What if a near-fatal car accident, losing your job, and ending a relationship—all within ten days—wasn't the end, but the beginning of an incredible spiritual journey?
"Your life isn't about you but the lives you touch".
-Neale Donald Walsch
Join us as I sit down with best-selling author Neale Donald Walsh, who opens up about his life-altering experiences that led to a profound dialogue with God.
Neale's transformative story, marked by resilience and faith, has inspired millions worldwide, and in this episode, he shares how these trials became the catalyst for his series, "Conversations with God."
During our heartfelt conversation, Neale recounts the moment his manuscript was accepted for publication—a beacon of hope during his darkest days. He discusses the often paradoxical messages received during his divine conversations, which challenged societal norms and his personal beliefs. Despite facing accusations of blasphemy, Neale emphasizes the importance of personal authority in spiritual exploration, encouraging listeners to seek their own truths and discard what doesn't resonate with them.
We also delve into practical guidance from Neale's latest book, "God Talk," where he outlines a six-step process for connecting with the divine. Neale believes that everyone is in constant communication with God, often perceived as sudden insights or epiphanies. By embracing this connection and understanding our true spiritual nature, we can find profound fulfillment and purpose in our lives.
Don't miss this inspiring episode that highlights the unity of all existence and the transformative power of faith.
If you would like to contribute to keep receiving the best guests and content you can here:
What if a near-fatal car accident, losing your job, and ending a relationship—all within ten days—wasn't the end, but the beginning of an incredible spiritual journey?
"Your life isn't about you but the lives you touch".
-Neale Donald Walsch
Join us as I sit down with best-selling author Neale Donald Walsh, who opens up about his life-altering experiences that led to a profound dialogue with God.
Neale's transformative story, marked by resilience and faith, has inspired millions worldwide, and in this episode, he shares how these trials became the catalyst for his series, "Conversations with God."
During our heartfelt conversation, Neale recounts the moment his manuscript was accepted for publication—a beacon of hope during his darkest days. He discusses the often paradoxical messages received during his divine conversations, which challenged societal norms and his personal beliefs. Despite facing accusations of blasphemy, Neale emphasizes the importance of personal authority in spiritual exploration, encouraging listeners to seek their own truths and discard what doesn't resonate with them.
We also delve into practical guidance from Neale's latest book, "God Talk," where he outlines a six-step process for connecting with the divine. Neale believes that everyone is in constant communication with God, often perceived as sudden insights or epiphanies. By embracing this connection and understanding our true spiritual nature, we can find profound fulfillment and purpose in our lives.
Don't miss this inspiring episode that highlights the unity of all existence and the transformative power of faith.
If you would like to contribute to keep receiving the best guests and content you can here:
In this episode I speak with best-selling author Neil Donald Walsh of the book series Conversations with God. Neil's story is truly inspiring and has gone on to sell literally millions and millions of copies and turned into a movie as well. His latest book, god Talk, is teaching you how you can connect with your higher power. Stay tuned for a very uplifting and enlightening conversation.
Speaker 2:Welcome, Neil. Thank you, James. It's lovely to be here. How may I serve you?
Speaker 1:I think what's really beautiful how we could help the audience here is just to understand a little bit about what helped you become an author, what made you feel inspired to write in the first place, because there may be a few people who may not have come across your work and I'd really love to understand what made you begin your journey before writing this beautiful new book of yours. God Talk, because you've got a fantastic and interesting journey and story that I'm sure people would just love a little recap on.
Speaker 2:Well, james, I didn't sit down to become an author. I didn't say to myself one day, you know, I think I need to write a book or I want to do some writing. That's not how it happened with me. I was simply having a very what I presumed would always be a very private, personal, sacred experience. I was going through a very tough time in my life. Actually, james, it was interesting because within 10 days I lost my relationship, I lost my job and I lost my health All within 10 days. Regretfully, a marriage that I was in was coming to an end. We were congenial, we were not bitter with each other, we just realized it wasn't working. But we decided to part company. So, you know, that was kind of a defeat for me. But you know, I thought, okay, I can overcome this. But five days later I lost my job. The corporation I was working for needed to downsize and so I did not have the seniority. I was the most recent hire, so I was the first one to be let go. So now I lost my relationship and lost my job within the same five-day period. But wait, life wasn't done with me yet.
Speaker 2:I'm on the road to an interview for another job, which I was certain I was going to get because I had all the qualifications. I never got to the interview because I had all the qualifications. I never got to the interview. An elderly gentleman turned his car in front of me, made a left turn in front of me, smashed into my car, totaled my car and almost totaled me. I wound up with a broken neck and, of course, naturally, I was in the hospital and the doctor said to me you know, people who suffer this kind of a broken neck generally die or, if they don't die, the few who do survive wind up with being paralyzed from the waist, I mean from the neck down. He said you know, neil, you have suffered neither consequence. What do you intend to do with the rest of your life? Because you've been given a great gift and I thought wow the doctor saying that.
