Customer Reviews

Conversations With God : An Uncommon Dialogue, Book Two, Audio Volumes 1-3

5 star:		(960)
4 star:		(112)
3 star:		(60)
2 star:		(52)
1 star:		(381)

 

 

I have always known my childhood teaching about God were flawed. This book tells the truth. I would also recommend the book An Encounter With a Prophet for conformation of these truths.

I came to read this book (and also the trilogy)through a friend who said she found comfort and wisdom in its pages. She said that whenever she felt depressed and hopeless she would simply open the book and read, and before long her depression would disappear. Because of my respect for my friend I decided to read a few pages myself.

I found myself reading all three books very quickly. I found the dialogue between Walsh and God captivating to say the least. As a person who has studied the Bible for a large portion of my life I can say that much of what is covered in Book 2 and the trilogy is hard to accept(and I'm not so sure I can accept some of its messages). But I am trying to keep an open mind.

Overall, the message of CWG (to me) is to treat others as you want to be treated and know that all things begin with love. While this is a message that we all should have heard before(the teachings of Jesus? ), the New Age slant to the message was unexpectedly attractive. The idea that there is no Devil, and that Hell is only a harsh mythology, is quite refreshing to someone taught to fear both of these things.

Finally, I don't know if Mr. Walsh is talking to God or not. I don't really care. What I have read in these books has caused me to ask questions about my own belief system and ask questions about my understanding of me, God, and the Universe. The real treasure with this book and this trilogy, is that we are asked to question our understanding of our Self. We are asked to do the unthinkable and question the validity of organized religions. We are asked to question the direction of our life and determine if that direction will define Who We Really Are.

Any book that helps people do that is well worth the read.

Let me begin by saying that Amazon.com requires me to rate the book in order to write a review. Actually, I have no idea how to rate it because I'm not sure what the book represents. So my three star rating simply means "not rated." If compelled to, I could make an argument for anything from one star to five.

I read this book on the advice of a friend. He told me the book was "fascinating." I certainly agree.

The main thing I would like to say in the beginning is that this book shares some elements with Christianity, but is certainly not Christianity of the sort that most people will recognize. So if you do not like to read books that are at odds with your version of Christianity, avoid this one. It will be a one star book for you.

The author tells us that he had been writing down his religious and philosophical questions on a yellow legal pad for years. One day, he began to hear answers. He then wrote those answers down. What was "dictated" to him becomes the backbone of this book.

I have no way of knowing what the real source of these responses to the questions in the conversations is. It could be Divine communications. It could be Satanic ones. It could be a manifestation of the author's psychology. There are a lot of other things it could be. You'll have to decide for yourself. If you have a spiritual advisor or counselor whom you respect, that would be a good subject to discuss with her or him.

I found myself empathizing with the author's perspective of the conversations. "I am . . . deeply embarrassed by my own life . . . ." "Yet I am encouraged by God to grant myself forgiveness for my failings and not to live in fear and guilt but to always keep trying -- to live a grand vision. I know that's what God wants for all of us."

There were several concepts in the book that I found to be new, and which added to my spiritual perspective. One was: "The truth is, God talks to everybody." That made me think about ways that I could pay more attention to what was going on to me and inside me as ways to know God.

A second one was the notion that the Ten Commandments are there not to be obeyed merely, but as ways for us to test ourselves on how well attuned we are to God's way.

As someone who loves to work on creative activities, I liked the many affirmations about God wanting us to create the goodness we desire through our thoughts and deeds. "There is only one reason to do anything: as a statement to the universe of Who You Are."

About two-thirds of the way into the book, the conversation lost me. There were extensive discussions of reincarnation, infinite universes, gods beyond gods, and moving from being a killer to being someone imbued in love. That material did not resonate with me in either a religious or a spiritual sense.

The most unexpected part of the book for me was that the voice of God (as described in the book) is a very colloquial and humorous one. It is hard for me to equate this God with the God of Moses and Jesus Christ. But that may just be my limitation. To give you a flavor, the language is much like that in the George Burns movie of many years ago, Oh God.

If you are curious about other perspectives on spirituality, you will enjoy this book. If you are looking for a different perspective than the one you have today, especially one that is less threatening, you may find this to be enlightening.

