By the highest standards I have observed 
humans devise, killing can never be  
justified as a means of expressing anger, 
releasing hostility, “righting a wrong,” or  
punishing an offender. The statement that 
war is sometimes necessary to end evil  stands true —for you have made it so. You 
have determined, in the creation of Self,  
that respect for all human life is, and must 
be, a high prime value. I am pleased with  
your decision, because I did not create life 
that it may be destroyed. It is respect for life whic h sometimes makes 
war necessary, for it is through war  against 
immediate impending evil, it is through 
defense against immediate threat to  
another life, that you make a statement of 
Who You Are in relationship to that. You have a right under highest moral law—
indeed, you have an obligation under  that 
law—to stop aggression on the person of 
another, or yourself. This does not mean that killing as a 
punishment is appropriate, nor as retribution,  nor as a means of settling petty 
differences. In your past, you have killed in 
personal  duels over the affection of a 
woman, for heaven’s sake, and called this 
protecting  your honor, when it was all honor 
you were losing. It is absurd to use deadly 
force as  an argument solver. Many humans 
are still using force —killing force —to solve  
ridiculous arguments even today. Reaching to the height of hypocrisy, some 
humans even kill in the name of God —and 
that is the highest blasphemy, for it does 
not speak of Who You Are. Oh, then there is something wrong with 
killing? Let’s bac k up. There’s nothing “wrong” with 
anything. “Wrong” is a relative term,  
indicating the opposite of that which you call “right.” Yet, what is “right”? Can you be  
truly objective in these matters? Or are 
“right” and “wrong” simply descriptions  
overlaid on e vents and circumstances by 
you, out of your decision about them? And what, pray tell, forms the basis of your 
decision? Your own experience! No. In  
most cases, you’ve chosen to accept 
someone else’s decision. Someone who 
came  before you and, presumably, kn ows 
better. Very few of your daily decisions 
about  what is “right” and “wrong” are being 
made by you, based on your 
understanding. This is especially true on important matters. In fact, the more important the matter,  the 
less likely are you to listen to yo ur own 
experience, and the more ready you  seem to be to make someone else’s ideas your 
own. This explains why you’ve given up virtually 
total control over certain areas of your  life, 
and certain questions that arise within the 
human experience. These areas  and questions very often 
include the subjects most vital to your soul:  
the nature of God; the nature of true 
morality; the question of ultimate reality; the  
issues of life and death surrounding war, 
medicine, abortion, euthanasia, the whole  
sum and substa nce of personal values, 
structures, judgments. These most of you  
have abrogated, assigned to others. You 
don’t want to make your own decisions  
about them. “Someone else decide! I’ll go along, I’ll go 
along!” you shout. “Someone else just tell  
me what’s rig ht and wrong!”  
This is why, by the way, human religions 
are so popular. It almost doesn’t matter  
what the belief system is, as long as it’s 
firm, consistent, clear in its expectation of  
the follower, and rigid. Given those 
characteristics, you can find peo ple who 
believe  in almost anything. The strangest 
behavior and belief can be —has been —
attributed  to God. It’s God’s way, they say. God’s word. And there are those who will accept that. Gladly. Because, you see, it eliminates the  
need to think. Now, let’s think about killing. Can there 
ever be a justifiable reason for killing  anything? Think about it. You’ll find you 
need no outside authority to give you  
direction, no higher source to supply you 
with answers. If you think about it, if you  
look to see what you feel about it, the 
answers will be obvious to you, and you will  
act accordingly. This is called acting on 
your own authority. It is when you act on the authority of others 
that you get yourself into trouble. Should  
states and nations use killing t o achieve 
their political objectives? Should religions  
use killing to enforce their theological 
imperatives? Should societies use killing 
as a  response to those who violate 
behavioral codes? Is killing an appropriate political remedy, 
spiritual convincer, or societal problem  
solver? Now, is killing something you can do if 
someone is trying to kill you? Would you 
use killing force to defend the life of a loved 
one? Someone you didn’t even know? Is killing a proper form of defense against 
those who  would kill if they are not in  some 
other way stopped? Is there a difference between killing and 
murder? The state would have you believe that 
killing to complete a purely political agenda 
is perfectly defensible. In fact, the state 
needs you to take its w ord on this in order 
to exist as an entity of power. Religions would have you believe that 
killing to spread and maintain knowledge 
of, and adherence to, their particular truth 
is perfectly defensible. In fact, religions  require you to take their word on t his in 
order to exist as an entity of power. Society would have you believe that killing 
to punish those who commit certain  
offenses (these have changed through the 
years) is perfectly defensible. In fact,  
society must have you take its word for it in 
order to exist as an entity of power. Do you believe these positions are correct? Have you taken another’s word for it? What 
does your Self have to say? There is no “right” or “wrong” in these 
matters. But by your decisions you paint a portrait of 
Who You Are. Indeed, by their decisions your states and 
nations have already painted such  
pictures. By their decisions your religions have 
created lasting, indelible impressions. By 
their decisions your societies have 
produced their self -portraits, too. Are you please d with these pictures? Are 
these the impressions you wish to make? Do these portraits represent Who You Are? Be careful of these questions. They may  
require you to think. Thinking is hard. Making value judgments is difficult. It 
places  you at pure creation , because there 
are so many times you’ll have to say, “I 
don’t  know. I just don’t know.” Yet still you’ll 
have to decide. And so you’ll have to 
choose. You’ll have to make an arbitrary 
choice. Such a choice —a decision coming from no 
previous personal knowl edge —is called  
pure creation. And the individual is aware, deeply aware, that in the making of such  
decisions is the Self created. Most of you are not interested in such 
important work. Most of you would rather  
leave that to others. And so most of you are 
not self -created, but creatures of habit —
other -created creatures. Then, when others have told you how you 
should feel, and it runs directly counter to  
how you do feel —you experience a deep 
inner conflict. Something deep inside you  
tells you that what other s have told you is 
not Who You Are. Now where to go with  
that? What to do? The first place you go is to your 
religionists —the people who put you there 
in the first  place. You go to your priests and 
your rabbis and your ministers and your teachers,  and they  tell you to stop listening 
to your Self. The worst of them will try to 
scare you  away from it; scare you away 
from what you intuitively know. They’ll tell you about the devil, about Satan, 
about demons and evil spirits and hell  and 
damnation and every fri ghtening thing they 
can think of to get you to see how  what you 
were intuitively knowing and feeling was 
wrong, and how the only place  you’ll find 
any comfort is in their thought, their idea, 
their theology, their definitions of  right and 
wrong, and their concept of Who You Are. The seduction here is that all you have to 
do to get instant approval is to agree. Agree 
and you have instant approval. Some will 
even sing and shout and dance and  wave 
their arms in hallelujah! That’s hard to resist. Such approval,  such 
rejoicing that you have seen the light; that  
you’ve been saved! Approvals and demonstrations seldom 
accompany inner decisions. Celebrations  
rarely surround choices to follow personal 
truth. In fact, quite the contrary. Not only  
may others fail to celebrate, they may 
actually subject you to ridicule. What? You’re  thinking for yourself? You’re 
deciding on your own? You’re applying 
your own  yardsticks, your own judgments, 
your own values? Who do you think you 
are, anyway? And, indeed, that is precisel y the question 
you are answering. But the work must be done very much 
