“Believe nothing I say. Simply live it. Experience it."

My dear, dear companions on this journey…

I would like to make a closing statement about the whole Conversations with God encounter that has touched my life and, amazingly, the lives of millions of others around the world. But by “closing statement” I do not mean a “final” statement. I’m sure I will have many more things to say about CWG before I leave this planet!

By “closing statement” I mean that I want to bring a close to any speculation about how I feel about, how I personally hold, the Conversations with God experience --- and how I wish and hope that anyone who is, or becomes, aware of it will feel also.

I want to put to rest any thought, idea, notion, or claim that may lead to a misunderstanding that any person or group may have about me, and about the body of work that has filled 39 books and consumed the last 27 years of my life. 

I am aware, of course, that some people and groups have called me a blasphemer, a heretic, and, in the extreme, an instrument of the devil. I understand how they could have come to that, for many of the ideas I have placed into the world directly confront and specifically contradict their most sacred beliefs. 

Because of this, I am very okay with them describing me in this way. I am okay with it because I admire and encourage the active and energetic defense of one’s own most sacred beliefs, so long as that defense does not involve or include the inflicting of emotional or physical violence. 

For in my heart’s deepest experience and my mind’s highest understanding, sacred beliefs lose the quality that rendered them “sacred” if they are expressed or demonstrated in a way that damages another. 

But so long as we create and maintain the space within which you can share and practice your beliefs, and I can share and practice mine...and we can do so while loving each other purely, and admiring each other genuinely, for having the courage and the gumption and the willingness to do so without rage-filled hostility, without brutality, and surely without bloodshed...then we will have both venerated our beliefs and honored each other. 

To my mind, none of this means that we should never, ever doubt what we hold to be true. Especially what we hold to be true about God.

A national television interviewer once asked me on a major network news show: “Do you ever doubt that the experience you’ve had is what you say it is? Do you ever doubt the accuracy of the information you feel you’ve been given?” 

My response was immediate, simple, and straightforward.

“You know, the day I stop doubting is the day I become dangerous, and I have no intention of becoming dangerous.”

So I want to tell you to doubt as well. (I’m sure I don’t have to encourage this.) I want you to be clear that one of the most important messages of the Conversations with God dialogues is not to believe them. 

Indeed, in the very first book of the nine texts we hear this in the voice of God: 

“Believe nothing I say. Simply live it. Experience it. Then live whatever other paradigm you want to construct. Afterward, look to your experience to find your truth.”

We do well to remain our own authority in all matters regarding the Self and the Soul. No one can tell us what is True for us, and no one should try.

On the other hand, if my sharing what is true for ME has led you to a greater certainty about what is true for YOU --- even, and especially, if you do not agree with my truth, then the CWG books will have served their most blessed and powerful purpose. We are both, then, members in good standing of Humanity’s Team, for we have agreed to disagree agreeably.

By Neale Donald Walsch