April 29, 2024 • 48 mins
In this compelling episode, we dive deep into the world of divine communication with Neale Donald Walsch, renowned author of the groundbreaking "Conversations with God" series.
Neale's latest masterpiece, "GodTalk: Experiences of Humanity’s Connections with a Higher Power," offers a fresh and intimate perspective on the possibilities of engaging in meaningful dialogues with the divine. Through Neale’s insights and the sharing of powerful stories from his own life and those of others, listeners will discover the transformative power of opening their hearts to God's voice. Neale elaborates on the six pivotal steps to cultivate a conversation with God, with a special focus on the critical aspect of willingness.
This episode promises to not only enlighten but also inspire you to explore your own relationship with the divine. Whether you're a seasoned spiritual seeker or new to the concept of divine communication, Neale's wisdom and the profound stories of connection shared in this episode will open new horizons in your spiritual journey, offering clarity, comfort, and a deeper sense of purpose.
Neale's latest masterpiece, "GodTalk: Experiences of Humanity’s Connections with a Higher Power," offers a fresh and intimate perspective on the possibilities of engaging in meaningful dialogues with the divine. Through Neale’s insights and the sharing of powerful stories from his own life and those of others, listeners will discover the transformative power of opening their hearts to God's voice. Neale elaborates on the six pivotal steps to cultivate a conversation with God, with a special focus on the critical aspect of willingness.
This episode promises to not only enlighten but also inspire you to explore your own relationship with the divine. Whether you're a seasoned spiritual seeker or new to the concept of divine communication, Neale's wisdom and the profound stories of connection shared in this episode will open new horizons in your spiritual journey, offering clarity, comfort, and a deeper sense of purpose.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:06):
Thank you for joining us, andwelcome to another edition of Answers Network.
I'm your host Alan Cardoza. Haveany of you ever wondered about talking with
a higher power? Do you askquestions like are we good or evil?
Why do people suffer? Where didthe world come from? Well? Rob
(00:27):
in San Jose, California asked us, why does it seem like power,
greed, and downright evil seem tobe dominating the world. I'm a thirty
six year old father of two children, ages nine and seven. I try
to keep them from the news channels, and yet they still hear things and
ask questions like why would God letall of these terrible things happen. I'm
(00:52):
at a loss as to what totell them. Well joining us to answer
these questions and more. Our guestNeil Donald Walsh has written forty books on
contemporary spirituality and its practical application ineveryday life, including his new book God
Talk, Experiences of Humanity's Connections witha Higher Power, one of many books
(01:17):
in the Common Sentence series. NowNeil is also the best selling author of
Conversations with God series, which sevenof the nine books made the New York
Times Bestseller list. In fact Bookone remained on that list for one hundred
and thirty four weeks. Wow.His titles have been translated into thirty seven
(01:40):
languages and have been read by millionsof people around the world. Well,
Neil, welcome to Answers Network.Thank you. It's lovely to be here
and I appreciate the invitation. Howmay I serve the moment? Well,
I think why don't we start withRobin san Jose's questions. I think he
had a very very powerful question thatI think many people are asking these days,
(02:06):
and even his children are asking.What would you say to them?
Well, I would say two things. Is kind of a two part answer,
if I could be allowed to beindulged in that. But the first
part is that God does not allowthese kinds of things. Why does God
allow these things to occur? What'sgoing on in the world today. It's
(02:28):
not a question of God allowing.God chooses to grant to this species of
sancient beings, and for that matter, to all sancion beings in the cosmos.
There are other intelligent forms of lifeelsewhere in the universe. As we
are all suspicious and suspected, istrue. But God allows all sentient beings
(02:55):
to create their own reality, andthen gives to those sentient the power and
the ability. We call that powermetaphysics, but the power of thought,
if you please, to create ourown future. So it's not that God
allows these things to happen. Godwatches these things happen, and it gives
(03:15):
permission to all the cension beings inthe cosmos to create the future that they
choose. Now, why they answerto the larger question why are we making
those choices? Why is humanity?Why are we doing to each other?
That what we're doing to each other? My answer, because of course I
ask God the same question, andmy answer, the answer that I received
(03:38):
in my conversations with God, isthat we are doing these things because we
don't know who we really are.We've never answered the fundamental question. There
are several fundamental questions that most peoplehave not really taken a serious look at
or sought the answers to in everyin depth way. The questions are number
one, who am I? Two? Where am I? Number three?
(04:01):
That is, where in not notnot what room am I in or what
country really have been? But youknow, where in the ultimate reality am
I? Number three? Why amI where I am? And then number
four, what do I intend todo about that? Those four questions occurred
to me whenever I look at theworld, Wait a minute, what's going
on here? But most people havenever answered, And frankly, before I
(04:26):
had my conversations with God and eitherdid I. I never sat down and
thought to myself, Okay, whoam I really? Who am I?
But so let me give you myanswers if I might very quickly to kind
of set the stage please for ourfurther discussion. My answer to the question
who am I is? I'm notthis for a while, for not not
for a while, but for thefirst fifty years of my life, I
(04:49):
thought I was this, that thisis who I am. That is I
am my body, or at thevery least, I am my mind.
And most people think that I'm both. I'm my body in my mind,
this is who I am. Butin fact, it turns out this is
not who I am. These aresimply tools, pieces of equipment, if
you please, being used by whoI really am, and who I really
(05:12):
am is a spiritual entity. Itturns out that I am a spiritual being
that many religious denominations call a soul. I am a soul, and that's
the answer to the question who amI? I am a spiritual entity?
Question number two, where am I? I'm in the realm of the physical?
(05:34):
I'm told there are three realms inthe Kingdom of God, the realm
of the spiritual, the realm ofthe physical, and the realm of pure
being, which I'm told is thetwo other realms combined, or what we
might call, if you please,paradise or Nirvana or Heaven. Question number
three, why am I where Iam? I'm in the realm of the
(05:56):
spiritual when I am on what wecall popularly the other side, but right
now I am in the realm ofthe physical, And why am I where
I am? In order to giveme an opportunity to complete the agenda of
the soul, my understanding is anadam that the soul does have an agenda,
and that my agenda is I've cometo the realm of the physical in
(06:17):
order to experience through the demonstration thereofwho I really am. I want to
experience not just that I'm a soulthat is spiritual, but what kind of
spiritual entity I want to experience thatI am what God said to me,
I am which is here it comes? Be careful an individuation of divinity.
(06:42):
I am told that every soul inthe cosmos is an individual expression of the
divine, an individuation of divinity,and we come into the physical realm in
order to experience that through the demonstrationof it. Some people have actually done
that, and we've listened to themand heard what they've said, and their
(07:04):
movement through life as a conscious demonstrationof divinity has changed the world in many,
many powerful, positive and important ways. Question number four, what do
I intend to do about that?Mm hmm. The way I'm living my
life is my answer to that question. I am answering the question every moment
(07:26):
of my life, even as Iam doing right now on this program with
you, Alan, So what doI intend to do about that? Watch
me tomorrow? Well, and Iabsolutely love that I have. You know,
I've said for many, many yearsthe same type of thing, and
(07:47):
did so with my own children,was to model what it is what it
is to be a godly person.And so I like that part or as
God he is reputed to have said, be the change you wish to see
(08:07):
in the world. Yes, yes, so, And again I know that
you have I think forty books thatyou've written for again or this young man,
Rob, are any of your bookswritten for a younger audience? Again?
(08:30):
He's he's talking about nine and sevenare his kids? Is there is
there one that's kind of ideal tobe able to give them, because you
know, even with the explanation thatyou gave, I think some of that
might be a little difficult for ayou know, a seven year old to
grasp. I've produced a children's bookcalled The Little Soul and the Sun,
(08:54):
which doesn't describe all that I've justshared with you here, but does lay
the ground work or movement into largerunderstandings as the child grows older. So
wonderful children's book, if I sayso myself. What makes it wonderful is
that it was it was illustrated bya marvelous artist, and so it's a
(09:16):
full color children's book, The LittleSoul in the Sun, which describes how
the soul is visited by another soulwho allows it to understand some things about
why there is bullying in the worldand why certain things happen. And it's
described at an eight year older nineyear old level. And as I said,
(09:37):
it serves as kind of a platformto move children into a larger exploration
when they turn, you know,thirteen, fourteen, fifteen, to move
into their teenage years. Then I'vewritten another book called Conversations with God fourteens.
