2016/09/02

The Celestine Prophecy - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Celestine Prophecy

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Celestine Prophecy: An Adventure

Author	James Redfield
Country	United States
Language	English + 34 languages
Series	Celestine series
Genre	New-age, Religious Fiction
Publication date	1993
Media type	Print (Hardback &Paperback)movie
ISBN	0-446-51862-X
OCLC	29768419
Dewey Decimal	813/.54 20
LC Class	PS3568.E3448 C45 1993c
Preceded by	None
Followed by	The Tenth Insight: Holding the Vision; The Secret of Shambhala: In Search of the Eleventh Insight; andThe Twelfth Insight: The Hour of Decision

The Celestine Prophecy is a 1993 novel byJames Redfield that discusses variouspsychological and spiritual ideas rooted in multiple ancient Eastern traditions and New Age spirituality. The main character undertakes a journey to find and understand a series of nine spiritual insights in an ancient manuscript in Peru. The book is a first-person narrative of the narrator's spiritual awakening as he goes through a transitional period of his life.

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Summary

The book discusses various psychological and spiritual ideas that are rooted in many ancient Eastern traditions, such as how opening to new possibilities can help an individual establish a connection with the Divine. The main character undertakes a journey to find and understand a series of nine spiritual insights in an ancient manuscript in Peru. The book is a first-person narrative of spiritual awakening. The narrator is in a transitional period of his life and begins to notice instances of synchronicity, which is the belief that coincidences have a meaning personal to those who experience them.

The story opens with the male narrator becoming reacquainted with an old female friend, who tells him about the Insights contained in a manuscript dating to 600 BC, which has been only recently translated. After this encounter leaves him curious, he decides to go to Peru. On the airplane, he meets a historian who also happens to be interested in the manuscript.

The historian explains how the world is currently undergoing an enormous shift in consciousness, elaborating on how things had been generally understood until now: 1) at first people believed the world to be governed by the forces of divinity; everything could be explained as an act of a god or gods, 2) with increased knowledge of their world brought about through scientific inquiry, people turned to the men and women of science for an explanation of life and their world, and 3) without a satisfactory answer from science, people instead had them focus on efforts to improve their lives materially and subdue the earth, illustrated by a hyper-focus on economic conditions and fluctuations. What was now occurring, explained the historian, was that the baseness of current conditions was revealing itself in our souls. We had become restless and were now ready for another fundamental shift in thinking that would eventually bring about a better world.

He also learns that powerful figures within the Peruvian government and the Catholic Church are opposed to the dissemination of the Insights. This is dramatically illustrated when police try to arrest and then shoot the historian soon after his arrival. This forces the narrator to live a nomadic lifestyle amongst those wishing to bring news of the manuscript to the public at large.

The narrator then learns the Insights, one by one, often experiencing the Insight before actually reading the text, while being pursued by forces of the Church and the Peruvian government. In the end, he succeeds in learning the first nine Insights and returns to the United States, with a promise of a Tenth Insight soon to be revealed. The Insights are given only through summaries and illustrated by events in the plot. The text of no complete Insight is given, which the narrator claims is for brevity's sake; he notes that the "partial translation" of the Ninth Insight was 20 typewritten pages in length.

In the novel, the Maya civilization left ruins in Peru where the manuscript was found, whereupon the Incas took up residence in the abandoned Maya cities after the Maya had reached an "energy vibration level" which made them cross a barrier into a completely spiritual reality.

Influences

Redfield has acknowledged the work of Dr. Eric Berne, the developer of Transactional Analysis, and his 1964 bestseller Games People Play, as major influences on his work.

Publishing history, adaptations and sequels

Redfield originally self-published The Celestine Prophecy, selling 100,000 copies out of the trunk of his Honda before Warner Books agreed to publish it.^[1]

Christopher Franke, former member of Tangerine Dream, adapted the book into a music album in 1996.^[2]

As of May 2005, the book had sold over 20 million copies worldwide,^[3] with translations into 34 languages.

Celestine Films LLC released a film adaptation titled The Celestine Prophecy in 2006.

