Books

reviewed by Elder M. Lindahl

Once millennial mile posts come into view, creative, speculative, entrepreneurial people begin polishing their crystal balls. Just now, some five years before the new millennium dawns, author James Redfield is busy, and others are listening to him. As of this writing, his book, The Celestine Prophecy, has been on The New York Times Book Review Best Seller Fiction list for 58 weeks running.

Redfield, 45, a former Methodist, received his M.A. in psychology at Auburn University in 1974. He was employed for 15 years as a therapist working with troubled children. An earlier version of The Celestine Prophecy was written, self-published and marketed in New Age circles. Warner Brothers, in 1993, bought the manuscript and published it in a hardcover edition ($17.95).

End-of-the-world prophecy schemes, most often expected from arch religious conservatives, come at us also from left field. Without using standard apocalyptic imagery of wars, bizarre beasts, fire and devastation, Redfield argues that humans will experience fundamental changes in their culture. He predicts the end of the world as we know it by the year 2,000. Unprecedented changes, he claims, are already evident. New generations will find their worlds and cultural experiences transformed even more by the years 2,500 and 3,000.

Redfield’s book is best classed, I think, as utopian apocalyptic literature. He cites Daniel 12:3-4 in his dedication for Sarah Virginia Redfield.

And those who have insight will shine brightly like the brightness of the expanse of Heaven, and those who lead the many to righteousness, like the stars forever and ever. But for you, Daniel, conceal these words and seal up the book until the end of time. Many will go back and forth, and knowledge will increase.

Redfield’s views, capsulized in nine insights, are presented seriatim during his telling about the Peruvian adventures of American, Wilson James. The document, for which “Wil” James (named after American psychologist, William James?) searches, is an ancient, anonymous Manuscript, written somehow in Aramaic in 600 B.C. It’s a “sealed book,” one which allegedly predicts future quantum leaps in church history, society, science, ecology, religions, aesthetics, and the coming of massive transformations in human society. As with apocalyptic literature, the book contains a general timetable of future events.

The new insights, found only in this Manuscript, because they threaten the Church and the State, are now at the close of the 20th century endangered. Authorities are out to control and suppress the Manuscript as it gives people the impression that they can make decisions on their own, without the benefit of the Church and the Holy Scriptures. The document has caused a disruption in the Church — most priests are out to destroy it, while a few celebrate and evangelize its spiritual insights underground. These dissenters believe that the Manuscript truths clarify Scripture and are compatible with the Faith.

In the fictional story, researchers, scholars, archaeologists, and curious others journey to Peru in search of this predictive treasure. Police, priests, and soldiers form a ubiquitous cadre of watchers and guards to insure that the disturbing, subversive insights will not see the light of day, that the efforts of the searchers will fail. The adventure to gain all the new insights takes one through mountains, cities, farms, villages, jail cells, and country roads. The struggle is always between insiders—those who know about the Manuscript and want it disbursed, and those who know about the Manuscript and want it destroyed. Insiders who are positively disposed toward the Manuscript have a mission to tell the rest of us about its fantastic truths. Once the insights are known, humankind will move from where we now are to “a completely spiritual culture on Earth” (p. 4).

The nine insights, stated in segments or chapters of the lost Manuscript, are interwoven into the story Redfield tells in nine chapters. I shall list his chapter headings and give a brief summary of each insight:

1. The Critical Mass. The awareness that so-called coincidental occurrences function within a universal process. Chance encounters often have deeper meanings. “These coincidences make us feel there is something more, something spiritual, operating underneath everything we do” (p. 119). The numbers of people so aware will begin to grow significantly in the 1960s, and will increase dramatically to a “critical mass” just after the year 2,000.

2. The Longer Now. At the close of the second millennium, we will see the entire period of history and understand the way churchmen, from 1,000 to the present day, have defined existence for us in other-worldly, dualistic terms. We see that since the Renaissance, we have increasingly thought about the world in secular, scientific, technological ways. However, our preoccupation with material survival, control, and security has made us lose the spiritual nature of life. The awareness of the history of the problem, starting in the 1960's, will be more and more a vital part of human consciousness.

3. A Matter of Energy. The basic stuff of the universe is energy, not hard matter. “. . . the physical world is actually a vast system of energy” (p. 89). Matter is “. . . only energy vibrating at a certain level. . .” (p. 99). In this wholly new paradigm, energy will be seen as forming, and radiating from, all things — persons, animals, and plants. Humans are unique in the world of energy as they can project their energies consciously.

