The Twelfth Insight: The Hour of Decision

by James Redfield

  He handed the folder to Coleman. “You can learn to tune in to people.”

  THE ONENESS INTENTION

  As we began the two-hour trip to the airport, I wondered how we were going to find Rachel and Tommy. Wil knew they were headed to the city of St. Katherine in Egypt. But just where they were staying there was unknown.

  “It’s a small town,” Wil had said. “You’ll find them. Just pay attention. Something will happen.”

  I knew he was probably right. From the intuitions Coleman and I had experienced, we were definitely headed to the correct place. Egypt could be dangerous at times, but the government was usually friendly toward tourists, especially those who might be interested in a pilgrimage to Mount Sinai.

  Coleman had put down the Document, so I grabbed it and began to read. As Wolf had hinted, the Eighth Integration said we would be led into another level of Connection with others, a level that would heighten our understanding of Conscious Conversation.

  This stuff is coming fast now, I thought. Maybe Wil was right in saying we were beginning the downhill run through the remaining Integrations.

  I reminded myself that the Eighth Insight of the old Prophecy had predicted we would learn to uplift others in conversation by intending to connect with and uplift their higher self or soul. This uplifting was intended to lift the other person into a higher consciousness, where, along with getting more insight into his or her own life, the person would be more likely to provide Synchronistic information that we individually needed.

  At the time, there was some confusion about the mechanics of this procedure, but most times merely the intention worked. The people being uplifted would suddenly become more alert and seemingly gain access to an unconscious part of themselves. They would often preface their remarks by saying, “I don’t know why I’m telling you this,” or “I’ve never thought of this before, but…” And then the information they presented would often be exactly what we needed to hear at the time.

  I looked back at the pages in my hand and moved to the next passage. It seemed to be saying that this uplifting could now be expanded, in light of the other Integrations, by consciously merging minds with the higher self of the other person. Merging minds?

  At this point, I was interrupted in my reading as we entered the northern outskirts of Phoenix and began our own search for food. After about thirty minutes, we found a health food store where we stocked up. And as fortune would have it, immediately next door was a small shop where Coleman could buy more clothes.

  Afterward, we took a back way to the airport, where Wolf pulled up very cautiously to the international concourse. We were all on the lookout for anything unusual and tried to be hypervigilant for any intuitions meant to guide our way. However, nothing of note happened, so Coleman and I jumped out and collected our gear.

  Finally, I walked over to the window and shook Wolf’s hand and thanked him.

  “Get to Sister Mountain as soon as you can,” he said cryptically. “You’ll be shown what to do.”

  In less than an hour, we were on an airplane headed for Cairo, taxiing out to the runway. I checked my cell phone and found no messages, then quickly shut it off as the plane lifted into the air.

  Coleman was already asleep, so I pulled out the Eighth Integration and began reading again. It went on to explain the passage about merging minds by saying we could initiate this merging by applying what it called the “Oneness Intention.”

  This term, the Document went on, meant much more than the abstract idea, voiced by many religious traditions, that we are all one. It defined an entirely new way that humans could relate to one another, the effectiveness of which could immediately be proven to oneself. Further, the best way to understand this new way of relating was to look closely at the phenomenon of people finishing each other’s sentences.

  I thought about this for a moment. I’d always concluded that this ability resulted from how much time one spent with a particular person, primarily because it seemed so common among husbands and wives, executives and their secretaries, and roommates and office mates.

  When I turned again to the Document, it said that while this ability is common, it could be more readily facilitated, even among strangers, by practicing the Oneness Principal, which was to go into every human interaction with the intention of joining higher minds.

  Wait a minute, I thought, putting on the mental brakes. Would we really want to do that? I was suddenly feeling a real resistance to this idea. In fact, I was so perplexed by my reaction that I woke up Coleman and told him everything I’d read, and the trouble I was having with merging minds with others, especially strangers. Perhaps because the idea was planted, I couldn’t help seeing him in a totally different light. In fact, he seemed to behave in a slightly different way, as though he was more thoughtful than before.

  “As a guy with a strong ego myself,” he said, “it comes to me that perhaps you don’t like the idea of merging minds with other people because you’re afraid they will pollute your thinking with gibberish.”

  I laughed, and then thought about what he was saying. Was that it? Did I just want to feel special and unique, and that led me to think merging minds with someone might dilute my creativity?

  “On the other hand,” he continued, “you can’t deny that our group has been joined, in a way, already, and acting in unison. Remember how powerfully that was happening on Secret Mountain?”

  I did remember. We were in that connected state for hours. And the fact was, I felt no diminishment or loss of energy from the Connection at all. If anything, I felt enhanced. We were somehow all coordinating our actions and decisions at light speed, like a flock of birds in flight do when they change directions at precisely the same time. And we experienced the same phenomenon at the homestead as well.

  I looked at the Document again, and it clarified that the joining is not of egos but of the higher mind, which is linked with the Divine. To further explain, it said when two people merge in this manner, both feel enlarged because they have access to not just their own higher self, but to the other’s higher consciousness as well. The net effect is to feel more clarity and guidance overall. The clarification made me feel better.

