John Denver sang "You can talk to God and listen to the casual reply," in his song "Rocky Mountain High." Neale Donald Walsch wrote an angry letter to God, asking why his life was, basically, in such rotten straits. He got a casual reply.

To my surprise, as I scribbled out the last of my bitter, unanswerable questions and prepared to toss my pen aside, my hand remained poised over the paper, as if held there by some invisible force. Abruptly, the pen began moving on its own. I had no idea what I was about to write, but an idea seemed to be coming, so I decided to flow with it. Out came...

Do you really want an answer to all these questions, or are you just venting?

It was a reply that was the beginning of several years of definitely not-so-casual conversations, which became these two books and a third which I haven't been able to get. I hesitated about reading these books, thinking they would be traditional 'God is great, God is good, and we only have to give our lives up to him and Jesus' type of stories. But when one of the ministers at the spiritual church I've been attending in Denver announced a discussion group on Walsch's books, I got intrigued.

I found them hard to put down and mind-bending. Walsch asks questions.

God replies. More than once, Walsch asks what if all these thoughts and ideas are merely products of his own imagination rather than actually God talking. God replies, "What would be the difference? ... You will know these words are from Me because you, of your own accord, have never spoken so clearly." We've all heard frequently that we need to listen to a "still, small voice" within. Indeed, what is the difference?

When asked to whom does God communicate, the Answerer replies (at times, I will use the term "Answerer" in place of "God" in this article, because I believe the word "God" can have strong negative meanings):

Many people choose to believe that God communicates in special ways and only with special people. This removes the mass of the people from responsibility for hearing My message, much less receiving it (which is another matter), and allows them to take someone else's word for everything....By listening to what other people thing they heard Me say, you don't have to think at all...It is far safer and much easier to accept the interpretation of others (even others who have lived 2,000 years ago) than seek to interpret the message you may very well be receiving in this moment now.

Walsch then asks why do some (Christ, for example) seem to hear God's communication better than others. The reply:

They are willing to hear, and they are willing to remain open to the communication even when it seems scary, or crazy, or downright wrong.

Walsch: We should listen to God even when what's being said seems wrong?

Especially when it seems wrong. If you think you are right about everything, who needs to talk with God? ... The only way to move forward on this is to ask yourself, "What would happen if everything I thought was 'wrong' was actually 'right'?"...[A]ll great discoveries have been made from a willingness, and ability, to not be right....You cannot hear God until you've stopped thinking that you've already heard God... I cannot tell you My Truth until you stop telling Me yours. When Walsch wonders what are authoritative sources for God's truth, the Answerer's response is to look to yourself:

Listen to your feelings. Listen to your Highest Thoughts. Listen to your experience. Whenever any one of these differ from what you've been told by your teachers, or read in your books, forget the words. Words are the least reliable purveyor of Truth.

To continue, Walsch asks why doesn't God reveal God's self in an incontrovertible way that no one could deny. The reply, I feel, is as revealing of the Source/Creator/God as it is of fallacies in various religions:

This would be impossible, for I have no form or shape you understand. I could adopt a form or shape that you could understand, but then everyone would assume that what they have seen is the one and only form and shape of God, rather than a form or shape of God-one of many. ...[W]hen I come in one particular form or another-a form in which I think people can understand Me-people assign Me that form forevermore.

And should I come in any other form, to any other people, the first say I did not appear to the second, because I did not look to the second as I did to the first, nor say the same things-so how could it have been Me? You see, then, it matters not in what form or in what manner I reveal Myself-whatever manner I choose and whatever form I take, none will be incontrovertible.

That is exactly how these books will be taken: some will believe they are truly the new Words of God; others will believe they are utterly false and full of blasphemy. And the two ends, joined by a wide range of degrees of belief or disbelief, may never agree.

Walsch wants to know why prayers don't seem to get answered and asked, "Are You saying that praying for something actually pushes it away from us?" The reply and the explanation gave me a new insight, one not generally thought about in the practice of praying:

You will not have that for which you ask, nor can you have anything you want. This is because your very request is a statement of lack, and your saying you want a thing only works to produce that precise experience-wanting-in your reality.

The correct prayer is therefore never a prayer of supplication, but a prayer of gratitude.

When you thank God in advance for that which you choose to experience in your reality, you, in effect, acknowledge that it is there...in effect. Thankfulness is thus the most powerful statement to God; an affirmation that even before you ask, I have answered. However, the reply goes on to say that if you don't believe--in truth--that what you are grateful for is there in "your present reality, you can't expect God to be less clear than you, and so produce it for you." But Walsch persists. "How can I be truly grateful for something I know is not there?" The reply is with faith. It has been promised, and so it will be, if one believes that it is. Seemingly unanswered prayers are explained like this:

If, therefore, you beg and supplicate, there seems a much smaller chance that you will experience what you think you are choosing, because the Sponsoring Thought behind every supplication is that you do not have now what you wish. That Sponsoring Thought becomes your reality.

