The God Solution With Neale Donald Walsch

Julie Riesler Welcome,

My friend,

To the U.

S.

U.

Podcast.

I'm Julie Riesler,

And I am so honored to have you here.

In this show and community,

You'll find huge-hearted overachievers who want to turn on their inner light,

To learn to trust their heart wisdom,

And help raise the consciousness of this planet,

Just like you.

Whether I'm sharing a conversation with a fellow lightworker,

Luminary,

Or a solo cast about navigating life as an empath,

My goal is the same.

To help you turn your fear into faith.

To remember that you are sacred.

To realign with your highest potential.

To be fully self-expressed as your U.

S.

U.

Are you ready to join me on this journey?

It's time to listen to your inner guidance and follow your soul's purpose.

Never forget,

The chances of being born were 1 in 14 trillion.

In other words,

You are pure positive divine light,

Born to shine,

To live from your heart,

And to be your fullest U.

S.

U.

Hello beloved U.

S.

U.

Listeners,

My soul family.

Today is a really,

Really special day for you,

For me,

And for all those that are tuning in.

I hope it's many.

I am so excited to be here with one of my most favorite authors and luminaries,

People.

And just getting to talk to them a little before you're going to get to meet Neil Donald Walsh,

I can tell you,

He is a man of incredible heart and wisdom.

And so without further ado,

I want to share with you a little bit about our incredible guest today.

So grateful.

Neil Donald Walsh has written 39 books on contemporary spirituality and its practical application in everyday life,

Including the nine book Conversations with God series.

His titles have been translated into 37 languages.

His latest book is The God Solution,

An amazing book.

This was published in December 2020,

And it proposes an altered and totally non-traditional spiritual approach to ending the seemingly interminable struggles of our species.

The God Solution invites humanity to embrace a new global ethic based on a refined and clarified definition of God.

This book proposes that there is a single statement of spiritual truth upon which all the world's religions could agree,

And which would birth a shift of spiritual paradigms around the globe of such magnitude that it would produce peace and happiness in our planet at last.

You can find more about Neil Donald Walsh at his website,

Neildonaldwalsh.

Com.

We'll have all of this in the show notes.

And I just got to share before we bring him on for you to get to meet the amazing Neil Donald Walsh yourself,

To share with you that this book,

Conversations with God Part 1,

Literally has been with me since I read it about eight years ago.

And through the pandemic,

I read or listened to him almost every single day.

And so,

Again,

Such an honor.

Without further ado,

It is such a pleasure to bring you on,

Neil,

And to talk about your newest book,

Anything you feel like talking about,

Because I gotta say,

Whatever comes out of your mouth,

I'm like,

Wisdom,

So thank you for being here.

What a gift.

I just wanted to see if she really meant it,

Or if she was just putting you all on.

Guys,

Is that Russian?

I have to say,

I hear words like that from Julie,

And they're very kind and very generous,

Generous,

Maybe even generous to a fault.

Could I just begin,

Please,

My friends by telling you that I'm not a luminary by any definition?

I wish I was,

But I'm an ordinary person who simply had an extraordinary experience.

And I was given the opportunity to pass that experience along to others.

And I did take that opportunity,

Fair enough,

But that's my only achievement really in this life.

If somebody would have asked me what my goal is for the rest of my life,

It would be to actually live full out the messages that I've been invited to share.

So please don't consider me a luminary,

But if you want to call me an unhealed messenger,

I'll accept that title.

That's what I am,

An unhealed messenger.

But at least I know,

At least I know now,

For the first time in my life,

Where I'm going and why.

And I didn't know that for the first 50 years of my life.

So at least I have that.

I can fall back on and that's the truth with me.

So pretend that you introduced me by saying,

Here's a man who has failed at just about everything,

Relationships,

Career,

Even keeping his health in decent shape.

He's failed at just about everything,

But at least now he knows why.

And now he's moving forward with his life and doing the best he can.

If that were the introduction,

I would say,

Thank you.

And here I am.

How can I serve you?

Wow.

We could do it.

We could do a takeover.

However,

We're not going to do a takeover.

I want people to really hear what I just had to say,

Because I want them to know.

I want everyone who's listening and watching now to know that it's totally okay to be right where you are.

You don't have to be at some elevated place.

It's okay if you are.

Gosh knows,

But it's not required.

And God is not looking down on you,

You know,

Making a list and checking it twice and kind of find out who's naughty and nice.

That's not the God of this universe.

So that's the message I want everyone to hear.

They can see it in me for sure.

Really,

Really beautiful what you just said and obviously it can feel the authenticity.

And one of the things you said that I think is really was just powerful was you said that you didn't know where you were going,

But now you do.

And I was thinking maybe we could start out just by where are you going?

What does,

What does that mean to you?

Thank you for asking,

Julie.

I'm going to a place where I feel that I'm serving my soul's agenda.

You see,

I didn't know that my soul had an agenda.

I knew all about the soul in loose terms,

You know,

As a child,

I heard about it from my upbringing in a parochial school.

And of course you hear about it all over the internet and all over in books,

You read the soul of this,

The soul of that.

But I didn't really understand,

You know,

That the soul had an agenda,

That the soul was actually an aspect of my being,

The most powerful,

The most important aspect of my being.

And so where I'm going now is to a place where I can feel that I am now actually serving my soul's agenda,

But I'm no longer wandering about the planet,

Trying to figure out how to get through life or what my goals and objectives should be.

As a child,

And as a young man in my late teens,

17,

18,

19,

In those early years of my life,

I was kind of taught,

Not specifically by my parents,

But by my culture,

By civilization.

I was told,

Neil,

Here are the rules of the road.

Here's your agenda.

Get the car,

Get the girl,

Get,

By the way,

You had to have the car in order to get the girl.

So no car,

No girl.

In that order.

In that order.

Get the car,

Get the girl,

Get the job,

You know,

Ultimately get the house,

Get the spouse,

Get the children,

Get the better job,

Get the better car,

Get the better house,

Get the better spouse,

Get the better spouse,

Get the better spouse.