Redfield expanded the book's concept into a series, which he completed in three sequels:

The Tenth Insight: Holding the Vision (1996)
The Secret of Shambhala: In Search of the Eleventh Insight (1999)
The Twelfth Insight: The Hour of Decision (2011)^[4]

Reception and critique

The book was generally well received by readers and spent 165 weeks on the New York Times Best Seller list.^[5] The Celestine Prophecy has also received some criticism, mostly from the literary community, who point out that the plot of the story is not well developed and serves only as a delivery tool for the author's ideas about spirituality.James Redfield has admitted that, even though he considers the book to be a novel, his intention was to write a story in the shape of a parable,^[6] a story meant to illustrate a point or teach a lesson.

Critics point to Redfield's heavy usage of subjective validation and reification in dealing with coincidences to advance the plot thus spending more time concentrating on the explanation of spiritual ideas rather than furthering character development or developing the plot in a more traditional manner.

Critics also point to improperly explained and, in some cases, completely unexplained “facts” as flaws in the story.^[7] Examples of this include the author’s suggestion of the presence of a Mayan society in modern-day Peru, rather than in Central America, as well as the suggestion that the manuscript was written in 600 BC in the jungles of Peru, despite the fact that it is written in Aramaic. Another point of criticism has been directed at the book’s attempt to explain important questions about life and human existence in an oversimplified fashion.^[8]^[9]

References

http://www.llumina.com/self_publishing.htm
Berling, Michael (3 August 2014). "The Celestine Prophecy". Voices in the Net.
Prestashop 1.5. "Book Editing Services - Llumina Press". llumina.com. Retrieved 15 May2015.
"The Twelfth Insight - About". thetwelfthinsight.com. Retrieved 15 May 2015.
"Books That Were Originally Self-Published" (PDF). google.com. Retrieved 15 May 2015.
The Celestine Prophecy
"Jaguar Sun: The Maya people of the past and present". jaguar-sun.com. Retrieved 15 May2015.
Celestine Prophecy - Book Review by Joseph Szimhart
"Articles - Doctrinal - Cults - The Celestine Prophecy". lamblion.com. Retrieved 15 May2015.

The Celestine Prophecy (1995) ISBN 0-446-67100-2

External links

Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=The_Celestine_Prophecy&oldid=733284767"

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2016/09/01

Shari to Sejin on NVC applied to wider society

20160812 Shari

Hi Sejin,

Im smiling as I remember the sweetness of our connection at the NVC training - and wondering how you are going with connecting with your son in a new way?

You asked about NVC being used in the world in creating social change and peace, and I said I would come back to you. I see this as a really important question as Im constantly asking, "how can I contribute to creating a world where there is care for all beings through our systems and structures" . Of course, the contributions NVC has had often are not captured on video or recorded in an article, but are part of a dialogue… frequently unrecognised within a worldwide community… but still potent and having affect. So here are a few of the examples of what is happening world wide in recent times (with people other than marshall) that I AM aware of.

---

1. There is for me such an inspirational documentary which was created in Nepal which was part of the reconciliation from the civil war. There is a bigger program which has now flowed on from this documentary. The link to that is…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RqA2OydkXgg&feature=youtu.be

2. This is an outline of what happened to bring a group of decision makers together to reform Minnesota’s child custody legislation. Everyone believed reform had no possibility of happening to this legislation as there was such diverse perspectives and because people had become so hostile with each other. This change affects thousands and thousands of families to create more peaceful families - the basic structure of society.
Miki Kashtan who headed this reform dialogue is an NVC certified trainer who developed systems based on using NVC as the basis of everything she does. http://baynvc.org/minnesota-dialogues/

3. Dominic Barter has been engaged in Rio at a grass roots level, working in the favelas and directly with the police force there. Here is an excerpt from an email he recently sent. The work he has done there using NVC has reduced killings by large numbers by affecting systemic systems through creating understanding and engagement.