That book has written especially for teenagers. And how I accomplished that,
frankly, was I put in theinvitation. This is now a year years
(10:00):
ago. I put an invitation outon the internet, Alan and I asked
teenagers, if you could ever askGod any question in the world you'd like
to ask, what would it be? And I was inundated, as you
might imagine, with questions from teenagers, young people from the age of thirteen
to eighteen sending me a slew ofquestions. And I put those questions to
(10:20):
God in my Conversations experience and putthe answers that I received in the book
Conversations with God for Teens. Sothose are two books, one for younger
people the ages seven, eight,and nine and one for teenagers that address
some of the topics you and Ihave just just covered here in this exchange
(10:43):
with you. Well, and thankyou. I appreciate that again. So
for Rob the book is the LittleSoul and the Sun. Is that correct?
Yes? Okay? And the onefor teens, can you give us
that one again. Conversations with Godfor Teens a very imaginative title. It's
exactly what it is. Yeah,no need to try to make it more
(11:09):
complicated. Okay, conversations with God. So that's great and yeah, fourteens.
And so everybody out there, ifyou're driving and you want this,
we'll put this in the show notesas well, or we'll give you a
way to be able to get ahold of Neil and be able to get
to his website and you can seeall of his books. In fact,
(11:33):
let me just do that real quick, but we will also put this in
the show notes as well, andthat would be website is Neil Donald Walsh
dot com and Neil is n EA L E Donald do O n A
L d at Walsh w A LS c h dot com. So you
(11:58):
can go to directly to the websiteand be able to uh to see all
of his forty books. But wewe have a lot of parents that listen
to the show and also parents ofat risk youth because this show started out
before we rebranded, was called Answersfor the Family, and so we had
(12:18):
a lot of parents, uh lookingfor help. And I think that this
is this is an excellent way forthem to start having these conversations with their
kids. By the way, ifI might interrupt, there's also a third
book for parents. It's literally calledConversations with God for Parents. Even better,
(12:41):
I love it, and so itis it offers parents some strategies,
some topics, and some responses thatthey can utilize in their interactions with young
people. Well again, I mean, first of you know, I got
to tell you my my brother men, you know about the fact that you
(13:01):
had forty books and stuff, andI told him, I said, I
just couldn't wait to get you onthe show because there is so many things
and so many people that we wantto get messages out to. And so
I love the fact that you youcovered all the bases. So let's talk
about your most recent one, whichis God Talk. And as I said,
(13:22):
it's your fortieth book. Tell uswhat makes God Talk special and different
from your previous books. Well,the first difference is that, unlike all
of the other books that have beenpublished, I didn't seek a publisher.
Most authors and will tell you thatmaybe they have an idea for a book,
they write the book, and thenthey searched for a publisher. Who
(13:45):
would like to put it out there, or if they're lucky enough to have
a literary agent. The literary agentdoes what they called in the business shops,
it around to see if any publisherswant to put the book out.
But in this case, for thefirst time in my life, my phone
right, excuse me, and thephone was a publisher calling me. That's
never happened before. And they saidto me, Neil, would you be
(14:09):
willing to publish a book, towrite a book for us? I said,
sure, what would you like meto do it? They said,
you know, we'd like you towrite a book that explains to people how
they can have their own conversation withGod. I said, wow, I'd
be very happy to share the processthat you know that I used in my
(14:30):
life. I can't guarantee everyone thatthey will have the same experience, but
I could certainly share how I gotthere in my own experience. They said,
please do so I did so.I wrote a book that includes six
steps that I'm you know, Ididn't really when I first had my conversation
with God. I didn't sit downand have a six step process. I
(14:50):
just kind of realized looking back overmy shoulder and how it happened. Ah,
I see how it happened, andthen I make I made a note
of that because that's the most oftenasked question in my life. Whenever I
give a talk anywhere or make itappearance someplace, inevitably somebody says, can
we all have our own conversations withGod? If so? How so?
(15:13):
I answered that question to the bestof my ability in the book God Talk.
And that's what I think. Itmakes it very special because it gives
people an insight into how they canhave a more immediate and powerful communication with
the divine And I know with thesix steps, I know step three you
(15:33):
define it as willingness. You know, explain what this means and what can
people do to be willing, becauseI would imagine if they are, if
they're trying to communicate, they thinkthat they are willing. Is there something
that they don't recognize that is keepingthem from being willing? Well, not
(15:54):
everyone is kept from being willing,but those people who are are kept from
being willing to experience a conversation withGod or to call it what it is
and recognize it for what it is. Because alan the world's twenty three religions
tell us that is the largest numberof those religions by far. Tell us
(16:17):
that no, God doesn't communicate comeon directly with you. Maybe maybe with
the pope fair enough, or thechief ul Lahmah, or the head rabbi
or somebody in some position of authority, or some holy person somewhere, but
God doesn't communicate with the average humanbeing. And furthermore, if you insist
on telling people that God is talkingdirectly to you and through you, you're
(16:42):
committing blasphemy. You're committing heresy,You're committing apostasy Allan. In some countries,
apostasy is punishable by death, Iknow. So would that make a
person unwilling to call what they're experiencingexactly what it is or even to recognize
(17:06):
it as that? No, there'senough fear based religious instruction that stops many
people from being willing. So willingnessis step number three of the sixth step
process. Step number one is possibility. We have to admit to the possibility
that it even could happen, that, even for that matter, is a
(17:26):
God. Not everyone believes in God, although eighty five percent of human beings
do, according to recent surveys,believe in some sort of higher power,
So we embrace the possibility that therea is a higher power and that higher
power in fact talks to human beings. Step number two is worthiness. Once
(17:47):
we understand or embrace the notion thatthere is a God and that God does
talk to people, ordinary human beings, Step number two is but am I
worthy enough to be one of thosepeople? Or do I have to in
fact be you know, on somehuge spiritual paths or recognized by others as
a holy man, or you know, what would cause me to be qualified
(18:11):
to receive, you know, conversationswith God. So worthiness is step number
two. Then willingness, which we'vejust explored. Those are the first three
steps in the sixth step process thatI wrote about in that book. Well,
let's touch on a couple of those. But actually before we do that,
and again I mentioned, I thinkbefore we went on the air that
(18:33):
I just came back. So lastweek I was at IRF International Religious Freedom
Conference that is set up right beforethe prayer breakfast, And when you just
mentioned blasphemy, one of the thingsthat we talked about. There was a
gentleman that spoke about in China,a person who decided to preach Christianity has
(19:03):
been in jail now for five yearsor blasphemy, and they actually they initially
arrested his entire congregation and then eventuallyreleased everybody except the pastor, and again
for blasphemy. Can we talk alittle bit about if you're having these conversations,
(19:30):
have you been led in one directionor another in regards to what religions
are real and what religions are justsomething that somebody is that man has created.
Yes, but not in a specificsense that I think your question involved.
(19:52):
That is, God didn't say,here are the following five religions you
know that are the most accurate,and the rest are not what I was
told, Because again I asked thesame kind of question. I said,
you know what am I to believe? There are four thousand religions on the
earth, by the way, notfrom the beginning of time. I mean
four thousand religions being practiced today,four thousand faith traditions being practiced by humanity
(20:17):
on this day of our life.So how are we to know? You
know which one? Which one is? You know the truth? Quote unquote.
So of course I asked God.The answer that I received was all
of the world's religions contained huge elementsof truth, or they wouldn't have lasted
as long as they've lasted. Peopleare not totally out of their minds.
(20:38):
They understand, they can They recognizeimportant information and truthful information, and sacred
information and helpful information when they receiveit, which is why the four two
hundred religions that exist have existed andcontinue to exist. But the challenge is
not that the religions are not valid. The challenges and this is an eye
(21:02):
opener for me, God said tome, Neil. The problem is that
the religions are simply incomplete. Thatis, there's more to be known on
the subject, And the largest numberof the world's great religions seem to assert
that they have the full answer,that there's nothing more to know, They
know all there is to know onthe subject. So I have been invited
(21:26):
to travel the world, which I'vedone, have been to many many nations,
probably thirty five or forty different nationsin the past thirty years. Asking
a simple question, a daring question, but a simple one. Is it
possible, just possible, that there'ssomething we don't fully understand here about God,
about life, and about ourselves andabout each other, about the purpose
(21:49):
of life. Is it possible thatthere's more information out there that we don't
fully understand right now? We don'tfully comprehend the under standing of which would
change everything. You know, what'sinteresting In every other area of human endeavor,
we've done something that we're reluctant todo in the area of religion.
(22:10):
We've done it in science, we'vedone it in medicine, we've done it
in technology. But we refuse todo it when it comes to our most
important beliefs, and that is questionthe prior assumption. Yes, as soon
as a scientist makes a discovery,the first thing she does is question the
prior assumption. Fair enough? DoI have all the information that there is
(22:33):
to have on this particular topic.As soon as a medical researcher uncovers a
discovery, a new discovery for ahealing of a new disease, the researcher
says, it's time to question theprior assumption. Is there more to know
on this subject? And the samething is true in our technology. And
that's why we've come up with miracles. And we can hold in our hand
(22:56):
these days which twenty five years agowould have been thought of as a miracle.