alone. Very much without reward, without  
approval, perhaps without even any notice. And so you ask a very good question. Why 
go on? Why even start off on such a  path? What is to be gaine d from embarking on 
such a journey? Where is the  incentive? What is the reason? The reason is ridiculously simple. THERE IS NOTHING ELSE TO DO. What do You mean? I mean this is the only game in town. There 
is nothing else to do. In fact, there is  
nothing e lse you can do. You are going to 
be doing what you are doing for the rest  of 
your life —just as you have been doing it 
since birth. The only question is whether  you’ll be doing it consciously, or 
unconsciously. You see, you cannot disembark from the 
journey. You embarked before you were  
born. Your birth is simply a sign that the 
journey has begun. So the question is not:  
Why start off on such a path? You have 
already started off. You did so with the first  
beat of your heart. The question is: Do I 
wish to walk this path consciously, or  
unconsciously? With awareness or lack of 
awareness? As the cause of my  
experience, or at the effect of it? For most 
of your life you’ve lived at the effect of  your 
experiences. Now, you’re invited to be the 
cause of them. That is what is  known as 
conscious living. That is what is called 
walking in awareness. Now, many of you have walked quite some 
distance, as I’ve said. You have made  no 
small progress. So you should not feel that 
after all these lives you’ve “only”  come t o 
this. Some of you are highly evolved 
creatures, with a very sure sense of  Self. You know Who You Are and you know what 
you’d like to become. Furthermore, you 
even know the way to get from here to 
there. That’s a great sign. That’s a sure indication. Of what? Of the fact that you now have very few lives 
left. Is that good? It is, now —for you. And that is so because 
you say it is so. Not long ago all you  wanted to do was stay here. Now, all you want to 
do is leave. That’s a very good  sign. Not long ago you killed things —bugs, 
plants, trees, animals, people —now you  
cannot kill a thing without knowing exactly 
what you’re doing, and why. That’s a very  
good sign. Not long ago you lived life as though it had 
no purpose. Now you know it has no  
purpose, save th e one you give it. That’s a 
very good sign. Not long ago you begged  the universe to 
bring you Truth. Now you tell the universe 
your truth. And that’s a  very good sign. Not long ago you sought to be rich and 
famous. Now you seek to be simply, and  
wonderfull y, your Self. And not so very long ago you feared Me. Now you love Me, enough to call Me your  
equal. All of these are very, very good signs. Well, gosh...You make me feel good. You should feel good. Anybody who uses 
“gosh” in a sentence can’t be all bad. You really do have a sense of humor, don’t 
You... I invented humor! Yes, You’ve made that point. Okay, so the 
reason for going on is that there’s nothing 
else to  do. This is what’s happening here. Precisely. Then may I ask You —does it at least get 
any easie r? Oh, my darling friend —it is so much easier 
for you now than it was three lifetimes  ago, 
I can’t even tell you. Yes, yes —it does get easier. The more you 
remember, the more you are able to  
experience, the more you know, so to 
speak. And the more you know , the more 
you remember. It is a circle. So yes, it gets 
easier, it gets better, it becomes even more  
joyful. But remember, none of it has been exactly 
a drudge. I mean, you’ve loved all of it! Every last minute! Oh, it’s delicious, this 
thing called life! It’s a scrumptious  
experience, no? Well, yes, I suppose. You suppose? How much more 
scrumptious could I have made it? Are you not being allowed to experience 
everything? The tears, the joy, the pain, the 
gladness,  the exaltation, the massive 
depression, t he win, the lose, the draw? What more is  there? A little less pain, perhaps. Less pain without more wisdom defeats 
your purpose; does not allow you to  
experience infinite joy —which is What I 
Am. Be patient. You are gaining wisdom. And 
your joys are now increasingly available  
without pain. That, too, is a very good sign. You are learning (remembering how) to 
love without pain; to let go without pain; to  
create without pain; to even cry without 
pain. Yes, you’re even able to have your  
pain without pain, if you know what I mean. I think I do. I’m enjoying even my own life 
dramas more. I can stand back and see 
them for  what they are. Even laugh. Exactly. And you don’t call this growth? I suppose I do. And so then, keep on growing, My son. Keep on beco ming. And keep on deciding  
what you want to become in the next 
highest version of your Self. Keep on 
working  toward that. Keep on! Keep on! This is God Work we’re up to, you and I. So 
keep  on! Chapter 10  
I love You, You know that? I know you do. And I love you. Chapter 11  
I’d like to get back to my list of questions. There’s so much more detail I want to go 
into on every one of these. We could do a 
whole book on relationships alone, and I 
know that. But then I’d never get to my 
other questions. There’ ll be other times, other places. Even 
other books. I’m with you. Let’s move on. We’ll come back to it here if we have time. Okay. My next question, then: Why can’t I 
ever seem to attract enough money in my 
life? Am I destined to be forever scrimping 
and sc raping? What is blocking me from 
realizing my full potential regarding 
money? The condition is manifested not just by you, 
but by a great many people. Everyone tells me it’s a problem of self -
worth, a lack of self -worth. I’ve had a dozen 
New Age teachers t ell me that lack of 
anything is always traceable to lack of self -
worth. That is a convenient simplification. In this 
case your teachers are wrong. You do not  
suffer from a lack of self -worth. Indeed, 
your greatest challenge all your life has  
been to contro l your ego. Some have said 
it’s been a case of too much self -worth! Well, here I am, embarrassed and 
chagrined again, but You are right. You keep saying you’re embarrassed and 
chagrined every time I simply tell the truth  
about you. Embarrassment is the res ponse 
of a person who still has an ego  investment 
in how others see him. Invite yourself to move past that. Try a new  response. Try 
laughter. Okay. Self-worth is not your problem. You are 
blessed with an abundance of it. Most  
people are. You all think very  highly of 
yourself, as rightly you should. So self -
worth,  for the great mass of the people, is 
not the problem. What is? The problem is lack of understanding of the 
principles of abundance together,  usually, 
with a massive misjudgment about what is 
“good”  and what is “evil.”  Let Me give you 
an example. Please do. You carry a thought around that money is 
bad. You also carry a thought around that  
God is good. Bless you! Therefore, in your 
thought system, God and money do not  
mix. Well, in a sense, I guess, that’s true. That 
is how I think. This makes things interesting, because this 
then makes it difficult for you to take  money 
for any good thing. I mean, if a thing is judged very “good” by 
you, you value it less in terms of money. So 
the “better” som ething is (i.e., the more 
worthwhile), the less money it’s worth. You are not alone in this. Your whole 
society believes this. So your teachers 
make a  pittance and your stripteasers, a 
fortune. Your leaders make so little compared to  sports figures that th ey feel 
they have to steal to make up the 
difference. Your  priests and your rabbis live 
on bread and water while you throw coins 
at entertainers. Think about it. Everything on which you 
place a high intrinsic value, you insist must  
come cheaply. The lonely research 
scientist seeking a cure for AIDS goes 
begging  for money, while the woman who 
writes a book on a hundred new ways to 
have sex  and creates tapes and weekend 
seminars to go with it...makes a fortune. This having -it-all-backwards is a propensi ty 
with you, and it stems from wrong  thought. The wrong thought is your idea about 
money. You love it, and yet you say it is the  
root of all evil. You adore it, and yet you call it “filthy lucre.” You say that a person is  
“filthy rich.” And if a person doe s become 
wealthy doing “good” things, you  
immediately become suspect. You make 
that “wrong.”  
So, a doctor had better not make too much 
money, or had better learn to be discreet  
about it. And a minister —whoa! She’d 
really better not make lots of money  
(assu ming you’ll even let a “she” be a 
minister), or there’ll surely be trouble. You see, in your mind, a person who 
chooses the highest calling should get the  
lowest pay....  