4. The Struggle for Power. Humans have always competed for energy and its power in the universe. We must transcend the tendency to control others, stealing energy from them. Transcendence comes when one understands and connects with the higher source of all energy. We envision the evolutionary process by a mystical “conversion” experience which relates us to cosmic energy.

5. The Message of the Mystics. We cannot remain connected with this energy source until we come to grips with the particular control method we have been using. As long as one continues to use the unconscious control technique learned in childhood to “get the energy moving our way,” one’s control drama, one’s connection with the energy source will be tenuous at best.

6. Clearing the Past is a process of becoming aware of the particular ways of controlling one learned in childhood. We must go back in thought to our early family experiences to find what went on with our parents. When parents are forgiven, and this is transcended, we will find a higher identity, an evolutionary self.

7. Engaging the Flow is the process of consciously evolving oneself, of staying alert to every coincidence, every answer which the universe provides. Guidance obtains when one compares one’s story in dreams and daydreams with one’s life story. Getting into the flow means to halt all fear images when they come, to find oneself in every event. One will know for sure what decisions to make, what roads to choose, and so forth.

8. The Interpersonal Ethic. Use energy, generally, but especially in relations with children, in new ways. Correct children without draining energy from them. Focus on one child at a time. Avoid fanciful answers to childhood questions about conception, tell children the truth. The world is a mysterious place that provides for all human needs. Get clear and on the right path recognizing that all answers in life come from people.

9. The Emerging Culture. This insight tells humans where they are heading, how the culture will change due to the new ways of consciousness, and the shape of the next millennium. Reduced population will mean more space and beauty. Uncut forests will provide more energy — by 2,500, people will live in urban centers in the presence of huge, 500 year-old trees and gardens. They will not need currency, there will be neither overindulgence nor laziness. Guided by intuition, each will know what to do and how all fits together. One’s sense of purpose is made clear in one’s evolution. “Reaching heaven on earth is why we are here” (p. 243).

Somehow, for a scheme of perfect vibrations, increased perceptions, and new possibilities, the number nine seems incomplete — so close and yet short of the decade. But not so fast, the last few pages of The Celestine Prophecy inform us that the old Manuscript did in fact include a tenth insight! Father Carl counsels:

From now on the insights will have to be shared between people. Each person, once they hear the message and realize that the insights are real, must pass on the message to everyone who is ready for it. Connecting with energy is something humans have to be open to and talking about and expecting, otherwise the whole human race can go back to pretending that life is about having power over others and exploiting the planet. If we go back to doing this, then we won’t survive. Each of us must do what we can to get this message out.

On the final page, under “Information From the Author,” Redfield tells us how his message can be passed on. First, subscribe to The Celestine Journal, a monthly newsletter he writes. Send $29.95. Second, order an audio tape based on your moon sign and sun sign. “This audio tape is aimed at helping you understand your particular control issues and discover your most inspired, spiritual mission” (p. 247). Mention your birth date, birth time, and birth place. Fill in the coupon and send $30.00 — a sum considerably less than the $49.95 originally charged for the tape alone — for both the newsletter and the audio tape. Third, the dust jacket reveals that author Redfield is working on a sequel to The Celestine Prophecy, in which he will flesh out the details of the tenth insight. Redfield is also at work on a screenplay for his book.

The Celestine Prophecy is a mediocre, light-weight book! Though there are some helpful ideas about child raising in the chapter, “The Interpersonal Ethic,” the book is not a “must read.” It’s didactic art — The adventure story is stilted and simplistic, told only to convey the nine insights. Redfield cannot be faulted for having kept reality and wildly speculative metaphysics apart.

More recently, Redfield and Carol Adrienne (author of The Numerology Kit, Penguin, $15.00) wrote The Celestine Prophecy, An Experimental Guide, in which they present a meditation program based on the nine insights. Originally $8.99, Price Club has it for $5.14. The little Peruvian adventure story which carried the freight in the initial volume has virtually disappeared. On the last page, a 60 minute spiritual relaxation audio tape, “The Celestine Meditation,” with musical accompaniment, is offered for $12.00

As A.D. 2000 approaches, lucrative, exploitative schemes like Redfield’s will, I think, increase. The fearful and gullible with itchy ears, as always, will get fleeced.

An eleventh insight, I’d like to suggest, for free, is: The number “1,000,” for all its religious and mathematical intrigue, is finally but a human time marker. One year is as good or bad, significant or insignificant as we make it. A day to our Lord is like 1,000 years and 1,000 year like one day.

Keep your critical facilities strong and alive. I predict you’ll need them.