walsch conversations with god - red wheel · conversations with god neale donald walsch books 2...

Conversations with God

Neale Donald Walsch

Books 2 & 3

an uncommon dialogue

Conversations w

ith God

Books 2

& 3

WalschAnd God Said . . .

Neale Donald Walsch didn’t claim to be special or spiritually gifted. He was just a frustrated man who sat down one day with a pen in his hand and some tough questions in his heart. As he wrote his questions to God, he realized that God was answering them—directly—through Walsch’s pen. And the result was a series of witty, provocative, and profound books that have changed the lives of readers around the world. Here in one handsome volume, with new introductions and afterwords, are the second two books in the Conversations with God series.

In Conversations with God 2, Neale Donald Walsch and God continue their discussion and move on to larger topics than the personal issues addressed in Conversations with God 1. The pair discusses time, space, and politics. It is an honest look at some of the broad issues important to all of us on the planet.

Conversations with God 3, the final book of the original three-book series, contains “universal truths of the highest order, and the challenges and opportunities of the soul.” In this volume, the dialogue expands to include more about the nature of God, about love and fear, about who we are and who we may become. Here is also a profound dialogue about the culture, philosophy, and spirituality of highly evolved beings in other realms of the universe and how they have learned to view life, love, and the pursuit of happiness.

“A man of conviction.” —Ellen DeGeneres, comedian, actress, and host of The Ellen DeGeneres Show

“There is something deeply inspired about this work. Neale Donald Walsch has given us an important gift.”

—Rabbi Michael Lerner, from the San Francisco Chronicle

ISBN: 978-1-57174-720-4 U.S. $24.95www.redwheelweiser.com

Copyright © 1997, 1998, 2014 by Neale Donald Walsch

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be repro-duced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronicor mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by anyinformation storage and retrieval system, without permission inwriting from Hampton Roads Publishing, Inc. Reviewers mayquote brief passages. Previously published as Conversationswith God, Book 2 © 1997 Neale Donald Walsch and Conversa-tions with God, Book 3 © 1998 Neale Donald Walsch.

Cover design by Jim WarnerCover art is “Lakeside” by Vincent van Gogh, 1853-1890, oilon canvas, 1887, Holland, Amsterdam, Van Gogh Museum ©Fine Art Images / SuperStock

Text composition by Jane Hagaman

Hampton Roads Publishing Company, Inc.Charlottesville, VA 22906Distributed by Red Wheel/Wieser, LLCwww.redwheelweiser.com

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ISBN 978-1-57174-720-4

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Introduction

While it may seem to have been quite a while since Book Two inthe Conversations with God dialogues was first published, measuredagainst the span of human history it has been less than the blink of aneye. The words in the CWG texts were meant for an epoch, not for amere decade or two. If anything, they apply more than ever before tothe circumstance in which our species finds itself today.

That circumstance is not the greatest, and—we need to be honesthere—it is no one’s fault but our own. Not one of the systems that wehave devised to create a better life for on the Earth is working.

Our political systems are not working. Our economic systems arenot working. Our ecological systems are not working. Our educationsystems are not working. Our social systems are not working. And per-haps most discouraging of all, our spiritual systems are not working.

None of these systems—not one of them—has produced the out-come for which it was designed. Indeed, it is worse. They have pro-duced exactly the opposite.

Our political systems were designed to create security for citizensof all nations, through cooperation and peaceful relations. They haveproduced exactly the opposite.

Our economic systems were designed to create lack of scarcityand freedom from poverty for our teeming millions. They have pro-duced exactly the opposite.

Our ecological systems were designed to create sustainability onour planet. They have produced exactly the opposite.

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Our education systems were designed to create a higher level ofknowledge and the ability to use careful analysis and critical thinkingamong our people. They have produced exactly the opposite.

Our social systems were designed to create harmony in our day-to-day, person-to-person, group-to-group, and culture-to-culture inter-actions. They have produced exactly the opposite.

And our spiritual systems were designed to create a closer rela-tionship with God, with a deeper commitment to the highest values oftolerance, love and caring in our world. They have produced exactly theopposite.

The reality of these failed outcomes is incontrovertible. It evi-dences wherever one looks. It emerges at every turn. It cries out dayand night around the globe. The systems that we thought would createbreakthroughs have created breakdowns. This is abundantly clear toevery objective observer. What is not as clear is the reason for thesefailures.

