Neale Donald Walsch

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Neale Donald Walsch
Neale Donald Walsch.jpg
Neale Donald Walsch in 2007
Born (1943-09-10) September 10, 1943 (age 80)
Milwaukee, Wisconsin, United States
Nationality American
Ethnicity Ukrainian American
Spouse Em Claire
Website
www.nealedonaldwalsch.com

Neale Donald Walsch (born September 10, 1943) is an American author of the series Conversations with God. The nine books in the complete series are Conversations With God (books 1–3), Friendship with God, Communion with God, The New Revelations, Conversations with God for Teens, Tomorrow's God, and Home with God: In a Life That Never Ends. He is also an actor, screenwriter, and speaker.

Biography

Walsch was born into an Ukrainian American family, and brought up as a Roman Catholic by a family who encouraged his quest for spiritual truth. He informally studied comparative theology for many years. He says his books are not channelled - although Walsch insists, that he could hear God talking to him, as if God stood right beside Walsch - but rather that they are inspired by God and that they can help a person relate to God from a modern perspective. The God in his books, for example, says that "there is nothing you have to do." Walsch believes in a panentheistic God, who tries to communicate itself as being "unselfish". Walsch's vision is an expansion and unification of all present theologies to render them more relevant to our present day and time. He created Humanity's Team as a spiritual movement whose purpose is to communicate and implement his New Spirituality beliefs, particularly that we are all one with God and one with life, in a shared global state of being.[1] This state can be achieved, Walsch argues, by the act of helping other people: "The fastest way to apply anything in your life is to help others to apply it ... The fastest way to use any wisdom that resides in your soul is to help someone else ... Because we are all one.".[2] Walsch has nine children. Neale has a home in southern Oregon where he lives with his wife, Em Claire, who is a working poet.

Career

Before writing the Conversations With God series, Walsch worked variously as a radio station program director, newspaper managing editor, and in marketing and public relations. In the early 1990s he suffered a series of crushing blows—a fire that destroyed all of his belongings, the break-up of his marriage, and a car accident that left him with a broken neck. Once recovered, but alone and unemployed, he was forced to live in a tent in Jackson Hot Springs, just outside Ashland, Oregon, collecting and recycling aluminium cans in order to eat. At the time, he thought his life had come to an end. Despondent, he began his writings after working his way out of homelessness and following a stint as a radio talk show host.[3]

His first book, Conversations with God, was published in 1995 and became an international bestseller. It remained on the New York Times Bestseller List for 135 weeks. Six of his other books have made the Times list in the years since. He has published 28 books and his works have been translated into 37 languages.

Media appearances

In 2003, the film Indigo, written by Walsch and James Twyman and directed by Stephen Simon was released. It chronicled the fictional story of the redemption of a grandfather, played by Walsch, through his granddaughter, who is an indigo child.

Conversations With God: The Movie opened in U.S. theaters in 2006 on October 27 and in Canada on November 10. The film was released on DVD in February 2007.[4] Clips of the film can be found on YouTube.[5]

Other documentaries and TV appearances include:

  • iGod (2015 film)
  • Awake in the Dream (2012 film)
  • Living in Light (video documentary) 2012
  • 3 Magic Words (documentary) 2010
  • Tapping the Source (documentary) 2010
  • Follow the Rainbow to Findhorn (video documentary) 2010,
  • Infinity: The Ultimate Trip – Journey Beyond Death (documentary) 2009
  • One Giant Leap 2: What About Me? (video documentary) 2008
  • 9am with David & Kim (TV series) 2007 – Episode dated April 6, 2007
  • The Secret (2006 film)

Neale Donald Walsch can also be found as a prominent contributor at TheGlobalConversation.com[6] as well as on YouTube at YouTube.com/NealeDonaldWalsch.[7]

Organizations

Below is a list of Neale Donald Walsch's current organizations. Past organizations include partofthechange.com based on the 2005 pass along book of the same name which featured the book as a free download, Part of the Change bracelets, and the ability to track the unique ID number of books you've passed along to see where they are in the world. Additional past organizations include InspireTheWorld.com, and TheGroupof1000.com.