And then if you're lucky,

You get the office in the corner with your name on the door,

Maybe even get the building on the corner with your name on the building.

And then finally,

You know,

Get the retirement watch and get the gray hair and get the cruise tickets and get the sickness and then get out.

That was basically the formula.

I was seeing everybody in my life living and I thought,

Okay,

That's what I needed.

Get the car,

Get the girl,

Get the job,

Et cetera,

Et cetera.

And then I can maybe have a halfway decent life.

It's only when I got to be 50 years old,

I'm talking about half a century on the planet,

Julie,

Or I had even the slightest inkling of what I'm really doing here,

Who I really am and why I came to,

If you please,

The realm of the physical.

What's this really all about?

It never even occurred to me and no one was teaching me,

No one was telling me there were no college courses on this topic.

And when I was being taught by the world's religions with respect,

Because there's great wisdom in the world's religions,

I'm not here to religion bash,

But when I was taught by the world's religions,

I've since learned it was simply not inaccurate.

Much of it,

As I said,

Contained great wisdom,

But truly it was incomplete.

And so I didn't have the whole picture.

So I was moving through life,

To give you an analogy,

To use a metaphor,

Like a child who had learned to add and subtract,

But thinks that's all there is to mathematics.

I can't add and subtract.

I'm in fourth grade and I'm really good at addition and subtraction.

And then you wake up one day and realize that's not all there is to mathematics.

There's algebra and geometry and calculus and higher math and algorithms and all sorts of aspects of mathematics we didn't even know existed,

Much less what we're using in our daily life.

And I use that as kind of a metaphor,

Because that's how it feels to me that we have experienced the same life that we call God,

Or if you please,

Allah,

Brahman,

Yahweh,

Jehovah,

Whatever word we use to refer to that ineffable essence that we call the divine.

So,

You know,

We don't know the half of it,

It seems to me.

And that's why I began looking seriously at the question,

Is it possible,

Just possible,

That there's something we don't understand here fully about God,

About life,

And about ourselves?

The understanding of which would change everything.

And that's what led me to have what I've come to call my conversations with God.

I feel like,

So I'm going to,

This always happens,

A flood of questions,

And I know I want to come back to your book now.

Would it be okay,

Though,

To ask you a question about just how that came to be,

The conversations with God?

You know,

I always was wondering,

I know you talked about in the book,

You were in the middle of the night and there was a legal pad,

I actually pictured it as a paid legal pad,

You got the pencil,

I'm like,

This must have been a couple years ago.

And did you,

Did you,

You know,

We've talked a lot about intuition or that sense of connection.

Did it come,

Was it audience?

Was it,

Did you feel an energy?

Like,

Was it,

I'm just curious how that rushed in that information for you.

Let me explain to you why it rushed in.

First of all,

I woke up one morning,

About 26,

27 years ago,

In the middle of the night,

It was 4.

23 in the morning.

And I was just flush with anger,

Really.

I just woke up angry because I must have been having not such a pleasant dream.

But I know I woke up in the middle of the night thinking,

I don't understand.

Why is my life the way it is?

What does it take to make life work?

And what have I done to deserve a life of such continuing struggle?

And so I tried to go back to sleep,

But I was unsuccessful.

So I thought,

Oh,

What the heck with it.

I threw back the covers and went out to the little,

To the couch in the little apartment.

It wasn't even an apartment,

I was looking at a little cottage in the back of someone's house,

Kind of an in-law or grandmother's cottage that this rich couple had in the back,

On the back of their property.

And I was renting it for very little money,

Relatively speaking.

I'm sitting there on the couch.

And there was a yellow legal pad,

It happened to be on the comfort table.

And I picked it up,

There was a pen there and I started writing an angry letter to God.

I just thought,

And I wrote those same questions.

Dear God,

What does it take to make life work?

And,

You know,

Somebody tell me the rules.

I'll play,

I promise,

I'll play.

Just give me the damn rule book.

And after you give me the rules,

Don't change them.

Because it felt like the rules of life were changing every time I turned around.

And I was furious,

I was really angry.

And that's when I really felt the presence.

I heard a voice over my right shoulder,

Or at least I thought I did.

Of course I turned around,

There was nobody there.

But the voice said,

Neo,

Do you really want answers to all of these questions?

Or are you just venting?

I remember,

You know,

I turned around,

He said,

Oh great,

Not only am I furious,

But now I'm going crazy.

There's nobody there.

What am I thinking?

I remember thinking to myself,

I am venting.

You bet I'm venting.

And if you got answers,

I'd sure as heck like to know what they are.

And then that sense,

That presence moved the intimacy into my head,

Into my mind.

And I began hearing inside my mind,

Like,

Like if you're listening to the sound of your own thoughts,

Did you ever observe yourself thinking sometimes you can actually almost hear your thoughts with an unspoken voice,

What I call a voiceless voice.

Nevertheless,

You hear the thoughts.

And so I started hearing thoughts.

Okay,

If you want answers,

Ask away.

I started writing down on my yellow legal pad,

The questions that I had and no sooner did I even start the sentence,

The answer would come to me like a download,

Just,

I I started writing what I was,

I want to say,

Hearing in my mind.

And I began writing and writing and I even at one point,

This is a true story.

I actually had to say,

Well,

Slow down,

Slow down,

Not so fast.

I can't write that fast.

And actually the thoughts came to me more slowly.

It was as if the voice began to pick up the speed of my ability to hand write the answer.

And I was writing it,

You know,

It was like taking dictation,

Very much like taking dictation.

But when I would receive the answer to any question I had,

I would have lots of what I would call,

Yeah,

Buts.

Yeah,

But what about this?

Yeah,

But what about that?

No,

No,

No.

Wait a minute.

That can't be true.

So I kept on writing my answers and my yeah,

Buts,

Which produced additional questions and I would get additional answers until I,

What I was experiencing for hours on end was question,

Answer,

Question,

Answer,

Question,

Answer.

This went on for six or eight hours.

Fortunately,

The next day happened to be a Saturday and I wasn't working.

