If you conclude 
from this that past, present, and future exist 
at one  and the same “time,” you are  right. (Yet now is not the moment to discuss that. We can get into this in much greater detail 
when we explore the whole concept of 
time—which we will do later) . The world is the way it is because it could 
not be any other way and still exist in the  
gross  realm of physicality. Earthquakes 
and hurricanes, floods and tornados, and  
events that you call natural disasters are 
but movements of the elements from one  polarity to the other. The whole birth -death 
cycle is part of this movement. These are  
the rhythms  of life, and everything in gross 
reality is subject to them, because life  itself 
is a rhythm. It is a wave, a vibration, a 
pulsation at the very heart of the All That  Is. Illness and disease are opposites of health 
and wellness, and are made manifest in  
your reality at your behest. You cannot be 
ill without at some level causing yourself  to 
be, and you can be well again in a moment 
by simply deciding to be. Deep  personal 
disappointments are responses which are 
chosen, and worldwide  calamities are the 
resul t of worldwide consciousness. Your question infers that I choose these 
events, that it is My will and desire they  
should occur. Yet I do not will these things 
into being, I merely observe you doing  so. And I do nothing to stop them, because to 
do so would be to thwart your will. That, in 
turn, would deprive you of the God 
experience, which is the experience you  
and I have chosen together. Do not condemn, therefore, all that you 
would call bad in the world. Rather, ask  
yourself, what about this have you judg ed 
bad, and what, if anything, you wish to do  
to change it. Inquire within, rather than without, asking: 
“What part of my Self do I wish to  
experience now in the face of this calamity? What aspect of being do I choose to  call 
forth?” For all of life exists as a tool of your 
own creation, and all of its events  merely 
present themselves as opportunities for 
you to decide, and be, Who You Are. This is true for every soul, and so you see 
there are no victims in the universe, only  
creators. The Masters who  have walked 
this planet all knew this. That is why, no  
matter which Master you might name, none 
imagined themselves to be victimized —
though many were truly crucified. Each soul is a Master —though some do 
not remember their origins or their  
heritages. Yet each creates the situation 
and the circumstance for its own highest  
purpose and its own quickest 
remembering —in each moment called 
now. Judge not, then, the karmic path walked by 
another. Envy not success, nor pity  failure, 
for you know not what is success  or failure 
in the soul’s reckoning. Call not a  thing 
calamity, nor joyous event, until you decide, or witness, how it is used. For is a  death a 
calamity if it saves the lives of thousands? And is a life a joyous event if it  has caused 
nothing but grief? Y et even this you should 
not judge, but keep always  your own 
counsel, and allow others theirs. This does not mean ignore a call for help, 
nor the urging of your own soul to work  
toward the change of some circumstance 
or condition. It does mean avoiding labe ls 
and judgment while you do whatever you 
do. For each circumstance is a gift, and in  
each experience is hidden a treasure. There once was a soul who knew itself to 
be the light. This was a new soul, and so,  
anxious for experience. “I am the light,” it 
said. “I am the light.” Yet all the knowing of  
it and all the saying of it could not substitute 
for the experience of it. And in the realm  from which this soul emerged, there was 
nothing but the light. Every soul was grand,  
every soul was magnificent, and eve ry soul 
shone with the brilliance of My awesome  
light. And so the little soul in question was 
as a candle in the sun. In the midst of the  
grandest light —of which it was a part —it 
could not see itself, nor experience itself  as 
Who and What it Really Is. Now it came to pass that this soul yearned 
and yearned to know itself. And so great  
was its yearning that I one day said, “Do 
you know, Little One, what you must do to  
satisfy this yearning of yours?”  
“Oh, what, God? What? I’ll do anything!” 
The little soul s aid. “You must separate yourself from the rest, 
of us,” I answered, “and then you must  call 
upon yourself the darkness. ” 
“What is the darkness, O Holy One?” the 
little soul asked. “That which you are not,” I replied, and the 
soul understood. And so this th e soul did, removing itself 
from the All, yea, going even unto another  
realm. And in this realm the soul had the 
power to call into its experience all sorts of  
darkness. And this it did. Yet in the midst of all the darkness did it cry 
out, “Father, Father,  why hast Thou  
forsaken me?” Even as have you in your 
blackest times. Yet I have never forsaken  
you, but stand by you always, ready to remind you of Who You Really Are; ready,  
always ready, to call you home. Therefore, be a light unto the darkness, 
and cur se it not. And forget not Who You Are in the moment 
of your encirclement by that which you  are 
not. But do you praise to the creation, even 
as you seek to change it. And know that what you do in the time of 
your greatest trial can be your greatest  
triumph. For the experience you create is a 
statement of Who You Are —and Who  You 
Want to Be. I have told you this story —the parable of 
the little soul and the sun —so that you  
might better understand why the world is 
the way it is —and how it can change in an  instan t the moment everyone remembers 
the divine truth of their highest reality. Now there are those who say that life is a 
school, and that these things which you  
observe and experience in your life are for 
your learning. I have addressed this  before, 
and I tel l you again:  
You came into this life with nothing to 
learn —you have only to demonstrate what 
you already know. In the demonstration of 
it will you function it out, and create yourself  
anew, through your experience. Thus,  do 
you justify life, and give it purpose. Thus,  
do you render it holy. Are you saying that all the bad things that 
happen to us are things of our own 
choosing? Do  you mean that even the 
world’s calamities and disasters are, at some level, created by us so  that we can 
“experience the opposite of Who We Are”? And, if so, isn’t there some less  painful 
way—less painful to ourselves and 
others —to create opportunities for us to  
experience ourselves? You’ve asked several questions, and they 
are all good ones. Let ’s take them one at  a 
time. No, not all the things which you call bad 
which happen to you are of your own  
choosing. Not in the conscious sense —
which you mean. They are all of your own  
creation. You are always in the process of creating. Every moment. Every  minute. Every day. How you can create we’ll go into later. For 
now, just take my word for it —you are a  big creation machine, and you are turning out 
a new manifestation literally as fast as  you 
can think. Events, occurrences, happenings, 
conditions, circu mstances —all are created 
out of  consciousness. Individual 
consciousness is powerful enough. You 
can imagine what  kind of creative energy is 
unleashed whenever two or more are 
gathered in My  name. And mass 
consciousness? Why, that is so powerful it 
can crea te events and  circumstances of 
worldwide import and planetary 
consequences. It would not be accurate to say —not in the 
way you mean it —that you are choosing  
these consequences. You are not choosing 
them anymore than I am choosing them. Like Me, you are obs erving them. And 
deciding Who You Are with regard to them. Yet there are no victims in the world, and 
no villains. And neither are you a victim of  
the choices of others. At some level you 
have all created that which you say you  
detest —and, having created i t, you have 
chosen it. This is an advanced level of thinking, and it 
is one which all Masters reach sooner or  
later. For it is only when they can accept 
responsibility for all of it that they can  
achieve the power to change part of it. So long as you enter tain the notion that 
there is something or someone else out  
there “doing it” to you, you disempower 
yourself to do anything about it. Only when  you say “I did this” can you find the power 
to change it. It is much easier to change what you are 
doing than to change what another is  
doing. The first step in changing anything is to 
know and accept that you have chosen it to  
be what it is. If you can’t accept this on a 
personal level, agree to it through your  
understanding that. We are all One. Seek 
then t o create change not because a thing  
is wrong, but because it no longer makes 
an accurate statement of Who You Are. There is only one reason to do anything: as 
a statement to the universe of Who You  
Are. Used in this way, life becomes Self 
creative. You use  life to create your Self as Who You Are, and Who You’ve Always 
Wanted to Be. There is also only one 
reason to  un-do anything: because it is no 
longer a statement of Who You Want to Be. It does  not reflect you. It does not represent 
you. (That is, it does not re -present you...) . If you wish to be accurately re -presented, 
you must work to change anything in your  
life which does not fit into the picture of you 
that you wish to project into eternity. In the largest sense, all the “bad” things 
that happen are of your choosing. The  
mistake is not in choosing them, but in 
calling them bad. For in calling them bad, 
you call your Self bad, since you created 
them. This label you cannot accept, so rather 
than label your Self bad, you disown your  own creations. It  is this intellectual and 
spiritual dishonesty which lets you accept a  
world in which conditions are as they are. If 
you had to accept —or even felt a deep  
inner sense of —personal responsibility for 
the world, it would be a far different  place. This would c ertainly be true if everyone felt 
responsible. That this is so  patently 
obvious is what makes it so utterly painful, 
and so poignantly ironic. The world’s natural calamities and 
disasters —its tornados and hurricanes,  
volcanoes and floods —its physical 
turmo ils—are not created by you 
specifically. What is created by you is the 
degree to which these events touch your 
life. Events occur in the universe which no 
stretch of the imagination could claim you  
instigated or created. These events are created by the com bined 
consciousness of man. All of the world,  
cocreating together, produces these 
experiences. What each of you do,  
individually, is move through them, 
deciding what, if anything, they mean to 
you, and  Who and What You Are in 
relationship to them. Thus, yo u create collectively, and 
individually, the life and times you are  
experiencing, for the soul purpose of 
evolving. You’ve asked if there is a less painful way 
to undergo this process —and the answer  is 
yes—yet nothing in your outward experience will have c hanged. The way to  
reduce the pain which you associate with 
earthly experiences and events —both 
yours and those of others —is to change the 
way you behold them. You cannot change the outer event (for that 
has been created by the lot of you, and  you 
are not grown enough in your 
consciousness to alter individually that 
which has  been created collectively), so 
you must change the inner experience. This is the  road to mastery in living. Nothing is painful in and of itself. Pain is a 
result of wrong thought. It i s an error in  
thinking. A Master can disappear the most grievous 
pain. In this way, the Master heals. Pain results from a judgment you have 
made about a thing. Remove the judgment  
and the pain disappears. Judgment is often based upon previous 
experience. Y our idea about a thing derives  
from a prior idea about that thing. Your prior 
idea results from a still prior idea —and that 
idea from another, and so forth, like 
building blocks, until you get all the way  
back in the hall of mirrors to what I call first 
thought. All thought is creative, and no thought is 
more powerful than original thought. That is  
why this is sometimes also called original 
sin. Original sin is when your first thought  
about a thing is in error. That error is 
compounded many times over when you 
have  a second or third thought about a 
thing. It is the job of the Holy Spirit to inspire you to new understandings, which can free 
you from your mistakes. Are you saying that I shouldn’t feel bad 
about the starving children of Africa, the 
violence and  injustice in America, the 
earthquake that kills hundreds in Brazil? There are no “shoulds” or “shouldn’ts” in 
God’s world. Do what you want to do. Do  
what reflects you, what re -presents you as 
a grander version of your Self. If you  want 
to feel bad, feel bad. But judge not, and neither condemn, for 
you know not why a thing occurs, nor to  
what end. And remember you this: that which you 
condemn will condemn you, and that which  
you judge, you will one day become. Rather, seek to change those things —or 
support  others who are changing those  
things —which no longer reflect your 
highest sense of Who You Are. Yet, bless all —for all is the creation of God, 
through life living, and that is the highest  
creation. Could we just stop here for a moment and 
let me catch my breath? Did I hear you say 
there  are no “shoulds” or “should nots” in 
God’s world? That is correct. How can that be? If there are none in Your 
world, where would they be? Indeed —where...? I repeat the question. Where else would 
“shoulds” and “should nots” appear, if not in 
Your world? In your imagination. But those who have taught me all about the 
rights and wrongs, the dos and don’ts, the  
shoulds and shouldn’ts, told me all those 
rules were laid down by You —by God. Then those who taught you were wron g. I 
have never set down a “right” or “wrong,”  a 
“do” or a “don’t.” To do so would be to strip 
you completely of your greatest gift —the 
opportunity to do as you please, and 
experience the results of that; the chance  
to create yourself anew in the image and  
