It happened in early 1992, when Mr. Neale D. Walsch went trough a time of personal crisis and desperation... [Read: Bk.I-p.1 to top-2:"...sure as Heaven"] So Walsch started to engage in this conversation with a 'voiceless voice', writing down his questions and the voice's answers. At a later stage in this process, the 'voice' identified Itself as being-God. From this day on, the dialogue, the conversation has continued. The "Trilogy" (CWG 1, 2, and 3) were published in 1995-1998, and last year, a fourth book came out: "Friendship with God". CWG has been translated into over 25 languages since and over 3 million copies have been sold. [CWG I is approaching its 100th printing, being on the NYT bestseller list for several years.] Several hundred study groups have formed spontaneously around the world in these past few years, showing that the impact of the messages found in these books is substantial. When we explore the concepts of the books in more detail, it may become clearer, why they have such an impact on many people.
There is one entity in the universe, which is "All That Is"- this is called God, Love, Life (among other names). This entity is Eternal, Unlimited, and Free. In fact, this one single entity is so all-encompassing that it contains not only "All That Is" but also "All Which Is Not"! This is a so-called 'Divine Dichotomy': God says: "There is nothing that I am not: Therefore, I am what I am, and I am, what I am not." God knows everything conceptually but desires to know Himself also experientially. This difference is fundamentally important. Consider, e.g., God knows he is forgiving, he is forgiving, but... the 'problem', so to speak, is that there is nothing to forgive- it is all utter perfection! So God created man to allow this desire to be fulfilled, that She (God) can now know Herself also in Her experience. [An aside: God is neither 'He' nor 'She', so I'll use both pronouns in my talk-try not to be confused by this.] Since God is All There Is, His creations are also (part of) God (cf. "God created Man in His image"- CWG says this is not a metaphor, but a literal truth: "we are all God, Godding"). The 'second ingredient' for this desire of experiential knowingness to be able to happen, is to give the gift of forgetfulness to man. We forgot Who We Are, and our life is a process of remembering Who We Are, and of creating Who We Choose To Be. 'Creating' is the keyword here; this is the third ingredient: we are, in every moment of our life, creating ourselves and creating our reality around us. And again, not metaphorically, but literally. Everything that we see, hear, experience, is the product of our own creation! And that is so, because being created in God's image, we 'inherited' also Her full creative power. Now we can see how the ingredients of (a) creation of us as 'God's images', (b) our forgetting Who We Really Are, and (c) having inherited the full creative power of God- how these 3 ingredients make God's desire of experiencing Himself possible. Because now what happens is that She is experiencing Herself through us and our creations! To return to the example about forgiveness: In our relative world, we can (and frequently do!) now simply create a situation where something happens where we feel hurt and where we then can choose to forgive the 'external cause' of our pain. The same is true for the 'highest of all feelings', Love: In this relative world, we can experience how it feels to love someone. This is not possible in the 'absolute realm' where there is no "someone else" because All Is One in the ultimate reality. [In the creation lies another 'Divine Dichotomy': God and man are separate, yet, they are one with each other.]
This brings us to another important distinction that we have to keep in mind throughout the CWG books: The distinction between the 'relative world' of our creation(s) and the 'absolute realm' or the 'ultimate reality'. This 'relative world' of illusion ("Maya") is, we could say, the 'price' to be paid for fulfilling God's desire of experiencing Itself. It only works through these illusions in the world of physicality that we create through and around us and with each other. It is actually, more accurately, a co-creation between all the souls involved in this 'dance of the souls'.
It is now time to mention the "Law of the Opposites" which says: "In the absence of what you are not, that what you are is not." If you are "the light", you can only be the light in your experience if at least somewhere in the universe (and note, it has to be the 'relative world'!) there is a darkness that you are aware of. Only in contrast to this darkness can you know your being the light experientially. In 'ultimate reality', everything is "the light", there is no darkness, but that's precisely the reason why the light cannot experience itself as being the light. [If you want to read a wonderful story about this concept, get the book "The Little Soul and the Sun" - a parable from CWG put together into a beautifully illustrated book, meant for children, but I think truly meant for everyone who likes to experience deep truths in form of stories or parables.]
