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Book: The Celestine Prophecy: An Adventure
Author: James Redfield
Year: 1993

Review

The cover page reads "In the rainforest of Peru, an ancient manuscript has been discovered. Within its pages are 9 insights into life itself." That captured my imagination, that captured me. That was enough for me to grab the book and read it. I started reading it for the adventure, less for the spiritual enlightenment. I am in love with Peru, Peruvian mythology and anything that relates to the Inca culture. The book fitted that spot. The suspense starts on the first page and it didn't lose its grip until the very last one.

Publishers Weekly calls it a cross between Raiders of the Lost Ark and Moses' trek up Mt. Sinai. Well put. It melts adventure and spiritualism to create a New Age book.

The saga begins when the unnamed male character goes to Peru in search of a secret manuscript a friend tells him about. Of course obtaining the manuscript is nothing easy. Both the government as well as the catholic church want to prevent the discovery at any cost and want to see the manuscript destroyed. But our "Indiana Jones" is not deterred. Step by step he discovers the 9 insights, and step by step he obtains deeper knowledge of the key to a satisfying, fulfilling, spiritual live. In each of the 9 chapters an insight is revealed to him in what appear chance encounters. These "chance" encounters however have a divine purpose and Redfield calls them "synchronicities".

The story line is implausable. The hero is confronted with auras, energy transfers and other psychic phenomena. Sometimes I thought this guy was chewing too many coca leaves or smoked some dope to get these hallucinations. Some of it I can belive (e.g. that people emit visible auras) but other parts were too much for me. Especially the "Ninth Insight" chapter was too far fetched for me to take serious or literal. Part of the explanation of said insight centered on the fact that enlightened people can vibrate at an elevated frequency that makes them change their state, it makes them invisible and they can leave this earth (e.g. move into heaven).

The story seems to be good business. There is now a trilogy of books plus a handful of add-on books by James Redfield and his wife. There are monthly journals, events, audio tapes and soon the Redfields will turn it into a movie. The script was finished in August 2003.

Spiritual Message

I can't accept 100% of the book at face value, but there were quite a few messages I could extract. First, there is the thing called "synchronicity" [when the path of two people or events cross, i.e. synchronize]. Maybe these coincidences in our life are not so random, not so accidental as they appear at first sight. Maybe there is a meaning in why we meet certain people, why we have certain incidents happen to us.

Redfield also talks about the fact that people create their energy fields; that people can create energy or absorb other people's energy. Call it vitality, call it chi, call it attitude, there certainly is a flow of energy within us, and it can be positive or negative, flow in or out.

The final goal of mankind is to create a new spiritual awareness allowing a spiritual evolutionary leap for humankind. We all must chip in to this collective spirituality to lift humankind to the next level. Sounds nice, but often I see very little of this around me. And even more unfortunately I have this impression we will never reach the next level in my lifetime. I am not very optimistic, am I?

Now without further ado the 12 Celestial Insights. The first book revealed 9 insights, the second book the 10th and the third book the 11th. The 12th insight is still an enigma.

The 12 Celestial Insights:

  1. A Critical Mass
    A new spiritual awakening is occurring in human culture, an awakening brought about by a critical mass of individuals who experience their lives as a spiritual unfolding, a journey in which we are led forward by mysterious coincidences.
  2. The Longer Now
    This awakening represents the creation of a new, more complete worldview, which replaces a five-hundred-year-old preoccupation with secular survival and comfort. While this technological preoccupation was an important step, our awakening to life's coincidences is opening us up to the real purpose of human life on this planet, and the real nature of our universe.
  3. A Matter Of Energy
    We now experience that we live not in a material universe, but in a universe of dynamic energy. Everything extant is a field of sacred energy that we can sense and intuit. Moreover, we humans can project our energy by focusing our attention in the desired direction...where attention goes, energy flows...influencing other energy systems and increasing the pace of coincidences in our lives.
  4. The Struggle For Power
    Too often humans cut themselves off from the greater source of this energy and so feel weak and insecure. To gain energy we tend to manipulate or force others to give us attention and thus energy. When we successfully dominate others in this way, we feel more powerful, but they are left weakened and often fight back. Competition for scarce, human energy is the cause of all conflict between people.
  5. The Message Of The Mystics
    Insecurity and violence ends when we experience an inner connection with divine energy within, a connection described by mystics of all traditions. A sense of lightness - buoyancy - along with the constant sensation of love are measures of this connection. If these measures are present, the connection is real. If not, it is only pretended.
  6. Clearing The Past
    The more we stay connected, the more we are acutely aware of those times when we lose connection, usually when we are under stress. In these times, we can see our own particular way of stealing energy from others. Once our manipulations are brought to personal awareness, our connection becomes more constant and we can discover our own growth path in life, and our spiritual mission - the personal way we can contribute to the world.
  7. Engaging The Flow
    Knowing our personal mission further enhances the flow of mysterious coincidences as we are guided toward our destinies. First we have a question; then dreams, daydreams, and intuitions lead us towards the answers, which usually are synchronistically provided by the wisdom of another human being.
  8. The Interpersonal Ethic
    We can increase the frequency of guiding coincidences by uplifting every person that comes into our lives. Care must be taken not to lose our inner connection in romantic relationships. Uplifting others is especially effective in groups where each member can feel energy of all the others. With children it is extremely important for their early security and growth. By seeing the beauty in every face, we lift others into their wisest self, and increase the chances of hearing a synchronistic message.
  9. The Emerging Culture
    As we all evolve toward the best completion of our spiritual missions, the technological means of survival will be fully automated as humans focus instead on synchronistic growth. Such growth will move humans into higher energy states, ultimately transforming our bodies into spiritual form and uniting this dimension of existence with the after-life dimension, ending the cycle of birth and death.
  10. Holding The Vision
    The Tenth Insight is the realization that throughout history human beings have been unconsciously struggling to implement this lived spirituality on Earth. Each of us comes here on assignment, and as we pull this understanding into consciousness, we can remember a fuller birth vision of what we wanted to accomplish with our lives. Further we can remember a common world vision of how we will all work together to create a new spiritual culture. We know that our challenge is to hold this vision with intention and prayer everyday.
  11. Extending Prayer Fields
    The Eleventh Insight is the precise method through which we hold the vision. For centuries, religious scriptures, poems, and philosophies have pointed to a latent power of mind within all of us that mysteriously helps to affect what occurs in the future. It has been called faith power, positive thinking, and the power of prayer. We are now taking this power seriously enough to bring a fuller knowledge of it into public awareness. We are finding that this prayer power is a field of intention, which moves out from us and can be extended and strengthened, especially when we connect with others in a common vision. This is the power through which we hold the vision of a spiritual world and build the energy in ourselves and in others to make this vision a reality.
  12. The Twelfth Insight is yet to be released.

Bottom line: trust your synchronicity ... and uplift everyone who crosses your path.

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