Customer Reviews

Return to the Garden

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Shakti Gawain was one of the first personal growth authors I ever got into and remains to this day one of my favorites. Metaphysically, she was a pioneer and a revolutionary, introducing many of the concepts that are common knolwedge to people on a mataphysical path today: we create our own reality, the art of visualization and the mirror principle in relationships just to name a few. At the time I read all her books and listened to all of her tapes. I learned so much from this woman and learned to really cherish her as a teacher and person. In this light, you can imagine how pleased I was when this book came out: her autobiography. What a priviledge to take a peak into the life of such an influential teacher.

Her bio is very candid: she reveals the good and the ugly of her own personal journey. But it is also inspiring as well as fascinating as we get to take a look at the human potential movement through the sixties and seventies, with all the experimenting that was going on at the time.

Overall this book is a great read, especially for people that are into Shakti's other work, but I think possibly even for people that have never encountered her material before. The woman has had quite a fascinating and eventful life, making this book very interesting indeed.

Shakti Gawain's intensity of feeling and commitment to truth made me feel as if I'd known her all my life. We were drawn to the same workshops and books and I identified with her experiences both as a child and as an adult.
"Return to the Garden" is packed with practical advice and wisdom. I particularly enjoyed Gawain's insight about our need to make a commitment to our own healing and to the healing of the planet.
The sharing of her life story enables us to learn about different paths and techniques to self healing-discovering our shadow parts and our disowned energies and how to deal with the Earth's light and dark forces.
Gowain is able to explain complex psychological concepts in simple terms- issues such as projection, transference, counter transference, subpersonalities, aware ego, and the difference between consciousness and spirituality.
Gowain's description of channeling a universal power is both validating and helpful.

I have almost finished this book and have really enjoyed it. I am a bit disappointed with the quality of the writing, its pretty basic, but the content is very interesting. Shakti Gawain has led a very rich life, one that I relate to in many ways. She has participated in all kinds of spiritual/conciousness-raising practices and discusses many of them here. Her extensive trvaels are fun to read about, too. If you have read any of her other books and are curious about her personal experiences, read this.

in which best-selling author Shakti Gawain depicts her journey from California to India to her home on the 'Garden Island' of Kauai in Hawaii, where she owns a lovely house near a gorgeous nudist beach in the north-west (I visited the beach, not the house as I respect the author's privacy, the beach was stunning). The author of 'Creative Visualization' and 'Living in the Light,' by sharing the minutiae of her life through her conscious writing and teaching, she shows us how it is possible to make our fantasies reality. And why should we not want to do that?

One thing she had been missing through all her success, is a relationship that works. Through this book she finds that too.

What is perhaps most valuable is not what we 'have' but what we 'create' as depicted by the dancing form of her name, the female equivalent of Shiva, the God who dances. By focusing on this, rather than her final form, Kali, Shakti Gawain show us that we all have the capability of being creators. One thing I have also learned since reading the book, is the question is not as I was told, 'will we find a relationship, get married, live happily ever after?' But are we authentic? Are we true to ourselves? Do we live and love and make love to the very best of our being? When we live this reality we do not seek a relationship, we BECOME the relationship, and if we create one great, and if it finishes great, we will continue to dance and create exactly as we are meant to. We do not need to know or control the outcome, the richness of life is in the experience, is in the meaning we find and all we need to do is our best, and we will get to a place that is rich even beyond our previous fantasies. All we need is the courage to start, as i write in my book on following your intuition. Travelling Magically: How to Turn Your Journey into a Life-Changing Experience