My friend gave me this book after I had a weird experience early one November morning in 2004. I used to believe in coincidences until I read this book by James Redfield. The book details the "Nine Insights", which can be best described as a "new mythology". The book goes on to describe how Humans are getting in touch with something we knew but didn't realize we knew, as we recognize our half-conscious ability to follow hunches, take advantage of coincidental opportunities, and sense a higher spiritual guidance active in our lives. The book goes on to say that it's not so much a change in philosophy as a shift in how we sense and approach life. There are Ten Insights in total but the book describes Nine. Here is a brief overview of the Nine Insights and what they mean.
1: A Critical Mass - a new spiritual awakening is occuring 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.
2: 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 coincidences is opening us up to the real purpose of human life on this planet and the real nature of our universe.
3: 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. More-over, we humans can project our energy by focusings our attention in the desired direction ("where attention goes, energy flows"), influencing other energy systems and in-creasing the pace of coincidences in our lives.
4: 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.
5: The Message Of The Mystics - insecurity and violence end when we experience an inner connection with divine energy within, a connection described by the mystics of all traditions. A sense of lightness-buoyancy and 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.
6: 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 then we can discover our own growth path in life, and our spiritual mission, the personal way we can contribute to the world.
7: 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, day-dreams, and intuitions lead us toward the answers, which usually are synchronistically provided by the wisdom of another human being.
8: 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 the energy of all the others. With children it is extremely important to 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.
9: 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 ever-higher energy states, ultimately transforming our bodies into spiritual form and uniting this dimension of existence with the afterlife dimension, ending the cycle of birth and death.