Let me share with you the three laws in the book: "The First Law is that you can be, do, and have whatever you can imagine. The Second Law is that you attract what you fear. Love is all there is." God describes Himself as having no needs, but three desires: (1) that people know and experience Him (2) that people know and experience who they are and (3) that the whole process of life is a constant joy, continuous creativity, and never-ending experiences of total fulfillment.

May your life be filled with valuable spiritual experiences and guidance!

The Conversations With God series was instrumental in my awakening. As a recovering Fundamentalist Christian, I owe a great debt to God and Mr. Walsch. Of course neither would see it that way. Without revealing too much detail I will just say the turning point for me was discovering this: If God is Perfect Love, how could He/She possibly conceive of, much less create, a place of eternal torture for those of "His Children" who do not follow "The Way". I'm paraphrasing but when I read that, a light came on and I was awakened from the nightmare of horror and guilt that is Fundamentalist Christianity. Holy Wars, Sin, Retribution, Sacrificing His Son, these are not God concepts but are man's concepts turned into religion to control. Perfect Love could never, ever condemn anyone. What happened to "turn the other cheek"? If you have spent years of your life trying to be good, do all the right things, pray, tithe to the church, and nothing seems to work, READ THIS BOOK! You'll discover God has really been there all along waiting for you to listen to Him/Her instead of man's religions.

One reviewer has written, "Read the Bible instead." Good advice. I wonder if she has? Believe it or not, Christians, Jesus was not Mr. Popularity during his walk on earth. Other religious leaders found him to be blasphemous, arrogant, and completely going against what the Torah (the Old Testament) had spoken about. Do you not remember what he said, "I have not come to destroy the law, but to fulfill the law..."

We all fulfill "the law" when we receive the Spirit of the Law and not just the letter of the Law. Of course this book irritates those who think they have the Truth and nothing but the Truth because there is some part of them that knows they don't. All Truth starts as blasphemy because Truth is extremely hard to swallow because it goes against popular notions and poular notions die very, very hard.

People once thought the earth was flat. People once thought that the earth was the center of the universe. People once thought that only Jesus was Divine...oh, wait...that's right...a lot still do.

We are all Divine...we are all gods...even Jesus said this...but because we live in a world where we only allow few people to shine at any given time, this is not widely accepted and embraced as the Truth.

These people who are only giving this book one star haven't really read the book, they just want to try and get other people not to read it. But if you believe that God is Love and that Love could never judge you, or punish you, or throw you in hell then you might consider reading this book but if you like to live in fear and judge others and focus more on evil and the devil than God, Peace, and Love then do not read this book and go back to a literal interpretation of the Bible and let others tell you how to think.

Peace & Blessings

This book reminds me of Carlos Casteneda's books. I enjoy Don Juan's wisdom, but why did he choose such an idiot for a pupil? Carlos asks such stupid questions. So too with Neale Walsch. Now I admit I enjoyed Book 1 of CWG despite Neale's goofiness, but I couldn't get further than page 50 with Book 2. I knew I was in trouble from the beginning. At the end of Chap1 God tells Neale that he will show him how to become a Master. Chap2 begins with Neale whining to God about how people think the whole book is written in a long steady flow, how it's been 5 MONTHS since the first chapter was written -- he just couldn't get inspired, he had too many other things to do. Are you kidding me? God Himself tells you he will teach you how to become a Master and it takes 5 MONTHS for you to become inspired enough to pick up a pencil and paper, you're too busy? Give me a break!

The next thing that annoys me about the book is that Neale seems to come to the conclusion that the rest of us are as clueless as he is. He begins to write summaries at the beginning of each chapter about what went on in the previous chapter. "Did I do that good God? Huh? Huh? Are those the highlights from the last chapter? Am I a good boy for doing that?" Jeez!!! Buy some Cliff notes already.

What really bugs me (from the 50 pages I read) is that this book seems to want to rehash the entire first book. Where's the new stuff? Where's God guiding the course of the new book, getting into new territory? It's Book 1 all over again with the same stupid questions. And Neale has the gall at one point to smugly say, "Of course, I already know all this. I just wanted to bring people who haven't read the first book up to speed." Hey Neale, we ARE up to speed. We all read the first book. We already know this stuff too. If somebody decides to dig into Book 2 first and can't keep up, he can go back and buy Book 1 like the rest of us. I didn't spend 20 bucks just to read the same book all over again.