W are you kidding me? Allthe information in the world in the
power of my hand. So becausewe've been willing to question the prior assumption.
Now the issue here with regard toGod and religion is will religion allow
us to question the prior assumption?Or is it possible that there's more to
(23:18):
know, that there's more going onhere than meets the eye, that we
don't have every last bit of information? And if that's true, can we
begin to search anew or what Icall the missing death? Well, first
of all, yes, I thinkthere's still plenty that we don't know.
And again, for those that haven'tread the book, you know these are
(23:41):
true stories, or let me explainit, you know how what you're talking
about so people know, Because initiallythe book was supposed to be just about
my life and what I've experienced.But the publisher had a bright idea.
They put on the internet an invitationsaying to people everywhere, if you feel
that you've experienced as well and inintervention of the divine in your life,
(24:07):
then that's your story. And theytold me that they got hundreds and hundreds
of stories from people. They tookthe six or eight best ones and put
them in the book for a demonstration. They wanted people to understand this is
not just about Neil Donald Wallace.He's not one guy who's experiencing conversations as
God or interventions from the divine.People all over the world are having these
(24:29):
same kinds of experiences, and hereare seven examples from other people. So
that's why the book contains those stories. A mother whose answers came through the
vision of her own child, awoman who was assured that her health condition
would be healed. A single momwhose message reaffirmed her belief that God heard
her prayers. A scientist. Oneof the stories is from a scientist whose
(24:53):
conversations with the God dramatically changed hisentire life. You know, I don't
want to give away the punch linesof those stories, but when you read
them, you're caught up in Oh, I see, it's happening to all
of us, and I want tomake the point here if I can alan
that I make him the book.The point that I make in the book
(25:15):
that the publishers made as well,is that all of us are having conversations
with God all the time. We'resimply calling them something else because we don't
want to be ridiculed or marginalized,or accused of blasphemy or heresy. So
to avoid all of that negative responsefrom a culture which is predisposed to deny
(25:42):
that God is talking directly to us, in order to avoid all of that
criticism, we call our conversations withGod something else, you know, an
epiphany, a sudden insight, astroke of genius, women's intuition, you
know. Whatever. We can getaway with, whatever label we can throw
on the same exact experience, whichis when a piece of wisdom comes to
(26:06):
us and through us from a sourceseemingly outside of us, something we hadn't
thought about before, that makes usslap our palm to our forehead, of
course, and we say to ourselves, of course, there's the solution.
There's the answer, there's the informationthat I needed. So I want to
suggest, as I was told inmy own conversation with con I asked God
(26:30):
about this, and she said,Neil, I'm talking to everybody all the
time. I'm talking to everybody allthe time. The question is not to
whom does God talk, The questionis who listens. I love that.
(26:51):
Well, under the category of conversation, let's take this a little bit further,
because I know that God in Godtalk. I love the fact that
you say we also have to starttalking about God. So share with our
audience why talking about God is alsoso important. Yes, I'd be happy
to you because because you know,most people, Again, here we go
(27:15):
with our cultural bias. Most peoplein human culture have been told that there
are two subjects that you don't bringup in polite company. God and politics.
Politics. Yeah, don't don't talkabout religion or politics in polite company.
So we've been told, really taughtto avoid the two most important topics
(27:37):
of the human experience. When we'rehaving important conversations or meaningful conversations, even
casual conversations with people that are importantto us. Our friends, our family,
our loved ones. Not supposed totalk with our friends, family,
and loved ones about the most importanttopic we could possibly explore. Which is
another part of the answer to thequestion that opened this program, why is
(28:02):
the world the way it is?We simply refuse to talk about why it
is the way it is. Andone of the reasons that it is the
way it is has to do withour beliefs and our understandings about God.
The largest number of people who believein a higher power, and that's eighty
five percent of us, according torecent surveys. By the way, believe
(28:22):
in some kind of higher power.But the largest number of people who believe
in a higher power believes that Godis judgmental, condemning and punishing. Loving
For sure, they will tell youthat, yes, God is love,
God is a loving entity, butthat God is also judgmental, condemning and
(28:44):
punishing. Now, if we don'tdo what it is that God demands,
what it is that God needs usto do? What it is that God
requires us, requires of us,and so this is teaching. Now,
what's interesting about that is that religionalso teaches us that we are at our
best when we are imitating the divinebe as God be with others, as
(29:08):
God is with us, which weassume means loving. But we also have
decided that says God is judgmental,condemning and punishing with us. It makes
perfect sense for us to be judgmental, condemning and punishing with each other.
Now, if we changed our ideaabout God, if it turns out that
(29:30):
that's not really valid, that isinaccurate. That God is not judgmental,
condemning and punishing with us, thenour whole rationale for acting that way with
others, our whole justification dissolves,disappears, and goes away. So there's
a book called The God's Solution whichproduces a solution to this dilemma, which
(29:56):
is to redefine God, to establisha new way of understanding who and what
the divine is. And The God'sSolution suggests that God should be redefined in
two words, pure love. Now, when I share that information in the
(30:18):
lecture Allan, somebody in the backof the room inevitably gets up and says,
oh, Neil, Neil, Neil, come on, We've been listening
to you for twenty minutes for youto tell us that the big revolution is
that God is love. Everyone knowsthat God is loved. Even the religions
have dogmatic differences, agree that Godis loved. And I have to say
to my friend in the back ofthe room, whoa, whoa, whoa,
Relax, Relax. I didn't saythat. I said God is pure
(30:41):
love. Now my friend will say, Okay, what's the difference. The
difference is that pure love needs,expects, requires, and demands you ready
for this nothing return. We can'teven love the person on the pillow next
(31:04):
to us that way much less embraceof God who loves us that way.
But once we get to a placewhere we understand what pure love really is,
when we can turn to that personon the pillow next to us and
say, you know what, Idon't love you for what I can get
out of you. I don't loveyou for what comes to me from you
(31:25):
or through you. I love youwithout needing, requiring, expecting, or
even hoping for anything in return.If I'm loving you to get a return
from you, then it's transactional,and suddenly I'm loving myself through you.
But if I love you without needinganything back from you whatsoever, simply because
(31:48):
I see the magnificence, to gloryand the wonder of who you are,
as we would love a two yearold child or six day old baby,
needing nothing in return, God seesus if you please. As the babies
of the universe, we are stillhighly uninvolved, still acting primitively, and
(32:12):
so God needs, requires demands nothingfrom us that would change the way we
interact with each other and alter theentire philosophic structure of the human species.
I call it the God's Solution andfrom your lips, if we can get
(32:36):
this information out to as many peopleas possible, I couldn't agree more.
And again, those negative things thatpeople have out there, you know,
I think that they need to understandthat's a human concept. You know that
that is humans that have said that. So again I agree with you completely,
(33:00):
and I love the message, andI hope we can get it to
everybody. A way to do that, if anyone who would look a copy
of The God's Solution, which isa book that I actually wrote, if
you'd like a manuscript copy, Ican't send you a hard copy of the
book, but I'll be glad todownload or if you please upload a copy
to your computer at no cost.Just send me a note. Just send
(33:22):
Neil and Neil Dolla Walsh dot com. Please send me, upload me a
copy of your manuscript, and I'llupload a copy of the author's manuscript absolutely
free of charge. Because I wantyou to read this book. I don't
even need you to believe it.I'm not trying to convince you of anything,
but at least open your mind tothe possibility that there, you know,
there may be something we don't fullyunderstand here mm hmm yep. And
(33:46):
again for anybody out there, ifyou're driving or something, don't worry.
We will put that information again inthe show notes as well, so that
you'll know how to get a holdof Neil. Neil, We've got this
three questions that have come in fromthe audience, and we've got about twelve
minutes, so I'd like to beable to get through all three of them,
(34:07):
so I'm giving you fair warning.The first one reads as an eighteen
year old male, what as aneighteen year old male that does not believe
in God? How can this bookhelp me? And this is from Matt
in Burlington, Vermont. It canhelp you to come to an awareness that
(34:27):
there's more going on here than meetsthe eye, and that when you are
aware that there's more going on,maybe your mind will have be curious enough
to know what would that more beand how can it serve me? Would
help you to learn how to usethe power of metaphysics. By the way,
you don't even have to believe inGod to believe in metaphysics. Incidentally,
(34:49):
you don't have to believe in thedivine being. Metaphysics is simply an
aspect of human reality. Every scientistagrees that there's a a physical power in
the universe. So that's the answerto your question that it will help you
to expand your mind and possibly answerthe question, how can I make my
(35:12):
life better than it is? Howdo I get all the struggle, all
the anger, all the frustration,all the disappointment out of my life,
or at least deal with it ina way that makes it not nearly as
stabilitating as it has been so far. And if I can add a little
bit to that for anybody out there, this book is not meant to convert
(35:35):
anyone to any specific religion or abelief system, but I see it.
