Some people disparage James Redfield, but I like him. His website has the following summary of his insights which have strong similarity to the ideas of The Secret Garden.

THE FIRST INSIGHT . . . A CRITICAL MASS: A new spiritual awakening is occurring in human culture, an awakening brought about by a critical mass of individuals who experience their lives as a spiritual unfolding, a journey in which we are led forward by mysterious coincidences.

THE SECOND INSIGHT . . . THE LONGER NOW: This awakening represents the creation of a new, more complete worldview, which replaces a five-hundred-year-old preoccupation with secular survival and comfort. While this technological preoccupation was an important step, our awakening to life's coincidences is opening us up to the real purpose of human life on this planet, and the real nature of our universe.

THE THIRD INSIGHT . . . A MATTER OF ENERGY: We now experience that we live not in a material universe, but in a universe of dynamic energy. Everything extant is a field of sacred energy that we can sense and intuit. Moreover, we humans can project our energy by focusing our attention in the desired direction...where attention goes, energy flows...influencing other energy systems and increasing the pace of coincidences in our lives.

THE FOURTH INSIGHT . . . THE STRUGGLE FOR POWER: Too often humans cut themselves off from the greater source of this energy and so feel weak and insecure. 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.

THE FIFTH INSIGHT . . . THE MESSAGE OF THE MYSTICS: Insecurity and violence ends when we experience an inner connection with divine energy within, a connection described by mystics of all traditions. A sense of lightness--buoyancy--along with the constant sensation of love are measures of this connection. If these measures are present, the connection is real. If not, it is only pretended.

THE SIXTH INSIGHT . . . CLEARING THE PAST: The more we stay connected, the more we are acutely aware of those times when we lose connection, usually when we are under stress. In these times, we can see our own particular way of stealing energy from others. Once our manipulations are brought to personal awareness, our connection becomes more constant and we can discover our own growth path in life, and our spiritual mission--the personal way we can contribute to the world.

THE SEVENTH INSIGHT . . . ENGAGING THE FLOW: Knowing our personal mission further enhances the flow of mysterious coincidences as we are guided toward our destinies. First we have a question; then dreams, daydreams, and intuitions lead us towards the answers, which usually are synchronistically provided by the wisdom of another human being.

THE EIGHTH INSIGHT . . . THE INTERPERSONAL ETHIC: We can increase the frequency of guiding coincidences by uplifting every person that comes into our lives. Care must be taken not to lose our inner connection in romantic relationships. Uplifting others is especially effective in groups where each member can feel energy of all the others. With children it is extremely important for their early security and growth. By seeing the beauty in every face, we lift others into their wisest self, and increase the chances of hearing a synchronistic message.

THE NINTH INSIGHT . . .THE EMERGING CULTURE: As we all evolve toward the best completion of our spiritual missions, the technological means of survival will be fully automated as humans focus instead on synchronistic growth. Such growth will move humans into higher energy states, ultimately transforming our bodies into spiritual form and uniting this dimension of existence with the after-life dimension, ending the cycle of birth and death.

THE TENTH INSIGHT . . . HOLDING THE VISION: The Tenth Insight is the realization that throughout history human beings have been unconsciously struggling to implement this lived spirituality on Earth. Each of us comes here on assignment, and as we pull this understanding into consciousness, we can remember a fuller birth vision of what we wanted to accomplish with our lives. Further we can remember a common world vision of how we will all work together to create a new spiritual culture. We know that our challenge is to hold this vision with intention and prayer everyday.

THE ELEVENTH INSIGHT . . . EXTENDING PRAYER FIELDS: The Eleventh Insight is the precise method through which we hold the vision. For centuries, religious scriptures, poems, and philosophies have pointed to a latent power of mind within all of us that mysteriously helps to affect what occurs in the future. It has been called faith power, positive thinking, and the power of prayer. We are now taking this power seriously enough to bring a fuller knowledge of it into public awareness. We are finding that this prayer power is a field of intention, which moves out from us and can be extended and strengthened, especially when we connect with others in a common vision. This is the power through which we hold the vision of a spiritual world and build the energy in ourselves and in others to make this vision a reality.

THE TWELFTH INSIGHT . . . IS YET TO BE RELEASED

Robert, are these "Insights" insights or simply a formulation of conventional New Age dogma which experience has shown does not work?

I found it interesting that Mary Lupin and DWill said The Celestine Prophecy was the worst book they had ever read, but the 'Insights' listed above seem to me to have a strong similarity to the theosophical ideas underlying The Secret Garden, which many here have appreciated. You are right that Redfield is formulating conventional new age dogma. However, the fact that much of this has not worked to date does not necessarily mean it will never work. It could be that the power of conventional prejudice is so strong as to overwhelm this way of seeing the world. I like to keep an open mind to the aspects of this ideology that are possible. It is rather like Colin in The Secret Garden, who has been told that he is a cripple so he believes it. Believing otherwise, after Mary finds the key to unlock the garden door, gives him the power to transform his potential.

Robert, I have read several of Redfield's books, and I suspect that Bill and Mary found The Celestine Prophecy to be the worst book they ever read not because it was poorly written but because it effectively advocates a supernaturalism they oppose. Wouldn't you say that Colin has acquired destructive emotional habits and that by associating with persons with better habits, his habits changed? Morale, good or bad, is infectious, as Penelope pointed out. Burnett does border on the supernatural, but it is incidental to the main story.

Tom

I haven't read The Secret Garden for years so I am not going to comment on the relationship between the 2 children nor on what the author may have intended by the ability of the garden to transform human beings. However, my objection to books like Celestine is a general objection to books that recount bits and pieces of human wisdom from various cultural contexts without the underlying knowledge and experiential structures that make of those bits and pieces something sensible. Like Colin demonstrates, belief without being tested against the empirical is crippling. This is my objection to anything that requires an abundance of faith as well as the requisite refusal of empirical evidence. An attention to history shows the outcome of living against the evidence. Just like Colin, it cripples.

The 'supernaturalism' factor in Redfield and Burnett seems equal to me. Unlike Christian fundamentalism they both at least advocate a spirituality that is scientifically possible. You can't reduce the sense of cosmic identity that Mary achieves through union with nature in The Secret Garden to a set of habits. It is about grounding habits in a natural spirituality, the same as Redfield. Admittedly, Redfield argues for a synchronicity, drawing on Jung, which is anathema to scientism, while Burnett is much more careful to cloak her spiritual agenda, but still they point in the same direction, to a critique of a controlling culture that rejects cosmic identity on principle.

Thanks Mary, this is a valid critique of new age syncretism and its anti-empirical tendencies. And yet, I think Redfield points in a valid direction, because 'the various cultural contexts' no longer make sense in isolation from each other, but require comparison, and even narrative mashing, to produce a new world picture that can enframe contemporary meaning.