We will continue our discussion of the function of God in our next blog, but for now, I believe it is important for me to respond to a posting in the Comments Section here from a person who apparently has a good reason not to use a name in connection with entries made here.
That person has made inflammatory remarks about statements appearing in my books regarding Adolf Hitler. I should like to address those remarks here.
To the person who does not sign a name to entries in the Comment Section: I deeply understand your difficulty with the passage you have quoted. This is the most challenging passage in the entire body of work that I have produced, and I, myself, have struggled to understand its deepest meaning.
I do not believe that God meant to say or to imply that in the human sense the actions of Hitler caused no damage or hurt to anyone. I believe that God was speaking in the spiritual sense of all those souls involved. The CwG books make the point elsewhere that there is no such thing as death, and that, as divine beings, we cannot, any of us, be damaged or destroyed. It is within this context that the statement which you have quoted should be considered.
Taking quotations out of context from any book distorts them. This has been done with the Bible, as you know.
I am very sensitive to the fact that many people have been offended by certain other statements in the Conversations with God books surrounding this subject, particularly the assertion that “Hitler went to heaven.”
I certainly understand why this comment, too, taken on its surface, could be deeply wounding. I believe that only those who have had the opportunity to study the CwG material thoroughly and to examine the entire cosmology from which the statement emerges could find it non-offensive. They may still disagree with its theology, but they would see clearly that no trivializing of the Holocaust takes place in my books.
While Conversations with God does say that Hitler went to heaven, it does not say that he, or anyone else, ever escapes the consequences of actions while on Earth. Indeed, the books make exactly the opposite point.
They indicate clearly that all souls, after death, undergo a process in which they are allowed to experience every moment of the life they have just lived, but from the point of view of every person who was impacted by their actions and decisions. In other words, they experience what they have caused others to experience.
It would have been nice had you mentioned that in your comments, but I understand why you would not, for it would deeply undermine every point that you were trying to make — which is that I “support” Hitler and that I am doing the work of Satan.
My books say that the point of the soul experiencing what they have caused others to experience is not to bring a soul to “justice,” but to bring it to awareness; not to provide punishment, but to provide insight. Thus, the experience does not last forever. It is not about eternal damnation, it is about the soul’s evolution.
CwG makes the statement that there is no such thing in God’s kingdom as eternal damnation. Hell, it says, does not exist as a place where we are sent to endure everlasting torture. Thus, Hitler could not have gone there. Yet one thing is very certain. It is a universal law, and CwG states it very succinctly: “Whatever you cause another to experience, you will one day experience.”
You, my friend in the Comments Section who refuses to sign a name, might have mentioned that — but I understand why you would not, for it would deeply undermine your entire point.
In the CwG dialogue, it is made clear that the soul’s experiencing of what others have experienced because of that soul’s actions and decisions is part of a process by which all souls become fully evolved — or, as we might put it, “go to Heaven.”
The most important point the dialogue makes on this topic, however, is that the Hitler experience was only possible because of group consciousness. “Hitler could do nothing without the cooperation and support and willing submission of millions of people,” the books say. “Hitler seized the moment, but he did not create it.”
The dialogue says that “it is important to understand the lesson here. A group consciousness which speaks constantly of separation and superiority produces loss of compassion on a massive scale, and loss of compassion is inevitably followed by loss of conscience. A collective concept rooted in strict nationalism ignores the plights of others, yet makes everyone else responsible for yours, thus justifying retaliation, ‘rectification,’ and war.”
The book goes on: “The horror of the Hitler experience was not only that he perpetuated it on the human race, but that the human race allowed him to. The astonishment is not only that a Hitler came along, but also that so many others went along. The shame is not only that Hitler killed millions of Jews, but also that millions of Jews had to be killed before Hitler was stopped.”
It would have been nice, my dear person with no name, had you mentioned these words from the CwG books, but I understand why you did not, for they would have deeply undermined your entire point about my “supporting” Hitler killing six million Jews. Nobody else who has read my books has come to that conclusion.
Finally, my books say that “the purpose of the Hitler experience was to show humanity to itself.” The dialogue makes the point that there is a little bit of Hitler in all of us, and it is only a matter of degree. It argues that “wiping out a people is wiping out a people, whether at Auschwitz or Wounded Knee.” And, I might add here, Kosovo. Or Darfur.
“Hitler was not sent TO us, he was created BY us. That is the lesson. The consciousness of separation, segregation, superiority–of ‘we’ versus ‘they,’ of ‘us’ and ‘them’–is what creates the Hitler experience.”
The dialogue that I have published concludes: “Hitler thought he was doing good for his people. And his people thought so, too! That was the insanity of it. The largest part of the nation agreed with him.” The book observes, “If you float out a crazy idea, and ten million people agree with you, you might not think you’re so crazy,” and asks us, “who, then, to condemn?”
Some critics of Conversations with God — you among them — have said that the books portray Jews as simply having been “liberated from their Earthly troubles” by the Holocaust, and that since return to the Creator is a joyful experience, there is nothing to complain about. Yet while the books do state that life is eternal, that death is nothing to fear, and that returning to God is joyful, I do not believe that any reasonable interpretation of the material could fairly portray me as condoning the killing of human beings–or brushing it off as if it were of no importance or consequence.
The books I have written do not make light of the acts of Hitler, or seek to justify them. It seeks only to explain those acts, and the lessons that we can all learn–must all learn–if we are to create a better world.
I hope this helps you to understand some of the most difficult material in my books. And I want to emphasize here that I have done my best to bring through some very challenging and complex truths. I am sure, I am certain, that I have failed to convey in every case the highest meaning, the deepest wisdom, the grandest truth. But I have never failed to try.
And so, my friend, the exploring goes on. The questioning continues. The conversation never ends. Always we seek clarification, and pray to God for it. Always we seek correction when we have set the wrong course. Always we seek guidance in taking us all to where we say we want to go. And always God is there to guide us, to nurture us, to love us. Always.
And all ways.
With love, Neale