What God Wants: A Compelling Answer to Humanity's Biggest Question

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Overview

Be careful. This book is dangerous. It explores with startling freshness the most important question you could ever ask, and offers with breathtaking courage the most extraordinary answer you could ever imagine.

That answer is so theologically revolutionary and so spiritually empowering that it could change the course of human history. If embraced, it most certainly will change your life.

There are people and institutions in the world, long in place and long in power, that want neither of these outcomes to occur. They would rather that you put this book down right now.

It's up to you.

Product Details

  • ISBN-13: 9780743267144
  • Publisher: Atria Books
  • Publication date: 1/9/2006
  • Pages: 240
  • Sales rank: 295,310
  • Product dimensions: 4.90 (w) x 7.00 (h) x 0.70 (d)

Meet the Author

Neale Donald Walsch devotes his

time to sharing the messages of his books through writing, lecturing, and facilitating spiritual renewal retreats. The creator of the School of the New Spirituality and founder of The Group of 1000, a nonprofit organization supporting global spiritual awakening, he lives in Ashland, Oregon, and may be contacted through www.nealedonaldwalsch.com.

Read an Excerpt

1.

Very few people will be able to believe what's in this book.

At least, at first.

That may make it one of the most unbelievable books of all time.

Copyright (c) 2005 by Neale Donald Walsch

2.

This book answers the most important question in human history.

What does God want?

For many people that answer will be startling.

Even for those who aren't completely surprised, the answer will be dramatically different. It will not even come close to the ideas that people usually hear about God.

Humanity's ideas about God produce humanity's ideas about life and about people. Dramatically different ideas about God will produce dramatically different ideas about life and about people. If the world could use anything right now, that's it.

We stand today on the brink of a global cultural war. The opening volleys have already been exchanged. The really major clashes, the unthinkable Future World battles, may be yet to come.

Given the direction in which humanity appears to be moving, it may seem as though this larger conflict is inevitable. It isn't. There's something very powerful that can stop it: dramatically different ideas about God and dramatically different ideas about life and about people.

Such ideas, if accepted and adopted, will produce dramatically different ways of living and being. Values will change. Priorities will change. Power structures and power holders will change.

Some of those power holders do not want any of this to happen.

That may make this not only one of the most unbelievable books of all time, but also one of the most dangerous.

Copyright (c) 2005 by Neale Donald Walsch

3.

How long has it been since you've read a dangerous book?

You'll be in and out of this one in very little time. It's a short book. So it's not only dangerous, it's fast.

Fast and dangerous. That's often a fascinating combination. Maybe even a little exciting. Danger and excitement are two sides of the same coin. Which of the two you experience depends on whether you're racing toward something or away from it.

Which way are you racing with regard to change? Do you want things to remain pretty much the same, or do you want things to be different?

If you want things to stay the way they are, you could find this book dangerous. If you can't wait for things to change, you could find it exciting. Which do you want?

"Well," you might say, "that depends on what we're talking about here. Are we talking about my life? My job? My marriage? My relationship? My health? Or are we talking about my country? The world at large? The international political scene? The global challenges being faced by humanity?"

So let me help you with that. We're talking about all of it. Every bit of it. Not one thing or the other, but all of it. Because the information in this book could change all of it.

Change can be a dangerous thing to suggest, not only around people of power (to whom change is the ultimate threat) but also around ordinary people (for whom change is threatening simply because it leads to the unknown).

Former U.S. vice president Al Gore had it exactly right in a September 2004 interview in the New Yorker:

"In a world of disconcerting change, when large and complex forces threaten familiar and comfortable guideposts, the natural impulse is to grab hold of the tree trunk that seems to have the deepest roots and hold on for dear life and never question the possibility that it's not going to be the source of your salvation."

The final part of that sentence (italics mine) tells the tale of humanity's belief about God and life in fifteen words. Mr. Gore confirms this with his next statement. "And the deepest roots," he says, "are in philosophical and religious traditions that go way back."

Al Gore's insight leaves us all facing a thunderous question: Is the way forward to be found by going way back?

The answer is no.

And while, as the former vice president notes, we never question the possibility that our philosophical and religious traditions are not going to be the source of our salvation—presumably because we feel threatened by such questioning—could there be times when not to question those traditions presents an even larger threat?

The answer is yes. And this is one of those times.

The biggest danger in the world today is not the asking of questions but the assumption that we have all the answers; not the invitation to change but the tendency to run from change; not dramatically new ideas about God and about Life but the same old ideas.

If some of those old ideas continue to be embraced, life as the human race now knows it may not survive the first half of the twenty-first century. The way things are going, it may not even survive the first quarter.

I know, I know, that sounds like an exaggeration.

It's not.

Pick up the morning paper. Turn on CNN.

In the years immediately ahead the human race could make a dramatic upward jump in its evolutionary process, or it could fall back, staggering and stumbling and ultimately crumbling under the weight of its own past misunderstandings.

It's happened before.

It is what can occur when the technological advancement of a species races ahead of its moral, ethical, and spiritual development. Then what the universe has to deal with is children playing with matches.

These days, that's us.

The human race is in the childhood of its evolution. There's nothing wrong with that. Childhood can be a wonderful time. But it's also a time when great care must be taken.

If we watch what we are doing during our childhood—if, as author Robert Fulghum suggests, we look both ways before crossing, if we learn to share, if we hold hands and keep track of each other, if we walk and don't run, if we quit pushing and say we're sorry when we do, if we clean up our messes, and if we stop fighting with our brothers and sisters—we'll get to grow up, and our future can be spectacular.

I believe that's what will happen. I believe the future we're about to create is going to be so spectacular! But I also know it could turn out another way. And I know that if we don't start behaving, it very well might. Failure to acknowledge this is foolhardy. It's more than foolhardy. It's irresponsible. It's what a child would do.

Most people want to believe that humanity is indestructible, that our species cannot be eradicated or eliminated or negatively impacted in any truly widespread or nonreversible way by anyone or anything.

In view of recent world events, this seems to suggest that most people are willing to believe the unbelievable. And that brings up an interesting question. If people are willing to believe the unbelievable, why not believe what's in this book?

Copyright (c) 2005 by Neale Donald Walsch

4.

Many people will simply be afraid to believe what's in this book.

A dramatically different idea is going to be presented here just 12,108 words from now. So opposed to this idea is the established order that, in some countries, if you said aloud the things that are in this book, you could be killed.

Not by an angry mob.

By the government.

You could be accused of committing a crime against the laws of the land, and sentenced to death. In other countries, while you might not be killed, you could be criticized, vilified, and ostracized. You could also be removed from any place of influence you might hold, and your views would almost certainly be marginalized.

Yes, that's how dangerous what is written here is.

Clearly, What God Wants is not unimportant information. It's so important, in fact, that the words are presented in initial caps and italic type wherever the term is used throughout this book. I wanted those words to stand out, so that they make a point in and of themselves.

You see, millions of people all over the world have been living their lives based on the information they have been given about What God Wants, and if the world's prior information on this topic is inaccurate, the world could be in big trouble.

Copyright (c) 2005 by Neale Donald Walsch

5.

The world's prior information on this topic is inaccurate.

The world is in big trouble.

Copyright (c) 2005 by Neale Donald Walsch

6.

The world does not have to be in big trouble. It is because it chooses to be. Its people could make a different choice.

I think that very soon they will. I think people have had enough. They've had enough of the violence and the terror and the killing. They've had enough of the bickering and the quarreling and the fighting that leads to it.

They've had enough of their own lives not working, of seeing their own relationships falling apart, of watching their own careers crumble, of having their own dreams dissolve and disappear.

They've had enough of everything being such a struggle in our world, with every day filling itself with adversity and difficulty all over the globe. They've had enough of human society taking two steps forward and one step back, constantly, constantly, constantly trudging into the wind.

The human race is losing patience with itself. I think people are saying, "There's got to be another way." We're becoming more and more clear that there is. We simply have to make that choice.

Sometimes people think they must live the way they are living because they have no choice. The appearance of things can often make it look as though this is very, very real. But it is never real. Never.

People do have a choice, and this book is going to prove that to you. People have a choice in the life they are creating, and they have a choice in how they are experiencing the life they are now living. Before you get to the final page here, you're going to be given the most powerful tool there is with which to make your choices real. For now, know this: People who make a different choice are people who make a different world.

It is time now for the Choice Makers to step forward. If they do not, the world will continue moving in the direction in which it is moving. That is not a direction in which humanity says it wishes to go. Yet what is humanity willing to do about that? This is the question now before the world.

If humanity's highest idea about the direction that it wishes to take is not asserted now, its lowest idea could be embraced by default. That is what is happening at this moment in some people's minds in many parts of the world.

There are those who say that this is how it is because this is how it has to be. These are, they say, the End Times—and this is What God Wants.

Yet people can be saved, they say. People do not have to be Left Behind. When the Tribulation is at hand, people can be saved. All they have to do is finally accept the Good News.

