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March/April 2006 Living Now
The Celestine Prophecy

by Q & A with author/filmmaker James Redfield

When James Redfield authored The Celestine Prophecy, millions of readers passed it from hand to hand across America, discovering within its pages a life-affirming truth about synchronicity, intuition and personal destiny. The Celestine Prophecy is a spiritual adventure story chronicling the discovery of ancient scrolls in the rainforests of Peru. The prophecy and its nine key insights predict a worldwide awakening, arising within all religious traditions, that moves humanity toward a deeper experience of spirituality.

Your book stayed on the New York Times Bestseller list for over three years and was published in over 40 languages, with over 14 million copies in print - why is it so popular?
I think because it puts into words what so many of us are experiencing. We all want a deeper sense of spiritual meaning and the book speaks to that.

What motivated you to make this movie?
Our foremost intent as we created this film was to make an entertaining movie that stayed true to the book -- or more accurately, that stayed true to the essence of the book. After all, a film is a different medium. Intended meanings, messages, have to be shown in the flow of human action. Not merely discussed. There was no way to get all the conversations of the book into the cinematic version.
So we opted for making sure that our project captured the more holistic “feeling” that most people reported from the novel: one of being “awakened to the magic of life,” and made aware of those mysterious coincidences that bring forth messages and opportunities that seem “beyond chance” and “just what we need” to expand ourselves and live the lives we really want. The book reflected a new spiritual inclination of our time: to explore the deeper spiritual dimensions of this life. And we wanted the movie to reflect no less than that: a sense that there’s a greater mystery about our lives and why we’re here. It’s a mystery that we can directly experience, regardless of which religious tradition we have grown up with.

What are some of these experiences?
For one, learning to slow down and perceive the mysterious events and opportunities that happen in life. We call them coincidences, but if we look closely we see they are meaningful. They bring us just the right information at just the right time to extend our careers, relationships, growth. These events feel destined in some way, as though the world is set up to help us make a better life, work through our problems, and reach our dreams – if we just pay attention. This is a phenomenon that the Swiss Psychiatrist Carl Jung called Synchronicity, and that every religion has a name for. These coincidences are there to help wake us up, so we can cultivate more of this flow in our lives.

Does the Celestine Prophecy Movie deal with how to do this?
Like the book, it shows John, our main character, beginning to sense this force in his life moving him somewhere. He learns he can find a deeper connection with the divine, and open up to a greater sense of energy, inspiration, beauty, and what we call a “guiding intuition,” so that he can discover why he’s in Peru. He has to learn to give energy, and stay connected in order to help unlock the secrets of his destiny. That’s what we all want to do.

What do you hope will happen with the movie?
I hope that it will be viewed as a kind of model for the deeper spirituality that we all sense we can reach – a spirituality where we connect with the divine not just mentally, but as a real experience of an outpouring of love and energy. It is a spirituality where we find our destined path to making the world better, and in which we begin to expect and cultivate this intuitive flow in life that we sense is possible. If we all focus on the direct experience of God, then we can lessen the conflict and tension in the world.

Do you have any suggestions or guidelines for watching this movie?
Surrender to the “film” as soon as the room darkens and the first quote appears on the screen. Let the entire movie activate your soul, and immerse in it. Float downstream in its energy and synchronicities. Flow with it, and don’t box it in with conventional movie-making logic. Because here is a striking case where the medium is not the message. Here the message is more important than the medium.
And somewhere in the movie you have another realization — that you are the medium, and you can remember the message.

Who could benefit from watching “The Celestine Prophecy”?
We hope millions will experience it. Not just to appreciate and savor it, but more importantly to be continuously activated and initiated by it. Perhaps even transformed by it.
This movie and phenomenon are here for a reason, and each time you engage with it, you’ll know more and more clearly what that special reason is for you being here. You’ll gain a clearer sense of how to uniquely proceed, and how to skillfully take action for the sake of a more positive evolution — for the good of the whole.

Is there anything else you would like to say about this film or it’s making?
All that’s left now is for the real test to happen as this movie is released into the world. I would only ask that people remember one thing. The real impact is one you’ll sense more fully without thinking. It will be something you feel—not so much with your emotions, but with your body, your soul—as a distantly familiar world begins to emerge. We can only hope that those same images—call them archetypes, insights into a higher awareness —will do their thing again. And perhaps we’ll now actually embrace a reality that before we could only intuit.

When will the Movie be released?
After a period of sneak previews the film will be released in select cities in April 2006

thecelestineprophecymovie.com