------------------------------------------------------------------- F.A.C.T.Net, Inc. (Fight Against Coercive Tactics Network, Incorporated) a non-profit computer bulletin board and electronic library 601 16th St. #C-217 Golden, Colorado 80401 USA BBS 303 530-1942 FAX 303 530-2950 Office 303 473-0111 This document is part of an electronic lending library and preservational electronic archive. F.A.C.T.Net does not sell documents, it only lends them according to the terms of your library cardholder agreement with F.A.C.T.Net, Inc. ------------------------------------------------------------------- Mystical Quest Is Like A Pyramid Scheme JOE SZIMHART The Celestine Prophecy. By James Redfield. Warner Books, New York, 1993. 246 pp. $17.95. Book covers can be interesting. On the front of this one is an endorse- ment by Elisabeth Kubler-Ross: "A fab- ulous book about experiencing life--I couldn't put it down." On the back we read: "You have never read a book like this before .... A book that comes along once in a lifetime to change lives forever." When James Redfield first published The Celestine Prophecy, before the bestselling Warner paper- back edition, it had been a "word of mouth" sensation among New Age cir- des--the cover says it was read by more than 100,000 before Warner placed 670,000 in print in less than three months. Warner offered Redfield a deal that he did not refuse (an $800,000 advance, as reported in New Age Journal, August 1994, p. 127). In the early edition it was classified as a New Age book, according to the book- seller I bought my copy from. When the Warner edition came in, she said, it was reclassified as fiction. Having read the book, I think "New Age fiction" describes it well enough. Recently when I was in New York I was directed to the New Age section of a large bookstore in Greenwich Village by the owner, who commented that this is the section where "the books take themselves seriously." I shared the humor. The Celestine Prophecy is a book that takes itself seriously. Subtitled "An Adventure," it is a story in the genre of "true story" occult fiction made popular in the mid- to late-nineteenth century by Edward Bulwer-Lytton (Zanonh The Coming Race), Marie Corelli (A Romance of Two Worlds), and a host of less popular writers. Bulwer-Lytton was a Rosicrucian sympathizer who ex- pressed the "mysteries" of his sect in Zanoni. In that book the author pur- ports to merely rewrite a manuscript that is mysteriously left in his office. Mysterious manuscripts have influ- enced popular imaginations to the extent that several new religions, cults, and belief systems have formed around such documents: the "golden plates" allegedly translated by Mormon founder Joseph Smith, the shadowy Book of Dzyan seen only by Theos- ophy's Madame H. E Blavatsky and on which she based her Secret Doctrine, the bogus manuscript about the lost years of Jesus allegedly seen by Nicholas Notovitch in Ladakh, and so on, from the nineteenth century. The cult of the mysterious manu- script and/or mystical autobiography carries over to the twentieth century in esoteric adventures by Baird T. Spaulding (Li~ and Teaching of the Masters of the Far East) and Guy "Godfre Ray King" Ballard (Unveiled Mysteries); in the missing Mexican tablets about the alleged lost civiliza- tion of Mu, by James Churchward; in Eugene E. Whitworth's Nine Faces of Christ: Quest of the True Initiate; and more recently in books by Carlos Castaneda and Lynn Andrews. The Mayan Factor, by Jose Arguelies, prophesied a planetary "harmonic con- vergence" in 1987 after loosely inter- preting an ancient calendar. Redfield takes up the theme of a mysterious "manuscript" as well as the mystical self quest. His book relates the secrets of life (ten "Insights") written in Aramaic around 600 B.C. but somehow found in Peru. This theme, more prop- erly called a literary device, is used by writers with a deep need to get what they believe is a serious personal vision across to the public through the vehicle of a magical autobiographical experi- ence. In his story, Redfield takes us on a journey of incredible coincidences as if he is guided by some unseen hand or telepathic force to meet the right peo- ple in his vague yearning to find the manuscript. He avoids getting shot, yet submits to arrest (only later to be released) while encountering sinister forces headed by a Cardinal Sabastian, who somehow controls the military and the manuscript. The evil cardinal is trying to wipe out all copies of the manuscript as well as all people with knowledge of the Insights. I was reminded of the movie Close Encounters of the Third Kind and Og Mandino's The Greatest Salesman in the WorM, underscored by J. R. R. Tolkien, with a bit of the latter's Golem charac- ter in Cardinal Sebastian. Redfield unabashedly panders to the New Age beliefs of some of his admirers: 1. The ancient wisdom or truth has been occulted (hidden) because the established orthodoxy, jealous of its power, does not want the masses to know the truth, 2. We are on the verge of a para- digm shift in human evolution. Does anyone remember the dawning of the Age of Aquarius in the late 1960s or the already-mentioned Harmonic Convergence in 19877 How about the "hundredth monkey" idea popularized by John Keyes, Jr. (and debunked in the SKEPTICAL INQUIRER, Summer 1985)? 