CWGConnect.com has merged with Waslch's personal website, to become what is now known as CwGConnect. It is a section of Neale's website where members can connect online with Neale and others through various forms of social networking, courses and media.

Local Conversations with God study groups can be found online at Meetup.com/CwG.

ReCreation Foundation

The ReCreation Foundation, Inc., also known as the CwG Foundation, is a non-profit foundation created by Neale Donald Walsch in 1995 to address the response from people around the world to spread the message of the Conversations with God book series.[8] The video-oriented website, CwG.tv, was launched in 2008.

Neale Donald Walsch was deeply inspired by this message received, "the purpose of life is to recreate ourselves anew in the highest version of the grandest vision we ever had about ourselves."[8] Neale explains that "in order to take action with the messages and guidance of the conversations, [I] wanted to make the truths and lessons from the CwG book not only functional, but also universally available."[8] Therefore, Neale formed ReCreation, "the Foundation for Personal Growth and Spiritual Understanding".

The Foundation has created retreats, activities and programs aimed at "allowing people to use the message to change their own lives and the world at large."[8] The online resources include a free book program, study groups, wisdom circles, as well as online videos and other media.[9]

Humanity's Team

In March 2003, Neale Donald Walsch created Humanity’s Team following a dream he had,[10] and in response to the crisis that he saw the human race facing following the events of September 11, 2001. Dubbed "a civil rights movement for the soul," the movement has over 60,000 adherents from more than 90 countries on six continents.[11] Based in Boulder, Colorado, Humanity's Team proposes a New Spirituality that, according to the website, "enlarges humanity's current beliefs about God and about life in ways that could change how people live with each other, hoping to bring peace and harmony to the planet."[11]

There have been a handful of projects launched by Humanity's Team. The organization has founded a Global Oneness Day celebrated every October 24. The first celebration in 2010, was celebrated by people and organizations in over 50 countries.[12] In 2004, New Spirituality Network was launched "as a nonprofit organization to help catalyze the Humanity's Team movement worldwide" and focuses on e-mailed-based CwG messages for daily inspiration.[13] A past project of Humanity's Team was TheGroupof1000 with a website of the same name, also known as G1K, a global network of people committed to changing the world.

Humanity's Team Community Outreach works with Children worldwide (Australia, China, South Africa, Romania, US, Germany, Czech Republic, Philippines, Brazil, Venezuela, and others).[12] They work in their communities in the name of Humanity's Team collecting and donating clothing, food, diapers, furniture, small appliances and assist terminally ill children.

Annual Global Council Meetings are also held every year with people from all walks of life. There is a sharing of leadership among all participants. The official website states that "the only agenda is to learn about each other and understand how we can be of service to each other, and to plan out our yearly actions to spread Oneness."[12] Humanity's Team holds Annual Spiritual Leadership Awards. Past winners include Gabriel Avruj, Desmond Tutu, Neale Donald Walsch, Immaculee Ilibagiza, Barbara Marx Hubbard and Andrew Harvey. They also hold World Tours, including the Uncoditional Love Tour; and hold world Oneness Summits. Past locations for Oneness Summits include places such as Argentina (2008), South Africa (2009) and New York (2010).[12]

The "Media Version" of Humanity's Team was launched in 2011 as a separate site, and can be found at HTMediaCenter.org. Some countries have a regional chapter of Humanity's Team including Canada, France, Greece, Romania, South Africa and Argentina.

Global Oneness Day

In 2010, Humanity's Team declared October 24 as the first Global Oneness Day; "a day intended to inspire awareness, appreciation and celebration of life's underlying Oneness, that we believe all of life is connected, in the same way that Earth Day is intended to inspire awareness, appreciation and celebration of the earth's natural environment."[14]

The Official Website of project is at Global-Oneness-Day.org and includes a Oneness Declaration petition for supporters.

