Editor’s Note: For the next several months this space will be used to explore — one-by-one — the messages, metaphysical principles, and spiritual meaning of the material found in the nearly 3,000 pages of the Conversations with God dialogues. This series of observations and interpretations is offered with my continuing disclaimer: I could be wrong about all of this.

CWG Explored/Installment #4: The three opening messages
The Conversations with God dialogue opens with a statement of singular importance. That statement: We are all One.

“All things are One Thing,” we are told. “There is only One Thing, and all things are part of the One Thing there is.”

We have spent considerable time exploring in this space the idea that Separation of anything from anything does not exist in the universe. Nevertheless, the idea that it does continues to persist.

I believe that this notion that we are Separate from each other and Separate from, or “other than,” the Essential Essence and the Foundational Energy of the cosmos (which some of us call God) creates the most “drag” on humanity’s evolutionary process. In other words, it slows down our forward movement toward becoming a civilized species more than any other single idea.

Right now we are not a “civilized” civilization. We are more advanced than we were several hundred or several thousand years ago, but we are not yet civilized.

No species that allows over 650 of its offspring to die every hour of starvation, and cannot find a way to stop it, can claim to be civilized.

No species that allows 20.9 million women and children to be bought and sold into commercial sexual servitude every year and cannot find a way to stop it can claim to be civilized.

No species that allows over 3 billion of its members to live on less than $2.50 a day, and billions to have no access to health care (some 19,000 children die each day from preventable health issues, such as malaria, diarrhea and pneumonia) and cannot find a way to change this can claim to be civilized.

No species that allows 1.7 billion of its members to live without any access to clean water, 1.6 billion (a quarter of humanity) to live without electricity, or 2.6 billion to exist without basic sanitation, and cannot find a way to improve these conditions — even after twenty centuries of trying — can claim to be civilized.

Evidence suggests that there must be something we do not fully understand here about Life — the understanding of which could change everything.

The first three messages of the Conversations with God dialogues offer us some suggestions along those lines. I believe they are, in fact, all that we need to create the life for which we all yearn. Following the initial message that we are all One are these two additional noticements:

— There’s enough.
— There’s nothing that you have to do.

The first of these points to the fact that there is a sufficiency on this planet of everything humanity needs for every member of the species to live a wonderful and joyful life. All we have to do is simply share. Yet it is our idea that there isn’t enough of what we all feel we need to be happy, and so we have created a global society that competes with itself and struggles against itself.

The second of these two points offers a new way of looking at the solution to our problems. It suggests that we end our emphasis on “doing” and place our emphasis on “being.”

When what we are doing in our world emerges from a new, from an expanded, from a higher, state of being, we will find ourselves meeting the challenges of physical life automatically — without us “having” (that is, being “required”) to do anything in particular.

The statement “There’s nothing that you have to do” does not mean that there is nothing that you will do as you live your life. It means that there is nothing that is demanded, commanded, or required of you. It invites a deeper exploration of the concept of allowing one’s personal “doingness” to proceed from one’s personal decision regarding how one chooses to “be” in the world, rather than the other way around.

Presently, many human beings “do” things because they think these are the “right things to do” if they wish to “be” kind, or “be” caring, or “be” loving. They do something in order to feel a certain way…rather than feeling a certain way before they do anything, and allowing what they do to emerge from that.

This may seem like nothing more than a play on words, but the messages of Conversations with God assure us that there is more here than meets the eye.

When we embody a particular and specific State of Being ahead of time — not in response to, but in creation of, an experience of Self — we generate outcomes in our life virtually without effort…and, most noticeably, nothing is left undone that would eliminate suffering in the life of any other member of our species.

The State of Being that CWG suggests that every human being embody is what it has called “divinity.” In other words, our highest selves, our grandest love, our greatest wisdom, our deepest compassion, and the embracing within us of all the other most wondrous aspects of our True Identity.

(No species that is being Divine and demonstrating Divinity by being compassionate, caring, and loving could allow the conditions noted above to exist for another 24 hours…much less another century.)

