Dear readers,
I’ve experienced some technical problems and therefore I decided to leave here, by writing, by answers to some of you.
1. Sheila Rahman asks:
Have you achieved your dream?
If so, what was the alchemy?
If no, what is your dream still unfulfilled?
Dear Sheila,
I can say that I have fulfilled my dream of becoming a writer. The Alchemy started when I understood that I simply had to materialize my dream, meaning when I sat down and wrote.
2. Cathy Brooks asks :
What was your biggest surprise in relation to The Alchemist (given that it’s read all over the world and it transcend different cultures )?
Dear Cathy, I would say exactly that : having my book being read all over the world was to me my greatest surprise. I could have never thought that the tale of a shepherd boy could cross boundaries the way it did.
3.Vinvin (VIDEO)
Have you found your personal legend ?
Dear Vivin,
you not only find your personal legend, but you have also to fulfill it.
Indeed, my personal legend, what brings me joy in life, is writing. So I would say that I have found and fought for my personal legend.
4.Joan Lockwood (VIDEO) and Yajna ask :
Where were you when you decided to write The Alchemist?
Dear Joan and Yajna,
I decided to write The Alchemist one year after I did my pilgrimage to Saintiago of Compostela. I was in Brazil, after the carnival, and I needed to explain to myself why I took so long to actually write. I found the way to express that through a metaphor – the story of a shepherd boy that goes after his treasure.
5.John asks:
When Santiago found his treasure and returned to Fatima in the desert this was not the end of his dream, I assume he would go on dreaming and working for the rest of his life and his life is found in the challenge of doing so? for all our lives achieving one dream is also not the end? we must always dream and always follow them?
Dear John,
Indeed, when Santiago finds his treasure, his journey just begins. He finds the physical treasure but the spiritual one he acquires through the journey. Challenges are what a person needs in order to keep in fulfilling one’s personal legend.
6.Ravin asks:
Twenty years on from that famous line, do you still believe that ”when you want something, all the universe conspires in helping you to achieve it.”
Dear Ravin,
yes I still believe in this sentence. What people don’t realize though is that the universes conspires, hears, all wishes may they be positive or negative ones.
This doesn’t mean though that a conscious wish will be heard – there are undercurrents in our souls that are stronger – that despite ourselves communicate with the Anima Mundi.
7.Monika
what do you understand by “world-soul” (anima mundi)?
Dear Monika,
Anima Mundi is an expression taken from old alchemist’s texts. It’s the soul of the world, the beating heart of our emotions, dreams, desires. It is very similar to what Carl Young refers to as the “collective unconscious”. It is meaningful – even if sometimes forgotten – and it surrounds us.
8.Zuleyka Sanchez (VIDEO) asks:
I believe God is Supreme Being – without a determines sex. Why do you refer then to the Goddess?
Dear Zuleyka,
I agree with you that God is a Supreme Being. The reason why I decide to speak about the Goddess in my books is related to the fact that I’m fascinated by it’s feminine face, by its compassion. This doesn’t mean though that the masculine side – made up of determination and rules – is absent. Both faces are present in our lives.
9.Jorge Hirata pergunta:
Lí na internet que finalmente você e Hollywood entraram em um acordo e finalmente O Alquimista vai virar filme, vai ser uma super produção avaliada em 60 milhões de dolares.
Você confirma a notícia? Poderia nos adiantar mais dados do filme? (tais como nomes de atores, diretor, data de lançamento, etc.)
Ola Jorge,
sim confirmo esta informação porque aliás estava em Cannes quando o produtor Harvey Weinstein disse anunciou que faria o filme com o Laurence Fishbourne estreando e dirigindo.
10.Rose (Video) asks:
How can people that are very sick or with severe disabilities fulfill their personal legend?
Dear Rose, I think that the best example of a person with a disability that managed to fulfill his personal legend is the scientist Stephen Hawking. Of course, having a disability makes this more difficult but you would be surprise by people’s capacity to overcome adversities.
11.Wablinska asks:
The world’s soul…
Do you consider it alive, as another unseen world?
Dear Wablinska,
The world’s soul is alive since it’s composed of ourselves and our beliefs.
12.Gabriela asks:
Why is a desert the setting for The Alchemist?
Why not a big city?
Dear Gabriela,
I have always been fascinated by the desert. When I discovered thorughout my wanderings in the world that the desert, this empty place, was actually full with life I could have never thought that it would end up in one of my books.