likeness of Who You Really Are; the space  
to produce a reality of a higher and higher you, based on your grandest idea of what  it 
is of which you are capable. To say that something —a thought, a word, 
an action —is “wrong” would be as much  as 
to tell you no t to do it. To tell you not to do 
it would be to prohibit you. To prohibit  you 
would be to restrict you. To restrict you 
would be to deny the reality of Who You  
Really Are, as well as the opportunity for 
you to create and experience that truth. There are t hose who say that I have given 
you free will, yet these same people claim  
that if you do not obey Me, I will send you 
to hell. What kind of free will is that? Does  
this not make a mockery of God —to say 
nothing of any sort of true relationship  
between us? Well, now we’re getting into another area I 
wanted to discuss, and that’s this whole 
business  about heaven and hell. From 
what I’m gathering here, there is no such 
thing as hell. There is hell, but it is not what you think, 
and you do not experience it for the 
reasons you have been given. What is hell? It is the experience of the worst possible 
outcome of your choices, decisions, and  
creations. It is the natural consequence of 
any thought which denies Me, or says no  to 
Who You Are in relationship to Me. It is the pain you suffer through wrong 
thinking. Yet even the term “wrong thinking” 
is a misnomer, because there is no such 
thing as that which is wrong. Hell is the opposite of joy. It is unfulfillment. It is knowing Who and What You Are,  and 
failing to experience that. It is being less. That is hell, and there is none greater  for 
your soul. But hell does not exist as this place you 
have fantasized, where you burn in some  
everlasting fire, or exist in some state of 
everlasting torment. What purpose could I 
have in that? Even if I did hold the extraordinarily 
unGodly thought that you did not “deserve”  
heaven, why would I have a need to seek 
some kind of revenge, or punishment, for  
your failing? Wouldn’t it be a simple matter 
for Me to just dispose of you? W hat 
vengeful part of Me would require that I 
subject you to eternal suffering of a type 
and at a level beyond description? If you answer, the need for justice, would 
not a simple denial of communion with Me  
in heaven serve the ends of justice? Is the 
unend ing infliction of pain also required? I tell you there is no such experience after 
death as you have constructed in your  fear-
based theologies. Yet there is an 
experience of the soul so unhappy, so  
incomplete, so less than whole, so 
separated from God’s gr eatest joy, that to 
your soul this would be hell. But I tell you I 
do not send you there, nor do I cause this  
experience to be visited upon you. You, 
yourself, create the experience, whenever  
and however you separate your Self from 
your own highest thought  about you. You,  
yourself, create the experience, whenever 
you deny your Self; whenever you reject  
Who and What You Really Are. Yet even this experience is never eternal. It 
cannot be, for it is not My plan that you  shall 
be separated from Me forever and e ver. Indeed, such a thing is an impossibility —for 
to achieve such an event, not only would 
you have to deny Who You Are —I would 
have to as well. This I will never do. And so 
long as one of us holds the truth  about you, 
the truth about you shall ultimately prevail. But if there is no hell, does that mean I can 
do what I want, act as I wish, commit any 
act, without fear of retribution? Is it fear that you need in order to be, do, 
and have what is intrinsically right? Must  
you be threatened in order to “be goo d”? And what is “being good”? Who gets to  
have the final say about that? Who sets the 
guidelines? Who makes the rules? I tell you this: You are your own rule -maker. You set the guidelines. And you decide  how 
well you have done; how well you are 
doing. For you are the one who has  
decided Who and What You Really Are —
and Who You Want to Be. And you are  the 
only one who can assess how well you’re 
doing. No one else will judge you ever, for why, 
and how, could God judge God’s own  
creation and call it bad? If I w anted you to 
be and do everything perfectly, I would  
have left you in the state of total perfection 
whence you came. The whole point of  the 
process was for you to discover yourself, 
create your Self, as you truly are —and as 
you truly wish to be. Yet you co uld not be 
that unless you also had a choice to be  
something else. Should I therefore punish you for making a 
choice that I Myself haw laid before you? If 
I did not want you to make the second 
choice, why would I create other than the  
first? This is a ques tion you must ask yourself 
before you would assign Me the role of a  
condemning God. The direct answer to your question is, yes, 
you may do as you wish without fear of  
retribution. It may serve you, however, to 
be aware of consequences. Consequences are results. Natural 
outcomes. These are not at all the same as  
retributions, or punishments. Outcomes 
are simply that. They are what results from  
the natural application of natural laws. They are that which occurs, quite predictably,  as 
a con sequence of what has occurred. All physical life functions in accordance 
with natural laws. Once you remember 
these  laws, and apply them, you have 
mastered life at the physical level. What seems like punishment to you —or 
what you would call evil, or bad lu ck—is 
nothing more than a natural law asserting 
itself. Then if I were to know these laws, and obey 
them, I would never have a moment’s 
trouble  again. Is that what you’re telling 
me? You would never experience your Self as 
being in what you call “trouble.” You would  
not understand any life situation to be a 
problem. You would not encounter any  circumstance with trepidation. You would 
put an end to all worry, doubt, and fear. You 
would live as you fantasize Adam and Eve 
lived—not as disembodied spi rits in  the 
realm of the absolute, but as embodied 
spirits in the realm of the relative. Yet  you 
would have all the freedom, all the joy, all 
the peace, and all the wisdom,  
understanding and power of the Spirit you 
are. You would be a fully realized being. This is the goal of your soul. This is its 
purpose —to fully realize itself while in the  
body; to become the embodiment of all that 
it really is. This is My plan for you. This  is 
My ideal: that I should become realized 
through you. That thus, concept is tu rned 
into experience, that I might know my Self 
experientially. The Laws of the Universe are laws that I 
laid down. They are perfect laws, creating  
perfect function of the physical. Have you ever seen anything more perfect 
than a snowflake? Its intricacy, its design, 
its symmetry, its conformity to itself and 
originality from all else —all are a  mystery. You wonder at the miracle of this awesome 
display of Nature. Yet if I can  do this with a 
single snowflake, what think you I can do —
have done —with the  univer se? Were you to see the symmetry of it, the 
perfection of its design —from the largest  
body to the smallest particle —you would 
not be able to hold the truth of it in your  
reality. Even now, as you get glimpses of it, 
you cannot yet imagine or understand  its 
implications. Yet you can know there are 
implications —far more complex and far  more extraordinary than your present 
comprehension can embrace. Your  
Shakespeare said it wonderfully: There are 
more things in Heaven and Earth,  Horatio, 
than are dreamt of in your philosophy. Then how can I know these laws? How can 
I learn them? It is not a question of learning, but of 
remembering. How can I remember them? Begin by being still. Quiet the outer world, 
so that the inner world might bring you  
sight. This in -sight is what you seek, yet 
you cannot have it while you are so deeply  
concerned with your outer reality. Seek, 
therefore, to go within as much as possible. And when you are not going within, come from within as you deal with the outside  
world. Remember this axiom:  
If you do not go within, you go without. Put it in the first person as you repeat it, to 
make it more personal:  
If I do not  go within , I go without . You have been going without all your life. Yet you do not have to, and never did. There is nothing y ou cannot be, there is 
nothing you cannot do. There is nothing 
you cannot have. That sounds like a pie -in-the-sky promise. What other kind of promise would you have 
God make? Would you believe Me if I  
promised you less? For thousands of years people have 
disbelieved the promises of God for the most  extraordinary reason: they were too 
good to be true. So you have chosen a 
lesser  promise —a lesser love. For the 
highest promise of God proceeds from the 
highest  love. Yet you cannot conceive of a 
perfect love, an d so a perfect promise is 
also inconceivable. As is a perfect person. Therefore,  you cannot believe even in your  
Self. Failing to believe in any of this means 
failure to believe in God. For belief in God  
produces belief in God’s greatest gift —
unconditional  love—and God’s greatest  
promise —unlimited potential. May I interrupt you here? I hate to interrupt 
God when He’s on a roll...but I’ve heard this 
talk of unlimited potential before, and it 
doesn’t square with the human experience. Forget the  difficulties e ncountered by the average person —what about the 
challenges of those born  with mental or 
physical limitations? Is their potential 
unlimited? You have written so in your own 
Scripture —in many ways and in many 
places. Give me one reference. Look to see what y ou have written in 
Genesis, chapter 11, verse 6, of your Bible. It says, “And the Lord said, ‘Behold, the 
people are one, and they have all one 
language;  and this is only the beginning of 
what they will do: and now nothing will be 
restrained from  them, which they have 
imagined to do.’ ”  
Yes. Now, can you trust that? That does not answer the question of the 
feeble, the infirm, the handicapped, those 
who are  limited. Do you think they are limited, as you put it, 
not of their choice? Do you imagine that  a 
human soul encounters life challenges —
whatever they may be —by accident? Is  this 
your imagining? Do you mean a soul chooses what kind of 
life it will experience ahead of time? No, that would defeat the purpose of the 
encounter. The purpose is to create your  
experience —and thus, create your Self —in 
the glorious moment of Now. You do  not, 
therefore, choose the life you will 
experience ahead of time. You may, however, select the persons, 
places, and events —the conditions and  circumstances, the challenges and 
obstacles, the opportunities and options —
with which to create your experience. You 
may select the colors for your palette, the 
tools  for your chest, the machinery for your 
shop. What you create with these is your  
business. That is the busine ss of life. Your potential is unlimited in all that you’ve 
chosen to do. Do not assume that a soul  
which has incarnated in a body which you 
call limited has not reached its full  potential, 
for you do not know what that soul was 
trying to do. You do not  understand its 
agenda. You are unclear as to its intent. Therefore,  bless every person and 
condition, and give thanks. Thus,  you affirm 
the perfection of God’s creation —and show 
your faith in it. For nothing happens by  
accident in God’s world, and there is no  such thing as coincidence. Nor is the world  
buffeted by random choice, or something 
you call fate. If a snowflake is utterly perfect in its design, 
do you not think the same could be said  
about something as magnificent as your 
life? But even Jesus healed the sick. Why would 
he heal them if their condition was so 
“perfect”? Jesus did not heal those he healed 
because he saw their condition as 
imperfect. He  healed those he healed 
because he saw those souls asking for 
healing as part o f their process. He saw t he 
perfection of the process. He recognized 
and understood  the soul’s intention. Had 
Jesus felt that all illness, mental or physical, represented  imperfection, would 
he not have simply healed everyone on the 
planet, all at once? Do you doubt that he 
could do this? No. I believe he could have. Good. Then the mind begs to know: Why 
did he not do it? Why would the Christ  
choose to have some suffer, and others be 
healed? For that matter, why does God  
allow any suffering at any time ? This 
question has been asked before, and the  
answer remains the same. There is 
perfection in the process —and all life 
arises out  of choice. It is not appropriate to 
interfere with choice, nor to question it. It is  
particularly inappropriate to condemn it. What is appropriate is to observe it, and 
then to do whatever might be done to assist  the soul in seeking and making a higher 
choice. Be watchful, therefore, of the  
choices of others, but not judgmental. Know that their choice is perfect for them in  
this moment now —yet stand rea dy to 
assist them should the moment come when  
they seek a newer choice, a different 
choice —a higher choice. Move into communion with the souls of 
others, and their purpose, their intention, 
will be clear to you. This is what Jesus did 
with those he healed —and with all those  
whose lives he touched. Jesus healed all 
those who came to him, or who sent  others 
to him supplicating for them. He did not 
perform a random healing. To have  done so 
would have been to violate a sacred Law of 
the Universe:  
Allow each sou l to walk its path. But does that mean we must not help 
anyone without being asked? Surely not, or 
we would  never be able to help the starving 
children of India, or the tortured masses of 
Africa, or the  poor, or the downtrodden 
anywhere. All humanitarian e ffort would be 
lost, all charity  forbidden. Must we wait for 
an individual to cry out to us in desperation, 
or for a nation of  people to plead for help, 
before we are allowed to do what is 
obviously right? You see, the question answers itself. If a 
thing i s obviously right, do it. But remember  
to exercise extreme judgment regarding 
what you call “right” and “wrong.”  
