The New Age has never been so boring

 

"The Celestine Prophecy" is a 2006 film, based on James Redfield´s blockbuster book of the same name from 1993. I haven´t read the novel and its sequels for decades, but I didn´t like them when I did. But then, I wasn´t particularly "spiritual" at the time, nor have I ever been attracted by the New Age. After watching the film, I have to say that the New Age has never been so boring! 

In contrast to Redfield´s novels, the film tanked at the box office. It has very little plot development or real suspense (despite the heroes being chased by the military half of the time!). Above all, it´s probably incomprehensible unless you alreday read the original novel, or is very immersed into a New Age worldview. The underlying concept (at least as presented in the film) doesn´t make any sense either: why would the Catholic Church, the Peruvian military and the US Deep State be chasing a bunch of naïve spiritual types who just want to "open up" and feel the "flow"? The New Age message doesn´t threaten the establishment, indeed it has *become* the establishment! 

Another peculiar feature of the message of the Celestine Prophecy is the way it blends trivial pop psychology about interpersonal relations with a grand perspective of spiritual evolution towards the Divine, an evolution which seems to include magic, the unification of all the world´s religions, and so on. The main insight is that the world is bad because of the inability of humans to "open up" to the "energy", which is available in super-abundance. And while the film doesn´t preach a simplistic prosperity gospel, I think it´s obvious that the New Age can (and have) been given this spin. This in turn is connected to the evolutionary perspective, with its constant progression upwards. This may have been easy to believe in 1993, less so in 2006, and absolutely not in 2022. 

Perhaps the real "insight" to be gained here, is that the Age of Aquarius have been cancelled, and that we can´t just all "open up"...