13.Agnieszka asks:
Dear Paulo,
If you would like to turn the clock back to a certain moment in your life, to live it through again, which moment would that be? from your childhood maybe?
Dear Agnieska,
my clock moves forward and the only moments when I think about the past with regret is when I have hurt a friend. But to be able to apologize is something that i can only do in the present, not in the past.
14. Paul from Austria
What point in time did you decide to be a writer?
Dear Paul,
my biography “The Magus”, written by the Brazilian journalist Fernando Morais, was just released in Brazil and I received today a copy of it. Throughout the process, the only thing that I did was to hand over my diaries to Fernando and 5 years later the biography came out. Fernando sent me a letter with the book talking about precisely that : that the idea of becoming a writer goes back to my adolescence, when I was 14.
15. Rosa de los vientos asks:
Hola Paulo, felicitaciones por los 20 años de “El Alquimista”.
El rey Salem habla de fuerzas misteriosas que tratan de convencerte de que no serás capaz de lograr tu “Leyenda Personal”.
Mi pregunta es:
¿Qué son estas fuerzas misteriosas?
Querida Rosa,
las fuerzas misteriosas que tratan de convencernos son un teste. En el largo de nuestro camino hacia Santiago tenemos que ser testados en nuestra determinación. Sin estas tentaciones del camino, no existe caminar.
16. Jennifer Mannion asks:
Is it possible to have more than one personal legend ?
Dear Jennifer,
I believe it’s possible, but to be honest I think people may disperse themselves if they don’t focus in one particular goal.
17. Alexandra asks:
I want to ask you if you think that Love is the most important thing in life.
Dear Alexandra,
to quote the Beatles : ” all you need is love”.
Thank you for these excellent questions and I hope that soon I shall be using more the seesmic plugin here in my blog.
All my love
Paulo
Hi,
This may be one of the incidences that “When you really want something…” I just wanted to say a BIG thanks to you for putting those things in to words…
I just wish I could see you in person someday…
with lots of luv,
Kaushik
My feelings says that i need a spiritual teacher but not able to proceed because the path is not known.
Thank you,
love Agnieszka
I love you Paulo! Have a wonderful life! :)
Olá Paulo,
Que ótima notícia!
Com certeza o filme “O Alquimista”, vai ser um sucesso tanto quanto o livro.
Laurence Fishbourne (Matrix) é um excelente ator e tem tudo para se revelar um diretor de sensibilidade e competência. Assim como aconteceu com Mel Gibson, Clint Stwart, Morgan Freeman, Judy Foster entre outros.
Aguardamos ansiosos o lançamento!
Forte abraço para você e Christina!
Jorge Hirata.
Thank you.
I feel a great admiration for you. I don’t have any question, I JUST want to tell you that your books (the ones I have read) have tattoed my soul!
Take care!
Sabrina
Dear Paulo,
I’m very excited at the opportunity to send you a question. My husband has gifted me with another of your books (Like the Flowing River). It is with great enthusiasm that we share your books with our friends. Kudos for your success in all you have set out to accomplish!!
My questions are numerable however I will be succinct in asking this:
It appears to me that you remain strong in your belief of God. I would like to understand how you are able to accomplish this when it is equally apparent that you are strong in your belief of what is “occult”. My understanding in my belief path was always that where is a God to guide and protect/judge etc. It is now a clear understanding for me that we are all each “God”. We have full responsibility for what happens to ourselves. From success to failure. What we think about is what we create.
Your books all go in this simple direction however you seem never to take a full an final step in this direction. Is your belief grounded in catholicism?
Please do not take this as a rude question. I am merely wanting to know for a variety of reasons. I am hoping one day to read one of your books about a character who goes from a small town begining of wanting to become a priest to moving to a big city and all the experiences that come with that to shifting into an understanding that life is in our own creative hands.
Thank you so much for your time. You are one of my favorite writers!
Melissa
Dearest Paulo,I want to ask you if you think that Love is the most important thing in life.Also,what culrure of wich country impressed you more.Are you feeling haressed by fans ever?Where do you find the ideas for the short stories?What do you think about martiall arts?Do you have courage always?If no,what do you do to return to have faith?Thank you very much .bye.Love
Querido Paulo,
Ayer se cumplió uno de mis sueños al poder conocerte en persona. Era una de esas muchas “almas” que estuvieron en el Acto del Teatro Palacio Valdés, en Avilés. Una de esas muchas caras que se concentraron alrededor tuyo con un montón de libros abiertos esperando que estamparas tu firma en ellos. Muchas gracias por todo: por tu paciencia, por tu amabilidad, por tu sonrisa y, sobre todo, por tu obra.