A thing is only right or wrong because you 
say it is. A thing is not right or wrong  
intrinsically. It isn’t? “Rightness” or “wrongness” is not an 
intrinsic condition, it is a subjective 
judgment in  a personal value system. By 
your subjective judgments do you create 
your Self —by your personal values do you 
determine and demonstrate Who You Are. The world exists exactly as it is so that you 
may mak e these judgments. If the world  
existed in perfect condition, your life 
process of Self creation would be 
terminated. It  would end. A lawyer’s career 
would end tomorrow were there no more 
litigation. A  doctor’s career would end 
tomorrow were there no more illness. A 
philosopher’s  career would end tomorrow 
were there no more questions. And God’s career would end tomorrow 
were there no more problems! Precisely. You have put it perfectly. We, all 
of us, would be through creating were  there 
nothing more to create. We, all of us, have 
a vested interest in keeping the  game 
going. Much as we all say we would like to 
solve all the problems, we dare not  solve 
all the problems, or there will be nothing left 
for us to do. Your industrial -military complex 
understand s this very well. That is why it 
opposes  mightily any attempt to install a 
war-no-more government —anywhere. Your medical establishment understands 
this, too. That is why it staunchly 
opposes —it must, it has to for its own 
survival —any new miracle drug or c ure—to say nothing of the possibility of miracles 
themselves. Your religious community also holds this 
clarity. That is why it attacks uniformly any  
definition of God which does not include 
fear, judgment and retribution, and any  
definition of Self which d oes not include 
their own idea of the only path to God. If I say to you, you are God —where does 
that leave religion? If I say to you, you are  
healed, where does that leave science, and 
medicine? If I say to you, you shall live  in 
peace, where does that lea ve the 
peacemakers? If I say to you, the world is 
fixed —where does that leave the world? What, now, of plumbers? The world is filled with essentially two kinds 
of people: those who give you things  you want, and those who fix things. In a sense, 
even those who simply give you  things you 
want —the butchers, the bakers, the 
candlestick makers —are also fixers. For to 
have a desire for something is often to have 
a need for it. That is why addicts  are said to 
need a fix. Be careful, therefore, that desire 
not beco me addiction. Are you saying the world will always have 
problems? Are you saying that you actually 
want it  that way? I am saying that the world exists the way it 
exists —just as a snowflake exists the  way 
it exists —quite by design. You have 
created it that way—just as you have  
created your life exactly as it is. I want what you want. The day you really 
want an end to hunger, there will be no  more hunger. I have given you all the 
resources with which to do that. You have 
all the tools with which to make that choice. You have not made it. Not because you  
cannot make it. The world could end world 
hunger tomorrow. You choose not to  make 
it. You claim that there are good reasons that 
40,000 people a day must die of hunger. There are no good reasons. Yet at a time 
when you say you can do nothing to stop  
40,000 people a day from dying of hunger, 
you bring 50,000 people a day into your  
world to begin a new life. And this you call 
love. This you call God’s plan. It is a plan  
which totally lacks logic or reason, to  say 
nothing of compassion. I am showing you in stark terms that the 
world exists the way it exists because you  have chosen for it to. You are 
systematically destroying your own 
environment, then  pointing to so -called 
natural disasters as evidence of God’s  
cruel hoax, or Nature’s  harsh ways. You 
have played the hoax on yourself, and it is 
your ways which are  cruel. Nothing, nothing is more gentle than 
Nature. And nothing, nothing has been 
more  cruel to Nature than man. Yet you 
step aside from all involvemen t in this; deny 
all responsibility. It is not your fault, you say, 
and in this you are right It is not a question  
of fault, it is a matter of choice. You can choose to end the destruction of 
your rain forests tomorrow. You can  choose 
to stop depleting the protective layer 
hovering over your planet. You can  choose 
to discontinue the ongoing, onslaught of your earth’s ingenious ecosystem. You can 
seek to put the snowflake back together —
or at least to halt its inexorable  melting —
but will you do i t?—You can similarly end 
all war tomorrow. Simply. Easily. All it 
takes —all it has ever taken —is for all of 
you to agree. Yet if you cannot all  agree on 
something as basically simple as ending 
the killing of each other, how can  you call 
upon the heavens wi th shaking fist to put 
your life in order? I will do nothing for you that you will not do 
for your Self. That is the law and the  
prophets. The world is in the condition it is in because 
of you, and the choices you have made —
or failed to make. (Not to decid e is to decide) . The Earth is in the shape it’s in because of 
you, and the choices you have made —or 
failed to make. Your own life is the way it is because of you, 
and the choices you have made —or failed 
to make. But I did not choose to get hit by that truc k! I did not choose to get mugged by that 
robber or raped by that maniac. People 
could say that. There are people in the 
world who could say  that. You are all at root cause for the conditions 
which exist which create in the robber the  
desire, or the percei ved need, to steal. You 
have all created the consciousness  which 
makes rape possible. It is when you see in 
yourself that which caused the  crime that you begin, at last, to heal the condition from 
which it sprang. Feed your hungry, give dignity to your poo r. 
Grant opportunity to your less fortunate. End the prejudice which keeps masses 
huddled and angry, with little promise of a  
better tomorrow. Put away your pointless 
taboos and restrictions upon sexual 
energy —rather, help others to truly 
understand its wo nder, and to channel it 
properly. Do  these things and you will go a 
long way toward ending robbery and rape 
forever. As for the so -called “accident” —the truck 
coming around the bend, the brick falling  
from the sky —learn to greet each such 
incident as a sma ll part of a larger mosaic. You have come here to work out an 
individual plan for your own salvation. Yet  salvation does not mean saving yourself 
from the snares of the devil. There is no  
such thing as the devil, and hell does not 
exist. You are saving you rself from the  
oblivion of non -realization. You cannot lose in this battle. You cannot 
fail. Thus,  it is not a battle at all, but simply  
a process. Yet if you do not know this, you 
will see it as a constant struggle. You  may 
even believe in the struggle long enough to 
create a whole religion around it. This 
religion will teach that struggle is the point 
of it all. This is a false teaching. It is  in not 
struggling that the process proceeds. It is 
in surrendering that the victory is  won. Accidents happen because they do. Certain elements of the life process have 
come  together in a particular way at a 
particular time, with particular results —results which  you choose to call 
unfortunate, for your own particular 
reasons. Yet they may not be  unfortunate  
at all, given the agenda of your soul. I tell you this: There is no coincidence, and 
nothing happens “by accident.” Each  event 
and adventure is called to your Self by your 
Self in order that you might create  and 
experience Who You Really Are. All true 
Masters know this. That is why mystic  
Masters remain unperturbed in the face of 
the worst experiences of life (as you  would 
define them). The great teachers of your Christian 
religion understand this. They know that 
Jesus  was not perturbed by the crucifixion,  
but expected it. He could have walked 
away,  but he did not. He could have 
stopped the process at any point. He had that power. Yet he did not. He allowed 
himself to be crucified in order that he might 
stand as  man’s eternal salvation. Look, he 
said, at wh at I can do. Look at what is true. And know that these things, and more, 
shall you also do. For have I not said, ye 
are gods? Yet you do not believe. If you 
cannot, then, believe in yourself, believe in 
me. Such was Jesus’ compassion that he 
begged for a w ay—and created it —to so  
impact the world that all might come to 
heaven ( Self-realization )—if in no other 
way, then through him. For he defeated 
misery, and death. And so might you. The grandest teaching of Christ was not 
that you shall have everlasting lif e—but 
that you do; not that you shall have 
brotherhood in God, but that you do; not that you  shall have whatever you request, 
but that you do. All that is required is to know this. For you 
are the creator of your reality, and life can  
show up no other way for you than that way 
in which you think it will. You think it into being. This is the first step 
in creation. God the Father is thought. Your 
thought is the parent which gives birth to all 
things. This is one of the laws we are to remember. Yes. Can you t ell me others? I have told you others. I’ve told you them 
all, since the beginning of time. Over and  
over have I told you them. Teacher after teacher have I sent you. You do not listen  
to my teachers. You kill them. But why? Why do we kill the holiest amon g 
us? We kill them or dishonor them, which is 
the same thing. Why? Because they stand against every thought 
you have that would deny Me. And deny  Me 
you must if you are to deny your Self. Why would I want to deny You, or me? Because you are afraid. And because My 
promises are too good to be true. Because 
you cannot accept the grandest Truth. And 
so you must reduce yourself to  a spirituality 
which teaches fear and dependence and 
intolerance, rather than love  and power and 
acceptance. You are filled with f ear—and your biggest 
fear is that My biggest promise might be  life’s biggest lie. And so you create the 
biggest fantasy you can to defend yourself  
against this: You claim that any promise 
which gives you the power, and guarantees  
you the love, of God must be the false 
promise of the devil. God would never 
make  such a promise, you tell yourself, 
only the devil would —to tempt you into 
denying  God’s true identity as the 
fearsome, judgmental, jealous, vengeful, 
and punishing  entity of entities. Even though this  description better fits the 
definition of a devil (if there were one),  you 
have assigned devilish characteristics to 
God in order to convince yourself not  to 
accept the God -like promises of your 
Creator, or the God -like qualities of the 
Self. Such is the power of fear. I am trying to let go of my fear. Will You tell 
me—again —more of the laws? The First Law is that you can be, do, and 
have whatever you can imagine. The  
Second Law is that you attract what you 
fear. Why is that? Emotion is the power which att racts. That 
which you fear strongly, you will  
experience. An animal —which you 
consider a lower form of life (even though  
animals act with more integrity and greater 
consistency than humans) —knows  
immediately if you are afraid of it. Plants —
which you consid er an even lower form of  
life—respond to people who love them far 
better than to those who couldn’t care  less. None of this is by coincidence. There is no 
coincidence in the universe —only a  grand 
design; an incredible “snowflake.”  
Emotion is energy in moti on. When you 
move energy, you create effect. If you 
move  enough energy, you create matter. Matter is energy conglomerated. Moved 
around. Shoved together. If you manipulate 
energy long enough in a certain way, you 
get matter. Every Master understands this 
law. It is the alchemy of the universe. It is 
the secret of all life. Thought is pure energy. Every thought you 
have, have ever had, and ever will have  is 
creative. The energy of your thought never 
ever dies. Ever. It leaves your being  and 
heads out into th e universe, extending 
forever. A thought is forever. All thoughts congeal; all thoughts meet 
other thoughts, criss -crossing in an  
incredible maze of energy, forming an ever -
changing pattern of unspeakable beauty  
and unbelievable complexity. Like energy att racts like energy —forming 
(to use simple words) “clumps” of energy  of 
like kind. When enough similar “clumps” 
criss-cross each other —run into each  
other —they “stick to” each other (to use 
another simple term). It takes an  
incomprehensibly huge amount of similar 
energy “sticking together,” thusly, to form  
matter. But matter will form out of pure 
energy. In fact, that is the only way it can  
form. Once energy becomes matter, it 
remains matter for a very long time  unless  
its construction is disrupted by an 
opposing, or dissimilar, form of energy. This  dissimilar energy, acting upon matter, 
actually dismembers the matter, releasing 
the raw energy of which it was composed. This is, in elementary terms, the theory 
behind your atomic bomb. Einstein came  
closer tha n any other human —before or 
since —to discovering, explaining, and  
functionalizing the creative secret of the 
universe. You should now better understand how 
people of like mind can work together to  
create a favored reality. The phrase 
“Wherever two or more are gathered in My  
name” becomes much more meaningful. Of course, when entire societies think a 
certain way, very often astonishing things  
happen —not all of them necessarily 
desirable. For instance, a society living in fear, very often —actually, inevitably —
produces in form that which it fears most. Similarly, large communities or 
congregations often find miracle - 
producing power in  combined thinking (or 
what some people call common prayer). And it must be made clear that even 
individuals —if their thought (p rayer, hope, 
wish,  dream, fear) is amazingly strong —
can, in and of themselves, produce such 
results. Jesus did this regularly. He 
understood how to manipulate energy and 
matter, how  to rearrange it, how to 
redistribute it, how to utterly control it. Many 
Masters have  known this. Many know it 
now. You can know it. Right now. This is the knowledge of good and evil of 
which Adam and Eve partook. Until they  
understood this, there could be no life as 
you know it. Adam and Eve —the mythical  
names you have given to  represent First 
Man and First Woman —were the Father  
and Mother of the human experience. What has been described as the fall of 
Adam was actually his upliftment —the 
greatest single event in the history of 
humankind. For without it, the world of 
relativity  would not exist. The act of Adam 
and Eve was not original sin, but, in truth, 
first blessing. You should thank them from 
the bottom of your hearts —for in being the  
first to make a “wrong” choice, Adam and 
Eve produced the possibility of making  any 
choice a t all. In your mythology you have made Eve the 
“bad” one here —the temptress who ate  of 
the fruit, the knowledge of good and evil —
and coyly invited Adam to join her. This  
mythological set -up has allowed you to 
make woman man’s “downfall” ever since,  
resulti ng in all manner of warped realities —
not to mention distorted sexual views  and 
confusions. (How can you feel so good 
about something so bad?) . What you most fear is what will most 
plague you. Fear will draw it to you like a  
magnet. All your holy scriptures —of every 
religious persuasion and tradition which  
you have created —contain the clear 
admonition: fear not. Do you think this is by  
accident? The Laws are very simple. 1. Thought is creative. 2. Fear attracts like energy. 3. Love is all there is. Oops, you  got me on that third one. How 
can love be all there is if fear attracts like 
energy? Love is the ultimate reality. It is the only. The all. The feeling of love is your  
experience of God. In highest Truth, love is all there is, all there 
was, and all there ever will be. When  you 
move into the absolute, you move into love. The realm of the relative was  created in 
order that I might experience My Self. This 
has already been explained to  you. This 
does not make the realm of the relative 
real. It is a created reality you and  I have 
devised and continue to devise —in order that we may know ourselves  experientially. Yet the creation can seem very real. Its 
purpose is to seem so real,  we accept it as 
truly existing. In this way, God has 
contrived to create “something  else” other 
than Itself (though in strictest terms this is 
impossible, since God is —I AM—All That 
Is). In creating “something else” —namely, the 
realm of the relative —I have produced an  
environment in which you may choose to 
be God, rather than s imply be told that you  
are God; in which you may experience 
Godhead as an act of creation, rather than  
a conceptualization; in which the little 
candle in the sun —the littlest soul —can 
know  itself as the light. Fear is the other end of love. It is the prima l 
polarity. In creating the realm of the  relative, I first created the opposite of My 
Self. Now, in the realm in which you live on  
the physical plane, there are only two 
places of being: fear and love. Thoughts  
rooted in fear will produce one kind of 
manif estation on the physical plane. Thoughts  rooted in love will produce 
another. The Masters who have walked the planet 
are those who have discovered the secret  
of the relative world —and refused to 
acknowledge its reality. In short, Masters 
are those who have  chosen only love. In 
every instance. In every moment. In every  
circumstance. Even as they were being 
killed, they loved their murderers. Even as  
they were being persecuted, they loved 
their oppressors. This is very difficult for you to understand, 
much le ss emulate. Nevertheless, it is  what 
every Master has ever done. It doesn’t 
matter what the philosophy, it doesn’t  
matter what the tradition, it doesn’t matter 
what the religion —it is what every Master  
has done. This example and this lesson has been laid 
out so clearly for you. Time and time  again, 
over and over has it been shown to you. Through all the ages and in every  place. Through all your lifetimes and in every 
moment. The universe has used every  
contrivance to place this Truth before you. In song and  story, in poetry and dance, in  
words and in motion —in pictures of motion, 
which you call motion pictures, and in  
collections of words, which you call hooks. From the highest mountain it has been 
shouted, in the lowest place its whisper has  
been heard. Thr ough the corridors of all 
human experience has this Truth been  
echoed: Love is the answer. Yet you have 
not listened. Now come you to this book, asking God 
again what God has told you countless  
times in countless ways. Yet I will tell you 
again —here—in the  context of this book. Will you listen now? Will you truly hear? What do you think brought you to this 
material? How does it come to pass that 
you are holding it in your hands? Do you 
think I know not what I am doing? There are no coincidences in the unive rse. I have heard the crying of your heart. I have 
seen the searching of your soul. I know  how deeply you have desired the Truth. In 
pain have you called out for it, and in joy. Unendingly have you beseeched Me. Show Myself. Explain Myself. Reveal 
Myself. I am doing so here, in terms so plain, you 
cannot misunderstand. In language so  
simple, you cannot he confused. In 
vocabulary so common, you cannot get lost 
in the verbiage. So go ahead now. Ask Me anything. Anything. I will contrive to bring you the 
answe r. The whole universe will I use to do 
this. So be on the lookout. This book is far 
from My only tool. You may ask a question, 
then put this book down. But watch. Listen. The words to the next song you hear. The 
information in the next article you read. The 
story line of the next movie you watch. The chance utterance of the next person  you 
meet. Or the whisper of the next river, the 
next ocean, the next breeze that  caresses 
your ear —all these devices are Mine; all 
these avenues are open to Me. I  will speak 
to you if you will listen. I will come to you if 
you will invite Me. I will show  you then that 
I have always been there. All ways. Chapter 2  
“Thou wilt show me the path of life: in thy 
presence is fullness of joy; at thy right hand 
there  are pleasur es forevermore.”  
—Psalm 16:11  
I’ve searched for the path to God all my 
life— 
I know you have — 
—and now I’ve found it and I can’t believe 
it. It feels like I’m sitting here, writing this to  
myself. You are. That does not seem like what a 
communication with God would feel like. You want bells and whistles? I’ll see what I 
can arrange. You know, don’t You, that there are those 
who will call this entire book a blasphemy. Especially if You keep showing up as such 
a wise guy. Let Me explain something to you. You have 
this idea that God shows up in only one  
way in life. That’s a very dangerous idea. It stops you from seeing God all over. If you 
think God looks only one way or sounds  
only one way or is only one way, you’re 
going to look right past Me night and day. You’ll spend your whole life looking for God 
and not finding Her. Because you’re  looking 
for a Him. I use this as an example. It has been said that if you don’t see God in 
the profane and the profound, you’re  
missing half the story. That is a great Tr uth. God is in the sadness and the laughter, in 
the bitter and the sweet. There is a divine  
purpose behind everything —and therefore 
a divine presence in everything. I once began writing a book called God is a 
Salami Sandwich. That would have been a very go od book. I 
gave you that inspiration. Why did you  not 
write it? It felt like blasphemy. Or at the very least, 
horribly irreverent. You mean wonderfully irreverent! What 
gave you the idea that God is only  
“reverent”? God is the up and the down. The hot and the cold. The left and the right. The reverent and the irreverent! Think you that God cannot laugh? Do you 
imagine that God does not enjoy a good  joke? Is it your knowing that God is without 
humor? I tell you, God invented humor. Must you speak in hush ed tones when you 
speak to Me? Are slang words or tough  
language outside My ken? I tell you, you 
can speak to Me as you would speak with  
your best friend. Do you think there is a word I have not 
heard? A sight I have not seen? A sound I 
do not know? Is it your thought that I despise some of 
these, while I love the others? I tell you, I  
despise nothing. None of it is repulsive to 
Me. It is life, and life is the gift; the  
unspeakable treasure; the holy of holies. I am life, for I am the stuff life is. Its eve ry 
aspect has a divine purpose. Nothing  exists —nothing —without a reason 
understood and approved by God. How can this be? What of the evil which 
has been created by man? You cannot create a thing —not a thought, 
an object, an event —no experience of  any 
kind—which is outside of God’s plan. For 
God’s plan is for you to create  anything —
everything —whatever you want. In such 
freedom lies the experience of  God being 
God—and this is the experience for which I 
created You. And life itself. Evil is that which you call  evil. Yet even that 
I love, for it is only through that which  you 
call evil that you can know good; only 
through that which you call the work of the  
devil that you can know and do the work of 
God. I do not love hot more than I love  cold, high more than lo w, left more than right. It 
is all relative. It is all part of what is. I do not love “good” more than I love “bad.” 
Hitler went to heaven. When you  
understand this, you will understand God. But I have been raised to believe that good 
and bad do exist; tha t right and wrong are  
opposed; that some things are not okay, 
not alright, not acceptable in the sight of 
God. Everything is “acceptable” in the sight of 
God, for how can God not accept that  
which is? To reject a thing is to deny that it 
exists. To say tha t it is not okay is to say  
that it is not a part of Me —and that is 
impossible. Yet hold to your beliefs, and stay true to 
your values, for these are the values of your parents, of your parents’ parents; of 
your friends and of your society. They form 
the structure of your life, and to lose them 
would be to unravel the fabric of your  
experience. Still, examine them one by 
one. Review them piece by piece. Do not  
dismantle the house, but look at each brick, 
and replace those which appear broken,  
which no longer  support the structure. Your ideas about right and wrong are just 
that—ideas. They are the thoughts which  
form the shape and create the substance 
of Who You Are. There would be only one  
reason to change any of these; only one 
purpose in making an alteratio n: if you are  
not happy with Who You Are. Only you can know if you are happy. Only 
you can say of your life —“This is my  
creation (son), in which I am well pleased.”  If your values serve you, hold to them. Argue for them. Fight to defend them. Yet seek to f ight in a way which harms no 
one. Harm is not a necessary ingredient in  
healing. You say “hold to your values” at the same 
time you say our values are all wrong. Help 
me with this. I have not said your values are wrong. But 
neither are they right . They are simply  
judgments. Assessments. Decisions. For 
the most part, they are decisions made not  
by you, but by someone else. Your parents, 
perhaps. Your religion. Your teachers,  
historians, politicians. Very few of the value judgments you have 
incorpora ted into your truth are judgments  
you, yourself, have made based on your own experience. Yet experience is what  
you came here for —and out of your 
experience were you to create yourself. You have created yourself out of the 
experience of others. If there we re such a thing as sin, this would 
be it: to allow yourself to become what  you 
are because of the experience of others. This is the “sin” you have committed. All of 
you. You do not await your own experience, 
you accept the experience of  others as 
gospel (l iterally), and then, when you 
encounter the actual experience for  the first 
time, you overlay what you think you 
already know onto the encounter. If you did not do this, you might have a 
wholly different experience —one that 
might  render your original teach er or 
source wrong. In most cases, you don’t want to make  your parents, your schools, 
your religions, your traditions, your holy 
scriptures wrong —so you deny your own 
experience in favor of what you have been 
told to think. Nowhere can this be more profoundly 
illustrated than in your treatment of human  
sexuality. Everyone knows that the sexual 
experience can be the single most loving, 
most  exciting, most powerful, most 
exhilarating, most renewing, most 
energizing, most  affirming, most intimate, 
most uniting, most re -creative physical 
experience of which  humans are capable. Having discovered this experientially, you 
have chosen to  accept instead the prior 
judgments, opinions, and ideas about sex promulgated by  others —all of whom have 
a vested interest in how you think. These opinions, judgments, and ideas 
have run directly contradictory to your own  
experience, yet because you are loathe to 
make your teachers wrong, you convince  
yourself it must be your experience that is 
wrong. The result is that you ha ve betrayed 
your true truth about this subject —with 
devastating results. You have done the same thing with money. Every time in your life that you have had  
lots and lots of money, you have felt great. You felt great receiving it, and you felt  great 
spendin g it. There was nothing bad about 
it, nothing evil, nothing inherently  “wrong.” 
