Sense of Soul - Neale Donald Walsch and The God Solution

Episode Date: June 5, 2023

Today on Sense of Soul Podcast, is Neale Donald Walsch. He has written 39 books on contemporary spirituality and its practical application in everyday life. Seven of the nine books in his Conversations with God series have made the New York Times Bestseller list, with Book One remaining on that list for 134 weeks. His titles have been translated into 37 languages.  He joined Shanna today to discuss his latest book called, The God Solution, which was the Spring book in Sense of Soul’s bookclub. In this book Neale invites humanity to embrace a new global ethic based on a refined and clarified definition of God. Neale presents online retreats and lecture programs for persons around the world, focused on what he calls the most important question facing humanity today. That question: Is it possible that there is something we don't fully understand about God and about Life, the understanding of which would change everything? You can find Neale’s book The God Solution and all his other amazing books, wherever books are sold. He is the creator of CWG Connect a global online platform connecting people who wish to more deeply explore the messages in the CWG body of work. www.CWGConnect.com For more information: www.NealeDonaldWalsch.com Learn more about Shanna and Sense of Soul: www.mysenseofsoul.com YOU CAN LISTEN TO AN EXTENDED VERSION OF THIS EPISODE - ad Free on Sense of Soul Patreon for Free! Sense of Soul Patreons recieve 50% off of Shanna’s Soul Immersion experience, monthly Sacred circles, Shanna’s exclusive mini series on the Divine Feminine Goddess Sophia, Sense of Soul merch and more. https://www.patreon.com/senseofsoul  

Hello, my soul-seeking friends. It's Shanna. Thank you so much for listening to Sense of Soul podcast. Enlightening conversations with like-minded souls from around the world, sharing their journey of finding their light within, turning pain into purpose, and awakening to their true sense of soul. If you like what you hear, show me some love and rate, like, and subscribe. And consider becoming a Sense of Soul Patreon member, where you will get ad-free episodes, monthly circles, and much more. Now go grab your coffee, open your mind, heart, and soul. It's time to awaken. Hey listeners, I just wanted to say thank you. I am beyond humbled. Never did I think that Sons of Soul would have 1 million downloads and be in the top 1% with over 350 episodes in less than four years. I thank all of my amazing guests and all of the people who have helped connect me

to all of my guests. And of course, to you listeners, I wouldn't have a podcast without you. I love you and thank you so much for supporting and listening to Sense of Soul. In today's episode, I have the honor of interviewing Mr. Neal Donald Walsh. Neal has written over 39 books on contemporary spirituality and its practical application in everyday life, including his nine-book Conversations with God series. a book that invites humanity to embrace a new global ethic based on a redefined and clarified definition of God. He has presented online retreats and lecture programs for people around the world. He has focused on what he calls the most important question facing humanity today. Is it possible that there is something we don't fully understand about God and life, the understanding of which could change everything?

Neil is a modern-day spiritual messenger whose words continue to touch the world in profound ways. So please welcome Mr. Neil Donald Walsh. Hi. Your name is Shanna? Like banana. My name is Neil, like banana peel. I love it. Nice to meet you.

You too. Where do you live? Where are you? I am in Colorado. Oh, that's beautiful, yeah. Where are you at? I live in Southern Oregon, just above the California border. Okay, so just as beautiful. Yeah, it really is gorgeous. Mountains right outside my window. I look out the front window of my house and the mountain range is right there. It's gorgeous. And I'm very grateful and very happy. So Shanna, how can I serve you today? First of all, I just want to thank you so much for taking the time. It's an honor to have you. I know my listeners have been waiting and are excited.

We did a book club on your latest book, The God Solution. That's nice to know. I'm glad to know that. This is audio only no video i'll probably i might put a little clip but usually most of my work is audio okay yeah you look beautiful that's a very sweet thing to say just a minute I'm getting a call from God. She's a liar? I wouldn't call her a liar to her face. I know she said that was beautiful, but she was just being complimentary. She wasn't lying. All right, I'll tell her.

Thanks, pal. God says to tell you that it's not the truth. Oh, well. I'm kind of curious, what was the conclusion of the book club on the god solution you know i'm glad that you asked that i actually wrote a conclusion of what i felt oh i'd love to see it would you would you send it to me i will send it to you afterwards yes i love this journey that i'm on because whether you're a mom in a suburban area like myself sometimes podcasting from my closet or you're neil donald walsh into our consciousness in this time i have found that a lot of us are aligning. We're receiving very similar things. Much of the things in your book were things that I have, you know, been contemplating, as well as seeing from a different perspective. I too grew up. I'm a recovering Catholic. You really had myself,

as well as the people who were in the book club, really asking ourselves some questions that maybe we hadn't seen in that light before. And I actually thought about the quote that Rumi had said. I belong to no religion. My religion is love. Every heart is my temple. And so each one of us has a spark of God within us. How old is your child? Well, I have four children.