So I allowed myself to just have the experience as I recall to the one nine,

Three or 10 o'clock in the morning.

Mind you,

This started around four twenty three in the morning.

So I was still doing this and I was,

But I was starting to run out of energy,

You know,

My hand just like when you write a very long letter,

Still writing writer's crap.

You know,

This was,

I wasn't using a computer,

As you pointed out,

This is quite a while ago and I didn't have a laptop computer in my home and I was just writing this all out by hand,

But I found it fascinating.

So I let it go with that.

I got on with my day,

But the next morning at four twenty three in the morning or so,

I woke up again and had this urge and get back to the yellow,

Yellow legal pad,

Get back to the process.

So I did.

I went back out and there was my legal pad on the coffee table,

Almost filled.

And I had to run out to the drug store.

I remember that day and get a few more yellow legal pads.

And I did,

I bought three or four of them.

Before I finished,

I wound up with like 15 or 18 yellow legal pads full of handwritten notes back and forth,

Question,

Answer,

Question,

Answer,

Question,

Answer.

And I began to feel,

Even at the beginning when I first wrote the very first response that I was receiving to answer your question about how it felt,

I felt tearful.

I could feel the tears brimming at the ridge of my eyes.

I wasn't outright crying out loud,

But just very tearful.

The kinds of tears,

The kind of tears that we experienced when we're full of joy,

Joyfulness happening.

We don't know why,

But we're just filled with tears of joy.

That's how it felt.

So I kept on kept up with the experience.

And then at one point,

Julie,

I'm about two thirds of the way through that,

The very early going,

I saw myself writing,

This will one day become a book and it will be accessed by many people.

And I remember what I thought in that moment.

I thought,

Now I gotcha.

Now I gotcha.

Cause everything else that I've been receiving was conceptual in nature.

You know,

Could be,

Could not be,

Who could tell,

Who would know.

But here was a statement of fact that could be measured.

It has a measurable outcome.

This will one day become a book.

And I thought that of course,

There's no way in the world,

No way in the world that any publisher on the planet is going to publish a book by a guy who sent in handwritten notes.

I could just imagine him.

I can imagine the publisher going out to the,

To staff saying,

Hold the presses,

Hold the presses.

We got a guy here who's talking to God.

It's not going to happen.

Of course.

And I knew it wasn't one chance at any,

It was a man of the world.

I wasn't born yesterday.

I was almost 50 years old.

I thought this is not going to happen.

So I thought,

I'm just going to send them in.

I'm going to send in these handwritten notes to a publisher.

And then I thought maybe I better not do that.

What if they get lost?

So I did,

I did in fact find a stenographer,

A friend of mine,

A friend of a friend who was a court stenographer.

And I said,

Would you be willing to just,

I asked her,

I said,

Don't have much,

Much,

Much money to pay you,

But I could give you a little bit.

She said,

Oh,

Okay.

I'll be happy to.

And she typed up the notes and she came to my little cottage about a week later and said,

What is this stuff?

Where is this coming from?

This is unbelievable.

I said,

Really?

She's the first person I showed it to.

She said,

I can't believe what I'm typing here.

I said,

Well,

Interesting.

So I sent it to the publisher who called me in about two days and said,

We're going to publish this book.

We don't want it.

We wish you wouldn't call it conversations with God because it's going to be a pushback.

No one's going to,

People are going to be pushed away from it.

No one's going to want to read a book with that title,

But if you can give it a new title.

And I said,

No,

You know,

I can't.

Honestly,

I can't.

I experienced it as a conversation with God.

I'm not going to call it something else.

That's what it is.

Call it that or don't publish it.

And they said,

Well,

Okay.

And they published it by that title and they were right.

Not many people really were that interested.

It only sold over a million copies.

It wound up being translated into 37 languages.

Not bragging.

Just noticing.

It's just,

Yeah.

Hold on.

I'm everyone watching.

It's going up here.

There we go.

Now it's on the bookshelf.

Conversations with God.

Yeah.

Wow.

That's an amazing,

Amazing story.

I actually have tears in my eyes as you're speaking,

Just tuning into that.

You know,

It's easy to hear it now.

I'm just thinking of who,

Where you were then,

You know,

In this little cottage in the back of a legal pet.

Like it's just to me,

It really,

It showcases what I think you really also talk about in this book now,

The God solution about,

You know,

This essence of love and it coming through you and just how beautiful and that you kept with that title,

That you kept with it.

I didn't really feel I had a choice.

You know,

Julie,

I should set the stage a little more firmly.

Nothing in my life was working at that point.

I didn't wake up at 4.

23 in the morning angry about nothing here.

It just is set the stage.

I had just been fired,

Just been released,

Not fired,

Downsized is a better,

Because I wasn't fired for bad performance.

I was just downsized because the company was losing money and I was last in,

First out.

Seniority.

So the seniority rule got me and I was out the door.

So I had lost my job.

My relationship with my significant other was dissolving.

It had already dissolved at that point right in front of my eyes.

And then to add insult to injury,

I'm driving down the road,

Actually going to visit my children at the home of my then former wife for,

You know,

Parent parental visitation.

I'm on the way.

And some older gentleman,

God bless him,

Decides to turn in front of me.

He makes a left turn in front of me.

He misjudged my speed.

I wasn't going fast.

Even the police records showed because they measured the skid marks.

I was going about 23 miles an hour.

And maybe just tootling along.

But he misjudged my speed,

Cracked right into the side of my car,

Into the right front side,

I mean the left front side of my car,

The driver's side.

And I broke my neck.

The impact snapped my neck.

And I'm not talking about a hairline fracture.

I'm talking about a three quarter inch avulsion fracture of the seven cervical vertebrae posteriorly.

I recall the exact wording of the medical report.

A three quarter inch fracture in your neck is big enough to put a pencil through.

I'm not talking about a hairline fracture.

Wow.

When I got to the hospital,

The doctor said to me,

Young man,

You are luckier than you know,

Because most people who suffer this kind of a break in the neck die because it usually severs the spinal cord.

Yeah.

Or if they don't die,

They're usually paralyzed for life.