Yet you have so deeply ingrained within 
you the teachings of others on this  subject that you have rejected your experience in 
favor of “truth.”  
Having adopted this “truth” as y our own, 
you have formed thoughts around it —
thoughts which are creative. You have thus 
created a personal reality around money  
which pushes it away from you —for why 
would you seek to attract that which is not  
good? Amazingly, you have created this same 
contradiction around God. Everything your  
heart experiences about God tells you that 
God is good. Everything your teachers teach you about 
God tells you God is bad. Your heart tells  
you God is to be loved without fear. Your 
teachers tell you God is to be fear ed, for  He 
is a vengeful God. You are to live in fear of God’s wrath, they say. You are to  tremble in 
His presence. Your whole life through you 
are to fear the judgment of the  Lord. For the 
Lord is “just,” you are told. And God knows, 
you will be in troubl e when  you confront the 
terrible justice of the Lord. You are, 
therefore, to be “obedient” to  God’s 
commands. Or else. Above all, you are not to ask such logical 
questions as, “if God wanted strict  
obedience to His Laws, why did He create 
the possibility of those Laws being  
violated?” Ah, your teachers tell you —
because God wanted you to have “free  
choice.” Yet what kind of choice is free 
when to choose one thing over the other  
brings condemnation? How is “free will” 
free when it is not your wil l, but someone  
else’s, which must be done? Those who teach you this would make a hypocrite of  
God. You are told that God is forgiveness, and 
compassion —yet if you do not ask for this  
forgiveness in the “right way,” if you do not 
“come to God” properly, you r plea will not  
be heard, your cry will go unheeded. Even 
this would not be so bad if there were  only 
one proper way, but there are as many 
“proper ways” being taught as there are  
teachers to teach them. Most of you, therefore, spend the bulk of 
your adult  life searching for the “right” way  
to worship, to obey, and to serve God. The 
irony of all this is that I do not want your  
worship, I do not need your obedience, and 
it is not necessary for you to serve Me. These behaviors are the behaviors 
historically d emanded of their subjects by  
monarchs —usually ego -maniacal, 
insecure, tyrannical monarchs at that. They’re not  Godly demands in any sense —
and it seems remarkable that the world 
hasn’t by  now concluded that the demands 
are counterfeit, having nothing to do with 
the needs or desires of Deity. Deity has no needs. All That Is is exactly 
that: all that is. It therefore wants, or lacks,  
nothing —by definition. If you choose to believe in a God who 
somehow needs something —and has such  
hurt feelings if He doesn’t ge t it that He 
punishes those from whom He expected to  
receive it —then you choose to believe in a 
God much smaller than I. You truly are  
Children of a Lesser God. No, my children, please let Me assure you 
again, through this writing, that I am  without 
needs. I require nothing. This does not mean I am without desires. Desires and needs are not the same thing  
(although many of you have made them so 
in your present lifetime). Desire is the beginning of all creation. It is 
first thought. It is a grand feeling wit hin the 
soul. It is God, choosing what next to 
create. And what is God’s desire? I desire first to know and experience 
Myself, in all My glory —to know Who I Am. Before I invented you —and all the worlds 
of the universe —it was impossible for Me  
to do so. Second, I desire that you shall know and 
experience Who You Really Are, through  the power I have given you to create and 
experience yourself in whatever way you  
choose. Third, I desire for the whole life process to 
be an experience of constant joy,  
continuous  creation, never -ending 
expansion, and total fulfillment in each 
moment of  now. I have established a perfect system 
whereby these desires may be realized. They  are being realized now —in this very 
moment. The only difference between you 
and Me is that I kno w this. In the moment of your total knowing (which 
moment could come upon you at  anytime), 
you, too, will feel as I do always: totally 
joyful, loving, accepting, blessing,  and 
grateful. These are the Five Attitudes of God, and 
before we are through with th is dialogue, I  
will show you how the application of these 
attitudes in your life now can —and will —
bring you to Godliness. All of this is a very long answer to a very 
short question. Yes, hold to your values —so long as you 
experience that they serve you. Ye t look to  
see whether the values you serve, with 
your thoughts, words, and actions, bring to  
the space of your experience the highest 
and best idea you ever had about you. Examine your values one by one. Hold 
them up to the light of public scrutiny. If you  
can tell the world who you are and what you 
believe without breaking stride or  
hesitating, you are happy with yourself. There is no reason to continue much 
further  in this dialogue with Me, because 
you have created a Self —and a life for the 
Self—which nee ds no improvement. You 
have reached perfection. Put the book 
down. My life is not perfect, nor is it close to being 
perfect. I am not perfect. I am, in fact, a 
bundle  of imperfections. I wish —
sometimes I wish with all my heart —that I 
could correct these  imperfections; that I 
knew what causes my behaviors, what sets 
up my downfalls, what  keeps getting in my 
way. That’s why I’ve come to You, I guess. I haven’t been able to find  the answers on 
my own. I am glad you came. I have always been 
here to help  you. I am here now. You don’t  have to find the answers on your own. You 
never had to. Yet it seems so...presumptuous...to simply 
sit down and dialogue with You this way —
much less to imagine that You —God—are 
responding —I mean, this is crazy. I see. The authors of the Bible were all 
sane, but you are crazy. The Bible writers were witnesses to the life 
of Christ, and faithfully recorded what they 
heard  and saw. Correction. Most of the New Testament 
writers never met or saw Jesus in their 
lives. They lived many years after Jesus left 
the Earth. They wouldn’t have known Jesus  
of Nazareth if they walked into him on the 
street. But... The Bible writers were great believers and 
great historians. They took the stories  
which had been passed down to them and 
to the ir friends by others —elders —from 
elder to elder, until finally a written record 
was made. And not everything of the Bible authors was 
included in the final document. Already “churches” had sprung up around 
the teachings of Jesus —and, as happens  
whenever an d wherever people gather in 
groups around a powerful idea, there were  
certain individuals within these churches, 
or enclaves, who determined what parts of  
the Jesus Story were going to be told —and 
how. This process of selecting and  editing 
continued throug hout the gathering, 
writing, and publishing of the gospels,  and 
the Bible. Even several centuries after the original 
scriptures were committed to writing, a 
High Council of the Church determined yet 
one more time which doctrines and truths  
were to be inclu ded in the then -official 
Bible —and which would be “unhealthy” or  
“premature” to reveal to the masses. And there have been other holy scriptures 
as well —each placed in writing in  moments 
of inspiration by otherwise ordinary men, 
none of whom were any more  crazy than 
you. Are you suggesting —you’re not 
suggesting, are you —that these writings 
might one day  become “holy scriptures”? My child, everything in life is holy. By that 
measure, yes, these are holy writings. But  I will not quibble with you over words, 
because I know what you mean. No, I do not suggest that this manuscript 
will one day become holy scripture. At  
least, not for several hundred years, or until 
the language becomes outmoded. You see, the problem is that the language 
here is too colloquial, too conversational,  
too contemporary. People assume that if 
God were to talk directly with you, God  
would not sound like the fella next door. There should be some unifying, if not to say  
deifying, structure to the language. Some 
dignity. Some s ense of Godliness. As I said earlier, that’s part of the problem. People have a sense of God as “showing  
up” in only one form. Anything which 
violates that form is seen as blasphemy. As I said earlier. As you said earlier. But let’s drive to the heart of y our question.