Sadly, government policy has now changed and much of the work is undone but still there were 100’s if not 1000’s of lives saved in the time it was working. Here is his email…

----

In the next few days and weeks many of you will see news reports from Rio, and maybe wonder how this experience relates to the NVC work we do here.

This article, published yesterday in the UK's Guardian newspaper, gives a good summary of the situation as it relates to the police. The article describes the very significant changes brought about by the controversial, significantly flawed but nonetheless transformative programme of Police Pacification Units in the city's favelas. From 2011 to 2014 I was 'orientor' of the mediation programme for the police in these units. This involved basic introductions to NVC for hundreds of police, but mostly it involved intensive accompaniment of them in their daily work as they patrolled communities and worked in their makeshift bases. It also involved supporting them in building different community relationships and creating what I call 'spaces safe for dialogue', with the systemic conditions necessary for offering mediation and conducting Restorative Circles.

The article also describes how the significant drops in death rates and the improvements in community relations were lost in the years since. I hope knowing of both the changes and their recent loss can help you in your work of illustrating the conditions that violence requires to grow and to diminish, and in exemplifying to those you teach how NVC is being used around the world.

http://www.theguardian.com/global-development-professionals-network/2016/aug/03/rio-police-violent-killing-olympics-torture?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other

Today and tomorrow you may see images from the official opening of the Olympic Games. You're unlikely to see the thousands who occupied Rio's most iconic music venue last night, or the many more who'll be demonstrating for a more humane response to unmet social needs throughout the day. Please keep such 'invisible' actions in your thoughts.

----

Sejin, This is a small smattering of what I know and what I can quickly connect with to send you. But without understanding and moving beyond our enemy images, I cannot see how any shift in peace can occur - and our inherited language won’t help us.

I will call you separately to explore attending the ENCT in October. To check it out, http://embodyingnvc.com/.

Blessings Sejin

Shari

----

How did Rio's police become known as the most violent in the world?

Once in decline, killings by police in Rio de Janeiro are on the rise as the Olympic games approach

A UPP (Pacifying Police Unit) officer patrols in the Babilonia favela, which stands on a hillside above Copacabana beach, an Olympic venue site. Photograph: Mario Tama/Getty Images

Robert Muggah

Are Rio de Janeiro’s military and civil police really the world’s most violent? That is the conclusion of separate studies released by Amnesty International and Human Rights Watchearlier this year. They are accusing Rio de Janeiro’s police forces of routinely torturing and killing citizens – especially young black men – during arrest. They also say the problem is getting much worse as the Olympics approach.

The scale of Rio de Janeiro’s military and civil police involvement in the excessive use of force is chilling. And it is hardly a new phenomenon. In 2003 they were responsible for 1,195 civilian deaths across Rio de Janeiro state, most of them young black men. In 2007, 1,330 citizens reportedly died in the course of police action. These numbers are breathtaking when you consider that in 2015, across the whole of the US (a country with a population more than 50% larger than Brazil’s) an estimated 1,134 people were killed by police.

But those numbers don’t tell the whole story. In fact, although the situation is dire, overall numbers of killings involving police – “auto-resistance deaths” in the sanitised language of law enforcement – have declined over the past decade. Between 2003 and 2015 they actually fell by 46% across the entire state of Rio de Janeiro, and 62% in the capital. In 2013, for example, there were just 416 civilians killed. This is not to excuse the police – violence is intolerably high – but to put the statistics in historical perspective.

So what explains the long-term drop in police killings? Researchers first detected sizeable improvements after 2009 in the wake of a new police strategy in Rio de Janeiro. Auto-resistance killings dropped bymore than 85% in areas where the approach was introduced. The initiative consisted of newly trained pacification police units who were permanently deployed to many parts of the city, often for the first time. A key ingredient of the programme’s early success was the emphasis on rewarding reductions in violent crime.

policeman with guns and residents — Residents appear unconcerned during a police operation against drug traffickers in the ‘pacified’ Jacarezinho slum in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Photograph: Felipe Dana/AP

Unfortunately, these improvements were short lived. Starting in 2014, the numbers started creeping up. In 2014 there were 584 people killed during the course of arrest; in 2015, the number rose again to 645. So far in 2016, this upward trend continues. From January to May, 322 civilians were killed as a result of police interventions in the state of Rio de Janeiro, a 13% increase over the same period last year according to the state’s Institute for Public Security.

