The Twelfth Insight: The Hour of Decision

by James Redfield

  When Wil hung up his phone, I edged over beside him.

  “Okay, Wil,” I said, “what about the Twelfth? Tell us what the Document actually says.”

  His eyes twinkled for a moment as everyone gathered around him.

  “It says the Twelfth fires up the culminating pathways in our brains,” he said. “It integrates all the Integrations. Think about how the Presence makes you feel. No problem with expecting and sustaining the Synchronicity now, is there? Or telling the truth and accepting it from others as we build out the details of our new spiritual worldview? How about manipulating people and being hit with all that Karma? Anybody want to start doing that again?

  “No,” he continued. “We want to stay in Alignment and in the consciousness that gives us all these other abilities: premonitions that offer us Protection, guiding intuition, higher Agape relationships, and an opening to full perception—and of course, all those messages from the Afterlife.

  “The Twelfth says that if enough of us stay in this Alignment and in the Presence, the Plan can become conscious in human culture. With this knowledge, an enlightened center way will arise in politics. Civility and charm can return to human culture. And every government and every field of human endeavor will move into a state of Integrity.”

  “What about the Templates of Agreement?” Coleman asked.

  “It says the Templates of Agreement will gradually move each tradition,” Wil replied, “toward an acknowledgment of the one Presence, allowing the differences between the religions to be less divisive. Reconciliation will create a groundbreaking unity as we all focus on the experience that is possible.” He paused. “The numbers are everything. It just depends on how many people are holding the Alignment.”

  As he talked, a question was forming in my mind.

  “Does the Twelfth say,” I asked, “how many people it would take to turn the world around and to begin to create the ideal world the prophecies predict?”

  “A lot, just to get it started. The Document mentions again that many smaller groups in history have reached the point where we are now and weren’t able to keep it going. The world is still deep in fear. And as we’ve seen, the stakes are getting higher.”

  All of us were huddled just off the path, in a circle.

  “Does the Twelfth give us the specific number?” I pressed.

  “Yes,” Wil said. “It is the same as with some of the other prophecies.”

  “What is it?”

  “144,000.”

  As soon as we reached St. Katherine, Tommy and his mother said good-bye as well, stating that they wanted to visit their friends at the big house one more time. They had given everyone a hug and were beginning to walk away. But after only a few paces, Tommy stopped and turned toward me.

  “There’s much to be done,” he added, “so I’ll see you in Sedona.”

  He smiled then and ran to join his mother, leaving me wondering what he meant.

  Most of the others said good-bye as well and went with them, leaving only Wil, Coleman, and me standing together on the street. Coleman offered his hand.

  “I’m going with them, too,” he said. “Some of my scientist friends want to start an institute to study all this. Do you believe it?”

  He walked over and gave Wil and me both a bear hug.

  “Listen,” I said. “Thanks for being there all those times.”

  “I should thank you,” he replied. “You reached me. It just shows how things change, one Conscious Conversation at a time.”

  Wil and I waved as he jogged off after the others, then Wil turned to face me.

  “I was able to book a flight to Cairo,” he said, smiling.

  He then told me he had finally reached his friend the archaeologist, who had originally sent him the first part of the Document. The man had been in hiding, and Wil wanted to leave right away to talk to him.

  He paused and we continued to look at each other, delaying the parting.

  “What about Colonel Peterson?” Wil asked.

  “The last thing he told me,” I replied, “was that they were ready, and that all it takes is a coalition between the far Left and Right to implement his plan. I still don’t know what he meant.”

  “I think you’re going to find out,” Wil said. “Better stay alert.”

  I nodded, then said, “I forgot to ask. Did you have any luck finding the people who had released this Document originally?”

  He smiled and said, “You already know who it was.”

  I thought for a moment.

  “Shambhala people?”

  “There are more of them than I thought. They’re going to be helping with everything. I’ll let you know what I find out.”

  He was beginning to leave, but I thought of one last question.

  “Why did they send the Twelfth to Anish?”

  Wil laughed and pulled his pack onto his shoulder.

  “They’re like Wolf,” he said. “They know things.”

  And with that, he was gone, leaving me alone. Only I wasn’t alone. In fact, I knew I would never be alone again.

  EPILOGUE

  The next day, I booked flights through Cairo myself. But I didn’t go back to Georgia. Instead, I went to Sedona. During the journey, the Presence was always there, and it didn’t fade at all unless I fell into ego or became distracted in some way.

  When that occurred, I had only to come back into Alignment again, and move into appreciation—and immediately the Presence was back. If nothing else, this consciousness was eminently provable to oneself.

  With the Presence came the Agape and a kind of automatic expectation of Synchronicity and a remembering to make sure along the way that I had told the absolute truth to others—voicing especially the intuitive ideas that I felt they needed to hear. What made the most difference was the intention to merge higher minds with people. When I did that, the most ordinary of conversations would suddenly turn magical, and I would always receive something back.