  “Seems to me,” Coleman continued, his eyelids looking heavy again, “that since it says you can prove the power of the Oneness Intention for yourself, you should just try it for a while.” With that, he was suddenly asleep again.

  Looking out the window, I mused over the succinctness of his suggestion. In fact, it sounded like something I might have said to myself, if he hadn’t beaten me to it. Why not try it now? I thought. I quickly moved everything off my lap and walked up to the attendants’ station to ask for some more water.

  Only one of the attendants was there, an older Egyptian woman with short black hair, dressed in uniform, who had served us earlier. I decided to do just as the Document said. As I walked up, I silently affirmed the intention to join higher minds.

  She immediately turned around. “Need a refill?”

  “Yes, please,” I replied, handing her my empty cup. “It’s going to be a long flight, huh?”

  “Yes, but it’s not too bad. I crew this flight several times a week.”

  She was looking at my shoulder. “Is that for me?”

  I looked down and realized that I still had the copy of the Document under my arm. I had placed it there when I was moving everything so I could get out of my seat, then forgot to put it back in my pack.

  “Oh, no, it’s just a copy of an old… well, just something I brought with me by mistake.”

  “An old what?”

  She looked at me with total earnestness, and I realized I had to tell the truth about it.

  “It’s an old Document about human spirituality that people are studying right now.”

  “What’s it about?”

  I struggled to put it simply. “Well, it’s about how humans are waking up to the fact that we’re all spiritually connected.”

  She looked down
as if thinking, then said: “I’ve heard something about this. My sister’s husband is studying some writings like that. There’s a whole group of them.”

  Leaning in and speaking lower, she added, “You know he usually is shy and reserved, but since he’s been meeting with this group, he’s really become quite talkative and obsessed with telling the truth.”

  “That’s the same Document,” I said, somewhat surprised by the familiarity with which she was speaking to me, as if she was talking to her close friend. I couldn’t wait for the answer to my next question.

  “Where does your sister live?” I asked.

  “In a small town out in the desert, called St. Katherine.”

  I had already known what she was going to say, but the Synchronicity still shocked me.

  “You won’t believe this,” I said. “That’s where we’re going after Cairo.”

  Her eyes lit up. “Really? I should give you his number. His name is Joseph.” She opened a drawer and pulled out some paper and scribbled down his complete name and telephone number.

  “You know,” she continued, “I haven’t talked to him in quite a while. I’m going to call him and ask more about this Document. I’ll tell him we met on a plane.”

  “Thanks,” I said, then gave her my name and number as well.

  The other attendant came up at this point, so I walked back to my seat and immediately woke up Coleman and told him what happened.

  “You should be used to this kind of Synchronicity by now,” he said.

  “N-n-no,” I stammered. “It usually doesn’t go this fast with a stranger. A Synchronicity this on target usually takes quite a bit of time to come out in conversation, if it happens at all. Sometimes you feel led to someone, but when you try to talk, the conversation goes nowhere. Two strangers usually have to build up trust.”

  Suddenly wide awake, he looked at me hard. “You did what I said, didn’t you? You tried that Oneness principle.”

  I gave him an exaggerated nod yes. Coleman pulled the copy of the Document out of my hand. “Let me read this for a while.”

  Which was fine with me. I wanted to spend some more time thinking. Maybe I was making too much out of the woman’s openness, but I didn’t think so. What struck me as important wasn’t so much meeting a friendly person who had a brother-in-law in the city of our destination. That wasn’t crazy unlikely. The noteworthy thing was the quality of the conversation itself: there was an immediate closeness and rapport and, in fact, honesty. At this level of Connection, I didn’t have to remember to be direct and honest. My words just came out that way naturally.

  When I woke up, Coleman was already awake and arranging his things. He leaned over when he saw me stirring.

  “What time is it?” I asked.

  “Two A.M.,” he said. “We’ll be landing in Cairo in twenty minutes.”

  He looked sleepy, as though the crowded seats had further fatigued him during the night. And I felt the same way. I couldn’t have slept more than a few hours.

  Once on the ground, we hurried to pick up our luggage and find our ride to St. Katherine. When it arrived, we were pleased that it was a large van and we were the only passengers. The vehicle had two long bench seats so that we both could lie down. We slept the whole way there, rolling in about eleven that morning.

  The town was basically a collection of cross streets filled with tourist service buildings and small lodges, all built in the bottom of a bowl-shaped valley. On all sides were huge, towering red mountain peaks, including, toward the southeast, the Sinai range.

  We called around on a pay phone until we found a small lodge nearest to Mount Sinai, and by the time we walked into the tiny office to check in, the pace of travel had taken its toll. My energy had fallen substantially, so I went though my mental checklist of Integrations to get centered: expect intuition and Synchronicity, stay in Alignment, and come back to a love Connection. Now, I added one more: intend Oneness.

  When we rang the bell on the attendant’s desk, we were greeted by a distinguished-looking older gentleman with gray hair. He spoke perfect English but at first seemed extremely cautious, asking us many questions about our travel plans and passports. Yet by the time we finished checking in, he was smiling and extremely friendly.

