The Celestine Prophecy: An Adventure Read Free

remember. Anyway, what you’re calling the First Insight has been written about many times, Charlene. What’s different now? How is a perception of mysterious occurrences going to lead to a cultural transformation?”
    Charlene looked down at the table for an instant and then back at me. “Don’t misunderstand,” she said. “Certainly this consciousness has been experienced and described before. In fact, the priest made a point to say that the first insight wasn’t new. He said individuals have been aware of these unexplained coincidences throughout history, that this has been the perception behind many great attempts at philosophy and religion. But the difference now lies in the numbers. According to the priest, the transformation is occurring now because of the number of individuals having this awareness all at the same time.”
    “What did he mean, exactly?” I asked.
    “He told me the Manuscript says the number of people who are conscious of such coincidences would begin to grow dramatically in the sixth decade of the twentieth century. He said that this growth would continue until sometime near the beginning of the following century, when we would reach a specific level of such individuals—a level I think of as a critical mass.
    “The Manuscript predicts,” she went on, “that once we reach this critical mass, the entire culture will begin to take these coincidental experiences seriously. We will wonder, in mass, what mysterious process underlies human life on this planet. And it will be this question, asked at the same time by enough people, that will allow the other insights to also come into consciousness—because according to the Manuscript, when a sufficient number of individuals seriously question what’s going on in life, we will begin to find out. The other insights will be revealed … one after the other.”
    She paused to take a bite of food.
    “And when we grasp the other insights,” I asked, “then the culture will shift?”
    “That’s what the priest told me,” she said.
    I looked at her for a moment, contemplating the idea of a critical mass, then said, “You know, all this sounds awfully sophisticated for a Manuscript written in 600 B.C.”
    “I know,” she replied. “I raised the question myself. But the priest assured me that the scholars who first translated the Manuscript were absolutely convinced of its authenticity. Mainly because it was written in Aramaic, the same language in which much of the Old Testament was written.”
    “Aramaic in South America? How did it get there in 600 B.C?”
    “The priest didn’t know.”
    “Does his church support the Manuscript?” I asked.
    “No,” she said. “He told me that most of the clergy were bitterly trying to suppress the Manuscript. That’s why he couldn’t tell me his name. Apparently talking about it at all was very dangerous for him.”
    “Did he say why most church officials were fighting against it?”
    “Yes, because it challenges the completeness of their religion.”
    “How?”
    “I don’t know exactly. He didn’t discuss it much, but apparently the other insights extend some of the church’s traditional ideas in a way that alarms the church elders, who think things are fine the way they are.”
    “I see.”
    “The priest did say,” Charlene went on, “that he doesn’t think the Manuscript undermines any of the church’s principles. If anything, it clarifies exactly what is meant by these spiritual truths. He felt strongly that the church leaders would see this fact if they would try to see life as a mystery again and then proceed through the other insights.”
    “Did he tell you how many insights there were?”
    “No, but he did mention the Second Insight. He told me it is a more correct interpretation of recent history, one that further clarifies the transformation.”
    “Did he elaborate on that?”
    “No, he didn’t have time. He said he had to leave to take care of some business. We agreed