Well, have I got good news for you.

Humanity does not understand What God Wants.

Copyright (c) 2005 by Neale Donald Walsch

7.

Consider this: If humanity does understand What God Wants, and if the present world situation is the best that

humanity can do after all these years with that information, how much hope can there be for a brighter tomorrow?

If we really know everything that it is truly important to know about God—and if all that has been revealed, all that has been taught, all that has been said and sung, about God has brought humanity to this, then what good has all of it been?

Yet if there is something new for us to learn, something more for us to understand about God, then it's still possible for the human condition to change. Hope returns. Not hope for something better in the Hereafter, when life as we've known it on the earth has been destroyed, but hope for something better right here right now, before everything has been destroyed.

That hope cannot be realized, however, until some very important questions are asked and answered.

Is it true that humanity is utterly stubborn, completely unwilling and absolutely unable to overcome its most primitive instincts? Or is it possible that there is still some teaching left to be done, some data still missing, some important aspect of God and Life still not understood?

Could it be that the problem is not with the receivers of the information, but with the information itself?

Could it be that humanity's understanding of God and of Life is not so much "wrong" as it is simply incomplete?

Finally, is it time for humanity to throw open the door of inquiry about God in a new way?

For far too long the world's discussion about God has been moving in only one direction, led in the main by those who say that we understand all there is that's really important for us to understand about God, and who assert that humanity's problems are not caused by human beings who fail to understand, but by human beings who fail to act on their understanding.

This is a popular notion, but it's a misconception. Just the opposite has been true. It has been people who did act on what they understood about God who have caused many of our biggest problems.

These are people who thought they knew What God Wants.

It's people who thought they knew What God Wants who created the 200 years of the Christian Crusades and the horrors of the Inquisition, seeking to win the world for Christianity.

It's people who thought they knew What God Wants who told armies of Muslims to send marauders far and wide to conquer every land and culture and bring it under the Nation of Islam.

It's people who thought they knew What God Wants who called themselves the Chosen People and reclaimed land they declared to be originally their own, ignoring the fact that history had caused it to be inhabited for thousands of years by others, and telling those others to now leave portions of that land, and to live where and how they are told to live, as second-class citizens without equal rights in their own home.

It's people who thought they knew What God Wants who hanged men and women in town squares, and burned others at the stake, holding up the Good Book and declaring them to be witches.

It's people who thought they knew What God Wants who passed laws making it illegal for humans of differing races to marry, or for consenting adults to engage in certain sexual practices.

It's people who thought they knew What God Wants who created cultural prohibitions forbidding people to sing or dance, draw pictures of any person, or play music of any kind except sacred songs.

It's people who thought they knew What God Wants who said that it was not okay to even utter or write the name of G-D—but that it was okay to kill in G-D's name.

Is all of this really What God Wants?

Are you sure?

It is important to be sure, because we're not talking about a small thing here.

There is much that we have been taught about What God Wants. Are these teachings accurate? Let's take a look.

Copyright (c) 2005 by Neale Donald Walsch

First Chapter

1.

Very few people will be able to believe what's in this book.

At least, at first.

That may make it one of the most unbelievable books of all time.

Copyright (c) 2005 by Neale Donald Walsch

2.

This book answers the most important question in human history.

What does God want?

For many people that answer will be startling.

Even for those who aren't completely surprised, the answer will be dramatically different. It will not even come close to the ideas that people usually hear about God.

Humanity's ideas about God produce humanity's ideas about life and about people. Dramatically different ideas about God will produce dramatically different ideas about life and about people. If the world could use anything right now, that's it.

We stand today on the brink of a global cultural war. The opening volleys have already been exchanged. The really major clashes, the unthinkable Future World battles, may be yet to come.

Given the direction in which humanity appears to be moving, it may seem as though this larger conflict is inevitable. It isn't. There's something very powerful that can stop it: dramatically different ideas about God and dramatically different ideas about life and about people.

Such ideas, if accepted and adopted, will produce dramatically different ways of living and being. Values will change. Priorities will change. Power structures and power holders will change.

Some of those power holders do not want any of this to happen.

That may make this not only one of the most unbelievable books of all time, but also one of the most dangerous.

Copyright (c)2005 by Neale Donald Walsch

3.

How long has it been since you've read a dangerous book?

You'll be in and out of this one in very little time. It's a short book. So it's not only dangerous, it's fast.

Fast and dangerous. That's often a fascinating combination. Maybe even a little exciting. Danger and excitement are two sides of the same coin. Which of the two you experience depends on whether you're racing toward something or away from it.

