James Redfield

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American writer and therapist, the author of the "Celestine Prophecy," which was the number one international bestseller in 1996. This book, with its message about human spiritual awareness written in an adventure parable format, was Redfield’s first published work and ultimately spent over three years on the New York Times bestseller list. Self-published, it sold 100,000 copies in the first year of its release, holding the No.1 best-seller spot for ten weeks. Redfield grew up in a rural area of Alabama, and for most of his life, he was keenly interested in anything that helped him better understand human spirituality. His family was of the Methodist faith, and their family church provided a loving, community-minded environment, but he was continually frustrated by an ability to get answers to his many questions. He majored in sociology at Auburn University and studied Eastern philosophies, including Zen and Taoism. He received his Master’s Degree in counseling, and for over 15 years, he worked with troubled adolescents. During this time, he became involved in the human potential movement, using the movement’s theories about intuition and psychic phenomena to provide help for his troubled clients. In 1989, however, he resigned from his job as a therapist, determined to write full-time, bringing together all of his ideas on psychology, philosophy, ecology and mysticism. Four years later, he completed his work on the book and turned his focus toward trying to get it published, a task that eventually proved futile. He decided to self-publish the book and distribute it himself, relying on word-of-mouth to do the advertising. The book’s popularity spread like wildfire, and Warner Books bought the rights, putting out a hard cover edition in March 1994. The public clamored for a sequel, and in 1996, Redfield’s second book, "The Tenth Insight: Holding The Vision," was published, becoming another instant bestseller, and making Redfield the top selling hard cover author in the world for 1996. In 1997, he published "The Celestine Vision." He and his wife, along with Deepak Chopra, Wayne Dyer and others, toured Australia in the spring of 1999, and during 2000, they visited most of the U.S. as well as Central and South America and Europe. In addition to his spiritual interests, Redfield is active in the worldwide effort to protect our remaining wilderness areas and has lobbied to save our forests. He was awarded the Medal of the Presidency of the Italian Senate during the Pio Manzu conference, a meeting of a non-governmental arm of the United Nations, in October 1997. In 1999, he became involved with the Global Renaissance Alliance, dedicated to helping people learn the principles of non-violence, and in the spring of 2000, he was one of two recipients given Humanitarian of the Year honors by his alma mater, Auburn University. Redfield is married to Salle Merrill, a massage therapist and writer. They have no children. Link to Wikipedia biography