The Celestine Prophecy

by James Redfield

  “In your case, you’ve discovered this purpose. Now, you must go forward, allowing the coincidences to lead you into a clearer and clearer idea of how to pursue this mission from this point on, what else you must do here. Since you’ve been in Peru, you’ve been riding along on Wil’s energy and Father Sanchez’s. But now it’s time to learn to evolve by yourself … consciously.”

  He was about to tell me something more, but we were both distracted by the sight of Sanchez’s truck racing up behind us. He pulled along side and rolled down his window.

  “What’s wrong?” Father Carl asked.

  “I must return to the mission as soon as I can get packed,” Sanchez said. “Government troops are there … and Cardinal Sebastian.”

  We both jumped into the truck and Sanchez drove back toward Father Carl’s house, telling us along the way that the troops were at his mission to confiscate all copies of the Manuscript and possibly to close it down.

  We drove up to Father Carl’s house and hurriedly walked inside. Father Sanchez immediately began to pack his belongings. I stood there, deliberating on what to do. As I watched, Father Carl approached the other priest and said, “I think I should go with you.”

  Sanchez turned. “Are you sure?”

  “Yes, I believe I should.”

  “For what purpose?”

  “I don’t know yet.”

  Sanchez stared at him for a moment, then returned to packing. “If you think that is best.”

  I was leaning against the door frame. “What should I do?” I asked.

  Both men looked at me.

  “That’s up to you,” Father Carl said.

  I just stared.

  “You’ll have to make the decision,” Sanchez interjected.

  I couldn’t believe they were so detached about my choice. To go with them meant certain capture by the Peruvian troops. Yet how could I stay here, alone?

  “Look,” I said, “I don’t know what to do. You two must help me. Is there anyone else who can hide me?”

  Both men looked at one another.

  “I don’t think so,” Father Carl said.

  I looked at them, a knot of anxiety growing in my stomach.

  Father Carl smiled at me and said, “Stay centered. Remember who you are.”

  Sanchez walked over to a bag and pulled out a folder. “This is a copy of the Sixth Insight,” he said. “Perhaps it will help you decide what to do.”

  As I took the copy, Sanchez looked at Father Carl and asked, “How long before you can leave?”

  “I’ll need to contact some people,” Father Carl said. “Probably an hour.”

  Sanchez looked at me. “Read and think for a while, then we will talk.”

  Both men returned to their preparations, and I walked outside and sat down on a large rock, then opened the Manuscript. It echoed exactly the words of Father Sanchez and Father Carl. Clearing the past was a precise process of becoming aware of our individual ways of controlling learned in childhood. And once we could transcend this habit, it said, we would find our higher selves, our evolutionary identities.

  I read the entire text in less than thirty minutes and when I finished I finally understood the basic insight: before we could fully enter the special state of mind that so many people were glimpsing—the experience of ourselves moving onward in life guided by mysterious coincidences—we had to wake up to who we really were.

  At that moment Father Carl walked around the house, spotted me, and came to where I was sitting.

  “Have you finished?” he asked. His manner was warm and friendly as usual.

  “Yes.”

  “Do you mind if I sit here with you for a moment?”

  “I wish you would.”

  He positioned himself to my right and after a period of silence asked, “Do you understand that you are on your path of discovery here?”

  “I guess, but now what?”

  “Now you must really believe it.”

  “How, when I feel this afraid?”

  “You must understand what is at stake. The truth you are pursuing is as important as the evolution of the universe itself, for it enables evolution to continue.

  “Don’t you see? Father Sanchez told me of your vision of evolution on the ridge top. You saw how matter evolved from the simple vibration of hydrogen all the way to humankind. You wondered how humans carried on this evolution. You have now discovered the answer: humans are born into their historical situations and find something to stand for. They form a union with another human being who also has found some purpose.

  “The children born to this union then reconcile these two positions by pursuing a higher synthesis, guided by the coincidences. As I’m sure you learned in the Fifth Insight, each time we fill up with energy and a coincidence occurs to lead us forward in our lives, We institute this level of energy in ourselves, and so we can exist at a higher vibration. Our children take our level of vibration and raise it even higher. This is how we, as humans, continue evolution.

  “The difference now, with this generation, is that we are ready to do it consciously and to accelerate the process. No matter how afraid you become, you now have no choice. Once you learn what life is about, there is no way to erase the knowledge. If you try to do something else with your life you will always sense that you are missing something.”

  “But what do I do now?”

  “I don’t know. Only you know that. But I suggest you first try to gain some energy.”

  Father Sanchez rounded the corner of the house and joined us, carefully avoiding eye contact or noise as if he desired not to interrupt. I tried to center myself and to focus on the rock peaks that encircled the house. I took a deep breath and realized that I had been totally self-absorbed since coming outside, as if I had had tunnel vision. I had cut myself off from the beauty and majesty of the mountains.

  As I gazed out at the surroundings, consciously trying to appreciate what I was seeing, I began to experience that now familiar feeling of closeness. Suddenly everything seemed to exhibit more presence and to glow slightly. I began to feel lighter, my body more buoyant.

