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July/August 2006 Featured Stories
Behind the Celestine Prophecy

James Redfield

Miriam Knight talks with James Redfield, author of The Celestine Prophecy, a book originally self-published in 1993 that became a word-of-mouth bestseller and is now being released as a feature film.

Your book has certainly inspired millions of readers since it was published. What was your inspiration to write the book?
Well, the book grew out of a study I had made beginning in graduate school into what may be called extraordinary human potential. This was back in the mid-80’s, and I tried to capture what I felt were the archetypal steps or the personal aha’s that we were having as a mass of humanity across all cultures. So the Insights that The Celestine Prophecy predicts that we are moving through were actually descriptions of what I found out there as I observed and talked to people. I was trying to put into words what I thought the awakening was and the steps in this awakening that were happening around the planet.

The Celestine Insights

How did you come to formulate these Insights? Were they essentially a compilation of your own insights as you went deeper into the human potential movement?
That’s exactly right. I found many correlations within the ancient literature, like the Nag Hammadi Library, the Gnostic Gospels, with what I thought we were finally doing in a mass way on the planet. The reason I structured it as what I call an adventure parable is that I really felt it needed to be experiential, based on real experiences – and many of those experiences were mine.

So is the book is partly autobiographical in terms of the content?
Yes, absolutely, but I tried to write it in a generic way that would be meaningful to those actually having those experiences.

Did you actually go to South America?
Yes, absolutely.

How much of the movie reflected actual experiences that you had? Were these scrolls real or part of the parable?
In terms of the movie, because it’s a different medium, we had to do it as more of a snapshot of the book, because we really wrote the movie to capture the essence or the feeling of what the book can say much more mentally at times. So to answer your question, much of the adventure is just a constructed parable. Some people still think its all true, and what I say to people is that all the important parts are true. It describes an awakening and the steps in the awakening that I felt and still feel are archetypal in nature. We’re hard-wired for these steps and that’s why I think that the book resonated in people even across very diverse cultures around the world.

Do you sense a change in the receptivity of people in the general public to your messages since the first book came out?
Definitely. I think that the words that are used, the way the Insights are described, are now much more accessible to someone that you would call mainstream in the culture, because so much of the human potential movement is disseminated all through the culture. You know, they even talk about “getting into the zone” in Golf Magazines. There’s just so much more receptivity out there.

To what to you ascribe that?
I just think that the conversation has been going on longer. I mean since the early 90’s, we’ve had another 10 years or so of the conversation as people talk about their own peak experiences, their own spiritual moments. I think all the polls show that there is a search happening out there across all religions and cultures that reflects this need to have a spiritual experience. People want the real thing, not just a subtle belief, not just a general faith. People want to find the actual experiences that the mystics of every religion have always talked about.

Without the need for a mediator.
That’s right, and with a sense that they can, once they have these experiences, feel free to talk about it, that it’s no longer taboo. I go into places now that had really little receptivity in the beginning but that have a large group that understands the whole idea of an advanced spirituality that is really a consciousness.

Which of the Insights do you think are more important for the times we are living in now?
The 5th Insight is probably the most important one overall, because you have to have that opening experience before the idea of a spiritual consciousness means anything, but I think the 8th Insight is the most important for our time. Right now we’re living in a world of polarization where you have on the one hand, people who realize that we have to embody love and a positive outlook and a faithful prayer in daily life; but on the other hand we have people who are angry and aggressive and hostile and want to force their ideas of change on people. Those people are very fearful, and that can be both in the conservative world where they see their old-time religion being eroded, and it can also be in what you might call the liberal world where people feel disconnected and alienated and their agnosticism doesn’t lend them any support. So they lash out against the parts of the world – corporate world, or polluters or whoever it is – in a kind of an aggressive, hateful way. The polarization crosses all ideologies People dehumanize the other side out of fear, and there are as many liberals there as there are conservatives.

Right. I couldn’t agree with you more about integrating across the polarities. Very much a message for this time.
Yes. It’s this sense that we’re all connected spiritually and energetically. In other words, it’s important to have no enemies. We’re praying and speaking to the highest self of everyone – the lowly terrorist, or the mis-directed politician. If we’re praying and sending energy to their highest self with the intent that they can break through into this higher self and make wiser decisions and more compassionate and connected actions, then we’re on the right side of the balance, I believe. It’s something that keeps us as individuals connected to the wisdom of the ages and to the source that all the mystics talk about. At the same time we’re using our greatest prayer power to effect positive change in everyone we meet out there or everyone we even think about.

That’s such an important message... To shift gears for a moment, you decided to make the book into a movie yourself. Is the movie in general release right now and when will the DVD be coming out?
The movie is being platformed out, which means we add three or four cities every week, and we’re trying to make it happen through a grassroots campaign. Otherwise, you go national for two weeks and it’s very, very hard to stay in all those theaters for a longer period of time. The DVD will probably be out by November or right after Christmas.

What are your plans now? Do you have any more books or movies in the offing?
Well, I’m working on what I call the 12th Insight. That’s what all this sudden activism is about -- this sort of realization that we have to build a new culture consciously, that we have to integrate it with the best of the old culture and not destroy the old culture, and that we have to connect with each other in a way that validates each other and helps us stay in this consciousness.

Visit James Redfield’s website: thecelestineprophecymovie.com and click on the community update button for more information on movie.