He said,

You are neither.

It's going to take a while to rehabilitate you.

Could be a year or two,

But you've not suffered any severe paralysis and you're still alive.

You know,

I was,

I couldn't,

I thought,

Why?

Why?

And then I,

That's,

That's what put me in that place when I woke up before four twenty three in the morning and I said,

Okay,

What does it take to make life work?

I mean,

I've obeyed the rules.

Well,

Most of them didn't break any really big rules.

Right.

What does it take?

What,

What don't I understand here?

That was the background that caused me to go to that young legal path.

And,

And,

Um,

I see now of course that all of it was a blessing.

I wound up living on the sidewalk,

You should know for a year.

That is,

I had no job.

Once I broke my neck,

I couldn't even get a job.

I was applying.

I just,

I just lost my job as I explained,

But I went around looking for any kind of work.

Box boy at the grocery store.

I'll do anything.

I'll sweep up.

I'll clean the bathrooms at the hotel.

Give me anything.

Be a janitor,

Night watchman.

Nobody would hire me for the simplest job they used to do with one guy who was honest with me.

He said,

He said,

Look,

Look,

He said,

Mr.

Walsh,

You're a walking insurance claim.

You're walking around with a Philadelphia collar with a therapeutic collar on you,

Holding your head up one wrong move.

And we're going to be one to pay your insurance bills,

Your health insurance for the rest of our,

For the rest of our lives.

No,

We can't hire somebody who's already crippled.

We can't,

We can't have you working here.

I couldn't find work anywhere.

I wound up losing even that little grandma apartment.

I was no longer living there.

You know,

And I,

And I wound up living on the sidewalk,

Living on the street.

I had nowhere to go.

My former wife did,

God bless her,

Let me have the sleeping bag and the tent that we had as our camping equipment.

She said,

Okay,

Take it.

And I got,

I had a tent and a sleeping bag.

That was it.

And,

And I know that's all I had.

And two pair of slacks,

A couple of shirts,

One pair of shoes,

The extent of my worldly possessions.

And I lived in that tent,

I wore a piece of land and I walked the streets.

This is not for a tough week or a tough month or even,

You know,

A tough winter.

This went on for a year of my life,

A year of my life.

And I would get up in the morning with nothing,

Not even 25 cents to my name because whatever I did collect that day on the street was already gone.

So I hit the pavement again,

Going from person to person with my hand up.

Could you help a person in need?

Would you be willing to just give me anything,

Anything?

You know,

Some people would say,

Well,

All I have is a couple of coins.

I said,

You know,

Honest to God,

A couple of quarters.

If I get a couple of quarters from everybody,

I can eat today.

Please let me have those couple of quarters.

When I learned about pride and the loss of it and the regaining of it and the regaining of strength and courage to even ask for help,

I learned about all of that and I learned about how it was to get up in the middle of the night and not know how you're going to eat the next day and wait for the police to come along and tell you to move the tent and don't think you're going to camp out here because you can't.

I think that went for a year.

That's when I started asking God,

All right,

All right.

Obviously there's something I don't understand.

What is it that I don't understand?

That's really what created what I came to call my conversations with God.

Who would have thought?

You know,

I did send it to a publisher and they did print it and who in a million years would have ever imagined that it would wind up being read by people all over the world in 37 different languages and by some young woman in the Washington,

DC area calling me on the phone and asking me questions about today.

Who would have thought?

But that's my story and I'm sticking to it.

Wow.

I just,

That is a low that,

You know,

I'm thinking,

Gosh,

I've had lows.

I thank goodness.

I mean,

I haven't experienced that,

But I could,

I can't even imagine.

I remember you talking about your background and then you had struggled.

I didn't realize,

My gosh,

To go a whole year on the street.

I mean,

Of course I'm thinking,

You know,

Using the restroom like cleanliness.

My dear Julia,

You can't even imagine I'd go into restaurants and the manager would meet me at the door.

He'd see me coming in or if he was somewhere near the front entrance and they would say,

No,

No,

No,

No.

Cause of course it looked terribly unkempt.

I didn't smell all that good.

My hair,

I hadn't had a haircut in weeks.

I looked like an unsavory character.

He said,

No,

No.

I said,

Please,

I just need to use the restroom.

Just need to use the bathroom.

I'll be in and out.

I just,

Just,

No,

I can't.

I remember one time the owner of the place,

A lady who must've owned it,

She came up behind him.

I remember distinctly and she just said,

Oh,

For heaven's sake,

Jim,

Let him in.

She looked at me,

She said,

In and out.

Promise?

I said,

Promise.

In and out.

Just to find a place to relieve yourself.

Forget about eating.

And to go into a restaurant like that and smell all the food,

Smell all these savory steaks on people's plates and such,

And then,

And then walk out and hit the street again to see if you can collect a dollar 15 and maybe buy a bag of French fries before the day was over.

Interesting way to live.

They made a movie of it,

Of course.

Hollywood came along years later.

The man who was the producer who produced,

Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure and many other films.

They asked me if they could make a movie of my life.

And they put most of this on film in the movie called Conversations with God.

I'm just thinking,

You know,

What might might have been going through your head,

The anger,

I don't know,

Maybe worthiness and,

You know,

How you felt it,

Thought about yourself.

And then it's almost,

You know,

And I'm curious,

This book,

Because I've listened and read it,

You know,

Many times.

It's funny when you've been asked those questions.

I'm like,

I think I'm in his head.

Like,

I would have asked that question too.

I'm always so grateful.

I'm like,

So usually way more articulate,

But did you,

It almost feels like that book,

That it,

Was it part of the healing agent for you?

So take us from being there.

Yeah.

Wow.

I'm sorry,

I interrupted the flow.

Go ahead and finish your facade.

Well,

No,

Just from that.

I'm like the gap from,

I can't even imagine thinking you walking in this restaurant,

Smelling food,

Just needing to use the bathroom,

Like hoping you're going to eat,

Hoping you have a place to sleep,

Probably anxious.

I can't even imagine your body and how you felt.

And then to the place where now it's being published and you know,

How life has just turned around.

