"The Celestine Prophecy" by James Redfield.
gnostic ken
James Redfield.
It is not a Gnostic book. I am including it for two reasons. It does
have some Gnostic ideas which are worth discussion outside the context
of Gnosticism, but the real reason I chose it is it is a prime example
of a literalist myth in the making. People have mistaken this work of
fiction for the literal truth just as ancient literalists mistook the
Gospels for history.
Ken
gnostic ken
I am so pleased to find a group that is about to discuss "The
Celestine Prophecy". I know many people who, like myself, found this
book and author almost life-changing; as far as changing the way that
we look at things in this world.
I first read it about the year 2000.
I have also read "the Celestine Vision" which is a non fiction book
that explains his philosophy and gives alot of ideas on how to fix the
things that need to be fixed in this world.
I will notify those friends of mine that I am connected to on the
internet about this group.
I am on a couple of yahoo groups concerned with the Redfield's
writings and will ask to post the link to this group.
I'll do what I can to spread the word.
Warmest regards and the very best of luck with this.
Sandra
Feb 1, '10 1:31 PM, I said:
Hi Everyone,
I love this book. Both for what it says and for what it is.
It is a perfect modern example of a myth.
It is a book written as fiction to tell spiritual truths which many
readers have mistaken for a documentary of actual events.
Nothing could be closer to what happened to the Gospels than what is
happening with this book.
Ken
May 15, 2006 10:28 PDT, nan- said:
hubba hubba! I've heard so much about this book. My church has an
on-going class about it, but it's a closed class. I think they're open
to
new members every September or January. Can't wait!
May 16, 2006 07:08 PDT I said:
I don't intend to summarize the chapters. We have had
three discussions about this book on the yahoogroups
study lists. I intend to repost some my old posts and
answer current comments and questions. Also a person
by the name of Rusty summarized the insights and gave
me permission to repost his posts, so I will repost
them here.
Ken
gnostic ken
spiritual development.
At first the insights are given and explained. Then they are given
and he has to try to understand them before they are explained. Next
he has to find them himself and explain them himself although he does
receive hints. Finally he is all on his own.
Another similarity between this story and my personal path is the
hero of the
story tried several times to quit the quest and go back to his
previous life.
Each time something happened to prevent it.
This has happened to me several times in this lifetime.
Ken - Dec. 30, 2002
gnostic ken
Now until you wrote the above I was inclined to dismiss this choice
as I
have read the Celestine prophecy and wasn't all that impressed.
Mainly
because it had been so hyped up by the media and when I read I
thought :Ok,
that's fine, so what ? But when you put the spin on it that you have
just
written, it feels much better and I might even be able to tolerate
reading
it again to see what treasure was there all along but that I missed
the
first time round !
Michèle
Feb 14, '10 " rusty said:
I find it bizarre that folks would give this a literal
interpretation. This book is so obviously fiction IMHO! (BTW I
wasn't
exposed to any of the hype over this book). Although I
understand "suspension of disbelief" and use it to appreciate
fiction...I was close to abandoning my reading of CP until the
insights began to appear. And when I got to the 4th insight I
couldn't put the book down!
Rusty
May 20, 2006, I said:
I missed most of the hype too. I was aware it existed but hadn't paid
much attention. Someone who believes it is literal gave me my copy
and told me I MUST read it.
Like you, I was disappointed at first. Then I started over reading it
as just a story. It was okay. After a while I realized it is a modern
myth. So I started over the third time and loved it.
Ken
Feb 15, '10, Rosalie said:
I really like your "take" on this, Ken! When I readthe book, a good
number of years ago, I didn't look at it that way, as amyth or
instructive story. It makes a hell of a lot more sense looking at
itthat way. Taking it literally, it was more than slightly
preposterous. I wonder if the author realized he was creating a myth,
whether he thoughthe was making up a good mystical-type fiction story,
or what. In any case,I'll have to go back now, find the book again,
and re-read it in a new light.
