The Conversations with God Companion: The Essential Tool for Individual and Group Study

The Conversations with God Companion: The Essential Tool for Individual and Group Study

by Neale Donald Walsch
The Conversations with God Companion: The Essential Tool for Individual and Group Study

The Conversations with God Companion: The Essential Tool for Individual and Group Study

by Neale Donald Walsch

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Overview

The original 1997 publication, as a guidebook for Conversations with God, Book 1, had net sales of more than 140,000 copies. This new edition includes exercises and study questions for all three Conversations with God books.

Millions have read all three volumes of Conversations with God (over 7.5 million copies have sold worldwide in 37 languages). The Conversations with God Companion helps individuals and groups interactively experience the wisdom found in the books. Filled with exercises, assignments, and experiments, this new edition of the guidebook shows readers how to live the teachings that Walsch reveals in all of the books.


Product Details

ISBN-13: 9781612830742
Publisher: Hampton Roads Publishing Company, Inc.
Publication date: 05/22/2009
Sold by: Barnes & Noble
Format: eBook
Pages: 312
File size: 3 MB

About the Author

Neale Donald Walsch is a writer of internationally bestselling books on spirituality and personal development. His books have sold more than 7.5 million copies worldwide and have been translated into 37 languages. Walsch lives in Ashland, Oregon.

Read an Excerpt

THE CONVERSATIONS WITH GOD COMPANION

The Essential Tool for Individual and Group Study


By Neale Donald Walsch

Hampton Roads Publishing Company, Inc.

Copyright © 2009 Neale Donald Walsch
All rights reserved.
ISBN: 978-1-57174-604-7



CHAPTER 1

GOD NEVER SHUTS UP


I believe the charm and the wonder of Conversations with God is that it contains so many mind-expanding, paradigm-shifting, belief-challenging statements, yet has found a way to place these statements before us in a manner that is nonoffensive and even inviting.

The book opens, for instance, with what for some has long seemed a heresy: an announcement that God has never stopped talking to us.

As it happens, an enormous number of people believe God has stopped talking, and that He did so many, many years ago. These people believe that God hasn't said a word since. Not in Direct Revelation, at any rate. His full and final word, they say, is found in the scriptures.

What scriptures? Well, now that depends upon to whom one is speaking. Many say, the Bible. Others say, no, His word is found in the Hebrew Bible. Others say, no, His word is found in the Koran.

Others say, no, it's in the Torah.

Others say, no, in the Mishna.

Others say, the Talmud.

Others, the Bhagavad-Gita.

Others, the Rig Veda.

Others, the Brahmanas.

Others, the Upanishads.

Others, the Mahabharata and the Ramayana. Others, the Puranas.

Others, the Tantras.

Others, the Tao-te Ching.

Others, the Buddha-Dharma.

Others, the Dhammapada.

Others, the Master of Huai-nan.

Others, the Shih-chi.

Others, the Pali Canon.

Others, the Book of Mormon.

Others ...


Well, the point is, many people believe that Direct Revelation—that is, God speaking directly to humankind—has not occurred since the Holy Scriptures (with which they feel comfortable) were written.

And while few of those who cite these sources agree with each other theologically, many agree on one thing emphatically: their Word of God is THE Word of God; their way to paradise is THE way to paradise; their communication from Deity is THE communication from Deity.

By this measure, Conversations with God would have to be heresy, would by definition be blasphemy. Some of the adherents of the Old Books may not be clear about which old book contains the Truth, but they are clear that no new book does.

Surprisingly, even some of the newer, more theologically liberal movements deny even the possibility that God could be delivering new truth to anyone today through direct communication, and warn against such latter-day revelations.

And so, at its very beginning (indeed, by its very title) Conversations with God presents a challenge, upsets the apple cart, turns most present-day theology on its ear. Yet, interestingly, few people seem to have minded; few who have read CwG seem to have any quarrel with the possibility, at least, that God has revealed Himself once more through the written word.

