James Redfield

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.