The Secret of Shambhala: In Search of the Eleventh Insight

by James Redfield

  I was expecting the clerics to ask what that was, but instead they nodded in agreement. Natalie began to lead us through the extensions, Tashi at her side.

  “Begin with the energy of the creator,” she said. “Let it come into your body and fill you up. Let it flow out the top of your head and through your eyes. Let it flow out into the world in a constant prayer-field until you see only beauty and feel only love. In a heightened alertness, expect this field to move out and boost the spiritual fields of the men above us, raising them into their intuitions.”

  Up on the hill, the men stared ominously and started down the path toward us.

  Tashi looked over at Natalie and nodded.

  “Now,” Natalie began, “we can empower the angels.”

  I glanced at Wil. “What?”

  “First,” Natalie continued, “we must make sure our fields are fully set to enter the fields of the men up there. See it happening. They aren’t enemies, they’re people, souls in fear. And then we must acknowledge the angels fully, and very deliberately visualize them coming to the men.

  “Then with all your expectations, visualize them amplifying our prayer-fields. Empower the angels fully to energize the higher selves of those men beyond what we can do alone, uplifting the men into an awareness that is incapable of evil.”

  I was staring at the two men on the hill, searching for the lighter area that would indicate the presence of the dakini, struggling to focus but seeing nothing.

  “It’s not working,” I said to Wil.

  “Look!” he shouted. “Up there to the right.”

  As I stared, I began to detect a light approaching, then noticed that the light was surrounding a person who was walking toward the two men. The man surrounded by the light had on the uniform of a deputy sheriff.

  “Who is that officer?” I asked Bill. “He looks familiar.”

  “Wait,” Wil said. “It’s not a person.”

  I looked again and watched as the deputy began to talk with the two men. The light surrounded them and they finally walked back toward their vehicle. Although the deputy remained where he was, the light extended out to them and surrounded the van. They quickly left.

  “The extension worked,” Wil said.

  I wasn’t really listening. My eyes were focused on the deputy, who had turned toward us. He was tall and had black hair. Where had I seen him before?

  It came to me as he turned and walked away. This was the same man I had seen at the pool in Kathmandu, the one who had first told me about the prayer research, the one I had glimpsed on several other occasions, the one Wil had called my guardian angel.

  “They’ve always posed as humans when necessary,” Tashi said, walking up to me with Natalie.

  “We have just completed the last extension,” Tashi added. “We finally know the secret of Shambhala. We can now begin to perform as those in Shambhala have done. They have looked out on the world and found key situations that were occurring and then interceded with not only the strength of their own prayer-field but the strength of the angelic realms as well. This is the role of the angels, to amplify.”

  “I don’t understand,” I said. “Why didn’t it work when we tried to stop Chang just before we came through the window?”

  “I didn’t know the last step,” Tashi said. “I didn’t realize what those in the temples were doing until I could talk to Natalie. We had been uplifting Chang, which was necessary, but we didn’t know to empower the angelic forces to come in on our energy and intervene. We have to begin with acknowledging the angels, but then, at this level of energy, we have to empower them to act. We must do this very intentionally. We must ask them to come.”

  Tashi stopped and looked out thoughtfully toward the horizon, a smile breaking out on his face.

  “What is it, Tashi?” I asked.

  “It’s Ani and the rest of Shambhala,” he said. “They’re linking with us. I can feel them.”

  He asked for everyone’s attention. “There’s one more thing we can do. We can empower the angels in a general way to protect this valley.”

  We followed along as Natalie led us through the process of setting a special field to flow out to the tops of the wooded ridges in all directions around the valley, and to empower the angels to protect us.

  “Visualize an angel being stationed on each ridge,” she said. “Shambhala was always protected. We can be protected too.”

  We all continued to focus on the mountains for several more minutes, then the two youths began another intense conversation between themselves, as we listened.

  They were talking about the other kids who had come through Shambhala, and the need for them to wake up, wherever they are. They told us that the kids coming in right now are more powerful than ever before. They’re bigger, stronger, more intelligent in a whole new way. More are involved in extracurricular activities than ever before. They sing, dance, play a greater variety of sports, make music, write. More of them are developing their talents at an earlier age than was ever seen in previous generations.