And I know you talked a bit about,

You know,

You just didn't understand it.

Like where's the cliff notes?

Like,

Give me the guide.

Like,

What did I miss here?

Like,

Why don't I know calculus?

Like I thought,

I thought the adding and subtracting was enough and how maybe just if it's okay to share a little bit about that,

That,

That turning the boat around,

How did that happen?

What was that like?

It was simply they published a book and within about,

I think within two and a half months,

Something like 14 weeks,

As I recall,

The book was on the New York Times bestseller list.

Much to the surprise of the,

Because the publisher was not a major publisher.

We're not talking about Random House or one of the big publishers.

It was a little relatively small publisher,

Independent books on the East coast called Hampton Road.

But,

But the book wound up making the New York Times bestseller list.

And then one of the major publishers swooped in and asked this smaller publisher,

They wanted to buy the book from them.

They saw that the book was doing very well on the list.

And so they offered the small publisher a substantial amount of money.

That's all in the movie,

By the way.

They offered him actually a million dollars for the book.

And this is in the film and he rejected it.

He said,

I don't need a million dollars.

We can make a million on our own.

And the publisher in New York said,

Okay,

It was Putnam,

The Putnam publishing people and Putnam said,

Okay,

A million and a half,

But that's our final offer.

And I looked at the,

I was there with the publisher and I thought,

He's not going to turn this down and he didn't.

He said,

Well,

Okay,

All right,

Fair enough.

You got it.

It's yours.

And Putnam bought the book for a million and a half.

Part of which of course I received and a substantial part of it.

So I went literally overnight from a person who had,

I was under a roof at that point.

I don't want to pretend I was still outside.

I was under a roof at that point,

But I had nothing to speak of.

It's literally ranks to riches.

And that's also demonstrated in the movie.

And so all of a sudden I realized the next morning that I had more money than I could ever imagine having in my lifetime.

And I could spend it as I chose and I didn't go on a spending bender and go out and buy all kinds of fancy stuff.

I didn't even know how to do that.

I didn't have the point of view about life to go ahead and do that.

But I did find myself a nice apartment that I could rent and bought a few clothes and like that.

And I realized,

And I got my first warranty check.

I'm telling you really private stuff.

I don't normally share this,

But you asked a private question.

I remember when I got my first royalty check and I opened it up,

I remember this vividly $90,

000 as a royalty check.

And I thought,

Oh my God,

What's happened here?

What has happened here?

This is outside of my ability to even comprehend.

And so I saw my life changed dramatically.

I didn't go on a bender.

Like I said,

I did go out and buy a new car.

Fair enough.

Got myself the first new car I ever bought in my life.

I was 50 years old.

I never bought a new car in my life.

I purchased used cars,

Secondhand cars,

But it was the first time I ever bought a brand new car.

I did.

I bought a new car right off the lot,

But that was the biggest thing I wanted and everything else.

And it was not like Cadillac or Lincoln.

It was just a second.

It was a Buick.

No,

I don't know.

It was an Oldsmobile.

I remember that now because I remember thinking my father used to drive an Oldsmobile.

Does anybody drive an Oldsmobile today?

I mean,

You see how old I am.

But anyway,

That's what I bought.

And that was the biggest purchase I made.

And I just moved through my life.

But I can tell you one thing.

Surely I can tell you one thing.

I never,

Never passed a person on the straight who I could see needed some help.

Somebody leaning up against the wall of a building.

Maybe it was a bottle of something in a brown paper bag,

Taking a sip because that's all he could do.

It's the best he could do with his mind is just dull it.

With a little basket out in front of him,

With a little cardboard sign that says anything else.

I never,

Ever,

Ever,

Ever,

From that day to this,

Passed a person in need without slipping a little something their way.

And I make sure and I tell everyone I talk to him or one of my audiences,

All the lectures I've done and I've lectured all over the world in most of the major capitals on the planet.

I've lectured and told my audiences in all those languages,

Always keep a little spare.

Have it in the dashboard of your car.

Have it on the tray next to the ashtray.

Have some in your pocket when you're walking down the street.

Just a little spare.

A couple of five dollar bills or even a ten.

And as you're walking down the street,

Let it be your vote,

Your voice of gratitude.

Thank you God.

Pass it along.

You could never know how much that can mean to a person who could live for three days off of that ten dollars and find a way to stay alive.

But more importantly,

Renew their faith in the human race and in life itself.

Wow,

That's beautiful.

That's really,

I remembered your story.

You talked about the younger couple that you took in and gave them whatever was in your fridge and you gave them some hot chocolate and you're like,

I just remember that story.

I remember you talking about it and thinking that it really,

It just,

I didn't realize the background that you'd come from.

And I thought that's so lovely that you did that.

And I think today I just love what you said about restoring faith in humanity.

And I know this is something you get into in this,

In your,

In your most recent book.

And I have to tell you,

It's just really quickly,

I was with my son yesterday.

We were out actually in Bethesda,

You know,

The area.

And in the DC area,

There was a man there and people just walked by him.

He was sitting with his cardboard box and his,

You know,

Oh,

It makes me want to cry.

It is full.

I really,

Like it brings tears to my eyes because I could see,

You know,

The light in his eyes and I had a,

You know,

I gave him some change and we,

I mean,

It wasn't a lot,

But we went to the supermarket to return something and just,

I was like,

I don't,

The whole thing of Barry is in my son was like,

He might be allergic.

He's going to have a,

He's very cute actually.

It's like,

He could have a reaction.

So I thought,

Okay,

It's not a lot,

But at least like I got a huge bag of oranges because they're easy to peel and they're vitamins.

I was like thinking what's nutritional.

I don't know if he's,

I probably could have gotten more,

Could have gotten a sandwich,

But I figured,

Well,

That I know at least is something healthy.

And he was,

I mean,

It was nothing to do that.

He was so grateful.

And you know,

As I was finishing the book,

I don't want to give it all away,

But you know,

You talk about this in your last chapter,

This,

You know,

Being,

Having that gratitude factor.

And I just,

I'm really touched by what you shared.

