The Celestine Prophecy by James RedField

This book was very tough to get into. And when I was thinking about writing this review, I found I had very mixed feelings about doing it. To put the book into a sentence, it's a fictional story with important lessons to learn on a spiritual level.

The fictional story is bland and uneventful. The author doesn't know how to write an exciting "edge of your seat" thriller. Do not read this book if you are wanting a fulfilling story.

The only reason I got through this book had a lot to do with the "self help" aspect. This book gave me some self realizations that I find to be very valuable. But even the spiritual awakening portion of the book was far fetched at times. This book talks about seeing energy; the aura of people, plants and animals. I don't deny the possibility that some people are capable of seeing these aura's. But the average person cannot (me included). The thing that I came to realize is that in order to get the message of this book, you do not need to see aura's. One can simply imagine these energies. Within the storyline though, this is a critical step one needs to "see" in order to get to the next step in the spiritual awakening.

Overall, this book was too long and boring. If the author had made a straightforward self help book, it would have been 50 pages long, and more in depth spiritually. The fictional story dragged the book out to nearly 250 pages. I'm glad I read the book, and would recommend the knowledge I gained from it to everyone. Having talked with a friend of mine about this book, he has made the same realizations as I have without being put through the torture of reading the book.

This book has been rated: 5/10

I also have read this book. It's been awhile since I've read it, but I thought I would also offer my insight.

Firstly, your above review leads back to the old saying if you believe you can't you can't. Yes I agree that some people are blessed with this gift of seeing energies. However, the book also explains that we are all capable of seeing them, we just have to believe that we are able to (which translates into a symbolic, bigger picture than just seeing energies).
The knowledge in this book is universal. We all have these insights within ourselves. It is just up to ourselves to discover them, and through the help of this book I was able to clarify and verbalise some of the things that I already knew, I just couldn't explain.
I agree this book was not an edge of a seat thriller, but it was a nice change from regular self help books. The storyline was actually cheesy, but RedField made some strong valid points within the book.

I rate this book a 6.5/10

A word of recommendation: The Celestine Prophecy movie is horrible. I knew of the movie before I knew of the book, but like most movies based on books, I try and read the book before I watch the movie. In this case, I would recommend that one watches the movie before the book. The movie is so caught up in trying to make it sorta thrilling, that it does a inadequate job explaining the insights. Moreover, the movie was a great visual for what I have read and understood. I do believe watching the movie first, may help one visualize what the author is writing about. One cannot get the same insight out of the movie as the book, so don't try and jump ship and only watch the movie, movie then book or just book.

- April