The 'Law of the Opposites' also indicates that relationships are most fundamental to us as human beings. It is through the other that we remember Who We Are. They are the perfect 'tools' so that we can construct Who We Are - again: In the absence of that who we are not, that, who we are, is not! And one of CWG's very famous quotes is (Bk. II, p.177): "I have sent you nothing but angels."
Another important aspect of the CWG cosmology is that 'Time does not exist' (in the 'ultimate reality'). It is merely for our convenience, that we live in our world that has time and space coordinates. From the perspective of the 'absolute realm' however, everything happens right now and right here. Now-Here = Nowhere! This is called the 'Eternal Moment of the Now'. So we see that not only the world that surrounds us is ultimately an illusion created by ourselves, but also our notions of 'past' and 'future'! CWG is quite clear that our life here is not our only incarnation on this planet, but to talk of 'past lives' (or 'future lives') is, in 'ultimate reality', only a metaphor: in "truth", we live all of our lives right now, in the 'Eternal Moment of the Now'. [In a sense, the future has already happened and the past will happen, since All That Is and Ever Was and Ever Will Be has/will be/is created "already".]
The consequences of this concept of time (which is a fiction in our relative world) are quite enormous. For instance, not only can we change the future we 'know to be happening' by 'choosing differently' (i.e.. making decisions that lead to a different outcome), but we can, even more astonishingly, also change our past (Bk.II, p.65): "By changing what the YOU in front of you experienced, the YOU behind you may never have to experience it [...] In the same way, the future YOU got help from his own future self, thus helping you avoid what he did not."
An important property of God and of the universe is that it is constantly changing. Nothing stays the same, ever. God is described-as in many other philosophies-as the 'Unmoved Mover' and CWG uses the parable of a rock to explain this fact: the rock seems to be static (from the outside) but in truth consists of countless particles which are constantly changing their position. The development of the universe can be called a process of 'conscious evolution'.
These 3 truths follow quite clearly from the cosmology [they are stated, e.g., in Bk.III, p.362]:
1. We are all one. Since God is All That Is and we are all (part of) God, we are not only one with God but also one with each other. This truth has the very practical consequence which was taught by virtually every master throughout time and history: "Do onto others, what you want others to do to yourself". Or, not as a rule, but as a statement of fact: "What you do onto others, you do to yourself." Since, in ultimate reality, there is no other, it has to be that way! All so-called 'others' are, in ultimate reality, the illusions of my own creation, and hence in 'true reality' not separate from myself. That is, of course, another very important consequence of 'truth 1': There is no such thing as separation, but there is only oneness. Every thought, every word, every action which comes out of an idea of separation does not reflect How Things Really Are. And of course, if we look at the state of our world, we see a lot of 'separationist thinking' and acting going on. [But that's okay, this is not meant as a judgment, for everything is perfect, but merely as an observation.] We have to declare Who We Are and Choose To Be in relationship to such a world and such a society.
2. There is enough. This follows from God's property of being Unlimited. Since God is All There Is and God is Unlimited, all so-called 'limitations' that we face in our 'relative world' are our own creations and ultimately do not correspond to anything real. There is enough of everything we need to be happy. Enough love, enough time, enough food... and so on. The world would be completely changed in an instant if this truth were believed and lived. (E.g., most conflicts and wars arise out of the illusion that 'there is not enough'.) Does this mean we can go ahead and continue to waste and use up the resources of Earth as we've done so far and even at an increased pace? Not really. We can, of course, do everything we decide and choose to, God has no preference in that matter (we'll discuss this topic later). But if we are saying we want to live in a healthy environment and live our lives so that future generations can live on this planet as well, the answer is quite obvious... "Unlimited" does not mean an invitation to waste resources. This would be denying the natural consequences and our responsibility for taking care of our planet. [Note that it is us who decide on this, not God. She doesn't have any preferences and doesn't set any rules!]
3. There is nothing we have to do. This follows from God being Free. And therefore we humans are free too. We therefore can do what we want to do, better: what we choose to do; God has neither 'requirements' nor 'preferences' for us. However, it cannot be said that God is without any desire for us. His desire for us is that we live the grandest version of the greatest vision we ever held about Who We Are. But note that God's desire is not God's request. She does not care at all what we are doing! And more than that, She never punishes anyone for his or her 'deeds' - that would mean in effect to punish Herself (since there is nobody else except God!). This third truth is fundamentally liberating: Since we don't have to do anything, we may do everything-- everything we choose to. This is freedom without limitations. But- not without consequences. We must know that everything we decide to do has consequences and since we can't blame anything or anybody else (there is no one else!) we are ultimately responsible for every choice we make. For every thought, word, and deed of our creation. Does this have to be a burden? Does this entail guilt? It does not because, as we will see later, this would mean being self-judgmental.
