How can we ‘protect’ ourselves in situations or with people that we disagree with? Try prayer! It really works! But remember, too, that you almost always have a choice not to stay there.
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Wednesday is Question and Answer Day on the blog…a time for exploring many of the questions that people have recently asked about the nine Conversations with God books and the New Spirituality. Here’s this week’s entry…
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Question: Dear Neale: In reference to the above topic, I read your response to Robin Price’s questions about the company we keep, dated May 4, 2007. My comments and questions are: The Where am I going?, and Who’s going with me? are logical, but there are moments when the self has no other option, but to share time and space with certain people and no choice as to whereabouts/surroundings because the self has to be there.
Now, since we are One, and as stated in CWG, there is no right or wrong, and our energies and thoughts are powerful. Can this mean that my neighbor has equal power and energy? How may I protect myself from negative thoughts and energies of others if we are in the state of Being equivalent? Sometimes I visualize energies as white auras (i.e., positive thoughts, love, God) versus very dark auras (i.e., envy, no love, devil) with a tremendous clash and boom (Hollywood style), recalling to mind there should be no such thing as evil/devil. I assume that positive thoughts, love, should shall we say “win” over negativity, but unfortunately, certain experiences with their outcome have proven to be totally opposite.
The theory of cause and effect seems to play a major role. I have also read your book on Recreation and my findings suggest I am not responsible for and/or created some of my misfortunes. I appreciate and thank you for your time and response. Angelica.
Neale’s Response: First of all, Angelica, I want you to read Happier Than God. It is the latest book in the CwG cosmology, just released 8 weeks or so ago, and it is a veritable Tool Box for people yearning to know how to apply the messages of Conversations with God in their daily lives. I really, really, really encourage you to read it. Yes?
Second, let me try here to reply in brief to your questions.
You begin by asserting that there are times when a person “has no choice” but to be somewhere, or in some other person’s presence. That is not true. You always have a choice about everything. The of “no choice” is a false thought allowing us to shift responsibility for our present condition to someone or something other than us.
In all but the most extreme human circumstances, you can always choose to NOT be in the same space with a particular other person. In the rare, rare instance when this does not appear to be true, you still have the option of leaving the physical space by leaving your own physical body. That is, ending this present physical life.
That does not feel like a viable option to most people (understandably), but that does not mean it is not an option. It means that it is simply not an attractive option. But you did not say that you had no unwelcome choice, you said that you had no choice at all. This is the lie in the space.
Now when you understand the CwG teaching at “no one does anything they don’t want to do,” you will then abandon at last and forever the victim mentality that suggests to your mind that you cannot help being in the circumstance in which you find yourself.
The reason this correction in your thinking is important is that it helps you to activate the solutions that are available to you while you ARE choosing to stay in an undesireable space.
People have little or no power over this experience of any situation in which they feel helpless, hopeless, and hapless. Yet if people can find their own power in a situation (and people can in any situation), they can often find solutions to those situations that they had not seen or dared to even propose to themselves before…
Now, you have asked if your neighbor has “equal power and energy.” The answer is yes, but those energies are not identical. Therefore, one energy need not overlay itself upon another, or meld into it. Because energies are equal does not mean they are automatically mixed together. Does that make any sense? Two flashlights may have equal power, but they do not have to cancel each other out by shining into each other.
You have asked, “How may I protect myself from negative thoughts and energies of others if we are in the state of Being equivalent?” I have just answered that, above. “Equivalent” does not mean “identical.” “Equivalent” energy does not mean “overlaid” energy. If I am in the space with a person of equalivent energy (all people fall into that category; not all people know it) who holds ideas or expressions opposite to or other than mine, I simply (a) tolerate the differences without letting them affect me; (b) allow them to affect me if there seems to be no other way, but watch my inner experience of the effect they are having on me…and alter my inner experience if it serves me or pleases me to do so.
You may feel that you have not created some of your misfortunes, but I absolutely guarantee you that you created your experience of them. That is a huge statement, and I invite you to re-read it.
I have taken a small excerpt from Happier Than God having to do with the human experience of “failure” and how to deal with it and turned it into a separate, stand-alone document. If you would like a copy by e-mail, simply send $3 to Neale Donald Walsch Documents, 324 Wimer St., Ashland, OR 97520, along with your email address. I’ll email you the article the same day. Now, why would I ask you for $3? Because my experience has been that when people receive something for nothing, they pay a lot less attention to it. So now I “sell” my little documents for a very modest fee — and suddenly people are actually reading them! Isn’t that interesting?
Finally, let me make this comment. The idea that you have a need for self protection is an announcement that you are remaining locked into your case of mistaken identity. God — or That Which Is Divine (namely, you) — needs ‘protection’ from nothing. If you believe you need protection, then you believe you are not God, are not Divine, and, for that matter, do not even have Divinity in and around you. But all three things are true, not false, and when you know them to be true, you no longer feel the need for ‘protection’ from anything.
Still, to be fair, we are all human here, and sometimes we do, indeed, forget who we really are. I do, we all do. In those times, prayer is a wonderful help. “Thank you, God, for helping me to understand that this problem has already been solved for me,” is my favorite one. It aligns the Inner Me with my idea of a God who seems both Inner and Outer, both over here and ‘over there.’
I like praying. It makes me feel really good. I like to pray a lot, and I do. So even now I pray that you understand all that I have just said here, and that this has in some small way benefited you.
Have a wonderful day!
(Ask Neale may be accessed on a daily basis in the Messengers’ Circle at Neale’s personal website: www.nealedonaldwalsch.com. Each week Neale selects a question from those posted there and publishes it in this blog.)
Two spaces left! — Just two berths left on our Alaska Cruise…the real vacation of a lifetime. Surprise your Loved One at dinner tonight with a gift that will never be forgotten…especially if you and your beloved are “into” CwG! Here’s the link for more info…
http://nealedonaldwalsch.com/cruise.cfm