Which way are you racing with regard to change? Do you want things to remain pretty much the same, or do you want things to be different?

If you want things to stay the way they are, you could find this book dangerous. If you can't wait for things to change, you could find it exciting. Which do you want?

"Well," you might say, "that depends on what we're talking about here. Are we talking about my life? My job? My marriage? My relationship? My health? Or are we talking about my country? The world at large? The international political scene? The global challenges being faced by humanity?"

So let me help you with that. We're talking about all of it. Every bit of it. Not one thing or the other, but all of it. Because the information in this book could change all of it.

Change can be a dangerous thing to suggest, not only around people of power (to whom change is the ultimate threat) but also around ordinary people (for whom change is threatening simply because it leads to the unknown).

Former U.S. vice president Al Gore had it exactly right in a September 2004 interview in the New Yorker:

"In a world of disconcerting change, when large and complex forces threaten familiar and comfortable guideposts, the natural impulse is to grab hold of the tree trunk that seems to have the deepest roots and hold on for dear life and never question the possibility that it's not going to be the source of your salvation."

The final part of that sentence (italics mine) tells the tale of humanity's belief about God and life in fifteen words. Mr. Gore confirms this with his next statement. "And the deepest roots," he says, "are in philosophical and religious traditions that go way back."

Al Gore's insight leaves us all facing a thunderous question: Is the way forward to be found by going way back?

The answer is no.

And while, as the former vice president notes, we never question the possibility that our philosophical and religious traditions are not going to be the source of our salvation--presumably because we feel threatened by such questioning--could there be times when not to question those traditions presents an even larger threat?

The answer is yes. And this is one of those times.

The biggest danger in the world today is not the asking of questions but the assumption that we have all the answers; not the invitation to change but the tendency to run from change; not dramatically new ideas about God and about Life but the same old ideas.

If some of those old ideas continue to be embraced, life as the human race now knows it may not survive the first half of the twenty-first century. The way things are going, it may not even survive the first quarter.

I know, I know, that sounds like an exaggeration.

It's not.

Pick up the morning paper. Turn on CNN.

In the years immediately ahead the human race could make a dramatic upward jump in its evolutionary process, or it could fall back, staggering and stumbling and ultimately crumbling under the weight of its own past misunderstandings.

It's happened before.

It is what can occur when the technological advancement of a species races ahead of its moral, ethical, and spiritual development. Then what the universe has to deal with is children playing with matches.

These days, that's us.

The human race is in the childhood of its evolution. There's nothing wrong with that. Childhood can be a wonderful time. But it's also a time when great care must be taken.

If we watch what we are doing during our childhood--if, as author Robert Fulghum suggests, we look both ways before crossing, if we learn to share, if we hold hands and keep track of each other, if we walk and don't run, if we quit pushing and say we're sorry when we do, if we clean up our messes, and if we stop fighting with our brothers and sisters--we'll get to grow up, and our future can be spectacular.

I believe that's what will happen. I believe the future we're about to create is going to be so spectacular! But I also know it could turn out another way. And I know that if we don't start behaving, it very well might. Failure to acknowledge this is foolhardy. It's more than foolhardy. It's irresponsible. It's what a child would do.

Most people want to believe that humanity is indestructible, that our species cannot be eradicated or eliminated or negatively impacted in any truly widespread or nonreversible way by anyone or anything.

In view of recent world events, this seems to suggest that most people are willing to believe the unbelievable. And that brings up an interesting question. If people are willing to believe the unbelievable, why not believe what's in this book?

Copyright (c) 2005 by Neale Donald Walsch

4.

Many people will simply be afraid to believe what's in this book.

A dramatically different idea is going to be presented here just 12,108 words from now. So opposed to this idea is the established order that, in some countries, if you said aloud the things that are in this book, you could be killed.

Not by an angry mob.

By the government.

You could be accused of committing a crime against the laws of the land, and sentenced to death. In other countries, while you might not be killed, you could be criticized, vilified, and ostracized. You could also be removed from any place of influence you might hold, and your views would almost certainly be marginalized.

Yes, that's how dangerous what is written here is.

Clearly, What God Wants is not unimportant information. It's so important, in fact, that the words are presented in initial caps and italic type wherever the term is used throughout this book. I wanted those words to stand out, so that they make a point in and of themselves.

You see, millions of people all over the world have been living their lives based on the information they have been given about What God Wants, and if the world's prior information on this topic is inaccurate, the world could be in big trouble.