Hmmm. Yes, “hmmm” is right. You should think 
about that. Because it is such wrong 
thought. I thought there was no such thing as wrong 
or right. There isn’t. There is only what serves you, 
and what does not. The terms “right” and  
“wrong” are relative terms, and I use them 
that way when I use them at all. In this  
case, relative to what serves  you—relative 
to what you say you want —your money  
thoughts are wrong thoughts. Remember, thoughts are creative. So if you 
think money is bad, yet think yourself  
good...well, you can see the conflict. Now you, in particular, My son, act out this 
race consci ousness in a very big way. For 
most people the conflict is not nearly so 
enormous as for you. Most people do  what 
they hate for a living, so they don’t mind 
taking money for it. “Bad” for the  “bad,” so to speak. But you love what you do with the 
days and t imes of your life. You adore the 
activities with which you cram them. For you, therefore, to receive large 
amounts of money for what you do would 
be, in  your thought system, taking “bad” for 
the “good” and that is unacceptable to you. You’d rather starve t han take “filthy lucre” 
for pure service...as if somehow the  service 
loses its purity if you take money for it. So here we have this real ambivalence 
about money. Part of you rejects it, and part  
of you resents not having it. Now, the 
universe doesn’t know  what to do about 
that, because the universe has received 
two different thoughts from you. So your life 
with regard to money is going to go in fits 
and starts, because you keep going in fits 
and starts about money. You don’t have a clear focus; you’re not 
really sure what’s true for you. And the  
universe is just a big Xerox machine. It 
simply produces multiple copies of your  
thoughts. Now there’s only one way to change all 
that. You have to change your thought 
about  it. How can I change the way I think? The  way 
I think about something is the way I think 
about something. My thoughts, my 
attitudes, my ideas were not created in a 
minute. I have to guess they are the result 
of years of experience, a lifetime of 
encounters. You are right about the way I 
think abo ut money, but how do I change 
that? This could be the most interesting question 
in the book. The usual method of  creation 
for most human being is a three -step 
process involving thought, word, and  deed, 
or action. First comes thought; the formative idea; th e 
initial concept. Then comes the word. Most 
thoughts ultimately form themselves into 
words, which are often then written or  
spoken. This gives added energy to the 
thought, pushing it out into the world, where  
it can be noticed by others. Finally, in some cases words are put into 
action, and you have what you call a  result; 
a physical world manifestation of what all 
started with a thought. Everything  around 
you in your man -made world came into 
being in this way —or some variation  of it. All three creati on centers were used. But now comes the question: how to  change a 
Sponsoring Thought? Yes, that is a very 
good question. And a very  important one. For if humans do not change some of their 
Sponsoring Thoughts,  humankind could 
doom itself to extinction. The most rapid way to change a root 
thought, or sponsoring idea, is to reverse 
the thought -word -deed process. Explain that. Do the deed that you want to have the new 
thought about. Then say the words that  you 
want to have your new thought about. Do 
this often  enough and you’ll train the  mind 
to think a new way. Train the mind? Isn’t that like mind control? Isn’t that just mental manipulation? Do you have any idea how your mind came 
up with the thoughts it now has? Do you  not 
know that your world has manipulated your 
mind to think as you do? Wouldn’t it  be 
better for you to manipulate your mind than 
for the world to? Would you not be better off to think the 
thoughts you want to think, than those of  
others? Are you not better armed with 
creative thought s than with reactive 
thoughts? Yet your mind is filled with reactive 
thought —thought that springs from the  
experience of others. Very few of your 
thoughts spring from self -produced data,  
much less self -produced preferences. Your own root thought about mone y is a 
prime example. Your thought about money  (it is bad) runs directly counter to your 
experience (it’s great to have money!). So 
you have to run around and lie to yourself 
about your experience in order to justify 
your root thought. You are so rooted in  this thought, it never 
occurs to you that your idea about money  
may be inaccurate. So now what we are up to is coming up with 
some self -produced data. And that is  how 
we change a root thought, and cause it to 
be your root thought, not another’s. You have one more root thought about 
money, by the way, which I’ve yet to  
mention. What’s that? That there’s not enough. In fact, you have 
this root thought about just about  everything. There’s not enough money, 
there’s not enough time, there’s not enough  
love, there’s not enough food, water, 
compassion in the world...Whatever there 
is that’s good, there’s just not enough. This race consciousness of “not -enough -
ness” creates and recreates the world as  
you see it. Okay, so I have two root thoughts —
Sponsoring Tho ughts —to change about 
money. Oh, at least two. Probably many more. Let’s see. Money is bad...money is 
scarce...money may not be received for 
doing God’s work (that’s a big one with 
you)...money is never given freely...money 
doesn’t grow on trees (when, in fact, it 
does)...money corrupts. I see I’ve got a lot of work to do. Yes, you do, if you’re not happy with your 
present money situation. On the other  
hand, it’s important to understand that 
you’re unhappy with your present money  
situation because you’re un happy with your 
present money situation. Sometimes You’re hard to follow. Sometimes you’re hard to lead. Say, listen, You’re the God here. Why don’t 
You make it easy to understand? I have made it easy to understand. Then why don’t You just cause me to 
unde rstand, if that’s what You truly want? I truly want what you truly want —nothing 
different and nothing more. Don’t you see  
that is My greatest gift to you? If I wanted for you something other than what you  
want for you, and then went so far as to 
cause you to have it, where is your free  
choice? How can you be a creative being if 
I am dictating what you shall be, do, and  
have? My joy is in your freedom, not your 
compliance. Okay, what did You mean, I’m unhappy 
with my money situation because I’m 
unhappy with my money situation? You are what you think you are. It’s a 
vicious circle when the thought is a 
negative  one. You’ve got to find a way to 
break out of the circle. So much of your 
present  experience is based on your 
previous thought. Thought leads to 
experi ence, which  leads to thought, which 
leads to experience. This can produce 
constant joy when the  Sponsoring Thought is joyous. It can, and does, produce 
continual hell when the  Sponsoring 
Thought is hellatious. The trick is to change Sponsoring Thought. I was about to illustrate how to do that. Go. Thank you. The first thing to do is reverse the thought -
word -deed paradigm. Do you remember  
the old adage, “Think before you act”? Yes. Well, forget it. If you want to change a root 
thought, you have to act before  you think. Example: you’re walking down the street 
and come across an old lady begging for  
quarters. You realize she’s a bag lady and 
is living day -to-day. You instantly know  that as little money as you have, you surely 
have enough to share with her. Your first  
impulse is to give her some change. There’s even a part of you that’s ready to 
reach  in your pocket for a little folding 
money —a one, or even a five. What the 
heck,  make it a grand moment for her. Light 
her up. Then, thought comes in. What, are you 
crazy? We’ve only got seven dollars to get  
us through the day! You want to give her a 
five? So you start fumbling around for  that 
one. Thought again: Hey, hey, c’mon. You don’t 
have that many of these that you can  just 
give them away! Give her some  coins, for 
heaven’s sake, and let’s get out of  here. Quickly you reach into the other pocket to 
try to come up with some quarters. Your  
fingers feel only nickels and dimes. You’re 
embarrassed. Here you are, fully clothed,  
fully fed, and you’re going to ni ckel-and-
dime this poor woman who has nothing. You try in vain to find a quarter or two. Oh, 
there’s one, deep in the fold of your  pocket. But by now you’ve walked past her, smiling 
wanly, and it’s too late to go  back. She gets 
nothing. You get nothing, ei ther. Instead of 
the joy of knowing your  abundance and 
sharing, you now feel as poor as the 
woman. Why didn’t you just give her the paper 
money! It was your first impute, but your  
thought got in the way. Next time, decide to act before you think. Give the money. Go ahead! You’ve got it,  
and there’s more where that came from. That’s the only thought which separates  
you from the bag lady. You’re clear there’s 
more where that came from, and she  
doesn’t know that. When you want to change a root thought, 
act in accordance with the new idea you  
have. But you must act quickly, or your 
mind will kill the idea before you know it. I  
mean that literally. The idea, the new truth, 
will be dead in you before you’ve had a  
chance to know it. So act quickly when the opportun ity arises, 
and, if you do this often enough, your  mind 
will soon get the idea. It will be your new 
thought. Oh, I just got something! Is that what’s 
meant by the New Thought Movement? If not, it should be. New thought is your only 
chance. It’s your only r eal opportunity to  
evolve, to grow, to truly become Who You 
Really Are. Your mind is right now filled  with 
old thoughts. Not only old thoughts, but 
mostly someone else’s old thoughts. It’s  
important now, it’s time now, to change 
your mind about some things . This is what  
evolution is all about. Chapter 12  
Why can’t I do what I really want to do with 
my life and still make a living? What? You mean you actually want to have 
fun in your life, and still earn your keep? Brother, are you dreaming! What? — 
Only ki dding —just doing a little mind 
reading, that’s all. You see, that’s been your  
thought about it. It’s been my experience. Yes. Well, we’ve been all through this now 
a number of times. The people who  make 
a living doing what they love are the people 
who insi st on doing so. They don’t  give up. They never give in. They dare life not to let 
them do what they love. But there’s another element that must be 
brought up, because this is the missing  
element in most people’s understanding 
when it comes to life work. What’s that? There’s a difference between being and 
doing, and most people have placed their  
emphasis on the latter. Shouldn’t they? There’s no “should” or “should not” 
involved. There’s only what you choose, 
and how  you can have it. If you choose 
peace an d joy and love, you won’t get 
much of it  through what you’re doing. If you 
choose happiness and contentment, you’ll 
find little  of that on the path of doingness. If 
you choose reunion with God, supreme 
knowing,  deep understanding, endless compassion, total  awareness, absolute 
fulfillment, you  won’t achieve much of that 
out of what you’re doing. In other words, if you choose evolution —
the evolution of your soul —you won’t  
produce that by the worldly activities of 
your body. Doing is a function of the body. Being is a function of the soul. The body is 
always doing something. Every minute of  
every day it’s up to something. It never 
stops, it never rests, it’s constantly doing  
something. It’s either doing what it’s doing 
at the behest of the soul —or in spite of  the 
soul. The quality of your life hangs in the 
balance. The soul is forever being. It is being what it 
is being, regardless of what the body is  
doing, not because of what it’s doing. If you think your life is about doingness, you 
do not understand what you are about. Your soul doesn’t care what you do for a 
living —and when your life is over, neither  
will you. Your soul cares only about what 
you’re being while you’re doing whatever  
you’re doing. It is a state of beingness the soul is after , 
not a state of doingness. What is the soul seeking to be? Me. You. Yes, Me. Your soul is Me, and it knows it. What it is doing, is trying to experience  that. And what it is remembering is that the best 
way to have this experience is by  not doing 
anything . There is nothing to do but to be. Be what? Whatever you want to be. Happy. Sad. Weak. Strong. Joyful. Vengeful. Insightful. Blind. Good. Bad. Male. Female. You name 
it. I mean that literally. You name it. This is all very profound, but what does it 
have to do with my career? I’m trying to find 
a way to stay alive, to survive, to support 
myself and my family, doing what I like to 
do. Try being what you like to be. What do you mean? Some people make lots of money doing 
what they do, others can’t make a go o f it—
and they’re doing the same thing. What 
makes the difference? Some people have more skill than others. That’s the first cut. But now we get to the 
second cut. Now we’re down to two people  
with relatively equal skills. Both graduated 
from college, both were at the top of their  
class, both understand the nature of what 
they’re doing, both know how to use their  
tools with great facility —yet one still does 
better than the other; one flourishes while  
the other struggles. What’s that about? Location. Location ? Somebody once told me there are only 
three things to consider when starting a 
new business —location, location, and 
location. In other words, not “What are you going to 
do?” but “Where are you going to be?”  
