Customer Reviews

Happier Than God: Turn Ordinary Life into an Extraordinary Experience

5 star:		(67)
4 star:		(13)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(6)

 

 

I have to say, the title of this book, "Happier than God," kind of threw me at first. But it was written by Neale Donald Walsch, and I really liked his Conversations with God books, so I thought I'd give the book a chance. I'm glad I did!

I still might have used a different title, but the points he makes are very good. He notes that what is missing from all the current talk about the Law of Attraction (due to the success of The Secret) is God. He explains that some people have misinterpreted the Law to mean you should put all your faith in yourself - in other words, you don't need God. All you've got to do is use the power of your thoughts to attract to you whatever you want.

In this book, he explains God's role in the process of personal creation. He notes that the ability to create your reality is an expression of God. He says the process really has 3 parts: the first has to do with God, the second has to do with you, and the third with you and God together. He then expounds on how personal creation really works.

He also indicates that the law of attraction works most effectively and creates greater happiness when you focus first on helping others and then on yourself. He notes this is true because when you focus on yourself, you limit the amount of energy you send out into the Universe, because there's only one of you. When you focus on others, you multiply the amount of energy you output by the number of others you focus on. And, since we are all connected, you benefit as well as the people you help.

He concludes the book by providing 17 steps to being truly happy. A few examples are:
- Eliminate any thought of separation from God
- Decide that you are not your story
- Bypass the drama
- Drop all expectations

This is a very powerful book that I would recommend to anyone wishing to experience happiness within a spiritual context!

I read this book in a day and a half. I just could not put it down. I have been studying the law of attraction and positive thinking for a long time now, but always felt there was a piece of the puzzle missing. Neale Donald Walsch does and excellent job putting it all together and I was finally able to find the piece that was missing.

I love the way he explains how the law of attraction works. Of all the books I have read in the subject I have never seen anyone explain it as clear. The author really makes everything make sense.

Buy the book, and read it. It is a very profound, very spiritual, to the point book.

This book is amazing. This is my first review and I felt compelled to make sure others found out this book is not to be missed!

I was still on the first chapter when I knew this book was a gem. This book is true spirituality, and it's not about how to conjure a dream home, a six-figure income, or an SUV. You can have that, nothing wrong with it, and the book will explain how and why. And that is why this book is sooo good.

If you are curious about this book, it is not by chance.

I bought this book on pure impulse; it nearly jumped off the shelf of the store I was in. I had no idea what it would be about and was pleasantly surprised to discover that it's about the Law of Attraction--PLUS! I've been a student of the LOA for a while now. "Happier Than God" fills in a lot of missing pieces for me.

My favorite revelation in the book is that when we work to manifest something positive, we attract both the positive AND the negative--AND WE GET THE NEGATIVE FIRST! This creates a context in which we can experience what we've manifested. Suddenly all the times that I've started a diet and GAINED weight make sense. :) Now I have the understanding to help me be patient and push through to accept success.

Ever since Conversations with God Book 1 I've been waiting for Neale to hit it out of the park again. He's come close in parts of his books but has yet to match his initial genius. Neale refers to this book as a project and uses a lot of quotes from his previous books. It read as a project rather than the previously natural inspirations from God. I felt as if he was trying to conjure something profound and advertise previous publications, mostly introducing and revisiting past concepts. This may be ok for someone new to Neale but I would recommend his first book. This book lacks that naturally inspiring progression. He walks you through but it seems like a lot of filler without the promised substance. As far as filling in the gaps of The Secret, I think this book is hyped up and only accomplishes minimal insights about the creation process, at least for this reader who is familiar with Neale's work. I give this book two stars because I was disappointed and await another ingenious publication like the first, even though I've purchased them all.

I had read books 1, 2 [and almost 3 now] of the Conversations with God [CwG] series. I have also watched the film about Neale's life and a couple of DVD's of him.

The title is intriguing, and a brilliant hook to interest you in buying. The book fills all the gaps [if you haven't read CwG, you'll know if you do] left by his [God's?] earlier work.

It is quite brilliant. It offers explanations that make total sense, and doesn't require you to spend years reading spiritual texts to understand it. Walsch is one our best spiritual teachers. His humility and compassion are combined with incisive writing, and life lessons that all hang together.

Given the dialogue he has had/has with God, Happier than God is an opportunity for him to reflect and use his worldly humanity to offer something that resonates and guides from every page.

Yes, if you want the best spiritual book around at present, look no further than this.

I was coming into this book with a relatively strong bias against its existence. I was a fan of some of Walsch's earlier work in the conversation books based on his writing style and the fact that, if you don't absorb it at face value and just use it as a starting off point to think about your own ideas, it's a compact and comprehensive way to have a modern discussion about sound spiritual ideas that have stood the test of time.