In a broader aspect, Walsh wants to know what our life's purpose was here on earth, if we are indeed pieces of God-spirit (as explained by the Answerer):

There is only one purpose for all of life, and that is for you and all that lives to experience fullest glory...The deepest secret is that life is not a process of discovery, but a process of creation. Walsch asks the question that so many people ponder, why is the world the way it is, full of people experiencing hurt in one way or another?

Illness and disease are opposites of health and wellness, and are made manifest in your reality at your behest. You cannot be ill without at some level causing yourself to be, and you can be well again in a moment by simply deciding to be. Deep personal disappointments are responses which are chosen, and worldwide calamities are the result of worldwide consciousness.

...I do not will these things into being; I merely observe you doing so. And I do nothing to stop them, because to do so would be to thwart your will. That, in turn, would deprive you of the God experience, which is the experience you and I have chosen together....

There is only one reason to do anything: as a statement to the universe of Who You Are...You use life to create your Self as Who You Are, and Who You've Always Wanted to Be.

There are discussions of "hell," "good," "right," "wrong," and why would "good" behavior need to be coerced by threats. The Answerer lists the perfect laws of the Universe, and how we can re-member them by going within as much as possible, by being still and releasing concern for the outer reality. There are discussions of the earth's environment, government's social policies, and war/peace. The Answerer believes that working toward solutions begins by each person choosing to "simply want nothing. Have preferences, but no needs...In terms of geopolitics, why not work together as a world to meet the most basic needs of everyone?"

When told that we're trying, the answer is abrupt and clear:

After all these thousands of years of human history, that's the most you can say? The fact is, you have barely evolved at all. You still operate in a primitive "every man for himself" mentality.

You plunder the Earth, rape her of her resources, exploit her people, and systematically disenfranchise those who disagree with you for doing all of this, calling them the "radicals."

You do all this for your own selfish purposes, because you've developed a lifestyle that you cannot maintain any other way.

You must cut down millions of acres of trees each year or you won't be able to have your Sunday paper...You must pollute your rivers and streams beyond repair or you cannot have your industries to give you Bigger, Better, and More. And you must exploit the least among you-the least advantaged, the least educated, the least aware-or you cannot live at the top of the human scale in unheard-of (and unnecessary) luxury. Finally, you must deny that you are doing, this, or you cannot live with yourself.

That is one example of the Answerer's scathing denunciation of life as we are currently living it in the More-More-More circus. When asked by Walsch, how do we change it, the reply is:

A shift in consciousness...Indeed a global consciousness is what is required. Yet, how will that come about? Somebody has to start. The opportunity is here for you. You can be the source of this New Consciousness. You can be the inspiration. Indeed, you must be. Walsch replies, "I must?" and is answered, "Who else is there?"

Indeed, who else is there?

More than two years ago, the minister of the church I attended left for another congregation. His sermons were potent, interesting, and aggravating to a few, to the point where they left the congregation. I liked them, and I liked participating in discussions on various topics.

But I didn't begin reading a variety of spiritual/religious books until after he left. I began with Riane Eisler's The Chalice and the Blade and progressed from there in a journey of the spirit.

It turned out that members of the Spiritual Life Committee (of which I was one) ended up covering about six months of Sunday services after an interim minister didn't work out. By the time I took a turn at a sermon I had reached a new spiritual conclusion. I no longer wished to identify myself as a Christian, and I did not find the Bible an authoritative spiritual voice. And I said so to my "captive" audience.

Well, they didn't throw me off the committee, but I knew that church as it was no longer filled a need in my soul.

As I said earlier, I wasn't sure these books would be anything I'd want to read. Now, I keep going back to them and rereading sections. Why? Because the answers feel the closest to truth that I've come across yet. Many affirm what I had already come to believe. Others open my mind to greater possibilities. And I don't feel like I have been evangelized because the Answerer focuses on finding Self as part of the Universal Godself.

I have hardly touched the on the many thoughts encompassed in these books, and again found it difficult to choose among many passages that spoke to my heart. Every time I would read a page, it would have something that was important. But space and time provide sufficient barriers.

I would like to end with the Answerer's final statement in book 2:

...[W]hy would I create you, give you the power to create, give you the freedom of choice to create what you wish to experience, then punish you forever for making the "wrong" choice? I tell you this: I would not do such a thing-and in that truth lies your freedom from the tyranny of God.

...The ecstasy of your union with Me is yours to know again. At the drop of a hat. At the feel of the wind on your face. At the sound of a cricket under diamond skies on a summer night....I am with you always, even unto the end of time. Your union with Me is complete-it always was, always is, and always will be. Go now, and make of your life a statement of this truth.

Cause your days and nights to be reflections of the highest idea within you. Allow your moments of Now to be filled with the spectacular ecstasy of god made manifest through you. Do it through the expression of your Love, eternal and unconditional, for all those whose lives you touch. Be a light unto the darkness, and curse it not.

Be a bringer of the light. You are that. So be it. So may your path lie within the realm of Truth and bring its light to those around you.

Cherie Staples