Exactly. That sounds like the answer to my question 
as well. The soul is concerned only with  
where you are going to be. Are you going to be in a place called fear, 
or in a place called love? Where are you —
and where are you coming from —as you 
encounter life? Now, in the example of  the 
two equally qu alified workers, one is 
successful and the other is not, not  
because of anything either is doing, but 
because of what both are being. One person is being open, friendly, caring, 
helpful, considerate, cheerful, confident,  
even joyful in her work, while the other is 
being closed, distant, uncaring,  
inconsiderate, grumpy, even resentful of 
what she is doing. Now suppose you were  
to select even loftier states of beingness? Suppose you were to select goodness,  mercy, compassion, understanding, 
forgiveness, love? What if you were to 
select  Godliness? What then would be your 
experience? I tell you this:  
Beingness attracts beingness, and 
produces experience. You are not on this planet to produce 
anything with your body. You are on this  
planet to produce something wi th your soul. Your body is simply and merely the tool  of 
your soul. Your mind is the power that 
makes the body go. So what you have here  
is a power tool, used in the creation of the 
soul’s desire. What is the soul’s desire? Indeed, what is it? I don’t know. I’m asking You. I don’t know. I’m asking you. This could go on forever. It has. Wait a minute! A moment ago, You said the 
soul is seeking to be You. So it is. Then that is the soul’s desire. In the broadest sense, yes. But this Me it is 
seeking to be  is very complex, very  multi -
dimensional, multi -sensual, multi -faceted. There are a million aspects to Me. A  billion. A trillion. You see? There is the profane and 
the profound, the lesser and the  larger, the 
hollow and the holy, the ghastly and the 
Godly. You see? Yes, yes, I see...the up and the down, the 
left and the right, the here and the there, 
the before and the after, the good and the 
bad... Precisely. I am the Alpha and the Omega. That was not just a pretty saying, or a  nifty 
concept. That was Truth expressed. So, in seeking to be Me, the soul has a 
grand job ahead of it; an enormous menu 
of beingness from which to choose. And 
that is what it is doing in this moment now. Choosing states of being. Yes—and then producing the right and 
perfect cond itions within which to create 
the experience of that. It is therefore true 
that nothing happens to you or through you  
that is not for your own highest good. You mean my soul is creating all of my 
experience, including not only the things I 
am doing, but th e things that are happening 
to me? Let us say that the soul leads you to the 
right and perfect opportunities for you to  
experience exactly what you had planned 
to experience. What you actually  
experience is up to you. It could be what 
you planned to experi ence, or it could be  
something else, depending upon what you 
choose. Why would I choose something I don’t wish 
to experience? I don’t know. Why would you? Do You mean that sometimes the soul 
wishes one thing, and the body or the mind 
wishes another? What d o you think? But how can the body, or the mind, overrule 
the soul? Doesn’t the soul always get what 
it wants? The spirit of you seeks, in the largest 
sense, that grand moment when you have  
conscious awareness of its wishes, and 
join in joyful oneness with them. But the  
spirit will never, ever, force its desire on the 
present, conscious, physical part of you. The Father will not force His will upon the 
Son. It is a violation of His very nature to  do 
so, and thus, quite literally, impossible. The Son will not  force His will upon the Holy 
Spirit. It is against His very nature to do  so, 
and thus, quite literally, impossible. The Holy Spirit will not force His will upon 
your soul. It is outside of the nature of the  spirit to do so, and thus, quite literally, 
impo ssible. Here is where the impossibilities end. The 
mind very often does seek to exert its will  
on the body —and does so. Similarly, the 
body seeks often to control the mind —and 
frequently succeeds. Yet the body and the mind together do not 
have to do anything to control the soul —for 
the soul is completely without need (unlike 
the body and the mind, which are  shackled 
with it), and so allows the body and the 
mind to have their way all the time. Indeed, the soul would have it no other 
way—for if the enti ty which is you is to  
create, and thus know, who it really is, it 
must be through an act of conscious  volition, not an act of unconscious 
obedience. Obedience is not creation, and thus can 
never produce salvation. Obedience is a response, while creation is 
pure choice, undictated, unrequited. Pure choice produces salvation through 
the pure creation of highest idea in this  
moment now. The function of the soul is to indicate its 
desire, not impose it. The function of the mind is to choose from 
its alternatives. The function of the body is to act out that 
choice. When body, mind, and soul create together, 
in harmony and in unity, God is made  flesh. Then does the soul know itself in its own 
experience. Then do the heavens rejoice. Right now, in this m oment, your soul has 
again created opportunity for you to be, do,  
and have what it takes to know Who You 
Really Are. Your soul has brought you to  
the words you are reading right now —as it 
has brought you to words of wisdom and  
truth before. What will you d o now? What will you 
choose to be? Your soul waits, and watches with interest, 
as it has many times before. Do I understand You to say that it is out of 
the state of beingness I select that my 
worldly success (I am still trying to talk 
about my career here ) will be determined? I am not concerned about your worldly 
success, only you are. It is true that when you achieve certain 
states of being over a long period of time,  
success in what you are doing in the world 
is very difficult to avoid. Yet you are not  to 
worry about “making a living.” True Masters 
are those who have chosen to make  a life, 
rather than a living. From certain states of being will spring a 
life so rich, so full, so magnificent, and so  
rewarding that worldly goods and worldly 
success will be of no concern to you. Life’s irony is that as soon as worldly goods 
and worldly success are of no concern  to 
you, the way is open for them to flow to you. Remember, you cannot have what  you want, but you may experience whatever 
you have. I cannot have what  I want? No. You said this before, very early in our 
dialogue. Still, I don’t understand. I thought 
you’ve been telling me I could have 
whatever I want. “As you think, as you 
believe, so shall it be done unto you,” and 
all that. The two statements are not inconsistent 
with each other. They aren’t? They sure feel inconsistent to 
me. That is because you lack understanding. Well, I admit that. That’s why I’m talking 
with You. I will then explain. You cannot have 
anything you want. The very act of wanting  
somet hing pushes it away from you, as I 
said earlier, in Chapter One. Well, You may have said it earlier, but 
You’re losing me —fast. Fight to keep up. I’ll go over it again in 
greater detail. Try to stay with it. Let’s go 
back  to a point you do understand: thou ght 
is creative. Okay? Okay. Word is creative. Got it? Got it. Action is creative. Thought, word, and deed 
are the three levels of creation. Still with  
Me? Right there. Good. Now let’s take “worldly success” as 
our subject for the moment, since that’s  
what you’ve been talking about, asking 
about. Terrific. Now, do you have a thought, “I want worldly 
success”? Sometimes, yes. And do you also sometimes have the 
thought, “I want more money”? Yes. You can therefore neither have worldly 
success nor mo re money. Why not? Because the universe has no choice but to 
bring you the direct manifestation of your  
thought about it. Your thought is, “I want worldly success.” 
You understand, the creative power is like  
a genie in a bottle. Your words are its 
command. You understand? Then why don’t I have more success? I said, your words are its command. Now 
your words were, “I want success.” And the  
universe says, “Okay, you do.”  