Conversations_with_God_Book_1_by_Neale_Donald_Walsch.txt
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        If you conclude 
from this that past, present, and future exist 
at one  and the same “time,” you are  right. (Yet now is not the moment to discuss that. We can get into this in much greater detail 
when we explore the whole concept of 
time—which we will do later). The world is the way it is because it could 
not be any other way and still exist in the  
gross  realm of physicality. Earthquakes 
and hurricanes, floods and tornados, and  
events that you call natural disasters are 
but movements of the elements from one  polarity to the other. The whole birth -death 
cycle is part of this movement. These are  
the rhythms  of life, and everything in gross 
reality is subject to them, because life  itself 
is a rhythm. It is a wave, a vibration, a 
pulsation at the very heart of the All That  Is. Illness and disease are opposites of health 
and wellness, and are made manifest in  
your reality at your behest. You cannot be 
ill without at some level causing yourself  to 
be, and you can be well again in a moment 
by simply deciding to be. Deep  personal 
disappointments are responses which are 
chosen, and worldwide  calamities are the 
resul t of worldwide consciousness. Your question infers that I choose these 
events, that it is My will and desire they  
should occur. Yet I do not will these things 
into being, I merely observe you doing  so. And I do nothing to stop them, because to 
do so would be to thwart your will. That, in 
turn, would deprive you of the God 
experience, which is the experience you  
and I have chosen together. Do not condemn, therefore, all that you 
would call bad in the world. Rather, ask  
yourself, what about this have you judg ed 
bad, and what, if anything, you wish to do  
to change it. Inquire within, rather than without, asking: 
“What part of my Self do I wish to  
experience now in the face of this calamity. What aspect of being do I choose to  call 
forth. ” For all of life exists as a tool of your 
own creation, and all of its events  merely 
present themselves as opportunities for 
you to decide, and be, Who You Are. This is true for every soul, and so you see 
there are no victims in the universe, only  
creators. The Masters who  have walked 
this planet all knew this. That is why, no  
matter which Master you might name, none 
imagined themselves to be victimized —
though many were truly crucified. Each soul is a Master —though some do 
not remember their origins or their  
heritages. Yet each creates the situation 
and the circumstance for its own highest  
purpose and its own quickest 
remembering —in each moment called 
now. Judge not, then, the karmic path walked by 
another. Envy not success, nor pity  failure, 
for you know not what is success  or failure 
in the soul’s reckoning. Call not a  thing 
calamity, nor joyous event, until you decide, or witness, how it is used. For is a  death a 
calamity if it saves the lives of thousands. And is a life a joyous event if it  has caused 
nothing but grief. Y et even this you should 
not judge, but keep always  your own 
counsel, and allow others theirs. This does not mean ignore a call for help, 
nor the urging of your own soul to work  
toward the change of some circumstance 
or condition. It does mean avoiding labe ls 
and judgment while you do whatever you 
do. For each circumstance is a gift, and in  
each experience is hidden a treasure. There once was a soul who knew itself to 
be the light. This was a new soul, and so,  
anxious for experience. “I am the light,” it 
said. “I am the light. ” Yet all the knowing of  
it and all the saying of it could not substitute 
for the experience of it. And in the realm  from which this soul emerged, there was 
nothing but the light. Every soul was grand,  
every soul was magnificent, and eve ry soul 
shone with the brilliance of My awesome  
light. And so the little soul in question was 
as a candle in the sun. In the midst of the  
grandest light —of which it was a part —it 
could not see itself, nor experience itself  as 
Who and What it Really Is. Now it came to pass that this soul yearned 
and yearned to know itself. And so great  
was its yearning that I one day said, “Do 
you know, Little One, what you must do to  
satisfy this yearning of yours. ”  
“Oh, what, God. What. I’ll do anything. ” 
The little soul s aid. “You must separate yourself from the rest, 
of us,” I answered, “and then you must  call 
upon yourself the darkness. ” 
“What is the darkness, O Holy One. ” the 
little soul asked. “That which you are not,” I replied, and the 
soul understood. And so this th e soul did, removing itself 
from the All, yea, going even unto another  
realm. And in this realm the soul had the 
power to call into its experience all sorts of  
darkness. And this it did. Yet in the midst of all the darkness did it cry 
out, “Father, Father,  why hast Thou  
forsaken me. ” Even as have you in your 
blackest times. Yet I have never forsaken  
you, but stand by you always, ready to remind you of Who You Really Are; ready,  
always ready, to call you home. Therefore, be a light unto the darkness, 
and cur se it not. And forget not Who You Are in the moment 
of your encirclement by that which you  are 
not. But do you praise to the creation, even 
as you seek to change it. And know that what you do in the time of 
your greatest trial can be your greatest  
triumph. For the experience you create is a 
statement of Who You Are —and Who  You 
Want to Be. I have told you this story —the parable of 
the little soul and the sun —so that you  
might better understand why the world is 
the way it is —and how it can change in an  instan t the moment everyone remembers 
the divine truth of their highest reality. Now there are those who say that life is a 
school, and that these things which you  
observe and experience in your life are for 
your learning. I have addressed this  before, 
and I tel l you again:  
You came into this life with nothing to 
learn —you have only to demonstrate what 
you already know. In the demonstration of 
it will you function it out, and create yourself  
anew, through your experience. Thus,  do 
you justify life, and give it purpose. Thus,  
do you render it holy. Are you saying that all the bad things that 
happen to us are things of our own 
choosing. Do  you mean that even the 
world’s calamities and disasters are, at some level, created by us so  that we can 
“experience the opposite of Who We Are”. And, if so, isn’t there some less  painful 
way—less painful to ourselves and 
others —to create opportunities for us to  
experience ourselves. You’ve asked several questions, and they 
are all good ones. Let ’s take them one at  a 
time. No, not all the things which you call bad 
which happen to you are of your own  
choosing. Not in the conscious sense —
which you mean. They are all of your own  
creation. You are always in the process of creating. Every moment. Every  minute. Every day. How you can create we’ll go into later. For 
now, just take my word for it —you are a  big creation machine, and you are turning out 
a new manifestation literally as fast as  you 
can think. Events, occurrences, happenings, 
conditions, circu mstances —all are created 
out of  consciousness. Individual 
consciousness is powerful enough. You 
can imagine what  kind of creative energy is 
unleashed whenever two or more are 
gathered in My  name. And mass 
consciousness. Why, that is so powerful it 
can crea te events and  circumstances of 
worldwide import and planetary 
consequences. It would not be accurate to say —not in the 
way you mean it —that you are choosing  
these consequences. You are not choosing 
them anymore than I am choosing them. Like Me, you are obs erving them. And 
deciding Who You Are with regard to them. Yet there are no victims in the world, and 
no villains. And neither are you a victim of  
the choices of others. At some level you 
have all created that which you say you  
detest —and, having created i t, you have 
chosen it. This is an advanced level of thinking, and it 
is one which all Masters reach sooner or  
later. For it is only when they can accept 
responsibility for all of it that they can  
achieve the power to change part of it. So long as you enter tain the notion that 
there is something or someone else out  
there “doing it” to you, you disempower 
yourself to do anything about it. Only when  you say “I did this” can you find the power 
to change it. It is much easier to change what you are 
doing than to change what another is  
doing. The first step in changing anything is to 
know and accept that you have chosen it to  
be what it is. If you can’t accept this on a 
personal level, agree to it through your  
understanding that. We are all One. Seek 
then t o create change not because a thing  
is wrong, but because it no longer makes 
an accurate statement of Who You Are. There is only one reason to do anything: as 
a statement to the universe of Who You  
Are. Used in this way, life becomes Self 
creative. You use  life to create your Self as Who You Are, and Who You’ve Always 
Wanted to Be. There is also only one 
reason to  un-do anything: because it is no 
longer a statement of Who You Want to Be. It does  not reflect you. It does not represent 
you. (That is, it does not re -present you. ). If you wish to be accurately re -presented, 
you must work to change anything in your  
life which does not fit into the picture of you 
that you wish to project into eternity. In the largest sense, all the “bad” things 
that happen are of your choosing. The  
mistake is not in choosing them, but in 
calling them bad. For in calling them bad, 
you call your Self bad, since you created 
them. This label you cannot accept, so rather 
than label your Self bad, you disown your  own creations. It  is this intellectual and 
spiritual dishonesty which lets you accept a  
world in which conditions are as they are. If 
you had to accept —or even felt a deep  
inner sense of —personal responsibility for 
the world, it would be a far different  place. This would c ertainly be true if everyone felt 
responsible. That this is so  patently 
obvious is what makes it so utterly painful, 
and so poignantly ironic. The world’s natural calamities and 
disasters —its tornados and hurricanes,  
volcanoes and floods —its physical 
turmo ils—are not created by you 
specifically. What is created by you is the 
degree to which these events touch your 
life. Events occur in the universe which no 
stretch of the imagination could claim you  
instigated or created. These events are created by the com bined 
consciousness of man. All of the world,  
cocreating together, produces these 
experiences. What each of you do,  
individually, is move through them, 
deciding what, if anything, they mean to 
you, and  Who and What You Are in 
relationship to them. Thus, yo u create collectively, and 
individually, the life and times you are  
experiencing, for the soul purpose of 
evolving. You’ve asked if there is a less painful way 
to undergo this process —and the answer  is 
yes—yet nothing in your outward experience will have c hanged. The way to  
reduce the pain which you associate with 
earthly experiences and events —both 
yours and those of others —is to change the 
way you behold them. You cannot change the outer event (for that 
has been created by the lot of you, and  you 
are not grown enough in your 
consciousness to alter individually that 
which has  been created collectively), so 
you must change the inner experience. This is the  road to mastery in living. Nothing is painful in and of itself. Pain is a 
result of wrong thought. It i s an error in  
thinking. A Master can disappear the most grievous 
pain. In this way, the Master heals. Pain results from a judgment you have 
made about a thing. Remove the judgment  
and the pain disappears. Judgment is often based upon previous 
experience. Y our idea about a thing derives  
from a prior idea about that thing. Your prior 
idea results from a still prior idea —and that 
idea from another, and so forth, like 
building blocks, until you get all the way  
back in the hall of mirrors to what I call first 
thought. All thought is creative, and no thought is 
more powerful than original thought. That is  
why this is sometimes also called original 
sin. Original sin is when your first thought  
about a thing is in error. That error is 
compounded many times over when you 
have  a second or third thought about a 
thing. It is the job of the Holy Spirit to inspire you to new understandings, which can free 
you from your mistakes. Are you saying that I shouldn’t feel bad 
about the starving children of Africa, the 
violence and  injustice in America, the 
earthquake that kills hundreds in Brazil. There are no “shoulds” or “shouldn’ts” in 
God’s world. Do what you want to do. Do  
what reflects you, what re -presents you as 
a grander version of your Self. If you  want 
to feel bad, feel bad. But judge not, and neither condemn, for 
you know not why a thing occurs, nor to  
what end. And remember you this: that which you 
condemn will condemn you, and that which  
you judge, you will one day become. Rather, seek to change those things —or 
support  others who are changing those  
things —which no longer reflect your 
highest sense of Who You Are. Yet, bless all —for all is the creation of God, 
through life living, and that is the highest  
creation. Could we just stop here for a moment and 
let me catch my breath. Did I hear you say 
there  are no “shoulds” or “should nots” in 
God’s world. That is correct. How can that be. If there are none in Your 
world, where would they be. Indeed —where. I repeat the question. Where else would 
“shoulds” and “should nots” appear, if not in 
Your world. In your imagination. But those who have taught me all about the 
rights and wrongs, the dos and don’ts, the  
shoulds and shouldn’ts, told me all those 
rules were laid down by You —by God. Then those who taught you were wron g. I 
have never set down a “right” or “wrong,”  a 
“do” or a “don’t. ” To do so would be to strip 
you completely of your greatest gift —the 
opportunity to do as you please, and 
experience the results of that; the chance  
to create yourself anew in the image and  
likeness of Who You Really Are; the space  
to produce a reality of a higher and higher you, based on your grandest idea of what  it 
is of which you are capable. To say that something —a thought, a word, 
an action —is “wrong” would be as much  as 
to tell you no t to do it. To tell you not to do 
it would be to prohibit you. To prohibit  you 
would be to restrict you. To restrict you 
would be to deny the reality of Who You  
Really Are, as well as the opportunity for 
you to create and experience that truth. There are t hose who say that I have given 
you free will, yet these same people claim  
that if you do not obey Me, I will send you 
to hell. What kind of free will is that. Does  