Speaker 2:Yes, because he wanted me to know that. You know, I was one of the very few people who could survive such an accident. Right, and he wanted so. He was just, you know, laying out right in front of me. But I couldn't get a job anywhere because I was wearing what they call in the United States a Philadelphia collar. It's a therapeutic device that holds your head up. It's a plastic device, and the doctor explained to me that you have no way to support your head because your neck has a three-quarter inch gap in it and it's going to take a long time for that to heal. But he didn't want to do surgery. He said it will heal itself, but you have to wear this device.
Speaker 2:James, I had to wear that collar around my neck for over a year and a half and it was no big deal. I said, okay, so I'm wearing a collar. It was no big deal, except no one would hire me. I would go to interviews and they would say you know what? We can't hire a person with such an obvious physical disability. One wrong move and you re-injure yourself and we're paying your hospital bills for the rest of your life. We can't come back and apply for a job here when you're healed, we'd hire you in a minute because you got all the qualifications. So I was out of work. I couldn't get a job anywhere. Nobody would hire me.
Speaker 2:I wound up running out of my savings after many months, and then I wound up being evicted by my landlord from the small apartment that I had rented when my marriage ended, and so he had to ask me to leave. Now I'm living on the sidewalk, james, on what's known in the United States as a street person. I'm living on the street, sleeping on the ground, going from person to person with my hand up, asking for whatever they might be able to spare so that I could maybe even eat that day. And you know the greatest indignity of all. You know I hate to talk about things like this, but when you're living on the street, where do you use the bathroom? You have to sneak into restaurants and hope that the manager doesn't throw you out when he sees you coming in, because you're obviously someone who's been on the sidewalk for a year with your hair down to the middle of your back, wearing the same clothes every time you walk in, and and I had to sneak into restaurants just to use the restroom. So then I realized, oh so I'm down to nothing. I'm down to one pair of shoes, two pair of jeans and a couple of shirts, and that's it. This is my, this is the totality of my, of my life, possessions.
Speaker 2:Finally, I got a little weekend job. Some guy had pity on me and hired me to do a weekend job filling in for one of his full-time employees. So I got a weekend job. I worked on Saturday and Sunday, just making barely enough money to afford a one-room apartment on top of somebody's garage. Somebody had remodeled their garage and put a little apartment, a little open studio, on top of the garage. But no complaints, I'm out of the weather. And guess what? It even had a bathroom. Wow, you talk about luxuries and so.
Speaker 2:But I woke up one night, james, I'm telling you this story so you know where I was coming from. I woke up one night after being in there about three or four months and I thought, okay, come on, come on, be fair with me. What have I done to deserve a life as such? One thing after another, after another, after another. I'm living in somebody's garage. I mean, come on, I can do better than this.
Speaker 2:What does it take to make life work and I had a yellow legal pad on the coffee table in front of the couch where I slept. There was no bedroom, it was a one-room place. You sleep on the couch, you sit on the couch, very spartan environment, but at least it was inside. Yeah, and I had this yellow legal patch. I started writing an angry letter to God. It's 2 30 in the morning. I woke up and you know, actually it's 4 20. I recall the time exactly. It was 4 23 in the morning and I started writing this angry letter to god. Dear god, what does it take to make life work and what have I done to deserve a life of such continuing struggle? I recall writing the words tell me the rules, I'll play. I'll play this game. Just give me the rules and stop changing them every third day, because, you know, I just didn't even understand how life was supposed to work.
Speaker 2:Then I heard a voice. I heard a voice that was so real. I thought there was someone in the room behind me, but in fact obviously there was no one there and I thought, oh great, and now, on top of everything else, I'm losing my mind. But the voice was then moved inside my head and it said very clearly. Neil, sweetheart, do you really want answers to all of these questions, or are you just venting? And I remember thinking yeah, you think I am venting, but if you've got answers, I'd sure as hell like to know what they are. And the voice said you are sure as hell, neil, about a lot of things, but wouldn't you rather be sure as heaven? And I'm writing on the illegal pad okay, what's that supposed to mean? God said take down everything. I'm going to tell you and if you have any questions after I finish, ask any questions you have. Tell you. And if you have any questions after I finish, ask any questions you have. And that became what is now known as the Conversations with God Dialogue.
Speaker 2:I never in a million years intended for anyone else to see it. I wasn't sitting down to write a book, but if you've read the book, you know that about a third of the way through this spontaneous dialogue I was having which, by the way, was going on morning after morning after morning, this went on for about two or three months. Every morning, around 4.23 in the morning, I would be awakened and so I'd rush back to the legal pad and continue, and about one third of the way through. I'm hearing a voice now say to me you will make of this one day a book and it will be accessed by many people. And I thought to myself no, I got you because you know, this is just my imagination, that nobody's going to publish them. No, no legitimate publisher is going to put a book up. Because the guy says it's talking to me you got to publish this stuff and that's's not going to happen. So I sent my notes to a publisher, just on a dare, just to dare God.