The first celebration in 2010, was celebrated by people and organizations in over 50 countries.[12] The celebration continues for the upcoming October 24, 2012 and the events include a world-wide free Global Oneness Telesummit found online at GlobalOnenessSummit.com and features Neale Donald Walsch, Jack Canfield, Barbara Marx Hubbard, Bruce Lipton, Lynne Twist, Yvonne Chaka Chaka, Ken Wilber, Michael Bernard Beckwith, Don Miguel Ruiz, Yoko Ono, and Desmund Tutu among others.

CwG for Parents

CwGforParents.com, formerly known as CwG4Kids.com, was created with the goal of helping parents bring the messages of the Conversations with God book series to their children and is part of the School of the New Spirituality.

Neale Donald Walsch says the question he is asked around the world more than any other is "How can I share the messages of CwG with my children?"[15] In response, the website contains free resources as well as a paid membership program. The members program explores the 25 core concepts of the CwG messages, (as identified by Neale Donald Walsch), in online home schooling kits to assist parents in sharing lessons and activities with their children.

The CWG Helping Outreach

The CWG Helping Outreach was created by poet Em Claire and author Neale Donald Walsch as an outgrowth of the messages contained in the 2009 book, When Everything Changes, Change Everything.[16] The online resource is self-governing and self-regulating and consists of a variety of public forums in which members are invited to post, and to reply to the postings of others. The aim of which, the website claims; "by this means many people will move from suffering to service in the process of their own growth through change."[16] A team of volunteer spiritual helpers monitors the site and responds with "suggestions, words of support, and spiritual guidance"[16] to any person who enters a post.

This website is not to be confused with ChangingChangeCourse.com, the online course based on the same book which focuses on the 9 changes, and the 13 promises.

The Global Conversation

The Global Conversation is the inspiration of Neale Donald Walsch. His 2011 book, The Storm Before the Calm launched this website, in collaboration with friends who share "his commitment to create a special place in the world of the Internet where people might engage with each other just as they do on other popular Social Media sites ... but in this case with a particular focus, purpose, and reason: to companion with each other, and to explore and share with each other, their discoveries, adventures, and questions about the world's New Spiritual Experience."[17] Comments and questions are encouraged on the site to spark the global conversation.

Criticism

Walsch was accused of plagiarism for a six-paragraph entry in one of the daily postings on his blog during 2008, this one during the Christmas season, when he published an item titled "Upside down, or right side up?" on Beliefnet.com.[18][19] Walsch's entry purported to tell the tale of a miraculous appearance of the words "Christ Was Love" during the rehearsal of his son's school Christmas pageant; but his article was almost identical to an article published 10 years previously by Candy Chand in the spiritual magazine Clarity and spread over the internet in places such as the Heartwarmers website, down to the name of the son mentioned in both articles, Nicholas – as both authors have a son named Nicholas.[18][20] Walsch publicly apologized, saying that he must have erroneously internalized the story as his own over the years, a claim the original author said she does not believe.[18] The article was subsequently pulled from Beliefnet.com and Walsch voluntarily withdrew from the roster of authors because of his error.[18] Walsch explained that he found the anecdote in old computer files from years earlier, saw his son's name in the copy, and was fully convinced that the history had really happened to him and that he had just forgotten it, but "remembered" when he saw the anecdote in his file. He cited it as a classic case of false memory and said that he had been repeating the anecdote as his own in many speeches over the years, adding that he was "chagrined and astonished that my mind could play such a trick on me".[18]

Writings

Conversations with God series

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Main article: Conversations with God

The following are the nine books in the Conversations With God series. Each of these books is a claimed transcript of dialogue between two beings, Neale Donald Walsch and "God", with the exception of "Communion with God", which is written only by "God".

