The Tenth Insight: Holding the Vision

by James Redfield

  “Feel the pain totally,” she reminded.

  “Okay,” I said. “I’m there.”

  “What’s happening with the pain?” she asked.

  “I still feel it, but it has changed in character or something. It’s becoming warmer, less bothersome, more like a tingling.” As I talked, the pain began to take on its normal sensation again.

  “What happened?” I asked.

  “I believe that pain serves another function beyond just telling us that something is wrong. Perhaps it also points out exactly where the difficulty is, so that we can follow it into our bodies like a beacon and place our attention and energy in exactly the right spot. It’s almost as if both the pain and our concentrated attention can’t occupy the same space. Of course, in cases of severe pain, where concentration is impossible, we can use anesthetics to ease the intensity, although I think it’s best to leave some pain so that the beacon effect can be utilized.”

  She paused and looked at me.

  “What’s next?” I asked.

  “Next,” she replied, “is to consciously send higher divine energy into the exact spot identified by the pain, intending that the love will transform the cells there into a state of perfect functioning.”

  I just stared.

  “Go ahead,” she said. “Get completely connected again. I’ll guide you through it.”

  I nodded when I was ready.

  “Feel the pain with all your being,” she began, “and now image your love energy going right into the heart of the pain, lifting that exact point of your body, the atoms themselves, into a higher vibration. See the particles take a quantum jump into the pure energy pattern that is their optimum state. Literally feel a tingling sensation in that spot as the vibration accelerates.”

  After pausing for a full minute, she continued. “Now, without changing your focus on the point of the pain, begin to feel your energy, the tingle, moving up both legs… through your hips… into your abdomen and chest… and finally into your neck and head. Feel your whole body tingling with the higher vibration. See every organ operating at optimal efficiency.”

  I followed her instructions exactly, and after a few moments my whole body felt lighter, more energized. I held that state for about ten minutes, then opened my eyes and looked at Maya.

  Using a flashlight in the darkness, Maya’ was putting up my tent on a flat area between two pines. Glancing over at me, she said, “Feel better?”

  I nodded.

  “Do you understand the process so far?”

  “I think so. I sent energy into the pain.”

  “Yes, but what we did earlier was just as important. You begin by looking at the meaning of the injury or illness, what its occurrence is pointing out about some fear in your life that is holding you back, manifesting in your body. This is what opens the fear block so that the visualization can penetrate.

  “After the block is open, then you can use pain as a beacon, raising the vibration in that area and then in your entire body. But finding the origin of the fear is vitally important. When the origin of the illness or accident is very deep, it often requires hypnosis or intensive counseling.”

  I told her about the medieval image I had seen of the door being kicked in and of myself being dragged away.

  She looked thoughtful. “Sometimes the root of the block goes back a very long way. But as you explore it further, and begin to work through the fear that is holding you back, you will usually discover a fuller understanding of who you are, of what your current life on Earth is all about. And this sets the stage for the last—and, I firmly believe, the most important—step in the healing process. Most important of all is to look deeply enough to remember what you want to do with your life. Real healing takes place when we can envision a new kind of future for ourselves that excites us. Inspiration is what keeps us well. People aren’t healed to watch more TV.”

  I looked at her for a moment, then said, “You mentioned that prayer works. How is the best way to pray for someone who is not well?”

  “We’re still trying to figure that out. It has something to do with the Eighth Insight process of sending the energy and love that flow through us from the divine source to the person, and at the same time visualizing that the individual will remember what they really want to do with their life. Of course, sometimes what the person remembers is that it’s time to make a transition into the other dimension. When that’s the case, we have to accept it.”

  Maya was finishing with the tent and added, “Also keep in mind that the procedures I’ve recommended should be done in conjunction with the very best in traditional medicine. If we were near my clinic, I would take you in for a full examination, but in this case, unless you disagree, I suggest you stay here tonight. It’s better if you don’t move much.”

  As I watched, she set up my stove, turned it on, and placed a boiler containing freeze-dried soup on the flame. “I’m going back into town. I need to get a splint for your ankle and some other supplies, just in case we need them, then I’ll hike back out and check on you. I’ll bring a radio too, in case we have to send for help.”

  I nodded.

  She poured her canteen’s water into mine and looked over at me. Behind her, the last streak of light was vanishing toward the west.

  “Did you say your clinic was near here?” I asked.

  “Actually it’s only about four miles to the south,” she said, “over the ridge, but there’s no way to come into the valley from that direction. The only pass is the main road that comes in south of town.”

  “How did you happen to be here?”

  She smiled and looked slightly embarrassed. “It’s funny. I had a dream last night about hiking into the valley again, and this morning I decided I would do just that. I’ve been working hard and I guess I needed some time to reflect on what I’m doing at the clinic. My partner and I have a great deal of experience with alternative approaches, Chinese medicine, herbs, yet at the same time, we have the resources of the world’s best in traditional medicine at our fingertips through computer. I’d dreamed about this kind of clinic for years.”