I’m still not sure I follow. Think of it this way. The word “I” is the key 
that s tarts the engine of creation. The  
words “I am” are extremely powerful. They 
are statements to the universe. Commands. Now, whatever follows the word “I” (which 
calls forth the Great I Am) tends to  manifest 
in physical reality. Therefore “I” + “want success ” produces 
you wanting success. “I” + “want money”  
must produce you wanting money. It can 
produce no other thing, because thoughts,  
words are creative. Actions are, too. And if 
you act in a way which says that you  want 
success and money, then your thoughts , 
words, and actions are in accord, and  you 
are sure to have the experience of this 
wantingness. You see? Yes! My God —does it really work that way? Of course! You are a very powerful creator. Now granted, if you had a thought, or  made 
a statement, just onc e—as in anger, for 
instance, or frustration, it’s not very  likely 
that you’ll convert those thoughts or words 
into reality. So you don’t have to  worry about “Drop dead!” or “Go to hell,” or all the 
other less -than-nice things you  sometimes 
think or say. Thank God. You’re welcome. But, if you repeat a 
thought, or say a word, over and over 
again —not once, not twice, but dozens, 
hundreds, thousands of times —do you 
have any  idea of the creative power of that? A thought or a word expressed and 
expressed and expr essed becomes just 
that—expressed. That is, pushed out. It 
becomes outwardly realized. It becomes 
your physical reality. Good grief. That’s exactly what it produces very 
often —good grief. You love the grief, you 
love the drama. That is, until you don’t anymore. There comes a certain point in 
your evolution when you cease to love the 
drama, cease to love the “story” as you’ve  
been living it. That’s when you decide —
actively choose —to change it. Only most  
don’t know how. You now do. To change 
your rea lity, simply stop thinking like that. In this case, instead of thinking “I want 
success,” think “I have success.”  
That feels like a lie to me. I’d be kidding 
myself if I said that. My mind would shout, 
“The hell you say!”  
Then think a thought you can accep t. “My 
success is coming to me now,” or “all  things 
lead to my success.”  
So this is the trick behind the New Age 
practice of affirmations. Affirmations do not work if they are merely 
statements of what you want to be true. Affirmations work only when they are 
statements of something you already know 
to be true. The best so -called affirmation is a 
statement of gratitude and appreciation. “Thank  you, God, for bringing me success 
in my life.” Now, that idea, thought, spoken, 
and acted upon, produces wonderful 
results —when it comes from true knowing; 
not from  an attempt to produce results, but 
from an awareness that results have 
already been  produced. Jesus had such clarity. Before every 
miracle, He thanked Me in advance for its  
deliverance. It never occurred to Him not to 
be grateful, because it never occurred to  
Him that what He declared would not happen. The thought never entered His 
mind. So sure was He of Who He Was and of His 
relationship to Me that His every  thought, 
word, and deed reflected His  awareness —
just as your thoughts, words, and  deeds 
reflect yours... If, now, there is something you choose to 
experience in your life, do not “want” it —
choose it. Do you choose success in worldly terms? Do you choose more money? Good. Then choose it. Reall y. Fully. Not 
half-heartedly. Yet at your stage of development do not be 
surprised if “worldly success” no longer  
concerns you. What is that supposed to mean? There comes a time in the evolution of 
every soul when the chief concern is no  
longer the surviva l of the physical body, but 
the growth of the spirit; no longer the  
attainment of worldly success, but the 
realization of Self. In a sense, this is a very dangerous time, 
particularly at the outset, because the  entity 
housed in the body now knows it is jus t 
that: a being in a body —not a body -being. At this stage, before the growing entity 
matures in this point of view, there is often 
a sense of no longer caring about affairs of 
the body in any way. The soul is so  excited 
about being “discovered” at last! The mind abandons the body, and all 
matters of the body. Everything is ignored. Relationships are set aside. Families are 
disappeared. Jobs are made secondary. Bills go unpaid. The body itself is not even 
fed for long periods. The entire focus and  
attention of the entity are now on the soul, 
and matters of the soul. This can lead to a major personal crisis in 
the day -to-day life of the being, although  
the mind perceives no trauma. It is hanging 
out in bliss. Other people say you have  lost 
your mind —and in a s ense you may have. Discovery of the truth that life has nothing 
to do with the body can create an  
imbalance the other way. Whereas at first 
the entity acted as if the body were all  there 
is, now it acts as if the body matters not at 
all. This, of course, i s not true —as the 
entity soon (and sometimes painfully) 
remembers. You are a tri -part being, made of body, 
mind, and spirit. You will always be a tri -part 
being, not just while you are living on the 
Earth. There are those who hypothesize  
that upon death th e body and the mind are  
dropped. The body and the mind are not  
dropped. The body changes form, leaving  
its most dense part behind, but retaining  
always its outer shell. The mind (not to be 
confused with the brain) goes with you,  too, 
joining with the spiri t and the body as the 
one energy mass of three dimensions,  or 
facets. Should you choose to return to this 
experiencing opportunity that you call life 
on Earth, your divine self will once again 
separate its true dimensions into what you 
call body, mind, and spirit. In truth you are all one energy, yet with three distinct  
characteristics. As you undertake to inhabit a new physical 
body here on Earth, your ethereal body  (as 
some of you have termed it) lowers its 
vibrations —slows itself from a vibratio n so 
rapid that it cannot even be seen, to a 
speed that produces mass and matter. This  
actual matter is the creation of pure 
thought —the work of your mind, the higher  
mind aspect of your three -part being. This matter is a coagulation of a million 
billion t rillion different energy units into one  
enormous mass —controllable by the 
mind...you really are a master mind! As these tiny energy units have expended 
their energy, they are discarded by the  
body, while the mind creates new ones. This the mind creates out  of its continuing  
thought about Who You Are! The ethereal 
body “catches” the thought, so to speak,  
and lowers the vibration of more energy 
units (in a sense “crystallizes” them), and  
they become matter —the new matter of 
you. In this way, every cell of you r body  
changes every several years. You are —
quite literally —not the same person you  
were a few years ago. If you think thoughts of illness or disease 
(or continuing anger, hatred, and  
negativity), your body will translate these 
thoughts into physical form. People will see  
this negative, sick form and they will say, 
“What’s the matter?” They will not know  
how accurate their question is. The soul watches this whole drama play 
out, year after year, month after month, day  after day, moment after moment, and 
always holds the Truth about you. It never  
forgets the blueprint; the original plan; the 
first idea; the creative thought. Its job is to  
remind you —that is, to literally re -mind 
you—so that you may remember once 
again  Who You Are —and then choose Who 
You no w Wish to Be. In this way the cycle of creation and 
experience, imaging and fulfilling, knowing 
and growing into the unknown, continues, 
both now and even forever more. Whew! Yes, exactly. Oh, and there’s much more to 
explain. So much more. But never, ever  in 
one book —nor probably even in one 
lifetime. Yet you have begun, and that is  good. Just remember this. It is as your 
grand teacher William Shakespeare said:  
“There are more things in Heaven and 
Earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your  
philosophy.”  
