LITR 4632: Literature of the Future

Student Future-Visions Presentation 2007

 Monday, 11 June: Future-vision presenter: Ashley Schaller

The Celestine Prophecy
James Redfield
1993

Primary Objectives:

1. To identify, describe, and criticize the narratives or stories humans tell about the future. Evolutionary
2. To identify, describe, and criticize typical visions or scenarios of the future: 
    Utopia / dystopia - perfectly planned worlds / dysfunctional world

From The Celestine Prophecy

“In the rain forests of Peru, an ancient manuscript has been discovered. Within its pages are 9 key insights into life itself - insights each human being is predicted to grasp sequentially, one insight then another, as we move toward a completely spiritual culture on Earth.”
www.celestinevision.com

“The Manuscript dates back to about 600 BC. It predicts a massive transformation in human society” that is to begin in the last decades of the twentieth century (which is now in the book).

There are 9 insights:

The 1^st insight: A Critical Mass
“A profound sense of restlessness” “we begin to glimpse an alternative kind of experience…moments in our lives that feel different somehow, more intense and inspiring. But we don’t know what this experience is or how to make it last, and when it ends we’re left feeling dissatisfied and restless with a life that seems ordinary again.”
The purpose of this insight is to make you want to discover the change and to find what the more fulfilling experience is. Also with this insight, you notice coincidences that you might have ignored before. (The idea is everything happens for a reason, and everything/everyone comes into your life for a reason.) The main character meets different people along his impulsive trip to Peru that explain the rest of the manuscript and help him stay alive.
This insight is the first step of the conscious evolution.

The 2^nd insight: The Longer Now
“The effect of the second insight is to provide exactly this kind of historical perspective…it places the  Manuscript’s prediction In [a way] that makes them seem not only plausible, but inevitable.” “[The manuscript] says…we will be able to see that entire period of history as a whole and we will identify a particular preoccupation that developed during the later half of the millennium…Our awareness of coincidences today represents a kind of awakening from this preoccupation.”
The purpose of the second is to lead us to discover how historical events changed today’s world.

The 3^rd insight: A Matter of Energy
“It describes a new understanding of the physical world. It says we humans will learn to perceive what was formerly an invisible type of energy.” With this insight, “humans would discover a new energy which formed the basis of and radiated outward from all things, including ourselves.”
This insight involves fields of energy that can be seen by people who understand this insight and know how to look for them. They radiate from “beautiful things” like nature and people. We can project our energy by giving attention to where we want it to go and receive energy by “connecting” with nature and others.

The 4^th insight: The Struggle for Power
“To gain energy, we tend to manipulate or force others to give us attention and thus energy. When we successfully dominate others in this way, we feel more powerful, but they are left weakened and often fight back. Competition for scarce, human energy is the cause of all conflict between people.”
“Understanding the fourth insight is a matter of seeing the human world as a vast competition for energy and thus for power.”

The 5^th insight: The Message of the Mystics
This insight describes “a new understanding of what has long been called mystical consciousness…for a growing number of humans, this consciousness would become experientially real—because these individuals would experience flashes or glimpses of this state of mind during the course of their lives. The manuscript said that this experience was the key to ending human conflict in the world, because during this experience we are receiving energy from another source—a source we will eventually learn to tap at will.” (nature)

The 6^th insight: Clearing the Past
Discover our individual means of “stealing” energy.  To do this “each person must reinterpret his family experience from an evolutionary point of view, from a spiritual point of view, and discover who he really is. Once we really do that, our control drama (need to control people to receive energy) falls away and our real lives take off.”
In order to stop the power control, we learn how we are contributing.

The 7^th insight: Engaging the Flow

The 8^th insight: The Interpersonal Ethic

The 9^th insight: The Emerging Culture

THE EVOLUTION to a WORLD UTOPIA
“The ninth insight explains how human culture will change in the next millennium as a result of conscious evolution. It describes a significantly different way of life. For instance, the Manuscript predicts that we humans will voluntarily decrease our population so that we all may live in the most powerful and beautiful places on the Earth. By the middle of the next millennium, humans will typically live among five hundred year old trees and carefully tended gardens, yet within easy travel distance of an urban area of incredible technology. By then, the means of survival—foodstuffs and clothing and transportation will all be totally automated and at everyone’s disposal. Our needs will be completely met without the exchange of any currency, yet also without any overindulgence or laziness. Guided by their intuitions, everyone will know precisely what to do and when to do it, and this will fit harmoniously with the actions of others. No one will consume excessively because we will have let go of the need to possess and to control for security. We’ll see trees and rivers and mountains as temples of great power to be held in reverence and awe. We’ll demand an end to any economic activity that threatens this treasure (and end pollution). The ninth insight says that once we begin to give constantly, we will always have more coming in that we could possibly give away.”

The idea is that everyone will come to understand and believe in these insights and live this way, not because they are forced to by a government or leader, but because they WILL see that it is the only way to  live happily and equally. This movement is supposed to include everyone because everyone’s intuitions will guide them to act and think in the same way.

Questions:

1. Do you think a manuscript like this could cause a conscious evolution to a world as diverse as ours? Would intuition be enough to make everyone believe in it?

2. And if it did, do you believe that a world utopia could exist without having a ruler or controlling group and instead, intuition as the guiding law?