Magic is a Shift In Perception

It’s hard to imagine a writer interweaving this variety and number of subjects so organically and effectively: quantum physics, alchemy, choreography, feminism, capitalism, linguistics, Druids Eastern thought, biology, speciesism, fairies, God and love, all of which blend beautifully into a crafted whole that bursts with insight. The book is as much memoir as poetry, as much philosophy as either. Those of us who know and admire Sharon Gannon in any of her numerous incarnations – yoga master, vegan crusader, singer, dancer, poet, muse – know that when we pick up her latest book there will be penetrating reflections on the universe, mirrors held up to our follies, and valuable insights into navigating the human condition. This book elucidates the kind of wry journeyer wit that we find in concept albums such as The Band’s Big Pink, Dylan’s John Wesley Harding or the Beatles’s Sgt. Pepper. Sharon challenges readers to see themselves in her confrontations with the world, to move with her away from conditioned life, to breathe with her the clear air that fills the lungs of the jivan-muktas, spirits who are free even while still in physical form. This book tells of a journey that echoes classical spiritual transformation with a voice that is personal, revealing, and vulnerable.

MORE PRAISE FOR MAGIC IS A SHIFT IN PERCEPTION

AN ESSENTIAL MEMOIR FOR YOUR LIBRARY FROM THE CO-FOUNDER OF JIVAMUKTI YOGA

“This latest offering from Sharon Gannon is extraordinary. There’s echoes of James Joyce’s Portrait of an Artist, Kerouac’s On the Road, Hemmingway’s A Moveable Feast and Emily Dickinson’s playfulness. At the same time, it is really really fresh, in its mysticism and spirituality. It projects truth in a way regular memoirs do not. Nobody actually remembers how things happened without the filter of hindsight. Sharon has broken open the process by looking at the poems she wrote in real time, while life was happening, and describing the context in which they were written. If you liked Patti Smith’s Just Kids, you will find this book illuminates a similar region and time in New York City. It differs from Just Kids as it is written not from the point of view of someone exposing her development into and yearning for the life of an artist but from someone who was born an artist and yearned for truth.

The author, with her partner David Life, created a spiritual movement in the darkness of 1980’s AIDS and drug infested NYC. Building on the lineage of the Beat poets, troubadours, and artists who inhabited Greenwich Village before her, she merged art, eastern philosophy and a yearning for God and light in a way nobody had done before. She saw that the Phoenix could rise out of the ashes of the Lower East Side and grabbed its mythical tail-feathers, bringing thousands of seekers with her. This book finally reveals the history of the extraordinary being who was able to energize and mobilize those who search for what is eternal and uncovers, to our great delight, the process in which she discovered the potential for her own salvation, and, subsequently, ours.”  

FLOWER ARRANGEMENTS OF SOUND

“Sharon Gannon’s poetry comes alive and inspires in this magical book! From the moment I cracked open the book, it was clear this is no ordinary volume of poetry. Her opening essay “What is poetry?” beautifully posits “perhaps poetry is arranging flowers of sound”, and with that this combination memoir and poetic retrospective takes off, provoking personal insight as well as providing insight into this compelling multidisciplinary artist’s evolution. The context provided by the notes and stories around the poems really bring her words alive to resonate in ways that few poetic collections ever do. Highly recommended!”

A LIVING SPIRITUAL MEMOIR

“This is the book of never-ending readings. Sharon Gannon begins her memoir from early life as a teenager, and sets the tone in her own spiritual unfolding. First as a budding artist in Seattle’s artistic community, and the artistic mentors who influenced and inspired her to follow her heart in poetry, and avant garde performance art. Throughout the book, in every poem you sense the alchemical quickening, as the poet’s words move your mind, and thoughts through a process, that inevitably raises your own energy. Sharon’s poetry, takes you beyond the categories we experience in our everyday life, of our conditioned behavior. The poetry sets a new matrix, combining yoga philosophy, physics and science, and the poetic word, that elevate the reader into a completely new place of meditation. Through the words, breaking through the limits of logical thought, the reader comes out of the poetry, knowing something deeply and profoundly complex, and mystical. And, knowing that, it is that mystical part, that is inside of them too, and everyone else in this world. You have to read it to experience it. And I will be reading this book over and over again.”

About the author

Sharon Gannon

For over forty years, Sharon Gannon has been dedicated to changing the ways in which people view spirituality, life, themselves, one another, animals, and the environment. Along with David Life, she is the creator of the Jivamukti Yoga method, a path to enlightenment through compassion for all beings, which holds veganism as a core principle. Blessed by her teachers, Shri Brahmananda Sarasvati, Swami Nirmalananda, Sri K. Pattabhi Jois, Shyamdas, and Shri Milan Goswami, she is a pioneer in teaching yoga as spiritual activism. The Jivamukti method has been recognized as one of the nine forms of hatha yoga practiced in the world today. Gannon has authored many books and produced numerous yoga-related films and music albums. She resides in a wild forest sanctuary in upstate New York. For more information about the author, visit www. jivamuktiyoga.com and www.simplerecipesforjoy.com.