"HI Guys Neil Walsh Donald, claims to have personal "buddy like" conversations with the god the infinite source. I find this hard to accept,what do you think?
alan
Conversations with God
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In an interview with Larry King, Walsch described the inception of the books as follows: at a low period in his life, Walsch wrote an angry letter to God asking questions about why his life wasn't working. After writing down all of his questions, he heard a voice over his right shoulder say: "Do you really want an answer to all these questions or are you just venting?"[2] Though when he turned around he saw no one there, Walsch felt answers to his questions filling his mind and decided to write them down. The ensuing dialogue became the Conversations with God books. However, in the interview with Larry King, Walsch admitted that he couldn’t be sure that it was God speaking and that the books could have been the product of his own subconscious.
Contents [hide]
1 Basis of the dialog
1.1 CwG's basic messages
1.2 God's motive for creation
1.3 Nature of the dialogue
2 Parallels in other belief systems
2.1 Contemporary parallels
3 Prophecies and predictions
4 Bibliography and movies
4.1 The CwG series
4.2 Other CwG books
4.3 2006 movie
5 References
6 External links
[edit] Basis of the dialog
Containing nearly 3000 pages of material in total, the series presents a vast number of ideas. The second and third books in the original trilogy deal with political and social issues.
[edit] CwG's basic messages
In Friendship with God (page 373), "God" presents four concepts which are central to the entire dialogue:
We are all One.
There's Enough.
There's Nothing We Have [an obligation] to Do.
Ours Is Not A Better Way, Ours Is Merely Another Way.
The first statement is understood to mean that existence is essentially nondual in nature. At the highest level there is no separation between anything and there is only one of us; there is only God, and everything is God. The second statement, following from the first, means that we, in this seeming existence, lack nothing and if we choose to realize it, we have enough of whatever we think we need (or the means to create it) within us. The third statement combines the first two to conclude that God, being all there is and is thus always sufficient unto Itself, has no need of anything and therefore has no requirements of humanity. The final concept puts an end to our need to always be right. Given that we have and are everything, and there's nothing we have to do, there are an infinite number of ways to experience this, not just the one way we may have chosen so far.
According to the books, God recommends many economic and social changes if people want to make a more functional, adaptable, and sustainable world, recommends that more attention should focus on the environment. The conversations also teach that reincarnation and life on other planets exists.
[edit] God's motive for creation
In Walsch's first dialogue, God notes that "knowing" and "experiencing" oneself are different things. Before creation there was only That-Which-Is, which cannot know or experience itself fully, without something it is not. It cannot know itself as love, since nothing exists but love. It cannot know itself as giving since nothing else exists to give to. It cannot experience itself in myriad ways because everything is one.
This present creation then, in Walsch's viewpoint, is established by and within God, so that sentience can exist which does not directly remember its true nature as God. Split into infinite forms, all life can live, experience, and recreate its nature as God, rather than just "know" itself as the creator in theory. It is essentially a game, entered into by agreement, to remember who and what we are and enjoy and create, knowing that ultimately there is no finish line that some will not reach, no understanding that is not without value, no act that does not add meaning to the future or for others. In Walsch's view we have a common interest in keeping the game going, for there is nothing else to do except to experience our existence and then experience more of it, to uncover deeper layers of truth and understanding. There are no external rules, because all experience is subjective, and is chosen. But within this, there are ways that (it is stated and implied) people will gradually come to see their thoughts, words, actions are either working or they are not working. A thing is either functional or dysfunctional. These rememberings take place over "time" and can take hundreds and thousands of lifetimes.
[edit] Nature of the dialogue
This section is written like a personal reflection or essay and may require cleanup.
Please help improve it by rewriting it in an encyclopedic style.(December 2007)
The voice of God states in Book 1 that words are not the truth, and thus readers must ultimately take what is being said and consult their own feelings to determine if they are in agreement with it. The voice says this is true of any other book or words we come across. Though the books bear the title Conversations with God and the author introduces the first book by stating he is "taking dictation" from God, the voice of God in the trilogy explains that the dialogue is God speaking to everyone all the time. The question is not to whom does God talk, but who listens. This is clarified by the statement that God can communicate with you in the next song you hear, the next breeze that caresses your ear, the next conversation you overhear. "All these devices are mine. All these avenues are open to me. I will speak to you if you invite me."
At the deepest level consciousness is and that there is only one "voice" regardless whether it is thought to belong to God, or an individual, or imagination. This leads to a statement of the Divine Dichotomy: that two contradictory truths can exist, neither making the other untrue. This is possible only in the realm of the relative, because, as was stated above, in the absolute all things are one thing, and there is nothing else.
[edit] Parallels in other belief systems
In the dialogue many philosophical ideas are presented that had already been advanced earlier by major Eastern and Western thinkers, but Walsch presents the information in language for modern readers and does not specifically cite any of these philosophers. In fact, Walsch claims that he had never known most of these ideas before his revelatory experiences. Since the beginning of the series, and especially in the latter volumes, Walsch and "God" acknowledge that most of the concepts presented are previously known to humanity, but are profound enough to warrant being explored repeatedly, and put into this cohesive unified form. Since humanity is still mired in strife and conflict, there is value in their restatement. Fundamental parts of Walsch's writings are also mirrored within other well known spiritual writings and traditions:
Souls reincarnate to eventually experience God-realization (Bhagavad-Gita/Hinduism).
Feelings are more important as a source of guidance than intellect (Rousseau).
We are not here to learn anything new but to remember what we already know (Plato).
Physical reality is an illusion (Hinduism/Buddhism's concept of maya).
God is everything. (Spinoza / Brahman)
God is self-experiential, in that it is the nature of the Universe to experience itself. (Hegel, and process theology as first outlined by Alfred North Whitehead)
God is not fear-inducing or vengeful, only our parental projections onto God are. Fear or love are the two basic alternative perspectives on life (Drewermann)
Good and evil do not exist (as absolutes, but can exist in a different context and for different reasons as Nietzsche).
Reality is a representation created by will. (Schopenhauer)
Nobody knowingly desires evil. (Socrates)
It's just a ride. (Bill Hicks)
alan