The cause of our failures is our beliefs. Conversations with Godtells us that beliefs create behaviors. You style your hair the way youstyle your hair because you believe it makes you attractive. You conserveyour money the way you conserve your money because you believe itmakes you secure. You take the curative measures and the medicinesthat you take because you believe that it makes you healthier.

As a people, we create the types of government we create becausewe believe they make us secure. We create the types of economies wecreate because we believe they bring us financial stability. We createthe types of ecologies we create because we believe they guarantee ourfuture. And so on down the line.

The fact that our choices are not creating our expected, antici-pated, and hoped for outcomes seems not to mind to us. We continueour behaviors anyway. Beliefs are tough to shake, even when they areproven to be misplaced. Even when they are proven to be dead wrong.

It is, however, not impossible to change them—for beliefs are notcreated by proof, but rather, by desire. This is a fundamental under-

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C O N V E R S A T I O N S W I T H G O D

A N U N C O M M O N D I A L O G U E

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standing of human behavior that is not widely held, although it iswidely demonstrated.

We believe what we want to believe—and that is precisely whatmakes beliefs so powerful...and so unshakeable once we embrace them.

For humanity to change its collective outcomes, therefore, what isneeded is to change its collective beliefs. And for humanity to changeit beliefs, all that is needed is to change its desires.

That is the purpose of the book you are reading now—and of theentire Conversations with God dialogue. The intention of this dialogueis to open all of our minds to new possibilities, and to create in us newdesires.

When we desire, as a species, to create security, abundance, sus-tainability, more and more knowledge, greater harmony, and a closerrelationship with Maker and Source for all people and not just for thetiniest minority, we will change our beliefs and alter the behaviors thatthey sponsor.

What is it that we want? What is it to which we aspire, for whichwe hunger, with which we will feel not merely satisfied, but fullyrealized?

Is it a world where nine-tenths of the inhabitants struggle daily formere survival while one-tenth hold or control the vast majority ofwealth and resources? Is it a community in which half of its membersare not even allowed to go to school because of their gender? Is it a col-lective in which survival is the chief motivating factor, and fear thechief activating influence, in the largest number of the choices anddecisions of its constituents?

If we are satisfied with these and other of our present outcomesas a species, we will continue to hold to the beliefs that have createdthem and continue to produce them in our global experience. Yet if weyearn for more, if we crave a grander expression, if we desire some-thing greater as a civilization—indeed, if we want to civilize civiliza-tion—we may want to reexamine some of our old beliefs, and evenconsider trading some of them in for new ones.

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L I V I N G I N T H E W O R L D W I T H H O N E S T Y , C O U R A G E , A N D L O V E

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Ah, yes, but just exactly what new ones? That is the question ofthe day. At least part of the reason that humanity has been reluctant torelease its Ancient Cultural Story is that there has been no NewCultural Story of equal power or greater attractiveness to replace it.

It is our Cultural Story—the ideas that we pass on from genera-tion to generation about who we are and where we are and why we arewhere we are—from which our beliefs emerge. Our Cultural Story pro-duces our awareness, and our awareness of what we imagine or under-stand to be “so” produces our perspective on life.

From our perspective emerges our perception (where we arestanding determines what we see), from our perception arises ourbeliefs (seeing is believing), and from our beliefs are generated ourbehaviors (we do what we think we need to do).

The shifting of beliefs, therefore, can only begin with the chang-ing of our awareness, born of our Cultural Story, which must also bechanged. And the changing of a Cultural Story begins with the chang-ing of the Consciousness that created it.

In the living of our lives and the creation of our experiences,Consciousness is everything. It sets the tone, generates the vibe, andproduces the thoughts from which our experience of ourselves as indi-viduals and as a society arises. Yet what creates Consciousness? That isa question that has intrigued humankind for thousands of years.

Here is the answer: Consciousness is not created. It exists, in pureand unadulterated form, in the Eternality of Existence. The question isnot how to create Consciousness, but how to access Consciousness.

I believe that is where Conversations with God comes in. I believeit to be an accessing of the highest levels of Consciousness—and aprocess that is available to all human beings, not just some “lucky” or“masterful” ones. Indeed, we are told in the dialogue itself that Godtalks to everyone, all the time. The question is not: To whom does Godtalk? The question is: Who listens?