3. When enough people get it, i.e., the Insights, the human race will hit the "critical mass" level, and we will all be enlightened. We will have peace on earth, the lion will lie down with the lamb, and we will walk in bodies of light. The Maharishi of Transcendental Meditation has been selling a path like this for decades. 4. The Christian church has been responsible for repressing the truth that in reality we are all "the Christ," that we axe truly God if we could only tran- scend our ignorance, i.e., the "brain- washing" imposed upon us by the Church, the popular consensus, or even modern scientists, about our "reality." 5. When we awaken (raise our ener- gy levels) to this inner reality, or gno- sis, we will have magical powers like clairvoyance, healing, invisibility, and immortality. On page 174, Redfield as the narrator is experiencing the Seventh Insight, which amounts to being able to see colored auras of ener- gy around creatures and objects. By the Ninth Insight, on page 242, we learn that invisibility can be attained: "'They can't see us!' Sanchez said. 'We are vibrating too highly!'" 6. We are co-creators of the uni- verse. We create our own reality. 7. If we get rid of "fear and doubt" we will maintain the "energy level" of our "higher self." The suggestion here is that anyone who might criticize the "teaching" (the "Celestine Prophecy" in this case) is merely expressing his or her fear and doubt. Therefore they will not gain the magical powers or "Insights," nor will they be saved. "All that any of us have to do is suspend our doubts and the distractions just long enough... and miraculously, this real- ity can be our own" (Redfield's note before page 1). Redfield's book cover lied to me in several ways. I have read a book like this one. It is not a prophecy. It is a didactic regurgitation of simplistic occult notions that have been ex- pressed by more or less talented writers and by fringe groups for more than a cen- tury. Redfield's style is cynical. He must take his audience for fools. His book, if nothing else, is like a transparent pyramid scheme, with him at the top of his "spiri- tual" franchise, that expects peo- ple to support whoever reveals the Ten Insights to them. "But what about the money?" I asked. "I can't believe people will voluntarily reduce their incomes." "Oh, we won't have to," Dobson said. "The Manuscript says our incomes will remain stable because of the people who are giving us money for the insights we provide." (p. 225) Since Redfield is the only source of revelation: "I've been thinking," Fr. Carl con- tinued, "that their're going to release you. You may be the only one who can look for it [Tenth Insight]." (p. 246) Guess who gets most of the money? Guess who gets most of the adulation? If you think I am merely being cynical, read the promotion at the back of this book: $29.95 for the newsletter and $49.95 for an audiotape reading of your sun and moon sign by Redfield. So now we know that he is an astrologer. That explains a lot, to me at least, about his worldview and his milieu. Also, Redfield promises us a second book explaining the "Tenth Insight." Do we have a new guru with a new religious move- ment here? The popularity of Redfield's book is not, therefore, surprising. Now and then books come out that appeal to a New Age or esoterically inclined audience that easily numbers in the tens of millions. Among them are the folks who read and believe books by Carlos Castaneda, Shirley MacLaine, and Lynn Andrews. Some have been influenced by reactionary revisions of the Jesus story and Christian orthodoxy in dictatorial tomes like A Course in Miracles and The Urantia Book. A Celestine Prophecy will go on my shelf among those just mentioned--but, alas, unlike The Urantia Book, it is not large enough to serve as a doorstop. ========================================== Joe Szimhart is a specialist in controver- sial new religions, therapies, and cults that use thought-reform techniques. He has worked internationally through con- sultation and intervention for more than a decade with many hundreds of victims of destructive cult activity. ========================================== ================================================================= If this is a copyrighted work, you are acknowledging by receipt of this document from FACTNet that on the basis of reasonable investigation, you have not been to obtain a copy elsewhere at a fair price, and that you are and will abide by the following copyright warning. WARNING CONCERNING COPYRIGHT RESTRICTIONS: The copyright law of the United States (Title 17, United States Code) governs the making of photo copies or other reproductions of copyrighted material. Under certain conditions specified by law, libraries and archives are authorized to furnish a photocopy or other reproduction. 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