Recently, someone dropped this current bestseller on my desk, suggesting that I might enjoy reading it. Since I spend three hours on the bus each way on my trips to New York, a good book is often welcome.

I began reading the book and couldn't put it down. The Celestine Prophecy is a novel-it is fiction-an adventure story which might be considered mediocre were it to be viewed solely as entertainment. However, woven into the adventure story is another story: it is the story of spiritual growth. The Celestine Prophecy is a spiritual quest which takes its hero through Peru with the Peruvian government in hot pursuit as he searches for, and finds, chapter after chapter of an ancient manuscript.

With the discovery of each of the nine chapters, called "insights", is the contemplation of that insight and its application to real life in the remainder of the journey.

Now, why am I recommending this book to Unificationists? The book is laced with spiritual truths and their applications to life which fit so closely with the truths we have learned through the Divine Principle. The content of the book is not only new age or spiritual; it is historical, psychological, philosophical, religious and prophetic.

The eighth insight was especially meaningful to me. It is about relationships-parent and child, men and women. Especially beautiful is the description of the male-female relationship.

"When love first happens, the two individuals are giving each other energy unconsciously and both people feel buoyant and elated.... Unfortunately, once they expect this feeling to come from the other person, they cut themselves off from the energy in the universe and begin to rely even more on the energy from each other," the relationship ultimately "degenerates into a power struggle." The mystical energy that we can tap as an inner source is both male and female." If we connect prematurely with a human source for female or male energy, we block the universal supply."

The insight explains further that we are meant to first seek "wholeness" with the higher energy source, then, as whole individuals, relate to each other.

Then, in the ninth insight, called "The Emerging Culture," in the midst of many prophetic statements, a few sentences jump out. "The manuscript says that sometime in history one individual would grasp the exact way of connecting with God's source of energy and direction and would thus become a lasting example that this connection is possible.... It said that this individual would blaze a path that the whole human race was destined to follow."

To me, the fact that many people throughout America are reading The Celestine Prophecy is an indication that God is preparing people in many different ways. This popular book is being used as a topic for discussion groups and workshops. It is interesting and enlightening reading as well as an excellent opener for discussions on spiritual topics. It is, therefore, good for us to be aware of its contents.

I recently attended a meeting in New York City at which James Redfield, the author, spoke. I had the opportunity to give him a copy of True Parents' speech, "True Parents and the Completed Testament Age." Let the spirit work!

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