Book Review: Neale Walsh’s Conversations With God

Here’s why you should read Walsch’s so-called chat with God. Even if  it sounds hokey or blasphemous. Even if it has nothing to do with Real Estate.

The title Conversations With God is probably one of the least controversial things about this book. Walsch’s premise is that his writing is a sort of revelation. He claims that the ideas in the book come from a divine source, with him as a kind of channel.

It’s a bit hard to see why it makes sense to go there.

Blasphemy or Atheism: Take Your Pick

Claiming you’ve had a revelation means you’ll probably offend a lot of religious people. The whole channeling God thing’s got a bit of a blasphemous ring to it. Along the way, the atheists will check out because they don’t want to hear about God in the first place. It’s not really a winning proposition.

But, and it’s a big but, wait! I promise there’s baby and there’s bathwater.

If you’re interested in mindful living and how we create our lives – and our financial situation along with it – consider these few lines.

Start with this whopper:

“Every human thought, and every human action is based in either fear or love.”

Which one of these are you running on most of the time?

Or what about this: “Life is not a process of discovery, but a process of creation.”

and

“No prayer goes unanswered. Every prayer is creative.”

Wow! What if you applied some of this logic to how you practice real estate or your financial life more generally? Do you act like you’re creating all the time? Because you are. Are your actions and thoughts around finances motivated by worry, anger, Ego, competitiveness or anxiety? Or by creativity, joy and connection?

Conversation with God or not conversation with God, it’s worth thinking about. And it’s with a grain of suspension of (1) disbelief or (2) judgement for blasphemy that I suggest you read what Walsch has to say.

If you’re trying to make any kind of positive change in your life, or if you’re in the process of trying to wake up into a more mindful state of being, there’s some really interesting ideas in this book. The love and fear distinction was enough to make it worthwhile for me.

Offended? Keep Reading

Does it matter whether Walsch is talking to God?

I don’t think that is does.

I actually think it’s possible to make a wider comment on how we hear or read things in this increasingly polarized time. Just because part of what someone says or where they come from a triggers knee-jerk abhorrence in us doesn’t mean he or she has nothing good to say. It doesn’t mean we should tune out right away. To do so is our loss. There is baby and there is bathwater. Before we throw them both out, we may want to stick our hand in to see which is which! The quality of the baby might just merit getting your hands wet.