Last night in Page Auditorium, James Redfield told people of nine insights that he said would lead them to enlightenment.
Redfield, author of the best-seller "The Celestine Prophecy," spoke to a crowd of about 700 for almost three hours, explaining each of these insights in detail and relating them to people's everyday lives.
Redfield referred to the first insight as the "critical mass," which is reached only when a sufficient amount of people experience their lives as a spiritual journey. Such a journey is based on the significance of mysterious coincidences that many people often attribute to mere chance.
Redfield stressed that these occurrences are controlled by a "universal force" that guides us on that path. "We are beginning to realize the archetypal insights we have are not just mere coincidence and that they are the unifying principle of our new world view," he said. "These insights are the essence of what it means to be a human being alive on Earth."
Redfield then discussed the second insight, which represents the creation of a new, more complete world view. He placed the "coincidences" into a historical context by explaining that human beings have separated themselves from a 500-year-old preoccupation with secular survival and comfort.
"When we broke away from the rule of the churchmen, we were confronted by the uneasy truce of a newly developed science and an antiquated religion," he said. "We must now begin to understand that it is a new world that is beginning to emerge."
Man's discovery of the true nature of the universe was the subject of the third insight. Redfield said he believes that we do not live in a material universe, but rather in one made up of dynamic energy. "We have to relearn the world; everything is made of energy, especially human beings, and we have that energy at our disposal," he said.
The fourth, fifth and sixth insights involve the power struggles inherent in human relationships. All human beings have an overwhelming need for energy; one way of getting it is to take it from other people, he said. He described four "control dramas" through which people attempt to manipulate one another's energy and direct it toward themselves.
During the fifth insight, Redfield's wife, Salle Merrill-Redfield, a former massage therapist and the author of "The Celestine Meditations," led members in a meditation. She told members of the audience to imagine themselves in a forest, slowly drawing energy from a tree in order to revitalize their personal energy levels.
After this break, Redfield moved on to his final three insights, emphasizing the importance of mutual love as a means by which to increase one's energy. "The more we love and energize one another, the more coincidences begin to occur in our lives. Each coincidence has a meaning and if we are in the love state, we can find its significance," he said. After the eighth meditation, Redfield's wife once again led the audience in a meditation, this one designed to project love to other members of the audience and the rest of the world.
Most of the audience seemed enthusiastic about Redfield's message, often nodding their heads and laughing at Redfield's speech, which he peppered with humor.
Others, however, said his presentation was too simplistic. "It sounded like he was trying to hand us a cookbook recipe for cultural transformation,"said Trinity senior Kaira Cabanas.
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