Speaker 2:A week and a half later, I get a call from this guy. He says we want to put your book out. I said you're kidding me. He said no, this is a great work of fiction. It's going to sell a lot of copies. I said hey, wait a minute, wait a minute. We're not publishing it as a fiction book. This is not fiction. This actually is happening to me. The guy said no, no, no, no really. I said yes, so, but thanks for the call. He said oh wait, don't hang up. Don't hang up, we'll publish it as a non-fiction book. He said it's not going to sell 500 copies. I mean it as a nonfiction book because people are going to believe that God is actually talking to you. Who do you think you are? The Pope or somebody? It's not going to happen. It's not going to be real, but it's fascinating enough. We'll publish it. But it's not going to sell 500 copies. And he was right, it didn't sell 500 copies, it sold 5 million.
Speaker 1:Sold 5 million copies.
Speaker 2:Not bragging, just saying. Just saying when God says this is what's going to happen, you probably want to believe her, yeah probably want to believe her.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so did that. Can I ask you, when they accepted that manuscript, what did that make you feel like? Because you know you, the position you were in wasn't necessarily the nicest environment. Yet you know someone somewhere wanted something that you were experiencing. So how did that make you feel in that moment, when it was almost as if life was giving you a hand, to say, hey, this is valuable.
Speaker 2:Well, you know, I didn't know. Honestly, I didn't know what to feel. I just felt kind of a gee, I wonder what this is really all about. I didn't, frankly, know what to feel, you know, because, number one, I was not given any advance, they just agreed to put the book out and he really didn't think it would sell that many copies. So I thought, well, you know, maybe I'll get a couple hundred bucks out of it, who knows? When all is said and done, so I didn't really have a lot of feeling about it, except that, isn't it interesting that some, an actual publisher, would want to put this stuff out into the world? Okay, fair, fair enough. So I guess what I felt was just a sense of wondering what's next? Gee, I wonder what's next? Interesting, fascinating, could this be real?
Speaker 2:In the meantime, my experience of interacting with the divine, I want to say, my conversations were continuing and they were ongoing. So I continued to have my conversations with God sporadically, and so that was another whole experience of my life. And then my little part-time job was working out okay, I was, you know, making enough money to put a few pieces of food in the refrigerator and, you know, and have a roof over my head. So I had no complaints compared to what life was like when I was on the street and, by the way, I was on the sidewalk living outside, not for a few bad weeks or a couple of tough months. I was out there for over a year of my life. Yeah, long time you fun. Take it, take, take, take all of your you know possessions, put them in storage and walk outside and don't come back inside for a month, much less a year, sure. And when you go outside, don't take any money with you. See how, see how it feels.
Speaker 1:Yeah, interesting experience neil, thanks for sharing that, because you're really sharing the heavy emotion of where you were at at that time and anybody going through any difficulty, and it sounded like you were going through like hitting rock bottom. This felt like a hand of hope just sort of reaching in to your life at that time and just sort of pulling you up from the quagmire. You know, from the real sounds like total rock bottom. How did that make you feel as a human being? Did you feel loved? Did you feel humbled? You know, because suddenly someone's giving you a chance that you didn't have a chance before and someone wanting to publish this, this manuscript that you'd been writing on in this legal paper. I'm just trying to sort of get inside your heart and mind to go. You know what was going on with you. Like you're thinking, I've been having this phenomenal conversation with a voice inside of my head and the words that are coming out seem really profound and beautiful and clear.
Speaker 2:And the words that are coming out seem really profound and beautiful and clear and let me add, not only profound and beautiful and clear, james, but words I never dreamt of in my life. It's not like I had read them somewhere or been taught these things. Almost everything I was being told not only was something I never heard of, but violated or contradicted everything that I had heard of about God, about life and about who I was. So what was coming through is not just wonderful information but, from my point of view, totally contradictory information. I couldn't you know.
Speaker 2:Just to give you an example, I was told by God there's no such thing as right and wrong. I'm like what? There's no such thing as right and wrong, god said, not in the human sense that you have defined, and there's no such thing as the Ten Commandments. You made that all up. I said whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. Wait a minute, you're taking everything away from me. No, ten Commandments. That doesn't even exist. Those are just two of the many, many, many statements in conversation with god that ran contradictory to everything I had ever been taught, told or believed. So now I'm sitting here on this information like do I dare even share this with anybody?
Speaker 1:Yeah, because it would almost feel blasphemous, should you share it.
