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3.28 AVERAGE
3.28 AVERAGE
informative
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Overall an enjoyable read, probably wouldn’t read it again, didn’t massively grow to love the main character (to be honest I don’t think I even remember his name, and I read the bulk of the book today), good but forgettable
A book where the writer introduces a real life outlook on sociology religion and new ages ways ways of being that had a weak fictional action-adventute plot added in to move things along.
I wanted to come back and see if there was anything to this book, due to my current thinking about consciousness. I didn't find much value.
adventurous
hopeful
inspiring
lighthearted
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
challenging
inspiring
mysterious
reflective
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
I think I would have enjoyed this book much more had I not been so primed on it before even opening the cover. People have been telling me about it for years, especially when conversation would venture into the more whispy, Earth-religion spirituality category. Even the book's cover declares it as a once in a lifetime, life-changing experience.
I remember hearing that one of the most common phrases that accompanies rejected book pitches is "will sell more copies than the Bible!"
People always think their ideas are world changing, and they envision a mad, hungry rush towards their writings. Followed by condemnation, repression, censorship by the powers that be. But their ideas simply cannot be put down. They must be heard. The ideas spread despite all obstacles. Then, revolution!
The Celestine Prophecy believes this so much that the above description is literally the plot. The narrator, who is a direct stand in for the reader, travels to Peru to learn about a secret manuscript that promises a series of insights that will improve the individual's life as well as humanity as a whole. He meets like minded people, as well as a cast of ignorant villains intending to suppress the knowledge in the manuscript. Along the way, the various characters go to great expositional lengths to teach the narrator/reader how they should think in order to consciously evolve.
No rich person has started to tell the story of their wealth by saying "So I read this book on how to get rich," and I doubt many revolutions have started because of a widely publicized, modern pop culture story about the ways to bring about spiritual revolution.
The ideas therein are optimistic but perhaps too much so. That makes the thrust of the book no better than any religious book before it, because ultimately you are still supposed to believe it based on faith, not any evidence or reasoning. I would be surprised if there were a single true skeptic to ever read this who was significantly changed. I suspect that most readers are, like me, already disposed towards the messages herein. (Except for the parts promising [MINOR SPOILER] psychic abilities or turning invisible. I found this silly. Reading all that was a distraction from the better philosophical points. [END SPOILER])
So if it's just another unsupported, even, at times, arbitrary set of philosophical and spiritual ideas, where does that leave us?
It means we are back to square one. It's stuff you can choose to believe, or not. Maybe that will make things better, but maybe not.
Long story short: it's a fun little adventure, with some wonderful ideas that are way more optimistic than most religious/spiritual texts. But, it's more than a little over hyped.
Also, as the book approaches 30 years old, as I take a look around at the world and how we are treating each other, I feel we are further away from its utopian vision rather than closer. I hope I'm wrong, though.
For its part, the book punts into the far future by saying that it'll be halfway into the millennium before the changes are more drastic. Best of luck to them, but even if we do something better with this world, I doubt it will look like Redfield's vision.
PS - I have a personal dislike of people or texts constantly talking about "vibration." I know that they think they are being profound or expressing something important, but I just think it's literary laziness. They could say things with greater clarity than "such-and-such behavior will move you into a higher vibration" if they put in some real effort.
I remember hearing that one of the most common phrases that accompanies rejected book pitches is "will sell more copies than the Bible!"
People always think their ideas are world changing, and they envision a mad, hungry rush towards their writings. Followed by condemnation, repression, censorship by the powers that be. But their ideas simply cannot be put down. They must be heard. The ideas spread despite all obstacles. Then, revolution!
The Celestine Prophecy believes this so much that the above description is literally the plot. The narrator, who is a direct stand in for the reader, travels to Peru to learn about a secret manuscript that promises a series of insights that will improve the individual's life as well as humanity as a whole. He meets like minded people, as well as a cast of ignorant villains intending to suppress the knowledge in the manuscript. Along the way, the various characters go to great expositional lengths to teach the narrator/reader how they should think in order to consciously evolve.
No rich person has started to tell the story of their wealth by saying "So I read this book on how to get rich," and I doubt many revolutions have started because of a widely publicized, modern pop culture story about the ways to bring about spiritual revolution.
The ideas therein are optimistic but perhaps too much so. That makes the thrust of the book no better than any religious book before it, because ultimately you are still supposed to believe it based on faith, not any evidence or reasoning. I would be surprised if there were a single true skeptic to ever read this who was significantly changed. I suspect that most readers are, like me, already disposed towards the messages herein. (Except for the parts promising [MINOR SPOILER] psychic abilities or turning invisible. I found this silly. Reading all that was a distraction from the better philosophical points. [END SPOILER])
So if it's just another unsupported, even, at times, arbitrary set of philosophical and spiritual ideas, where does that leave us?
It means we are back to square one. It's stuff you can choose to believe, or not. Maybe that will make things better, but maybe not.
Long story short: it's a fun little adventure, with some wonderful ideas that are way more optimistic than most religious/spiritual texts. But, it's more than a little over hyped.
Also, as the book approaches 30 years old, as I take a look around at the world and how we are treating each other, I feel we are further away from its utopian vision rather than closer. I hope I'm wrong, though.
For its part, the book punts into the far future by saying that it'll be halfway into the millennium before the changes are more drastic. Best of luck to them, but even if we do something better with this world, I doubt it will look like Redfield's vision.
PS - I have a personal dislike of people or texts constantly talking about "vibration." I know that they think they are being profound or expressing something important, but I just think it's literary laziness. They could say things with greater clarity than "such-and-such behavior will move you into a higher vibration" if they put in some real effort.
This is probably my third or fourth time reading this, in life, and I can’t figure out why all of the reviewers before me are having such strong adverse reactions to it. I don’t know one way or another whether this book holds itself out as being based in reality. I just know that I tend to read all books as inspiration and not as the final authority on any particular subject. So, with that, this is an enjoyable story that inspires me to think more about my connections with other people and with my purpose in life.
adventurous
challenging
emotional
hopeful
informative
inspiring
mysterious
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
inspiring
reflective
I received this book by a friend ages ago and it kept collecting dust in my TBR. That's why after almost 20 years I finally picked it up and.... what can I say? Had I read it when I was younger, I probably would have loved it and preached its 9 prophecies up and down the hill, but now it just feels like new age fake deep messages that were stolen from several sources and mashed up in easy digestible pieces and coated in a novel that presented its fake deepness in such a way that you could probably be 5 years old or incredibly intoxicated and you would still get the messages. It admittedly reminded me in parts of actual good books on buddhism and some other religions, but this book here is just.... Idk... propaganda and recruitment material for a cult.