  After a while, I was able to experience what Wil had called “the integration of the integrations” just by being aware that this enveloping Presence came with me into an airplane, or a room full of people, often to the distinct perception of others. This recognition of sharing the Presence kept me in Alignment at an even higher level, and I knew that if enough of us were doing this, then the consciousness could quickly spread.

  I found that the emerging Twelfth Insight was in no way just a theory. It was a new level of being that could be discovered and lived by any person, across all cultures and religions. If we keep the Presence with us and stay alert, the means necessary to be of service—and to make the world a better place—would always be provided.

  The only real difficulty for any of us, I knew, in holding this consciousness, was the insidious effect of the old, material worldview. It is still out there, whispering in our ear, telling us the world is hard and unforgiving and that leading a life of some esoteric, saintly intent is impossible. That is true, of course, if we think of ourselves as being alone in a meaningless Universe. But the fact is, we aren’t. We can stay in Alignment, and prove to ourselves that we live in a Universe that is, in essence, a Dream Machine—just waiting for us to turn it on.

  Two days later, when I arrived in Sedona, I went immediately to the Airport Vortex and climbed up on the rocks to watch the sunset. There were only one or two other people there, so I took a seat on the very top and closed my eyes, feeling the warmth of the sinking sun on my face.

  Suddenly someone sat down beside me with a plop. I looked around to see Tommy’s smiling face.

  “You came to tell me,” I said, “that it’s all going to be okay, didn’t you?”

  He gave me that look that made him seem so much older.

  “I came to tell you that the flame of this consciousness must not be allowed to go out. This historical moment is too important. It is the hour of decision, and every person alive must make a choice.”

  He then looked at me as though he might burst out
laughing. “After all, Dr. Coleman’s scale is still up there in the sky, and every thought counts.”

  I nodded, then asked, “Tommy, have you received your tribal name yet?”

  “Yes—last night, from the elders.”

  “What is it?”

  “Mountain Timekeeper.”

  I smiled, knowing it was perfect. He would do his part to make the vision of the Calendar known.

  We fell into silence then, and I gazed out at a familiar-looking sunset—little angel swirls of pink clouds, stark against a deep blue sky.

  As I watched, my thoughts drifted again to the state of the world. Would, indeed, enough of us move into Alignment to meet the challenge? As I pondered the question, I heard a crow caw in the distance. And in that moment, I caught the faintest fragrance of rose in the air. Yes, I thought, I’m betting yes.

  celestinevision.com

  READING GROUP GUIDE

  A Conversation with James Redfield

  Q: How did you become interested in human spiritual awareness? What experiences have you had that led you to express your thoughts in writing?

  My interest was in how spirituality was actually experienced by people. I was a professional counselor and realized I was meeting ever more people who were becoming more conscious of their direct spiritual experience in life. As I researched the similarities in these experiences, I felt that humanity was actually discovering a series of insights into spiritual experience in this historical period that was very important. This is what the Celestine Series of books is all about.

  Q: You have written both fiction and nonfiction. How do you feel your message changes for each genre? You have written more fiction books on the subject, so do you feel that fiction is a more powerful medium?

  For purposes of overview and understanding, sometimes nonfiction can work well. But one runs the risk that the information becomes too theoretical and academic. A story format can solve that problem because it allows the concepts I’m speaking about to be illustrated in a real-life story where people face ordinary situation. Thus the reader can witness how the characters discover and live a deeper spiritual reality in everyday life.

  Q: The Celestine Prophecy was first published in 1994. How do you find audiences have changed since then? Are Americans growing more or less spiritually aware?

  Americans, along with other people in the world, face a human culture that is more challenging and filled with obvious imperfection and corruption. However, at the same time, we can also observe a real counter-trend occurring in the world, where people want to stand against the corruption and loss of integrity they see. This posture is leading to the rediscovery of the transformative power of honesty and integrity, because it directly leads to higher levels of spiritual experience.

  Q: Wil explains that people’s lives are very busy, so it’s hard to stay open to the next synchronicity. He says, “We always think we’re behind, with too much to do.” What other barriers do you think make it difficult for people to be open to synchronicities?

  First of all, synchronicity is how the divine makes its loving presence known to us. And it is always a result of our soul’s desire to grow. We sense something in life we want to explore, or learn, or we need help with a problem, and answers are provided. Yet often, we are so distracted we don’t recognize that we are being offered help and greater self-understanding through message brought to us by others. Skepticism is the other great inhibitor of living a spiritual life. We have to understand that mysterious coincidences and intuitions are a part of the real world, built into a spiritual design to show us our higher destiny and an easier path to success.

  Q: Wil says, “Food in the first level of energy we allow into our consciousness, so it’s basic to integrating a higher mastery over life.” We also see narrator eat a processed pie from a gas station and end up with low energy and a headache. Would you say more about why our food choices are so important? What obstacles do you think are for people to eat better? Conversely, what opportunities exist for us change our eating patterns?