It's just something that invites you tobe open to the possibility that God is
there to talk to you and thatyou can talk back. And I think
if you take that approach, you'renot taking any risk. Neil, would
(35:57):
you agree, What have you gotto lose? He answer, there is
nothing? Yeah, exactly. Okay. We have another one. This one
reads I'm a mother of a sixteenyear old daughter who is struggling with her
sexuality. I have I have manyquestions about how to navigate a conversation about
(36:20):
God with her. The conversations shehas with her friends are quite negative.
How do you suggest I navigate thissituation? This is from Jennifer and Madison,
Wisconsin. Offer her to read orinvite her to read Conversations with God
Fourteens, and tell her it's notsome author who wants you to understand something.
(36:46):
This book was. All the questionsin this book were written by people
like you, written by teenagers.Other teenagers from around the world sent in
their most important questions, So youmight find it very interesting to see what
the other teenagers asked about and thekind of answers that have been given to
(37:06):
them. That's what I would suggestis an opening, you know, overture
to her, and I completely agree. And again as someone who's worked with
many parents that are dealing with teensthat are that are going through stages,
or they're having some issues or whateverit may be. You know, I've
(37:31):
made the joke that we, asthe parent, when they're about that age,
it's as if a giant needle comesout of the out of the sky
and sucks half our brain out,because all of a sudden, we as
the parents, are not that smart. So if you can give them something
to where they're getting it from,another source. I think that's going to
be something that's it's going to havea much better effect. And the good
(37:54):
news to this is is that generallyspeaking, that that sixteen year old,
after they get to about twenty,all of a sudden, that needle comes
back and gives us back all ofour intelligence again, and all of a
sudden, we're pretty smart. Sobut yes, if you can get this
information from someone else, they Jenniferto your daughter by getting the book.
(38:17):
I think it's a great idea.When I talk to young people, I
often bring up something that intrigues them, most young people between sixteen and twenty.
I've heard about a guy named BillShakespeare. Bill said, Bill said
this, which intrigues young people whenI invite them to look deeply behind the
statement. You may recall that itwas Bill who wrote, there are more
(38:42):
things in heaven and earth ratio thatare dreamed of in your philosophy. Ah,
what was he getting at? Whatwas he getting at? Oh?
I see to be or not tobe? That is the question whether it's
(39:02):
just nobler in the mind to sufferthe slings and errors of outrageous fortune,
or to rise up against the seaof troubles and by opposing to end them
to die, to sleep, tosleep for chance to dream. Ay,
there's the rub or in that sleepof death, what dreams may come.
(39:23):
When I talk to young people aboutthat, their ears open up because they've
heard most of those quotes somewhere betweenthe ages sixteen and nineteen, and they
go, ah. You know,there are many, many people in many
different ways, including the dramas ofWilliam Shakespeare, who is one of the
great metaphysicians of all time. Inmy point of view, many messages coming
(39:45):
to us from many different sources.Just open your mind. Stop listening to
other teenagers who are talking from aclosed mind, allowed to the possibility that
there's more going on here than meetsthe eye. You know, I am
synergizing with you so much. Ilove that because you are, you are
(40:08):
telling them something that has been amessage I've been trying to get out there
for years, which is think.Think, Think for yourself. Don't allow
yourself to be swayed by in thisday and age, by social media or
(40:29):
network news or or your friends orwhatever. Think. Learn and discern what
it is that you're hearing, andmake your own decisions. And I love
the fact that you use that quoteto make them think that's beautiful. Okay,
(40:49):
we've got uh, We've got aboutfive minutes, and we've got one
more question again from a listener.This one reads, please explain evil to
me. It appears as though manyof those controlling powerful media are hell bent
on destroying people's hopes, dreams,and happiness. Are we being tested?
Is it misery loves company? Isit hurt people? Hurt people? And
(41:15):
how do you think we can reversethis trend? And this is from Donnell
in Chicago, Illinois. Again,our friend Bill wrote, nothing is evil
lest thinking make it so. Butwhat makes us call something evil when it
is the opposite of what it is? We choose a yearn to experience,
(41:39):
and in conversations with God, we'retalked, we're told about the law of
opposites in the absence of what youare not, what you are is not.
Let me give you an example,metaphorically speaking. Let's say I am
the light. I consider myself tobe the light. I'm just using a
(42:00):
Now. If I want to experiencemyself as the light, I have to
do something most unusual, because rightnow I'm like a candle in the sun.
I mean, I'm there all rightalong with fifty concillion other candles.
But I can't experience or express myselfas the light because I'm a candle in
the sun. Now, the sunwould not be the sun without one of
(42:21):
its candles. But I want toexperience myself as that. Therefore I would
have to move to a place wherethere is what I see, the darkness.
Then I can experience and express myselfas the light. Raise therefore,
not your fists to heaven and cursethe darkness. Not, but be a
(42:45):
light unto the darkness, that youmight know who you really are, that
all those whose lives you touch mightknow who they are as well. What
is evil? Evil is that whichwe have created of our own free will
on this planets, our actions andour behaviors which do not do good to
anyone and actually harm other people.But they are actions that we can use
(43:10):
to produce good in the world,because suddenly we have something against which to
measure who we are and who wechoose to be. Ah, here we
go get with bill to be ornot to be? That's the question.
So resist not evil, But thatdoes not mean don't seek to change it
(43:32):
which you resist persists, But bethe change you wish to see in the
world, and suddenly you will findthat the evil that you have discovered in
the world has served you in away that allowed you to move forward in
the process that we call transformation ofyour own life, and for that matter,
(43:52):
of the lives of other people whoselives you touch. You know this
is important. Let me conclude withthis. I've been asked, what's the
single most important question, the mostimportant answer you ever received in conversations with
God? And the answer is this. I said to God, what don't
I understand that makes life work?And he said, Neil's very simple.
(44:15):
Your life is not about you.You think your life is about you,
But your life is not about you. It's about everyone whose life you touch
in the way in which you touchit. But when you realize that,
you get in touch with a largeruniversal truth that, in the universal sense,
(44:37):
your life is about you. Foran most elegant reason, there's only
one of us in the room.All things are one thing. There's only
one thing, and all things arepart of the one thing. There is
therefore, do unto others as youwould have it done unto you, because
(45:00):
it is being done unto you.Mm hmm. Now, as you were
saying that, I got a visionof a man I just saw in an
interview recently that was very touching.Uh. And he's a Palestinian man.
And he said that he had beenraised since he was a child too to
(45:29):
hate Jews, Americans, anybody otherthan themselves. And he said, and
it was taught in the school andeverything. And he said that that he
was sent away to school and ashe met other people, he would,
you know, he would, youknow, they would they would tell him
(45:50):
something or whatever, and he'd say, well, that's not how your kind
acts. And then they'd say,how do how does our kind act?
And he would explain what he hadbeen taught and they would say, and
he said that they told him theysaid, have we done any of this
to you? And he said,well no, and he said the more
(46:12):
people that he met, he thenrealized that his job was to model.
He now instead of hating, buthe also wanted to model so that other
people would see in him that thepeople that he grew up with, although
they were told to hate, thathe himself and change, meaning so can
(46:37):
other people. And this was thevision that I was having. I was
remembering this as you were telling methat because that was what I was getting
from it is he didn't he didn'tblame, he didn't he didn't attack,
he didn't do anything. And Ithink it's important to point here this is
not a problem only with Palestinian people. Palestinians, and I want to make
(47:00):
this very clear. Yeah, sono one thinks that we imagined that Palestinians
are the people that are being taughtto hate. People all over the world
are being taught to dislike, ifnot taught to hate, Democrats, Republicans,
gays and straits, men and women, conservatives and liberals. You know,
stop it. It's not just Palestiniansexactly. You've been raised to disagree
(47:23):
with and sometimes to hate each other. Stop it. Well, thank you,
and and actually that's that's a greatplace for us to leave this,
which is yes, stop it.And what I was going to add to
what this man said was exactly whatyou said, was that it isn't just
there, it is everywhere. Andon Martin Luther King's birthday when we did
(47:47):
the show, that was one ofthe things that we touched on also was
for people to think and that ifanybody is telling you to hate, look
deeply into it and find out whatis in it for them, because there's
nothing in it for you. So, you know, I wish we had
(48:09):
so much more time, but Iwould love to have you back. I
think you are making such a positivedifference in the world, and I so
appreciate what you're doing. Thank you. Alan has a sweet words to say,
and I appreciate hearing those words andreceiving that energy from you. It's
been lovely to be here with you, all right. Thank you for everybody
(48:30):
out there, be good human beingsand be with us again next week on
Answers Network.