Un abrazo fuerte desde las verdes tierras de Asturias.
Amado Paulo,
Aunque algunos problemas tecnicos me impidieron ver el evento, estaba contigo en espiritu. Ojala sigas escribiendo estas historias tan secncillas faciles de leer y entender y con tanta magia…
no tenia idea que esta historia tuviera tantos años, FUE TU PRIMER LIBRO QUE LEI. El mismo que ha provocado que haya leido todos tus libros y que espere el siguiente con gran ilusion.
Te mando un fuerte abrazo desde MEXICO
Parabéns também a Mônica Antunes, que tanto ajudou a escrever essa bonita história…
Oi Paulo,
“O Alquimista”, chegou num momento muito especial em minha vida e gostaria de te agradecer por ter lido esse livro que particularmente acho um dos mais bonitos escrito por você.
Desejo com toda minha admiração e afeto muito sucesso hoje na comeração dos vinte anos de O Aquimista.
Quis muito de acompanhar a entrevista, mas não soube conectar os botões então aguardo pelo myspace ou youtube.
Imenso beijo,
Mari Raphael.
Querio Paulo:
Yo quiero pedirte perdón publicamente. He sido una sinverguenza contigo. Un caos. Lo peor.
Espero que puedas perdonarme. Me arrepiento muchísmo.
Carmen Sarabia Sánhcez
PD: no me importa que salga en el mensaje mi nombre y mis apellidos. Quien la hace la paga.
Mis mejores deseos para ti Paulo. Eres grande.
Paul,
I’d like to, but my webcam has no sound, and my camera is broken. Yet, I had prepared a question, but no sound…
Another time. :)
Love
Paulo, you said that visit to Egypt was fundamental for you to be able to write “The Alchemist. I have 2 questions:
1] Looking into the past, 20 years after the great success of the novel, what do you think you were not able to express in the book?
2] Do you still keep materials that you wrote but were not publicized in the final version of the book?
Thank you!
Claudio Soares
Tijuca, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
http://blog.pontolit.com.br
Congratulations for the 20 years of the alchimiste, this was the first book I read from you, when I finished reading i was so motivated and I want to give you thank for you advices to my life.
Please receive a fraternal hugs from me.
Luz Adriana.
Dear Paulo,
You are so special, your thoughts are always with deep feeling of understanding, with peace with madness shade. It motivates to us to think about to enjoy our life, to make whatever necesary to be happy, to make true our dreams, to find our lover, our purposes, i can continue writing so wonderfull thoughts about you, because you inspire us day to day. By the time, I just want to tell you that you are GREAT, MAGIC AND LOVELY.
My question is when you are going to visit Mexico?
Regards,
Luz Adriana.
Hi Paulo, Had trouble posting my video question on seesmic…. here is the link: http://youtube.com/watch?v=bWfOXtUKzck
I also wrote about The Alchemist on my blog. Thank you for my favorite book and for your wonderful inspiration. Gratefully, Jenny
Dear wanbliska,
why don’t you join the gather?… and it would be nice to see your face too .:) as it would be to see other “friends” here on Paulo’s Blog. It took me a while to gather the courage to show my face in the web, (I have never done this anywhere before) but it was also a very freeing experience, for I have nothing to hide and everything to give ;)
Love & Light, Paul
Hola Paulo, felicitaciones por los 20 años de “El Alquimista”.
El rey Salem habla de fuerzas misteriosas que tratan de convencerte de que no serás capaz de lograr tu “Leyenda Personal”.
Mi pregunta es:
¿Qué son estas fuerzas misteriosas?
Un beso Paulo.
Gabriella,
As a good Mother, Earth hides Her tears…
♥ With love ♥
Paul from Austria,
It’s good to see your face. :)
Bye bye
I’d have liked to be into the gather. Well, never two without three…
I hope we could see it live, at less for a part.
I wish you all joy,
and happy birthday to the alchemist.
Dear Saeed, in good times & bad (good or bad is a personal point of view) you “are” living your personal legend, it is impossible to lose it. What you are looking for is your dream, and for that we must live alive, awake and be ready for that moment when our dream comes true. As was the case with Santiago, perhaps the treasure you are searching for is right under your nose :) Look around you, be responsive to every moment and believe me, you will find what you are looking for. God never lets us down. Love & Light, Paul
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Olá Paulo,
Saindo um pouco do tema “O Alquimista”, gostaria de te fazer uma pergunta pouco comum!