Indeed, I'll go further. An astonishing number of people have come forward to say that they, too, have experienced such communications. And so it turns out that my conversation with God may not be such an "uncommon dialogue" after all.

Let's explore this opening thought and see how it relates to you.

The first major concept in CwG is that God is communicating with us all of the time; has always been communicating with us; has never stopped communicating with us; and will use whatever tool is at hand to continue that communication, both now and even forever more.

I talk to everyone. All the time. The question is not to whom do I talk, but who listens?

—Book 1, page 3

This, then, is our starting point in this experiential guide.

Concept #1

God is communicating with us all the time.

Let's now see if this is true for you. Let's look to your experience. Has there ever been a time when you felt inspired by God? Think about this. What would that look like? How would that feel? Is it possible that you have been touched by such inspiration and didn't even know it? Could it be that you have had just such an experience, and simply haven't called it that?

I remember an evening several years ago when I was having dinner with a lady friend at her home. A knock came at the door and it was my lady friend's sister, bursting in to announce that she was going to commit suicide. She was serious too. I talked her out of it.

It wasn't easy. It took most of the evening. I listened carefully, I talked a bit, I listened some more, I talked some more. When our dialogue was over and the sister had gone to the bathroom to wash her face and fix her makeup, my lady friend looked at me with astonished gratitude. "How did you know what to say?" she asked.

"I don't know," I remember replying. "I don't even know now what I did say."

Today I would answer that question differently. Today I would say, "God gave me the words. God spoke directly to your sister, through me."

I am willing to wager that most people can remember times when God spoke or acted through them. They may not have labeled it that, but they have definitely had the experience.

When my son Travis was around seven or eight, we shared an interesting experience. The family was at dinner when Travis suddenly jumped from the table and began racing around the house, his arms waving, his hands shaking wildly, his face covered with panic.

"What's the matter?" I shouted, but I immediately knew the answer. "Are you choking?" He flashed a look at me I will never forget. It not only said "Yes, Yes!" it also said, "Help me! DO SOMETHING."

Cursing myself for not having taken the Red Cross short course and learned the Heimlich Maneuver, I ran to him, put my left arm around his chest, held him in place, and slammed the middle of his upper back with the palm of my hand. I don't know what I thought I was doing. Dislodging something, I hoped.

It didn't work. Travis was shaking more violently, convulsing from lack of oxygen. His eyes, popping out now, again pierced through me with a message from deep inside his soul: YOU ARE MY ONLY HOPE.

I knew time was running out.

Now I am not a very big person, not a very strong person as men go. I've always been on the slight side, and I have never acquired much muscle. So I don't know how I got it into my head that I could even do what I did next.

Bending down and reaching for his ankles, I lifted Travis high into the air by his two feet, and held him there with one hand. Dangling him upside-down, I again thumped his back, this time quite hard, using the meat of my palm. Nothing. I did it again, very hard.

(It's not easy to hit your own child that way. You can never know how difficult until you have to do it. I remember thinking, "A bruise is better than death.")

There was a gawk! sound, and something—a huge chunk of some damned thing—popped out of Travis's mouth and flew across the room. I put my son down. He gasped for air. He was breathing again.

"Never mind," I heard my partner telling 91l, "It's okay. Everything's all right."

I realized as I looked at my son that I could have lost him. Right then. Right there. The other boys were at the table. "Yea, Dad!" they cheered. "Are you all right?" I asked Travis. "Yeah," he replied weakly. "Excuse me," I said, and went upstairs to my bedroom. I sat on the bed and cried.

Thank you, God. God, thank you for showing me the way. For giving me the strength.

Many of us have experienced moments such as this, moments in which we became a larger version of ourselves. I am convinced that in these moments God is talking to us; God is communicating with us; God is acting through us, showing us the way.

The first step in understanding that God is communicating with us always is knowing that God is communicating with us sometimes. If you can accept the latter, you can begin to see the possibility of the former.


Exercise

Remember a time when you were "larger" than your Self, when you did something you didn't know you could do or said something you didn't know you had it in you to say.