Rosalie
gnostic ken
In the first chapter the spiritual awakening which has occurred since
the 1960s is discussed. It is predicted that when enough people are
transformed a critical mass will be reached and society itself will
be transformed.
As I said before, this is written in the form of a story and a good
story at that. I'm not going to tell you the story. If you want to
know it you will have to get the book and read it yourself.
Anyway this transformation of more and more individuals and to a
degree of society itself is something I have observed. To me it is
the dawning of the new age. It is not just that which the media calls
the "New Age Movement" but is all the new spirituality both in and
out of the old churches. The real new age.
Ken
May 21, 2006, <pennd-@s...>; wrote:
That Critical Mass part sounds like the 100 Monkeys idea if you have
ever
heard of it. There's a tribe of monkeys in Japan that receive food
from
humans. At 1st one was found to wash it's food in the stream b4
eating. It
taught it's offspring to do likewise. After a while a number of
others were
gradually picking up the habit. As the magic number (100) approached,
suddenly the entire group picked up the habit literally overnight.
MP
Penn
May 21, 2006, Jenny wrote this:
I have also noted how spirituality is changing, it does seem to be
contagious in a way. More and more people are realising that there
is more
to reality than meets the eye. There seems to be a greater
acceptance and
tolerance between people from different cultures and creeds. It may
seem
that way to me because I only socialise and mix with those of like
mind, as
these are the beings that I am attracting into my life. Yes being
friendly
as I am, even strangers nowadays will be open to conversations on
topics
relating to other religions/beliefs and a lot of times are really
interested to know more. I often wonder though, if the snowball
effect of
critical mass is part of a cycle, has it happened before, or is it
just
that it's time has come. Mankind has advanced technologically,
nearly
everyone is influenced to some extent by the media (TV, literature)
and of
course the internet. Well whatever, it doesn't really matter
because all
is one and connected anyway. I feel that we are all part of
something
larger and greater, and when the train comes into the station some
will
have a ticket to ride and others will wait for the next train. And
some
haven't paid attention to the signs and don't know where the
station is :)
Jenny
May 22, 2006, I said:
I think something similar has happened before. In many ways the
situation today is becoming very much like it was before the
Christian age. Will it end up like it was or will it end up being
something totally different? I don't know yet. Ask me again in four
hundred years ;-)
But one thing is very clear to me. Things have been changing rapidly
during my lifetime. Spirituality is very, very different now than it
was when I was a child in the 1950's. We are in the beginning of a
new age.
Ken
May 22, 2006, Gnostic Tom said:
mega book stores
I remember the first time I went into a bookstore
that had sections for ALL religions, not just
the mainstream popular Christian stuff
new age bookstores
I remember seeing alternative collections of books
for the first time and realized that there were
many ways of thinking out there.
nag hammadi library
I remember reading Gospel of Thomas for the first
time in the 1970s, wondering what else I had been
missing out on reading, and searching ever since
internet
I remember discovering that I could use a search
tool to find and download the text of books that
were otherwise not available, of bookmarking
gopher sites
discussion groups
I remember 1999 belonging to a group called
The Bridge where spiritual discussions were wide
open and eclectic. I remember finding the
GnosticThought at Yahoo and discovering that I
am not the only one on this path.
cross cultural interweavings
I remember noting for the first time the resonances
of thought, the parallels of concepts, between
seemingly different religious paths
=====================================
Thomas Ragland (Gnostic Tom)
"So little time, so much to unlearn."
May 22, 2006, nan- said:
You see the change everywhere. Look at the new TV shows... especially
in
British Television. The mainstream entertainment is accepting and
enacting things that were considered very tabu in my early life time.
things like telapathy, psychic ability, divine femanine, plural
marriage,
reincarnation, etc.
I listened to the soundtrack from the movie Forrest Gump. The fifth
dimension's song "Age of Aquarius" is on that. Wow. The words to that
song are very prophetic. Very.
May 22, 2006, I answered Nan:
I think that song is where the term "New Age" comes
from.
