The Twelfth Insight - James Redfield [46]
At this moment, Wolf took his stick and spread the fire out into a wider area, killing most of the flames and sending a whirlwind of tiny sparks into the air. Then Wil asked us to sit down in a circle across from each other on the six small logs surrounding the glowing coals.
Rachel tossed me a glance and made her way over to sit down opposite Coleman. And as it happened, Hira and Adjar sat directly across from each other. Too late, I realized I was the odd man out. I was about to comment when, to my surprise, Tommy walked up, and with a maturity beyond his years raised his eyebrows as if to ask my permission to sit across from me.
“Of course,” I said.
For a long time, we just all looked at one another, the hot coals casting a red hue over our faces. It was completely dark now, and even though we were all less than twelve feet from the person across from us, in the low light it was hard to bring each other’s faces into focus. It was almost as though we were being forced to just look at the person as a whole shape, with few cues from body language or facial expression to guide our reactions. Setting up the fire this way, I thought, must be a Hopi psychological device.
“I wanted to get you all together,” Wil began, “because Wolf was able to find the Sixth Integration. I also know many of you have made arrangements to leave, so I wanted to talk to you before you did so.
“The Document says that once one has experienced the Breakthrough to a God Connection, then one has completed the Foundation of Spirituality, a plateau of stable consciousness from which we can proceed, if we want to, with the remaining Integrations—a journey it calls a Rise to Sacred Influence.
“The Document describes this rise as a systematic recapturing of the full Divine Connection, piece by piece, as we elevate our consciousness back to that higher state. It culminates with the discovery of the Twelfth level, and at this point we will be able to maintain this consciousness.”
Wil paused here and looked out at us.
“However,” he continued, “it says, very clearly, that all those around you during a time of Breakthrough are there for an important reason. They represent a group that can help you move more rapidly through the remaining Integrations. And according to the Document, they have another important purpose as well: together you can form what it calls a Template of Agreement, which serves the role of agreeing on the truth about each Integration and influencing others with the power of that agreement.
“These template groups are very important because, to the extent that they are made up of people representing different religious traditions, they act to counteract and resolve the dangerous polarization and hatred growing between religious extremists in the world.”
Wil walked closer to us. “The templates have such an effect on the extremists because, as we proceed through the remaining Integrations and grow in influence, we will be beaming one central truth out to the world: that, in their essence, the religions are all pointing to the same experience of God Connection that most of us have now shared. It is this common experience, once recognized, that can serve to help reconcile the differences between religions and help them come to unity. Truth, remember, is contagious.”
I couldn’t see their expressions entirely, but I could feel the grimaces on Adjar’s and Hira’s faces, and maybe even Coleman’s. The last thing many of us seemed to want, going into this gathering, was to hang around long enough to make it through today, much less long enough for some kind of unification to take place.
Wil was pausing again, knowing he had just dropped a bomb-shell on everyone. I looked over toward Wolf and swore I could feel him wink.
“Before you make your decisions in this regard,” Wil went on, “I want to tell you what the Document says is at stake. As with earlier Integrations, enough people in the world must take these remaining steps in order for the Influence to become powerful enough to counteract