If humanity were to listen to all of the ways in which God com-municates with our species, our collective Consciousness would shift to

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such a degree that our awareness would expand far beyond its presentself-imposed limitations, enlarging our perspective such that our per-ceptions would be earth-changingly altered, with our beliefs thenchanged to reflect what we have finally seen to be true.

Those new beliefs would produce miraculous shifts in our behav-ior, and our experience on the Earth would never be the same, but pro-duce, at last, the paradise of which we have so long heard, and forwhich we have so long yearned.

Book Two in the Conversations with God dialogues—the text youare about to read—approaches our human dilemma (nothing is work-ing) with just this in mind. It offers us the basis for the creation of anentirely new Cultural Story.

Welcome to these pages, and to their revolutionary ideas. I believethat you will be excited and enthralled with the possibilities they pres-ent. And if you would like to learn more about how you may join withothers from around the world in creating the New Tomorrow that isenvisioned here, go to www.CWGPortal.com. There you will find waysto translate new found hope into newly created realities.

Neale Donald WalschDecember 25, 2013

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ForethoughtsC H A P T E R S 1 — 7

I must say that rereading CwG—Book 2 after all these years hasmade it very clear to me that this installment in the Conversations withGod series offers one of the most cogent, incisive, and brilliant com-mentaries on the collective experience of humanity that I have evercome across. More importantly, it contains exciting inspirations onhow we as sentient beings can get from where we are to where we wantto be. Thus, it is not simply an observation about our yesterdays but aroad map to our tomorrows. It is about the saving of a species. It isabout winning the human race.

I can say all this with complete modesty because I have no expe-rience of having written this book, but rather of simply having asked aslew of questions and then of having had the good judgment to takedictation.

Now, as I move through this text once again years from themoments in which I, as the scribe, took down the responses I wasgiven, I find myself deeply moved and as genuinely impressed as a freshreader would be by the breadth, the scope, the sweep, and the visionof this astonishing dialogue.

Consider the extraordinary list of topics covered on these pages:Time, Space, Truth, Judgment, Awareness, Consciousness, Fear, Karma,Sex, Money, Life Purpose, Relationships, Heaven, Hell, Enlightenment,Hitler, Right and Wrong, Femininity and Masculinity, the Nature of theMind, a Worldwide Economic System, the Global Ecology, a completenew way to do Education, and much, much more—including, of course,continuing commentary on God Himself/Herself/Itself.

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The book opens with a discussion of God’s Will-Free Will-My Willand the interplay between the three. What is the difference here? Isthere any difference? It then moves into an exploration of how we caneach empower the choices and decisions we make in everyday life—tohave them really mean something in our lives and make a difference inour world. Then, advancing quickly, the dialogue invites us to lookpowerfully at “chance” and “choice,” “reaction” and “creation” as con-trasting ways of moving through moments of decision in life.

All of this in just the first twenty-six pages. . . .This text, then, is going to take you for quite a ride. You may find

some things here with which you disagree. In fact, I hope you willbecause I have learned that God’s intention in bringing us this Dialoguehas not been to tell us How It Is, but rather (and far more excitingly),to invite us to decide How We Want It To Be.

Thus, the book becomes not an act of revelation, but an act of cre-ation.

To facilitate the new commentaries that I offer for thisAnniversary Edition, I have divided Book 2, roughly, into thirds. So I’llnow be considering chapters 1–7, then later, chapters 8–15, andfinally, chapters 16–20.

This opening third of the text is a fascinating part of the dialoguebecause it moves rapidly across so many topics. The book does notsuffer from piles of preamble, but dives immediately into Stuff ThatReally Matters. And when you get to the re-cap that opens chapter 3,you realize suddenly how much ground you’ve covered. Already.

Still, you may feel that you’ve heard a lot of this . . . a lot of what’sbeen said here . . . before. I want you to be careful because if you’re not,you could talk yourself into thinking that this review of Things AlreadyKnown has little value. And whoa . . . would that be a mistake.

It is true that an observation such as “Life is an ongoing processof creation” is not exactly a showstopper to readers of Book 1 (or otherof the Conversations with God texts), yet what is fascinating about

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each of these dialogue books is how God’s conversations cover oldground in new ways. For instance, the advice here to “stop changingyour mind” really hit home with me. This business of staying tightlyfocused was not emphasized in any of the other CwG writings. So sud-denly, “Life is an ongoing process of creation” takes on new meaning,absorbs an important nuance, and says more within its new contextthan it did within its old.

