Spiritual, yet cynical, born old, young at heart..... And totally confused by the sounds of it!
Spiritual, yet cynical, born old, young at heart..... And totally confused by the sounds of it!
Member since:09.06.2004
Reviews:3
The Celestine Prophecy is a book who's sales seem to come more from personal introductions than from the 'Let's buy it and try it' spiritual crowd. On the good side this means that almost every reader of this book will have picked up someone else's copy first and read a bit or who has been encoraged to read it by word of mouth. On the bad side, despite everything the cover tells you about the contents, some will pick up the book, read the first and last chapters and decide it is an adventure story and probably not for them. One thing this book is not, is pure adventure.
The book starts with the story-teller, a school teacher, at a loose end. Term time is over and he is looking forward to a break in the wilderness when a long lost friend rings him up out of the blue and tells him she has information that will interest him. At a lunch meeting she tells him of ancient documents of which she has a copy of the first part. The document, discovered in Peru, tells of how mankind will become more spiritually awakened in the 2nd millenium and she suggests that he would be interested in persuing the document further. The documents, which she suspects are being actively supressed by the Peruvian authorities, are known as insights and a person will become aware of the meaning of the insights as they are required in the spiritual awakening of both the individual and gradually the whole of mankind. Before leaving the story completely, the lady friend intrigues the author by letting him know the first insight, that co-incidences happen for good reasons, and based on this loose premise, the story-teller decides to go to Peru and discover what he can about the other insights.
From this uninspiring start, James Redfield takes himself from place to place almost seemingly at random, discovering each of the nine insights in turn, usually being illustrated by something happening either to himself, his current companian or some passer-by. Unlikely co-incidences abound, but seemingly that is the nature of some of the insights anyway. It takes no guesswork at all to know that the hero gets away with the knowledge of all the insights although I do have to say that the ending seems hastily written in light of the details poured into the central themes.
I have always been an open minded sceptic. That is, I will listen to and consider everything, I may even try believing it if the path feels right for me but always with one eye on 'real' life. To be very honest the 'preaching' of first few insights do make an attempt to make the world a nicer place. After all, this book intends that we will all make the same insights as Redfield and end up on a spiritually higher plane. It is not a religious book and does not intend to become the new Holy Word for every creed. There is not, in this book at least, a synopsis of the insights and there is not attempt to directly subvert the reader to a new way of thinking, but the sales and demand for this book and its companians (The Tenth Insight, Celestine Visions and the various Experiential Guides) tell us that some of it is taking hold and certainly giving food for thought to some of the spritually minded.
In the end the book IS a badly written adventure. The insights are interesting and if everyone lived by them the world would be a far nicer place, but I cannot see them inspiring a new world religion, nor putting an end to poverty and hunger. I cannot say I haven't been touched by reading this book. It did reach to me spritually, but perhaps, just yet, I'm not quite ready for all it has to say. Maybe, if the co-incidences are right for you, it will do far more. Fate will put a copy of this book right where you will need it.... That First Insight coming in to play, just as it is required.
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Welcome to Ciao! If you need any help then I'd be glad to answer any questions - anything to put off the revision!!! :-) K xxx
torr 14.06.2004 11:19
Welcome to Ciao. Intriguing first review. Something on publisher and price would help, just in case Fate doesn't "put a copy of this book right where someone will need it". Cheers, Duncan
You have never read a book like this before..."The Celestine Prophecy" contains secrets ... more
that are currently changing our world. Drawing on the ancient wisdom found in a Peruvian manuscript it tells you how to make connections between the events happeni...
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Advantages: Easy to read lessons of life written as an adventure story Disadvantages: Many will think the subject matter is a complete load of codswallop!
Advantages: Easy to read lessons of life written as an adventure story Disadvantages: Many will think the subject matter is a complete load of codswallop!
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