So what makes Rio de Janeiro’s police so violent? At least one reason is the officers’ personal exposure to violence, a taboo subject in law enforcement circles. A 2014 Stanford-University-led survey of Rio’s military police officers found that many experienced high levels of violence during childhood. Roughly 18% of respondents witnessed a homicide as a child. Another 25% were victims of a violent assault at a young age and 32% said they had a friend or family member murdered. It is widely known that previous exposure to violence can reproduce aggressive behaviour.

There are several other factors driving the recent spike in police violence. For one, the many political and economic crises wracking Brazil – and Rio de Janeiro in particular – are contributing to a spike in crime and significant reductions in spending in public security. The state’s public security budget was cut by more than 30% in 2016. As a result, innovative programmes – including UPP intervention – have ground to a halt. Police morale has plummeted,partly because they are rarely paid on time, if at all.

Police patrol on the Copacabana promenade in Rio de Janeiro. Photograph: Nic Bothma/EPA

Another key turning can be traced back to mid-2013 following thetorture, disappearance and killing of a young man named Amarildo de Souza by police officers in Rocinha, the city’s largest favela. Thehighly publicised murder triggered a “Rocinha effect”, similar to the so-called Ferguson effect, or “viral video effect” in the US. There have been a string of flagrant incidents of police violence in Rio de Janeiro over the past few years, often caught on video. As evidence of abuses circulated in social media, officers became much less proactive in high-risk neighbourhoods. Local residents also became less inclined to report crimes or ask for police help, often taking justice into their own hands instead.

There is a real danger that Rio de Janeiro’s police resorting to the repressive tactics of the past. Brazilian police have a martial history. Before independence in 1822, law and order duties were the preserve of state-led armies. Reforms in the late 30s led to the creation of state-led police forces, though most retained their military culture. It was not until the creation of the 1988 constitution – Article 144 in particular – that military and civil police were subordinated to state governors.

It is easy to forget that before democracy in 1985 the military police served as the clenched fist of the Brazilian state. During the dictatorship, military police were regularly deployed to crush opposition and undertake clandestine operations, including targeted killings, disappearances and torture. Notwithstanding some reform, the legacy endures. The risk now is that with the crisis of policing in Rio de Janeiro, even the incremental gains could be lost.

Join our community of development professionals and

Shari to Sejin on NVC applied to wider society

20160812 Shari

Hi Sejin,

Im smiling as I remember the sweetness of our connection at the NVC training - and wondering how you are going with connecting with your son in a new way?

---

----

I will call you separately to explore attending the ENCT in October. To check it out, http://embodyingnvc.com/.

Blessings Sejin

Shari

----

How did Rio's police become known as the most violent in the world?
Once in decline, killings by police in Rio de Janeiro are on the rise as the Olympic games approach
A UPP (Pacifying Police Unit) officer patrols in the Babilonia favela, which stands on a hillside above Copacabana beach, an Olympic venue site. Photograph: Mario Tama/Getty Images
Robert Muggah
Wednesday 3 August 2016 21.09 AESTLast modified on Friday 26 August 201604.33 AEST

