(This weblog creates, for us all, a chance to meet at the interaction of Life and the New Spirituality. It is written by the author of Conversations with God, the worldwide best-selling series of books. The “New Spirituality” is defined by the author as “a new way to experience our natural impulse toward the Divine, which does not make others wrong for the way in which they are doing it.”)
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…
Topic: Walking the Talk
Question asked by: Heather B.
Question: How long does it take after reading and rereading this material, which I have been doing for years, until I finally see myself walking this talk? I agree and know in my mind that what is written in these books is so, but when does one actually walk it? Neale, how did you begin walking this talk?
Neale’s Response: My Dear Heather…
I only wish that I were “walking this talk.” I am not. Not nearly…

…to the degree that I would wish. Not nearly at the level that I would like. Heather, the very real truth for me is that Conversations with God has set for me a very high bar. It’s wisdom is extraordinary. It’s insight is breathtaking. It offers nearly 3,000 pages of invitations for me to move to a Higher Way of Being, a new way of expressing life. I have just taken my first “baby steps” in this direction. And anyone who knows me will verify that for you very quickly. My behaviors demonstrate it.
But I am now committed to the journey — which is something I could not say several years ago. I am now clear as to the path. I know what it is I wish to do with my life, how I wish to experience myself, and what I yearn for — and am willing to work for — in our world. So that is a start.
And I do not become discouraged, nor do I berate myself or judge myself for not being “further along” in all this (at least, not very often, and not for very long). I am clear that the CwG material was given to me in order that I might be healed of all of my false thoughts about myself and life and who we all really are and who and what God is, and all of that. I am truly being healed around that — and my healing continues.
Healing is an interesting word to use here, because it suggests that somehow there is something “not okay” with me right now. That is not the truth. Right now, just as I am, I am Whole, Complete, and Perfect. I use the word “healing” here to mean, “returning to all that I know and all that I am.”
I just wanted to say that, so that you did not get the wrong impression.
My dear Heather, just move forward, one small step at a time. Make the commitment — that is the Big Step. Make the commitment to your own spiritual evolution. And then stay in touch with that commitment every day. That is why I work so hard on what I am doing in the world. Do you see the amount of writing, the amount of input, personal input, I make every day, both here on the blogsite and on my personal website? And that is only a tiny portion of the activity of my every day. All of this work keeps me in touch with my commitment. It keeps me ‘present’ with the message of CwG.
Find a way, in your own life, to do the same. Stay in touch with the highest truth within you. (I have found that the best way to do this is to share that truth with others. Not in a proselytizing way. Not in a preaching way, or an overbearing way. But just in response to the invitation from Life Itself to share your life experience and your life truth with others — who will ask you, I promise, as soon as you set your intention to do so.)
Thanks for asking your question, Heather. It is a question that all of us have asked. How long, oh, Lord, how long before I understand, before I “get” it — and before I can start living it in my every day life? The trick is desire, Heather. True desire will produce true results sooner or later. Just keep at it.
Peace and Joy…Neale.
Topic: Manifesting
Question asked by: Marko Damkoehler
Question: Neale how important is it in manifesting to distinguish between “wanting” & “choosing” as stated in the CwG material?
I noticed in Esther & Jerry Hick’s work (such as their book, The Law of Attraction) that “want” is used almost exclusively, and without the qualifying distinction that is made in CwG.
You have on several occasions recommended this book as well as their other material. So, I’m curious about this nuance and how it plays out in clarifying our desire to better manifest?
Neale’s Response: Marko…CwG states that INTENTION is what determines outcome, and, also, AWARENESS. That is, knowing what you are doing/saying, not acting as if you were a robot, on ‘automatic’. The book says that the word “want” can be used, if it is done so with high consciousness, knowing that the word is being used as a figure of speech. Many people are not in this category, however, and so when they say, “I WANT this or that,” they really mean that they do not now have it. And so, they go about creating the experience of wanting it.
What CwG teaches is that earnestly “wanting” something is a statement to the Universe that you do not now “have” it. On the other hand, “choosing” something invites a thought-suggestion that it is right there for you in your reality, and that you are right now choosing to pull that out of the ever-present collection of available effects and experience it, Here and Now.
Manifestation is an art, not unlike painting. As all professors in art school will tell you, first you have to know how to obey the rules before you can go around breaking them. First you learn how to color inside the lines before you can color outside of them and still call it “art”.
The point: CwG gives us the “rule”, Esther and Jerry move ahead past that, right straight to attracting. If you are of a higher consciousness, you are probably capable of instructing your mind to understand that when you say you want something, you are not saying that you do not now have it.
Hope this helps.
hugs….Neale.
(Ask Neale may be accessed on a daily basis in the Messenger Circle at Neale’s personal website: www.nealedonaldwalsch.com. Each week Neale selects questions from those posted there and publishes it in this blog.)