May I ask you some questions about this? Like, when you say the mind goes with me 
after death, does that mean my 
“personality” goes with me? Will I know in 
the afterlife who I was? Yes...and who you have ever been. It will 
all be opened onto you —because then it 
will profit you to know. Now, in this moment, 
it will not. And, with regard to this life, will there be an 
“accounting” —a review —a tally taking? There is no judgment in what you call the 
afterlife. You will not even be allowed to  judge yourself (for you  would surely give 
yourself a low score, given how judgmental  
and unforgiving you are with yourself in this 
life). No, there is no accounting, no one giving 
“thumbs -up” or “thumbs - down.” Only  
humans are judgmental, and because you 
are, you assume that I must be. Yet I am  
not—and that is a great truth you cannot 
accept. Nonetheless, while there will be no 
judgment in the afterlife, there will be 
opportunity  to look again at all you have 
thought, said, and done here, and to decide 
if that is  what you would choose again, 
based on Who You say You Are, and Who 
You Want  to Be. There is an Eastern mystical teaching 
surrounding a doctrine called Kama Loca —
according to this teaching, at the time of our 
death each person is given the opportunity 
to relive every thou ght ever entertained, 
every word ever spoken, every action ever 
taken, not from our standpoint, but from the 
standpoint of every other person affected. In other words, we’ve already experienced 
what we felt thinking, saying, and doing 
what we did —now we’re  given the 
experience of feeling what the other person 
felt in each of these moments —and it is by 
this measure that we’ll decide whether we’ll 
think, say, or do those things again. Any 
comment? What occurs in your life after this is far too 
extraordinary t o describe here in terms  you 
could comprehend —because the experience is other -dimensional and 
literally  defies description using tools as 
severely limited as words. It is enough to 
say that  you will have the opportunity to 
review again this, your present l ife, without 
pain or  fear or judgment, for the purpose of 
deciding how you feel about your 
experience  here, and where you want to go 
from there. Many of you will decide to come back here; 
to return to this world of density and  
relativity for another chance  to experience 
out the decisions and choices you make  
about your Self at this level. Others of you —a select few —will return 
with a different mission. You will return to  
density and matter for the soul purpose of 
bringing others out of density and matter. Always there are on the Earth those among you who have made such a choice. You  
can tell them apart at once. Their work is  
finished. They have returned to Earth  
simply and merely to help others. This is 
their joy. This is their exaltation. They seek  
naught b ut to be of service. You cannot miss these people. They are 
everywhere. There are more of them than  
you think. Chances are you know one, or 
know of one. Am I one? No. If you have to ask, you know you are 
not one. One such as this asks questions  
of no one. There is nothing to ask. You, My son, in this lifetime are a 
messenger. A harbinger. A bringer of news; 
a seeker and frequently a speaker of Truth. That is enough for one lifetime. Be happy. Oh, I am. But I can always hope for more! Yes! And you will! Alwa ys you will hope for 
more. It is in your nature. It is divine  nature 
to seek always to be more. So seek, yes, by all means seek. Now I want to answer definitively the 
question with which you started this 
segment of  our ongoing conversation. Go ahead and do  what you really love to 
do! Do nothing else! You have so little time. How can you think of wasting a moment 
doing something for a living you don’t like 
to do? What kind of a living is that? That is 
not a living, that is a dying! If you say, “But, but...I have others who 
depend on me...little mouths to feed...a  
spouse who is looking to me...” I will 
answer: If you insist that your life is about what  your body is doing, you do not 
understand why you came here. At least do  
something that pleases you —that spea ks 
of Who You Are. Then at least you can stay out of 
resentment and anger toward those you 
imagine  are keeping you from your joy. What your body is doing is not to be 
discounted. It is important. But not in the 
way that you think. The actions of the body 
were meant to be reflections of a state of  
being, not attempts to attain a state of 
being. In the true order of things one does not do 
something in order to be happy —one is  
happy and, hence, does something. One 
does not do some things in order to be  
compassionate, one is compassionate and, hence, acts in a certain way. The 
soul’s  decision precedes the body’s action 
in a highly conscious person. Only an  
unconscious person attempts to produce a 
state of the soul through something the  
body is doing. This is what is meant by the statement, 
“Your life is not about what your body is  
doing.” Yet it is true that what your body is 
doing is a reflection of what your life is  
about. It is another divine dichotomy. Yet, know this if you understand nothing 
else:  
You have a right to your joy; children or no 
children; spouse or no spouse. Seek it! Find it! And you will have a joyful family, no 
matter how much money you make or  don’t make. And if they aren’t joyful, and they get 
up and leave you, then release  them w ith 
love to seek their joy. If, on the other hand, you have evolved to 
the point where things of the body are not  
of concern to you, then you are even more 
free to seek your joy —on Earth as it is in  
heaven. God says it’s okay to be happy —
yes, even happy in  your work. Your life work is a statement of Who You 
Are. If it is not, then why are you doing it? Do you imagine that you have to? You don’t 
have to do anything. If “man who supports his family, at all costs, 
even his own happiness” is Who You  Are, 
then l ove your work, because it is 
facilitating your creation of a living 
statement  of Self. If “woman who works at job she hates in 
order to meet responsibilities as she sees  
them” is Who You Are, then love, love, love 
your job, for it totally supports your Sel f-
image, your Self -concept. Everyone can love everything the moment 
they understand what they are doing, and  
why. No one does anything he doesn’t want to 
do. Chapter 13  
How can I solve some of the health 
problems I face? I have been the victim of 
enough chronic problems to last three 
lifetimes. Why am I having them all now —
in this lifetime? First, let’s get one thing straight. You love 
them. Most of them, anyway. You’ve used  
them admirably to feel sorry for yourself 
and to get attention for yourself. On t he few occasions when you haven’t 
loved them, it’s only because they’ve gone  
too far. Farther than you thought they ever 
would when you created them. Now let’s understand what you probably 
already know: all illness is self -created. Even conventional medica l doctors are now seeing how people make themselves  
sick. Most people do so quite unconsciously. (They don’t even know what they’re doing.) So when they get sick, they don’t know 
what hit them. It feels as though something  
has befallen them, rather than th at they did 
something to themselves. This occurs because most people move 
through life —not simply health issues and  
consequences —unconsciously. People smoke and wonder why they get 
cancer. People ingest animals and fat and wonder 
why they get blocked arter ies. People stay angry all their lives and wonder 
why they get heart attacks. People  
compete with other people —mercilessly and under incredible stress —and wonder  
why they have strokes. The not -so-obvious truth is that most 
people worry themselves to death. Worry is just about the worst form of mental 
activity there is —next to hate, which is  
deeply self-destructive . Worry is pointless. It is wasted mental energy. It also creates  
bio-chemical reactions which harm the 
body, producing everything from 
indigestion  to coronary arrest, and a 
multitude of things in between. Health will improve almost at once when 
worrying ends. Worry is the activity of a mind which does 
not understand its connection with Me. Hatred is the most severely damaging 
mental condi tion. It poisons the body, and 
its effects are virtually irreversible. Fear is the opposite of everything you are, 
and so has an effect of opposition to your  
mental and physical health. Fear is worry 
magnified. Worry, hate, fear —together  with 
their offshoots: anxiety, bitterness, 
impatience, avarice, unkindness,  
judgmentalness, and condemnation —all 
attack the body at the cellular level. It is  
impossible to have a healthy body under 
these conditions. Similarly —although to a somewhat lesser 
degree —conc eit, self -indulgence, and  
greed lead to physical illness, or lack of 
well-being. All illness is created first in the  
mind. How can that be? What of conditions 
contracted from another? Colds —or, for 
that matter, AIDS? Nothing occurs in your life —nothing —
which is not first a thought. Thoughts are 
like magnets, drawing effects to you. The 
thought may not always be obvious, and 
thus clearly causative, as in, “I’m going to 
contract a terrible disease.” The thought 
may be (and usually is) far more subtle 
than tha t (“I am not worthy to live.”) (“My life 
is always a mess.”) (“I am a loser.”) (“God 
is going to punish me.”) (“I am sick and tired  
of my life!”) . Thoughts are a very subtle, yet extremely 
powerful, form of energy. Words are less  
subtle, more dense. Action s are the most 
dense of all. Action is energy in heavy  
physical form, in heavy motion. When you think, say, and act out a negative concept  
such as “I am a loser,” you place 
tremendous creative energy into motion. Small  wonder you come down with a cold. That would be the least of it. It is very difficult to reverse the effects of 
negative thinking once they have taken  
physical form. Not impossible —but very 
difficult. It takes an act of extreme faith. It  
requires an extraordinary belief in the 
positive force of the universe —whether you  
call that God, Goddess, the Unmoved 
Mover, Prime Force, First Cause, or  
whatever. Healers have just such faith. It is a faith that 
crosses over into Absolute Knowing. They 
know that you are meant to be whole, 
complete, and perfect in this moment  now. This knowingness is also a thought —and a very powerful one. It has the power  to move 
mountains —to say nothing of molecules in 