I didn't know your,

I didn't,

I hadn't heard you said it like that.

And I saw it yesterday,

You know,

And I think there's this restoring hope in humanity and I can't think of a more important topic right now is restoring hope in this species.

And you know,

Just to dive into this book,

I was like,

Everyone needs to read The God Solution.

Everyone needs to read this.

I was like,

I would be part of the religion you're creating or whatever you want to call it.

So I just thank you for sharing that and who you are.

I want to say,

Julie,

To those who are watching us now,

That this is way more than simply doing nice things.

This is more than,

You know,

Your good deed for the day.

I don't want people to think that it's that simplistic.

It's a wonderful thing to do.

I'm not denigrating it or making it small.

Please,

If you can think of a good deity every day,

Do it.

But this just goes way beyond that.

This goes to a place of actually changing your mind by changing your whole definition of who and what God is,

Of what God wants and how that new idea flows through you in a particular way at a particular time for a particular reason.

Because it's our fundamental idea about God,

The idea that we hold inside of ourselves.

Who is God anyway?

Is there even a God?

And if there is a God,

Because the book starts,

By the way,

With that question,

Folks,

The book begins with an interesting question.

Hey,

You know what?

If there is a God,

We can't even be sure there is.

But if there is a God,

Why is the world such a mess?

Excuse me,

But what's the point of having a God if the world is continually facing the danger of its own self-annihilation or falling apart for one other reason,

One reason or another,

From the beginning of human history?

And increasingly,

As each day goes by,

As we increase in our so-called ability to solve problems,

We have even larger ones and larger ones and larger ones.

So,

You know,

Excuse me,

But what's the point of having a higher power if we are powerless to do anything about the way life is being experienced on earth?

That's how the book begins,

With a very pointed and direct question.

And then the book says,

You know what?

As you consider the possibility that the problem is not that there's not such a thing as a higher power,

But that simply we haven't learned how to use it.

That simply we can't even agree on who and what God is.

And the book points out that there are 4,

300 religions on the face of the earth right now.

I didn't make that number up.

Google it.

Just Google the question,

How many religions are there on earth?

It'll tell you just under 4,

300 religions on the face of the earth today.

But with all those religions on the face of the earth,

We can't seem to agree.

We can come to a unified statement about who and what God is,

What God wants,

What God demands and requires.

What happens if we don't meet God's demands?

And how can we use this so-called higher power in some way that allows us to produce the outcomes that we say we wish to produce?

And the challenge that I say,

That I place,

I should say,

Before humanity is the challenge of creating a brand new definition.

Because truly,

It's been my observation,

It's been my observation that the way we define God,

The way we think of God is how we behave.

That is,

We think of God as a judgmental,

Condemning and punishing deity.

God does judge us.

God will condemn us.

God will punish us if we don't do what God wants.

Virtually every one of the major religions on the face of the earth teach those three principles.

Again,

I'm not making that up either.

This is theology.

And because we observe and have been taught that if God judges,

Condemns and punishes,

We decide it's okay for us to judge,

Condemn and punish others.

That stands to reason that if we were to change our entire theology,

Our entire idea of who and what God is,

How God functions,

How the deity moves through the experience we call life,

That we would move through life in a different way as well.

What if we decided,

Dare I suggest it,

That God could be defined in two words,

Pure love.

Now,

When I put that in front of audiences on the internet these days,

I do a lot of lecturing on the internet and people will say,

You know,

They'll raise their hand,

You know,

On the Zoom platform and they'll say,

Oh Neil,

Come on,

Is that it?

I mean,

That's the brand new revelation from the guy who talked to God.

God is his love.

Of course God is love.

Everyone agrees that God is love.

No one would disagree with that.

That's what we,

That's the,

I said,

Wait,

I said,

Wait,

Wait,

Wait,

Relax guys.

I didn't say God is love.

You didn't hear me say God is love.

I said,

God is pure love.

And there's a difference.

Pure love wants,

Needs,

Expects,

Hopes for,

And commands nothing in return for the expressing of it.

That's pure love.

Do we dare believe in a God who needs nothing,

Who wants nothing,

Who demands nothing.

And therefore,

Can I say it out loud?

Yeah.

Punishes nothing,

Condemns nothing,

And judges nothing.

Do we dare believe in that kind of God?

Well,

Of course it would be hard for us to do that because if we embraced such a notion,

We would have to behave that way ourselves.

Yeah.

Because if we want to model our behavior on the highest demonstration of what is good and right and true,

There is in the universe.

If we want to model our behavior on the behavior of God,

We would have to ourselves never again judge,

Condemn or punish anybody.

Wow.

Would that alter human behavior?

Would that bring a change in our politics,

In our economics,

In our social constructions to say nothing of our spirituality?

I'm sorry,

But it would be revolutionary.

That is,

It would change everything.

And that's what I call the God solution.

To decide that you are pure love,

That you are an individuation of divinity.

I'm not saying you're God.

Somebody accused me the other day on my Facebook page.

He's walking around saying that I'm God.

I didn't say that you are God,

Not in the totality of God.

I'm saying that you are an individuation of the divine,

That you are to God as a wave is to the ocean.

When the wave arises from the ocean,

It's not separate from the ocean.

It's not other than the ocean.

It's simply the ocean arising in individuated form in all its glory and all its power,

Duplicating the glory and power of the ocean itself in singular and proportionate form.

And when that expression is complete,

It recedes back into the ocean.

That is precisely the relationship that we have with the divine in my understanding.

That's what I was told in my conversations with God.

Now,

If humanity simply embraced that notion,

That understanding,

And simply changed its idea of the God that we received back into of who and what is God.

Is it really a being that's angry?

You know what's interesting?

Read the Bible with a calculator.

You don't probably don't want to do it,

But just for the sake of the experiment,

Pick up a hand calculator and put it next to your Bible and read the Bible with a calculator and add up every time there's a statement in the Bible about how God either himself or others at his direction killed or hurt people.

And you'll discover that over a million people have been killed at the hand or the command of God in the Bible as recorded in sacred scripture.

