Excerpt from Conversations with God

Excerpt from Neale Donald Walsch's
Conversations with God, an uncommon dialogue, Book III

"I want to get back to my question. Can you tell us anything about when life as we know it starts? At what point does the soul enter the body?

The soul doesn't enter the body. The body is enveloped by the soul. Remember what I said before? The body does not house the soul. It is the other way around.

Everything is always alive. There is no such thing as "dead". There is no such state of being.

That Which Is Always Alive simply shapes itself into a new form-a new physical form. That form is charge with living energy, the energy of life, always.

Life-if you are calling life the energy that I AM-is always there. It is never not there. Life never ends, so how can there be a point when life begins?

C'mon, help me out here. You know that I'm trying to get at.

Yes, I do. You want Me to enter the abortion debate.

Yes, I do! I admit it! I mean, I've got God here, and I have a chance to ask the monumental question. When does life begin?

And the answer is so monumental, you can't hear it.

Try me again.

It never begins. Life never "begins", because life never ends. You want to get into biological technicalities so that you can make up a little "rule" based on what you want to call "God's law" about how people should behave-then punish them if they do not behave that way.

What's wrong with that? That would allow us to kill doctors in the parking lots of clinic with impunity.

Yes, I understand. You have used Me, and what you have declared to be My laws, as justification for all sorts of things through the years.

Oh, come on! Why won't You just say that terminating a pregnancy is murder!

You cannot kill anyone or anything.

No. But you can end its "individuation"! And in our language, that's killing.

You cannot stop the process wherein which a part of Me individually expresses in a certain way without the part of Me that is expressing in that way agreeing.

What? What are You saying?

I am saying that nothing happens against the will of God.
Life, and all this is occurring, is an expression of God's will-read that, your will-made manifest.
I have said in this dialogue, your will is My will. That is because there is only One of Us.
Life is God's will, expressing perfectly. If something was happening against God's will, it couldn't happen. By definition of Who and What God Is, it couldn't happen. Do you believe that, as individuals, you can affect each other in ways in which the other does not want to be affected? Such a belief would have to be based on the idea that you are separate from each other.
Do you believe that you can somehow affect life in a way in which God does not want life to be affected? Such a belief would have to be based on an idea that you are separate from Me.
Both ideas are false.
It is arrogant beyond measure for you to believe that you can affect the universe in a way with which the universe does not agree.
You are dealing with mighty forces here, and some of you believe that you are mightier than the mightiest force. Yet you are not. Nor are you less mighty than the mightiest force.
You are the mightiest force. No more, no less. So let the force be with you!

Are You saying that I can't kill anybody without his or her permission? Are You telling me that, at some higher level, everyone who has ever been killed has agreed to be killed?

You are looking at things in earthly terms and thinking of things in earthly terms, and none of this is going to make sense to you.

I can't help thinking in "earthly terms." I am here, right now, on the Earth!

I tell you this: You are "in this world, but not of it."

So my earthly reality is not reality at all?

Did you really think it was?

I don't know.

You've never thought, "There's something larger going on here"?

Well, yes, sure I have.

Well, this is what's going on. I'm explaining it to you.

Okay. I got it. So I guess I can just go out now and kill anybody, because I couldn't have done it anyway if they hadn't agreed!

In fact, the human race acts that way. It's interesting that you're having such a hard time with this, yet you're going around acting as if it were true anyway.
Or, worse yet, you are killing people against their will, as if it didn't matter!

Well, of course it matters! It's just that what we want matter more. Don't You get it? In the moment we humans kill somebody, we are not saying that the fact that we've done that doesn't matter. Why, it would be flippant to think that. It's just that what we want matters more.

I see. So it's easier for you to accept that it's okay to kill others against their will. This you can do with impunity. It's doing it because it is their will that you feel is wrong.

I never said that. That's not how humans think.

It isn't? Let Me show you how hypocritical some of you are. You say it is okay to kill somebody against their will so long as you have a good and sufficient reason for wanting them dead, as in war, for instance, or an execution - or a doctor in the parking lot of an abortion clinic. Yet if the other person feels they have a good and sufficient reason for wanting themselves dead, you may not help them die. That would be assisted suicide," and that would be wrong!

You are making mock of me.

No, you are making mock of Me. You are saying that I would condone your killing someone against his will, and that I would condemn your killing someone in accordance with his will.
This is insane.
Still, you not only fail to see the insanity, you actually claim that those who point out the insanity are the ones who are crazy. You are the ones who have your head on straight, and they are just troublemakers.
And this is the kind of tortured logic with which you construct entire lives and complete theologies.

I've never looked at it quite that way.