your body. That is why healers  can heal, 
often even at a distance. Thought knows no distance. Thought 
travels around the world and traverses the  
universe faster than you can say the word. “Say but the word and my servant shall  be 
healed.” And it was so, in that self -same 
hour, even before his sentence was  
finished. Such was the faith of the 
centurion. Yet you are all mental lepers. Your mind is 
eaten away with negative thoughts. Some 
of these are thrust upon you. Many of these 
you actually make up —conjure  up—
yourselves, and then harbor and entertain 
for hours, days, weeks, months —even 
years. ...and you wond er why you are sick. You can “solve some of the health 
problems,” as you put it, by solving the 
problems  in your thinking. Yes, you can 
heal some of the conditions you have 
already  acquired (given yourself), as well 
as prevent major new problems from 
devel oping. And you can do this all by 
changing your thinking. Also—and I hate to suggest this because it 
sounds so mundane coming, as it were,  
from God, but —for God’s sake, take better 
care of yourself. You take rotten care of your body, paying it 
little atten tion at all until you suspect  
something’s going wrong with it. You do 
virtually nothing in the way of preventive  
maintenance. You take better care of your car than you do of your body —and that’s  
not saying much. Not only do you fail to prevent breakdowns 
with regular check -ups, once -a-year 
physicals, and use of the therapies and 
medicines you’ve been given (why do you  
go to the doctor, get her help, then not use  
the remedies she suggests? Can you  
answer Me that one?) —you also mistreat 
your body terribly bet ween these visits  
about which you do nothing! You do not exercise it, so it grows flabby 
and, worse yet, weak from non - use. You do not nourish it properly, thereby 
weakening it further. Then you fill it with toxins and poisons and 
the most absurd substanc es posing as  
food. And still, it runs for you, this marvelous engine; still, it chugs along, 
bravely  pushing on in the face of this 
onslaught. It’s horrible. The conditions under which 
you ask your body to survive are horrible. But you will do little or no thing about them. You will read this, nod your head in  regretful 
agreement, and go right back to the 
mistreatment. And do you know why? I’m afraid to ask. Because you have no will to live. That seems a harsh indictment. It’s not meant to be harsh, nor is i t meant 
as an indictment. “Harsh” is a relative  term; 
a judgment you have laid on the words. “Indictment” connotes guilt, and “guilt”  
connotes wrongdoing. There is no wrong doing involved here, hence no guilt and no  
indictment. I have made a simple stateme nt of truth. Like all statements of truth, it has the  
quality of waking you up. Some people 
don’t like to be awakened. Most do not. Most  would rather sleep. The world is in the condition that it’s in 
because the world is full of sleepwalkers. With regard t o my statement, what about it 
seems untrue? You have no will to live. At 
least you have had none until now. If you tell me you’ve had an “instant 
conversion,” I will reassess my prediction of  
what you will now do. I acknowledge that 
my prediction is based on past experience. ...it was also meant to wake you up. Sometimes, when a person is really deeply  asleep, you have to shake him a little. I have seen in the past that you have had 
little will to live. Now you may deny that,  but 
in this case your actions speak louder than 
your words. If you ever lit a cigarette  in your 
life—much less smoked a pack a day for 20 
years as you have —you have  very little will 
to live. You don’t care what you do to your 
body. But I stopped smoking over 10 years ago! Only after 20 years of grueling physical 
punishment. And if you’ve ever taken alcohol into your 
body, you have very little will to live. I drink very moderately. The body was not meant to intake alcohol. It impairs the mind. But Jesus took alcohol! He went to t he 
wedding and turned water into wine! So who said Jesus was perfect? Oh, for God’s sake. Say, are you becoming annoyed with Me? Well, far be it from me to become annoyed 
with God. I mean, that would be a bit 
presumptuous, wouldn’t it? But I do think 
we ca n carry all this a bit too far. My father 
taught me, “all things in moderation.” I think 
I’ve stuck to that where alcohol is 
concerned. The body can more easily recover from 
only moderate abuse. The saying is  
therefore useful. Nevertheless, I’ll stick to 
my original statement: the body was not  
meant to intake alcohol. But even some medicines contain alcohol! I have no control over what you call 
medicine. I’ll stay with my statement. You really are rigid, aren’t You? Look, truth is truth. Now if someone said , 
“A little alcohol won’t hurt you,” and placed  
that statement in the context of life as you 
now live it, I would have to agree with  them. That does not change the truth of what I’ve 
said. It simply allows you to ignore  it. Yet consider this. Currently, yo u humans 
wear your bodies out, typically, within 50 to  
80 years. Some last longer, but not many. Some stop functioning sooner, but not the  
majority. Can we agree on that? Yes, okay. Alright, so we have a good starting point for 
discussion. Now, when I said  I could  agree 
with the statement , “A little alcohol won’t 
hurt you,” I qualified that by adding “in  the 
context of life as you now live it.” You see, 
you people seem satisfied with life as  you 
now live it. But life, it may surprise you to 
learn, was meant  to be lived a whole  
different way. And your body was designed 
to last a great deal longer. It was? Yes. How much longer? Infinitely longer. What does that mean? It means, My son, your body was designed 
to last forever. Forever? Yes. Read that: “for ever more.”  
You mean we were —are—never supposed 
to die? You never do die. Life is eternal. You are 
immortal. You never do die. You simply  
change form. You didn’t even have to do 
that. You decided to do that, I didn’t. I  made 
you bodies that would last forever. Do you 
really think the best God could do,  the best 
I could come up with, was a body that could 
make it 60, 70, maybe 80  years before 
falling apart? Is that, do you imagine, the 
limit of My ability? I never thought of putting it that way, 
exactly. .. I designed your magnificent body to last 
forever! And the earliest of you did live in  the body virtually pain -free, and without 
fear of what you now call death. In your religious mythology, you symbolize 
your cellular memory of these first -version 
human s by calling them Adam and Eve.
Conversations_with_God_Book_1_by_Neale_Donald_Walsch.txt
Summarize the following text section accurately and concisely. Maintain specific details and numerical information, and use anti-repetition mechanisms:

        By the highest standards I have observed 
humans devise, killing can never be  
justified as a means of expressing anger, 
releasing hostility, “righting a wrong,” or  
punishing an offender. The statement that 
war is sometimes necessary to end evil  stands true —for you have made it so. You 
have determined, in the creation of Self,  
that respect for all human life is, and must 
be, a high prime value. I am pleased with  
your decision, because I did not create life 
that it may be destroyed. It is respect for life whic h sometimes makes 
war necessary, for it is through war  against 
immediate impending evil, it is through 
defense against immediate threat to  
another life, that you make a statement of 
Who You Are in relationship to that. You have a right under highest moral law—
indeed, you have an obligation under  that 
law—to stop aggression on the person of 
another, or yourself. This does not mean that killing as a 
punishment is appropriate, nor as retribution,  nor as a means of settling petty 
differences. In your past, you have killed in 
personal  duels over the affection of a 
woman, for heaven’s sake, and called this 
protecting  your honor, when it was all honor 
you were losing. It is absurd to use deadly 
force as  an argument solver. Many humans 
are still using force —killing force —to solve  
ridiculous arguments even today. Reaching to the height of hypocrisy, some 
humans even kill in the name of God —and 
that is the highest blasphemy, for it does 
not speak of Who You Are. Oh, then there is something wrong with 
killing. Let’s bac k up. There’s nothing “wrong” with 
anything. “Wrong” is a relative term,  
indicating the opposite of that which you call “right. ” Yet, what is “right”. Can you be  
truly objective in these matters. Or are 
“right” and “wrong” simply descriptions  
overlaid on e vents and circumstances by 
you, out of your decision about them. And what, pray tell, forms the basis of your 
decision. Your own experience. No. In  
most cases, you’ve chosen to accept 
someone else’s decision. Someone who 
came  before you and, presumably, kn ows 
better. Very few of your daily decisions 
about  what is “right” and “wrong” are being 
made by you, based on your 
understanding. This is especially true on important matters. In fact, the more important the matter,  the 
less likely are you to listen to yo ur own 
experience, and the more ready you  seem to be to make someone else’s ideas your 
own. This explains why you’ve given up virtually 
total control over certain areas of your  life, 
and certain questions that arise within the 
human experience. These areas  and questions very often 
include the subjects most vital to your soul:  
the nature of God; the nature of true 
morality; the question of ultimate reality; the  
issues of life and death surrounding war, 
medicine, abortion, euthanasia, the whole  
sum and substa nce of personal values, 
structures, judgments. These most of you  
have abrogated, assigned to others. You 
don’t want to make your own decisions  
about them. “Someone else decide. I’ll go along, I’ll go 
along. ” you shout. “Someone else just tell  
me what’s rig ht and wrong. ”  
This is why, by the way, human religions 
are so popular. It almost doesn’t matter  
what the belief system is, as long as it’s 
firm, consistent, clear in its expectation of  
the follower, and rigid. Given those 
characteristics, you can find peo ple who 
believe  in almost anything. The strangest 
behavior and belief can be —has been —
attributed  to God. It’s God’s way, they say. God’s word. And there are those who will accept that. Gladly. Because, you see, it eliminates the  
need to think. Now, let’s think about killing. Can there 
ever be a justifiable reason for killing  anything. Think about it. You’ll find you 
