James Redfield is an American writer, lecturer, screenwriter, and film producer. He is notable for his 1993 novel '' The Celestine Prophecy''.

Biography

Redfield grew up in a rural area near

Birmingham, Alabama Birmingham ( ) is a city in the north central region of Alabama, United States. It is the county seat of Jefferson County, Alabama, Jefferson County. The population was 200,733 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, making it the List ...

. He studied Eastern philosophies, including

Taoism Taoism or Daoism (, ) is a diverse philosophical and religious tradition indigenous to China, emphasizing harmony with the Tao ( zh, p=dào, w=tao4). With a range of meaning in Chinese philosophy, translations of Tao include 'way', 'road', ' ...

and

Zen Zen (; from Chinese: ''Chán''; in Korean: ''Sŏn'', and Vietnamese: ''Thiền'') is a Mahayana Buddhist tradition that developed in China during the Tang dynasty by blending Indian Mahayana Buddhism, particularly Yogacara and Madhyamaka phil ...

, while majoring in sociology at

Auburn University Auburn University (AU or Auburn) is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Auburn, Alabama, United States. With more than 26,800 undergraduate students, over 6,100 post-graduate students, and a tota ...

. He later received a master's degree in counseling and spent more than 15 years as a therapist to abused adolescents. During this time, he was drawn into the

human potential movement The Human Potential Movement (HPM) arose out of the counterculture of the 1960s and formed around the concept of an extraordinary potential that its advocates believed to lie largely untapped in all people. The movement takes as its premise the be ...

and turned to it for theories about intuitions and psychic phenomena that would help his clients. In 1989, he quit his job as a therapist to write full-time, synthesizing his interest in interactive psychology, Eastern and Western philosophies, science,

futurism Futurism ( ) was an Art movement, artistic and social movement that originated in Italy, and to a lesser extent in other countries, in the early 20th century. It emphasized dynamism, speed, technology, youth, violence, and objects such as the ...

, ecology, history, and

mysticism Mysticism is popularly known as becoming one with God or the Absolute (philosophy), Absolute, but may refer to any kind of Religious ecstasy, ecstasy or altered state of consciousness which is given a religious or Spirituality, spiritual meani ...

. When Redfield self-published '' The Celestine Prophecy,'' his first novel, in 1992, the interest from booksellers and readers led to its becoming one of the most financially successful self-published books of all time.

Warner Books Grand Central Publishing is a book publishing imprint of Hachette Book Group, originally established in 1970 as Warner Books when Kinney National Company acquired the New York City-based Paperback Library. When Time Warner sold their book publis ...

bought the rights and published the hard cover edition in March 1994. The book quickly climbed to the No. 1 position on the ''New York Times'' Best Seller list. According to ''Publishing Trends,'' ''The Celestine Prophecy'' was the No. 1 international bestseller of 1996 (#2 in 1995). The novel spent over 3 years on the ''New York Times'' Best Seller list. As of May 2005, ''The Celestine Prophecy'' had sold over 20 million copies worldwide and had been translated into 34 languages. In 1996, the sequel, '' The Tenth Insight: Holding the Vision'' (Warner Books), also became a bestseller. The two books spent a combined 74 weeks on the ''New York Times'' Best Seller list, making their author the best-selling hard cover author in the world in 1996, as cited in BP Report (January 1997). In his non-fiction title, ''The Celestine Vision: Living the New Spiritual Awareness'' (Warner Books, 1997), Redfield explored the background of the "emerging spirituality" discussed in his novels. The Celestine series of adventure

parable A parable is a succinct, didactic story, in prose or verse, that illustrates one or more instructive lessons or principles. It differs from a fable in that fables employ animals, plants, inanimate objects, or forces of nature as characters, whe ...

s continued in 1999 with the publication of '' The Secret of Shambhala: In Search of the Eleventh Insight'' (Warner Books). In 2002, Redfield joined author Michael Murphy and filmmaker Sylvia Timbers in a collaborative non-fiction work entitled '' God and the Evolving Universe'' (J.P. Tarcher). The novel was the basis for a 2006

film A film, also known as a movie or motion picture, is a work of visual art that simulates experiences and otherwise communicates ideas, stories, perceptions, emotions, or atmosphere through the use of moving images that are generally, sinc ...

of the same name. Redfield produced, co-writing the screenplay with Barnet Bain and Dan Gordon. James and Salle Redfield are the founders of the Global Prayer Project, a bi-weekly webcast which offers guided prayer and

meditation Meditation is a practice in which an individual uses a technique to train attention and awareness and detach from reflexive, "discursive thinking", achieving a mentally clear and emotionally calm and stable state, while not judging the meditat ...

. Redfield's newest offering, ''The Twelfth Insight: The Hour of Decision'', was published by Grand Central Publishing in February 2011.

Awards

In October 1997, Redfield was awarded the Medal of the Presidency of the Italian Senate at the XXIII Pio Manzu International Conference in Rimini, Italy. In the spring of 2000, Redfield joined Millard Fuller, founder of

Habitat For Humanity Habitat for Humanity International (HFHI), generally referred to as Habitat for Humanity or Habitat, is a U.S. non-governmental, and tax-exempt 501(C)(3) Christian nonprofit organization which seeks to build affordable housing. The international ...

, as the two recipients of Humanitarian of the Year honors from their alma mater, Auburn University. Two months later, he received another Humanitarian of the Year award from the International New Thought Alliance.

Bibliography

* '' The Celestine Prophecy'' (1993) Warner Books: New York, NY * ''The Celestine Prophecy: An Experiential Guide'' (1995) co-written with Carol Adrienne. Warner Books:New York, NY * '' The Tenth Insight: Holding the Vision'' (1996) Grand Central Publishing: New York, NY. * ''The Tenth Insight: Holding The Vision: An Experiential Guide'' (1996) co-written with Carol Adrienne. Diane Publishing Company:Darby, PA * ''The Celestine Vision: Living the New Spiritual Awareness'' (1997) Grand Central Publishing:New York, NY. * '' The Secret of Shambhala: In Search of the Eleventh Insight'' (1999) Warner Books:New York, NY * ''God and the Evolving Universe: The Next Step in Personal Evolution'' (2002) co-written with Sylvia Timbers and Michael Murphy Tarcher Books, New York, NY * '' The Celestine Prophecy: The Making of the Movie'' (2006) co-written with Monty Joynes Hampton Roads Publishing Company:Newburyport, MA. * ''The Twelfth Insight: The Hour of Decision'' (2011) Grand Central Publishing:New York, NY.

References

Sources

*"Celestial reasoning." ''People Weekly''. New York: Apr 25, 1994. Vol.41, Iss. 15; pg. 85 *McDonald, Marci. "Celestine prophet." ''Maclean's''. Toronto: Oct 10, 1994. Vol.107, Iss. 41; pg. 54

External links

Official Web Site: CelestineVision.com

The Twelfth Insight
{{DEFAULTSORT:Redfield, James Living people American film producers American male screenwriters Auburn University alumni New Age writers People from Auburn, Alabama Screenwriters from Alabama Year of birth missing (living people)