Copyright (c) 2005 by Neale Donald Walsch

5.

The world's prior information on this topic is inaccurate.

The world is in big trouble.

Copyright (c) 2005 by Neale Donald Walsch

6.

The world does not have to be in big trouble. It is because it chooses to be. Its people could make a different choice.

I think that very soon they will. I think people have had enough. They've had enough of the violence and the terror and the killing. They've had enough of the bickering and the quarreling and the fighting that leads to it.

They've had enough of their own lives not working, of seeing their own relationships falling apart, of watching their own careers crumble, of having their own dreams dissolve and disappear.

They've had enough of everything being such a struggle in our world, with every day filling itself with adversity and difficulty all over the globe. They've had enough of human society taking two steps forward and one step back, constantly, constantly, constantly trudging into the wind.

The human race is losing patience with itself. I think people are saying, "There's got to be another way." We're becoming more and more clear that there is. We simply have to make that choice.

Sometimes people think they must live the way they are living because they have no choice. The appearance of things can often make it look as though this is very, very real. But it is never real. Never.

People do have a choice, and this book is going to prove that to you. People have a choice in the life they are creating, and they have a choice in how they are experiencing the life they are now living. Before you get to the final page here, you're going to be given the most powerful tool there is with which to make your choices real. For now, know this: People who make a different choice are people who make a different world.

It is time now for the Choice Makers to step forward. If they do not, the world will continue moving in the direction in which it is moving. That is not a direction in which humanity says it wishes to go. Yet what is humanity willing to do about that? This is the question now before the world.

If humanity's highest idea about the direction that it wishes to take is not asserted now, its lowest idea could be embraced by default. That is what is happening at this moment in some people's minds in many parts of the world.

There are those who say that this is how it is because this is how it has to be. These are, they say, the End Times--and this is What God Wants.

Yet people can be saved, they say. People do not have to be Left Behind. When the Tribulation is at hand, people can be saved. All they have to do is finally accept the Good News.

Well, have I got good news for you.

Humanity does not understand What God Wants.

Copyright (c) 2005 by Neale Donald Walsch

7.

Consider this: If humanity does understand What God Wants, and if the present world situation is the best that

humanity can do after all these years with that information, how much hope can there be for a brighter tomorrow?

If we really know everything that it is truly important to know about God--and if all that has been revealed, all that has been taught, all that has been said and sung, about God has brought humanity to this, then what good has all of it been?

Yet if there is something new for us to learn, something more for us to understand about God, then it's still possible for the human condition to change. Hope returns. Not hope for something better in the Hereafter, when life as we've known it on the earth has been destroyed, but hope for something better right here right now, before everything has been destroyed.

That hope cannot be realized, however, until some very important questions are asked and answered.

Is it true that humanity is utterly stubborn, completely unwilling and absolutely unable to overcome its most primitive instincts? Or is it possible that there is still some teaching left to be done, some data still missing, some important aspect of God and Life still not understood?

Could it be that the problem is not with the receivers of the information, but with the information itself?

Could it be that humanity's understanding of God and of Life is not so much "wrong" as it is simply incomplete?

Finally, is it time for humanity to throw open the door of inquiry about God in a new way?

For far too long the world's discussion about God has been moving in only one direction, led in the main by those who say that we understand all there is that's really important for us to understand about God, and who assert that humanity's problems are not caused by human beings who fail to understand, but by human beings who fail to act on their understanding.

This is a popular notion, but it's a misconception. Just the opposite has been true. It has been people who did act on what they understood about God who have caused many of our biggest problems.

These are people who thought they knew What God Wants.

It's people who thought they knew What God Wants who created the 200 years of the Christian Crusades and the horrors of the Inquisition, seeking to win the world for Christianity.

It's people who thought they knew What God Wants who told armies of Muslims to send marauders far and wide to conquer every land and culture and bring it under the Nation of Islam.

It's people who thought they knew What God Wants who called themselves the Chosen People and reclaimed land they declared to be originally their own, ignoring the fact that history had caused it to be inhabited for thousands of years by others, and telling those others to now leave portions of that land, and to live where and how they are told to live, as second-class citizens without equal rights in their own home.

It's people who thought they knew What God Wants who hanged men and women in town squares, and burned others at the stake, holding up the Good Book and declaring them to be witches.

It's people who thought they knew What God Wants who passed laws making it illegal for humans of differing races to marry, or for consenting adults to engage in certain sexual practices.

It's people who thought they knew What God Wants who created cultural prohibitions forbidding people to sing or dance, draw pictures of any person, or play music of any kind except sacred songs.