need no outside authority to give you  
direction, no higher source to supply you 
with answers. If you think about it, if you  
look to see what you feel about it, the 
answers will be obvious to you, and you will  
act accordingly. This is called acting on 
your own authority. It is when you act on the authority of others 
that you get yourself into trouble. Should  
states and nations use killing t o achieve 
their political objectives. Should religions  
use killing to enforce their theological 
imperatives. Should societies use killing 
as a  response to those who violate 
behavioral codes. Is killing an appropriate political remedy, 
spiritual convincer, or societal problem  
solver. Now, is killing something you can do if 
someone is trying to kill you. Would you 
use killing force to defend the life of a loved 
one. Someone you didn’t even know. Is killing a proper form of defense against 
those who  would kill if they are not in  some 
other way stopped. Is there a difference between killing and 
murder. The state would have you believe that 
killing to complete a purely political agenda 
is perfectly defensible. In fact, the state 
needs you to take its w ord on this in order 
to exist as an entity of power. Religions would have you believe that 
killing to spread and maintain knowledge 
of, and adherence to, their particular truth 
is perfectly defensible. In fact, religions  require you to take their word on t his in 
order to exist as an entity of power. Society would have you believe that killing 
to punish those who commit certain  
offenses (these have changed through the 
years) is perfectly defensible. In fact,  
society must have you take its word for it in 
order to exist as an entity of power. Do you believe these positions are correct. Have you taken another’s word for it. What 
does your Self have to say. There is no “right” or “wrong” in these 
matters. But by your decisions you paint a portrait of 
Who You Are. Indeed, by their decisions your states and 
nations have already painted such  
pictures. By their decisions your religions have 
created lasting, indelible impressions. By 
their decisions your societies have 
produced their self -portraits, too. Are you please d with these pictures. Are 
these the impressions you wish to make. Do these portraits represent Who You Are. Be careful of these questions. They may  
require you to think. Thinking is hard. Making value judgments is difficult. It 
places  you at pure creation, because there 
are so many times you’ll have to say, “I 
don’t  know. I just don’t know. ” Yet still you’ll 
have to decide. And so you’ll have to 
choose. You’ll have to make an arbitrary 
choice. Such a choice —a decision coming from no 
previous personal knowl edge —is called  
pure creation. And the individual is aware, deeply aware, that in the making of such  
decisions is the Self created. Most of you are not interested in such 
important work. Most of you would rather  
leave that to others. And so most of you are 
not self -created, but creatures of habit —
other -created creatures. Then, when others have told you how you 
should feel, and it runs directly counter to  
how you do feel —you experience a deep 
inner conflict. Something deep inside you  
tells you that what other s have told you is 
not Who You Are. Now where to go with  
that. What to do. The first place you go is to your 
religionists —the people who put you there 
in the first  place. You go to your priests and 
your rabbis and your ministers and your teachers,  and they  tell you to stop listening 
to your Self. The worst of them will try to 
scare you  away from it; scare you away 
from what you intuitively know. They’ll tell you about the devil, about Satan, 
about demons and evil spirits and hell  and 
damnation and every fri ghtening thing they 
can think of to get you to see how  what you 
were intuitively knowing and feeling was 
wrong, and how the only place  you’ll find 
any comfort is in their thought, their idea, 
their theology, their definitions of  right and 
wrong, and their concept of Who You Are. The seduction here is that all you have to 
do to get instant approval is to agree. Agree 
and you have instant approval. Some will 
even sing and shout and dance and  wave 
their arms in hallelujah. That’s hard to resist. Such approval,  such 
rejoicing that you have seen the light; that  
you’ve been saved. Approvals and demonstrations seldom 
accompany inner decisions. Celebrations  
rarely surround choices to follow personal 
truth. In fact, quite the contrary. Not only  
may others fail to celebrate, they may 
actually subject you to ridicule. What. You’re  thinking for yourself. You’re 
deciding on your own. You’re applying 
your own  yardsticks, your own judgments, 
your own values. Who do you think you 
are, anyway. And, indeed, that is precisel y the question 
you are answering. But the work must be done very much 
alone. Very much without reward, without  
approval, perhaps without even any notice. And so you ask a very good question. Why 
go on. Why even start off on such a  path. What is to be gaine d from embarking on 
such a journey. Where is the  incentive. What is the reason. The reason is ridiculously simple. THERE IS NOTHING ELSE TO DO. What do You mean. I mean this is the only game in town. There 
is nothing else to do. In fact, there is  
nothing e lse you can do. You are going to 
be doing what you are doing for the rest  of 
your life —just as you have been doing it 
since birth. The only question is whether  you’ll be doing it consciously, or 
unconsciously. You see, you cannot disembark from the 
journey. You embarked before you were  
born. Your birth is simply a sign that the 
journey has begun. So the question is not:  
Why start off on such a path. You have 
already started off. You did so with the first  
beat of your heart. The question is: Do I 
wish to walk this path consciously, or  
unconsciously. With awareness or lack of 
awareness. As the cause of my  
experience, or at the effect of it. For most 
of your life you’ve lived at the effect of  your 
experiences. Now, you’re invited to be the 
cause of them. That is what is  known as 
conscious living. That is what is called 
walking in awareness. Now, many of you have walked quite some 
distance, as I’ve said. You have made  no 
small progress. So you should not feel that 
after all these lives you’ve “only”  come t o 
this. Some of you are highly evolved 
creatures, with a very sure sense of  Self. You know Who You Are and you know what 
you’d like to become. Furthermore, you 
even know the way to get from here to 
there. That’s a great sign. That’s a sure indication. Of what. Of the fact that you now have very few lives 
left. Is that good. It is, now —for you. And that is so because 
you say it is so. Not long ago all you  wanted to do was stay here. Now, all you want to 
do is leave. That’s a very good  sign. Not long ago you killed things —bugs, 
plants, trees, animals, people —now you  
cannot kill a thing without knowing exactly 
what you’re doing, and why. That’s a very  
good sign. Not long ago you lived life as though it had 
no purpose. Now you know it has no  
purpose, save th e one you give it. That’s a 
very good sign. Not long ago you begged  the universe to 
bring you Truth. Now you tell the universe 
your truth. And that’s a  very good sign. Not long ago you sought to be rich and 
famous. Now you seek to be simply, and  
wonderfull y, your Self. And not so very long ago you feared Me. Now you love Me, enough to call Me your  
equal. All of these are very, very good signs. Well, gosh. You make me feel good. You should feel good. Anybody who uses 
“gosh” in a sentence can’t be all bad. You really do have a sense of humor, don’t 
You. I invented humor. Yes, You’ve made that point. Okay, so the 
reason for going on is that there’s nothing 
else to  do. This is what’s happening here. Precisely. Then may I ask You —does it at least get 
any easie r. Oh, my darling friend —it is so much easier 
for you now than it was three lifetimes  ago, 
I can’t even tell you. Yes, yes —it does get easier. The more you 
remember, the more you are able to  
experience, the more you know, so to 
speak. And the more you know, the more 
you remember. It is a circle. So yes, it gets 
easier, it gets better, it becomes even more  
joyful. But remember, none of it has been exactly 
a drudge. I mean, you’ve loved all of it. Every last minute. Oh, it’s delicious, this 
thing called life. It’s a scrumptious  
experience, no. Well, yes, I suppose. You suppose. How much more 
scrumptious could I have made it. Are you not being allowed to experience 
everything. The tears, the joy, the pain, the 
gladness,  the exaltation, the massive 
depression, t he win, the lose, the draw. What more is  there. A little less pain, perhaps. Less pain without more wisdom defeats 
your purpose; does not allow you to  
experience infinite joy —which is What I 
Am. Be patient. You are gaining wisdom. And 
your joys are now increasingly available  
without pain. That, too, is a very good sign. You are learning (remembering how) to 
love without pain; to let go without pain; to  
create without pain; to even cry without 
pain. Yes, you’re even able to have your  
pain without pain, if you know what I mean. I think I do. I’m enjoying even my own life 
dramas more. I can stand back and see 
them for  what they are. Even laugh. Exactly. And you don’t call this growth. I suppose I do. And so then, keep on growing, My son. Keep on beco ming. And keep on deciding  
what you want to become in the next 
highest version of your Self. Keep on 
working  toward that. Keep on.
No, killing can never be justified as a means of expressing anger or releasing hostility.
According to the text, can killing ever be justified as a means of expressing anger or releasing hostility?
There is no "wrong" or "right", but the reason to continue is that there is nothing else to do, and you have to decide and take control of your life.
According to the text, what is the reason for going on with life?
According to the text, humans do not truly make their own moral judgments, but rather adopt the beliefs and values of others.
Can humans truly be objective in making moral judgments?
To change a thought or sponsoring idea, one must act on the new thought, then speak it, and finally, take action on it.
What is the key to changing a root thought or sponsoring idea?
The text states that the soul is the true creator, and the body is a tool used to experience and create.
What is the text saying about the nature of the soul and the body?