Every year Elevated Existence editor’s choose one individual whose actions, intentions and work spread the gift of spirituality, enlighten others with knowledge and tools to improve the quality of their lives, and contribute to the overall uplifting of the world’s consciousness. This year, we honor bestselling author of the “Conversations With God” series and more than 30 books, Neale Donald Walsch.
“The title of the books has received far, far, far more attention than the author of them, which is exactly how it should be, because I was not the true author,” he says in the December 2015 Elevated Existence Magazine cover story. “I merely transcribed. I was the messenger. I refuse to allow myself to be placed in the forefront of these messages, except to the degree that I think it might help others to hear about them, and perhaps see some truth within them and to embrace them and activate them in their own lives. To that degree, I’m willing to joyfully and humbly receive this award.”
In the December 2015 cover story, Walsch shares some of the biggest misconceptions people have about God, including God wanting or needing things from us. Different religions teach we must follow certain rules or we will surely be punished, says Walsch. “If we don’t go to church on Sunday, confession on Friday or bow to the east three times,” we will be disappointing God, committing a sin, and must seek forgiveness.
“Many of the world’s religions teach it is possible to offend God because God has needs we must meet, and if we do offend God, we must find a way to get God to forgive us or we are not going to heaven,” he explains. “That is the single most damaging and self-destructive belief we can hold about God. What if you lived in a world where God wanted and needed and required nothing at all? That is the biggest misconception, and others are that God is punitive, punishing, judgmental, condemning, and that some sins are unforgivable.”
The biggest issue and why it’s so important to realize God is not punishing and unforgiving is because that belief mistakenly gives human beings the moral authority to act that way with each other, he says, not just one on one, but worldwide. When you remove this belief, we remove that authority.
“If you take God’s judgmentalness and God’s condemning nature off the table, you suddenly remove the moral authority of ISIS, for the death penalty in Texas, and for virtually every act of righteousness committed by human beings — not just in these days and times, but over many centuries of humanity’s existence on Earth,” Walsch shares in the issue.