  I looked at Father Sanchez and then at Father Carl. They were gazing intensely at me and I could tell they were observing my energy field.

  “How do I look?” I asked.

  “You look as if you feel better,” Sanchez said. “Stay here and increase your energy as much as possible. We have about twenty more minutes of packing.”

  He smiled wryly. “After that,” he continued, “you will be ready to begin.”

  ENGAGING

  THE FLOW

  The two priests walked back to the house and I spent several more minutes observing the beauty of the mountains in an attempt to gain more energy. Then, I lost my focus and drifted absently into a reverie about Wil. Where was he? Was he close to finding the Ninth Insight?

  I imagined him running through the Jungle, the Ninth Insight in his hand, troops everywhere, pursuing. I thought of Sebastian orchestrating the chase. Yet in my daydream, it was clear that Sebastian, even with all his authority, was wrong, that he misunderstood something about the impact the insights would have on people. I felt that someone could persuade him to take a different view, if only we could discover what part of the Manuscript threatened him so.

  As I mused over this thought, Marjorie popped into my mind. Where was she? I pictured seeing her again. How might that happen?

  The sound of the front door closing brought me back to reality. I felt weak and nervous again. Sanchez walked around the house toward where I was sitting. His pace was quick, purposeful.

  He sat down beside me, then asked, “Have you decided what to do?”

  I shook my head.

  “You don’t look very strong,” he said.

  “I don’t feel very strong.”

  “Perhaps you’re not being very systematic in the way you build your energy.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “Let me offer you the way that I personally gai
n energy. Perhaps my method will help you as you create your own procedure.”

  I nodded for him to go on.

  “The first thing I do,” he said, “is to focus on the environment around me, as I think you do also. Then I try to remember how everything looks when I’m being filled with energy. I do this by recalling the presence everything displays, the unique beauty and shape of everything, especially plants, and the way colors seem to glow and appear brighter. Do you follow me?”

  “Yes, I try to do the same thing.”

  “Then,” he continued. “I try to experience that feeling of closeness, the feeling that no matter how far away something is, that I can touch it, connect with it. And then I breathe it in.”

  “Breathe it in?”

  “Did Father John not explain this to you?”

  “No, he didn’t.”

  Sanchez appeared confused. “Perhaps he intended to come back and tell you about it later. Often he’s very dramatic. He walks away and leaves his pupil alone to ponder what he has taught, then he shows up later at just the right time to add something else to the instruction. I suppose he intended to talk with you again but we left too quickly.”

  “I’d like to hear about it,” I said.

  “Do you remember the feeling of buoyancy that you experienced on the ridge top?” he asked.

  “Yes,” I said.

  “To regain this buoyancy, I try to breathe in the energy with which I have just connected.”

  I had been following along as Sanchez spoke. Just hearing his procedure was increasing my connection. Everything around me had increased in presence and beauty. Even the rocks seemed to have a whitish glow and Sanchez’s energy field was wide and blue. He was now taking deep, conscious breaths, holding each about five seconds before exhaling. I followed his example.

  “When we visualize,” he said, “that each breath pulls energy into us and fills us like a balloon, we actually become more energized and feel much lighter and more buoyant.”

  After several breaths, I began to feel exactly that way.

  “After I breath in the energy,” Sanchez continued, “I check to see if I have the right emotion. As I’ve told you before, I consider this the true measure of whether I am really connected.”

  “You are speaking of love?”

  “That’s correct. As we discussed at the mission, love is not an intellectual concept or a moral imperative or anything else. It is a background emotion that exists when one is connected to the energy available in the universe, which, of course, is the energy of God.”

  Father Sanchez was gazing at me, his eyes slightly out of focus. “There,” he said, “you’ve reached it. That’s the level of energy you need to have. I’m helping you some, but you are ready to maintain it on your own.”

  “What do you mean, you’re helping me some?”

  Father Sanchez shook his head. “Don’t worry about that now. You’ll learn about it later, in the Eighth Insight.”

  Father Carl walked around the house then and looked at both of us, as though pleased. As he approached he glanced at me. “Have you decided yet?”

  The question irritated me; I fought against the resulting loss of energy.

  “Don’t fall back into your aloof drama,” Father Carl said. “You can’t avoid taking a stand here. What are you thinking you need to do?”

  “I’m not thinking anything,” I said. “That’s the problem.”

  “Are you sure? Thoughts feel different once you get connected with the energy.”

  I gave him a puzzled look.

  “The words you have habitually willed through your head in an attempt to logically control events,” he explained, “stop when you give up your control drama. As you fill up with inner energy, other kinds of thoughts enter your mind from a higher part of yourself. These are your intuitions. They feel different. They just appear in the back of your mind, sometimes in a kind of daydream or mini-vision, and they come to direct you, to guide you.”

  I still didn’t understand.

  “Tell us what you were thinking about when we left you alone earlier,” Father Carl said.