A person who walks through the world holding the Identity of Divinity deep within changes the exterior experience of everyone else everywhere she or he steps, every room he or she enters, every space she or he occupies.

If our entire species walked through this world holding such an identity deep within, it would produce Heaven on Earth.

The question is, what could cause our entire species to do so? And that will be the topic of our next entry here. Until then, Merry Christmas everyone! Have a wonderful holiday week, and Happy New Year!

Editor’s Note: For the next several months this space will be used to explore — one-by-one — the messages, metaphysical principles, and spiritual meaning of the material found in the nearly 3,000 pages of the Conversations with God dialogues. This series of observations and interpretations is offered with my continuing disclaimer: I could be wrong about all of this.

CWG Explored/Installment #3: What IS CWG, actually?

Since the publication of the Conversations with God dialogues people have wanted to label them. It is our nature to give names to things. All things, really. Not just physical objects, but events, circumstances, experiences…you name it.

Literally, you name it.

Without a name, we have no way of talking about things, no way of referring to things, no way of entering into a deeper exploration of things. So we give things names, and then we can discuss them.

People have given a variety of names to the Conversations with God texts. Some (mainly those who disagree with its contents) have called it a religion. Some (mainly those who disagree with its contents) have called it blasphemy, heresy, apostasy. Some (mainly those who disagree with its contents) have called it foolishness, fantasy, wishful thinking, or misinformation.

Some people (mainly those who agree with its contents) have referred to CWG as dialogues with Deity, Divine revelations, inspired messages, metaphysical insights, guidelines for living, and even a New Spirituality.

No one, however, has spoken to me so far about Conversations with God in words that describe the material as I have felt it in my soul. So let me tell you what I experience CWG to be.

An invitation.

An invitation in three parts.

An invitation which, if accepted by large numbers of people across the globe, I feel could make our planet a more wonderful place on which to live, virtually overnight.

Here is that three-tiered invitation:
Change the world’s mind about God.
Give people back to themselves.
Awaken the species.

There you have it. Fourteen words that I believe could change the world if we took them in as God’s invitation to humanity; if each of us, individually, embraced them as God’s invitation to us, personally, and acted on them every day in every way.

You might find it interesting to note that these fourteen words, acted on, summarize the life of virtually every person that our world has recognized through the centuries as a spiritual master.

Whether we’re talking about Lao Tzu or Buddha, Moses or Jesus, Mohammed or Vasugupta, Mother Mary or Julian of Norwich, Catherine of Genoa or Teresa of Avila, Beatrice of Nazareth or Hildegard of Bingen, all of the Great Masters, male or female, ancient and contemporary, have moved through the world in a way that demonstrated their decision to accept God’s invitation to humanity: Change the world’s mind about God, give people back to themselves, awaken the species.

As we inch our way toward the third decade of the Twenty-First Century, this tri-part invitation is being extended to each of us. No longer is it intended to be sent to, or received by, only one-in-a-million. Now it is being sent to all of humanity’s billions — and those who are ready and willing to accept it already know who they are. By virtue of the fact that they have heard the invitation…actually, felt it at an energetic level…they have already self-selected to be among those who now choose to move through the world in a way that demonstrates their decision to accept the invitation.

This process of self-selection — of people choosing themselves, rather than waiting to be or to feel “chosen” — is what marks this day and age as different from times long past.

In the earlier days of our species’ evolution, people did not embrace what we might call a “heavenly assignment” unless or until they felt “called” or “anointed” — usually as a result of a personal epiphany or spiritual transformation of some kind.

Today people are transforming themselves. No longer content to wait for some outside influence or exterior energy to shift their ground of being, people are expanding their consciousness, elevating their awareness, and expressing their grandest selves because they choose to — not because they feel they have been chosen to.

Such self-selection marks the beginning of a new era, the onset of a new epic in humanity’s long evolutionary process. It is the next stage of growth for the species, signaling the emergence from spiritual infancy to metaphysical maturation. Humans are claiming their True Identity, embracing their Actual Nature, and expressing their Divine Essence without waiting any longer to be ordained or consecrated through some external experience or authority outside of themselves.