Also taking on new meaning is human intimacy, thanks to theextraordinary passages in this opening third of the book appearing inchapter 7. Here we are given a breathtaking new definition of humansexuality and a strikingly original description, from a spiritual point ofview, of the Body Between Us and of the metaphysics of intimate inter-actions between people (called Tom and Mary in the book and creat-ing the unforgettable metaphor of “TOMARY”).

None of this—nothing even close to this—appears anywhere elsein the CwG writings. So while there is in Book 2 a small amount of cir-cling back over previous observations (necessary to create a contextwithin which the book’s forward advancements may be considered andmore richly understood), by far the majority of what is presented inthis second text breaks new ground.

As a further example, the admonition to “stop trying to figure outwhat’s ‘best’ for you” was worth the reading of the entire book for me.I also love the place at the beginning of chapter 2 where God carefullyand patiently explains that She never, ever, ever leaves our presenceand that it is we who step away from Him during certain periods of ourlives—often at just the “wrong” time!

(I know in my own life it has been not unusual for me to “aban-don” God and Godly thoughts when things are going badly and torejoin God in my bliss when things are going well. It is at momentssuch as the former that I sometimes have to pinch myself, wake myselfup, and tell myself, “Hey, what’s wrong with this picture? Isn’t now,when things are turning sour, the best time of all to connect with God?Wow, what am I doing here?”)

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So it was nice to reread that passage in chapter 2 where God said tome . . . “I invite you to look at your actions. You’ve been deeply involvedin your physical life. You’ve paid very little attention to your Soul.”

I defended myself, “It’s been a challenging period,” to which Godreplied, “Yes, all the more reason to have included your Soul in theprocess.”

Talk about the obvious!Then God added playfully, “These past months would have all

gone much more smoothly with My help. So may I suggest that youdon’t lose contact?”

Indeed.

I have found it challenging to step into the full living of the mes-sage of Conversations with God. I’m not going to try to kid you aboutthat.

Now I have to tell you that I thought I’d been doing a pretty goodjob of at least trying—but a reread of this second text in the CwG serieshas made it clear to me, in retrospect, how far I have yet to go.

Not that I am letting that discourage me. Actually, I am experi-encing it as awakening me, inspiring me, motivating me. The game isfar from over, and that’s always wonderful news for someone wholoves the game.

Some people are a bit put off by my referring to life as a “game,”but really, that is often how I experience it. I feel I am being invited toplay the Game of the Gods. And what game is that, exactly? It is theEndless Game of Self-Creation.

This is different from self-realization, in which we are striving toexperience ourselves as Who We Really Are. This is a process of decid-ing Who We Really Are and experiencing that. Only a god could dothat. A student would do the first, but only a master would attempt thesecond. The irony here is that in doing the second, the first is accom-plished automatically.

I see this as a “game” because it truly can be an experience of

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playing . . . yet playing with a purpose, if you know what I mean. Haveyou ever seen children earnestly at play? They can be really earnest asthey play. Watch them sometime. They “make believe” this or “makebelieve” that, and they do so with utter earnestness. Why? Why arethey so serious about their pretending? Because they want to have theexperience of what they are pretending to be, do, and have. They wanttheir pretending to feel real. And why is this? So they can know aboutthat experientially.

We are all doing the same thing! We think that because we areadults that we have to stop playing. Actually, the opposite is true. It iswhen we are adults that we are given the Really Big Toys. So let thegames begin!

In truth, childhood is our training. We learn how to play. Andwe’ve learned so well that now we are playing and we don’t even knowit. We think it’s real.

Most of us do, anyway. There are a few who don’t, a few who areAware. Those who are Aware, those who know that we are all playing,have found a way to move through life lightly. They have the wonder-ful ability to “lighten up” at the most difficult moments. They also havethe ability to help others lighten up during the same kinds of challeng-ing moments. In this they demonstrate what Enlightenment is all about.

The opening section of Book 2 was a doozy for me. These firstseven chapters woke me up. Again. Maybe even more so than they didwhen they first came through me.

As I’ve already alluded, I find myself even today tempted to aban-don God and all that I think that I know about life and how it workswhen I suddenly find myself facing extremely difficult challenges andconditions. And all that came up for me as I re-read the first part of thisbook. So I have to admit, I got a little discouraged with myself.

Then my Beloved came home from the video store with a moviethat she said she really wanted us to watch together. She’d seen italready and wanted to share it with me. It was all about the life of spir-itual teacher Ram Dass.