Thank you for joining us, andwelcome to another edition of Answers Network.
I'm your host Alan Cardoza. Haveany of you ever wondered about talking with
a higher power? Do you askquestions like are we good or evil?
Why do people suffer? Where didthe world come from? Well? Rob
(00:27):
in San Jose, California asked us, why does it seem like power,
greed, and downright evil seem tobe dominating the world. I'm a thirty
six year old father of two children, ages nine and seven. I try
to keep them from the news channels, and yet they still hear things and
ask questions like why would God letall of these terrible things happen. I'm
(00:52):
at a loss as to what totell them. Well joining us to answer
these questions and more. Our guestNeil Donald Walsh has written forty books on
contemporary spirituality and its practical application ineveryday life, including his new book God
Talk, Experiences of Humanity's Connections witha Higher Power, one of many books
(01:17):
in the Common Sentence series. NowNeil is also the best selling author of
Conversations with God series, which sevenof the nine books made the New York
Times Bestseller list. In fact Bookone remained on that list for one hundred
and thirty four weeks. Wow.His titles have been translated into thirty seven
(01:40):
languages and have been read by millionsof people around the world. Well,
Neil, welcome to Answers Network.Thank you. It's lovely to be here
and I appreciate the invitation. Howmay I serve the moment? Well,
I think why don't we start withRobin san Jose's questions. I think he
had a very very powerful question thatI think many people are asking these days,
(02:06):
and even his children are asking.What would you say to them?
Well, I would say two things. Is kind of a two part answer,
if I could be allowed to beindulged in that. But the first
part is that God does not allowthese kinds of things. Why does God
allow these things to occur? What'sgoing on in the world today. It's
(02:28):
not a question of God allowing.God chooses to grant to this species of
sancient beings, and for that matter, to all sancion beings in the cosmos.
There are other intelligent forms of lifeelsewhere in the universe. As we
are all suspicious and suspected, istrue. But God allows all sentient beings
(02:55):
to create their own reality, andthen gives to those sentient the power and
the ability. We call that powermetaphysics, but the power of thought,
if you please, to create ourown future. So it's not that God
allows these things to happen. Godwatches these things happen, and it gives
(03:15):
permission to all the cension beings inthe cosmos to create the future that they
choose. Now, why they answerto the larger question why are we making
those choices? Why is humanity?Why are we doing to each other?
That what we're doing to each other? My answer, because of course I
ask God the same question, andmy answer, the answer that I received
(03:38):
in my conversations with God, isthat we are doing these things because we
don't know who we really are.We've never answered the fundamental question. There
are several fundamental questions that most peoplehave not really taken a serious look at
or sought the answers to in everyin depth way. The questions are number
one, who am I? Two? Where am I? Number three?
(04:01):
That is, where in not notnot what room am I in or what
country really have been? But youknow, where in the ultimate reality am
I? Number three? Why amI where I am? And then number
four, what do I intend todo about that? Those four questions occurred
to me whenever I look at theworld, Wait a minute, what's going
on here? But most people havenever answered, And frankly, before I
(04:26):
had my conversations with God and eitherdid I. I never sat down and
thought to myself, Okay, whoam I really? Who am I?
But so let me give you myanswers if I might very quickly to kind
of set the stage please for ourfurther discussion. My answer to the question
who am I is? I'm notthis for a while, for not not
for a while, but for thefirst fifty years of my life, I
(04:49):
thought I was this, that thisis who I am. That is I
am my body, or at thevery least, I am my mind.
And most people think that I'm both. I'm my body in my mind,
this is who I am. Butin fact, it turns out this is
not who I am. These aresimply tools, pieces of equipment, if
you please, being used by whoI really am, and who I really
(05:12):
am is a spiritual entity. Itturns out that I am a spiritual being
that many religious denominations call a soul. I am a soul, and that's
the answer to the question who amI? I am a spiritual entity?
Question number two, where am I? I'm in the realm of the physical?
(05:34):
I'm told there are three realms inthe Kingdom of God, the realm
of the spiritual, the realm ofthe physical, and the realm of pure
being, which I'm told is thetwo other realms combined, or what we
might call, if you please,paradise or Nirvana or Heaven. Question number
three, why am I where Iam? I'm in the realm of the
(05:56):
spiritual when I am on what wecall popularly the other side, but right
now I am in the realm ofthe physical, And why am I where
I am? In order to giveme an opportunity to complete the agenda of
the soul, my understanding is anadam that the soul does have an agenda,
and that my agenda is I've cometo the realm of the physical in
(06:17):
order to experience through the demonstration thereofwho I really am. I want to
experience not just that I'm a soulthat is spiritual, but what kind of
spiritual entity I want to experience thatI am what God said to me,
I am which is here it comes? Be careful an individuation of divinity.
(06:42):
I am told that every soul inthe cosmos is an individual expression of the
divine, an individuation of divinity,and we come into the physical realm in
order to experience that through the demonstrationof it. Some people have actually done
that, and we've listened to themand heard what they've said, and their
(07:04):
movement through life as a conscious demonstrationof divinity has changed the world in many,
many powerful, positive and important ways. Question number four, what do
I intend to do about that?Mm hmm. The way I'm living my
life is my answer to that question. I am answering the question every moment
(07:26):
of my life, even as Iam doing right now on this program with
you, Alan, So what doI intend to do about that? Watch
me tomorrow? Well, and Iabsolutely love that I have. You know,
I've said for many, many yearsthe same type of thing, and
(07:47):
did so with my own children,was to model what it is what it
is to be a godly person.And so I like that part or as
God he is reputed to have said, be the change you wish to see
(08:07):
in the world. Yes, yes, so, And again I know that
you have I think forty books thatyou've written for again or this young man,
Rob, are any of your bookswritten for a younger audience? Again?
(08:30):
He's he's talking about nine and sevenare his kids? Is there is
there one that's kind of ideal tobe able to give them, because you
know, even with the explanation thatyou gave, I think some of that
might be a little difficult for ayou know, a seven year old to
grasp. I've produced a children's bookcalled The Little Soul and the Sun,
(08:54):
which doesn't describe all that I've justshared with you here, but does lay
the ground work or movement into largerunderstandings as the child grows older. So
wonderful children's book, if I sayso myself. What makes it wonderful is
that it was it was illustrated bya marvelous artist, and so it's a
(09:16):
full color children's book, The LittleSoul in the Sun, which describes how
the soul is visited by another soulwho allows it to understand some things about
why there is bullying in the worldand why certain things happen. And it's
described at an eight year older nineyear old level. And as I said,
(09:37):
it serves as kind of a platformto move children into a larger exploration
when they turn, you know,thirteen, fourteen, fifteen, to move
into their teenage years. Then I'vewritten another book called Conversations with God fourteens.
That book has written especially for teenagers. And how I accomplished that,
frankly, was I put in theinvitation. This is now a year years
(10:00):
ago. I put an invitation outon the internet, Alan and I asked
teenagers, if you could ever askGod any question in the world you'd like
to ask, what would it be? And I was inundated, as you
might imagine, with questions from teenagers, young people from the age of thirteen
to eighteen sending me a slew ofquestions. And I put those questions to
(10:20):
God in my Conversations experience and putthe answers that I received in the book
Conversations with God for Teens. Sothose are two books, one for younger
people the ages seven, eight,and nine and one for teenagers that address
some of the topics you and Ihave just just covered here in this exchange
(10:43):
with you. Well, and thankyou. I appreciate that again. So
for Rob the book is the LittleSoul and the Sun. Is that correct?
Yes? Okay? And the onefor teens, can you give us
that one again. Conversations with Godfor Teens a very imaginative title. It's
exactly what it is. Yeah,no need to try to make it more
(11:09):
complicated. Okay, conversations with God. So that's great and yeah, fourteens.