That said I have a full-body cringe when I see him popping up with little tangential books or the cruises or the workshops or the nickel and diming services in his sites and organizations. People might find those things useful but because of my own feelings on money they felt like bobbleheads, like maybe he started out very genuine but now was interested in building an empire. Indeed earlier on The New Revelations seemed like rehashed material trying to be passed off as greater understanding and had the potential to disillusion.

I think there are two mains camps in response to his work, and that is people dismissing him outright on a premise and missing out on the potential in some minor details because they feel like the acceptance of anything he has to say could be mistaken as a seal of approval, and then there is the camp that has taken what he's said at face value and clung to it needlessly so that they can't even be talked to because they can't deal with a real life conversation or issue without resorting to their handy Rolodex of aphorisms used out of context.

Fortunately there is that middle ground population that's reasonable about the whole deal even if for better or for worse they're just quiet.

I was about to go into cringe mode when I heard about this book and then one of the excerpts here on Amazon went into detail about how The Secret was abusing a very real idea, kicking it as a cash cow instead of handling it with sensitivity, and thus turning it off to the world. I always felt bad for that lost opportunity, but when he mentioned there were layers to the function of the motivating idea behind the principle I hadn't heard of that before or considered, so I was intrigued. I still don't know why but after a couple more excerpts I gave him the benefit of the doubt.

Crazy money-machine hyper-marketer Neale unloads for almost forty pages in this book, building up but saying absolutely nothing tangible. Then a few interesting discussions trickle in, and then he's back to rare form as the book moves on. This is a QUICK read, but I -am- familiar with how he tends to format his ideas so maybe that helps. Certainly if I hadn't read CwG material before this would seem too overwhelming to knock out in a couple nights.

Here's the strength of the book: You know how in the sales materials, it says it isn't a book on spiritual theory but about applying these ideas in a practical way? It simply delivers on that promise. Everything he's discussing involves God very deeply but you really don't even feel like God's being discussed. It doesn't go the other extreme in feeling like an innocuous self-help book though. While it has some new ideas (in the context of Walsch's collective of work, that is) a lot of the material USES old ideas but in ways you haven't really been presented them before. For example, you might've been exposed to certain structures in the CwG books about "how stuff works" from Thing One to Thing Two to Thing Three, and it made sense to you on a conceptual level, and you even walked away going "Wow, that makes sense to me. I could see it operating like that," and feeling like you've considered something profound. This book feels like his way of saying "Hey, remember when I mentioned these structures before, and you made your own decisions about what I meant? Well what I was actually saying in very explicit terms is THIS" and in plain language and even sometimes with a few examples he treats these ideas as very real day to day things that seem relevant and pedestrian rather than beautiful abstractions we have to pull down in our own way.

Is my life changed? Is that the point? This was simply refreshing, even if I had come into it with -positive- expectations and it paid for itself immediately even after the extra few bucks I paid for it by buying it in a real store.

I bought this book on impulse. I do not believe in God in the traditional sense, but I DO believe in God. I felt a little uncomfortable at the beginning of the book, but decided to push through it. I am so happy I did. This book is awe-inspiring. I finished it feeling completely at peace. I have read The Secret and somewhat enjoyed that book. However, this book made me a believer in The Law of Attraction...and not for material gain. I highly suggest reading this book all the way through before you judge it. Either way, I hope you find what you are looking for. :-)

The first thing that I noticed upon beginning this book was that the author Neale Donald Walsh asked the question "Ask youself why you picked up this book? Perhaps on an impulse?" That made me laugh, because the reason I bought the book was because the author emailed me and asked me to buy it! But seriously, when the book arrived, I did sit down and read it outloud (all in one day) to my husband and we thoroughly enjoyed it. There is so much truth and humor in this book, that it was one of the best ways I could have spent my time. Being followers of Esther & Jerry Hicks-Abraham who the author gives wonderful credit too, we found this book taking us on an expanded view of becoming joyful and expanding that out into the world. I have already recommended it to others and I intend to remember all the sound advice Neale Donald Walsh gives in this book - "Happier Than God." I believe every world. thanks so much. Catherine

Great book, clarifying a thing or two regarding the law of attraction , higly recommendable, as most of his books. Especially the fact that he endeavors to explain how and why this law, as the rest of the governing principles of the universe, was NEVER intended to be only beneficial for those striving for personal/egoistic aggrandizement (which, sadly enough, is the impression one *could* get from some of the many popular books covering this subject, among these the well-known bestseller "the Secret") - but to assist us all in doing what is good to "thy neighbor", which is, of course, ultimately also good to oneself, since All is One. (I can especially recommend the three first Conversations with God books on this latter subject.)
Thumbs up for Neale who has done it again! Not for his Ego to go berserk, of course, in celebration of this effort - but his soul to feel good about the fact that it actually got the chance to do something really good and helpful to its fellow beings on this planet ... :-)