Neale Donald Walsch [Walsch - Conversations With God: An Uncommon Dialogue, Book 1

an uncommon dialogue

ALSO BY NEALE DONALD WALSCH

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Conversations with God, Book 1 Guidebook

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Conversations with God, Book 3

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with Nancy Fleming-Walsch:

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an uncommon dialogue

book 1

Neale Donald Walsch

G.P. P UTNAMS S ONS

New York

G.P. Putnams Sons

Publishers since 1838

A member of Penguin Putnam Inc.

375 Hudson Street

New York, NY 10014

First hardcover edition 1996

Originally published by Hampton Roads Publishing Company, Inc. 1995

Copyright 1995 by Neale Donald Walsch

All rights reserved. This book, or parts thereof, may not be reproduced in any form without permission.

Published simultaneously in Canada.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Walsch, Neale Donald.

Conversations with God: an uncommon dialogue/Neale Donald Walsch

p.cm.

ISBN: 978-1-101-65777-5

1. GodMiscellanea. 2. Spiritual lifeMiscellanea. 3. Imaginary conversations. 4. Walsh, Neal Donald.

I. Title.

BF1999.W228 1996 96-34667 CIP

133.93dc20

First, last, and always, I want to acknowledge the Source of everything that is in this book, everything that is lifeand of life itself.

Second, I want to thank my spiritual teachers, who include the saints and sages of all religions.

Third, it is clear to me that all of us could produce a list of people who have touched our lives in ways so meaningful and so profoundly as to defy categorization or description; people who have shared with us their wisdom, told us their truth, suffered us our faults and our foibles in their infinite patience, and who have seen us through all of it; seeing the best in us there was to see. People who, in their acceptance of us, as well as their refusal to accept the parts of us they knew we really didnt choose, caused us to grow; to get bigger somehow.

The people, in addition to my parents, who have been there for me in that way include Samantha Gorski, Tara-Jenelle Walsch, Wayne Davis, Bryan Walsch, Martha Wright, the late Ben Wills Jr., Roland Chambers, Dan Higgs, C. Berry Carter II, Ellen Moyer, Anne Blackwell, Dawn Dancing Free, Ed Keller, Lyman W. (Bill) Griswold, Elisabeth Kbler-Ross, and dear, dear Terry Cole-Whittaker.

I want to include in this group my former mates, whose privacy I wish to respect by not naming them here, but whose contributions to my life are deeply grasped and appreciated.

And as gratitude for the gifts I have received from all these wonderful people swells my heart, I am especially warmed by the thought of my helpmate, spouse, and partner, Nancy Fleming Walsch, a woman of extraordinary wisdom, compassion and love, who has shown me that my highest thoughts about human relationships do not have to remain fantasies, but can be dreams come true.

Fourth and finally, I want to recognize some people I have never met, but whose lives and work have impacted me with such force that I cannot let this moment pass without thanking them from the depth of my being for the moments of exquisite pleasure, insight into the human condition, and pure, simple Lifegefeelkin (I made up that word!) they have given me.

You know what it is when someone has given you a taste, a glorious moment, of what is really true about life? For me, most of these have been creative or performing artists, because it is from art that I receive inspiration, to which I retreat in moments of reflection, and in which I find that which we call God most beautifully expressed.

And so I want to thankJohn Denver, whose songs touch my soul and fill it with new hope about how life could be; Richard Bach, whose writings reach into my life as if they were my own, describing so much of what has been my experience; Barbra Streisand, whose directing, acting, and musical artistry grips my heart time and time again, causing it to feel what is true, not merely know it; and the late Robert Heinlein, whose visionary literature has raised questions and posed answers in ways no one else has dared even approach.

for

ANNE M. WALSCH

Who not only taught me that God exists, but opened my mind to the wondrous truth that God is my best friend; and who was far more than a mother to me, but gave birth in me to a longing for and a love of God, and all that is good. Mom was my first meeting with an angel.

and for

ALEX M. WALSCH

Who told me repeatedly throughout my life, Theres nothing to it, You dont have to take No for an answer, You make your own luck, and Theres more where that came from. Dad was my first experience of fearlessness.

You are about to have an extraordinary experience. You are about to have a conversation with God. Yes, yes. I knowthats not possible. You probably think (or have been taught) thats not possible. One can talk to God, sure, but not with God. I mean, God is not going to talk back, right? At least not in the form of a regular, everyday kind of conversation!

Thats what I thought, too. Then this book happened to me. And I mean that literally. This book was not written by me, it happened to me. And in your reading of it, it will happen to you, for we are all led to the truth for which we are ready.

My life would probably be much easier if I had kept all of this quiet. Yet that wasnt the reason it happened to me. And whatever inconveniences the book may cause me (such as being called a blasphemer, a fraud, a hypocrite for not having lived these truths in the past, orperhaps worsea holy man), it is not possible for me to stop the process now. Nor do I wish to. I have had my chances to step away from this whole thing, and I havent taken them. Ive decided to stick with what my instincts are telling me, rather than what much of the world will tell me, about the material here.

Those instincts say this book is not nonsense, the overworking of a frustrated spiritual imagination, or simply the self-justification of a man seeking vindication from a life misled. Oh, Ive thought of all of those thingsevery one of them. So I gave this material to a few people to read while it was still in manuscript form. They were moved. And they cried. And they laughed for the joy and the humor in it. And their lives, they said, changed. They were transfixed. They were empowered.

Many said they were transformed.

Thats when I knew this book was for everyone, and that it had to be published; for it is a wonderful gift to all those who truly want answers and who truly care about the questions; for all those who have embarked upon quests for truth with sincerity of heart, longing of soul, and openness of mind. And thats pretty much all of us.

This book addresses most, if not all, of the questions we have ever asked about life and love, purpose and function, people and relationships, good and evil, guilt and sin, forgiveness and redemption, the path to God and the road to hell