Speaker 2:Oh, not only that, I've been told that I was a blasphemer. I mean, since the book has been published, of course, okay, some religious figures have actually said, of course he's a blasphemer, he's a heretic, he's an apostate, the instrument of the devil. So it's not been an easy road in that respect. But I've decided to share this with as many people who wish to access it. I'm not trying to convince anyone of anything, james. I don't want anyone to think that I'm out here trying to proselytize because I'm not. I don't want anyone to think that I'm out here trying to proselytize because I'm not. I don't need anyone to believe a word of it. As a matter of fact, if you read the book, in the book it says right in the dialogue don't believe a word you find here. Do not believe any of this. If it intrigues you, try it out, step into the living of it, and if it doesn't work for you, step into the living of it, and if it doesn't work for you, toss it away immediately. Always be your own authority in all spiritual matters.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I think that's one thing that I have held very clear with my own experience and my own story, and I always share with my clients and my audience is don't believe anything. I say Get your own experience and let your experience be the teacher, because words can be a little empty. They can inspire, they can guide, they can potentially change your emotion, but it's really your experience that matters Because, when all is said and done, your experience gives you feedback, feedback to say did that work or did that not work. And I think that if you actually do read conversations with god, anybody in that audience, in the audience, if you have already, I'm sure you're going to take away absolute nuggets of wisdom. You know, like one of the things that took me back, which was always to say thank you in advance, just say thank you before anything, thank you just before. I love, yes, it's just so simple, but to execute is not always as easy as it sounds.
Speaker 2:But to say to explain to our audience what I meant by that. Most people use gratitude as an emotional response to something that's occurred. But but God said no, no, no. Here's a new idea, neil Don't use gratitude as a response to something that has occurred. Use gratitude as a prediction of what is going to occur. Allow yourself to be thankful in advance for the outcome that you wish to experience in your life. Thank you for sending me the perfect partner. Thank you, god, for allowing me to know that my needs are being met. And my favorite prayer, which is a prayer that I say frequently, my favorite prayer is thank you, god for helping me to understand that my present problem has already been solved for me, and, by golly, within 48 hours, the problem has gone away. Wow. So what I discovered is that gratitude is a powerful manifesting energy and one can be grateful and one can be.
Speaker 1:I've created this thing. What I don't know, I'm just gonna put it out there. I've created this thing in my life where I call it the art of extreme gratitude, which basically means that just don't be grateful for a few things here and there, I mean be grateful all day long, non-stop, 24 7. See how you get on for a month and then see how you get on for two months. I've been doing it non-stop this year. I started sporadically at the beginning of the year, but this year, now for the for two months, I've been doing it non-stop. This year, uh, I started sporadically at the beginning of the year, but this year, now for the last two months, it's been all day long and the things that have been happening to me are uncannily beautiful and magical and healing. And you know I I'm gonna say it's openly this show I get tears of gratitude every single day and I don't know why, but it's humbling.
Speaker 1:I just feel incredibly grateful for all the little blessings that continue to pour in my life every single day and I'm like right, what's this all about? What's all of this about? What's this all about? What's all of this about? And and I really like, if we may, to go in and talk about your new book, because this is a lovely sort of bridge into your new book. God talk experiences of humanity's connection with a higher power. So can you share a little bit about your core messages of that particular book and how that infuses what you've been doing with your previous books, because I listened to this book in one day last weekend and I was like sitting on the beach listening to this neil, and I was like this is just beautiful to to breathe in this message. So yes, well.
Speaker 2:Thank you, I'm glad you've had that experience of it, james. Briefly, the book first of all expresses the opinion that all of us are having conversations with god all the time. We're simply calling it something else. Maybe we call it you know, an epiphany, you know, or a sudden insight. We might call it women's you know an epiphany, you know, or a sudden insight. We might call it women's intuition, you know, or whatever words we can find to describe when some wisdom you know becomes clear to us and we don't know where it came from. Where did that come from? But no one, I mean the average person, doesn't say well, god told me this morning, because we don't, we don't want to be ridiculed or marginalized or made fun of, so we don't use those words. But I called it a conversation with god because that's exactly how I experienced it. But we're all having the same experience. We're just calling it something else.
Speaker 2:So that's, that's one of the points that the books make, that the book. The book makes, I should say, and the book also makes the point that we are more than most people think we are. We're not just bodies and minds. This is not the sum total of who we are. We are, in fact, spiritual entities having a body and having a mind, but this is not our total identity and we are spiritual entities, spiritual beings on an eternal journey that never ends. Death is simply a change of address. We never stop existing. And the third point that the book makes it was just the biggest point of the book.
