Communion With God

Rating:
Summary: Excellent but not the best CWG book!
Review: Being a huge fan of all the Conversations With God books, I am almost reluctant to offer any kind of criticism... but I will! "Communion With God" is a fitting conclusion to the series, but I personally prefer the more autobiographical approach of "Friendship With God", or the powerful simplicity of CWG book one. I feel they speak to me more directly than this, but read them all and decide for yourself.

The text here is presented as a monologue, with God speaking straight to the reader. Many of the insights have of course been presented in the previous books, but Walsch and God do present further gems here. In fact it's almost worth buying the book for the first page of the introduction alone. As with all the Conversations With God books, the writing is exceptionally enlightening and of outstanding quality. There are three sections - "The Ten Illusions" (need, failure, disunity, insufficiency, requirement, judgment, condemnation, conditionality, superiority, ignorance), "Mastering The Illusions" and "Meeting The Creator Within".

Walsch/God ends with a call to "seize the day". "Begin as you awaken, by seeing yourself as Who You Really Are, by praising all that you ever have been, and all that you have become. And begin by choosing, in this moment of grace, to become more than you have ever been or ever dreamed of being..." :o) ;o)

Rating:
Summary: YOU are the Way and the Life!!!
Review: As magnificent and glorious as all these books are, to me, they all come down to a simple question which God asks early on..."If the whole world followed you, would you be pleased with where you took it?" I believe that when the planet as a whole can answer that question with a resounding "YES!!!", we will have, finally, found our way home.

Rating:
Summary: honor each other and ourselves
Review: I am still amazed every time I open a Walsch book at the clarity and wisdom contained in its pages. I desire now to live these wonderful truths with each moment of my life. They are deceptively simple ideas which hold within them the power to change everything. I believe the essence of Neale's message is "peace". When each of us can find peace within ourselves, we can begin to heal the divisions which have damaged our planet. May we all embrace one another as the gods and goddesses we truly are, and together we can create a more loving and joyful world.

Rating:
Summary: We Have Lived in an Illusion (According to This)
Review: I have been one of Neale's strident advocates, especially Book 1, which I still consider the most important book in the entire CWG series. It doesn't seem like the other books in the series not entitled with "CWG" have received such noteriety. Following Books 1,2,3 and Friendship with God, comes this last book...Communion (or so we are lead to believe, as there is a hint even in this book...about another one). I found book 1 to be of substance which slowly degraded in 2 and 3, occasionally on diatriabes against the ills of humanity and how "masters" and beings of elevated races do it better than we do (once again, we look like apes). I was very hopeful for something spectacular in "Communion," but alas, we are informed, we are living in our own illusions...something the Buddha said a long time ago. What Communion consists of is a set of 10 illusions we all participate in...and it made me wonder, hmmm...am I participating in an illusion by reading this book? I don't buy into the causality of illusion too well, and frankly, I think its a cop out. God says he doesn't like pain and suffering, yet we have all the free will we desire, to hang ourselves! Such a deal! I also don't buy the finality of this "LAST" work from God, as God never does stop talking, or so Book 1 said. Which means, Donald is getting writer's cramp and God needs to find another author...if all we are going to be served up, is a diatribe about illusions. But what most IRKED me, were some of the ending conclusions of this book...after at least three enlightened (tho opinionated at times) books, we are lead to the following loving conclusions:

pg 200 "Do not imagine that spirituality and politics do not mix. Politics is spirituality, demonstrated." ...Hogwash, politics is the abysmal sewer of humanity! It is the one thing which has no problem with controlling all of us...in conjunction with the following....

Pg 200 "And do not imagine that religion and spirituality are not one and the same..." Hogwash, religion is a man-made contrivance which we all know, will never give up its need to be in control of all of us.

So, if we all have free will, how then are we finally pontificated in the end here to "Do not" do this and "Do not" do that...do not use the imagination we are supposed to have that creates the illusion which this book illudes to us? I was sorely disappointed. Somewhere along the way, I think God got intimidated by religion and gave in (or was it the politicians knocking on Neale's front door to "shut up?"). I am not so sure, but I have this sinking feeling in my gut, and from what I learned in Book 1, I need to trust my feelings...those feelings are saying...something isn't right in Communion...something isn't right in Communion...something...isn't right!

In conclusion, I find this book to be a sore conclusion to what was...one of the best books I have ever read on spirituality, namely CWG, Book 1...one which shall remain a cornerstone. But this book hit an all time low in my opinion, sort of like the sequel that failed.

I think there are some serious things we all have to consider, when reading the pontifications and the abjurances contained herein. I just hope Neale is able to pull out of the nose dive and plateau at a level in the future (if there is to be one) somewhat closer to where he attained it in Book 1.

Rating:
Summary: This is the best book in the WITH GOD series!
Review: I love this book! I love it especially because it is not in dialogue format. It really makes you feel that God is talking to YOU. It talks of the 10 illusions that we have and how we can use them for their real purpose. It teaches you how to impart the message to your children (and other people), how to take care of your whole being and how to work from your state of grace. The best part is the MESSAGE FROM THE CREATOR. This book takes the CWG1, 2 and 3 plus Friendship with God full circle. Wonderful.... just wonderful. Thank you God!