Ken
gnostic ken
> I really like your "take" on this, Ken! When I read
> the book, a good number
> of years ago, I didn't look at it that way, as a
> myth or instructive story.
> It makes a hell of a lot more sense looking at it
> that way. Taking it
> literally, it was more than slightly preposterous.
> I wonder if the author
> realized he was creating a myth, whether he thought
> he was making up a good
> mystical-type fiction story, or what. In any case,
> I'll have to go back now, find
> the book again, and re-read it in a new light.
>
> Rosalie
Hi Rosalie,
Thank you.
My guess is that he was writing fiction with a message
and was surprised when people took it literally.
However, like Dan Brown today, he led people on and
never came right out and said "Hey folks! The story is
all fiction!"
Ken
May 21, 2006, "hec4atl" wrote:
This book reminded me of the Carlos Castaneda books that were out in
the 70's. Don Juan the yaqui mystic took Carlos on a series of
adventures meant to break down his perceptions and illusions of the
world. Carlos, having a stubborn ego, was very resistant to Don
Juan's reality and needed peyote and other drugs to finally break his
ego's view of the world.
As with Redfield's book he taught that there is a connection between
people and things and nothing happens coincidentially. People and
animals would appear to Carlos just when he needed them or to further
his quest for spirituality.
The end result is that we and the universe are made of pure energy
and when we can really see each other we appear as beings of pure
energy and light. Very interesting.
Peace,
Jim
May 21, 2006, Rosalie said:
The similarity of this story to the DaVinci Code did cross my mind
too! I
don't mean the stories are identical, but in the Celestine Prophecy
the main
character is traversing South America gaining great insights from
shamans,
gurus, whatever, there while the Catholic Church is trying to stop him
from
learning the "secrets." The DaVinci Code's main character is trying to
solve a
crime while Opus Dei of the Catholic Church is trying to stop him.
Rosalie
May 22, 2006, I said:
people from reading the book or seeing the movie ;-)
Ken
May 22, 2006, nan said:
I am very close with one of the ladies I work with.
I asked her if she wanted to see the DaVinci Code
with me. She said that, as a Catholic, it would be
sinful for her to attend the movie. She said that
the movie slams the catholic church. I said, it
really just slams Opus Dei. She said that one of
the priests in her parish is Opus Dei. I noticed a
car with "Opus Dei" as a vanity plate around town.
I felt sort of chilled when I saw that.
What sort of bothered me was when Deb said that
speculation about Jesus' personal life is "gossip".
Gossip. What an interesting choice of words. We
all gossip, but we hate to be accused of it. Gossip
carries such a distateful feeling to it. NO ONE
wants to be called a gossip. What an interesting
way her Opus Dei pastor managed to shut the members
of that church up. "Talk about Jesus in any way
other that I tell you to talk and you're a GOSSIP!"
I didn't know what to say after that. But it's
bothered me ever since.
May 22, 2006, I answered:
I don't know about the movie but the book doesn't even
slam the Opus Dei. It turned out to be just one insane
and misguided monk. Even the bishop of Opus Dei tried
to stop him when he realized what the monk was doing.
I can't understand why someone in the Catholic church
hasn't actually read the book.
Ken
gnostic ken
Reading this
book from beginning to end was a spiritual journey for me filled with
mystical experiences. Synchronicity led me to the book, which I
bought upon feeling warm vibrations emanating from my hand as I
absentmindedly touched a copy of the book resting on the bookstore
table.
Many of the concepts explained in the book were new to me at the
time. As if guided by an invisible teacher (Higher Self) who helped
me attain an experiential understanding of the insights, I was
synchronistically led to unusual experiences that demonstrated how
each insight worked immediately before I began reading about it. I
don't know how to explain this well, but my personal experiences
(especially the mystical ones) tend to show that the evolving human
mind/expanding consciousness does follow certain evolutionary
patterns or archetypes (symbolically illustrated in myths) that serve
as map or sign posts for the spiritually evolving man.
Clara