Oh, my gosh. My oldest is almost 26 years old. You had a child when you were four? No, I had a child in my 20s and I have children all the way till 11. Shanna, how old are you? I'm 47. You're 47 and you look 27? Oh, my God. I love you even more. I'm not the first person who told you that.

You've been hearing that for the past 20 years. You know, my mom looks very young as well. So it must be a good French Creole gene. Wow. Wow. Yeah. Or also meditation. You know, many of my practices, they do help you stay younger. Every day, I wish that I could be more present like a child.

You know, I have read your books and I've watched you on other interviews. And oftentimes, you bring me to tears. In fact, as I sat down, I said, do I need to get tissue? And then I was like, wait a second, I can do this professionally. Your vulnerability, how humble you are, is very touching. You're a very nice person to say those things. Your check will be sent out in the morning. You're funny too. I love it. But here's one question I do want to start with, though. How would you describe your soul?

A work in progress. Number one, an element of the essential essence. I would describe my soul as an individuation of divinity. I would describe my soul as an entity year has not so far achieved my goal, but is working toward it, and hopes to get closer before the end of this particular lifetime. I would describe my soul as a spiritual entity as well that's experienced many lifetimes, I mean hundreds of lifetimes, as have most of our souls. that it could be more of what it knows itself to be, but has found a challenge in stepping into the fullness of that. You know, Shanna, I have come to a place

where I admire beyond description those souls among us who have achieved not only an awareness and understanding, a consciousness, if you please, of who they are, but who have actually stepped into the living of it on a day-to-day basis. I knew such a man in my life. His name was Thich Nhat Hanh. He has since celebrated his continuation day. But I met Thich Nhat Hanh a number of times when we spoke at the same conference together. He was one of the speakers, I was one of the speakers. So we got to become acquainted. But I knew as soon as he walked into the room, oh my gosh, something extraordinary has just happened.

Just with his entry into the room because of the energy that he brought with him. And I made a declaration then that maybe, maybe I could one day get close to bringing that kind of energy into the room when I move into such a space. You know, there's a wonderful statement in a book called A Course in Miracles. And the statement is, you have come to the room to heal the room. You have come to this space to heal

this space. There's no other reason for you to be here. Thich Nhat Hanh lived that message. And so he's one of two or three people, not 12 or 15 or 20, but one of two or three that I have met in my life

that have actually exemplified their true identity as singularizations of the singularity. So how would I describe my soul? I would describe my soul as a work in progress wishing to be further down the line than I am but happy to have made it thus far

no complaints no sadness just a yearning to be even more expressive of who I really am. That's beautiful. So genuine. So true about Thich Nhat Hanh. He's one of my greatest teachers.

I can't even imagine being in his presence. It was a glorious experience and I experienced it more than once. We tended to be invited to many of the same kinds of conferences. So we'd be on the speaker's roster, you know, for various events. And we would meet in the speaker's lounge or we would meet, you know, in what they called the green room between our sessions. Often he would go first and then I would have to follow him and I would make a joke with my audience,

you know, this is impossible. There's no way in the world that I can follow Thich Nhat Hanh. So, and I couldn't easily because he's just an extraordinary blessed wonderful loving caring soft gentle compassionate deeply understanding human being and as you are too I mean in your presence right now I mean and like I said with TechnoCon I would get emotional too listening to him it's the energy it's love that you and Technocotton have so willingly given the world that honestly man really screwed up when it came to how they spoke on behalf of God for all these thousands of years I've tried their best

to explain the inexplicable in human terms it's like a drop of water trying to describe the ocean. Very, very difficult. And they've done their best. I've often made the statement, Shanna, that religions are not bad. They're simply incomplete. There simply is more to know on this subject. And if the world's religions have made any kind of error or mistake, it's in imagining that they have the total answer,

that they are the total answer. And some religions claim to be not only only the total answer but the only answer that is either you belong to that religion or you're going to hell and so it's i think an error on the part of many religions with regard to this topic we are as children who have learned how to add and subtract, but we think that's all there is to mathematics, to use an analogy, to draw a comparison. So we've learned the fundamentals, we've learned how to add and subtract, then we realize, oh, there's long division. Oh, there's multiplication. Oh, there's algebra.

Oh, there's geometry. Oh, there's higher mathematics. Oh my gosh, there's so. Oh, there's geometry. Oh, there's higher mathematics. Oh my gosh, there's so much more here than I thought. But we are like children who have learned how to add and subtract, and we think that's all there is to math. I have always been more mathematical than mathematical. I love numerology. Well, then things must be adding up pretty well for you. They seem to, because I always get the signs everywhere. There's an interesting thing going on in our history, though.

