Shambhala Synchronicity

The week before I was going to the Byron Bay Writers Festival, I mentioned to a few people at work that I was going to go down and meet James Redfield and get him to sign the copy of   
The Twelfth Insight that I had bought and read earlier in the year.
They asked me if I enjoyed reading it, and I told them honestly, that I didn't.
I did have a few synchros while reading it, and though I really like James Redfield's philosophy on synchronicities, the book to me was disappointing as a story.
I kind of felt that way when I read The Celestine Prophecy, too.  
One of the girls I mentioned this to was a Redfield fan and asked me if I could take her second hand copy of The Secret of Shambhala (she had purchased on the 18th of July, 2010 for $11.00) to get signed by James, as well.
How did I know that? 
Because she must have been using the receipt as a bookmark, and she left it in the book.
Not that those dates mean anything to me ... now at least ... but I thought I would just make a record here, in case it becomes important at a later date.
Anyway, I put the copy in my bag to take to the BBWF, but as you know if you have read this blog, James got bitten by a spider in the States and couldn't fly to Australia.
I said I wouldn't buy another James Redfield book again after being disappointed twice before, and I probably wouldn't, but since I had the book sitting there when I got back, I thought I would just ask if I could hold on to it a bit longer and read it.
So, I've been reading The Secret of Shambhala off and on, over the last few weeks and I found it was going the same way as the previous books of his that I had read.

It wasn't until halfway through that things started picking up for me.
I had just watched the Alex Proyas movie I Robot (good on so many levels ... apart from the mediocre effects)

and read a post on Chris Knowles' The Secret Sun called

Our Cyberpunk Reality, or Escaping the Prison Planet

about William Gibson the author of the Neuromancer novel, which is about to be turned into a movie soon.

 Also when I was reading The Twelfth Insight

The Hour of Decision ...

My Thoughts About "The Twelfth Insight"

I was using a page I had ripped out of a Shambala book catalogue at random.

The Shambala bookmark I was using
while reading The Twelfth Insight.

 After having just watched I Robot (a film I hadn't watched before today) and reading the post on The Secret Sun about technology and William Gibson, I came across this passage in Redfield's book on page 161, "The first thing that happens is that those who create the technology will begin to make it ever more efficient and automated, so that robots make more and more of the material goods in the society.

This is already occurring in every industry in the outer cultures and is a positive development, despite the fact that it is especially dangerous. 
It can place too much power in the hands of a few individuals or corporations unless it is decentralized.
It also creates job losses, and many people have to adjust how they make a living.

What mediates these problems, however, is the fact that,as material production is automated, the overall economy will begin to shift toward one of information and service - providing just the right information at just the right time for others - which will necessitate everyone becoming more intuitive and alert and focused on synchronistic perception as a way of life."

Looks like "Neuromancer" will be my next read;-)

Neuromancer, Pirates, Pearls and Lightbulbs???

 

P.S. While I like what James Redfield is trying to achieve through his novels, and I have had some incredible life-changing  experiences surrounding the reading of his books, the stories themselves I feel are very bland and I could only class them as novels for the teen market.

I think there are much better books out there on the subject of synchronicity.

But if these novels get people interested in exploring Jung and synchronicity, then they serve a noble purpose ... but I can't in all honesty say they are interesting stories in themselves.

Some of my friends love these novels ... and that's fine, but no more of the insight series for me thanks.