Kingston Whig-Standard (Ontario)



Kingston Whig-Standard (Ontario)

January 31, 2009 Saturday

Final Edition

Is the next spiritual superstar a Canadian?; Jonathan Ellerby releases new book, Return to the Sacred;

BYLINE: CAROLIN VESELY, THE CANADIAN PRESS;

SECTION: RELIGION; Pg. H11

LENGTH: 409 words

DATELINE: WINNIPEG

Given the success of her recent collaboration with Eckhart Tolle, Oprah Winfrey might be interested in another Canadian who's trying to help the masses awaken spiritually.

Jonathan Ellerby's resume certainly includes a few of the talk show host's favourite metaphysical things:

Spontaneous spiritual awakening? Check.

Manifested the woman of his dreams (literally)? Check.

Landed a major book deal with Hay House, the mind/body/spirit publishing empire founded by New Age queen Louise (You Can Heal Your Life) Hay? Check, check and cheque.

OK, it's probably a bit crass to ask a spiritual teacher if he hit the jackpot, but we are talking about a 35-year-old first-time author joining a roster of self-help titans like Wayne Dyer, Deepak Chopra and Suze Orman at a company that in 2007 took in $100 million from the sale of 6.3 million products.

"If what you're trying to say is that he landed a big deal with Hay House, as opposed to 'They brought him in the back door,' you can absolutely say he landed a big deal,'' Winnipeg native Ellerby said over the phone from Tucson, Ariz., where he works as spiritual programs director for Canyon Ranch.

(The $1,000-a-night holistic health resort attracts an elite clientele, including Oprah and fellow single-monikered celebs Sting and Madonna.)

But what he considers the really big deal is the Winnipeg launch of Return to the Sacred: Ancient Pathways to Spiritual Awakening.

"The most meaningful thing to me is to come back to where I started to celebrate with my family and friends -something that's very special to me,'' says Ellerby, whose mother, brother and sister live in Winnipeg.

He started his promotional tour in New York on Thursday and he'll be doing lectures and workshops in L. A. and other major cities across the U. S.

Return to the Sacred is both a guidebook to spiritual awakening - using the "12 Master Paths and Practices'' that have led history's greatest mystics, saints and sages to enlightenment - and a collection of stories about the author's own personal, professional and academic journey.

While writing the book required Ellerby to reflect on the past 25 years of his life, getting it published was a matter of synchronicity, he says.

About a year ago, he attended a conference where he unexpectedly met the president of Hay House, to whom he pitched the proposal he happened to have in his back pocket. By the end of the weekend, he had a book deal and an agent.

"It was very fast, very unusual.''

LOAD-DATE: January 31, 2009

LANGUAGE: ENGLISH

GRAPHIC: 1. Jonathan Ellerby is originally from Winnipeg. ;

PUBLICATION-TYPE: Newspaper

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