Neale Donald Walsch - Questions and Answers on Conversations with God

Acknowledgments

My first word of thanks goes, as always, to my best friend, God. Life has become better and better since I began a real, honest-to-goodness conversation with God, and since I've had a friendship with God, it's been one miracle after the next.

My wife, Nancy, and my children come next, for giving me the space and granting me the time to continue these writings, allowing me to share with the world what had been a very private experience, and to turn our lives upside-down in the process.

I owe a debt of thanks, on this book in particular, to my wonderful friend and personal assistant for special projects, Rose Wolfenbarger, who has spent years filing, recording, and categorizing every answer I have ever written to the letters I have received, and many months culling through those answers to compile the material here.

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Neale Donald Walsch lives with his wife Nancy, in southern Oregon. Together, they have formed ReCreation, a nonprofit foundation for personal growth and spiritual understanding with the goal of giving people back to themselves. Walsch lectures and hosts workshops throughout the world to messages contained Conversations with God.

Covert design by Marjoram Productions
Cover painting by Louis Jones
Sketch of the author by Elizabeth Hinshaw

CHAPTER 1

Complex Questions

I love questions. They make my mind expand. And the more difficult the questions, the better I like it. That's why I loved answering the questions in this book. They include some of the most challenging inquiries I've ever received on the Conversations with God material, reflecting the passions, frustrations, interests, and curiosities of some wonderfully engaging and courageous people.

Throughout the book, I've tried to categorize these inquires by topic. Some writers, however, clearly had no intention of limiting themselves to one subject per letter. I thought of taking these multiple-topic inquiries and breaking them into segments, putting the various sections into more definable categories, but, in the end, I felt that this would have taken a lot of the steam out of them. These questions are juicy precisely because they are compound and complex.

Life, of course, is like that, too. So here they are, questions that offer a slice of life. Real questions, about real life, from real people.

Why Do People Hurt Each Other?

My name is Penny and the only word that seems to sum up how I felt when I read your book was wow! Neale, these are the questions that your book has raised for me.

(1) 1 still don't understand why people in relationships, especially families, constantly hurt each other, and the relationships go up and down. Is it karma being worked out from past lives?

(2) In your book, God says the color white does not mean without color, it means color inclusive. Does this apply to race? Does this mean that a white person represents all of the other races combined? As an African-American, I'm curious why God created different races, and His/Her thoughts on the current race issues. I know that no one race is superior to another, but I just need to hear it from Godthough I already know.

(3) Are you sure there is no devil? Who was Lucifer? There is evil in this world, but is the source solely man? Is there no bogeyman out there? Do you realize if we truly believe this, how much fear this releasesand what potential it shows we have?

(4) How do I release my great level of fear about everything?

(5) Is God a he or a she? Which is it? And what should we call her? Does she mind? Does she even care? I could never have asked such a facetious question before reading your book.

(6) Are there any good organized religions that incorporate most of God's true messages? I was raised a Catholic, but left the church when I started my search for truth. I don't know what to label myself now, except Child of God. I totally believe in Jesus (because he answered me time and time again), so I suppose that makes me a Christian of sorts. I believe in a lot of New Age thought, but not all. So I might be a Christian New Age Mystic. (Smile)

And finally (7), how can I talk to the Goddess? Will She talk to me, even with all my fears and doubts? How do I connect with Her? This sounds crazy, but I want to hear Her say she loves me, too, and feel her love. I want to spend my life helping others that are less fortunate, but I need to ask Her what area I should help out inAIDS, homelessness, kids? Where! Can you help me? I hope that you can feel the sincerity of my message, and I have faith that you will answer me. With much love and thanks. Penny.

My wonderful, wonderful Penny, of course I am going to answer you! And what a letter! I could write a book from this one! Let's take your questions in order.

(1) People hurt each other in relationships because they do. They do it because they do, Penny. There is no larger reason for it, such as working out karma from past lives, etc. It's just something that happens. It's part of life. Nobody hurts another out of villainous intent. Remember these two important teachings, Penny:

• No one acts inappropriately, given their model of the world
• All attack is a call for help

People hurt each other because they want something they think they can't have, or have something they don't want. They are in one of the above two conditions, and they don't know what to do about it. They think that the only method of getting their way, having their desires met, etc., is to hurt another. They do not have to do this, but they do not know that. They do not understand how to have what they want, or not have what they don't want, without hurting one another.

The problem is education, not intent.

Greet each instance of hurt with compassion and love. Compassion for others lack of understanding (we have all been there at one time or another), love for others humanness, and their attemptshowever apparently misguidedto solve their dilemmas and keep on trying to make their lives work.

We are engaged here in a process of becoming. Of creating. Of being. Some of us are being more than others. That's just how it Is. That's what I call Isness. It's just what's true. Accept that with a smile. Embrace that with love in your heart. Understand, deeply, that no one wants to hurt you. They simply do it inadvertently, or perhaps, indeed, on purpose, because they know no other way to have the experience they desire. The next time someone hurts you, ignore the hurt and go to the only question which matters: What do you want or need so badly that you feel you have to hurt me to get it? You can ask this question silently, in your heart, or, if you have a particularly open and honest relationship with the other person, you can actually address the question verbally. Try it sometime. It is a terrific argument stopper. It is a terrific abuse ender.