It's people who thought they knew What God Wants who said that it was not okay to even utter or write the name of G-D--but that it was okay to kill in G-D's name.

Is all of this really What God Wants?

Are you sure?

It is important to be sure, because we're not talking about a small thing here.

There is much that we have been taught about What God Wants. Are these teachings accurate? Let's take a look.

Copyright (c) 2005 by Neale Donald Walsch

Customer Reviews

Average Rating 4.5
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See All Sort by: Showing 1 – 20 of 30 Customer Reviews
  • Anonymous

    Posted May 5, 2005

    dispels myths

    Great book that dispels the doomsday crazies!! This book will help you see why our world has been and is going in the wrong direction--perhaps it will help us rectify that and move us in a forward direction--I highly recommend this book.

    1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

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  • Anonymous

    Posted May 7, 2005

    ?????????

    Once again, I was reminded that humankind will never find peace as long as each religion defends THEIR definition of God as the right definition of GOD. We are all an a journey to a destination. Does it really matter which road we each take to get there? Or is the `route we take to get there¿ more important than the destination? Take a Religion Course in college and look at the world religions from the beginning of time until now and each seems to put our human ego on GOD and make God needy. How can that be? The God that is all powerful, loving, self contained, creative enough to have brought into existence all that is ¿ is powerless when it comes humans? Ahh, again Neale reminds us ¿ God doesn¿t want or need anything from us ¿ except our happiness. Too bad, we don¿t want to be happy ¿ we get more enjoyment out of the ego need to be right, to be powerful, to control others, because we find controlling others easier than controlling ourselves. If we want to make the world a better place, stop TALKING and start DOING. BE THE CHANGE YOU WANT TO SEE IN THE WORLD. ¿ BE the greatest version of the grandest vision you ever had about who you are. That isn¿t as tough as people make it ¿ people just need to think better of themselves and their capabilities.

    1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

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  • Anonymous

    Posted May 5, 2005

    Fresh Ideas for Old Problems

    Even people of faith have sometimes wondered why God seems conspicuously absent during times of turbulence and strife, which unfortunately, is now the case for our planet continually. Why doesn't God intervene on behalf of suffering humans now rather than later--at the time of our death, or the second coming, or whatever the sectarian plan of salvation preached to the world? Perhaps people have never considered that this divine 'hands-off' approach is the method or process by which mankind evolves . . . by learning to solve his own problems. As Einstein correctly pointed out, 'The significant problems we face cannot be solved with the same thinking that created them.' Walsch's emphasis in What God Wants is that humans create their reality, and therefore must take responsibility for that reality. But in order to change things for the better, we must first gain a new understanding of the deity called 'God.' Walsch attempts to reach a wider audience with this book, his most recent. The message is urgent for a world on the brink of utter annihilation. Change your ideas about God and humanity or perish by your own hands. Seen in this light, biblical prophecies are nothing more than self-fulfilling prophecies. It is a timely message for inquiring minds open to new ideas about spirituality. Close-minded, dogmatic people of any stripe are not likely to appreciate this reassuring and comforting message; nor are they likely to want others to read it either.

    1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

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  • Anonymous

    Posted April 4, 2005

    Fasten your seat belts... this truly IS a dangerous book!!!!

    Or exciting... it all depends on how you look at it. This book really is the BEST book Neale has written. It's short, fast, and clear. It provides stunning answers to the biggest question humanity can formulate. What is it, that God, our maker and creator, wants from us? Do we really know? Does any one of our conflicting religions know? Yes and no. Our knowledge is simply incomplete. To understand the answer, we must zoom out from a piece of the puzzle (a religion, for example), to the broader picture. Wanna take a ride?!? Detach yourself from your belief systems (however inclusive you think they are), open yourself up, fasten your seat belts, and get your insurance papers out before reading this book... and then read it, listen to what it says.... at the very least CONSIDER the possibility that it is true. I guarantee you, that no matter who you are, how many similar books you have read, or how much you think you know about the answer, you will be shocked (or enlightened) by the answer. The answer to the title, in Chapter 13, may make you feel empty... or full of new life and understanding and energized to change the world for the better...

    1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

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  • Anonymous

    Posted April 30, 2005

    Upsetting the applecart

    NDW, with crystal clarity, shows how our beliefs in what God wants have led the world to the sorry state it is in today. His words will upset many people - in particular those whose calcified beliefs are exactly the reason we need the wisdom revealed in this book.

    1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

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  • Anonymous

    Posted April 30, 2005

    This Should Be Required Reading!!!