Speaker 2:The whole reason for the book is that there is a way that we can each have our own conversation with God, and I was asked to by. The publisher called me and asked me if I would write this book for them. I was asked to list, you know, the process by which I move forward with my own conversation with God. So yeah, I said OK, I'll do that. Move forward with my own conversation with God. So yeah, I said okay, I'll do that.
Speaker 2:So I came up with what. When I looked at how I was experiencing it in my life, I realized that there were kind of like six short steps that I can take and that most people could take if they want to have their own experience of a direct connection with the divine. So that's what makes the book different from my other books, because none of the other books lists a step-by-step process through which the conversation that is included in those prior books was generated. So I'm very happy to have been asked by the publisher to explain to people how that works for me and give them an opportunity to see if it works for them no guarantees it may or may not work, but an opportunity to give them a chance to see if it could move them into a closer relationship with the God of their understanding.
Speaker 1:Beautiful. So I guess what I wanted to ask you is with this book. So how would you distinguish this book differently from the other one? Is it because of the practical tools?
Speaker 2:Yes, yes, as I was hoping to explain, this book is different because it includes a step-by-step process. The other books were simply, you know, frankly, just a dictation. I felt like I was taking dictation and so when you read the other books, what you're reading is a dialogue. My question, the answer I got. Question answer. Question answer. Question answer. Some people have found it interesting to read that material, but what makes this book different is it shows people how they might be able to move forward in having their own interaction with the divine.
Speaker 1:So what are the practical steps that one could take in the audience if they were listening? Just the short form of that, what could someone do if they wanted to have that connection with their higher power?
Speaker 2:Well, first of the six steps is they have to agree that there is such a higher power. So the first step is what I call possibility. They have to agree with themselves that it's possible that A God exists and that B God would talk to us. Which takes us to step number two, which is worthiness. Even people who believe in God many people who believe in God would think that, yes, there is a God, but I'm not worthy to be spoken to directly by God. I mean, if I was the head ulama or the chief rabbi or the pope or the archbishop of Canterbury or somebody with some credential, maybe God would talk directly to me. But God isn't going to talk directly to me. So the second step is to acknowledge our own worthiness, that God will speak to everyone and does speak to everyone all the time. Which takes us to step number three, which is willingness.
Speaker 2:We have to be willing to accept that this is what's occurring, that this is what is going on. That's not a small step, james, because most of the world's religions tell us, as we mentioned a minute ago, that if we think, much less ever even tell anybody else that God is speaking directly to us, those religions will say that we are blaspheming, that we are apostate. They're going to make you wrong in a very big way. So we have to be willing to move against the cultural story, because humanity holds an enormous cultural story that says God does not talk directly to human beings. Maybe to Moses, but come on, not to you and me. Well, maybe to me, but come on, not to you and me. Well, maybe to me, but certainly not to James. I mean, look at this guy. Would God speak to this guy?
Speaker 1:I don't think so All day long, all day long. And I'm actually going to say something even more crazy, because when you start meditating which is what I did when I had my near-death experience I crashed my dad's car when I was 19 and walked away unscathed and I went through the windscreen and I had nothing on my face. And to be able to walk away unscathed and my friend to have one stitch in his head, I never looked at life the same ever again. I thought, and I was told you, you are blessed, you are lucky. Are you a ghost? Because you should be dead, dead, dead. And I went, but I'm alive, and you know. And I had to ask the question who am I? Why am I here? Why am I still here? What's my purpose? And I'm asking that at the age of 19.
Speaker 1:And whilst I didn't have anything figured out, then, that question was constantly in the back of my mind, constantly needing to be answered. And eventually, when I got around to it, I started meditating, which I knew nothing about, and then I realized these answers that I had to, these questions that I had starting just appearing in my experience, and as they began to appear, the answers to these questions, I realized that I was like a radio I was receiving. I was receiving information to my questions and it was a non-stop communication. But at that time, even though I've been brought up a catholic or a christian and I went to an all boys Catholic school, christian school and I was like, right, yeah, but something about this doesn't feel quite right. But now I'm having this absolute direct connection, because there is no way I should be alive no one can tell me that because I had that in my experience and then I realized I am part of that, that which I'm trying to listen to.
Speaker 1:So and then I am a fragment of this one beam of sunlight. Essentially, if the sun is like building and putting all these rays on this beautiful planet and around the galaxy, I am part of that source that's radiating out into this world and just a fraction of that light happens to be entering this physical form. And I found that really fascinating, to have that insight, and I was like, wow. It took me a while to be able to actually articulate that, but I've just done it here and I think your book does it beautifully. How you are able to to say that, and some may have different opinions, but I guess when you really ask the questions, you you do get the answers. So that's why I love this title God Talk, because you've got to ask the question and be willing to receive the answer as well.
Speaker 2:The real question is having come to that kind of a realization and, by the way, thank you for sharing with me your own experience, because I'm fascinated by it. It's very similar to my own. But the real question is, once you come to that awareness, what difference does it make, I mean in your everyday life? How does it change the way you move through your everyday life?