Are Rio de Janeiro’s military and civil police really the world’s most violent? That is the conclusion of separate studies released by Amnesty International and Human Rights Watchearlier this year. They are accusing Rio de Janeiro’s police forces of routinely torturing and killing citizens – especially young black men – during arrest. They also say the problem is getting much worse as the Olympics approach.
The scale of Rio de Janeiro’s military and civil police involvement in the excessive use of force is chilling. And it is hardly a new phenomenon. In 2003 they were responsible for 1,195 civilian deaths across Rio de Janeiro state, most of them young black men. In 2007, 1,330 citizens reportedly died in the course of police action. These numbers are breathtaking when you consider that in 2015, across the whole of the US (a country with a population more than 50% larger than Brazil’s) an estimated 1,134 people were killed by police.
But those numbers don’t tell the whole story. In fact, although the situation is dire, overall numbers of killings involving police – “auto-resistance deaths” in the sanitised language of law enforcement – have declined over the past decade. Between 2003 and 2015 they actually fell by 46% across the entire state of Rio de Janeiro, and 62% in the capital. In 2013, for example, there were just 416 civilians killed. This is not to excuse the police – violence is intolerably high – but to put the statistics in historical perspective.
So what explains the long-term drop in police killings? Researchers first detected sizeable improvements after 2009 in the wake of a new police strategy in Rio de Janeiro. Auto-resistance killings dropped bymore than 85% in areas where the approach was introduced. The initiative consisted of newly trained pacification police units who were permanently deployed to many parts of the city, often for the first time. A key ingredient of the programme’s early success was the emphasis on rewarding reductions in violent crime.
policeman with guns and residents
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Residents appear unconcerned during a police operation against drug traffickers in the ‘pacified’ Jacarezinho slum in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Photograph: Felipe Dana/AP
Unfortunately, these improvements were short lived. Starting in 2014, the numbers started creeping up. In 2014 there were 584 people killed during the course of arrest; in 2015, the number rose again to 645. So far in 2016, this upward trend continues. From January to May, 322 civilians were killed as a result of police interventions in the state of Rio de Janeiro, a 13% increase over the same period last year according to the state’s Institute for Public Security.
A survey of Rio's military police officers found roughly 18% of respondents witnessed a homicide as a child
So what makes Rio de Janeiro’s police so violent? At least one reason is the officers’ personal exposure to violence, a taboo subject in law enforcement circles. A 2014 Stanford-University-led survey of Rio’s military police officers found that many experienced high levels of violence during childhood. Roughly 18% of respondents witnessed a homicide as a child. Another 25% were victims of a violent assault at a young age and 32% said they had a friend or family member murdered. It is widely known that previous exposure to violence can reproduce aggressive behaviour.
There are several other factors driving the recent spike in police violence. For one, the many political and economic crises wracking Brazil – and Rio de Janeiro in particular – are contributing to a spike in crime and significant reductions in spending in public security. The state’s public security budget was cut by more than 30% in 2016. As a result, innovative programmes – including UPP intervention – have ground to a halt. Police morale has plummeted,partly because they are rarely paid on time, if at all.
Police patrol on the Copacabana promenade in Rio de Janeiro.
FacebookTwitterPinterest
Police patrol on the Copacabana promenade in Rio de Janeiro. Photograph: Nic Bothma/EPA
Another key turning can be traced back to mid-2013 following thetorture, disappearance and killing of a young man named Amarildo de Souza by police officers in Rocinha, the city’s largest favela. Thehighly publicised murder triggered a “Rocinha effect”, similar to the so-called Ferguson effect, or “viral video effect” in the US. There have been a string of flagrant incidents of police violence in Rio de Janeiro over the past few years, often caught on video. As evidence of abuses circulated in social media, officers became much less proactive in high-risk neighbourhoods. Local residents also became less inclined to report crimes or ask for police help, often taking justice into their own hands instead.

Rio de Janeiro: 'It's a deep injustice that gun violence is tolerated'

There is a real danger that Rio de Janeiro’s police resorting to the repressive tactics of the past. Brazilian police have a martial history. Before independence in 1822, law and order duties were the preserve of state-led armies. Reforms in the late 30s led to the creation of state-led police forces, though most retained their military culture. It was not until the creation of the 1988 constitution – Article 144 in particular – that military and civil police were subordinated to state governors.
It is easy to forget that before democracy in 1985 the military police served as the clenched fist of the Brazilian state. During the dictatorship, military police were regularly deployed to crush opposition and undertake clandestine operations, including targeted killings, disappearances and torture. Notwithstanding some reform, the legacy endures. The risk now is that with the crisis of policing in Rio de Janeiro, even the incremental gains could be lost.
Join our community of development professionals and

2016/09/02