And so everybody out there, ifyou're driving and you want this,
we'll put this in the show notesas well, or we'll give you a
way to be able to get ahold of Neil and be able to get
to his website and you can seeall of his books. In fact,
(11:33):
let me just do that real quick, but we will also put this in
the show notes as well, andthat would be website is Neil Donald Walsh
dot com and Neil is n EA L E Donald do O n A
L d at Walsh w A LS c h dot com. So you
(11:58):
can go to directly to the websiteand be able to uh to see all
of his forty books. But wewe have a lot of parents that listen
to the show and also parents ofat risk youth because this show started out
before we rebranded, was called Answersfor the Family, and so we had
(12:18):
a lot of parents, uh lookingfor help. And I think that this
is this is an excellent way forthem to start having these conversations with their
kids. By the way, ifI might interrupt, there's also a third
book for parents. It's literally calledConversations with God for Parents. Even better,
(12:41):
I love it, and so itis it offers parents some strategies,
some topics, and some responses thatthey can utilize in their interactions with young
people. Well again, I mean, first of you know, I got
to tell you my my brother men, you know about the fact that you
(13:01):
had forty books and stuff, andI told him, I said, I
just couldn't wait to get you onthe show because there is so many things
and so many people that we wantto get messages out to. And so
I love the fact that you youcovered all the bases. So let's talk
about your most recent one, whichis God Talk. And as I said,
(13:22):
it's your fortieth book. Tell uswhat makes God Talk special and different
from your previous books. Well,the first difference is that, unlike all
of the other books that have beenpublished, I didn't seek a publisher.
Most authors and will tell you thatmaybe they have an idea for a book,
they write the book, and thenthey searched for a publisher. Who
(13:45):
would like to put it out there, or if they're lucky enough to have
a literary agent. The literary agentdoes what they called in the business shops,
it around to see if any publisherswant to put the book out.
But in this case, for thefirst time in my life, my phone
right, excuse me, and thephone was a publisher calling me. That's
never happened before. And they saidto me, Neil, would you be
(14:09):
willing to publish a book, towrite a book for us? I said,
sure, what would you like meto do it? They said,
you know, we'd like you towrite a book that explains to people how
they can have their own conversation withGod. I said, wow, I'd
be very happy to share the processthat you know that I used in my
(14:30):
life. I can't guarantee everyone thatthey will have the same experience, but
I could certainly share how I gotthere in my own experience. They said,
please do so I did so.I wrote a book that includes six
steps that I'm you know, Ididn't really when I first had my conversation
with God. I didn't sit downand have a six step process. I
(14:50):
just kind of realized looking back overmy shoulder and how it happened. Ah,
I see how it happened, andthen I make I made a note
of that because that's the most oftenasked question in my life. Whenever I
give a talk anywhere or make itappearance someplace, inevitably somebody says, can
we all have our own conversations withGod? If so? How so?
(15:13):
I answered that question to the bestof my ability in the book God Talk.
And that's what I think. Itmakes it very special because it gives
people an insight into how they canhave a more immediate and powerful communication with
the divine And I know with thesix steps, I know step three you
(15:33):
define it as willingness. You know, explain what this means and what can
people do to be willing, becauseI would imagine if they are, if
they're trying to communicate, they thinkthat they are willing. Is there something
that they don't recognize that is keepingthem from being willing? Well, not
(15:54):
everyone is kept from being willing,but those people who are are kept from
being willing to experience a conversation withGod or to call it what it is
and recognize it for what it is. Because alan the world's twenty three religions
tell us that is the largest numberof those religions by far. Tell us
(16:17):
that no, God doesn't communicate comeon directly with you. Maybe maybe with
the pope fair enough, or thechief ul Lahmah, or the head rabbi
or somebody in some position of authority, or some holy person somewhere, but
God doesn't communicate with the average humanbeing. And furthermore, if you insist
on telling people that God is talkingdirectly to you and through you, you're
(16:42):
committing blasphemy. You're committing heresy,You're committing apostasy Allan. In some countries,
apostasy is punishable by death, Iknow. So would that make a
person unwilling to call what they're experiencingexactly what it is or even to recognize
(17:06):
it as that? No, there'senough fear based religious instruction that stops many
people from being willing. So willingnessis step number three of the sixth step
process. Step number one is possibility. We have to admit to the possibility
that it even could happen, that, even for that matter, is a
(17:26):
God. Not everyone believes in God, although eighty five percent of human beings
do, according to recent surveys,believe in some sort of higher power,
So we embrace the possibility that therea is a higher power and that higher
power in fact talks to human beings. Step number two is worthiness. Once
(17:47):
we understand or embrace the notion thatthere is a God and that God does
talk to people, ordinary human beings, Step number two is but am I
worthy enough to be one of thosepeople? Or do I have to in
fact be you know, on somehuge spiritual paths or recognized by others as
a holy man, or you know, what would cause me to be qualified
(18:11):
to receive, you know, conversationswith God. So worthiness is step number
two. Then willingness, which we'vejust explored. Those are the first three
steps in the sixth step process thatI wrote about in that book. Well,
let's touch on a couple of those. But actually before we do that,
and again I mentioned, I thinkbefore we went on the air that
(18:33):
I just came back. So lastweek I was at IRF International Religious Freedom
Conference that is set up right beforethe prayer breakfast, And when you just
mentioned blasphemy, one of the thingsthat we talked about. There was a
gentleman that spoke about in China,a person who decided to preach Christianity has
(19:03):
been in jail now for five yearsor blasphemy, and they actually they initially
arrested his entire congregation and then eventuallyreleased everybody except the pastor, and again
for blasphemy. Can we talk alittle bit about if you're having these conversations,
(19:30):
have you been led in one directionor another in regards to what religions
are real and what religions are justsomething that somebody is that man has created.
Yes, but not in a specificsense that I think your question involved.
(19:52):
That is, God didn't say,here are the following five religions you
know that are the most accurate,and the rest are not what I was
told, Because again I asked thesame kind of question. I said,
you know what am I to believe? There are four thousand religions on the
earth, by the way, notfrom the beginning of time. I mean
four thousand religions being practiced today,four thousand faith traditions being practiced by humanity
(20:17):
on this day of our life.So how are we to know? You
know which one? Which one is? You know the truth? Quote unquote.
So of course I asked God.The answer that I received was all
of the world's religions contained huge elementsof truth, or they wouldn't have lasted
as long as they've lasted. Peopleare not totally out of their minds.
(20:38):
They understand, they can They recognizeimportant information and truthful information, and sacred
information and helpful information when they receiveit, which is why the four two
hundred religions that exist have existed andcontinue to exist. But the challenge is
not that the religions are not valid. The challenges and this is an eye
(21:02):
opener for me, God said tome, Neil. The problem is that
the religions are simply incomplete. Thatis, there's more to be known on
the subject, And the largest numberof the world's great religions seem to assert
that they have the full answer,that there's nothing more to know, They
know all there is to know onthe subject. So I have been invited
(21:26):
to travel the world, which I'vedone, have been to many many nations,
probably thirty five or forty different nationsin the past thirty years. Asking
a simple question, a daring question, but a simple one. Is it
possible, just possible, that there'ssomething we don't fully understand here about God,
about life, and about ourselves andabout each other, about the purpose
(21:49):
of life. Is it possible thatthere's more information out there that we don't
fully understand right now? We don'tfully comprehend the under standing of which would
change everything. You know, what'sinteresting In every other area of human endeavor,
we've done something that we're reluctant todo in the area of religion.
(22:10):
We've done it in science, we'vedone it in medicine, we've done it
in technology. But we refuse todo it when it comes to our most
important beliefs, and that is questionthe prior assumption. Yes, as soon
as a scientist makes a discovery,the first thing she does is question the
prior assumption. Fair enough? DoI have all the information that there is
(22:33):
to have on this particular topic.As soon as a medical researcher uncovers a
discovery, a new discovery for ahealing of a new disease, the researcher
says, it's time to question theprior assumption. Is there more to know
on this subject? And the samething is true in our technology. And
that's why we've come up with miracles. And we can hold in our hand
(22:56):
these days which twenty five years agowould have been thought of as a miracle.
W are you kidding me? Allthe information in the world in the
power of my hand. So becausewe've been willing to question the prior assumption.
Now the issue here with regard toGod and religion is will religion allow
us to question the prior assumption?Or is it possible that there's more to
(23:18):
know, that there's more going onhere than meets the eye, that we
don't have every last bit of information? And if that's true, can we
begin to search anew or what Icall the missing death? Well, first
of all, yes, I thinkthere's still plenty that we don't know.
And again, for those that haven'tread the book, you know these are
(23:41):
true stories, or let me explainit, you know how what you're talking
about so people know, Because initiallythe book was supposed to be just about
my life and what I've experienced.But the publisher had a bright idea.