  “There’s only one problem. The force of their expectation is much greater, but they haven’t learned to fully monitor the effects of their thoughts yet. They can learn how the prayer-fields work. We can help them.”

  We watched as all the clerics began to walk toward Bill’s house, along with Natalie and Tashi, who were still deeply engaged in conversation.

  A moment of skepticism swept over me. Even after all that I’d seen, I still had my doubts that humans could really empower angels.

  “Do you really think we can summon angels to help ourselves and others?” I asked Wil. “Would we be given that much power?”

  “It’s not that easy,” he said. “In fact, it is impossible for someone with negative intentions to attempt. None of this works unless we are fully connected within with the energy of the creator, and sending our energy very consciously out in front of us, touching others. If we have the slightest bit of ego involved or anger present, all the energy collapses and the angels can’t respond. Do you see what I’m saying? We’re God’s agents on this planet. We can affirm and hold the vision of divine will, and if we authentically get in alignment with that positive future, we’ll have enough prayer-energy to direct the angels to act.”

  I nodded, knowing he was right.

  “Do you see what all this is?” he asked. “All this information, it’s the Eleventh Insight. The knowledge of the prayer-fields takes human culture a step further. When we understood the Tenth—that human purpose on this planet was to create an ideal spiritual culture by holding the vision—something was still missing. We didn’t know how, exactly, to hold it. We didn’t know the details of how to use our faith and expectation energetically.

  “Now we know. The reality of Shambhala, the secret of prayer-fields, has given us this. We can now hold the vision of a spiritual world and act to bring it about through our creative power. Human culture can’t progress further until we consciously use this power in the service of spiritual evolution. We have to do as those in the temples were doing: methodically set our prayer-fields on all those key situations out there that will make the difference. The true role of the media, especially television, is to point out these problem areas. We must notice every discussion, every scientific debate, every struggle someone is having between the dark and the light, and take the time to use our fields.”

  He looked around. “We can do this in small communities, churches, circles of friends all over the world. But what if the power of every religion was combined into one giant, unified prayer-field? Right now the field is fragmented, even canceled out by negative prayer and hatred. Good people are letting their thoughts add to evil, thinking it doesn’t matter.

  “But what if that changed? What if we set a field, larger than the world has ever seen, sweeping across the planet to uplift those insidious forces everywhere who want to centralize power and control everyone else? What if every reform group in every profession and occupation knew how to do
this? What if an awareness of the field spread that far?”

  Wil paused for a moment.

  “And what if we all really believed in the angelic realms,” he continued, “and knew that it was our birthright to empower them? There’s no situation we couldn’t immediately affect. The new millennium could look a lot different from how it is now. We would truly be the warriors of Shambhala winning the battle over how the future will look.”

  He stopped talking and looked at me very seriously. “It is the true challenge of this generation. If we don’t succeed, all the sacrifices of the past generations could be in vain. We might not get past the environmental damage that is occurring… or the insidious acts of the controllers.

  “The important thing,” Wil continued, “is to begin to build a conscious, ‘thought’ network. To link the warriors together… Every person who knows has to connect with everyone else in their lives who would want to know.”

  I was silent. What Wil was saying made me think of Yin and all the others under the Chinese tyranny. What had happened to him? I wouldn’t have made it without his help. I told Wil what I was thinking.

  “We can still find him,” Wil said. “Television is only the precursor to perfecting your mind’s eye, remember. Try to find an image of where he is.”

  I nodded and tried to let my mind go blank, thinking only of Yin. Instead the face of Colonel Chang appeared and I recoiled. I told Wil what had happened.

  “Remember the look he had,” Wil said, “when he seemed to be waking up, and find that expression in the image.”

  I found that expression in my mind’s eye, then suddenly the image shifted to Yin in a jail cell, surrounded by guards.

  “I saw Yin,” I said, extending my prayer-energy and empowering the higher realms until the scene grew lighter all around him. Then I visualized the light spreading to all those who were keeping him imprisoned.

  “See an angel by Yin,” Wil said, “… and by the colonel.”

  I nodded, thinking of the Tibetan code of compassion.

  Wil raised an eyebrow and smiled as I concentrated again on the images. Yin would be safe. Tibet would eventually be free.

  This time I had no doubt.