CWG says that creation is basically a three-stage process: Its first stage is the thought-level, its second the word-level and its third the deed-level (action-level). It is important to remember then that we do not only create by actually doing something in the world but as well by thinking about and talking about things and events.
Another distinction is made in terms of our 'mode' of creation: We can create from the level of the 'collective unconscious' (...and call events 'fate' or 'acts of God', not realizing that they were created collectively by us and society around us), from the level of our own 'unconscious' (and again, we often 'blame' others for the outcomes), or from a conscious level. It is pretty obvious, that the conscious level is the most powerful one. All masters act and create out of their conscious awareness. They are never surprised by the outcome and least of all disappointed by anything. They are, in contrast, aware that they have caused the outcome consciously.
Our free will is fundamental and there are no 'moral laws' or requirements from God, which can reduce it in any ways. [Of course, there are laws in the universe, such as the law of the opposites, or the law of cause and effect. They do, however, not diminish our free will at all.] CWG makes the point repeatedly that if God were to restrict our free will by any 'moral laws' this would thwart his whole creation. [read: Bk. 1, p.39: from "Where else..." until the bottom.] Along with our free will comes, however, also our responsibility for our actions and creations. We are not to blame anyone else for the consequences of our actions and creations- 'not even God'!
CWG makes an important distinction between 'wanting' and 'choosing'. When we 'want' something, we make a statement to the universe that we don't have it and therefore are wanting it. This message of us is mirrored back to us by the universe and we stay in the state of wanting. If we, however, are aware that we 'already have everything we need', we can freely 'choose', which expression of life we are becoming next. "I choose to experience wealth" is fundamentally different from "I want to experience wealth". The latter speaks of an experience of lack, not-having, the former of the knowing that 'before you even ask, it will be given to you'. CWG says therefore repeatedly that the most effective form of prayer is a prayer of thanksgiving, of gratitude. ["Gratitude is the attitude."]
Since we create every aspect of our reality ourselves, it follows that there are no accidents, everything happens exactly as we are creating it for us! There is no 'chance' element involved, we cannot blame anything or anybody for our experiences. We can, however, see the 'Perfection of It All'.
To understand this fundamental concept in CWG, we have to remind ourselves of the distinction between 'absolute reality' and 'relative world'. This concept applies to the 'absolute reality'-there is no 'right' and 'wrong' in the absolute simply because God has no preference and does not judge. She never judges anything we think, say, or do. Which is, of course, just a consequence of Her unconditional love for us. Judgement implies also preference-and God has no preference, as I just mentioned. And since there is no judgment, there is also no punishment, and there is no place called 'hell', either. Everyone goes to heaven, according to CWG. CWG departs from all religions, which are based (even partially) on fear, sin, or guilt and tell stories about 'punishments' for deeds which 'don't please God'. CWG also says that no matter what we do, "the ultimate outcome is guaranteed". [So God can rest assured that Her Creation will fulfill its purpose.] This is also linked to another fundamental concept in CWG: "Nothing matters." [This can also be interpreted as: "Matter comes out of the nothing." --- which is, as you know, essentially what happened in the Big Bang when the universe was created: Time, Space, Matter came into existence literally 'out of nothing'.]
God says repeatedly in CWG that there are no 'Should's' and 'Shouldn't's' in His reality. This is bad news for all religions or spiritual groups who want to establish 'rules' how to worship God properly, how to act 'in the right way', and so on. But the only rule, if you will, is that There Are No Rules! Except, of course, the ones that we make up. But that's the important point: We make them up. As we go along on our paths as individuals and as societies. And, of course, these rules constantly change. Keeping slaves was considered 'the right thing' to do by most in this country and elsewhere-and is not anymore. Keeping women at home was considered 'right' not too long ago here and still is in other cultures, but our values changed. CWG makes it very clear that it is important for us to have values, and to hold onto them, as long as they serve us. But it would be false to think that any of those socially constructed values have an 'absolute truth' to it. They are all relative, relative to the time, the place, and to the people involved. Values serve us, in as much they provide the 'framework' in which we can declare and decide Who We Are. If, e.g., a society decides that 'keeping slaves' is not among the things they choose to do-then this particular value system is changed.