I tell you this: The time has come for you to look at things in a new way. This is the moment of your rebirth, as an individual and as a society. You must re-create your world now, before you destroy it with your insanities.
Now listen to Me.
We are all One.
There is only One of Us.
You are not separate from Me, and you are not separate from each other.
Everything We are doing, We are doing in concert with each other. Our reality is a co-created reality. If you terminate a pregnancy, We terminate a pregnancy. Your will is My will.
No individual aspect of Divinity has power over any other aspect of Divinity. It is not possible for one soul to affect another against its will. There are no victims and there are no villains.
You cannot understand this from your limited perspective; but I am telling you it is so.
There is only one reason to be, do, or have anything-as a direct statement of Who You Are, If Who You Are, as an individual and as a society, is who you choose and desire to be, there is no reason to change anything. If, on the other hand, you believe there is a grander experience waiting to be had-an even greater expression of Divinity than the one currently manifesting-then move into that truth.
Since all of Us are co-creating, it may serve Us to do what we can to show others the way that some parts of Us wish to go. You can be a way-show-er, demonstrating the life that you'd like to create, and inviting others to follow your example. You might even say, "I am the life and the way. Follow me." But be careful. Some people have been crucified for making such statements.

Thank You. I'll heed the warning. I'll keep a low profile.

I can see that you're doing a real good job of that.

Well, when you say you're having a conversation with God, it's not easy to keep a low profile.

As others have discovered.

Which might be a good reason to keep my mouth shut.

It's a little late for that.

Well, whose fault is that?

I see what you mean.

It's okay. I forgive you.

You do?

Yes.

How can you forgive Me?

Because I can understand why You did it. I understand why You came to me, and started this dialogue. And when I understand why something was done, I can forgive all the complications that it may have caused or created.

Hmmm. Now that's interesting. Would that you could think of God as being so magnificent as you.

Touché.

You have an unusual relationship with Me. In some ways you think you could never be as magnificent as Me, and in other ways you think I cannot be as magnificent at you.
Don't you find that interesting?

Fascinating.

It's because you think We are separated. These imaginings would leave you if you thought that We were One.
This is the main difference between your culture-which is a "baby" culture, really; a primitive culture-and the highly evolved cultures of the universe. The most significant difference is that in highly evolved cultures, all sentient beings are clear that there is no separation between themselves and what you call "God."
They are also clear that there is no separation between themselves and others. They know that they are each having an individual experience of the whole.

Oh, good. Now You're going to get into the highly evolved societies of the universe. I've been waiting for this.

Yes, I think it's time we explored that.

But before we do, I simply must return one last time to the abortion issue. You're not saying here that, because nothing can happen to the human soul against its will, it's okay to kill people, are You? You're not condoning abortion, or giving us a "way out" on this issue, are You?

I am neither condoning nor condemning abortion, any more than I condone or condemn war.
The people of every country think I condone the war they are fighting, and condemn the war that their opponent is fighting, . the people of every nation believe they have "God on their side." Every cause assumes the same thing. Indeed, every person feels the same thing-or at least hopes it is true whenever any decision or choice is made.
And do you know why all creatures believe God is on their side? Because I am. And all creatures have an intuitive knowing of this.
This is just another way of saying, "Your will for you is My will for you." And that is just another way of saying, I have given you all free will.
There is no free will if to exercise it in a certain ways produces punishment. That makes a mockery of free will and renders it counterfeit.
So with regard to abortion or war, buying that car or marrying that person, having sex or not having sex, "doing your duty" or not "doing your duty," there is no such thing as right and wrong, and I have no preference in the matter.
You are all in the process of defining yourselves. Every act is an act of self-definition.
If you are pleased with how you have created yourself, if it serves you, you will continue doing so in that way. If you are not, you will stop. This is called evolution.
The process is slow because, as you evolve, you keep changing your ideas about what really serves you; you keep changing your concepts of "pleasure."
Remember what I said earlier. You can tell how highly a person or society has evolved by what that being or society calls "pleasure." And I will add here, by what it declares to serve it.
If it serves you to go to war and kill other beings, you will do so. If it serves you to terminate a pregnancy, you will do so. The only thing that changes as you evolve is your idea of what serves you. And that is based on what you think you are trying do to.
If you are trying to get to Seattle, it will not serve you to head towards San Jose. It is not "morally wrong" to go to San Jose-it simply doesn't serve you.
The question of what you are trying to do, then, becomes a question of prime importance. Not just in your life in general, but in every moment of your life specifically. Because it is in the moments of life that a life itself is created.
All of this was covered in great detail in the beginning of our holy dialogue, which you have come to call Book 1. I am repeating it here because you seem to need a reminder, or you would never have asked Me your question on abortion.
When you are preparing to have your abortion, therefore, or when you are preparing to smoke that cigarette, or when you are preparing to fry and eat that animal, and when you are preparing to cut that man off in traffic-whether the matter is large or small, whether the choice is major or minor, there is only one question to consider: Is this Who I Really Am? Is this who I now choose to be?
And understand this: No matter is inconsequential. There is a consequence to everything. The consequence is who and what you are.
You are in the act of defining your Self right now.
That is your answer to the abortion question. That is your answer to the war question. That is your answer to the smoking question and the meat-eating question and to every question about behavior you've ever had.
Every act is an act of self-definition. Everything you think, say, and do declares, "This is Who I Am."