This doesn't have to be something earth-shattering, like saving someone's life or discovering the cure for cancer. It can be something as simple as solving a problem with which you or another has been beset, uttering a single sentence that suddenly makes things clear to someone who has been trapped in confusion, or coming up with a really good idea just when you needed one.

If you have had more than one such experience, pick the most striking one, the one that made the biggest impression on you. Share this now in your group—or, if you are doing this exercise alone, write this down in your Companion journal—answering the following questions:

What happened that "triggered" your move to a "larger space"?

What did you say or do that was "larger" than the "usual you"?

What did you feel after the experience was over?

What did you come to know or decide about yourself as a result?

Most people have experienced at least one such time in their life. If you cannot think of a single time in which you "showed up" larger than yourself, ask yourself the following questions, giving the group your answers or writing them in your journal.

1. What would it take for me to consider something I have said or done as something very special?

2. Is there anything I have ever done in my life that could fall into that category?

3. What stops me from being able to acknowledge myself for this?

4. Does self-acknowledgment of something special that I have done make my having done it "less special"?

5. Does God want us to be special? Is it okay to say so when we are?


Further Discussion:

Spiritual versus "practical" communication from God

Have you ever been walking down the street, and for no reason at all found yourself "covered with a feeling" that you could only describe as a "warning"—as if someone inside your head was shouting "look out!"? And have you ever had the experience, in that moment, of looking to your left or your right, only to see a truck coming, or an object falling, or some impending danger looming?

If you have, then you have experienced God talking to you.

Have you ever taken a test, or been given a "pop quiz," or been asked a question, on something you didn't think you knew—only to find the answer mysteriously on the tip of your tongue?

If you have, then you have experienced God talking to you.

Have you ever been deeply hurt, emotionally scarred or wounded, and cried out for an end to the pain, and found yourself in the next instant immersed in a pool of calm, peaceful serenity?

Have you ever been frightened—truly scared—and asked for protection, then to suddenly and almost magically feel impervious to harm, filled with the strength and courage to walk through any experience?

Have you ever faced an incredible dilemma, not knowing the "right" thing to do, only to find that as soon as you let go of your desperate mental struggle, the "right" course of action became immediately apparent to you?

If you have, then you have experienced God talking to you.

Perhaps you can accept that God does "talk" with us, or help us, along the way (or at least that God sends us "guardian angels" or "guides" who do so). Still, the concept of a God who speaks directly to you (much less through you) on theological matters may be a bit removed from your reality.

Yet if you can accept the former, how can you eliminate the latter? By what manner or means have you come to the determination that God will speak to you of day-to-day things, but not of theological things? Where have you gotten the idea that God suddenly shuts up when the questions get tough? Is it your thought that, while you may be worthy of a warning about a car careening around the corner, you are not worthy of being told the highest truths and the deepest secrets of the universe? And by what measure have you arrived at this assessment of your unworthiness?

Remarkably (and regrettably), many have come to it through organized religion. It is one of life's saddest ironies that the very institutions that are intended to bring us closer to God often push us farther away.

Perhaps the most striking paradox of many organized religions is that they ask you to believe in a God Who may be called upon at any time to help you meet life's most difficult challenges—but Who may not be called upon to help you answer life's most difficult questions.

Indeed, if you are asked where you come up with the answers to the difficult spiritual questions that confront you, and you reply, "Why, I receive all of my answers directly from God. God speaks to me directly," you might well be called a blasphemer. (That is, unless the people to whom you reveal this agree with the answers you have been "given"—in which case you may be called a prophet.)

Most religions ask you to accept their truth, not your own. In this I believe that most religions err. It has been made clear to me that in life the biggest choice you will ever make is the choice between your truth and the truth of another.


To pause and reflect

Experiment

Look to see how many times God is communicating with you this week.

Buy a small, pocket-sized spiral notebook. Use it to make a daily "log" of the communications you are receiving from God. Do not judge yourself in this. Do not tell yourself this "can't be happening" to you, or that it "isn't what it seems." Simply notice every time you feel you are receiving a communication from a higher source. Take out the notepad and mark down the date and the time.