The final straw came after they got into the "Hitler Went to Heaven" controversy again. They covered this topic thoroughly in Book 1 and do it all over again in Book 2, ad nauseum. What got me is when the next chapter starts (and once again Neale does his summary thing) Neale says "Gee whiz God, before we go any further can you clarify a couple of things for me?
I know you already explained it, but ... why DID Hitler go to heaven?" For Christ's Sake! I was just praying for God to pull a Sam Kinison on him: "You know, Neale, I'm beginning to think I made a big mistake with you. You appear to be a Complete Freaking Moron who can't seem to grasp a Simple Freaking Concept stated in SIMPLE FREAKING ENGLISH! HITLER WENT TO HEAVEN BECAUSE THERE IS NO OTHER PLACE TO GO! HELL DOES NOT EXIST! THERE IS ONLY HEAVEN! HOW CLEARLY CAN I SAY IT! ARGH! ARRRGGGHHHH!

Oh well. Maybe the whole point of this book is to teach patience. How long can YOU put up with stupidity before you finally say "Enough!"

This book was ridiculous. I found a contradiction or error in reasoning on nearly every page. I'm no language expert or anything, but I really am amazed at how many people missed Walsch's circular arguements and the way that he and "God" both wrote in the same manner. It is laughably obvious that Walsch had this "life-changing" conversation with his yellow legal pad and no one else.

Book 2 isn't as good as Book 1, primarily because one more often, and more strongly, has the feeling that God's views have been displaced in favor of Mr. Walsch's, which are both politically correct and utopian; moreover, there are issues in Book 2 God simply won't deal with. For example, we are told, generally, that there are no victims, that we all cooperate in creating the world and everything that happens in it; yet Mr. Walsch's God holds some explicitly responsible for the nazi holocaust, and conspicuously avoids mentioning responsiblity on the part of the victims -- leaving us to wonder if He believes they have no responsiblity, are exceptions, or simply doesn't want to discuss the matter.

Although God is supposed to make no judgments, and in fact tells both Walsch and the rest of us that everyone is perfect, the world is perfect, and we must experience who we are not in order to experience who we are, we are also told by God how to change things for the better often enough to get the idea that all's not as He would wish it, that we could (and should?) implement certain changes (the sooner the better?) to make the world a kinder, gentler place. And at times God verges on applause for Clinton, Bush, and others. (A minor point: Book 2 is not as well-proofed as Book 1; for example, at the top of page 197, the word "quality" should be "qualify".)

Nevertheless, there are profound observations in Book 2, making it well worth reading.

The Chinese translation of Walsch's book has just been published in Beijing by the government owned "Friendship Publishing House" and is selling well here as a critique of the Bible and Judaism/Christianity. If one wants an anti-religious book, fine, this is as good as any. But what was particularly galling about this one (at least in the Chinese translation) is the way that Walsh's wisdom is so heavily dependant on his relatively cushy environment. The message that "this life can be paradise, man is God" might be convincing for some in the quiet rural niche of Oregon Walsch has found, it would be considerably more convincing if it was written by someone in Bangladesh or Sierra Leone who has experienced some of the hell on earth this planet offers many of its inhabitants.

What can I say about this book, it really is a must read for all, I have read books 1 and 2 and am now on book3 I am Hindu by birth and naturally have not followed a Christian path but I do believe that all beliefs are very similar and there is one creator-one god for everyone. That is how I was bought up. I was never bought up to believe in Satan and there is no Satan, God created everything and as he says in his book 1 why would he create Satan? There is one reviewer who believes nothing in the book yet had to read them all! This book is not for Bible bashers! It is for people who have expanded views on life and are looking to find there way to there soul/God and there is nothing in this book that would change a person for the worst it can only change a person for the better or not at all, so I guess you have nothing to loose. There is much to absorb from all books and you may need to be read them many times as I have.

No one recommended any of these book to me I just stumbled upon it at my temple. Hindus are very open minded hence them carrying that book, and I am grateful that I found it; it has been enlightening for me! This is a book of substance and I believe are the words from God!