Soube que você na juventude, escrevia artigos para uma revista, falando da possíbilidade de vidas extraterrestres, UFOs e coisas do gênero.
Pergunto; você ainda acredita em seres extraterrestres? Já teve algum avistamento de UFOs?
Se a resposta for sim, poderia nos contar como foi?
Grato!
Dear Paulo,
If you would like to turn the clock back to a certain moment in your life, to live it through again, which moment would that be? from your childhood maybe?
and
In which moment you heard the voice “write..”?
{if it’s your secret, you don’t have to answer)
lots of love
Agnieszka
Another one:
Is the Anima Mundi a woman spirit?
Is Maria Mother of God? and Coatlicue and other feminine representations all over the world and through human history the same Woman that appears in our myths and legends but under different appeareance and costumes?
Is our planet Earth the body of a Celestial Woman?
Is She the Anima Mundi?
That’s whay She appears crying in many supernatural events all over the world? Is our planet crying? It’s not difficult to guess why.
Thank you,
G
Dear Paulo C,
Why is a desert the setting for The Alchemist?
Why not a big city?
The majority of humans live in cities and these are the places where we deal with our Personal Legend.
Good luck in your conference!
Cheers!
G
Hello Paulo,
Please tell me what is the way for a person who has lost his own “personal Legend”? I have lost my own legend and I really can’t find it. Please don’t tell me that my Legend or my duty is “to find” my Personal legend. It is a Loop which never goes to a reply. Please tell me what a person without personal legend can do to be happy.
The Alchemist is the book of my life together with the “Little prince”. I can say it is a book for our centenary. Thank you for letting us to have Alchemist…
With all my heart, I pray for you.
Saeed
Dear Paulo,
Congratulations on the anniversary of the Alchemist!May the success continue for many,many years and God always bless you.Keep inspining for giving us your worthless help to continue our path.
So my question (that I did not manage to post as a video!) is:
When you wrote the ALCHEMIST in what psychological state
were you and which feeling was the strongest?
Thank you for being.
Much respect and love,
Chrissa
As for me, The Alchemist is one of the most contemporaneous book, regarding to the world’s soul.
And you talked about that word: The world’s soul…
Do you consider it alive, as another unseen world?
Thank you.
Querido Paulo,
Quiero agradecerle por el magnifico regalo de esperanza y fe que ha entregado al mundo. Mi pregunta es muy sencilla. Se imagino Ud que algun dia sus palabras tocarian miles de personas con el aliento de un nuevo amanecer?
Espero algun dia poder conocerlo en persona. Que el Todopoderoso lo siga bendiciendo.
Con respeto y admiracion
Nancy B. Valdes
De raices Ecuatorianas y cultural universal
Albany New York
Respected Paulo
After reading Alchemist,Warrior of the light.I got hope & felt like asking you this thing.
Are you angel sent by god for people to help & connect & actually write what we go through.
You touch the hear & soul directly & heal exatcly where it is needed.
Why does it happen & what should one do??
Over in the past sometime, i have been wondering in race to succeed why does one ignores the happiness which is around or which is always there by the side & always following.
When one realises that it is drifting away & realises the mistake & runs to it & say sorry to it & begs it to come back but it goes with someone else & says i am lucky there & other fellow laughs ..YOU FOOL!!!!
When one still keeps trying for it & keeps beging to it , but it says YOU NEVER RESPECTED ME.
Is the person who is still trying is a fool or should the try be there or ask the universe to help it??
Will universe conspire to get the person back the hapiness of life?
Dearest Paulo,
Firstly i’d like to say, thank you, and i admire you for the efforts you make to reach our to your readers. You’re an amazing individual..
For me, the Alchemist encompasses everything. It is the simpliest story i have ever read, with the greatest meaning- which itself is metaphorical. The story itself, which is fictional, sets the foundation for you to express many concepts, such as dreams and the power of the universe. My question to you is, how did you come up with it? how did you think of a shepard boy of all things? Was there some sort of inspirational symbol or person behind it? (Like i know your characters in 11 minutes and the Zahir was based on real individuals).
I hope that you have an incredible evening. I wish i could attend but unfortunately its not very possible, but thats alright.. maybe in the future, i’ll have the means to meet you.