That is, most of our religions do not allow us to ask questions. You're not supposed to. There's an activity, Shanna, that we engage in, in every other area of human endeavor. We engage in this activity in the area of science, in the area of medicine, in the area of our technologies, but we do not allow it in the area of our most sacred beliefs. And that is this. What we do in every other area of life? Question the prior assumption. When a scientist comes upon a discovery in the laboratory, the first thing she does is question the prior assumption. Is it possible that I could be wrong, or that what led up to this,

there might be something that's not complete or not wholly known. In the area of medicine, the first thing that a researcher discovers is that there's more to know on this subject. We need to question the prior assumption. And the same is true in the area of our technologies, but in the area of our most sacred beliefs, not just by the way, our spiritual beliefs, our political beliefs as well, our economic beliefs, our social understandings. In the area of our most sacred understandings, we're not allowed to question the prior assumption. And if you question the prior assumption, you're called a blasphemer. You're made wrong. Adhere to the party line, whether it's a particular religion or a particular political party or a particular school of economics or some social construction that we have artificially

created. So it takes an idea hero to question the prior assumption. That's why I write about idea heroes in the book. I love what you said. You said, we need a civil rights movement for the soul. Yes, a civil rights movement for the soul is exactly what we need. Seriously. I also love something that you said, that God made us in his image, but have we in return created God in our image? And I'm afraid that we have. Most human beings who believe in God, and by the way, that's eight out of 10 people. Surveys have shown that eight out of 10 people believe in some sort of higher power. But we have, in fact, created God in our image. We think that God is judgmental, condemning, punishing, easily angered, vengeful.

Imagine that God is just like us. And we also think that God loves us with conditions that, you know, I love you if we believe in, I love you if kind of God. And we can't imagine loving each other the way God loves us. Because God loves us with a perfect love that needs nothing in return, that expects nothing in return, that requires nothing in return, that even hopes for nothing in return. Why? Because, of course, God is the all of everything and needs nothing. So, if we could enter our relationships with each other, we can't even treat the person on the pillow next to us in that way. Oh, yes, I will love you without needing anything in return, without even hoping for anything in return. I love you just because of who and what you are, not because of what I can get out of it.

Because if I love you because of what I can get out of it, then I'm not loving you at all. I'm loving me, simply using you as a way of loving myself. But when I love you without needing anything in return, without asking anything in return, without requiring, certainly never requiring anything in return, then I've discovered the basis of pure love, which is how God loves us. I could, of course, be wrong about all of that, but I don't think so. I want to share this story that while we've been reading your book over the past month and discussing it, I had cleaned the house like all day. And my daughter, she took a bowl of cereal into the living room. She's 11.

And she spilled it. And she had cereal all over and milk all over. And of course, I'm like, Oh, you know, I reacted not too harshly, but you know, I'm cleaning it up with her and she's crying hysterically. I'm like, it's okay. And I said, have you ever heard? Don't cry over spill milk. And I said, Kinsley, it's fine. She's been, you cleaned all day long, Mommy.

I'm so sorry. You know, I just hugged her. And I said, you spilled milk. It was a mistake. We cleaned it up. But I'm not mad at you. I still love you. And I explained to her in that moment that it was unconditional love.

I said, this is what that is. And the reason why I did that, though, was because I was reading your book and I had been reminded of that. So thank you. So glad if messages that have been sent to our community of humans has served you in such a beneficial way. It's important for me to let our audience know that those aren't my messages. This is not my wisdom. This is not my clarity. I've simply taken dictation. I'm like a good secretary.

I've taken dictation. And so what I have done in my writing is to share what God has shared with me. But I'm happy to know that the messages that God has given to me to share have brought benefit to your life. Thank you for telling me that. It makes me feel good. Yeah. A moment like that, you could even make or break a kid, right? Absolutely. Yes. Yeah. I mean, I did have beautiful examples of, you know, forgiveness and love and unconditional love. My momoa in Louisiana, We have momos, right? She was that. I remember she taught me how to do the

rosary. And we prayed and prayed and every day asking God to forgive us. I was a pretty good little girl because I was afraid, if anything. I didn't want to be bad. You know, I don't want to be damned to hell or punished. You say that God will never forgive us in your book. No. You talk about that. God will never forgive you for anything. And when I'm invited to give talks in churches, I usually scandalize the congregation because I do stand up there in the pulpit

and I say that. I say, thank you for having me here. It's wonderful to share this time with you. And I've come to tell you that God will never forgive you for anything. And people's eyes cross in the front row. They go out of their mind. How can you say such a thing? And then I have to explain to them, nothing that you could do, and I mean nothing, N-O-T-H-I-N-G, let me spell it out for you, nothing that you could do could ever hurt, anger, injure, frustrate, or damage God in any way. It's simply impossible.

Any more than you could be frustrated, angered, or damaged in any way by a six-month-old child. If you're holding a baby, then I ask my audience, how many of you have ever held a six or nine month old baby in your arms? At least once in your life. And almost every hand in the audience goes up. Even those who are not mothers and not parents have had the experience of holding maybe a relative's child or a grandchild, someone's child, in their arms. I say, okay, now imagine that you're holding this seven-month-old baby in your arms, a picture of perfection,

just the beauty and the wonder and the glory of that perfect being. And then the child has an unfortunate biological accident. What do you say to the child? Oh, that's okay. I forgive you. Of course not. Give us. It's not necessary. It's not even part of the equation.

And we understand that because we understand how such a thing could happen to a six-month-old child or for that matter to adults who are acting like children. Which includes most of the adults on this planet who are acting like children, at least some of the time. And so what I was made to understand is that understanding replaces forgiveness in the mind of the master. And when we understand how a person could do or say a particular thing, we're not saying we agree with it. We're not saying we condone it. We're not saying we hope they repeat it. We are saying we understand it. Ah, I understand how you could be thinking, saying, or doing

such a thing. And understanding replaces forgiveness in the mind of the master. Speaking of the Catholic background, I too was born and raised a Catholic, and I'm grateful for it. I'm so grateful for my Catholic upbringing, because it may not have given me all the answers, but it at least brought to me an awareness that there's this thing called God. And that there's more going on here than meets the eye. And it brought me a deep awareness of that, which children who are raised in a completely atheistic environment may not have an awareness of. And they have to start from scratch in their own understanding of a higher power. So at least I wasn't starting from scratch. At least I had an awareness that, ah, there's more going on here than meets the eye.

Wow. Or as Shakespeare so beautifully put it in Hamlet, there are more things in heaven and earth ratio than are dreamt of in your philosophy. Wow. Thank you for saying that that because I've been angry. Anger is okay. Anger is one of the seven natural emotions. And so anger is totally okay. There's a guy who got so angry at one point in his life that he walked into a temple and he made a whip out of a rope.

He tied knots in the rope and he was waving it over his head in the temple, driving the money changers out of the temple. Raising his voice and saying, you hypocrites. And turning over the tables of the merchants who had gone to the temple to sell their merchandise. I forgot his name, but he's a fairly well-known person in history who actually had moments of his own anger. So anger is a natural expression. To suppress anger can do more harm than good. But what we want to make sure is that when we express anger, we express it in a way that does not hurt, damage, or injure anyone else. That does not cause anyone else physical or emotional distress. But to simply say to someone, you know, I don't feel good about

what's happening here. I feel angry about this. It's totally okay. I remember the story of one of our popes, John Paul XXIII, and he was riding in a motorcade through Rome a few years ago. He has since celebrated his continuation day. But he was riding through Rome in a motorcade, waving to the crowd, and some guy stepped out of the crowd and shot him six times. Not once or twice, but six times. And all of the bullets hit him. The man was apparently a good marksman because none of the shots missed the bullet. He was riddled with bullet holes from

top to bottom. He, of course, survived amazingly. I say, of course, because history tells us he was here for a lot longer than that day. But he was injured severely and he took weeks to survive those six bullet holes. When he had survived, he went to the jail cell of his assailant, who, of course, was captured right there on the spot. Everyone jumped all over him, and they tried him, and they threw him in jail for the rest of his life. And so he went to the jail cell of his assailant. And of course he couldn't go anywhere without the media following him. The Pope doesn't make a move without the press knowing exactly what he's doing. So all the reporters are following him and they follow him to the jail cell.

They couldn't go in the jail cell with him, but they could see through the bars and they could hear what he was saying. And he said something quite extraordinary to the man who shot him six times. This is where you're supposed to ask, what did he say? What did he say? Strange you should ask. He said to the man who shot him six times, He no longer portrayed for you

the spirit of Satyagraha. He blessed the man who tried to kill him. Then he asked the man an interesting question. He said, I'm not going to condone what you did.

I'm not going to agree with what you did. I'm not going to suggest that other people do what you did. But can you tell me why you did it? I'm simply curious. Why would you want to shoot the Pope? And he said, it's easy. He said, your church has done more to damage or injure or harm my religion

than any other single human institution in the history of our world. I'm a Muslim. And you've done more, in my opinion, to damage my religion than any other institution. And the Pope said, I don't agree with your assessment. And I don't agree with your assessment and I don't agree with your solution, but I now understand what could motivate you to do what you tried to do and try to end my life. And the two became pen pals. Can you believe this? This is, by the way, a matter of history. I'm not making this up. The prisoner and the Pope exchanged letters back and forth from the prison to the Vatican for years.

They became pen pals, sharing their hearts and their souls with each other. And finally, after seven years, the Pope interceded with the civil authorities in Italy and asked the authorities to grant the man a full pardon. Oh, my goodness. Which the authorities did, of course, because when the Pope asks you to do something in Italy, I promise you, you do it. So they granted the man a full pardon. Because the Pope said, you know, he's paid with seven years of his life. He made a mistake.

He now realizes the mistake he made. We've, he's paid with seven years of his life. He made a mistake. He now realizes the mistake he made. We've been exchanging letters for seven years. He would never do something like that again. He realizes that it's okay to be angry, but not okay to be violent. To use your anger in a violent way. And that's a wonderful example of understanding replaces forgiveness in the mind of the master. Yeah, of course, you know how it is. What comes into your life is exactly what you need, right?

Because I do, I was feeling like I had what they even termed it, religious trauma syndrome. Yes. And of course, I'm going to take a little bit of quarrel with what you said. What comes into your life is exactly what you need. I'm going to suggest to you that we need nothing. The 10 illusions of humans starts with the first illusion, the idea that need exists. We need nothing to be perfectly happy in any given moment. Everything that we imagine that we need is an illusion. Now, Shanna, you may not know this, or maybe you do. I don't know if you know my history, but I spent a year of my life living on the sidewalk. I was what's known in America as a street person. I had lost everything. I had two pair of jeans, two shirts, one pair of shoes, and that was it. And a knapsack, a few pieces of building around it. And that's all I had.

I slept on the concrete or a piece of ground if I could find a stretch of ground where I wouldn't be thrown off by some policeman. I walked the streets with my hand out to people every day because I woke every morning not knowing how I was going to eat that day. Literally did not have a nickel to my name and put my hand out to people. Anything would help. Anything would help.

By the way, just as an aside, let me say, please don't ever go anywhere without some loose change or some folding money that you're willing to part with in your pocket, easily accessible. Reach into your pocket when you see someone saying anything would help. Don't get into your judgment about what they're going to use it for. Just share what you have. So I would walk up to people and ask, could I please maybe ask you if you have anything at all that you could share with me. I would love to be able to eat before the end of the day. And I lived that way for a year, not for a couple of bad weeks or a couple of tough months,

but for a year of my life, sleeping outside. You know, you really learn what it's like to live without any dignity whatsoever. People don't really think about this, but when a person is homeless, where do they even go to the bathroom? How do you even handle basic biological necessities? You have to sneak into restaurants, sneak into the McDonald's or whatever, and see if you can use the restroom without the manager throwing you out and after a while if the manager gets to know that you're a straight person you usually look like one and smell like one because you haven't had a shower in eight months and

you're wearing the same clothes you can't afford to have your clothes dry clean so you and your clothes and your hair in a dead giveaway you walk into a restaurant and the manager comes up to you no, no, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, not here, not here, please. And you have to beg the manager can I just have seven minutes? I need to use the bathroom. He doesn't want you in the restaurant because most homeless people then wind up going through the restaurant bothering the customers and asking them if they could have some money. Finally, one lady who is a wonderful manager of a restaurant in downtown,

small town where I live, she finally looked at me one day and she said, okay, in and out. Promise? In and out. I said, I promise. No trouble. For me. Thank you for letting me use the bathroom and she had the heart to allow me to use the bathroom and so I would go there every day that was the place that I was

allowed to use the facility when you live like that for a year of your life you realize oh how little I need to be perfectly happy as a human being and all of a sudden the size of your house, the make of your car, whether you get to the hairdresser that week, whether you missed your appointment at the styling salon. I mean, hello. And you realize what God said to me, Neil, nothing matters.

You're making it all up. Stop it. And I said to God well then what is this all about what are we here for what does it take to have a halfway decent life and God said to me

you want it in one or two sentences write this down Neil your life has nothing to do with you it's about everyone whose life you touch and the way Neil, your life has nothing to do with you. It's about everyone whose life you touch and the way in which you touch it. When you understand that, you will realize that in the largest sense,

your life does have something to do with you for the most extraordinary reason. There's nobody else in the room. Neil, there's only one of us. Looking like a lot of different essences but simply different individual expressions of the same single thing. So I've learned in my life, Shannon, that what I do for you, I do

for me. And what I fail to do for you, I do for me. And what I fail to do for you, I fail to do for me. Because there's only one of us here. It looks like there's two of us. But there's only one of us. Now, when I get that, when I speak to other people, when I interact with the neighbor across the street, much less the person across the pillow, with that understanding, with that awareness, oh, I see. I see. You're simply me looking a little different. We're all fingers on the same hand.

We're individual. Each of our fingers looks different, functions differently, but they're not separate. They're all part of the same hand. We are all fingers on the hands of God. It's really quite simple. If we chose to live that way, there'd be no more war. We couldn't do in Ukraine what's being done in Ukraine.

There'd be no more starvation. We couldn't be a civilization where 653 children die of starvation every hour. Every hour of every day on this planet. Well, we throw away enough food in the restaurants of Los Angeles and New York that would be needed to feed an entire village for a week. There's so much that would change. Our ecology would change.

Our politics would change. Our social constructions would change. Everything would change if we simply decided, oh, I get it. We are all one. There's only one of us i see now i see wait a minute didn't that guy i was talking about a while ago didn't he say something about that oh yeah wait wait he said i have an idea how about if you do unto others as you would have it done unto you? I have an idea. Bless, bless, bless your enemies. And pray for those who persecute you. And do good to those who would do you evil.

And when a man slaps you on the right cheek, turn and offer him your left. And when a man steals your coat, offer him your shirt as well. And when a man demands that you walk one mile with him, go with him to way. And raise not your fist to heaven, and curse the darkness not, but be a light unto the darkness, that you might know who you really are, and that all those whose lives you touch will know who they really are as well.

Of course, I could be wrong about all of this. I don't think so. I was wrong about one thing, that I was going to try not to cry during this interview. It's not even something we don't know. Have we forgotten? That's the extraordinary thing about all of this. All of us know all of this. Nobody's slapping their forehead

with the palm of their hand going, my God, I never even thought about something like that. Everyone understands this perfectly. But we live in fear. What would happen if we actually lived that way? So we have to remove the fear from our lives. False evidence appearing real. F-E-A-R. And seek understanding. Yeah. Help me understand why you would do or say such a thing.

It's really very simple. You know, for some time, I had the hardest time saying the word God. Praying to a source or this energy, why am I afraid of this word? There's a lot of people who are uncomfortable with the word God. Why is that? Well, I think we have a false notion

of who and what God is. You know, as I mentioned earlier, eight out of 10 people on the planet are surveys. I'm not making this number up. They've taken sociological surveys across the planet in every country of the world. And we've discovered that eight out of 10 people, as I mentioned earlier, believe in some kind of higher power. But it's not whether we believe in a higher power, it's what we believe about that higher power. So the reason that so many people have a challenge and difficulty with the word God is that we think, number one, that God is judgmental, condemning, and punishing. That this is how God shows love for us.

Number two, we imagine that God is exclusivist, that God says, no, I am an exclusive God. And in order to get into my club, you have to say the magic word. And so you have to be a member of this religion or that cult or that organization or whatever. And that's the only way you can be in my good graces. And number three, many people have a problem with the word God, especially some ladies might have a particular problem because we think that God has a penis. And when I brought up in an audience a few years ago that God has a vagina, the place went crazy. They couldn't believe it. And I said, well, God also has a penis.

We keep trying to make God a certain way. Oh, by the way, not only does God have a certain gender we tell each other, but also a certain race. Can you imagine telling people that God is black? Or that God has skin that's a little bit different? Or that God speaks with an accent, that God has a dialogue, that God belongs to a certain nationality. We keep trying to put God into a pigeonhole. So, of course, people have a difficulty with the word God because the human species has pigeonholed God in a way that their culture and their upbringing has taught them

to. So, and most of the world's religions, if not all that I know of, actually think of God as male. Yeah. Yeah. Father God. Our Father who art in heaven. However, the mother is always the creator. She's the creatrix.

Isn't that interesting? We have to change our definition of God. What if we decided that God was neither male nor female, neither black nor white, neither old nor young, neither this nationality nor that nationality? What if we decided that God was all of it and none of it in particular? So my understanding is that God is an essential essence, simply an energetic expression

that can take any form it chooses to take and any form that it believes would help us to understand who and what it is. But the essential essence, the basic energetic that we call God in my view is simply pure love. The energy that we feel as pure love, the love that needs, asks, expects, and demands nothing in return. That's the God solution. Simply treat everyone else in that way. And the reason it's so hard for us to do that is because we think there's something to lose. What have I got to lose if I treat the other person in this wonderful way?

