Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

...this paradigm shift will take great wisdom, great courage, and massive determination. For fear will strike at the heart of these concepts, and call them false. Fear will eat at the core of these magnificent truths, and render them hollow.... Yet you will not have, cannot produce, the society of which you have always dreamed unless and until you see with wisdom and clarity the ultimate truth: that what you do to others, you do to yourself; what you fail to do for others, you fail to do for yourself; that the pain of others is your pain, and the joy of others your joy, that when you disclaim any part of it, you disclaim a part of yourself. Now is the time to reclaim yourself. Now is the time to see yourself again as Who You Really Are, and thus, render yourself visible again. For when you, and your true relationship with God become visible, then We are indivisible. And nothing will ever divide Us again.

Excerpt provided by Syndetics

Chapter One 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 be here, at the appointed hour, at the appointed place, for this book to come into your hands. So thank you. Now if you have done all this subconsciously, without even knowing 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 in your life at the right and perfect time. You may not know that now, but when you finish with the experience that is in store for you, you will know it absolutely. Everything happens in perfect order, and the arrival of this book in your life is no exception. What you have here is that for which you have been looking, that for which you have been yearning, for a very long time. What you have here is your latest--and for some of you perhaps your first--very real contact 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 it now because I've already had such a dialogue and I therefore know that such a thing is possible. Not only is it possible, it is happening all the time. 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 be in your hands at this moment. We are all at cause in creating the events of our lives, and we are all co-creators with the One Great Creator in producing each of the circumstances leading up to those events. My first experience of talking to God on your behalf occurred in 1992-93. I had written an angry letter to God, asking why my life had become such a monument to struggle and failure. In everything from my romantic relationships to my life work to my interactions with my children to my health--in everything--I was experiencing nothing but struggle and failure. My letter to God demanded to know why--and what 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 will be, because Book 1 outlines in much greater detail how all of this began and answers many questions about our personal lives--questions about money, love, sex, God, health and sickness, eating, relationships, "right work," and many other aspects of our day-to-day experience--which are not addressed here. If there is one gift I would ask God to give to the world at this time, it would be the information in Book 1. True to form ("Even before you ask, I will have answered."), God has already done so. So I hope that, after reading this book (or maybe even before you finish 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 Pure Choice has created every experience you ever had. (A concept that is explained in that first book.) These first paragraphs of Book 2 were written in March 1996, to provide a brief introduction to the information which follows. As in Book 1, the process by which this information "arrived" was exquisitely simple. On a blank sheet of paper, I would merely write a question--any question ... usually, the first question that came to my head--and no sooner was the question written than the answer would form in my head, as if Someone were whispering in my ear. I was taking dictation! With the exception of these few opening lines, all the material in this book was placed on paper between Spring 1993 and a little over one year later. I'd like to present it to you now, just as it came from me and 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 God and I and you are experiencing together. I have no idea yet what this book is going to say, or even the specific subjects that we'll touch upon. That's because there is no plan for this book in my head. There can't be. I'm not the one deciding what's going to go into it. God is. On Easter Sunday 1992--one year ago today--God began a dialogue with me. I know that sounds ridiculous, but it's what happened. Not long ago, that dialogue ended. I was given instructions to take a rest ... but told also that I had a "date" to return to this conversation this day. You have a date, too. You're keeping it right now. I am clear that this book 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 find God. 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 first step in finding that we are not apart from God is finding that we are not apart from each other, and until we know and realize that all of us are One, we cannot know and realize that we and God are One. God is not apart from us, ever, and we only think we are apart from God. It's a common error. We also think we're apart from each other. And so 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 out from 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 truth to yourself about yourself. Then tell the truth to yourself about another. Then tell the truth about yourself to another. Then tell the truth about another to that other. Finally, tell the truth to everyone about everything. These are the Five Levels of Truth Telling. This is the five-fold path to 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 questions and 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, as you know. Yes. Why are You adding that twist here? Because this book is being written at My request. I asked you here--as you've pointed out. The first book was a project you started by yourself. With the first book you had an agenda. With this book you have no agenda, except to do My Will. 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 if it's the same as mine? That is an intricate question--and not a bad place to start; not a bad place at all for us to begin this dialogue. Let's go back a few paces. I have never said that My Will was your will. Yes, You have! In the last book, You said to me very clearly: "Your will 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 thing as saying My Will is your will. If you did My Will all the time, there would be nothing more for you to do to achieve Enlightenment. The process would be over. You would be already there. One day of doing nothing but My Will would bring you Enlightenment. If you had been doing My Will all the years you've been alive, you'd hardly need to be involved in this book right now. So it's clear you have not been doing My Will. In fact, most of the 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? I do. You just don't listen. And when you do listen, you don't really hear. And when you do hear, you don't believe what you're hearing. And when you do believe what you're hearing, you don't follow 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 I make 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 would have 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 ever done this consistently. A handful of others have done it nearly always. Many have done it a great deal. A whole slew of people have done it from time to time. And virtually everyone has done it 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 from now 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 Will all the time. That's laudable, commendable, and probably impossible. Why? Because you have far too much growing to do before you can claim that. Yet I tell you this: You could claim that, you could move to Godhood, this instant if you chose to. Your growth need not take so much time. Then why has it taken so much time? Indeed. Why has it? What are you waiting for? Surely you don'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. Copyright © 1997 Neale Donald Walsch. All rights reserved.

Reviews provided by Syndetics

Publishers Weekly Review

In this follow-up to the bestselling Conversations with God, Walsch presents yet another lengthy record of the opinions that God has confided in him alone. This second volume features a verbose deity who appears almost to be playing patient to Walsch's psychotherapist. These conversations present a very jocular God bantering and joshing with divine aplomb about sex, politics, economics, ecology and myriad other topics. Walsch remains "culturally correct" by bashing "organized religion" in general and Catholicism in particular. Typically, however, his religion-bashing is based on misrepresentations and simpleminded theology. One can only be shocked that God is so gullible as to take Walsch's intellectually lazy word for it. (May) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved