Customer Reviews

The Secret of Shambhala: In Search of the Eleventh Insight

5 star:		(25)
4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(5)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

This is a survival guide for anyone who has successfully raised their vibrations and encountered the problems living in the world at that level. Those who have experienced karay, the calling of visualizations into the physical world, will not find this story farfetched. This book provides very important information on how to control this power. I just came across it in 2003, I wish it was available in 1997, when I had to learn most of the lessons provided the hard way. Many people will not "get it" but to those that do this is essential reading.

Absolutely love the series.

This book fits in the story line and I loved the evolution of the spirituality aspects.

Can't wait for the next book in Feb./11

The book is about a group of people who are trying to stop the Chinese government from discovering Shambhala, a secret holy place hidden in Tibet that hides a society of highly evolved humans. What is so special about these humans is that they are mentally and spiritually evolved to the point that they can manifest their ideas into the physical world. Aside of the sci-fi ideology relating to physical manifestation of ideas, the story has some amazing insights about cultivating positive energies and diet that are definitely true.

It may be a work of fiction but the ideas are very insightful and inspiring to the point that I actually believe in them. He combines the idea of cultivating the feelings of love and compassion from Buddhism with the idea of being able to affect the cosmic energies such as discussed in the book "The Secret". This is the first book that made me realize that to truly transform our society we need to cultivate a different perception of the world we live in, the one that is focused on understanding, compassion and respect for all. This is the way to our salvation, the way to create a true paradise on Earth.

From reading "The Tenth Insight" I was very eager to continue the series with "The Secret of Shambhala". I built up an expectation from the prior books that this book would be even better because I thought "The Tenth Insight" was much better than "The Celestine Prophecy". Again Redfield went back to his repetitive writing. If he cut out all the parts he repeated I think the book would be 3/4 the length. I found this book to be mediocre and it does not dwell on the questions we have. I felt that it is was merely a fiction as where I found it, in the fiction section.

I thoroughly enjoyed The Celestine Prophecy and even it's follow-up, The Tenth Insight, but this Shangri-La take-off just left me cold (no pun intended). It's been a while since I read the first two, and the vague references in this book to events which occurred in the first could not be recollected.

Redfield's agenda was apparent throughout, and he beat a dead Dakini to death restating the ingredients of each "extension" with great frequency. The book lacked any depth of characters or descriptions, and responses to events were incredulous. . . If a 14-year-old neighbor told you to head to the remote mountains of Tibet, would you hop on the next plane?

This book should have made a great short story. It's obvious that it was stretched to qualify as a novel.

I will admit that the Celestine prophecy was believable but I was somewhat disappointed with this book. The early chapters were interesting but the last two chapters were unbelievably far fetched and I just could not believe what I was reading. The author comes out with these statements about how we will become better people but the mechanism and guidelines to get there seemed so unachievable and downright complicated. The whole "seeing into the future" bit at the end sounded like a cross between Star Trek and Harry Potter and had me both giggling and laughing out loud. That's it........if nothing else the book is a good laugh.

I will admit that the Celestine prophecy was believable but I was somewhat disappointed with this book. The early chapters were interesting but the last two chapters were unbelievably far fetched and I just could not believe what I was reading. The author comes out with these statements about how we will become better people but the mechanism and guidelines to get there seemed so unachievable and downright complicated. The whole "seeing into the future" bit at the end sounded like a cross between Star Trek and Harry Potter and had me both giggling and laughing out loud. That's it........if nothing else the book is a good laugh.

Although this book is as enjoyable as the first two, I wouldn't suggest reading it without having read The Celestine Prophecy and the Tenth Insight first. Otherwise, I think it will be very difficult to follow the book. Combined with the other two, they are an excellent set; and as a set, I would rate them a 5.

What I like about James Redfield's writings is his ability to be both simplistic and profound. As I have read all his books I have noticed that although his stories are rather simple, and indeed he has taken much criticism for his writing style, the insights contained within the pages will illuminate your thoughts. Those who understand, understand.

The Celestine Prophecy was a great idea for a way to get spirituality across to the public: a synthesis of the most popular threads of 'New Age' thought that were circulating in the mid-1990s, packaged as a fast-paced action-adventure novel. The underlying metaphysics claimed to embrace all religions, yet also professed to be based on an empirical approach to life.

Sales show that a lot of the sensationalism which surrounded Celestine faded with Redfield's consecutive books. Some of this is just the nature of trends: anyone who has such monumental success with their first publication has little chance of producing a sequel that achieves the same results. On the other hand, there are some factors that could account for this decline in popularity.

In his second book, The Tenth Insight, Redfield compromised part of his original formula by introducing themes like reincarnation and animal omens--subjects that departed from the religious middle ground which initially let many people stay open to his theories. He also told his readers that human beings have abilities which are a good stretch further away from Pop Mysticism than communing with nature or perceiving auras. His third book, The Celestine Vision, was nonfiction, and discussed progressions in science and social thought that Redfield believes are precursors to a major revolution in global consciousness; it did well enough, but didn't come near to his early success.

With the release of The Secret of Shambhala, Redfield returned to the ongoing fictional storyline, continuing where The Tenth Insight left off. In this book, he posits that the energy generated by our thoughts and emotions actually goes out into the world as a force that he calls 'prayer,' and influences both outer events and the awareness of the people with whom we interact. I found his theories (which are embedded in the text as elaborate monologues followed by scenarios which illustrate them) to be as applicable to my own experiences as any other book in the series. The concepts were more advanced--and therefore, more challenging--than those in Celestine. This has probably contributed to its (relatively) low sales up to this point.