Conversations with God (CWG) is a sequence of books written by Neale Donald Walsch. It was written as a dialogue in which Walsch asks questions and God answers. The first book of the Conversations with God series, Conversations with God, Book 1: An Uncommon Dialogue, was published in 1995 and became a publishing phenomenon, staying on The New York Times Best Sellers List for 137 weeks. In an interview with Larry King, Walsch described the inception of the books as follows: at a low period in his life, Walsch wrote an angry letter to God asking questions about why his life wasn't working. After writing down all of his questions, he heard a voice over his right shoulder say: "Do you really want an answer to all these questions or are you just venting?" When Walsch turned around, he saw no one there, yet Walsch felt answers to his questions filling his mind and decided to write them down. The ensuing automatic writing became the Conversations with God books. When asked in a recent interview how he opens up to God, Neale stated, "I am reaching out to touch others with this information. When I reach out and touch others with this information, I reconnect immediately with the divine presence."

Basis of the dialogue

The series contains nearly three thousand pages of material. The second and third books in the trilogy deal with political and social issues.

Themes

In Friendship with God, Walsch writes that God presents four concepts that are central to the entire dialogue: Existence is essentially non-dual in nature. At the highest level, there is no separation between anything, and there is only one of us; there is only God, and everything is God. The second statement, following from the first, means that we, in this seeming existence, lack nothing, and if we choose to realize it, we have enough of whatever we think we need (or the means to create it) within us. The third statement combines the first two to conclude that God, being all there is and is thus always sufficient unto itself, has no need for anything and therefore has no requirements of humanity. The final concept puts an end to our need always to be correct. Given that we have and are everything, and there's nothing we have to do, there is an infinite number of ways to experience this, not just the one way we may have chosen so far. According to the books, God recommends many economic and social changes if people want to make a more functional, adaptable, and sustainable world. The books recommend that more attention should focus on the environment. The conversations also speak of reincarnation and the existence of life on other planets.

God's motive for creation

In Walsch's first dialogue, God notes that "knowing" and "experiencing" oneself are different things. Before creation, there was only That-Which-Is, which cannot know or experience itself fully without something it is not. It cannot know itself as love since nothing exists but love. It cannot know itself as giving since nothing else exists to give to. It cannot experience itself in myriad ways because everything is one. In Walsch's viewpoint, this present creation is established by and within God so that sentience can exist, which does not directly remember its true nature as God. Split into infinite forms, all life can live, experience, and recreate its nature as God, rather than "know" itself as the creator in theory. It is essentially a game, entered into by agreement, to remember who and what we are and enjoy and create, knowing that ultimately there is no finish line that some will not reach, no understanding that is not without value, no act that does not add meaning to the future or for others. Walsch claims that God says that we have a common interest in keeping the game going. There is nothing else to do except to experience our existence and then experience more of it, to uncover deeper layers of truth and understanding. There are no external rules because all experience is subjective and chosen. But within this, there are ways that people will gradually come to see their thoughts, words, and actions are either working or not working. A thing is either functional or dysfunctional, not right or wrong. These rememberings take place over "time" and can take hundreds and thousands of lifetimes.

Nature of the dialogue

Parallels in other belief systems

The dialogue presents many philosophical ideas that prominent Eastern and Western thinkers had already advanced earlier. Still, Walsch explains the information in language for modern readers and does not explicitly cite these philosophers. Walsch claims that he had never known most of these ideas before his revelatory experiences. Since the beginning of the series, and especially in the later volumes, Walsch and "God" acknowledge that most of the concepts presented are previously known to humanity but are profound enough to warrant being explored repeatedly and put into this cohesive, unified form. Since humanity is still mired in strife and conflict, there is value in their restatement. Fundamental parts of Walsch's writings are also mirrored within other well-known spiritual writings and traditions:

Complete title list of all CWG books

Source:

Dialogue Books series

The following are the ten books in the Conversations With God Dialogue Books series. Each of these books is a claimed transcript of dialogue between two beings, Neale Donald Walsch and "God", with the exception of Communion with God, which is written only by "God". Home With God, we are told, is the final book in this series of two-way written communication {see HwG page 308, "Our final conversation in public."}. In August 2016, however, Neale stumbled upon a "new and unexpected dialogue" continuing the original trilogy with a fourth installment released on March 27, 2017. The first three books in the series are often called the CwG trilogy. In 2005, the trilogy was re-released as one combined 'Gift Edition' book. This edition contains the entire text of the first three books with God's words in blue ink and Neale's in black ink, and features a combined 3-in-1 index at the back:

Supplementary titles

Additional texts

Supplemental material

Please see the Writings at Neale Donald Walsch.

Movie (2006)

A Conversations with God movie shows the author's experience and opened in theatres across the United States on October 27, 2006. Walsch is played by Henry Czerny in the film directed by Stephen Deutsch. The DVD version of the film was released on February 27, 2007.

Audiobook

Conversations with God books 1 and 2, and Communion with God, narrated by Ed Asner.