Speaker 1:How does it change? Well, it means that I feel protected is why I feel like. I feel like protected that things are.
Speaker 2:I feel like someone's got my back the whole time and so that makes you feel more safe as you move through life.
Speaker 1:I feel safe as I move through life.
Speaker 1:There's a sense of security, there's like this, because of that awareness now that I didn't have before, that I do have now feels like I've got roots in in something bigger and then it's my job to try and water those roots and nurture those roots with my work and in my day-to-day life, trying to be the best imperfect version of myself and have fun throughout my day and with my work and touching my clients' lives and touching people's lives.
Speaker 1:In a way that's uplifting. And I feel like when I take care of God's business, god takes care of mine. Or I could say, when I take care of life's business, life takes care of mine. When I say I can take care of the universe's business, the universe takes care of mine. And that gives this beautiful communion of, like this reciprocity of life, where I just feel like I'm working in harmony with life or being one with life, and that gives me a great sense of joy and fulfillment and then it starts to become light and fun, whereas on those heavy days it can be a bit like oh yeah, but then you, that's just because I've just disconnected in that moment.
Speaker 1:So taking time to eat a good meal or move the body or meditate or all the beautiful things that life can offer, gives me a chance to retune in and reconnect again so I can hear that message amazing, amazing, amazing.
Speaker 2:James, I got it. You just you just gave me the title of your, of your book, your next book which is oh, the book you're going to write is going to be titled. Mind your own business mind your own business.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and that's going to be after my next book, my first book, which is called Natural High.
Speaker 2:Yeah, mind your own business is going to be the book, and you'll describe just what you said to me that your business is God's business and God's business is your business. So when you mind your own business, you're minding God's business, and when you're minding God's business, you're minding God's business. And when you're minding God's business, you're minding your own business. And when people see the connection and see the two as one, as you've just described, that can change a person's entire life. I think your book will describe that in such terms that the average person will pick it up and read it and go oh my goodness, why didn't somebody give me this book when I was 13?
Speaker 1:It's interesting that when you do try and take care of something bigger than you like helping your community or helping your family or helping other people in some capacity, which is helping God or helping animals, pets, nature, something that's part of this bigger system that we live in it's amazing how well your needs are provided for because, like before it used to be in my experience, it was like what can I get, get, get, and now it's kind of like now, what can I give, give, give, because giving, giving, giving means you're abundant.
Speaker 1:Right, and this is the bit that I kind of picked up on. That took me years to get to, but as soon as I got it, I was like this is now easy and I really just, if anybody in this audience picks up on this and is able to run with this, just consider this idea and I like to use the word consider because I'm sure Neil's used that before in the title of the conversations God you like, consider these ideas, let you run with it. So when you're looking to to assist nature, people, pets, any of those types of things, you're taking care of life's business and, in turn, life will just look after you and have your needs met as well, it's peculiar. It sounds so simple, but that's really how it works. Can you tell me why?
Speaker 2:Sure, because what goes around comes around, because there's only one of us in the room, because we are united with everything we're talking about. We're not only united with every other person, but with every tree, with every plant, with every blade of grass. We are all one, as I was told in conversations with God. Nothing, you do not know, james, but just for the sake of your audience, as I was told in conversations with God, neil, all things are one thing. There is only one thing and all things are part of the one thing. There is so, naturally, when you serve, the one thing there is, whether you're serving other people or serving nature in some way, you know, or serving your pet dog or an animal or anything, when you're in service to that, which is that which is winds up being in service to you. Because what goes around comes around. There is only one thing. Or, as God put it to me very simply, neil, there's only one of us in the room.
Speaker 2:I said God, can you just give me, you know, just a simple statement. What is the most important thing I could ever be told? That I wasn't told when I was 13, in school, in that same Catholic school you went to, and what God said to me was Neil. Here it is. Write this down in one simple sentence your life has nothing to do with you. It's about everyone whose life you touch and the way you touch it.
Speaker 2:And when you understand that your life is about everyone whose life you touch and the way you touch it, and when you understand that your life is about everyone whose life you touch and the way you touch it, you will discover that your life all along has been about you. Because there's only one of us in the room, obviously, what you do for another, you do for yourself, because there's nobody else but other versions of who you are. And I realized wow, some guy told us this 2,000 years ago. He didn't put it that way. He simply said do unto others as you would have it done unto you, because it will be done unto you in precisely the same way.
Speaker 1:So if you make someone laugh, you're going to laugh. Of course You're going to laugh. If you make some, of course you're going to make, going to get happy if you, if you cheer someone up, you're going to get cheered up. If you leave people surprise presents, you're going to get some surprise presents.
