Neale Donald Walsch and his personal story

[Ninshub]

Has anybody here ever looked into Neale Donald Walsch (Conversation with God)?

I never have but I started listening to this and what led him to write the first book (hearing a voice). And no matter what the message is or how valid (or if it's possible to know), I'm just struck by the sheer awfulness of his story and the stroke of incredible "luck"/destiny, whatever, that led to the publishing.

His wife leaves him because he's depressed (I think), a few days later he loses his job, then a car rams into him as he's looking for work and that leaves him with a broken neck, so severe that he's lucky to survive. (And his car gets stolen). He then finds himself homeless for a whole year, living on the streets in a tent. Out of desperation one day he asks Whoever to explain how this game of life is supposed to played, and then the voice started and the "conversation". Somehow he managed to get what he wrote down published... and it became a phenomenon. That sounds like a miracle by itself.

Has anybody here ever looked into Neale Donald Walsh (Conversation with God)?

I remember when the first book of this title "Conversations With God" emerged onto the the bookshelves. At that time I was reading a range of other material, much of it being on near-death experiences. I suppose I looked at the 'Conversations With God' book and didn't buy it. After some years maybe I was looking for something to read and picked up a copy of the first book in the series.

It was I suppose interesting enough that I read the whole book. It was ok though the lasting impression it has left with me is "slight". As in for example, a slight breeze, a slight bit of rain, slightly sunny.

I have sitting unread on my bookshelf at home another book in that series, "Tomorrow's God". My copy was published in 2004. I suppose I found it bland. The author has sold a great many books, perhaps I'm simply not among the target audience.

Initially I had in mind the book(s). More recently I spent time watching/listening to the video here in this thread.

I was impressed. There is a story, it seems to be a common one in human experience. A person has a somewhat ok, acceptable existence and then a series of events befall the person so that everything is taken away and the person has nothing. There is the story of Job in the Biblical Old Testament. He was said to be a good man, what befell him was not some act of divine retribution, but he nevertheless lost everything.

My feeling is the reason that account is recorded in the scriptures is that it resonates with many people, they recognise aspects of their own life in this sort of tale. There is something about it all, a pattern, something which seems more than random or unguided but instead seems to be almost planned or deliberate in some mysterious way.

To return to Neale Donald Walsch, he paints a vivid picture of his life and there are aspects there which I can recognise echoed in my own life. What happens is that it causes a person to ask questions. Not merely academic or abstract questions but ones having a direct intertwining with a person's life in every way.

Maybe we all have to find our own answers, it is the nature of human existence that there is only so much that we can grasp and understand by reading or listening to someone else, perhaps that's why, despite the powerful impact of Walsch's story, I found myself eventually losing interest in his books. But that's just my individual response.

This is The Best Kept SECRET in The ENTIRE WORLD | Neale Donald Walsch | Conversations With God

I used to love his books . But when reading a story about him and plagiarism and then realizing he kind of plagiarized the “conversations with god” books in a clever way. 

Retelling and restating “already known” ideas and concepts from a variety of belief systems in a different or conversational way, was a clever way to take other ideas and present them as one’s own, or one’s own conversation with god.

Also , google something about him and being on the radio prior to his accident … he would play a character that talked to god .

After all that circumstantial info, I started to doubt

[Laird]

I used to love his books . But when reading a story about him and plagiarism

I confirmed this with a web search - and he admits to the plagiarism, although he explains it as a mistake based on misremembering a story in his notes as his own. Whether or not that's a plausible explanation is of course open to question.

and then realizing he kind of plagiarized the “conversations with god” books in a clever way. 

Retelling and restating “already known” ideas and concepts from a variety of belief systems in a different or conversational way, was a clever way to take other ideas and present them as one’s own, or one’s own conversation with god.

Maybe you're right, but it seems like a bit of an intuitive leap. Do you have anything solid beyond the known incident of plagiarism and these observations?

Also , google something about him and being on the radio prior to his accident … he would play a character that talked to god .

I tried. I couldn't find anything. I asked a chatbot and it said this was mistaken, not that that's a slam dunk either. Can you share a link?

After all that circumstantial info, I started to doubt

OK, well, doubt is a lot less definitive than "realisation", and much easier for me to understand.

I confirmed this with a web search - and he admits to the plagiarism, although he explains it as a mistake based on misremembering a story in his notes as his own. Whether or not that's a plausible explanation is of course open to question.


Maybe you're right, but it seems like a bit of an intuitive leap. Do you have anything solid beyond the known incident of plagiarism and these observations?


I tried. I couldn't find anything. I asked a chatbot and it said this was mistaken, not that that's a slam dunk either. Can you share a link?


OK, well, doubt is a lot less definitive than "realisation", and much easier for me to understand.

I remember reading that he played some character named "Bob White," who "talked to God." But it was in response, from a commenter, who lived in the area that Walsch did that character, on the radio, who stated that in response to one of the plagiarism articles written about him. I tried looking it up, but could not find anything. I am sorry I don't have more information but yes it was more just my opinion based on those "rumors."

[Laird]

I appreciate the follow-up, @Bill37. A web search confirms that "Bob White" was Neale's pseudonym as a radio presenter prior to the experiences which led to the writing of Conversations With God. It also turned up the interesting information that, according to his co-presenter, many of the discussions he had with that co-presenter had themes closely related to that book, and that he had much earlier written a book with a title claiming that Hitler went to heaven - a claim that apparently also occurs in Conversations With God. He apparently claims that that earlier claim was, in retrospect, also based on channelled information, especially given that he independently and unknowingly wrote the same four paragraphs word-for-word years apart during the writing of that earlier book.

Like you, though, I was unable to turn up anything related to the specific claim that as "Bob White" on the radio, he had "play[ed] a character that talked to god".