Then relate in a few words the "message" you have received. Make a note of the form in which the message came to you. Was it a thought without pictures? Was it a picture in your mind? Was it something outside of your mind, in your exterior world? A magazine article that just "fell into your lap"? A song you heard, a movie you saw? Was it something someone said, at just the right moment, in just the right way? Was it a feeling that swept over you? Describe the form in which the message came.

Look to see if there is any increase in the number of these "messages" from the beginning of the week to the end. (Often, noticing the first few causes you to notice many more.)

When the week has passed, and you've completed your list, look over the entries, asking yourself these questions:

Do you believe these communications came directly from God? Do you think you are worthy to receive such communications?

Can you feel any difference between communications that seem to be coming from a higher source, and other thoughts and ideas that move through your head, or experiences which come to you? If so, how would you describe this difference?

What, if anything, does this tell you about life, and your conversations with God?


CHAPTER 1, SECTION 2

... AND NOTHING BUT THE TRUTH, SO HELP YOU GOD

In life, the biggest choice you will ever make is the choice between your truth and the truth of another.

And how can you know which truth is "truly" yours? Conversations with God says you can know by listening to what you are feeling. Feelings reside in the soul, and the soul is God-in-you. In this place is your truth, and it is in no other.


Concept #2

Feeling is the language of the Soul.

We spend most of our adult lives learning to trust our feelings. This is not surprising, since most of our growing up years were spent learning to ignore them.

Many people were told as children that feelings were not "good." It was not "good" to be angry and to show it. It was not "good" to feel jealous and to show it. It was not "good" to feel scared and to show it. It was not "good" even to feel too excited and to show it. It was not good, it was not good, it was not good.

If we ran into a room filled from head to toe with youthful exuberance, we were told to hold it down, to not interrupt, to keep still. If we stormed away hurt and angry, we were told to stop that right now, apologize this instant, never speak to elders that way again. If we laughed too loud or cried too long, spoke too soon or asked too much, we were made to know that we had somehow done something "wrong." We had not been "good."


(Continues...)

Excerpted from THE CONVERSATIONS WITH GOD COMPANION by Neale Donald Walsch. Copyright © 2009 Neale Donald Walsch. Excerpted by permission of Hampton Roads Publishing Company, Inc..
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.

Table of Contents

Contents


Acknowledgments,

Prologue,

Introduction,

CHAPTER ONE: God Never Shuts Up,

CHAPTER TWO: Who Is God?,

CHAPTER THREE: The Holy Triad,

CHAPTER FOUR: Stop Trying to Learn,

CHAPTER FIVE: How God Takes Command,

CHAPTER SIX: "Suffering Succotash!",

CHAPTER SEVEN: The Path of the Householder,

CHAPTER EIGHT: Relating to Relationship,

CHAPTER NINE: You Are the Truth,

CHAPTER TEN: Real Love Knows No Conditions,

CHAPTER ELEVEN: The Money Game,

CHAPTER TWELVE: Being versus Doing,

CHAPTER THIRTEEN: Just for the Health of It,

CHAPTER FOURTEEN: The Prayer That Never Ends,

CHAPTER FIFTEEN: Moving on to Book 2,

CHAPTER SIXTEEN: Discovering the Will of God,

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN: Changing Your Mind,

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN: Even This Will Pass Away,

CHAPTER NINETEEN: Creating Divinity,

CHAPTER TWENTY: Educating Our Young,

CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE: A Crisis of Caring,

CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO: Transparency as a Lifestyle,

CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE: Additional Inquiries—Book 2,

CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR: Moving Now to Book 3,

CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE: The Parable of the Rock,

CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX: God Will Never Forgive You,

CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN: The Question of Death,

CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT: About Promises—and Creation,

CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE: Highly Evolved Beings,

CHAPTER THIRTY: In Conclusion,

Index,

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