Speaker 1:If you give money, you're going to receive money and conversely, on the other side of the coin, I want to take my experience, yeah, and you've lived it and you've shared it, and you are a messenger of like that beautiful understanding and awareness which the audience is like picking up. And I guess I wanted to just ask you this next question, which is navigating challenges. You said something just a little while ago about how to best navigate challenges with this divine connection. How do we do that? Again, because I think people would really like to have that practical tool to to navigate, how to navigate challenges using this divine connection that you talk about in the book, and then maybe, overcoming fears as well, because we sometimes, you know, have moments in our life where we get those feelings, those emotions come up and they sometimes feel like they come out of nowhere. But how would you use this connection to God, to life, to be able to soothe yourself?
Speaker 2:Well, I think I start by coming to an understanding of who I am, which we talked about a minute ago, that I am not just my body and my mind, but that I am a soul. Then I go to the next step. If I really am a spiritual being, if that's the truth, a spiritual being that lives forever, then what am I doing here? What's the point of my life? Because if I don't understand the point of my life, I mean my larger, as the French would say, my raison d'etre if I don't understand my reason for being, then I will have a whole different way of dealing with what you call the challenges of my life. I'll be resisting them, resisting those challenges, be resentful of them, be angry about them or maybe frustrated, at least frustrated by them, and sometimes set back by those challenges. But once I understand my real reason for being on the planet, who I am and why I'm here, then I see my challenges not as challenges at all in the true sense of the word, but really as possibilities, opportunities. Oh, this is not a challenge, this is an opportunity to do what I came here to do, to experience exactly what I came to this planet to experience. Why did I come to the realm of the physical. What was the point of my being here If I'm a spiritual being? Why didn't I just stay to the realm of the physical? What was the point of my being here? If I'm a spiritual being, why didn't I just stay in the realm of the spiritual, where things are all wonderful? And I asked God that question. I said you know, help me out here, tell me the rules of the game, what's going on? And God said well, neil, take this down In the realm of the spiritual. You can know exactly who you really are. You can know that you're wise and clear and wonderful and compassionate and pure love and all the wonderful things that you are. But knowing that you are is not enough. You want to experience who you are. So knowing who you are is one thing and experiencing it is quite another. So you've come to the realm of the physical, one of three realms in the kingdom of God the realm of the spiritual, the realm of the physical and the realm of pure being. And you come into the realm of the physical in order that you might demonstrate and express, thus to experience, what you know of yourself.
Speaker 2:You know and I use a simple example when I explain this to audiences, I know myself to be kind of a generous person. Frankly, I'm not praising myself, but I'm just declaring I've always known myself to be pretty generous. You know, if people ask me for help, I give them help. If they ask me for some time, know I give them my time if they ask. Even if they ask me for some money, I've been generous with the money that I've had. I'm a pretty generous person. But it's not a well and it's not enough for me to just know that I'm generous. I want to experience myself being generous. So when the experience of what I know myself to be flows through me, then I feel fulfilled.
Speaker 2:So our reason for being on the planet is to demonstrate and to express our true identity as an individuation of divinity, and once we do that, life suddenly makes sense, no matter what so-called challenges we're facing, because we see them all as opportunities.
Speaker 2:When I face what some people call a challenge, I ask myself life's magic question, and I've shared this with audiences, I've shared this with people all over the world for the past 30 years Life's magic question. So, to answer your question how do I meet challenges? What tool do I use when a challenge comes my way, whatever it might be, I ask myself the following question what does this have to do with the agenda of my soul? You know what, james? The answer comes to me like that. I suddenly become very clear what this present challenge has to do with the agenda of my soul. That is, I recontextualize the experience. I don't resist the experience. Conversations with God told me point blank, neil, what you resist persists. Therefore, resist nothing. Embrace everything with gratitude and see the opportunity that it has provided you, and know this always, neil. Remember this for the rest of your life.
Speaker 1:To the best students go the most difficult lessons, because you're on your way to graduation I hope you got that audience because you're on your way to graduation and if you're going through any challenge right now, I think neil's words are heavenly in your pocket to take with you. And whether you're listening to this or watching this, I think that this beautiful conversation that Neil and I have had is a lovely reminder to let you know everything's going to be all right, everything is being taken care of and no matter where you are, no matter what's happening, it's about to get a lot better, as long as you can keep your channel open and be willing to. Number one let it be open, as you said, which I think was your number three on your practical tool list.
Speaker 2:Yes, number four, very briefly, was wakefulness. Stay awake to what's happening, don't let it pass you by. Number five was acceptance. Don't reject what's happening, don't let it pass you by. Number five was acceptance. Don't reject what's going on and call it just sheer coincidence or you know it was just, you know serendipity. But accepted is exactly what it is A conversation with God, a communication from life to life about life itself. And number six of those steps discernment.
