Before James Redfield’s The Celestine Prophecy was published, an original investor backed out on funding the book. That turned out to be a good thing, though, since the investor who bailed turned out to be a crook and since new money came later, Redfield said. Everything happens for a reason, and something positive can result from such a seemingly negative experience, he said.

Redfield spoke Thursday at Transitions Learning Center, 1750 N. Kingsbury, while touring to promote his latest book, God and the Evolving Universe. About 200 people attended the lecture, which cost $28.50 to attend. The cover charge included a copy of the new book, which was written by Redfield, Michael Murphy and Sylvia Timbers.

A movie version of The Celestine Prophecy is in the works and is expected to come out in the next two years, and Redfield also plans on writing a book about a twelfth insight.

A widely read book that reads like an adventure tale, The Celestine Prophecy provides nine insights that people can learn through spiritual awareness. One of the main themes is the idea that mysterious, meaningful coincidences occur in each person’s life that can help lead one to one’s special destiny.

Sometimes people get intuitions—whether to call an old friend or to go to a bookstore to hang out—and if you are bold and act on intuitions, a synchronicity sometimes occurs, Redfield said.

While meaningful coincidences and synchronicity can be kind of vague, one can get into a synchronistic flow, and from that flow one can achieve a higher awareness about one’s life, he said.

Although Redfield said that we—meaning believers in the Celestine vision—are all ex-skeptics, he said we all should be kind to skeptics and should project a higher energy toward them.

“We don’t have to prove anything, actually” to a skeptic, he said.

Each person will grasp the insights when it’s time, Redfield said.

“Experience is the evidence,” he said.

This new kind of spiritual awareness keeps spreading, too, he said.

For example, Redfield has seen a shift in journalists’ attitudes. He used to hear them ask, “What’s an aura?” and now he hears them say, “I think I see an aura!”

Such revelations tend to occur off camera, or “under the radar,” from person to person, and that’s how it should be, he said.

It’s also good for journalists and politicians to be the last ones to grasp it; otherwise they’ll screw it up, he said, drawing laughs.

In God and the Evolving Universe, the authors talk about how certain human capacities can lift us to a greater life—but only if we have dedication, practice and the expectation of success.

You can’t just wait for grace, Redfield said; the winds of grace will come blowing, but you have to raise your sails to catch the grace. “The flow is what brings a project to us,” he said.

God and the Evolving Universe also includes suggestions for exercises that the authors believe can facilitate personal and social transformations.

Redfield said that it’s important to pray for ourselves, and he said that one way to raise our consciousness is through witness meditation, which calls for one to be in a quiet place and to let one’s thoughts go, even if they are good thoughts. Also, he said it’s important not to obsess over recurring thoughts.

Then once we identify with the part of ourselves that is watching the thoughts, what happens is that we may stay self-observant after the meditation is done, he said; by being witnesses to our thoughts, we might no longer want to, say, hurt a neighbor’s annoying dog.

During a question-and-answer period, one woman asked Redfield how people should cope when they are surrounded by negativity.

The world seems as if it is crazier and more dangerous than ever, Redfield said.

“Some people are very extreme in their alienation,” as some terrorists are, he said.

However, we have to hold the vision, bring everyone closer to us and look for the positives, he said.

The Sept. 11 suicide hijackings “opened our heart shockers,” and Redfield urged everyone, “Always find the positive, even in challenging events.”

If you always look for the positive, you’ll draw positive people to you, he said.

Also, in response to a question about how this heightened consciousness may affect politics, Redfield predicted that as synchronicity and clairvoyance spread, investigative journalism will become more “psychic-active,” and it will become more important for politicians to be honest, for it will be more transparent if politicians try to hide secrets.

As for the differences between prayer and meditation, Redfield said that prayer is input and meditation is output. He said that prayer is when we put our highest energy into effect in our lives, and meditation is our opening up to our highest awareness.

Then when a man from the back of the room said he believes that everyone has a synchronicity but that everyone doesn’t know it, Redfield agreed; he said synchronicity is like a train and that we’ve got to get on it.

Asked how one can quantify the higher awareness and tell how many people have reached such a state, Redfield didn’t give a straight answer. He did say, though, “It only takes a few to elevate a lot.” Also, he said that many people who have reached a higher awareness aren’t conscious of it, but a wave of people is catching it.

Before Redfield autographed books for interested lecture-goers, he asked us to close our eyes and meditate for the mother of Howard Mandel, the owner of Transitions, because Mandel’s mother had an aneurysm. He asked us to feel the love in our souls.

“Let the energy come out of the top of our heads and move into the life of Howard’s mother in Florida,” he said.

Picture her in the highest state of health, he said.

We did, and then we opened our eyes again.

Redfield said that if we remember only one thing, it should be that life is supposed to be mysterious, and he said that if we start to anticipate our synchronicities, they’ll happen.

For more information or to read stories about synchronicity, check out www.celestinevision.com.