See,

Because here's how it is.

I don't know how it was for you folks,

But I was born and raised in the Catholic tradition.

I'm not going to get Catholic bash,

As I said earlier.

I don't want to get into that,

But I want to just share with you an anecdote.

When I was nine years old,

I was told by the priest in catechism class,

If you miss mass,

If you miss mass on Sunday,

Then don't have a good excuse.

If you're caring for a sick mother or if you're an adult and you have to go to work,

Fair enough.

But if you just go off to play a game of golf or if you're a nine year old child and you want to just go play a little softball on Sunday morning at the playground and if you should get hit by a car the next day and unfortunately die in the accident,

You're not going to heaven.

You will not return to God in heaven.

You may not go to hell.

Hell is for the really severe offenders.

You'll go to a place called purgatory.

Purgatory,

Where you have to suffer the same as hell,

Only it's not forever.

I've had a couple of marriages like that,

But that's another old story.

So here you are in purgatory and you have to burn off your sins until you can,

And it's suffering,

Abject suffering,

Until you can be purified and then you can return,

Then you can return to God in heaven because you missed mass on Sunday.

But the teaching of that particular church is even worse than that.

I was told that if I belong to the wrong religion,

It doesn't matter how nice I am,

How kind I am,

How compassionate I am,

How caring I am,

How generous I am,

How forgiving I am,

How loving I am.

None of that matters.

I could be one of the nicest people on the face of the earth,

But you know what?

I chose the wrong religion.

And God says,

Sorry,

You're going to hell or you'll suffer everlasting torture.

That's the rules.

You got to belong to this church or you're out.

If you're a Buddhist,

If you're a Muslim,

If you're a Jew,

If you belong to no religion whatsoever,

If you happen to be,

What can I tell you?

You're out because there's only one way to get in.

And that's just how it is.

And that's the God in whom we believe.

No wonder we play a game on this planet.

You got to belong to our nationality.

When you're out,

Build the fences,

Build the walls.

You can't come in unless you're one of us.

Where did we get that idea?

No,

No,

You can't come in unless you're one of us.

And we wonder why the world is the way it is.

Well,

Come on people.

Come on.

I mean,

Really?

This is the God in whom we believe,

Or is it time for a new understanding?

I'm suggesting that the world is begging for a new understanding of life and how it works,

Of God and who and what it is,

Of ourselves and who we are and what is our true identity.

A new understanding of everything.

Time to throw out the old understandings because you know,

It's fascinating.

We've been living with these old understandings of our God for thousands of years.

I mean,

We've been taught this for thousands of years.

And we're still seeking and struggling,

Striving and suffering.

Do you know that 653 children on this planet die of starvation every day?

No,

Not every day.

I meant to say every hour.

Yeah.

I made that mistake deliberately because I wanted to catch you.

I actually know the statistic.

It's every hour 653 children die on this planet of starvation while we throw away more food in the restaurants of Paris,

London and New York than would be needed to feed an entire village for a week.

And we call ourselves an advanced civilization.

Help me out.

But there's something we can do about it.

I don't want you to be one of those who says,

Well,

Neil,

You know,

You're raising very good points and we hear you,

But what can I do?

What you can do is move through the world in a way which demonstrates who and what you are with everything you think,

Say and do.

And which therefore shows others who they are as well.

So raise not your fists to heaven and curse the darkness not,

But be a light unto the darkness.

Just a thought.

It's very powerful what you're saying.

And one of the thoughts that comes to mind,

I mean,

This is a lot,

I'm just thinking for everyone,

I will have notes because there's so much in what you're saying.

It's really about being this.

The other piece,

And you talk about this in the book,

Is understanding this,

The concept of God,

This deity.

We're putting human terms on it.

And I think you get into that mistaking,

Mistake thinking that making God in the image of humans,

I think is the way you said it,

And it's a fallacy.

That's where we,

You know,

This judgmental,

Harsh condemning entity,

It's like,

How could that even be?

And it kind of,

It just reminds me of back to the beginning,

This pure love,

This,

I'm going to write that somewhere where I can see this,

The wanting,

Needing,

Expecting,

Commanding nothing in return,

Just for the expressing of it.

Like that is,

That's something to really sit with and meditate over for a long time.

That's pretty.

And you even,

Can you even love your own spouse in that way?

Forget about the world.

Can you even love the person across the pillow?

In that way,

Needing,

Wanting,

Expecting,

Hoping for and demanding nothing in return.

Dare you.

I dare you.

Yeah.

Even for a day,

Even for an hour,

It'll change your life.

Be careful.

This stuff can change your life.

Never walk through the world in the same way again.

Do I practice this all the time?

24 hours a day,

Seven days a week?

No,

No.

I'm not going to sit here and try to pretend that I do because I don't.

It's a high mark,

A high standard to meet.

At least now I know where I'm going.

At least now I know why I came to this planet,

But my purpose is here because I finally know who I am and what I'm doing here.

It took me a half century on the planet to even come to that awareness.

And billions of people are not in that place from my observation.

No one resigned for a half century.

I thought it was about get the card,

Get the girl,

Get the job,

You know,

Et cetera,

Et cetera,

Et cetera.

Get the house,

Get the better car,

Get the better job,

Get the better house.

Doing the best I can here.

I'm doing the best I can.

You'll give me a break.

And you know what's interesting?

90 percent of the world's people are spending 98 percent of their time on things that don't matter.

On things that don't matter,

That have nothing to do with what you're really doing here.

That's the first sentence of the first paragraph of the first chapter of a book I wrote called The Only Thing That Matters.

You might find it interesting to pick up that piece of literature.

98 percent of the world's people are spending 98 percent of their time on things that don't matter.

You're here.

You came here to physicality to complete the agenda of the soul.

Not to get the guy,

Get the girl,

Get the car,

Get the job,

Get the house,

Get the office in the corner with your name on the door.

It's not what's going on here.

Yet when you serve your soul's agenda,

Which is the same by the way for every person,

The agenda of the soul is the same for every sentient being in the universe,

To express,

To experience,

To demonstrate,

And to complete the placing into physicality of your true identity as an individuation of divinity.