    I found this to be very concise and thought provoking...even exciting in the possibilities it opens up if the reader is able to step away from their comfortable beliefs and consider the outstanding answer to the one question we all need to ask...What Does God Want? The current state of the world today is in need of brave souls who will do this. Are you one of them?

    1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

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  • Anonymous

    Posted May 1, 2005

    A Must Read for All of Us

    Neale explores thought provoking questions and provides possible answers sorely needed in these troubled times. The subject matter explored in this book is what we must explore if we are to survive as a species. It illustrates the beliefs we hold about life and God upon which our societies have been constructed upon for thousands of years. It demonstrates we are building a 21st century world on 1st century theology. In every other field of knowledge, our sciences, medicine and technologies we have permitted exploration. Can you image where we would be today if we had not done so? The process through which we create our cultural stories and collective realities, as explained in the book is over a period of many years. Passed from generation to generation through a three-step process: First, our elders give us information about God and about What God Wants that we widely embrace as true. Second, this information sponsors beliefs about life and how it is, as well as how it should be. And third, these beliefs produce behaviors within the human family that creates humanity¿s life experiences. It all starts with this original information and impacts all of us. Few of us ever choose to question it and are often intolerant of exploration. We have all experienced what happens when one person tells a story to another and that individual passes it on. By the time the story reaches the twenty-first person it¿s content is dynamically different. With each telling of the story further personal embellishments and, depending its content, ego investment is inevitable. Just image the impact the centuries of our theology story telling has had on its original message? Factor in our compulsion to control and manipulate each other and a powerful, persuasive case exist for motivation in creating major distortions.

    1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

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  • Anonymous

    Posted April 30, 2005

    What is everyone so afraid of?

    This book is not dangerous at all, except to those who fear the ability to think independently, ponder for themselves what it all means, stretch their souls to include new thoughts, decide for themselves what to think and how to live and love, question long established teachings that just might be extremely outdated, discuss what we might have missed along the way, listen to others and consider that they might have something of value to say also. But the saddest thing to me is that the thing that is feared most seems to be God (if you don't do it his way) and the point of the book is 'Which way would that be?' Thank you, God, for the freedom and joy of thinking and deciding for myself whether you even exist or not. That is real freedom. That is the true gift with no strings attached.

    1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

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  • Anonymous

    Posted May 3, 2005

    Excellent

    This is the sort of book that could change the world if enough open-minded people get access to it. Without the controversial dialogue of the previous books in the series, I expected this to be less controversial, but once again, this latest edition challenges those to examine their own viewpoint on life and on themselves. A powerful book that cannot fail to have a huge affect on whoever reads it. Definitely recommended by me.

    1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

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  • Anonymous

    Posted April 30, 2005

    Peace on Earth, Good Will Towards All

    The Christmas message, professed by Christians, is generally not practiced by Christians, Jews, Muslims or anyone. As Neale points out, the basic cause for most of the world's existing problems is that, through religion, we all use 'God' as the reason we can attack, kill and hurt anyone different than ourselves, whoever we may be. Each group sees itself as the 'right' or 'chosen' people. Anyone not from that group is 'them' and will be damned to eternal damnation. Well, if God can do that, then it's OK for us to do that too, right? The overall message of the book is that we are all ONE. One people intertwined with One God. There is no seperation between us or God. Neale does NOT put down religion; he is now adding to what we all know in our hearts to be true. For God's sake, we have no idea what's in our own oceans, how can we profess to know everything there is to know about God or Life? Maybe it is time we admitted we may not know everything there is to know about God. Maybe ... just maybe ... we are all equal brothers and sisters in His, Hers or It's eyes? Does it matter HOW you choose to honor God and Life? Does it matter which road you choose as long as it gets you there and you can assist others along the way? I know of a truly great Human Being who was put on a cross and killed because he said to love everyone as you want to be loved yourself. He also said that God's house should not be used as a place of business - he even upturned carts and created quite the scene. So ... He hit certain people in the wallet and up on a cross He went. Guess what? That is the reason religion today keeps us all seperate ... to keep the wallets as full as possible. Time to bring down the barriers while we celebrate our differences. God loves us all ... each and every one of us. Remember, He made us in His image, but we keep trying to do the reverse and turn Him into a selfish, temper-tantrum throwing, angry Human. God Bless and Love to All.