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As you may know, Ram Dass suffered a stroke in the late 1990s.In the film (a marvelous documentary titled Fierce Grace that I recom-mend to everyone!), this kind and gentle man openly admits that“being stroked,” as he put it, threw him into a crisis of faith.

In the immediate aftermath of this life-altering experience, hefound himself taking a step back from everything he had been teachingand sharing with the world about God and the perfection of day-to-dayevents in the long journey of the soul. Now here he was in a wheel-chair, unable to control half his body and finding it difficult to makehis mouth produce the words that danced tantalizingly in the swirl ofthoughts in his head.

The movie showed us Ram Dass’s movement from suppression toregression to aggression to progression, ultimately catapulting himselfpast the spiritual place where he had resided before, exceeding his ownearlier understandings and teachings. His awareness thus expanded, hevaliantly brings us all hope that whatever occurs in our lives—even pos-sible debilitation in our senior years (experienced by not all, butmany)—holds within it the seeds of spiritual wisdom and grace and thefuel for our further evolution.

This, of course, is the message of Conversations with God as well.And so, through his film, one messenger spoke to another—even as I,this messenger, speak to you, now, as the messenger you are. For weare all messengers, as it turns out, each of us sharing with the worldour ideas about the world toward the end that our world changes tosuit our grandest thoughts in a divine process called The Evolution ofa Species.

And that breathtaking, immense, and endless process continuesevery day—one experience, one message at a time. (Yes, my dear RamDass? Yes?)

Another of the messages that I realize, in my afterthoughts on thisbook, I’ve had a difficult time with is God’s statement to me in chap-ter 3: “You are perfect, just as you are.”

I’ve heard that before, a hundred times. It has still been difficult

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for me to grasp. I have to let go of so much stuff in order to hold ontothis. Letting go, I have found, is not easy. I seem to be clutching thingsfor dear life . . . such as the thought that I am not perfect but filled withimperfection.

I see things every day that I don’t like about myself. I feel thingsevery day that don’t even feel good to me. Yet I allow myself to feelthem anyway. So in a sense, they must feel good to me, otherwise Iwouldn’t keep letting myself feel them. I am thus challenged to askmyself, Why am I feeling so good about feeling so bad?

What I have come up with is that feeling bad about myself fulfillsmy previous notion about myself. It confirms the reality about me thatI have been living with so long, having been told about it for so longby others. My religion told me. My parents told me. My family andfriends told me. Even the ones who have loved me romantically, whohave slept with me in intimacy, told me. Everyone has told me aboutmy faults, my problems, my inadequacies, my “bads.” How could Ibelieve anything else? How could I feel anything but uncomfortabletelling myself (much less hearing from another) that I am wonderful?

Yet here comes God—I mean, GOD HIMSELF, for Heaven’ssake—telling me that She thinks I am perfect . . . just . . . exactly . . .as . . . I . . . am.

Aha! I say to myself. It must not be “God” saying these things. Itmust be my own ego pretending to be “God”! Yes, that’s it! My mindis playing tricks on me. My mind, which refuses to just accept, already,the world’s condemnation of me, is running interference for me, pro-tecting me from The Truth of My Badness by laying out a picture ofmyself as Perfectly Fine Right Now, Just The Way I Am.

What foolishness! What arrogance! What kind of God would tellme that?

And then, just then, I hear a sweet, soft, gentle voice within. “Youwill deny me three times before the cock crows,” it says. And then,after a pause, “. . . unless you don’t.”

And so this is my challenge. Who to believe: God or Man?

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But I did not have time to rest with that question as I movedthrough this book again. The pace of the dialogue is rapid, and it daresme to “keep up.” Soon I was once again revisiting CwG’s astonishingmessage about Hitler, about how (and why) Hitler went to Heaven.

And once more I am challenged at every level of my being. Howcould this be true? And yet, if it is not true, what hope is there for anyof us? Is there not a little bit of Hitler in every one of us? What are wetalking about here, then . . . a matter of degree? And what, exactly, isthe degree of God’s love? Does God love us to a certain degree? Andthen what? What happens then?

Ah, yes, these are all questions I revisited as I re-engaged with thisextraordinary Book 2 dialogue. And I have to tell you, it wasn’t easy.This book—in fact, the whole Conversations with God series—is notfor sissies.