  1. Conversations with God: An Uncommon Dialogue (Book 1) (1995) ISBN 978-0-399-14278-9
  2. Conversations with God: An Uncommon Dialogue (Book 2) (1997) ISBN 978-1-57174-056-4
  3. Conversations with God: An Uncommon Dialogue (Book 3) (1998) ISBN 978-1-57174-103-5
  4. Friendship with God: An Uncommon Dialogue (1999) ISBN 978-0-399-14541-4
  5. Communion With God: An Uncommon Dialogue (2000) ISBN 978-0-399-14670-1
  6. Conversations With God for Teens (foreword by Alanis Morissette) (2001) ISBN 978-1-57174-263-6
  7. The New Revelations: A Conversation with God (2002) ISBN 978-0-7434-6303-4
  8. Tomorrow's God: Our Greatest Spiritual Challenge (2004) ISBN 978-0-7434-6304-1
  9. Home with God: In a Life That Never Ends (2006) ISBN 978-0-7432-6716-8

Some readers may argue that should include the following book to the Conversations With God series.

The first three books in the series are often called the CwG trilogy. In 2005, the trilogy was re-released as one combined 'Gift Edition' book. This edition contains the entire text of the first three books with 'God's words in blue ink and Neale's in black ink, and features a combined 3-in-1 index at the back.

Home With God, we are told, is the final book in this series of two-way written communication {see HwG page 308, "Our final conversation in public."}.

Supplemental material

In addition to the books of the CwG series, there are also a number of guidebooks, meditation books, and other books adapted from the CwG series and referring to the CwG message. The following books do not have any new information from the voice of "God", but were written by Neale Donald Walsch, to assist with understanding and applying the messages. Starting in 2008, The School of the New Spirituality, Inc. (SNS), founded by Walsch, starting publishing new guidebooks for the series.

  • Conversations with God – Guidebook, Book 1 (July 1, 1997) ISBN 1571740481
  • Meditations from Conversations With God, Book 2: A Personal Journal (December 1, 1997) ISBN 978-1-57174-072-4
  • The Little Soul and the Sun: A Children's Parable Adapted from Conversations With God (April 1, 1998) ISBN 978-1-57174-087-8
  • Re-Minder Cards: Conversations With God, Book 1 (August 1, 1998) ISBN 978-1571741189
  • Meditations from Conversations With God: Book 1 (September 2, 1999) ISBN 978-0-340-76595-1
  • Questions and Answers on Conversations With God (October 1, 1999) ISBN 978-1-57174-140-0
  • The Wedding Vows from Conversations With God (with Nancy Fleming-Walsch) (April 1, 2000) ISBN 978-1-57174-161-5
  • The Little Soul And The Earth: A Children's Parable Adapted From Conversations With God (August 1, 2005) (with Frank Riccio) ISBN 978-1-57174-451-7
  • Meditations from Conversations With God (December 31, 2005) ISBN 978-1-57174-513-2
  • Conversations with God for Teens Guidebook (by Jeanne Webster and Emily Welch) (June 20, 2008) ISBN 978-0981520636
  • Conversations with God – Guidebook, Book 1 (by Nancy Ways) (November 10, 2008) ISBN 978-0981943800
  • Conversations with God – Guidebook, Book 2 (by Anne-Marie Barbier) (November 10, 2008) ISBN 978-0981520698
  • Conversations with God – Guidebook, Book 3 (by Alissa Goefron) (December 1, 2008) ISBN 978-0981943824
  • The Conversations with God Companion: The Essential Tool for Individual and Group Study (May 21, 2009) ISBN 978-1-57174-604-7

Other writings

Walsch has written a number of other books which he describes as "in the CwG cosmology", none of which are dialogues with God, but provide the reader with Walsch's insights:

  • Neale Donald Walsch on Relationships (September 29, 1999) ISBN 978-1-57174-163-9
  • Neale Donald Walsch on Holistic Living (September 30, 1999) ISBN 978-1-57174-165-3
  • Neale Donald Walsch on Abundance and Right Livelihood (October 1, 1999) ISBN 978-1-57174-164-6
  • Applications for Living from Conversations With God (compilation of three books; Relationships, Holistic Living, and Abundance and Right Livelihood) (November 4, 1999) ISBN 978-0340768334
  • Bringers of the Light (May 31, 2000) ISBN 978-0-9678755-0-7
  • Recreating Your Self (June 1, 2000) ISBN 978-0-9678755-1-4
  • Moments of Grace: When God Touches Our Lives Unexpectedly (July 2001) ISBN 978-1-57174-303-9
  • What God Wants: A Compelling Answer to Humanity's Biggest Question (March 21, 2005) ISBN 978-0-7432-6714-4
  • Part of the Change: Your Role As A Spiritual Helper (June 1, 2005) ISBN 978-0975478226
  • Conversations with God: The Making of the Movie (Photos & Stories) (by Monty Jones with Neale Donald Walsch) (August 10, 2006) ISBN 1571744991
  • Happier Than God: Turn Ordinary Life into an Extraordinary Experience (February 28, 2008) ISBN 978-1-57174-576-7
  • When Everything Changes, Change Everything: In a Time of Turmoil, a Pathway to Peace (May 7, 2009) ISBN 978-1-57174-606-1
  • Santa's God: A Children's Fable About the Biggest Question Ever (October 2, 2009) ISBN 978-1571745965
  • The Little Book of Life: A User's Manual (October 1, 2010) ISBN 978-1571746443
  • The Mother of Invention: The Legacy of Barbara Marx Hubbard and the Future of YOU (January 15, 2011) ISBN 978-1401928988
  • When God Steps In, Miracles Happen (April 1, 2011) ISBN 978-1571746535
  • The Storm Before the Calm (Book 1 in the Conversations with Humanity Series) (September 27, 2011) ISBN 978-1-4019-3692-1
  • The Only Thing That Matters (Book 2 in the Conversations with Humanity Series) (October 16, 2012) ISBN 978-1401942366
  • What God Said (October 2013)
  • Gods Message To The World: You've Got Me All Wrong (October 2014) ISBN 978-1-9379-0730-3
  • Conversations With God for Parents: Sharing the Messages with Children (October 2015) ISBN 978-1-9379-0736-5

See also

References

  1. ↑ John Style, “What Happens When God Describes Utopia?: Neale Donald Walsch's Utopian Vision”, Spaces of Utopia: An Electronic Journal, nr. 1, Spring 2006, pp. 135–147 <http://ler.letras.up.pt > ISSN 1646-4729
  2. ↑ Being at One: Neale Donald Walsch Interview with Gil Dekel (Part 3 of 3, paragraphs 18–19)
  3. ↑ Edgar John Burns, Foundations of a Global Spiritual Awakening, AuthorHouse, 2003, ISBN 1-4107-5865-6, ISBN 978-1-4107-5865-1, pp. 120–123
  4. ↑ http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0489682/dvd
  5. ↑ CWGFavoriteMoments on YouTube.
  6. ↑ TheGlobalConversation.com
  7. ↑ YouTube.com/NealeDonaldWalsch
  8. ↑ 8.0 8.1 8.2 8.3 CwG.org/about
  9. ↑ CwG.org
  10. ↑ Interview with Steve Farrell, co-founder of Humanity’s Team (para 2)
  11. ↑ 11.0 11.1 HumanitysTeam.org/about
  12. ↑ 12.0 12.1 12.2 12.3 12.4 HumanitysTeam.org/accomplishments
  13. ↑ NewSpirituality.org/about
  14. ↑ Global-Oneness-Day.org
  15. ↑ CwGForParents.com
  16. ↑ 16.0 16.1 16.2 ChangingChange.net/about
  17. ↑ TheGlobalConversation.com/Contact
  18. ↑ 18.0 18.1 18.2 18.3 18.4 "Christmas Essay Was Not His, Author Admits", New York Times, Motoko Rich, 2009-01-06
  19. ↑ Conversations with God, Belief.net
  20. ↑ a heartwarmer: Christmas Love, email in Heartwarmers.com mailing list, posted by moderator, history signed by Candy Chand, 2000-12-10

External links

Interviews

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