They put on the internet an invitationsaying to people everywhere, if you feel
that you've experienced as well and inintervention of the divine in your life,
(24:07):
then that's your story. And theytold me that they got hundreds and hundreds
of stories from people. They tookthe six or eight best ones and put
them in the book for a demonstration. They wanted people to understand this is
not just about Neil Donald Wallace.He's not one guy who's experiencing conversations as
God or interventions from the divine.People all over the world are having these
(24:29):
same kinds of experiences, and hereare seven examples from other people. So
that's why the book contains those stories. A mother whose answers came through the
vision of her own child, awoman who was assured that her health condition
would be healed. A single momwhose message reaffirmed her belief that God heard
her prayers. A scientist. Oneof the stories is from a scientist whose
(24:53):
conversations with the God dramatically changed hisentire life. You know, I don't
want to give away the punch linesof those stories, but when you read
them, you're caught up in Oh, I see, it's happening to all
of us, and I want tomake the point here if I can alan
that I make him the book.The point that I make in the book
(25:15):
that the publishers made as well,is that all of us are having conversations
with God all the time. We'resimply calling them something else because we don't
want to be ridiculed or marginalized,or accused of blasphemy or heresy. So
to avoid all of that negative responsefrom a culture which is predisposed to deny
(25:42):
that God is talking directly to us, in order to avoid all of that
criticism, we call our conversations withGod something else, you know, an
epiphany, a sudden insight, astroke of genius, women's intuition, you
know. Whatever. We can getaway with, whatever label we can throw
on the same exact experience, whichis when a piece of wisdom comes to
(26:06):
us and through us from a sourceseemingly outside of us, something we hadn't
thought about before, that makes usslap our palm to our forehead, of
course, and we say to ourselves, of course, there's the solution.
There's the answer, there's the informationthat I needed. So I want to
suggest, as I was told inmy own conversation with con I asked God
(26:30):
about this, and she said,Neil, I'm talking to everybody all the
time. I'm talking to everybody allthe time. The question is not to
whom does God talk, The questionis who listens. I love that.
(26:51):
Well, under the category of conversation, let's take this a little bit further,
because I know that God in Godtalk. I love the fact that
you say we also have to starttalking about God. So share with our
audience why talking about God is alsoso important. Yes, I'd be happy
to you because because you know,most people, Again, here we go
(27:15):
with our cultural bias. Most peoplein human culture have been told that there
are two subjects that you don't bringup in polite company. God and politics.
Politics. Yeah, don't don't talkabout religion or politics in polite company.
So we've been told, really taughtto avoid the two most important topics
(27:37):
of the human experience. When we'rehaving important conversations or meaningful conversations, even
casual conversations with people that are importantto us. Our friends, our family,
our loved ones. Not supposed totalk with our friends, family,
and loved ones about the most importanttopic we could possibly explore. Which is
another part of the answer to thequestion that opened this program, why is
(28:02):
the world the way it is?We simply refuse to talk about why it
is the way it is. Andone of the reasons that it is the
way it is has to do withour beliefs and our understandings about God.
The largest number of people who believein a higher power, and that's eighty
five percent of us, according torecent surveys. By the way, believe
(28:22):
in some kind of higher power.But the largest number of people who believe
in a higher power believes that Godis judgmental, condemning and punishing. Loving
For sure, they will tell youthat, yes, God is love,
God is a loving entity, butthat God is also judgmental, condemning and
(28:44):
punishing. Now, if we don'tdo what it is that God demands,
what it is that God needs usto do? What it is that God
requires us, requires of us,and so this is teaching. Now,
what's interesting about that is that religionalso teaches us that we are at our
best when we are imitating the divinebe as God be with others, as
(29:08):
God is with us, which weassume means loving. But we also have
decided that says God is judgmental,condemning and punishing with us. It makes
perfect sense for us to be judgmental, condemning and punishing with each other.
Now, if we changed our ideaabout God, if it turns out that
(29:30):
that's not really valid, that isinaccurate. That God is not judgmental,
condemning and punishing with us, thenour whole rationale for acting that way with
others, our whole justification dissolves,disappears, and goes away. So there's
a book called The God's Solution whichproduces a solution to this dilemma, which
(29:56):
is to redefine God, to establisha new way of understanding who and what
the divine is. And The God'sSolution suggests that God should be redefined in
two words, pure love. Now, when I share that information in the
(30:18):
lecture Allan, somebody in the backof the room inevitably gets up and says,
oh, Neil, Neil, Neil, come on, We've been listening
to you for twenty minutes for youto tell us that the big revolution is
that God is love. Everyone knowsthat God is loved. Even the religions
have dogmatic differences, agree that Godis loved. And I have to say
to my friend in the back ofthe room, whoa, whoa, whoa,
Relax, Relax. I didn't saythat. I said God is pure
(30:41):
love. Now my friend will say, Okay, what's the difference. The
difference is that pure love needs,expects, requires, and demands you ready
for this nothing return. We can'teven love the person on the pillow next
(31:04):
to us that way much less embraceof God who loves us that way.
But once we get to a placewhere we understand what pure love really is,
when we can turn to that personon the pillow next to us and
say, you know what, Idon't love you for what I can get
out of you. I don't loveyou for what comes to me from you
(31:25):
or through you. I love youwithout needing, requiring, expecting, or
even hoping for anything in return.If I'm loving you to get a return
from you, then it's transactional,and suddenly I'm loving myself through you.
But if I love you without needinganything back from you whatsoever, simply because
(31:48):
I see the magnificence, to gloryand the wonder of who you are,
as we would love a two yearold child or six day old baby,
needing nothing in return, God seesus if you please. As the babies
of the universe, we are stillhighly uninvolved, still acting primitively, and
(32:12):
so God needs, requires demands nothingfrom us that would change the way we
interact with each other and alter theentire philosophic structure of the human species.
I call it the God's Solution andfrom your lips, if we can get
(32:36):
this information out to as many peopleas possible, I couldn't agree more.
And again, those negative things thatpeople have out there, you know,
I think that they need to understandthat's a human concept. You know that
that is humans that have said that. So again I agree with you completely,
(33:00):
and I love the message, andI hope we can get it to
everybody. A way to do that, if anyone who would look a copy
of The God's Solution, which isa book that I actually wrote, if
you'd like a manuscript copy, Ican't send you a hard copy of the
book, but I'll be glad todownload or if you please upload a copy
to your computer at no cost.Just send me a note. Just send
(33:22):
Neil and Neil Dolla Walsh dot com. Please send me, upload me a
copy of your manuscript, and I'llupload a copy of the author's manuscript absolutely
free of charge. Because I wantyou to read this book. I don't
even need you to believe it.I'm not trying to convince you of anything,
but at least open your mind tothe possibility that there, you know,
there may be something we don't fullyunderstand here mm hmm yep. And
(33:46):
again for anybody out there, ifyou're driving or something, don't worry.
We will put that information again inthe show notes as well, so that
you'll know how to get a holdof Neil. Neil, We've got this
three questions that have come in fromthe audience, and we've got about twelve
minutes, so I'd like to beable to get through all three of them,
(34:07):
so I'm giving you fair warning.The first one reads as an eighteen
year old male, what as aneighteen year old male that does not believe
in God? How can this bookhelp me? And this is from Matt
in Burlington, Vermont. It canhelp you to come to an awareness that
(34:27):
there's more going on here than meetsthe eye, and that when you are
aware that there's more going on,maybe your mind will have be curious enough
to know what would that more beand how can it serve me? Would
help you to learn how to usethe power of metaphysics. By the way,
you don't even have to believe inGod to believe in metaphysics. Incidentally,
(34:49):
you don't have to believe in thedivine being. Metaphysics is simply an
aspect of human reality. Every scientistagrees that there's a a physical power in
the universe. So that's the answerto your question that it will help you
to expand your mind and possibly answerthe question, how can I make my
(35:12):
life better than it is? Howdo I get all the struggle, all
the anger, all the frustration,all the disappointment out of my life,
or at least deal with it ina way that makes it not nearly as
stabilitating as it has been so far. And if I can add a little
bit to that for anybody out there, this book is not meant to convert
(35:35):
anyone to any specific religion or abelief system, but I see it.
It's just something that invites you tobe open to the possibility that God is
there to talk to you and thatyou can talk back. And I think
if you take that approach, you'renot taking any risk. Neil, would
(35:57):
you agree, What have you gotto lose? He answer, there is
nothing? Yeah, exactly. Okay. We have another one. This one
reads I'm a mother of a sixteenyear old daughter who is struggling with her
sexuality. I have I have manyquestions about how to navigate a conversation about
(36:20):
God with her. The conversations shehas with her friends are quite negative.
How do you suggest I navigate thissituation? This is from Jennifer and Madison,
Wisconsin. Offer her to read orinvite her to read Conversations with God
Fourteens, and tell her it's notsome author who wants you to understand something.