this not make a mockery of God —to say 
nothing of any sort of true relationship  
between us. Well, now we’re getting into another area I 
wanted to discuss, and that’s this whole 
business  about heaven and hell. From 
what I’m gathering here, there is no such 
thing as hell. There is hell, but it is not what you think, 
and you do not experience it for the 
reasons you have been given. What is hell. It is the experience of the worst possible 
outcome of your choices, decisions, and  
creations. It is the natural consequence of 
any thought which denies Me, or says no  to 
Who You Are in relationship to Me. It is the pain you suffer through wrong 
thinking. Yet even the term “wrong thinking” 
is a misnomer, because there is no such 
thing as that which is wrong. Hell is the opposite of joy. It is unfulfillment. It is knowing Who and What You Are,  and 
failing to experience that. It is being less. That is hell, and there is none greater  for 
your soul. But hell does not exist as this place you 
have fantasized, where you burn in some  
everlasting fire, or exist in some state of 
everlasting torment. What purpose could I 
have in that. Even if I did hold the extraordinarily 
unGodly thought that you did not “deserve”  
heaven, why would I have a need to seek 
some kind of revenge, or punishment, for  
your failing. Wouldn’t it be a simple matter 
for Me to just dispose of you. W hat 
vengeful part of Me would require that I 
subject you to eternal suffering of a type 
and at a level beyond description. If you answer, the need for justice, would 
not a simple denial of communion with Me  
in heaven serve the ends of justice. Is the 
unend ing infliction of pain also required. I tell you there is no such experience after 
death as you have constructed in your  fear-
based theologies. Yet there is an 
experience of the soul so unhappy, so  
incomplete, so less than whole, so 
separated from God’s gr eatest joy, that to 
your soul this would be hell. But I tell you I 
do not send you there, nor do I cause this  
experience to be visited upon you. You, 
yourself, create the experience, whenever  
and however you separate your Self from 
your own highest thought  about you. You,  
yourself, create the experience, whenever 
you deny your Self; whenever you reject  
Who and What You Really Are. Yet even this experience is never eternal. It 
cannot be, for it is not My plan that you  shall 
be separated from Me forever and e ver. Indeed, such a thing is an impossibility —for 
to achieve such an event, not only would 
you have to deny Who You Are —I would 
have to as well. This I will never do. And so 
long as one of us holds the truth  about you, 
the truth about you shall ultimately prevail. But if there is no hell, does that mean I can 
do what I want, act as I wish, commit any 
act, without fear of retribution. Is it fear that you need in order to be, do, 
and have what is intrinsically right. Must  
you be threatened in order to “be goo d”. And what is “being good”. Who gets to  
have the final say about that. Who sets the 
guidelines. Who makes the rules. I tell you this: You are your own rule -maker. You set the guidelines. And you decide  how 
well you have done; how well you are 
doing. For you are the one who has  
decided Who and What You Really Are —
and Who You Want to Be. And you are  the 
only one who can assess how well you’re 
doing. No one else will judge you ever, for why, 
and how, could God judge God’s own  
creation and call it bad. If I w anted you to 
be and do everything perfectly, I would  
have left you in the state of total perfection 
whence you came. The whole point of  the 
process was for you to discover yourself, 
create your Self, as you truly are —and as 
you truly wish to be. Yet you co uld not be 
that unless you also had a choice to be  
something else. Should I therefore punish you for making a 
choice that I Myself haw laid before you. If 
I did not want you to make the second 
choice, why would I create other than the  
first. This is a ques tion you must ask yourself 
before you would assign Me the role of a  
condemning God. The direct answer to your question is, yes, 
you may do as you wish without fear of  
retribution. It may serve you, however, to 
be aware of consequences. Consequences are results. Natural 
outcomes. These are not at all the same as  
retributions, or punishments. Outcomes 
are simply that. They are what results from  
the natural application of natural laws. They are that which occurs, quite predictably,  as 
a con sequence of what has occurred. All physical life functions in accordance 
with natural laws. Once you remember 
these  laws, and apply them, you have 
mastered life at the physical level. What seems like punishment to you —or 
what you would call evil, or bad lu ck—is 
nothing more than a natural law asserting 
itself. Then if I were to know these laws, and obey 
them, I would never have a moment’s 
trouble  again. Is that what you’re telling 
me. You would never experience your Self as 
being in what you call “trouble. ” You would  
not understand any life situation to be a 
problem. You would not encounter any  circumstance with trepidation. You would 
put an end to all worry, doubt, and fear. You 
would live as you fantasize Adam and Eve 
lived—not as disembodied spi rits in  the 
realm of the absolute, but as embodied 
spirits in the realm of the relative. Yet  you 
would have all the freedom, all the joy, all 
the peace, and all the wisdom,  
understanding and power of the Spirit you 
are. You would be a fully realized being. This is the goal of your soul. This is its 
purpose —to fully realize itself while in the  
body; to become the embodiment of all that 
it really is. This is My plan for you. This  is 
My ideal: that I should become realized 
through you. That thus, concept is tu rned 
into experience, that I might know my Self 
experientially. The Laws of the Universe are laws that I 
laid down. They are perfect laws, creating  
perfect function of the physical. Have you ever seen anything more perfect 
than a snowflake. Its intricacy, its design, 
its symmetry, its conformity to itself and 
originality from all else —all are a  mystery. You wonder at the miracle of this awesome 
display of Nature. Yet if I can  do this with a 
single snowflake, what think you I can do —
have done —with the  univer se. Were you to see the symmetry of it, the 
perfection of its design —from the largest  
body to the smallest particle —you would 
not be able to hold the truth of it in your  
reality. Even now, as you get glimpses of it, 
you cannot yet imagine or understand  its 
implications. Yet you can know there are 
implications —far more complex and far  more extraordinary than your present 
comprehension can embrace. Your  
Shakespeare said it wonderfully: There are 
more things in Heaven and Earth,  Horatio, 
than are dreamt of in your philosophy. Then how can I know these laws. How can 
I learn them. It is not a question of learning, but of 
remembering. How can I remember them. Begin by being still. Quiet the outer world, 
so that the inner world might bring you  
sight. This in -sight is what you seek, yet 
you cannot have it while you are so deeply  
concerned with your outer reality. Seek, 
therefore, to go within as much as possible. And when you are not going within, come from within as you deal with the outside  
world. Remember this axiom:  
If you do not go within, you go without. Put it in the first person as you repeat it, to 
make it more personal:  
If I do not  go within, I go without. You have been going without all your life. Yet you do not have to, and never did. There is nothing y ou cannot be, there is 
nothing you cannot do. There is nothing 
you cannot have. That sounds like a pie -in-the-sky promise. What other kind of promise would you have 
God make. Would you believe Me if I  
promised you less. For thousands of years people have 
disbelieved the promises of God for the most  extraordinary reason: they were too 
good to be true. So you have chosen a 
lesser  promise —a lesser love. For the 
highest promise of God proceeds from the 
highest  love. Yet you cannot conceive of a 
perfect love, an d so a perfect promise is 
also inconceivable. As is a perfect person. Therefore,  you cannot believe even in your  
Self. Failing to believe in any of this means 
failure to believe in God. For belief in God  
produces belief in God’s greatest gift —
unconditional  love—and God’s greatest  
promise —unlimited potential. May I interrupt you here. I hate to interrupt 
God when He’s on a roll. but I’ve heard this 
talk of unlimited potential before, and it 
doesn’t square with the human experience. Forget the  difficulties e ncountered by the average person —what about the 
challenges of those born  with mental or 
physical limitations. Is their potential 
unlimited. You have written so in your own 
Scripture —in many ways and in many 
places. Give me one reference. Look to see what y ou have written in 
Genesis, chapter 11, verse 6, of your Bible. It says, “And the Lord said, ‘Behold, the 
people are one, and they have all one 
language;  and this is only the beginning of 
what they will do: and now nothing will be 
restrained from  them, which they have 
imagined to do. ’ ”  
Yes. Now, can you trust that. That does not answer the question of the 
feeble, the infirm, the handicapped, those 
who are  limited. Do you think they are limited, as you put it, 
not of their choice. Do you imagine that  a 
human soul encounters life challenges —
whatever they may be —by accident. Is  this 
your imagining. Do you mean a soul chooses what kind of 
life it will experience ahead of time. No, that would defeat the purpose of the 
encounter. The purpose is to create your  
experience —and thus, create your Self —in 
the glorious moment of Now. You do  not, 
therefore, choose the life you will 
experience ahead of time. You may, however, select the persons, 
places, and events —the conditions and  circumstances, the challenges and 
obstacles, the opportunities and options —
with which to create your experience. You 
may select the colors for your palette, the 
tools  for your chest, the machinery for your 
shop. What you create with these is your  
business. That is the busine ss of life. Your potential is unlimited in all that you’ve 
chosen to do. Do not assume that a soul  
which has incarnated in a body which you 
call limited has not reached its full  potential, 
for you do not know what that soul was 
trying to do. You do not  understand its 
agenda. You are unclear as to its intent. Therefore,  bless every person and 
condition, and give thanks. Thus,  you affirm 
the perfection of God’s creation —and show 
your faith in it. For nothing happens by  
accident in God’s world, and there is no  such thing as coincidence. Nor is the world  
buffeted by random choice, or something 
you call fate. If a snowflake is utterly perfect in its design, 
do you not think the same could be said  
about something as magnificent as your 
life. But even Jesus healed the sick. Why would 
he heal them if their condition was so 
“perfect”. Jesus did not heal those he healed 
because he saw their condition as 
imperfect. He  healed those he healed 
because he saw those souls asking for 
healing as part o f their process. He saw t he 
perfection of the process. He recognized 
and understood  the soul’s intention. Had 
Jesus felt that all illness, mental or physical, represented  imperfection, would 
he not have simply healed everyone on the 
planet, all at once. Do you doubt that he 
could do this. No. I believe he could have. Good. Then the mind begs to know: Why 
did he not do it. Why would the Christ  
choose to have some suffer, and others be 
healed. For that matter, why does God  
allow any suffering at any time. This 
question has been asked before, and the  
answer remains the same. There is 
perfection in the process —and all life 
arises out  of choice. It is not appropriate to 
interfere with choice, nor to question it. It is  
particularly inappropriate to condemn it. What is appropriate is to observe it, and 
then to do whatever might be done to assist  the soul in seeking and making a higher 
choice. Be watchful, therefore, of the  
choices of others, but not judgmental. Know that their choice is perfect for them in  
this moment now —yet stand rea dy to 
assist them should the moment come when  
they seek a newer choice, a different 
choice —a higher choice. Move into communion with the souls of 
others, and their purpose, their intention, 
will be clear to you. This is what Jesus did 
with those he healed —and with all those  
whose lives he touched. Jesus healed all 
those who came to him, or who sent  others 
to him supplicating for them. He did not 
perform a random healing. To have  done so 
would have been to violate a sacred Law of 
the Universe:  
Allow each sou l to walk its path. But does that mean we must not help 
anyone without being asked. Surely not, or 
we would  never be able to help the starving 
children of India, or the tortured masses of 
Africa, or the  poor, or the downtrodden 
anywhere. All humanitarian e ffort would be 
lost, all charity  forbidden. Must we wait for 
an individual to cry out to us in desperation, 
or for a nation of  people to plead for help, 
before we are allowed to do what is 
obviously right. You see, the question answers itself. If a 
thing i s obviously right, do it. But remember  
to exercise extreme judgment regarding 
what you call “right” and “wrong. ”  
A thing is only right or wrong because you 
say it is. A thing is not right or wrong  
intrinsically. It isn’t. “Rightness” or “wrongness” is not an 
intrinsic condition, it is a subjective 
judgment in  a personal value system. By 
your subjective judgments do you create 
your Self —by your personal values do you 
determine and demonstrate Who You Are. The world exists exactly as it is so that you 
may mak e these judgments. If the world  
existed in perfect condition, your life 
process of Self creation would be 
terminated. It  would end. A lawyer’s career 
would end tomorrow were there no more 
litigation. A  doctor’s career would end 
tomorrow were there no more illness. A 
philosopher’s  career would end tomorrow 
were there no more questions. And God’s career would end tomorrow 
were there no more problems. Precisely. You have put it perfectly. We, all 
of us, would be through creating were  there 
nothing more to create. We, all of us, have 
a vested interest in keeping the  game 
going. Much as we all say we would like to 
solve all the problems, we dare not  solve 
all the problems, or there will be nothing left 
for us to do. Your industrial -military complex 
understand s this very well. That is why it 
opposes  mightily any attempt to install a 
war-no-more government —anywhere. Your medical establishment understands 
this, too. That is why it staunchly 
opposes —it must, it has to for its own 
survival —any new miracle drug or c ure—to say nothing of the possibility of miracles 