Sooner or later, it's going to come back to hurt me. Only when you think you have nothing to lose. You know, I realized that that's the benefit I could derive out of living on the street for a year. After a year on the sidewalk, I realized I have nothing to lose. And if you don't think that will alter your belief system, I promise you that it will. And so I decided, what if I chose to simply love everybody without limitation, without condition? What if I had nothing

to lose? And that brought me to a place of understanding what pure love is really about. When you realize you have nothing to lose, everything to gain. The feeling of love flowing through you to another is all the reward you need if you need a reward at all. It's really quite simple. I have two dogs. Two dogs in my life. You know what? I can't get enough of them.

I can't get enough of them. I want them in my lap. I want them, I want to give them squeezes. I want to give them pets all the time. But I feel the same way about my beloved wife. I can't get enough of her. I say to her, I can't get enough of you. She says, well, try. Having that understanding of, I guess, it's really truly being able to be empathetic and seeing from a different perspective. We're so used to seeing just ourselves. Well, age of technology has helped that empathy. I mean, I can tell you, my kids, my youngest, I mean, she cries about stuff like the Willow Project, where, you know, when I was little, I wouldn't have had a clue there were such things.

So technology has definitely helped in someone's capability to be able to understand what's going on on the other side of the world. It's helped in our evolution for sure. And that's why this is the perfect time for our advancement, precisely because of what you've just noticed, this age of technology.

What we're doing right here, interacting with each other in the way we are, would not have been possible even a few short years ago. So we now have the ability to get the word out, to share the highest truth with the highest number of people in the fastest way possible. We didn't have that ability just a few short years ago, but now we do. So everyone who's listening to this program can decide to become part of that process, to be an idea hero, and to send a new idea about God, about life, and about who we are to each other in the wide variety of ways that today's technology provides.

Including just a simple interaction with another human being. Yes. A couple of years ago, I was walking down the street to my car. I just left a coffee shop and there was a policeman putting a ticket on my car. I overstayed my parking limit time. And I said, officer, could I talk to you for a minute? He said, yeah.

I'm sure he thought I was going to give him a ration for putting a ticket on my car and ask him to tear it up and throw it away. But I didn't. I said, you know what? I walked over to him. I said, I just want to tell you something. before you leave the house, when you put that shirt on and that blue coat on, and you put that little silver piece of metal, you pin it on your shirt,

you're making a promise. You're saying to yourself, if need comes to shove and I have to do it, nothing will stop me from getting between anyone I meet on the street and any harm that could come to them. I will stand between you and any harm that could come to you, no matter what that could be. That's what I will do.

I looked at this policeman and I said, I am not unaware of the silent promise that you make. And I want you to know how much that means to me and how much I appreciate you for making that kind of a promise. He looked up at me and pulled the ticket out from underneath the windshield wiper. And I said, no, no, no, no, no, no, please don't do that. I didn't say that to get you to tear up my ticket. Please put it right back. You're simply doing your job. I stayed past the time limit on my parking meter. This is what you're supposed to be doing. I didn't say that to get you to tear my ticket

up. I said it so you could say, ah, that's the ticket. I want you to know that I meant every word that I said. Sky walked up to me. He said, you know what, mister? I've been on this force for 27 years and no one has ever said anything like that to me. You have just made my career. His tiniest little drop

left his eye and rolled down his cheek as he turned and walked away. I'm not making myself a good guy. I'm not telling that story to make you think of me as a nice person. I'm told that story to let you know the thousand and one ways that we can give people back to themselves. The clerk at the post office, the policeman on the street, the lady at the coffee shop, to say nothing of the person across the pillow. What have you said today to anyone

that gives people back to themselves and allows them to think that they were right when they were seven and thought that they were so special? So, when you tell people you were right when you were seven, you have sent them to heaven.

I should have brought the tissue. Yesterday I had, I'm a massage therapist, just once a week. And I had a nurse and a teacher. And I left there so happy. I said, how lucky am I that I got to make them feel good and provide a safe space of relaxation for people like them. Felt so good. My wife is a massage therapist. Is she? When I met her, she was working five days a week.

It was her full-time job as a massage therapist. She had a wonderful practice in town. And when I found out that she was a masseuse, then I did, of course, make some time with her. Any excuse to take off my clothes with her. And a week later, we got married. Oh, wow. Yeah.

It was a lovely, sweet experience. We had known each other just a very short period of time. We were on our second date. We were driving down the road to go to see a play. And she looked at me from the passenger seat and said, you know what? I think we should be married. And I looked at her and I said,

you don't want to say that to me twice. She said, no, I'm serious. I think we should be married. We have the same thoughts about things, the same philosophy, the same spiritual understanding. We even like the same food, I've discovered. We like the same music. I mean, anybody who likes Bing Crosby can't be all bad. Half your listeners are saying, Bing Crosby? Who's Bing Crosby? No, I'm from Louisiana.