Speaker 2:Be willing to discern the difference between actual communications from life and just stuff that happens. You know, you know little accidents that occur. Don't make everything it's a sign. I know people who've gotten into their spiritual point, a spiritual point of view, to the place where they start seeing everything as a sign. They reach into their pocket to get their car keys and as they pull the car keys out of their pocket, maybe some folding money happens to fall onto the ground. It's a sign. I'm supposed to throw all of my money on the ground. No, no, no, no, no, no, no. Not everything is a sign. Relax, let yourself use discernment to know the difference between sheer happenstance and what is a natural communication from life to life about life itself, all that is contained in the book.
Speaker 1:That last bit, I think, is the most important to really take away. Important to really take away, discern that last bit between what is actually your higher power talking to you, or god, versus what you think is just sort of regular. So how to discern those, that difference? How would you see that in your own experience? What would you say? Oh right, that is god speaking to me and that is happenstance. How does Neil go?
Speaker 2:I know the difference there for me, communication is from the divine, always filled with joy, freedom and love. Joy, freedom and love never fear, never apprehension, never worry, never concern and never waste. Nothing is ever wasted. So but when, when I went and when, how I feel after I receive information from the divine is joyful, I feel joyful, I feel free and I feel both loved and loving. I feel that I'm receiving love and that all I want to do is give love to everything. You know something, james?
Speaker 2:I've been known to go out in the backyard and hug my tree. I'm sorry to say yes, yes, yes, he's a tree hugger. I really am a tree hugger. When my tree was dropping apples by the dozen during its season, I went out there and I gave it a big hug and I said oh man, thank you, look at this abundance, look at these beautiful, rich apples. And I gave the tree a hug. You know I do that. I don't care what people think of me. That's how I behave.
Speaker 2:And when I sold my home and we bought a smaller place because we had outgrown the big house we had and we moved into a little smaller, little bungalow. But when I said goodbye to that house, believe it or not, if somebody was watching to think I was crazy. I walked up to the house and I gave it a hug. I hugged the corner of the house. I said thank you, man. Thank you give as much joy to the next inhabitant of this house and thank you for the joy that you brought to me.
Speaker 2:I hug everything because you know what? Guess what folks? Everything is alive. If you see that anything is dead, you don't understand how life works. If you took a piece of wood off that house, you'd see, see that it was consisted of simple molecules and atoms that are doing what Moving. Everything is constantly in motion. That's called life. So if you think that your house is an inanimate object, then you don't understand your house at all. So thank your house, thank your car, thank everything, everything in life, including every other person in your life, for making your life the blessing that it is and always will be.
Speaker 1:And then, when you're done, thank yourself for coming to this community oh, neil, I really love your words, I really appreciate them and and I love the way that you you talk to your inanimate objects, you know, which are alive, like your computer, or your plants, or your home, or your car, or your phone, even your bank accounts.
Speaker 1:I mean I dare you to look into your bank accounts and go thank you whatever you've got. I mean I do that. It's just gross, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you. You know, like even looking at yourself in your eyes and going, thank you for showing up today. You know you gave it your best shot today. Thank you for showing up for yourself, you know, and I just want to say to you thank you for for joining me in this amazing conversation, um, and thank you for the work you've done and thank you for uplifting, inspiring and, you know, being vulnerable and open enough to be candid with us with regarding. You know your entire journey to where you were when you first got that legal pen and paper out to you know the journey that you've had for the last 30 odd years. Thank you.
Speaker 2:James, I would say the exact same words to you. It's clear that you are doing work in the world that brings value to everyone whose life you touch. So, quid pro quo, thank you for who you are and what you're doing.
Speaker 1:And I'd just like to say I'd love to say thank you too, thank you for who you are and what you're doing. And I just like to say I'd love to say thank you to the audience and all of you guys who listen and watch and tune in every time one of these shows goes out. And you know, without you guys this show wouldn't be what it is, and I'm so grateful to have people like neil on the show and you guys tuning in, because it's such a joy for me to be able to to have guests and commune and talk and converse with people like Neil, but also to share this wisdom and hopefully a little empowerment and wisdom and upliftment with you guys. So just a big thank you to everybody. Anything else you'd like to say, just in closing, neil?
Speaker 2:Blessed be everyone. Allow yourself to be a blessing to all those whose life you touch, and allow everyone else to touch you with their blessings. See the whole experience as a process divinely inspired.
Speaker 1:Beautiful. Thank you, neil. Us divinely inspired beautiful. Thank you, neil. Neil donald walsh is this week's super soul model. Thank you, neil thank you, my friend, lovely to be here with you thanks for tuning in and if you've enjoyed this episode or any other, please remember to hit that subscribe button, because it does make a difference and if you'd like to contribute, you can support the show to keep getting more free content like this. Thank you in advance.