for her book club. She chose to present, with Tolle, a 10-week series of "webinars" online seminars with one chapter of the book (which she puts on the bedside table of all of her guest rooms) discussed each week. In the first webinar, transmitted on 3 March, Tolle led Winfrey and the millions of viewers who logged on in several different countries in silent meditation; viewers were then encouraged to submit questions to Tolle via Skype. By the third week, 11 million people were logging on.

"My favourite quote is in the first chapter," says Winfrey during one of these webinars. "Man made God in his own image. The eternal, the infinite and the unnameable reduced to a mental idol that you had to believe in and worship as my God or your God."

Confused? Most of Christian America seems to be. On an episode of her chat show, Oprah mused that Jesus "cannot possibly be the only way to God". Accusations immediately flew that Winfrey, who grew up a member of the Baptist Church, had rejected Jesus in favour of the New Age "hocus-pocus" of Eckhart Tolle.

"So sad, so tragic," complained jesus-is-saviour.com. "Oprah has in effect denied the teachings of the Bible and of Jesus Christ by asking her viewing audience, 'How can there be only one way to heaven or to God?'" reflected christiannewswire.com.

Tolle's theories are certainly seen by many as profoundly non-Christian, even though Tolle often quotes from the Bible. His idea is that our true selves are the formless Consciousness, which is Being, which is God. We are all One, and thus we are all God.

Strong stuff. But it all begs the question: just who is Eckhart Tolle? And what, exactly, is he up to?

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