Enjoy once again- for you’ve earned it..
i just want to add.. i dnt know if you realise, but you’ve inspired millions of people to go for their dreams and what they believe simply because you followed your dream. It’s lovely isn’t it? It seems you’ve helped us most, by simply being true to yourself. I think if people stayed true to themselves, did what they love and believe, the world will be a better place. Many people live by your example, and i admire the difference you make.
Thank you for being
Yajna
disibilaty and personal legend {seesmic_video:{“url_thumbnail”:{“value”:”http://t.seesmic.com/thumbnail/le00TZHbCV_th1.jpg”}”title”:{“value”:”disibilaty and personal legend ”}”videoUri”:{“value”:”http://www.seesmic.com/video/BKHOGFbA9G”}}}
Olá Paulo, parabéns pelos 20 anos de sucesso do seu livro O Alquimista.
Ouvi falar que na França, durante alguns anos, O Alquimista ficou somente atrás da Bíblia e do Pequeno principe na preferência do franceses.
Lí na internet que finalmente você e Hollywood entraram em um acordo e finalmente O Alquimista vai virar filme, vai ser uma super produção avaliada em 60 milhões de dolares.
Você confirma a notícia? Poderia nos adiantar mais dados do filme? (tais como nomes de atores, diretor, data de lançamento, etc.)
Forte abraço e mais uma vez, Parabéns!!!
Jorge Hirata.
P.S.: Tentei gravar a mensagem no Seesmic, mas me atrapalhei nos “cliks”. Também não sei se a produção do evento, esta aceitando perguntas escritas e em português. De qualquer modo, os meus parabéns continua!
Zuleyka: God Goddess {seesmic_video:{“url_thumbnail”:{“value”:”http://t.seesmic.com/thumbnail/XJAOtqUYib_th1.jpg”}”title”:{“value”:”Zuleyka: God Goddess ”}”videoUri”:{“value”:”http://www.seesmic.com/video/hKigO5O0ci”}}}
Dear Paulo,
what do you understand by “world-soul” (anima mundi)?
I have not the time now to send a video, mayebe I will try and send it later (I never have used this possibility till yet, so I first have to find out how it works).
Best wishes for you and “The Alchemist”
May the success continue for another 20 years!
Dear Paulo,
When reading The Alchemist, it completely changed my life in terms of many things that i did not entirely realise that were there in front of me.
I would like to ask you this: Twenty years on from that famous line, do you still believe that
”when you want something, all the universe conspires in helping you to acheive it.”
Thank you and Best Wishes
Ravin
Paulo,
When Santiago found his treasure and returned to Fatima in the desert this was not the end of his dream, I assume he would go on dreaming and working for the rest of his life and his life is found in the challenege of doing so? for all our lives achieving one dream is also not the end? we must always dream and always follow them?
Thank you for inviting the question.
I hope all goes well in Spain.
Warm Regards
John
Why is it that love’s fluorishing faces an impediment when it is unconditional?
Where were you when you decided to write The Alchemist? {seesmic_video:{“url_thumbnail”:{“value”:”http://t.seesmic.com/thumbnail/tWYXyS5i3U_th1.jpg”}”title”:{“value”:”Where were you when you decided to write The Alchemist? ”}”videoUri”:{“value”:”http://www.seesmic.com/video/GZkwIi4Q8V”}}}
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Hi Paulo,
Have you achieved your dream?
If so, what was the alchemy?
If no, what is your dream still unfulfilled?
Thks for all the joy.
Dear Paulo C,
I have read many of your books.
They are fascinating.
I didn’t believed in any special power, other than human, God and the angels that has sovereignity over this planet, until last year when I received two special guests in my dreams: they were two “demons” and they talked to me as friends. They exposed the reality about the power of their “world” over ours…and over everything that happens here. They talked to me about “permissions” that they give to us, while we are here in THEIR planet. I put in paper all that chat because it was so interesting….
My question is: Do you ask some type of permission to those invisible and powerful realms, (Earth’s demons)to expose all this knowledge? (Because this is a very explosive knowledge… I know it.)
Thank you,
Gabriela
Hello Paulo, It is so nice that you always try to keep in touch with your readers. My question is: Why did you decide not to have children?
Thanks for answaring.
Melchizedek {seesmic_video:{“url_thumbnail”:{“value”:”http://t.seesmic.com/thumbnail/oRUXvvSMWX_th1.jpg”}”title”:{“value”:”Melchizedek ”}”videoUri”:{“value”:”http://www.seesmic.com/video/KxEmLHQPxj”}}}