The notions of 'good' and 'evil' are also only relevant in our 'relative world': In the 'absolute realm', there is only Love, there is no Fear and there is no Evil. Fear is, in our world, the opposite of Love, the other end of the continuum, but from the perspective of the absolute, Love is All There Is, and so even Fear is, ultimately, an expression of Love.
Does that mean that we should declare nothing evil? CWG says, "The biggest evil is to declare nothing evil at all." This means that, similarly to the importance of establishing a value system for ourselves as individuals and as societies, it is important for our life in this relative world that we acknowledge this 'contextual field' of our experience-for it is within this contextual field, the field of polar opposites, that we define and declare Who We Really Are. For instance, how could we experience 'being good' if there were no such things as the ones we call 'evil'? Still, we know that in the 'absolute realm', evil does not exist-and can hence step 'out of it all' and see the utter perfection of the design.
1. Is CWG just 'yet another spiritual fad?'
The success story of CWG: Since 1995, more than 3 million copies have been sold, the books being translated into more than 25 languages. Several hundred study groups have been formed. Dozens of mailing lists, web discussion groups, chat rooms etc. on CWG exist meanwhile. I think that there are several reasons for this phenomenon: the clarity of the messages in CWG, the books being written in a 'light' and 'easy-to-read' language, and, I think most importantly, the 'resonance' that so many people feel with their own truth about God and Life and the universe, when they encounter the books. The word 'esoteric' is related to the meaning 'being hidden, inwards' - CWG however puts its messages in very clear and easy-to-understand form, which makes it different from many other spiritual teachings, e.g., "A Course in Miracles". There's nothing cryptic, arcane, or convoluted in the CWG material. You could almost name it with the oxymoron 'accessible esoteric'.
2. Is CWG a "religion" or a (New Age) "cult"?
Some say, there are signs, like "a central figure" (Neale Walsch), an organization (ReCreation), some sort of membership program(s) (CWG in Action), organized workshops and retreats, and other indicators. However, I observe that (a) for most people I know the contents of CWG matter, not the 'messenger'; (b) ReCreation does not control anything: e.g., study groups are free to operate on their own agenda; (c) CWG itself says that 'there is no better way' (FWG): if it would declare its message to be 'the one and only path to God', it would contradict itself. It explicitely says that there are no better or worse ways of spirituality.
3. Levels of truth telling
In CWG 1, God says that words are the least reliable source of truth, that feelings are the language of the Soul and therefore should be relied upon much more than words. So the message of CWG about itself is also quite clear: It is not meant to be a 'new bible' where every word and sentence is set in stone and/or needs to be (re-) interpreted and 'followed' [even worse!] but rather a source of wisdom and inspiration for every reader's personal journey. Every one will react and change (or: not change) as a result of reading these books in a different way. And again, what ultimately matters, is what the reader feels about the truths, how he/she perceives his/her own truths.
4. Conversations with God
CWG tells us that what Neale did/does is neither exceptional nor extraordinary. Everyone can have a 'conversation with God'. In fact, more than that: Everyone does have an ongoing, eternal 'Conversation with God'! We cannot not communicate with God. We only can forget that we do so. And I might add: When we do remember, that's where the miracles start.
A. Human relationships
CWG makes it very clear that we do not need any particular person or relationship to experience fully Who We Are; however, without a relationship [in the most general sense] we could not experience Who We Are [law of opposites]! This is called the 'paradox of human relationships'. CWG says that 'needing another' is the fastest way to kill a relationship. One reason why so many relationships are unfulfilling is, according to CWG, that they are entered for the 'wrong' reason, e.g., relieving boredom, improving one's sex life, filling a gap, or ending loneliness (Bk. I, pp.139ff.) A much 'better' start would be to consciously agree that the purpose of the relationship is to create opportunity for growth and self expression, for ultimate reunion with God through the communion of the two souls. A striking statement is made about self-centeredness: "The most loving person is that who is self-centered." (Bk. I, p.124) This repeats the old truth that we cannot truly love another until we are able to love our selves.