This is as it would most naturally be; as it was intended to be; as it is, in fact, with all highly evolved sentient beings in the universe.

As you read this you will know (just as you knew, immediately, when you first read the Conversations with God material) if the invitation to change the world’s mind about God, to give people back to themselves, and to awaken the species resonates with you. You will understand intuitively and at once that accepting this invitation has nothing to do with huge exterior accomplishments you are expected to achieve, but rather, with States of Being you have the opportunity to embrace, express, and experience.

That is, there is nothing you have to do, and only that which you are invited to be as you do whatever you do.

This is one of the opening messages in the Conversations with God dialogues — which we will explore in the next installment in this series.

Editor’s Note: For the next several months this space will be used to explore — one-by-one — the messages, metaphysical principles, and spiritual meaning of the material found in the 3,000+ pages of the Conversations with God dialogues. This series of observations and interpretations is offered with my continuing disclaimer: I could be wrong about all of this.

CWG Explored/Installment #2: The one idea that slows our evolution
I believe that the idea that everything in separate from everything else is the greatest obstacle to the rapid expansion of human potential and the rapid forward movement of human evolution.

Right now most people who believe in God — and that is by far the largest number of people on this planet — still embrace a Separation Theology. This is a way of looking at God which declares that we are “over here” and God is “over there.”

This would not matter if it began and ended there, but the problem with a Separation Theology is that it produces too often in too many people a Separation Cosmology. That is, a way of looking at all of life that says that everything is separate from everything else.

This wouldn’t be so bad if it was just a point of view, but the problem is that a Separation Cosmology produces too often in too many people a Separation Psychology. That is, a psychological viewpoint that says that I am over here and you are over there.

This would also be something we could live with if that was all there was to it, but the problem is that a Separation Psychology produces too often in too many people a Separation Sociology. That is, a way of socializing with each other that encourages everyone within human society to act as separate entities serving their own separate interests.

Now we’ve entered into truly dangerous territory, because a Separation Sociology envitably produces too often in too many people a Separation Pathology. That is, pathological behaviors of self-destruction, engaged in individually and collectively, and producing suffering, conflict, violence, and death by our own hands—evidenced everywhere on our planet throughout human history.

I believe that only when our Separation Theology is replaced by a Oneness Theology will our pathology be healed. A Oneness Theology recognizes that we have been differentiated from God, but not separated from God, even as the fingers on our hand are differentiated but not separated from the hand itself.

We are being invited to understand that all of Life is One Thing. This is the first step. It is the jumping-off point. It is the beginning of the end of how things now are. It is the start of a new creation, of a new tomorrow. It is the New Cultural Story of Humanity.

It is my thought that oneness is not a characteristic of life. Life is a characteristic of oneness. I believe that this is what we have not understood about our existence on Earth, the understanding of which would change everything. Life is the expression of oneness Itself. God is the expression of Life Itself. God and Life are one. You are a part of Life. You do not and cannot stand outside of it. Therefore you are a part of God. It is a circle. It cannot be broken.

I believe that when we begin acting in harmony with this truth, our entire experience of Life will be altered forever. There will, in fact, be war no more. Violence in all forms will disappear. Depravity and insufficiency will end. Abject suffering and poverty will vanish. Cruelty will become unthinkable, insufficiency insupportable, indignity unacceptable, starvation impossible, and intolerance intolerable. We will have civilized civilization at last.

Editor’s Note: For the next several months this space will be used to explore — one-by-one — the messages, metaphysical principles, and spiritual meaning of the material found in the 3,000+ pages of the Conversations with God dialogues. This series of observations and interpretations is offered with my continuing disclaimer: I could be wrong about all of this.

CWG Explored/Installment #1:

We begin at the beginning.

There is something more going on here than meets the eye.

We are living in a system far more complex, far more magnificent, far more organized, far more intricate, far more directed, and far more usable than most people on Earth imagine.

It is precisely because most people on Earth do not imagine this to be true that our species is living the way it is living, with the largest percentage of us suffering hardships and facing challenges that no Enlightened Species should or would ever have to encounter.

