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hypotheses. For that reason, this little thought-sampler is a useful book.
Frank MacHovec, Ph.D.
Christopher Newport University
Newport News, VA
The Tenth Insight: Holding the Vision. James Redfield. Warner Books, Inc.
(1271 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY 10020), April, 1996, 236 pages,
$19.95 US).
If you read this book you will discover that the author plans to write a sequel about angels.
The Tenth Insight is itself a sequel to James Redfield's smash bestseller, The Celestine
Prophecy, now on top ten lists for over a year. In this spiritual adventure Celestine fans are
treated to a continuing revelation of their favorite New Age notions (reincarnation,
paranormal powers, spiritual healing, the divine self) through some familiar characters who
survived harrowing adventures in South America. The narrator remains nameless again, but
clearly ―he‖ represents an alter ego of the author who shares and promotes the same
beliefs. The anonymous ―I‖ teases the reader into identifying more closely with the
adventure --not a bad device if your intent is to trigger sympathy for the Insights.
In these further adventures, we learn more about the meaning of the first nine Insights and
how the Tenth works. The first nine were written on an ancient manuscript secreted by a
―Gnostic‖ order called the Spirituals since the 1600s in a monastery in Peru. The Tenth, we
discover, cannot be written down because it exists only in the ―Afterlife,‖ that heavenly
realm in which spirits of saints and angels dwell. It seems that Wil, a character from the
first story, has somehow achieved the Afterlife consciousness and helps the narrator to
―raise his energy‖ enough to glimpse it as well. A new character, David Lone Eagle, appears
as a stereotypical Native American in the first chapter. David is somehow aware of all ten
Insights. He tells the narrator to note any animals that come his way because they will be
telling him something on his journey to find his lost soul mate, Charlene.
The story begins in the southern Appalachian territory of, possibly, the Blue Ridge
Mountains. Redfield dedicates his book to his ―friends‖ from there. He discovers that
Charlene has been missing from work for a month. All she left him is a cryptic note and a
crudely sketched map. The remaining guidance to find her comes from the same
synchronistic coincidences and applications of Insight energy introduced in Celestine. We
soon discover that something mysterious and sinister is about to happen in the wilderness
before us. It involves a secret energy experiment led by a power hungry scientist, a Mr.
Feyman, who has used Charlene's higher consciousness and tricked her into revealing
invisible ―vortexes‖ of energy in the earth that he wants to exploit.
A strange but ominous ―hum‖ appears to the sensitive ears of the Insight characters, a hum
that comes from the supersensible energy field that Feyman manipulates. (Is this a take-off
on the Taos hum heard by some New Mexicans since the late 1980s?)
We meet Joel, another hiker who wants to get out of the area. He does not like the feel of
the mysterious experiment. He launches into a lecture about the shrinking middle class, the
international misuse of religion, our corrupt lawyers, and the doomsday prophets of
fundamentalism. We are introduced to the ―Fear,‖ an important theme in Insight doctrine.
The Fear perception of reality is what Insight practitioners combat by ―Holding the Vision,‖
but we are getting ahead of ourselves. Celestine fans are treated to many more didactic
digressions, like Joel's, with New Age spins on history, medicine, spirituality and science. To
critics these inane lectures and visions can be amusing if not irritating.
After Joel moves on the narrator tumbles down a cliff and injures his ankle. Maya Ponder, a
black doctor, happens to meet him during a hike. Maya, not surprisingly, is also hooked into

Cultic Studies Journal, Volume 17, 2000, Page 131
the Insights of the Prophecy. As she treats the narrator she shares her ―awareness,‖ a
combination of standard medical training and alternative, folk and shamanic beliefs. She
teaches the narrator to go into the pain and into all memories and visions associated with it,
even to past life recall. When our protagonist finally does so later in the story, his ankle
miraculously heals. Next, Curtis comes into the story as another Insight person who
represents the concerned scientist. He knows what the experiment is about and he wants to
blow it up.
All Curtis manages to do is blow up a satellite dish that is soon repaired by the
experimenters. He reluctantly agrees to the narrator's alternative plan to work with the
fated Insight ―group‖ to stop the experiment with psychic energy. Curtis explains that the
experimental ―device‖ (presumably a kind of magical psychotronic machine) ―has the
potential to disrupt [nine] dimensions. It could trigger massive earthquakes or even
complete physical disintegration of certain areas.‖ (p. 91) Curtis invokes the quack
experiments of Nikola Tesla. Tesla (1856-1943), an eccentric genius who invented the same
AC ―polyphase‖ system we use today as well as the induction motor, was responsible for the
―Tesla coil,‖ a giant, high voltage generator. The coil was supposed to tap energy fields and
transmit electricity without wires through the earth or sky. It never worked and never will
(see Skeptical Inquirer, Summer 1994). Nevertheless, Curtis informs us that ―basically it
works this way. Imagine the electromagnetic field of the Earth as a giant battery that can
provide plenty of electrical energy if you can tie into it in the correct way.‖ (p. 91)
The pseudo-scientific Curtis goes on to claim that the infamous ―Philadelphia Experiment,‖ a
fabulous rumor about a ship that ―disappeared‖ in 1943 from a Philadelphia shipyard,
actually happened: ―Do you think they really made the ship disappear and show up again in
a new location, in 1943?‖ And Curtis answers, ―Of course they did! There's a lot of secret
technology around, and they're smart.‖ (p. 92) If you are interested in a better explanation
of the Philadelphia Experiment, look up the real story behind the rumor in The Fringes of
Reason edited by Ted Schultz (Harmony Books, 1989). This same ―energy‖ that the Fear
people are developing is what concerns Curtis. ―They could totally ruin this place, make it
into a twilight zone, another Bermuda triangle where the laws of physics are in
unpredictable flux.‖(p. 90) He says, ―I think they're trying to tie into the energy vortexes in
this valley in an attempt to stabilize the process....What they're trying now is insane.‖(p.
93)
Apparently, Feyman, the sinister scientist, who knows that this technology can provide a
cheap source of energy if it is allocated in small household units, wants to pre-empt the
possibility. He takes advantage of the Tenth Insight powers of the naive Charlene. Feyman
believes that the economy would change too quickly if the power is not first centralized.
Those in power would lose control. The Insighters believe that no such thing would happen
because the emergence of Insight awareness would create a benevolent passage, not
without difficulties, toward a Utopian, planetary civilization.
In the chapter called ―A History of Awakening‖ we learn the past life secret of the narrator
and the Celestine Prophecy's origins. Our narrator ―remembers‖ that he was a member of a
secret order of Franciscan ―Spirituals‖ in the 13th century. The Spirituals (they actually
existed) were supported by Pope Celestine V (from 1294-1296) but later ―were condemned
as Gnostics and excommunicated.‖ (p. 108) In reality, the Spirituals were a radical sect of
Franciscans (they called for a literal observance of St. Francis' rules, especially poverty) who
had political differences with the next Pope, Boniface VIII. They were not Gnostics in the
strict sense.
The text suggests many techniques that enable an Insighter to access the Afterlife and
knowledge of a personal destiny. The latter comes from Birth Visions, a kind of trance state
that helps one to remember one's pure ―intent‖ when entering life this time. The Life Review