  It is a matter of self-education. Most doctors know that processed foods are dead of nutritional value, and do great harm to our health. Some doctors, such as Russell Baylock, and Joseph Mercola, specialize in this problem. They tell us these foods have no life force left in them and would taste terrible expect for chemical additives that are designed to adhere to the glutamate receptors in our brains and fool us into thinking we are eating something good. These free glutamate chemicals inflame our brains and cause many of the diseases that are now at epidemic levels, especially obesity. Our great challenge is to avoid processed foods, as well as certain restaurants that use seasonings with these hidden glutamates. Having a healthy, clear mind is the first step toward developing a heightened spiritual consciousness. Making this choice is hard, but it is the only way to stay clear in this historical time.

  Q: Do you practice the message you present in your book? Do you find there are obstacles in your own life that you must get past to stay in the flow?

  The Twelfth Insight is a compilation of practices that I think people are already discovering in the world that work. The choice is whether one wants to stay unconscious or conscious. So the challenge is the same foe all of us. Do we want to make spiritual awareness a priority? With most of us, including me, it is a matter of remembering what is at stake first thing in the morning. Once I do that, I can stay aware of the tiny miracles that are helping me all day long. I think anyone will find that if they do these practices for two weeks, it becomes very easy.

  The good news is that if we practice each insight in sequence, each builds on the next until in the end we can just connect with God’s presence in our lives, and the others become automatic. And what’s great is that once we commit to the first step: “Expecting Synchronicity each day,” then Synchronicity itself will lead us through the remaining steps.

  Let me make an attempt at outlining how this works. Once we begin to tune in to Synchronicity then we immediately get a larger historical perspective on what is occurring. All of human culture is awakening from a narrow, materialistic view of life that’s centuries old. We intuitively understand that this awakening is not just timely. It’s the next step forward for humankind.

  We further see that we participate in this evolution by engaging in what I have called “conscious conversion.” Honesty is the key. When we have authentic conversations at this depth, with no manipulation toward others, then others respond from the soul and we receive information that feels meaningful and synchronistic to our dreams and challenges. It always feels like something we needed to hear at that exact moment. And if we also listen to our intuition as to what to say to others that will help them, intending to be a Synchronicity fro them, we’ll say something magical that can aid the other person in life.

  And this leads us to another step. We realize that the intention to be honest, and to be as helpful as possible to others, enlarges and centers our lives in ways we never imagined. It produces a clarity that represents a download of what I have called “the rest of our spiritual intelligence.” We know intuitively what to say and how to operate in life as never before. And we realize that what we are doing is moving into alignment with the karmic design of the universe. And the universe rewards this alignment. We become luckier, more creative, more clear-minded. The world seems to cooperate with the unfolding of our best dreams.

  This brings us to the next step: the test. Our honesty is always tested by those who are trying to pull us into untruth, usually in the form of political and religious ideology, into a system of ideas that isn’t discussed and validated through conscious conversation, but is imposed, in order to become part of an ideological group. The political far right and far left are two examples of such a group delusion. Any religion that says its dogma is the only way to talk about or pursue spirituality is another.

  Yet if we transcend this temptation and keep looking for the honest truth of direct spiritual experience, we continue to more
forward. We reach an even higher level of spiritual connection with the divine, one characterized by a heightened sense of well-being, love, and further clarity of mind. We become aware of our personal contribution to the world that we cam to Earth to manifest.

  And with this level, we enlarge even further and become even more intuitively guided through life, and more easily in telepathic oneness with others. Plus, the world becomes perceptively more beautiful, even heavenly, and we discover ways to intuitively communicate with departed loved ones. Most of all, we become even more aware of the collective force of prayer to help move the world forward.

  Here, finally, we begin to live in God’s presence in a way only the great saints have achieved—yet which seems ordinary, even commonplace in its simplicity. As more people live this consciousness every day, we become part of a great awakening, a contagious model for others to emulate. In this manner, a new spiritual culture slowly emerges on Earth. So you see that it all builds upon itself, one step at a time. In the end, I believe the world will become more miraculous than we can imagine, and it all starts with that one act of expecting Synchronicity every day.

  Q: Besides writing books, what other activities do you engage in to spread your message of human spiritual awareness? Are there organizations or programs you think readers might be interested to know about?

  Yes, I’d like everyone to know about our free Global Prayer Project that meets every other week over a conference call and Internet connection. Here people from all over the world seek to be together in a prayer visualization aimed at uplifting the world. We also have a healing circle for members, and a time of discussion about direct spiritual experience.

  Q: Are there any questions you would encourage your readers to ask themselves to help open up their own spiritual awareness? After they’ve read your books, do you have recommendation for a first step in implementing these insights.