  He gave us our keys, and then, as we were walking away, he looked thoughtful for a moment.

  “If you care for a hike,” he said, “there is a trail just outside that leads to a nearby hill. It provides a splendid view of the town and the Mountain of Moses.”

  We thanked him and headed down the long hall to our rooms, which we found perfectly placed directly across from each other. Even better, my room had an outside door, which opened on to a small patio. We could see the walkway to the hill across the street.

  “This is great,” Coleman said.

  After showers, we walked next door and had a great meal in a little restaurant. When we finished, I asked, “What do you get when you tune in to whether we should contact the flight attendant’s brother, Joseph?”

  He thought for moment. “I get the feeling we should do it. It’s logical and also feels right.”

  I grabbed my phone and texted Joseph that we had met his sister-in-law and asked if we could talk to him about the Document. I left the phone on so we’d hear the reply if one came in.

  “Okay,” Coleman said. “Let’s hike this hill.”

  The day was beautiful. The sun shone brightly, with small puffs of white clouds dotting a crisp blue sky. As we walked, we gazed out at the red mountains rising all around us.

  “Wow,” Coleman said. “This looks a lot like Sedona.”

  We followed the trail over to the hill and started up, truly amazed by the colors in the rocks themselves. Along with the red were streaks of gray and gold. With every step I began to feel better.

  “This hill feels like Sedona, too,” Coleman said.

  At a certain point, the path meandered by a flat ledge that overhung the city, so we stopped and looked down at the town. Just as I was immersing myself in the vista, I noticed Coleman nodding toward something up ahead.

  On the other side of the overhang was a rounded protrusion of rock, and on top, a man was kneeling alone on a prayer cloth. He had long dark hair and a short beard and was looking out into the distance toward the southeast. Without seeing us, he turned to a seated position, pulled out a cell phone, and entered in a number.

  Suddenly, my text ring went off on my phone. When the man heard it, he whirled around and saw us, a puzzled look on his face. The text read:

  My sister already informed me of your arrival. I would love to speak with you. Please call.

  I looked back at him. He was smiling broadly. Coleman laughed out loud. It was Joseph.

  Immediately, the man jumped up and walked over to us.

  “Quite good timing,” he said with a thick Egyptian accent. “I’m Joseph. Glad to meet you.”

  Coleman gave me a look to remind me to practice Oneness, and I immediately held that intention, introducing both of us and telling Joseph that we were looking for some of our friends who had joined a group studying the Document here in St. Katherine.

  “I know one group here,” he said. “But tell me, how far along are you with the Integrations?”

  “We’ve formed a template group,” I said, “and are tuning in to our Guidance. We’ve just begun Oneness.”

  “So you’ve just begun the Eighth step,” he said, as though more was coming.

  “That’s right,” Coleman replied.

  Joseph asked me to describe Tommy and Rachel to him and when I did, he looked surprised.

  “I think I know who your friends are,” he said. “I haven’t met them yet, but they are here. I will take you to them.”

  He took one last look out toward the mountains.

  “Which peak is Sinai?” I asked.

  He pointed farther toward the southeast. “Jebel Musa? That’s it right there. Just to the right of St. Katherine’s Cathedral.”

&nb
sp; We stared at it for a long time, and as I tuned in, I thought I felt a calming, welcoming sensation. A flash of memory suddenly broke through, and I realized I was getting a hint, once again, of that mysterious point of Connection I had experienced on Secret Mountain.

  “I noticed,” I said to Joseph, “that you were kneeling toward Mount Sinai when we walked up.”

  He smiled. “Oh, no. I was looking toward Mecca. From here, Mecca is almost exactly on the other side of Jebel Musa. But when I’m in prayer, the two places feel aligned inside me.”

  He looked closely at Mount Sinai again. “It is said that Moses looked upon the face of God there. Wouldn’t you love to experience that?”

  In just thirty minutes, we were pulling through the gate of a large gray stone house about a mile away from the hotel. Joseph had driven us in his Toyota SUV.

  At that moment, I was hit by a stark realization. I was about to see Rachel again. Would I be able to open up to her in Oneness? Or would I feel the same old hesitation? I knew we had connected spontaneously on Secret Mountain, but since then, for some reason I had still resisted opening up to her. The Connection seemed too deep, or would lead to complications or something.

  As we got out of the vehicle, the door of the house flung open and Rachel and Tommy rushed out to greet us. I rubbed Tommy’s head and embraced Rachel, but I cut it short and again avoided prolonged eye contact with her.

  Coleman came along and swept Rachel into a big hug. He among everyone seemed to be the most excited about the reunion, and as we walked toward the house, he confided in me about his feelings.

  “I grew up with cold scientists as parents, bless their hearts,” he said. “I’ve never had a real family before.”

  Inside, we walked into a great room that was filled with nice leather furniture and Persian rugs. A dozen more people were waiting for us, all of them looking toward me intensely, and I looked away from them as well.