  She paused for a moment, then said, “Before you showed up I was sitting right over there, and my energy just shot through the roof. It seemed as though I could see the whole story of my life, every experience I’ve had, from my early childhood all the way up until this moment, stretched out before me in plain view. It was the clearest Sixth Insight experience I’ve ever had.

  “All those events were a preparation,” she continued. “I grew up in a family where my mother struggled with chronic disease all her life, but would never participate in her own healing. At the time, the doctors knew no better, but throughout my childhood, her refusal to explore her own fears irritated me, and I noticed every bit of new information about diet, vitamins, stress levels, meditation, and their role in health, trying to convince her to become involved. During my adolescence I was torn between joining the clergy and becoming a doctor. I don’t know; it was as if I was driven to figure out how we use insight, faith, to change the future, to heal.

  “And my father,” she continued. “He was something else. He worked in the biological sciences, but he never would explain any of his results except in his academic papers. ‘Pure research,’ he called it. His associates treated him like a god. He was unapproachable, the ultimate authority. I was grown, and he had died of cancer, before I understood his real interest—the immune system, and specifically how commitment and excitement with life enhance the immune system.

  “He was the first one to see this relationship, and that’s what all the current research shows now. Yet I never got to talk with him about it. At first I wondered why I would be born to a father who behaved like that. But I finally accepted the fact that my parents had the exact combination of traits and interests to inspire my own evolution. That’s why I wanted to be with them in my early life. Looking at my mother, I knew that each of us must take responsibility for our own healing. We can’t just turn
it over to others. Healing in its essence is about breaking through the fears associated with life—fears that we don’t want to face—and finding our own special inspiration, a vision of the future, that we know we’re here to help create.

  “From my father, I saw clearly that medicine must be more responsive, must acknowledge the intuition and vision of the people we treat. We have to come down from our ivory tower. The combination of the two set me up to look for a new paradigm in medicine: one based on the patient’s ability to take control of his or her life and to get back on the right path. That’s my message, I guess, the idea that inwardly we know how to participate in our own healing, physically and emotionally. We can become inspired to shape a higher, more ideal future, and when we do, miracles happen.”

  Standing up, she glanced at my ankle, then at me. “I’m leaving now,” she said. “Try not to put any weight on your foot. What you need is complete rest. I’ll be back in the morning.”

  I think I must have looked anxious, because she knelt down again and put both hands on the ankle. “Don’t worry,” she said. “With enough energy there’s nothing that can’t be healed— hatred… war. It’s just a matter of coming together with the right vision.” She patted my foot gently. “We can heal this! We can heal this!”

  She smiled once, then turned and walked away.

  I suddenly wanted to call out and tell her everything. I had experienced in the other dimension and what I knew about the Fear and about the group coming back, but instead I remained quiet, fatigue overwhelming me, content to watch her disappear into the trees. Tomorrow would be soon enough, I thought… because I knew exactly who she was.

  REMEMBERING

  The next morning I jerked awake, the shrill cry of a hawk, high overhead, pulling me into awareness. For a few moments I listened carefully, imagining her lofty rolls. She cried one more time then stopped. I sat up quickly and looked through the tent flap; the day was cloudy but warm, and a light breeze swayed the treetops.

  Taking an Ace bandage from my pack, I carefully wrapped the ankle, working the joint carefully and feeling very little pain, then crawled out of the tent and stood up. After a few moments I put weight on my foot and took a tentative step. The ankle felt weak, but if I limped slightly, it seemed to support me. I wondered: had Maya’s procedure helped, or had the ankle not been hurt that badly? There was no way to know.

  Digging into my pack again, I retrieved a change of clothes, then grabbed the dirty dishes from the night before. Cautiously, alert for any odd sound or movement, I made my way back to the stream. When I located a place where I was shielded from view, I slipped off my clothes and entered the water, finding it cold and refreshing. I lay there without thinking, trying to forget the anxiety rising in my gut, gazing out at the colors of the leaves above my head.

  Suddenly I began to recall a dream from the night before. I was sitting on a rock… something was happening… Wil was there… and others. I vaguely remembered a field of blue and amber. I struggled a moment longer but could recall nothing more.

  As I opened a bottle of soap, I noticed that the trees and bushes around me were amplified in appearance. Somehow the act of remembering my dream had increased my energy. Feeling lighter, I hastily bathed and washed off the dishes, noticing as I finished that a large rock to my right looked very similar to the one on which I was sitting in my dream. I stopped and inspected the boulder more closely. Flat and about ten feet in diameter, its shape and color matched exactly.

  In a few minutes I had taken down the tent, packed, and hidden my gear under some fallen limbs. Then, returning to the rock, I sat down and tried to recall the blue field and the exact position Wil had occupied in the dream. He had been to my left and slightly behind me. At that moment a clear image of his face came to my mind, as in a close-up photo. Struggling to maintain the exact detail, I re-created his image and surrounded it with the blue field.

  Seconds later I felt a pulling sensation in my solar plexus, and then I was again streaking through the colors. When I stopped, the environment was pale blue and luminous, and Wil was beside me.

