The Secret of Life

Changes

I talked in an earlier post about Neale Donald Walsch's Conversations With God series of books, and I notice that there is an opportunity to join Neale in a live teleseminar on March 31st.  Click here for details.

The subject of the teleseminar will be the last of the CWG books, Home With God. Here's some info on the book from Walsch's website:

"Death," says HOME WITH GOD, "is a process of re-identification.          
" It occurs in three stages:
                  1. Release of identification with the body;
                  2. Release of identification with the mind;
                  3. Release of identification with the soul."             
Learn about these stages...and about how we continue on in an amazing journey, re-embracing our present worldly identity, re-visiting every moment of our life in an inspiring way, and re-engaging our True Self as we prepare to return to Physicality with a new identity/lifetime, or returning to re-live this present lifetime all over again, making new choices along the way!

I haven't read this particular book, but these ideas seem to be building on what was said about the afterlife in the third volume of the original CWG trilogy. When I discussed CWG in the earlier post, I mentioned that the first of the books resonated deeply within me, that "as I read, a little voice inside me kept saying "yes!" ". I felt instinctively that what I was reading was true. When I first read what CWG had to say about the afterlife, however, my reaction was slightly different. It wasn't "yes!", so much as "if only..."

Not everyone likes the concept of reincarnation. My wife, Chris, for instance, is horrified at the idea. "But I'd have to go back to school again!" she complains. It is, however, an idea which makes a lot more sense to me than the traditional teaching of my Christian upbringing that we are "judged" on a single lifetime, whether that be a life of hardship or luxury, and whether we live to a ripe old age or die in the first few moments after our birth. (I really should write a post about this some time...)

What particularly interests me here, however, is this alternative idea which Walsch has thrown in of re-living our present life with the chance to make different choices along the way. This is something that really appeals to me! In many ways, it would be a pain to have to go back to the nineteen-fifties again, to a world without central heating and foreign food, and to have to grow up again in what I realize now was a highly dysfunctional household. And yet - like many people, I imagine - I can identify various decisions I've made in the past which I'd like to do differently if I had my time over again. Don't get me wrong - I've come to terms with these "mistakes" - what has happened in my life has made me what I am today, and the life I've lived - and continue to live - has riches of its own. But nevertheless it would be nice to have had the chance to do things differently too. To see what might have happened if only...

I wonder if you feel the same?

Conversations With God

I've already mentioned the Conversations With God books by Neale Donald Walsch on this blog, but they made such a remarkable impact on me when I first read them that I thought they deserved a post to themselves.

Walsch started writing CWG Book One by writing an angry letter to God about how awful his life had become. At that point, he was not intending to write a book but simply to vent his spleen. So what happened next took him completely by surprise. He found himself still holding the pen, and writing an answer which apparently came from God. The book then developed along the same lines, with Walsch and God in conversation: Walsch asking questions and God providing surprisingly clear and straightforward answers.

I have to say that to a cynic like me, this didn't seem like a very good idea for a book, yet I found to my astonishment that it all made sense to me. I'd never found any religion which really spoke to me, yet here was this little paperback from some apparently crackpot guy which was setting out an explanation of God and us and the universe which resonated deeply within me. As I read, a little voice inside me kept saying "yes!" I felt that, after all this time, I was finally starting to understand what was going on.

A lot of the ideas which I have been writing about in this blog were ones which I first encountered in Neale Donald Walsch's book, and if you haven't already done so, I urge you to go and read it. The first book, Conversations With God Book One was the one which made the most impact on me, though I've also read the rest of the original trilogy, i.e. CWG Books Two and Three. Many others have followed, though I am not familiar with these. If you've read them, please feel free to leave comments on any views you may have on them.

I think it's important to note that Walsch makes no claim that these books of his are the absolute word of God. He fully accepts that they have been filtered through the very human brain of Neale Donald Walsch. I hope it will not shock you if I state my belief that similar limitations must inevitably be present in all religious texts.

If I have a criticism of the first three books, it is that they are very good at describing what is going on with God, the universe, and the human condition, but not so good at suggesting what we should do about it. For this, I have turned to other books, such as those I have previously mentioned by Eckhart Tolle and Nick Roach, and practices such as meditation. This does not, however, detract from the worth of the Conversations With God books - they are, to my mind, a magnificent achievement - and more practical information may be available in some of the later books which I haven't so far read. Any recommendations you may have of these are welcome.

I would also like to give special mention to Walsch's children's book, The Little Soul And The Sun, which is a wonderful parable of the human condition and how it arose - developed from one of the chapters in Conversations With God Book One.

I have now placed links to Conversations With God web sites in the sidebar.

Now on to a Public Service Announcement. If, after reading my recent post The Revenge Of The Slime Monster, you are eager to have a clothes valet experience for yourself, UK readers can now purchase one at a bargain price here. But don't delay - the opportunity to get hold of a clothes valet doesn't often arise! (I wonder why not?)

And don't miss out on taking a look at the comments on these posts. The conversation on Special Green Plates was particularly interesting. See it here.