And just when I was about to indulge in feelings of overwhelmduring my rereading, I came across this at the end of chapter 5:

Do not waste the precious moments of this, your present real-ity, seeking to unveil all of life’s secrets.

Cute. Isn’t this God cute?So go ahead. Read, now, the first seven chapters. If you’ve read

them before, read them again. I promise you, you’ll get more out ofthem than you did the first time around. Or even the second. Or eventhe third.

I don’t care how many times you read this material. Every passbrings you something new.

I promise you.


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Thank you for coming. Thank you for being here.You are here by appointment, true; but still, you could have failed

to show up. You could have decided not to. You chose instead to behere, at the appointed hour, at the appointed place, for this book tocome into your hands. So thank you.

Now if you have done all this subconsciously, without even know-ing what you were doing or why, some of this may be a mystery to you,and a little explaining may be in order.

Let’s start by causing you to notice that this book has arrived inyour life at the right and perfect time. You may not know that now, butwhen you finish with the experience that is in store for you, you willknow it absolutely. Everything happens in perfect order, and thearrival of this book in your life is no exception.

What you have here is that for which you have been looking, thatfor which you have been yearning, for a very long time. What you havehere is your latest—and for some of you perhaps your first—very realcontact with God.

This is a contact, and it is very real.God is going to have an actual conversation with you now,

through me. I wouldn’t have said this a few years ago; I’m saying itnow because I’ve already had such a dialogue and I therefore know thatsuch a thing is possible. Not only is it possible, it is happening all thetime. Just as this is happening, right here, right now.

What is important for you to understand is that you, in part,have caused this to happen, just as you have caused this book to bein your hands at this moment. We are all at cause in creating theevents of our lives, and we are all co-creators with the One Great

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Creator in producing each of the circumstances leading up to thoseevents.

My first experience of talking to God on your behalf occurred in1992–93. I had written an angry letter to God, asking why my life hadbecome such a monument to struggle and failure. In everything frommy romantic relationships to my life work to my interactions with mychildren to my health—in everything—I was experiencing nothing butstruggle and failure. My letter to God demanded to know why—andwhat it took to make life work.

To my astonishment, that letter was answered.How it was answered, and what those answers were, became a

book, published in May 1995 under the title Conversations with God,Book 1. Perhaps you’ve heard of it or maybe have even read it. If so,you do not need any further preamble to this book.

If you are not familiar with the first book, I hope you soon willbe, because Book 1 outlines in much greater detail how all of this beganand answers many questions about our personal lives—questions aboutmoney, love, sex, God, health and sickness, eating, relationships, “rightwork,” and many other aspects of our day-to-day experience—whichare not addressed here.

If there is one gift I would ask God to give to the world at thistime, it would be the information in Book 1. True to form (“Evenbefore you ask, I will have answered.”), God has already done so.

So I hope that, after reading this book (or maybe even before youfinish it), you will choose to read the first. It’s all a matter of choice,just as Pure Choice brought you to these words right now. Just as PureChoice has created every experience you ever had. (A concept that isexplained in that first book.)

These first paragraphs of Book 2 were written in March 1996, toprovide a brief introduction to the information which follows. As inBook 1, the process by which this information “arrived” was exquis-itely simple. On a blank sheet of paper, I would merely write aquestion—any question . . . usually, the first question that came to my

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head—and no sooner was the question written than the answer wouldform in my head, as if Someone were whispering in my ear. I was tak-ing dictation!

With the exception of these few opening lines, all the material inthis book was placed on paper between Spring 1993 and a little overone year later. I’d like to present it to you now, just as it came from meand was given to me. . . .

* * *

It is Easter Sunday 1993, and—as instructed—I am here. I am here,pencil in hand, writing pad before me, ready to begin.

I suppose I should tell you God asked me to be here. We had a date.We’re to begin—today—Book 2, the second in a trilogy which Godand I and you are experiencing together.

I have no idea yet what this book is going to say, or even the specificsubjects that we’ll touch upon. That’s because there is no plan for thisbook in my head. There can’t be. I’m not the one deciding what’s goingto go into it. God is.

On Easter Sunday 1992—one year ago today—God began a dia-logue with me. I know that sounds ridiculous, but it’s what happened.Not long ago, that dialogue ended. I was given instructions to take arest . . . but told also that I had a “date” to return to this conversationthis day.

You have a date, too. You’re keeping it right now. I am clear that thisbook is being written not only to me, but to you through me.Apparently you’ve been looking for God—and for Word from God—for a very long time. So have I.