    1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

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  • Anonymous

    Posted May 2, 2005

    For the person who still fears God

    I have read enough of Neale's books to know that God wants nothing and that we are all one. This is a great small, quick read and yes it will upset the apple cart. Are you ready to let go and believe in a loving unconditional God? If you are still struggling with Good and Bad, Right and Wrong, get your hands on this author's books. Your life will never be the same and your heart does not lie!!!!

    1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

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  • Anonymous

    Posted April 30, 2005

    The Truth

    This books serves as confirmation for some deeply held truths that have been mine, for my entire life. I highly recommend this book for those seeking peace, comfort and a joy of living.

    1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

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  • Anonymous

    Posted May 2, 2005

    A most important book

    What God wants is a most compelling book to read, and gives jaw-dropping answers to the most important questions about God, humanity, and what is happening in the world today.This book is so important, I wish I could purchase hundreds of copies and give them all away! I highly recommend you pick up this book today.

    1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

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  • Anonymous

    Posted May 2, 2005

    with an open mind and a loving heart.

    Our world as we know it is in a state of crisis caused by our belief systems as well as human nature at it's worst. This book examines this, and has some very good solutions for our world in crisis, and hopefully in time to stop what we're doing to the environment, but more importantly what we're doing to one another in the name of 'god' or 'good vs evil' in a time where we can destroy humanity and our dear 'mother earth' with the touch of a button.

    1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

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  • Anonymous

    Posted May 1, 2005

    Want the Truth? Get it here!

    This is a book for our times! It is a message directly from GOD that makes eveything clear, when the BIBLE does not! It is a message from GOD that tells us who is his chosen and the answer might shock you! This is a book needed by every man and woman NOW!

    1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

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  • Anonymous

    Posted April 30, 2005

    Perfection

    This book is perfect! It is perfect because it asks a question that needs to be asked right here, right now. People have always professed to know what God wants--how arrogant! I love the way Neale has taken the largest question ever to be pondered, 'What God Wants,' and challenges us to think deeply about this question all the while war rages, poverty grows and freedom and liberty are no longer free. Religions from around the globe try to teach love yet for some reason only inspire what 'man wants.' I love sharing this book with my friends and my family. It has led to wonderful discussions about the important things in life. A college friend of my daughter wrote to me exclaiming that this book makes sense and is so very timely, exactly what he's been pondering himself! Once again, Neale, Thank you for encouraging us to 'journey well.'

    1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

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  • Posted April 23, 2011

    GREAT BOOK!

    Well said, Mr. Walsch!! This message needs to get out to all.

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  • Posted August 8, 2009

    I Also Recommend:

    What God Wants

    Nothing. That is the message of all of Walsch's writings and it is an inspiring one. All of the series, "Conversations With God", of which this is a part gives new voice to the words of all the holy books and saints the world has produced. In the series you find intelligence, compassion, understanding and love without the separation anxiety most of us have learned.
    Give this book and any other by Walsch a try. They are easy; even addictive to read and very satisfying.

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  • Posted March 16, 2009

    I Also Recommend:

    A GREAT WAY FOR NEW-COMERS TO CWG MATERIAL!!

    I had already owned a copy of this book and read it before I attended the author's annual ReCreating Your Self Retreat up in Oregon.

    He then recommended this book for those who were interested in delving into the Conversations with God material. So, I purchased another copy for my family and friends to start with.

    I would recommend this book to ALL PEOPLE, EVERYWHERE! Especially those looking to get into the CWG material afterward.

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  • Posted October 19, 2008

    I Also Recommend:

    IF YOU LET IT, THIS BOOK WILL CHANGE YOUR LIFE

    ARE YOU READY TO CARE ABOUT YOURSELF AND THE PRESENT REALITY OF ALL HUMANITY?
    ARE YOU WILLING TO PUT KINDNESS AND COMPASSION OVER YOUR ADDICTION TO ALWAYS BEING RIGHT?

    THIS BOOK QUESTIONS HOW HUMANITY IS GOING TO HEAL THE WORLD'S WOES BY OPPRESSION AND VIOLENCE.
    Our society is and does unspeakable things because we have been told that it's What God Wants.
    BUT WHAT IF IT ISN'T???????????
    We no longer have an excuse for treating our human family unfairly.
    Any harm we inflict on others we are only inflicting on ourselves.

    This book is a light in the darkness that will heal your soul and reveal to you how you are loved.
    It opens you to the truth that we are all one family.
    WE ARE ALL IN THIS TOGETHER. WE CAN NOT HAVE PEACE AND HARMONY BY FORCING ASSUMED OPPOSING FORCES TO BELIEVE EVERYTHING WE DO.

    Was this review helpful? Yes  No   Report this review
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