So we got married the next day. Wow. I reached across the car and I said, done. We got on a plane the next day, flew to Las Vegas, where you can get a marriage license with no waiting period, went to a wedding chapel, and became husband and wife. Just that simple. That was almost 16 years ago.

Congratulations. Yeah. Whenever I'm doing podcasts, I forget sometimes, you know, that there's so many people listening. Like it's just an intimate conversation and if I do think about someone listening it's usually like one or two people like oh I hope this person's listening because you know

this is for them or this is actually a special week and not only do I have you on which thank you but I have to hit 1 million downloads, which is an accomplishment for a podcast. I would say so. Yeah, I'm proud of myself. Wow. Wow. When do I get to come back on your show? Whenever you want. You can be my co-host if you want. Okay. Ladies my co-host if you want. Okay, ladies and gentlemen, I'll be on the show again every day for the next month and a half because I'm going to be the co-host

of Sense of Soul. That would be amazing. You truly have a sense of soul. Well, you know, you've had conversations with some pretty high up people. Yeah, I have. And we all have.

And I'm going to conclude my visit with you today by sharing that most important message. Because people have asked me, what is the most important message in conversations with God? And I tell them what God said to me. Neil, I talk to everyone all the time. The question is not to whom do I talk? The question is, who's listening? But we call it something else. Most people call it a hunch, an epiphany, or women's intuition, or, you know, know a psychic hit you give it some other name we don't

dare call it a conversation with God because we don't want to be ridiculed and made small and made wrong so we call it something else but God is talking to all of us all the time and I simply called it exactly what it is, a conversation with God. I didn't sit down to write a book and think to myself, I'll call it a conversation with God. That's not what happened. I was having a very sacred, very personal, private experience. Never thought anyone would ever see what I was writing on my yellow legal pad. But I was told in the conversation, you will make of this one day a book,

and it will be accessed by many people. And you know what I thought? That's not going to happen. It's not a publisher in the country who's going to say, hey, stop the presses, hold everything. I got a guy country who's going to say, hey, stop the presses. Hold everything. I got a guy here who's talking to God. Nobody's going to publish this book. Nobody's going to put this out as if it were. So I thought, I've got you now. I've got you.

I'm going to actually send it to a couple of publishers just to see what would happen. Because if it does get published, which is not going to happen. I mean, really, nobody's going to publish a book because a guy says he's talking to God. But if it does happen, if it is accessed by many people, then I will know that it's true, that what's happening is exactly what's happening and exactly what I'm saying. So I did send it to two or three small publishers.

I didn't send it to Random House or Simon & Schuster, the bigger publishers. I just sent it to a couple of small publishers who put out five or eight books a year. And one of them said, we're going to put this book out. We like it. And I thought, well, this is amazing.

If this book sells 500 copies, it'll be a lot. And it didn't sell 500 copies. It only sold 15 million. In 37 languages. Not not bragging just saying so I've learned to listen where the still small voice within is speaking and that's what I would leave

as my closing statement to everybody else. God talks to everyone all the time. It's not a question of to whom is God talking. The question is, who's listening? I love that. And I just adore you thank you so much for this time I really appreciate it

thank you again for your vulnerability I think that is one thing that does help people come together is just being honest and real and you have definitely done that in all of your work

you're very kind to say those things and to recognize that Just being honest and real. And you have definitely done that in all of your work. You're very kind to say those things and to recognize that. And I appreciate those sweet words shared with me. And thank you for the invitation and the opportunity to be here with you. I've learned so much. You have really been a huge part of my journey and so many others. So thank you. Can you tell everybody where they can find you? Sure. They can just go to cwgconnect.com. CWG, of course, stands for Conversations with God. They just go to cwgconnect.com and there they can find me and all sorts of wonderful resources including a platform called

ask neil where they can ask me any question they'd like to ask and i go there three times a day to see what people are asking me and i give them the best answer that i can provide wonderful no more books coming out oh yes i have a book coming out in November called God Talk. It's an instruction book on how to have your own conversation with God. In 2024, I have a book coming out called Putting Death to Death. And it's about bringing an end to the idea that we could ever die. And it talks about what would change in the way we live our lives on Earth if we thought that we never really ceased to exist.

We're infinite. Putting death to death. So those are my two next books. Thank you, Neil. You've been a blessing. Thank you. You're welcome, my friend. Bye for now.

Bye. That was fun. Thanks for listening to Sense of Soul Podcast. And thanks to our special guests for joining me. If you want more of Sense of Soul, check out my website at www.mysenseofsoul.com, where you can work with me one-on-one or help support sense of soul podcast by donating to my coffee fund. Thanks for listening.