(36:46):
This book was. All the questionsin this book were written by people
like you, written by teenagers.Other teenagers from around the world sent in
their most important questions, So youmight find it very interesting to see what
the other teenagers asked about and thekind of answers that have been given to
(37:06):
them. That's what I would suggestis an opening, you know, overture
to her, and I completely agree. And again as someone who's worked with
many parents that are dealing with teensthat are that are going through stages,
or they're having some issues or whateverit may be. You know, I've
(37:31):
made the joke that we, asthe parent, when they're about that age,
it's as if a giant needle comesout of the out of the sky
and sucks half our brain out,because all of a sudden, we as
the parents, are not that smart. So if you can give them something
to where they're getting it from,another source. I think that's going to
be something that's it's going to havea much better effect. And the good
(37:54):
news to this is is that generallyspeaking, that that sixteen year old,
after they get to about twenty,all of a sudden, that needle comes
back and gives us back all ofour intelligence again, and all of a
sudden, we're pretty smart. Sobut yes, if you can get this
information from someone else, they Jenniferto your daughter by getting the book.
(38:17):
I think it's a great idea.When I talk to young people, I
often bring up something that intrigues them, most young people between sixteen and twenty.
I've heard about a guy named BillShakespeare. Bill said, Bill said
this, which intrigues young people whenI invite them to look deeply behind the
statement. You may recall that itwas Bill who wrote, there are more
(38:42):
things in heaven and earth ratio thatare dreamed of in your philosophy. Ah,
what was he getting at? Whatwas he getting at? Oh?
I see to be or not tobe? That is the question whether it's
(39:02):
just nobler in the mind to sufferthe slings and errors of outrageous fortune,
or to rise up against the seaof troubles and by opposing to end them
to die, to sleep, tosleep for chance to dream. Ay,
there's the rub or in that sleepof death, what dreams may come.
(39:23):
When I talk to young people aboutthat, their ears open up because they've
heard most of those quotes somewhere betweenthe ages sixteen and nineteen, and they
go, ah. You know,there are many, many people in many
different ways, including the dramas ofWilliam Shakespeare, who is one of the
great metaphysicians of all time. Inmy point of view, many messages coming
(39:45):
to us from many different sources.Just open your mind. Stop listening to
other teenagers who are talking from aclosed mind, allowed to the possibility that
there's more going on here than meetsthe eye. You know, I am
synergizing with you so much. Ilove that because you are, you are
(40:08):
telling them something that has been amessage I've been trying to get out there
for years, which is think.Think, Think for yourself. Don't allow
yourself to be swayed by in thisday and age, by social media or
(40:29):
network news or or your friends orwhatever. Think. Learn and discern what
it is that you're hearing, andmake your own decisions. And I love
the fact that you use that quoteto make them think that's beautiful. Okay,
(40:49):
we've got uh, We've got aboutfive minutes, and we've got one
more question again from a listener.This one reads, please explain evil to
me. It appears as though manyof those controlling powerful media are hell bent
on destroying people's hopes, dreams,and happiness. Are we being tested?
Is it misery loves company? Isit hurt people? Hurt people? And
(41:15):
how do you think we can reversethis trend? And this is from Donnell
in Chicago, Illinois. Again,our friend Bill wrote, nothing is evil
lest thinking make it so. Butwhat makes us call something evil when it
is the opposite of what it is? We choose a yearn to experience,
(41:39):
and in conversations with God, we'retalked, we're told about the law of
opposites in the absence of what youare not, what you are is not.
Let me give you an example,metaphorically speaking. Let's say I am
the light. I consider myself tobe the light. I'm just using a
(42:00):
Now. If I want to experiencemyself as the light, I have to
do something most unusual, because rightnow I'm like a candle in the sun.
I mean, I'm there all rightalong with fifty concillion other candles.
But I can't experience or express myselfas the light because I'm a candle in
the sun. Now, the sunwould not be the sun without one of
(42:21):
its candles. But I want toexperience myself as that. Therefore I would
have to move to a place wherethere is what I see, the darkness.
Then I can experience and express myselfas the light. Raise therefore,
not your fists to heaven and cursethe darkness. Not, but be a
(42:45):
light unto the darkness, that youmight know who you really are, that
all those whose lives you touch mightknow who they are as well. What
is evil? Evil is that whichwe have created of our own free will
on this planets, our actions andour behaviors which do not do good to
anyone and actually harm other people.But they are actions that we can use
(43:10):
to produce good in the world,because suddenly we have something against which to
measure who we are and who wechoose to be. Ah, here we
go get with bill to be ornot to be? That's the question.
So resist not evil, But thatdoes not mean don't seek to change it
(43:32):
which you resist persists, But bethe change you wish to see in the
world, and suddenly you will findthat the evil that you have discovered in
the world has served you in away that allowed you to move forward in
the process that we call transformation ofyour own life, and for that matter,
(43:52):
of the lives of other people whoselives you touch. You know this
is important. Let me conclude withthis. I've been asked, what's the
single most important question, the mostimportant answer you ever received in conversations with
God? And the answer is this. I said to God, what don't
I understand that makes life work?And he said, Neil's very simple.
(44:15):
Your life is not about you.You think your life is about you,
But your life is not about you. It's about everyone whose life you touch
in the way in which you touchit. But when you realize that,
you get in touch with a largeruniversal truth that, in the universal sense,
(44:37):
your life is about you. Foran most elegant reason, there's only
one of us in the room.All things are one thing. There's only
one thing, and all things arepart of the one thing. There is
therefore, do unto others as youwould have it done unto you, because
(45:00):
it is being done unto you.Mm hmm. Now, as you were
saying that, I got a visionof a man I just saw in an
interview recently that was very touching.Uh. And he's a Palestinian man.
And he said that he had beenraised since he was a child too to
(45:29):
hate Jews, Americans, anybody otherthan themselves. And he said, and
it was taught in the school andeverything. And he said that that he
was sent away to school and ashe met other people, he would,
you know, he would, youknow, they would they would tell him
(45:50):
something or whatever, and he'd say, well, that's not how your kind
acts. And then they'd say,how do how does our kind act?
And he would explain what he hadbeen taught and they would say, and
he said that they told him theysaid, have we done any of this
to you? And he said,well no, and he said the more
(46:12):
people that he met, he thenrealized that his job was to model.
He now instead of hating, buthe also wanted to model so that other
people would see in him that thepeople that he grew up with, although
they were told to hate, thathe himself and change, meaning so can
(46:37):
other people. And this was thevision that I was having. I was
remembering this as you were telling methat because that was what I was getting
from it is he didn't he didn'tblame, he didn't he didn't attack,
he didn't do anything. And Ithink it's important to point here this is
not a problem only with Palestinian people. Palestinians, and I want to make
(47:00):
this very clear. Yeah, sono one thinks that we imagined that Palestinians
are the people that are being taughtto hate. People all over the world
are being taught to dislike, ifnot taught to hate, Democrats, Republicans,
gays and straits, men and women, conservatives and liberals. You know,
stop it. It's not just Palestiniansexactly. You've been raised to disagree
(47:23):
with and sometimes to hate each other. Stop it. Well, thank you,
and and actually that's that's a greatplace for us to leave this,
which is yes, stop it.And what I was going to add to
what this man said was exactly whatyou said, was that it isn't just
there, it is everywhere. Andon Martin Luther King's birthday when we did
(47:47):
the show, that was one ofthe things that we touched on also was
for people to think and that ifanybody is telling you to hate, look
deeply into it and find out whatis in it for them, because there's
nothing in it for you. So, you know, I wish we had
(48:09):
so much more time, but Iwould love to have you back. I
think you are making such a positivedifference in the world, and I so
appreciate what you're doing. Thank you. Alan has a sweet words to say,
and I appreciate hearing those words andreceiving that energy from you. It's
been lovely to be here with you, all right. Thank you for everybody
(48:30):
out there, be good human beingsand be with us again next week on
Answers Network.
Popular Podcasts
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
I’m Jay Shetty host of On Purpose the worlds #1 Mental Health podcast and I’m so grateful you found us. I started this podcast 5 years ago to invite you into conversations and workshops that are designed to help make you happier, healthier and more healed. I believe that when you (yes you) feel seen, heard and understood you’re able to deal with relationship struggles, work challenges and life’s ups and downs with more ease and grace. I interview experts, celebrities, thought leaders and athletes so that we can grow our mindset, build better habits and uncover a side of them we’ve never seen before. New episodes every Monday and Friday. Your support means the world to me and I don’t take it for granted — click the follow button and leave a review to help us spread the love with On Purpose. I can’t wait for you to listen to your first or 500th episode!
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com