Rating:
Summary: Communion with God by Neale Donald Walsch, audio-book
Review: I have read all the books by Walsch and love them. This last one I wanted to listen to on audio-cd, read by three different readers. The content is superb, as usual, but I was very disapointed about the style of one of the readers (not Walsch himself, which is one of the readers). He has a very deep voice like those commercial-readers on TV and he talks in a very intense and dramatizing fashion. I guess he is trying to sound like god himself, but the result is just irritating. Please do not use commercial-readers for future audio-books. I also love to listen to Deepak Chopra. He could set the example on how to read in a more soft and neutral way which pays respect to the content.

Rating:
Summary: The highest authority lies within us
Review: Communion with God deals with the ten major illusions of human - the illusions of need, failure, disunity, insufficiency, requirement, judgment, condemnation, conditionality, superiority, and ignorance. The way all these ten illusions have been put separately and then discussed in detail collectively is truly amazing.

While discussing the ten illusions and a lot more, the book goes deep inside the life of an ordinary human. And what we realize later is that life is the most beautiful gift we have ever got. Each of us has the ability to access eternal wisdom. Indeed, I believe that God is inspiring all of us, all of the time since the highest authority lies within us.

All of life is a gift, and all is perfection - the perfect tool with which to create the perfect opportunity for the perfect expression of perfection itself, in, as, and through us.

When we understand this, we will remain in a state of continual appreciation. That is, we will be growing. Growth is a meaning of appreciation. When something appreciates, it becomes more than it was.

At many a times we might think that we need a particular person to be happy, or a job to be successful, or some other physical or emotional gratification to be content. That is when we may wish to notice that we are here, right now, without it. Why, then, do we think we need it?

Close examination will reveal that we do not need it, not to survive, and not even to be happy.

Happiness is a decision, not an experience.

The book not only touches these points but also reveals much larger facts about the life. It is definitely not a document to be missed under any circumstance. It is another wonderful piece of note that has come out from Neale Donal Walsch. I highly recommend this book to all of you and look forward to see some more intellectual literature from Neale in the near future.

Happy Reading!

Rating:
Summary: "Communion...." another Walsch classic
Review: I have read Communion With God three times now, and am starting a fourth. Like the other Walsch books, this one speaks to my heart in a way that no book ever has. It's hard to pinpoint exactly what, in its contents, produces such an impact, but I only know how my experience has changed from reading it. I now feel that anyone can live as an enlightened master with the help of these books. I recommend them to anyone who is dissatisfied with what they've been seeing in their lives, and for those who desire to be the conscious cause of that change.

Rating:
Summary: Good Sense
Review: I have never found my answers in church. Walsch's series of books like C. A. Lewis' An Encounter With A Prophet portray a loving God who makes sense. I would recommend all of these books to anyone wanting answers about God that fit the heart and the head.

Rating:
Summary: A great addition to the CWG collection
Review: Neale & God keep managing to add more depth and detail to the core message. I have read CWG 1,2,3, Q&A on CWG, Friendship with God, etc. Each seems better than the last. But Communion felt different. For one thing, in this one God takes the lead. Neale writes an intro and a closing, but the body is all God's. This is a nice change.

I found all the others CWG books incredibly fresh and innovative in the concepts they revealed. I believe them to be (for me) the very highest levels of truth. (Each book is careful not to promote itself as the only way, or the best way, but another way of approaching life.) I found CommunionWG to be very deep and very thought provoking in ways the others were not. It takes a different approach from the more Q & A nature of the other works.

Communion with God clarifies the '10 Illusions' on which this reality has been built. God says that we chose an illusion then built on each one to get where we are today, where we feel very separate from God. God says the purpose of all of creation is to create experience. We have full power to believe what we want and to turn those beliefs into a virtual reality. We have the greatest experiment in separation going on in this reality. We have chosen to experience almost total separation and some of us can go from there back to the experience of unification or Communion with God again. But, if we knew the truth of our unity with God we could not experience reunification.

God also tells us to trust ourselves. There are no wrong paths. All paths lead to creation and experience. All creation and experience is valuable. This is an incredible level of responsibility, but why would God give us anything less? What does God have to fear?

And what about all the teachings of the past like the Old and New Testaments? Well, these were like training wheels for toddlers. Many of us are ready for more responsibility and fewer crutches, and God delivers. I believe these works will be the Gospels of the next Millenium. Neale is a true prophet.

Finally, God does not suggest that we abandon the 10 Illusions, but rather that we use them, or the memory of them, to go beyond them. We can still benefit from their memory without needing to continue experiencing them directly. This is an incredible series.

I had waited for a long time, reading and longing for Information like this. Since first finding CWG1 about 6 years ago, Neale and God have answered my prayers for higher level information, and for that I am extremely grateful. Thank you Neale, and thank You God.