Shakti Gawain (30 September 1948 – 11 November 2018)[1] was an American
New Age and
personal development writer.[2] Her books have sold over 10 million copies.[3]
Early life and education
Born Carol Louisa Gawain, she graduated from the
University of California with a degree in fine arts and dance in the mid 1970s.[4]
Career
Gawain is best known for her book Creative Visualization: Use the Power of Your Imagination to Create What You Want in Life (1978).[5] The book focuses primarily on making changes to
visualmental imagery, and attributes to it the capacity for hindering or facilitating an individual's
potential, citing
vividanecdotalstories drawn from her experience and that of others to support her thesis.[6]
The first line of the book reads "Creative Visualization is the technique of creating what you want in your life". The following paragraphs define
imagination as the "creative energy of the universe", and introduces the book as a means by which to use the so-defined imagination to "create what you truly want — love, fulfillment, enjoyment, satisfying relationships, rewarding work, self-expression, health, beauty, prosperity, inner peace, and harmony."[6]
The book has been a bestseller for nearly 40 years.[7] Subsequent to the popularity of the book, the practice of creative visualization, remained a staple and stable feature within the
New Age movement,
self-help media, and
popular psychology of the 1980s, 1990s, and first decade of the 21st century.[8]
New World Library
Gawain was the co-founder, with Marc Allen, of New World Library Publishing Company, and founder of Nataraj Publishing, a division of New World Library.[1]
^
abGawain, Shakti (2008). Creative Visualization: Use the Power of Your Imagination to Create what You Want in Your Life.
Nataraj Publishing.
ISBN978-1577316367.
^Rindfleish, J. (2005). "Consuming the self: New Age spirituality as 'social product' in consumer society". Consumption, Markets and Culture. 8 (4): 343–360.
doi:
10.1080/10253860500241930.
S2CID144285623.