  “I’m not sure I remember it all,” I said.

  “Try.”

  I tried to concentrate. “I was thinking about Wil, I guess, about whether he was close to finding the Ninth Insight, and about Sebastian’s crusade against the Manuscript.”

  “What else?”

  “I was wondering about Marjorie, about what happened to her. But I don’t understand how this helps me know what to do.”

  “Let me explain,” Father Sanchez said. “When you have acquired enough energy, you are ready to consciously engage evolution, to start it flowing, to produce the coincidences that will lead you forward. You engage your evolution, in a very specific way. First, as I said, you build sufficient energy, then you remember your basic life question—the one your parents gave you—because this question provides the overall context for your evolution. Next you center yourself on your path by discovering the immediate, smaller questions that currently confront you in life. These questions always pertain to your larger question and define where you currently, are in your lifelong quest.

  “Once you become conscious of the questions active in the moment, you always get some kind of intuitive direction of what to do, of where to go. You get a hunch about the next step. Always. The only time this will not occur is when you have the wrong question in mind. You see, the problem in life isn’t in receiving answers. The problem is in identifying your current questions. Once you get the questions right, the answers always come.

  “After you get an intuition of what might happen next,” he continued, “then the next step is to become very alert and watchful. Sooner or later coincidences will occur to move you in the direction indicated by the intuition. Do you follow me?”

  “I think I do.”

  “So,” he continued, “don’t you think those thoughts of Wil and Sebastian and Marjorie are important? Think about why these thoughts are coming now, considering the story of your life. You know that you came out of your family wanting to find out how to make the spiritual life an inwardly self- enhancing adventure, right?”

  “Yes.”

  “Then, as you grew up, you became interested in mysterious topics, you studied sociology and worked with people, although you didn’t yet know why you were doing these things. Then as you began to wake up, you heard about the Manuscript and came to Peru and found the insights one by one, and each has taught you something about the kind of spirituality you seek. Now that you’ve become clear, you can become super conscious of this evolution by defining your current questions and then watching the answers come.”

  I just looked at him.

  “What are your current questions?” he asked.

  “I guess I want to know about the other insights,” I said. “Especially, I want to know if Wil is going to find the Ninth Insight. I want to know what happened to Marjorie. And I want to know about Sebastian.”

  “And what were your intuitions suggesting about these questions?”

  “I don’t know. I was thinking of seeing Marjorie again, and of Wil running with troops chasing him. What does it mean?”

  “Where was Wil running?”

  “In the jungle.”

  “Perhaps that indicates where you should go. Iquitos is in the jungle. What about Marjorie?”

  “I saw myself seeing her again.”

  “And Sebastian?”

  “I fantasized that he was against the Manuscript because he misunderstood, that his mind could be changed if one could find out what he was thinking, what exactly he feared about the Manuscript.”

  Both men looked at each other in total amazement.

  “What does it mean?” I asked.

  Father Carl replied with another question, “What do you think?”

  For the first time since the ridge top I was beginning to feel fully energized again and confident. I looked at them and said, “I guess it means I should go t
oward the jungle and try to discover which aspects of the Manuscript the church dislikes.”

  Father Carl smiled. “Exactly! You can take my truck.”

  I nodded and we walked around to the front of the house where the vehicles were parked. My things, along with a supply of food and water, were already packed in Father Carl’s truck. Father Sanchez’s vehicle was also packed.

  “I want to tell you this,” Sanchez said. “Remember to stop as often as necessary to re-connect your energy. Stay full, stay in a state of love. Remember that once you achieve this state of love, nothing nor anyone can pull more energy from you than you can replace. In fact, the energy flowing out of you creates a current that pulls energy into you at the same rate. You can never run out. But you must stay conscious of this process in order for it to work. This is especially important when you interact with people.”

  He paused. Simultaneously, as if on cue, Father Carl walked closer and said, “You have read all but two insights: the Seventh and Eighth. Seven deals with the process of consciously evolving yourself, of staying alert to every coincidence, every answer the universe provides for you.”

  He handed me a small folder. “This is the Seventh. It is very short and general,” he continued, “but it talks about the way objects jump out at us, the way certain thoughts come as guidance. As for the Eighth, you will find it yourself when the time is right. It explains how we can aid others as they bring us the answers we seek. And further, it describes a whole new ethic governing the way humans should treat each other in order to facilitate everyone’s evolution.”

  “Why can’t you give me the Eighth Insight now?” I asked.

  Father Carl smiled and put his hand on my shoulder. “Because we don’t feel we should. We must follow our intuitions also. You will get the Eighth Insight as soon as you ask the right question.”

  I told him I understood. Then both priests hugged me and wished me well. Father Carl stressed that we would soon meet again and that I would indeed find the answers I was here to receive.

  We were all about to board our respective vehicles when Sanchez turned suddenly and faced me. “I have an intuition to tell you something. You will learn more about it later. Let your perception of beauty and iridescence lead your way. Places and people who have answers for you will appear more luminous and attractive.”