  “Thank God you’re back!” he said, moving in closer. “You became so dense I couldn’t find you.”

  “What happened before?” I asked. “Why did the hum get so loud?”

  “I don’t know.”

  “Where are we now?”

  “It’s a particular level where dreams seem to take place.”

  I looked out into the blue. Nothing was moving. “You’ve been here?”

  “Yes, I came here before I found you at the falls, although at the time I didn’t know why.”

  For a moment we both surveyed the environment again, then Wil asked, “What happened to you when you went back?”

  With excitement I began to describe everything that had occurred, focusing first on Joel’s forecast of environmental and civil collapse. Wil listened intently, digesting every aspect of Joel’s outlook.

  “He was voicing the Fear,” Wil commented.

  I nodded. “That’s what I think. Do you suppose all of what he said is really occurring?” I asked.

  “I think the danger is that a lot of people are beginning to believe it’s happening. Remember what the Ninth Insight said: as the spiritual renaissance progresses, it must overcome a polarization of Fear.”

  I caught Wil’s eye. “I met someone else, a woman.”

  Wil listened as I described my experience with Maya, particularly the injury to my ankle and her healing procedures.

  When I finished, he gazed into the distance, thinking.

  “I think Maya is the woman in Williams’ vision,” I added. “The woman who was trying to stop the war with the Native Americans.”

  “Perhaps her idea of healing holds the key to dealing with the Fear,” Wil replied.

  I nodded for him to continue.

  “This all makes sense,” he said. “Look at what has already occurred. You came here searching for Charlene and met David, who said the Tenth was a greater understanding of the spiritual renaissance happening on this planet, an understanding attained by grasping our relationship to the Afterlife dimension. He said the Insight has something to do with clarifying the nature of intuitions, of maintaining them in our minds, of seeing our synchronistic path in a fuller way.

  “Later, you figured out how to maintain your intuitions in this way and found me at the falls, and I confirmed that maintaining the intuitions, the mental images of ourselves, was the operative mode in the Afterlife as well, and that humans are moving into alignment with this other dimension. Soon after, we found ourselves watching Williams’ Life Review, watching him agonize over not remembering something he had wanted to do, which was to come together with a group of people to help deal with this Fear that threatens our spiritual awakening.

  “He says we have to understand this Fear in order to do something about it, and then we get separated and you run into a journalist, Joel, who takes a long time to enunciate what? A fearful vision of the future. In fact, a fear of the complete destruction of civilization.

  “Then, of course, you next run into a woman whose life is all about healing, and the way she facilitates healing is to help people work through fear blocks by prodding their memory, helping them to discern why they’re on the planet. This remembering has to be the key.”

  A sudden movement drew our attention. Another group of souls seemed to be forming about a hundred feet away.

  “They are probably here to help someone with their dreaming,” Wil said.

  I looked hard at him. “They help us dream?”

  “Yes, in a way. Some other souls were here when you dreamed last night.”

  “How did you know about my dream?”

  “When you were jolted back into the physical, I tried to find you but I couldn’t. Then, when I waited, I began to see your face, and moved here. The last time I came to this place, I couldn’t quite grasp what was occurring, but now I think I understand what happens when we dream.”
/>   I shook my head, not comprehending.

  He gestured out toward the souls. “It apparently all happens synchronistically. These beings you see probably found themselves here just as I did earlier, by coincidence, and now they’re probably waiting to see who comes by in their dream body.”

  The background hum grew louder and I couldn’t respond. I felt confused, dizzy. Wil came closer to me, touching my back again. “Stay with me!” he said. “There’s some reason we need to see this.”

  I struggled to clear my head, then noticed another form manifesting in the space beside the souls. At first I thought other souls were appearing, but then I realized the formation was much larger than anything I’d seen before: a whole scene was being projected in front of us, like a hologram, complete with characters, setting, and dialogue. A single individual seemed to be at the center of the action, a man vaguely familiar. After a moment of concentration I realized that the person before us was Joel.

  As we watched, the scene began to unfold, like the plot of a movie. I strained to follow along, but my head was still foggy; I couldn’t quite understand what was happening. As the episode progressed and the dialogue became more intense, both the souls and the journalist moved closer together. After several minutes the drama seemed to end, and everyone disappeared.

  “What was happening?” I asked.

  “The individual in the center of the scene was dreaming,” Wil said.

  “That was Joel, the man I told you about,” I replied.

  Wil turned to me in astonishment. “Are you sure?”

  “Yes.”

  “Did you understand the dream he just had?”

  “No, I couldn’t quite get it. What happened?”

  “The dream was about a war of some kind. He was fleeing a bomb-ravaged city with shells exploding all around him, running for his life, thinking of nothing but safety and survival. When he successfully evaded the horror and climbed a mountain to look back at the city, he remembered that his orders had been to meet another group of soldiers and supply a secret part to a new device that would make the enemy weapons inactive. To his horror he now realized that because he had failed to show up, the soldiers and the city were being systematically destroyed before his eyes.”