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Gerdean says, "I finished
writing the book in 1991; it was published in
November 2002; the actual blackout occurred in 2003
in roughly the same area, except that in the
novel, it went down the Atlantic seaboard while the
real-life blackout went up into Canada. But New
England, New York, the Great Lakes area ... that was
the scene of both the prophesy and the reality. In
Chapter Two, Audley drives through the aftermath of
the biggest power failure in the history of the
United States."
How can we explain
Gerdean's amazing ability to produce such a
nail-on-the-head prophecy, and in print, no less? In
her own words, here is how she came up with the
August 14 date: "It is, indeed, an uncanny
coincidence, and yet, contemporary New Age advocates
of Robert Redfield’s The Celestine Prophesy
understand that there is 'no such thing as a
coincidence.'
"I needed a date that
would guarantee there being a huge drain on
resources, in order to virtually force a blackout of
that size and magnitude to take place. It seemed to
me that the height of summer in the biggest city in
our country would be the most likely place for this
to happen and so the construct began. August 12 is
the date I chose. (Incidentally, this scene was
originally written perhaps as far back as 1973, and
so the date was a point of issue a full 30 years
before the August 14, 2003 blackout in Northeast
America took place.)
"The heroine, Audley,
would need to be affected by a life-and-death event
in order for her to re-think her values, to make
those life-altering decisions that would cause her
to re-consider her course of action -- thereby
leading the reader into a new dimension of
perception. . . . Thus, the relevance of Audley
stopping in New York and looking out the airplane
window at the City below, as it lifts off, and
reflecting on the millions of air conditioners
straining to bring relief to the hapless hoards
below.
"Although I had selected
August 12 as the ideal date, over the years I kept
confusing it with August 14. Many times August 14
would pop up where I had intended to make reference
to August 12. I found myself protecting myself from
that tendency by eliminating the date altogether, or
using it as infrequently as possible. When I got my
first word processor in the late 80’s, it was easier
to make sure I didn’t use the wrong date, but I
specifically did not want to use August 14, and I
will say why in a minute.
"This propensity for me to
choose an idea or a concept and to have it
re-written and re-written and re-written by powers
beyond my own is one of the reasons I feel this book
is the joint effort of Celestial Artisan Athena and
myself. She has gone so far as to say it is her
book, but that she is glad I was someone she was
able to work with in order to get her story told.
Many times during the many years of writing this
manuscript I would naively write what my mind
dictated, only to have it rewritten, as if according
to some mind other than my own.
"When, after many years, I began to release my
control over the creative process, the book began to
write itself.
"The part that gives me
pause to consider the prophetic nature of the August
14 date is that the book is "dedicated to Joe and
Kuhus and Sally and Debby and those who could not
wait for the portal." These people committed
suicide, one way or another, all because the pain of
this life –- emotional, physical, psychic, whatever
–- was more than they could bear. It is for them
that I strive to make this world a better place. I
am dogged in my determination that we learn to be
compassionate and tolerant and loving. It is for
those who might still succumb to the struggle,
having fought until they were exhausted, that I was
driven to finish the book.
"The Joe who is referenced
on the dedication page is my baby brother. His
birthday was August 14. I did not want Joe’s
birthday to be the date of the blackout, but in
retrospect, perhaps Celestial Athena did, for it
tends to point out, at least to me, the urgency of
improving the status quo of "such a life on such a
planet." Perhaps it is time for each of us to
undergo a personal crisis as an opportunity to
review our values, in order to re-direct our course
of action, so as to put in the limelight the needs
and concerns of those who suffer.
"If it is true that we can
do more together than we can do alone, it is also
true that we can rise no higher than our weakest
members can. Am I my brother’s keeper? It
would seem that I am, and that we are, or Athena
would not have deliberately called attention to this
date, and the universe would not have supported her
stance by permitting the Northeast Blackout of
August 14, 2003 to take place. It thus seems that
this stewardship we have inherited as conscious
children of the living God is also bigger than we
might have imagined, in that we have a
responsibility to make life at least bearable for
our brothers and sisters."
* * *
Gerdean O'Dell Bowen lives
in New Mexico with her husband Angus Bowen and is
currently working on her second novel.
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Gerdean