themselves. Your religious community also holds this 
clarity. That is why it attacks uniformly any  
definition of God which does not include 
fear, judgment and retribution, and any  
definition of Self which d oes not include 
their own idea of the only path to God. If I say to you, you are God —where does 
that leave religion. If I say to you, you are  
healed, where does that leave science, and 
medicine. If I say to you, you shall live  in 
peace, where does that lea ve the 
peacemakers. If I say to you, the world is 
fixed —where does that leave the world. What, now, of plumbers. The world is filled with essentially two kinds 
of people: those who give you things  you want, and those who fix things. In a sense, 
even those who simply give you  things you 
want —the butchers, the bakers, the 
candlestick makers —are also fixers. For to 
have a desire for something is often to have 
a need for it. That is why addicts  are said to 
need a fix. Be careful, therefore, that desire 
not beco me addiction. Are you saying the world will always have 
problems. Are you saying that you actually 
want it  that way. I am saying that the world exists the way it 
exists —just as a snowflake exists the  way 
it exists —quite by design. You have 
created it that way—just as you have  
created your life exactly as it is. I want what you want. The day you really 
want an end to hunger, there will be no  more hunger. I have given you all the 
resources with which to do that. You have 
all the tools with which to make that choice. You have not made it. Not because you  
cannot make it. The world could end world 
hunger tomorrow. You choose not to  make 
it. You claim that there are good reasons that 
40,000 people a day must die of hunger. There are no good reasons. Yet at a time 
when you say you can do nothing to stop  
40,000 people a day from dying of hunger, 
you bring 50,000 people a day into your  
world to begin a new life. And this you call 
love. This you call God’s plan. It is a plan  
which totally lacks logic or reason, to  say 
nothing of compassion. I am showing you in stark terms that the 
world exists the way it exists because you  have chosen for it to. You are 
systematically destroying your own 
environment, then  pointing to so -called 
natural disasters as evidence of God’s  
cruel hoax, or Nature’s  harsh ways. You 
have played the hoax on yourself, and it is 
your ways which are  cruel. Nothing, nothing is more gentle than 
Nature. And nothing, nothing has been 
more  cruel to Nature than man. Yet you 
step aside from all involvemen t in this; deny 
all responsibility. It is not your fault, you say, 
and in this you are right It is not a question  
of fault, it is a matter of choice. You can choose to end the destruction of 
your rain forests tomorrow. You can  choose 
to stop depleting the protective layer 
hovering over your planet. You can  choose 
to discontinue the ongoing, onslaught of your earth’s ingenious ecosystem. You can 
seek to put the snowflake back together —
or at least to halt its inexorable  melting —
but will you do i t. —You can similarly end 
all war tomorrow. Simply. Easily. All it 
takes —all it has ever taken —is for all of 
you to agree. Yet if you cannot all  agree on 
something as basically simple as ending 
the killing of each other, how can  you call 
upon the heavens wi th shaking fist to put 
your life in order. I will do nothing for you that you will not do 
for your Self. That is the law and the  
prophets. The world is in the condition it is in because 
of you, and the choices you have made —
or failed to make. (Not to decid e is to decide). The Earth is in the shape it’s in because of 
you, and the choices you have made —or 
failed to make. Your own life is the way it is because of you, 
and the choices you have made —or failed 
to make. But I did not choose to get hit by that truc k. I did not choose to get mugged by that 
robber or raped by that maniac. People 
could say that. There are people in the 
world who could say  that. You are all at root cause for the conditions 
which exist which create in the robber the  
desire, or the percei ved need, to steal. You 
have all created the consciousness  which 
makes rape possible. It is when you see in 
yourself that which caused the  crime that you begin, at last, to heal the condition from 
which it sprang. Feed your hungry, give dignity to your poo r. Grant opportunity to your less fortunate. End the prejudice which keeps masses 
huddled and angry, with little promise of a  
better tomorrow. Put away your pointless 
taboos and restrictions upon sexual 
energy —rather, help others to truly 
understand its wo nder, and to channel it 
properly. Do  these things and you will go a 
long way toward ending robbery and rape 
forever. As for the so -called “accident” —the truck 
coming around the bend, the brick falling  
from the sky —learn to greet each such 
incident as a sma ll part of a larger mosaic. You have come here to work out an 
individual plan for your own salvation. Yet  salvation does not mean saving yourself 
from the snares of the devil. There is no  
such thing as the devil, and hell does not 
exist. You are saving you rself from the  
oblivion of non -realization. You cannot lose in this battle. You cannot 
fail. Thus,  it is not a battle at all, but simply  
a process. Yet if you do not know this, you 
will see it as a constant struggle. You  may 
even believe in the struggle long enough to 
create a whole religion around it. This 
religion will teach that struggle is the point 
of it all. This is a false teaching. It is  in not 
struggling that the process proceeds. It is 
in surrendering that the victory is  won. Accidents happen because they do. Certain elements of the life process have 
come  together in a particular way at a 
particular time, with particular results —results which  you choose to call 
unfortunate, for your own particular 
reasons. Yet they may not be  unfortunate  
at all, given the agenda of your soul. I tell you this: There is no coincidence, and 
nothing happens “by accident. ” Each  event 
and adventure is called to your Self by your 
Self in order that you might create  and 
experience Who You Really Are. All true 
Masters know this. That is why mystic  
Masters remain unperturbed in the face of 
the worst experiences of life (as you  would 
define them). The great teachers of your Christian 
religion understand this. They know that 
Jesus  was not perturbed by the crucifixion,  
but expected it. He could have walked 
away,  but he did not. He could have 
stopped the process at any point. He had that power. Yet he did not. He allowed 
himself to be crucified in order that he might 
stand as  man’s eternal salvation. Look, he 
said, at wh at I can do. Look at what is true. And know that these things, and more, 
shall you also do. For have I not said, ye 
are gods. Yet you do not believe. If you 
cannot, then, believe in yourself, believe in 
me. Such was Jesus’ compassion that he 
begged for a w ay—and created it —to so  
impact the world that all might come to 
heaven ( Self-realization )—if in no other 
way, then through him. For he defeated 
misery, and death. And so might you. The grandest teaching of Christ was not 
that you shall have everlasting lif e—but 
that you do; not that you shall have 
brotherhood in God, but that you do; not that you  shall have whatever you request, 
but that you do. All that is required is to know this. For you 
are the creator of your reality, and life can  
show up no other way for you than that way 
in which you think it will. You think it into being. This is the first step 
in creation. God the Father is thought. Your 
thought is the parent which gives birth to all 
things. This is one of the laws we are to remember. Yes. Can you t ell me others. I have told you others. I’ve told you them 
all, since the beginning of time. Over and  
over have I told you them. Teacher after teacher have I sent you. You do not listen  
to my teachers. You kill them. But why. Why do we kill the holiest amon g 
us. We kill them or dishonor them, which is 
the same thing. Why. Because they stand against every thought 
you have that would deny Me. And deny  Me 
you must if you are to deny your Self. Why would I want to deny You, or me. Because you are afraid. And because My 
promises are too good to be true. Because 
you cannot accept the grandest Truth. And 
so you must reduce yourself to  a spirituality 
which teaches fear and dependence and 
intolerance, rather than love  and power and 
acceptance. You are filled with f ear—and your biggest 
fear is that My biggest promise might be  life’s biggest lie. And so you create the 
biggest fantasy you can to defend yourself  
against this: You claim that any promise 
which gives you the power, and guarantees  
you the love, of God must be the false 
promise of the devil. God would never 
make  such a promise, you tell yourself, 
only the devil would —to tempt you into 
denying  God’s true identity as the 
fearsome, judgmental, jealous, vengeful, 
and punishing  entity of entities. Even though this  description better fits the 
definition of a devil (if there were one),  you 
have assigned devilish characteristics to 
God in order to convince yourself not  to 
accept the God -like promises of your 
Creator, or the God -like qualities of the 
Self. Such is the power of fear. I am trying to let go of my fear. Will You tell 
me—again —more of the laws. The First Law is that you can be, do, and 
have whatever you can imagine. The  
Second Law is that you attract what you 
fear. Why is that. Emotion is the power which att racts. That 
which you fear strongly, you will  
experience. An animal —which you 
consider a lower form of life (even though  
animals act with more integrity and greater 
consistency than humans) —knows  
immediately if you are afraid of it. Plants —
which you consid er an even lower form of  
life—respond to people who love them far 
better than to those who couldn’t care  less. None of this is by coincidence. There is no 
coincidence in the universe —only a  grand 
design; an incredible “snowflake. ”  
Emotion is energy in moti on. When you 
move energy, you create effect. If you 
move  enough energy, you create matter. Matter is energy conglomerated. Moved 
around. Shoved together. If you manipulate 
energy long enough in a certain way, you 
get matter. Every Master understands this 
law. It is the alchemy of the universe. It is 
the secret of all life. Thought is pure energy. Every thought you 
have, have ever had, and ever will have  is 
creative. The energy of your thought never 
ever dies. Ever. It leaves your being  and 
heads out into th e universe, extending 
forever. A thought is forever. All thoughts congeal; all thoughts meet 
other thoughts, criss -crossing in an  
incredible maze of energy, forming an ever -
changing pattern of unspeakable beauty  
and unbelievable complexity. Like energy att racts like energy —forming 
(to use simple words) “clumps” of energy  of 
like kind. When enough similar “clumps” 
criss-cross each other —run into each  
other —they “stick to” each other (to use 
another simple term). It takes an  
incomprehensibly huge amount of similar 
energy “sticking together,” thusly, to form  
matter. But matter will form out of pure 
energy. In fact, that is the only way it can  
form. Once energy becomes matter, it 
remains matter for a very long time  unless  
its construction is disrupted by an 
opposing, or dissimilar, form of energy. This  dissimilar energy, acting upon matter, 
actually dismembers the matter, releasing 
the raw energy of which it was composed. This is, in elementary terms, the theory 
behind your atomic bomb. Einstein came  
closer tha n any other human —before or 
since —to discovering, explaining, and  
functionalizing the creative secret of the 
universe. You should now better understand how 
people of like mind can work together to  
create a favored reality. The phrase 
“Wherever two or more are gathered in My  
name” becomes much more meaningful. Of course, when entire societies think a 
certain way, very often astonishing things  
happen —not all of them necessarily 
desirable. For instance, a society living in fear, very often —actually, inevitably —
produces in form that which it fears most. Similarly, large communities or 
congregations often find miracle - 
producing power in  combined thinking (or 
what some people call common prayer). And it must be made clear that even 
individuals —if their thought (p rayer, hope, 
wish,  dream, fear) is amazingly strong —
can, in and of themselves, produce such 
results. Jesus did this regularly. He 
understood how to manipulate energy and 
matter, how  to rearrange it, how to 
redistribute it, how to utterly control it. Many 
Masters have  known this. Many know it 
now. You can know it. Right now. This is the knowledge of good and evil of 
which Adam and Eve partook. Until they  
understood this, there could be no life as 
you know it. Adam and Eve —the mythical  
names you have given to  represent First 
Man and First Woman —were the Father  
and Mother of the human experience. What has been described as the fall of 
Adam was actually his upliftment —the 
greatest single event in the history of 
humankind. For without it, the world of 
relativity  would not exist. The act of Adam 
and Eve was not original sin, but, in truth, 
first blessing. You should thank them from 
the bottom of your hearts —for in being the  
first to make a “wrong” choice, Adam and 
Eve produced the possibility of making  any 
choice a t all. In your mythology you have made Eve the 
“bad” one here —the temptress who ate  of 
the fruit, the knowledge of good and evil —
and coyly invited Adam to join her. This  
mythological set -up has allowed you to 
make woman man’s “downfall” ever since,  
resulti ng in all manner of warped realities —
not to mention distorted sexual views  and 
confusions. (How can you feel so good 
about something so bad.
No, it is not accurate to say that all the bad things that happen to you are of your own choosing. However, it is accurate to say that you are always creating and have chosen the circumstances of your life.
Is it accurate to say that the world is the way it is because of your own choosing?
No, you cannot change the world by changing the choices of others. Instead, you can only change your own choices and the way you experience them.
Can you change the world by changing the choices of others?
No, you cannot choose to be ill or experience pain. You can, however, choose how you experience and respond to these experiences.
Can you choose to be ill or experience pain?
No, it is not possible to change the natural disasters like earthquakes and hurricanes. However, it is possible to change how you experience and respond to these events.
Is it possible to change the natural disasters like earthquakes and hurricanes?
Yes, you can use your free will to do anything you want without fear of retribution.
Can you use your free will to do anything you want without fear of retribution?