Today we shall find God together. That is always the best way to findGod. Together. We shall never find God apart. I mean that two ways.I mean we shall never find God so long as we are apart. For the firststep in finding that we are not apart from God is finding that we arenot apart from each other, and until we know and realize that all of usare One, we cannot know and realize that we and God are One.

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God is not apart from us, ever, and we only think we are apart fromGod.

It’s a common error. We also think we’re apart from each other. Andso the fastest way to “find God,” I’ve discovered, is to find each other.To stop hiding out from each other. And, of course, to stop hiding outfrom ourselves.

The fastest way to stop hiding out is to tell the truth. To everyone.All the time.

Start telling the truth now, and never stop. Begin by telling the truthto yourself about yourself. Then tell the truth to yourself aboutanother. Then tell the truth about yourself to another. Then tell thetruth about another to that other. Finally, tell the truth to everyoneabout everything.

These are the Five Levels of Truth Telling. This is the five-fold pathto freedom. The truth shall set you free.

This book is about truth. Not my truth, God’s truth.Our initial dialogue—God’s and mine—was concluded just a month

ago. I assume this one will go just like the first. That is, I ask questionsand God answers. I guess I’ll stop, and ask God right now.

God—is this how it’s going to go?

Yes.

I thought so.

Except that in this book I’ll bring some subjects up Myself,without you asking. I didn’t do much of that in the first book, asyou know.

Yes. Why are You adding that twist here?

Because this book is being written at My request. I asked youhere—as you’ve pointed out. The first book was a project youstarted by yourself.

With the first book you had an agenda. With this book youhave no agenda, except to do My Will.

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Yes. That’s correct.

That, Neale, is a very good place to be. I hope you—and others—will go to that place often.

But I thought Your Will was my will. How can I not do Your Will ifit’s the same as mine?

That is an intricate question—and not a bad place to start; nota bad place at all for us to begin this dialogue.

Let’s go back a few paces. I have never said that My Will wasyour will.

Yes, You have! In the last book, You said to me very clearly: “Yourwill is My Will.”

Indeed—but that is not the same thing.

It’s not? You could have fooled me.

When I say “Your will is My Will,” that is not the same thingas saying My Will is your will.

If you did My Will all the time, there would be nothing morefor you to do to achieve Enlightenment. The process would beover. You would be already there.

One day of doing nothing but My Will would bring youEnlightenment. If you had been doing My Will all the years you’vebeen alive, you’d hardly need to be involved in this book rightnow.

So it’s clear you have not been doing My Will. In fact, most ofthe time you don’t even know My Will.

I don’t?

No, you don’t.

Then why don’t You tell me what it is?

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I do. You just don’t listen. And when you do listen, you don’treally hear. And when you do hear, you don’t believe what you’rehearing. And when you do believe what you’re hearing, you don’tfollow instructions anyway.

So to say that My Will is your will is demonstrably inaccurate.On the other hand, your will is My Will. First, because I know

it. Second, because I accept it. Third, because I praise it. Fourth,because I love it. Fifth, because I own it and call it My Own.

This means you have free will to do as you wish—and that Imake your will Mine, through unconditional love.

Now for My Will to be yours, you would have to do the same.First, you would have to know it. Second, you would have to

accept it. Third, you would have to praise it. Fourth, you wouldhave to love it. Finally, you would have to call it your own.

In the whole history of your race, only a few of you have everdone this consistently. A handful of others have done it nearlyalways. Many have done it a great deal. A whole slew of peoplehave done it from time to time. And virtually everyone has doneit on rare occasion—although some have never done it at all.

Which category am I in?

Does it matter? Which category do you want to be in fromnow on? Isn’t that the pertinent question?

Yes.

And your answer?

I’d like to be in the first category. I’d like to know and do Your Willall the time.

That’s laudable, commendable, and probably impossible.

Why?

Because you have far too much growing to do before you canclaim that. Yet I tell you this: You could claim that, you could

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move to Godhood, this instant if you chose to. Your growth neednot take so much time.

Then why has it taken so much time?

Indeed. Why has it? What are you waiting for? Surely youdon’t believe it is I holding you back?

No. I’m clear that I’m holding myself back.

Good. Clarity is the first step to mastery.

I’d like to get to mastery. How can I do that?

Keep reading this book. That’s exactly where I’m taking you.

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