It is incomprehensible, for instance, for a race of sentient beings that considers itself to be “evolved” to allow over 650 of its own offspring to die every hour of starvation.

It is incomprehensible, for instance, for a race of sentient beings that considers itself to be “evolved” to allow 1.7 billion of its members to lack clean water, or for 2.6 billion to exist without basic sanitation, or for 1.6 billion to live without the benefits of a discovery turned into a tool for modern living over 150 years ago: electricity.

Think of that: After 150 years we have still not found a way to provide electricity for a quarter of the human race.

In other words, we have not even found a way for everyone on Earth to harness and utilize the power that is visible to us, provable with regard to its existence — to say nothing of harnessing and using power that is invisible and not provable as to its existence.

This is how backward we are as a species. This is how primitive we are. We are so barbarian and uncivilized that we cannot find a way to stop 650 of our children from starving to death every hour on our planet.

Given this low level of our sophistication, it is small wonder that we hold the extraordinarily limited ideas about Larger Realities that so many of us hold. We can’t even imagine or manifest the miniscule about of love it would take to stop ourselves from letting so many of our offspring die of insufficient food, much less can we imagine the enormous love it would take to create the Universe and empower all of its sentient beings to produce and experience their own reality as they choose.

We live in a world where we throw away more leftovers in the restaurants of Tokyo, Paris and Los Angeles in an evening than would be needed to feed the children of an entire village for a week, and as we watch the children die we discuss it even while poisoning ourselves with smokes and liquor in serious after-dinner conversations that produce no solutions, but plenty of tsk-tsking.

What it would take to turn around this sad state of affairs is a new and larger understanding of Life Itself…its origin, its function, its process and its very purpose. Yet many of us have limited ourselves to that which can be proven as we seek to expand that which we say we “understand.”

We’ve taken an “if-it-can’t-be-proven-it-can’t-be-true” position on matters of enormous consequence — and it is possible that it is this, and this alone, which has so dramatically slowed and hugely hindered our growth.

I have discussed this before in this space. I have asked: When a person who we have come to truly and deeply admire turns to us and says for the first time, “I love you,” do we believe them? Or do we say, “Really? Prove it. I can’t take you at your word. I need proof.”

If we required everyone who tells us they love us to prove it, I want to suggest that we would live very limited and lonely lives. Yet many of us require “proof” of other equally impactful and important Life Data before we can accept it and use it to our benefit — not the least of which is the understanding that there is something more going on here than meets the eye, and that we are living in a system far more complex, far more magnificent, far more organized, far more intricate, far more directed, and far more usable than most people on Earth imagine.

Conversations with God begins with a premise that cannot be proven. Therefore, if Proof of Premise is the yardstick by which one measures viability and usability of data, our exploration of CWG’s many potentially wonderfully beneficial messages needs must end here.

Its messages must be dismissed out of hand, for they emanate from what I have come to call the Undeniable Unprovable. It cannot be denied that it cannot be proven, and its very unprovability is what, to me, renders it undeniable.

Humanity has demonstrated that everything that can be proven is subject to denial. Global warming offers us a perfect example. A Chinese hoax? Really?

So I’ve taken to assuming that if is can’t be proven, there’s a good chance that it’s true. Like the fact that the first time my wife said “I love you” to me, she meant it. And like the fact that there’s something more going on here than meets the eye in the Universe.

Like the fact, for instance, that there is a Prime Source, an Originating Energy, an Essential Essence that some of us call “God” that exists, and that can be used with predictable and consistent results. An Essence that we are part of. That we are made of. From which we cannot be separated, because we are the manifestation of That Which It Is.

The first message of Conversations with God — contained on Page 5 of over 3,000 pages of dialogue — is this: We Are All One.

We are told: “All things are One Thing. There is only One Thing, and all things are part of the One Thing there is.”

This cannot be proven. What can be proven, according to Earthly science and Earthly standards and Earthly understandings, is that everything is separate from everything else. We live in a Separation Cosmology.