B. Highly evolved beings ("HEBs")
Towards the end of Book III, there is an extensive conversation about beings in 'other worlds' who have evolved farther than we on a spiritual level - they are called "Highly Evolved Beings" or "HEBs" in these conversations. CWG speaks of thousands of HEB cultures in the universe, some of which have visited us and are currently observing us. HEBs live according to the two guiding principles (1) 'we are all one' and (2) 'everything interrelates.' The main difference between HEBs and us is that they (a) observe fully and (b) communicate truthfully. They see what's so and do what works. "What works" means: what is functional and produces the most benefit for all. For instance, they observe that lies "don't work" [given where they say they want to go as a society] and therefore just don't lie. CWG describes aspects of their societies to 'let us know' that we can become 'more' than we are right now, if we choose to; that the current world of separation is not the best possible world but that there are indeed many worlds in the universe where the concept of unity reigns. Further aspects of HEB societies are: They don't have a concept of ownership, but of stewardship: they share everything. They don't compete with each other. They don't 'work' in the sense of our society but just do what they love to do. [[They also can choose place and time of 'appearance' and usually communicate telepathically. They control their weather.]] They don't feel guilty or ashamed and don't fear death. Their offspring is not sent into schools but reminded of what works and what's so by the behavior of the adults and elders in the society.
C. Learning vs. Remembering
"There is nothing you have to learn." - is a fundamental truth of CWG. This may be puzzling to many, particularly with esoteric background: "Isn't life a school? Aren't we supposed to learn our (karmic) lessons here?" CWG says no to that twice. "Life is not a process of discovery, but a process of (re-) creation." We create life anew in every moment of the Now, and we already know everything - no need to learn, therefore, but just to remember what we already know and have forgotten (see the part on the 'Cosmology'). How can we remember Who We Are? By choosing to be What We Are, which is to say: by (re-) creating our selves... Another good way to remember is to cause another to remember. And because there is no 'other' you have indeed caused yourself to remember! ["That which you wish for yourself, give to another."]
D. Suffering and Pain
"Pain is a result of judgment." (Bk. I, p.37) In the moment when we understand that nothing is real, pain disappears. Suffering is, according to CWG, "unnecessary": it has nothing to do with events but with one's reaction to them. Could we experience the sufferings of others as our own suffering, suffering on this planet would disappear. (Bk. II, p.52) There are no victims and villains, only co-creators. Since God does not judge, everyone goes to Heaven, including people like Hitler or Milosevic. Everything else would limit God's expression of his Unconditional Love to us. The so-called "Hitler-experience" is discussed at length in Book II (pp.35ff.) In summary, it is said that (a) nobody does anything inappropriate given their model of the world, (b) there is no "sin", but there are 'mistakes' that can be corrected, (c) no harm was caused to anybody (in Ultimate Reality, death is an illusion). Of course this doesn't "endorse" anything that Hitler did, in the contrary, it is up to us to decide Who We Are and Who We Want To Be with respect to the Holocaust experience and history.
E. To Do or to Be
In our society, many of us define themselves by what they are 'doing'. "How are you doing?" and "What are you doing?" are frequent questions. However, CWG points out that our lives are not at all about What We Are Doing but What and Who We Are Being. In fact, it says, we have it the 'wrong way around': we think that we have to 'do things' in order to 'be something'. Typically, e.g., to earn money, to work a job, in order to be happy. CWG says, it's just the other way around: When we come from Beingness, Doingness follows. If we declare ourselves to Be Happy, we will do things that express our happiness. And the point is that we don't have to do anything to Be what we declare ourselves to Be. [Remember: "There is nothing we have to do."] But out of our Beingness, Doingness will spring [[unless, of course, it doesn't, and that's perfect, too]]. And it will be a true reflection, for everyone else to know, of Who We Really Are.
F. The two only questions that matter
If someone asks you 'What guidelines does CWG give to live your life?' the correct answer would be 'none': there are no 'guidelines' imposed by God on our lives, since this would reduce our free will. However, if we say that we choose our highest expression in every instant of our life, what then can we use as our guidelines? I think, these two simple questions will do:
1. Who Am I - in relationship to the experience I currently have?
2. What would Love do now?
Both questions are not necessarily easy to answer - unless they are, of course. But listening to our soul, to the feelings we have when we ask them to ourselves, will help. We have to remember that, according to CWG, there are no questions for which we don't have the answers in our selves. We only have to listen... "You have to realize that the answer to every question you ever might have has already been given to you!" says God.