Or in a simple word,

To evolve.

To evolve into the demonstration of that.

Now what's interesting is that when you pay attention to that agenda and really serve that agenda to the best of your ability,

All these other things fall in on you automatically.

All these other things that you think you're trying to accomplish,

Get the guy,

Get the girl,

Get the car,

Get the job,

Get the house,

Get the better car,

Get the better job,

Get the better house,

It all happens automatically.

Or as someone much more eloquent than I will ever be once put it,

Seek ye first the kingdom of God and all these things will be added unto you.

I could,

Of course,

Be wrong about all of this,

But I don't think so.

Taking a breath over here as I just breathe that in,

I'm saying to all of you beautiful listeners,

This is one of my,

One of the more stunning conversations that I've been part of or been able to share.

And I just thank God you survived that car incident and you're so living your soul's agenda.

It's oozing out of you,

Neil.

And you know,

I think what you'd said earlier that the best way I think to paraphrase is to be it,

To be this and to be a model for others.

And you really,

You are that for me.

You know,

The goal of this whole show is really this idea of,

You know,

The USU tuning into that individuated specific like your special wave.

I love that.

That whatever that wave is of the ocean.

And I'm really behind,

You know,

I always use my body.

I'm just fully aligned with what you're saying.

You know,

I know you talk a lot about this,

The power of gratitude and really tuning into that essence.

And I got to tell you,

I'm just feeling so thankful for who you are,

What you're sharing with the world.

We need it.

We need this.

I hope everyone's listening and internalizing.

I hope everyone hears me when I tell you that I'm not my book,

That I do better talking it than I do living it.

But at least now,

As I said a number of times,

At least now I know what I'm up to.

And I went through most of my life having no idea who I am and why I'm here.

At least now I'm clear about that.

And that gives me a direction in which I can move.

I hope that on my gravestone it'll be said,

He almost got there.

Hmm.

Yeah,

It's beautiful.

Well,

You're definitely,

Like,

If this isn't getting there,

We all,

Maybe we never get there.

Maybe that's part of the,

Maybe it's,

It's,

It's aiming,

It's aiming high for it.

Well,

I'm talking to it pretty good.

And if I,

When I get off the air here and I close down my computer and get back into the regular living of my life,

We'll see how it goes in the kitchen.

It really shows up in the kitchen,

Doesn't it?

My last question,

If it's okay with you,

I usually ask,

I call it a heart flare where you're,

Maybe there's something I didn't ask you or just a feeling of your heart wanting to share something that,

That just feels like a little flare that is coming up to the surface.

And I wanted to give you the space and grace and time if there's anything else,

Maybe I forgot to ask,

Or just that you felt like sharing for your heart flare.

I'd share a tool.

People have asked me at lectures and when I am doing the book signing or whatever they've asked me,

Can you give me a tool,

Just a simple tool that I could just take away from this encounter that could allow me to step off onto this path you're describing.

So here's a tool that I would suggest.

I use it myself and it helps me.

Every day before I see another person for the first time that day,

Maybe it is when I open my peepers and I see my beloved on the next pillow across the bed,

Or maybe it's just a family member across the house,

Or perhaps it's a friend,

A neighbor across the street,

Or a total stranger across town,

Or a person I never even heard of but just discovered across the world.

Whoever it might be,

Before I begin my encounter with that person on that day,

I say to myself,

Don't say it out loud by the way,

Don't say this out loud because you're most likely to be misunderstood,

But say it to yourself,

Just a little comment from you to you before you begin your first interaction with that other human being.

Here's what I say to myself.

I have come that you may have life and that you may have it more abundantly.

Your life will be made better today from my having passed through it.

I promise you.

Wow.

Can you say that one more time please?

Yeah.

I love what you just said.

I'm like,

I'm going to write that,

We're going to have it here.

You got to have a little fun.

You are so great.

I was like,

I did just say that.

Okay.

Here's what I say to myself.

Imagine before I say the first word or have the first interaction with the person on the other side of the bed,

Much less the person on the other side of the world.

I have come that you may have life and that you may have it more abundantly.

Your day will be made better today from my having passed through it.

I promise you.

That is stunning.

And I just,

If we all said that,

Can't even imagine.

If you do that for 90 days,

Be careful.

Because if you do that for 90 days without fail,

Before your first interaction with anybody,

The clerk at the post office,

The lady at the coffee shop,

Much less the person across the kitchen,

If you do that for 90 days,

Somebody is going to look at you and they're going to say their version of,

By whose authority are you acting like this?

And you will then get to decide who are you really and why are you here?

It'll only be the single most important decision you ever made in your life.

But what do I know?

Take it in and throw it out if it doesn't resonate with you.

And if it does,

Embrace it and move forward in your life as one of God's blessings.

Thank you so much.

I'm on for the challenge.

Side note,

We can talk after.

I'm like 90 days doing it right here.

All my listeners can do with me.

Let's do it together.

Let's do this.

Thank you so much for your 39 books in.

You know,

What do you know?

All I know is what you're saying is resonating on a deep level and it's truly an honor and I hope to have you back again soon for the rest of the 500 questions I have for you.

I will come back whenever you ask.

Thank you for being such a light in so many of our lives and for what you shared today.

Thanks for the opportunity to share this time with us.

Bye for now.

My friend,

I am so grateful that you are part of this powerful community.

I thank you for listening to this episode and I hope it inspires you to remember who you really are and who you chose to be in this lifetime.

I created this podcast from my own heart's desire to amplify the vibration of compassion,

Kindness,

Abundance,

Heart,

Magic,

And so much more,

Both within you and the collective.

I'm honored to be your host,

Your friend,

And your companion on this life journey.

And I love feedback.

Let me know what you loved.

What would you love more of?

Or what would you love to see covered on the show?

And if you feel moved,

Please subscribe,

Rate,

And review the USU podcast so that we can continue to shift the way humanity operates and shape this gorgeous collective community with the deepest love,

Admiration,

And respect for your USU.

Until next time.