I believe this single idea is the greatest obstacle to the rapid expansion of human potential and the rapid forward movement of human evolution.

And we will explore that thought in Installment #2 of this series.

I think it is time to make something clear here. It is something I have made clear over and over again in all of my writing and at all of my public appearances — and I will continue to make it clear until it is understood by everyone.

I have stated time and time again that everything in the Conversations with God material could be wrong. I have never equivocated about that. Never once. In fact, just the opposite. I have said it over and over again.

Indeed, the books themselves make the same point. Do not believe what is written here, they say. If you choose, as an experiment, simply live their messages and see if they feel good and true and workable to you. If they do not, throw them away, toss them out, discard them and move on with your life in the way that feels good and workable and true for you.

I am open to a deep discussion of the CWG material with anyone, and this Global Conversation website is as good a place to have that discussion as anywhere on the Internet, so I welcome the engagement here. Let’s explore, item by item, what CWG says, what I believe it means, and how I believe it can be beneficially applied in every day life. It is not necessary to profess a belief in God in order for us to have this conversation.

I am not clear what has caused our regular visitor Patrick Gannon to state that I have made “earlier comments in times gone by that denigrated atheists and agnostics.” My memory must be fading, because I cannot recall ever having made such comments. So Patrick, if you could help me by citing what you considered to be such comments, I would be happy to either explain or retract them.

Patrick and the person posting as A True Friend have also recently asked here why I didn’t fix my own heart. But, in fact, I did. It is, apparently, how I did it that Patrick and ATF disagree with, and/or wish to use as evidence that the God in whom I believe, and the process of self-healing, is not real.

A True Friend also has posted this comment here: “I’m also kinda repulsed on how the CwG community like any other religious community follows their leader blindly.”

Well, my true friend, I am sure and very certain that anyone who knows me personally would tell you that I, as well, do not wish anyone to follow me blindly. First, the worldwide readership of Conversations with God could not in any accurate way be described as being “like any other religious community,” as CWG is not a religion in any sense of the word. Second, if some people have formed a community of interest around the CWG material, I am not “their leader.” Not in the sense of wanting, needing, asking, or hoping that anyone will “follow me.”

Again, evidence suggests it is quite to the contrary. I invite people — actively and continuously — NOT to “follow me” (I would be among the worst examples anyone could think of, of a so-called “religious”or “spiritual” leader), but to follow, always and in every case, their own innermost guidance.

I appreciate that both Patrick and ATF are, presumably, doing just that in their lives, as evidenced by their entries in the Comment section here. And I invite any and all discussions and explorations of the CWG messages in which anyone wishes to engage in this space. Indeed, that is the purpose of the space itself…so I invite the discussions to continue.

Looking in a serious way at the topics raised in the CWG material can only produce benefit for everyone, whatever their point of view, if the only outcome is that the discussions make more clear than ever to everyone what their point of view is.

It feels to me that emerging from one’s own highest personal understanding and greatest truth can only be a wonderful and beneficial way to live. I hope I have never denigrated anyone for doing that. But let’s not call a spiritual point of view a “religion” when it is not — especially when it declares, itself, that it is not.

I consider CWG to be a theology, not a religion. My dictionary defines “theology” as “the study of the nature of God and religious belief.” CWG surely is that, but it could not fairly be called a religion. And I am surely not fairly called the “leader” of a religion.

So let’s discuss Conversations with God fairly. It is a series of books, offering a commentary on God and Life. The books declare themselves to be a conversation between a human being and God. That is the belief of the author. I neither need nor ask nor expect anyone else to accept or embrace my belief. I simply invite people to consider the messages that have been shared in the material. Millions seem to have found something of value in them, if the number of people who have obtained and read the books, and passed them on to others, is any indication.

Now I know that any ideas that capture the attention of millions tend to be threatening to those who don’t embrace or agree with those ideas. But that is no reason to mislabel those ideas, or the person offering them. CWG is not a religion, and I am not a religious or spiritual leader. And everything in CWG could be wrong. I have made that clear repeatedly.

So let’s continue the discussions and explorations here by playing fair.

Good idea?