Philip

This one’s a tough book to review since almost every religious person who could benefit from it usually will write it off as irreverent nonsense or dangerous ideology. It’s written by Neale Donald Walsch and is set after the first 3 books (Conversations with God 1-3). You can read reviews about it on Amazon here. It’s not as in your face as What God Wants or rambling as CwG 1-3, but I think it’s the best book in the series for getting down to brass tacks on how to get a better relationship with yourself and God if you want it. If you like to read about Neale’s surprise visit from God (?) it’s best to start from CwG book 1 and work your way up, Communion with God is not for everyone.

Anyhow, the book is split into roughly half. The first half discusses the 10 illusions that people have made up over time and shows how perception of the world is shaped by these 10 illusions. The second half is instruction on how to rise above the illusions if you choose to do so.

I’ll list the 10 illusions with some discussion, with some quick background of the illusions. When I mention Neale, I really mean Neale who is writing as God (or God writing through Neale) to differentiate between the God of Communion with God and the God we all know from various religious sources.

01. The Illusion of Need

Essentially, the illusion is that God has needs, apparently. Neale claims otherwise that God is the same as life; the sum totality of everything in the Universe. Where would these needs come from if God is everything? Apparently, people rationalised that after seeing some peoples lives were working out better than others, therefore they figured if they could give God what God needs, their lives would be better too.

02. The Illusion of Failure

Apparently, in order to have needs, God must fail to have God’s needs met, obviously. Otherwise, God wouldn’t need anything, right, since God is the sum totality of everything? People rationalised that the only way God could have needs not met is that God could fail to get what God needs.

03. The Illusion of Disunity

So, in order to have needs not met, early people rationalised that God is separate from humans. This enabled it to be possible that people could do things that ran contrary to God’s omniscient and omnipotent will, particularly where the Devil was concerned. Interestingly enough, the only way this could happen is if God allowed it to be so (ie, the gift of Free Will). Therefore, God was absolved of any wrong doing on behalf of God’s creations as they were separate from God and with the gift of free will, they were able to go against God’s Will.

04. The Illusion of Insufficiency

Since people thought they were separate from God, they began to worry that there wasn’t enough resources to go around (such as life, love, money, God’s approval) and so on. Life became difficult as people strove to claim more and more of what they thought they needed, which generally lead to conflicts with other people as they had what they though they needed forcibly taken from them by people who thought they needed it more than them.

05. The Illusion of Requirement

Since there apparently wasn’t enough to go around, people thought that there were requirements in order to get what they wanted. In particularly, requirements on how to be on side with God, mostly as they were scared that they might not be.

06. The Illusion of Judgement

So, in order to get in God’s good graces, there had to be some sort of judging criteria with which (hypothetically) people had to pass in order to get whatever it is they thought they needed. (Everlasting life in Heaven, 72 virgins, freedom from reincarnation, there’s a variety of them).

07. The Illusion of Condemnation

Since there were requirements and you would be judged on them, people reasoned and thought what would happen to people who didn’t pass the grade. Therefore, condemnation existed. Most people are familiar with the usual “Hell for eternity” or “Karmic treadmill” or “purgatory” as condemnation.

08. The Illusion of Conditionality

Since a good outcome and bad outcome existed, it meant there were conditions that needed to be met in order to shift from having a bad outcome to a good one. A person who passed the conditions and avoided condemnation on the final judgement were obviously better off than someone who didn’t pass.

09. The Illusion of Superiority

In order to appease the conditions to avoid condemnation, people rationalised that if you knew the conditions beforehand, you were superior to someone who didn’t. In particular, many people came up with many different ways to argue that their way was better than anyone elses, which naturally didn’t go down too well with everyone (who thought the exact same thing).

10. The Illusion of Ignorance

Since some people questioned whether all these illusions were really real, people found it necessary to defend against such radical ideology that would destroy their support foundations based on the illusions. Therefore, people rationalised that they simply couldn’t know everything; that you weren’t meant to know. Therefore, if anyone enquired into things closely, it was possible to avoid examining things closely by claiming it wasn’t possible to know.

There you have it! The 10 primary illusions that people believe in. Perhaps people should investigate and see where these illusions fit into their own lives, in particular in religion and how it relates to other religions.

I’ll write up more later and post an update.

This one’s a tough book to review since almost every religious person who could benefit from it usually will write it off as irreverent nonsense or dangerous ideology. It’s written by Neale Donald Walsch and is set after the first 3 books (Conversations with God 1-3). You can read reviews about it on Amazon here. It’s not as in your face as What God Wants or rambling as CwG 1-3, but I think it’s the best book in the series for getting down to brass tacks on how to get a better relationship with yourself and God if you want it. If you like to read about Neale’s surprise visit from God (?) it’s best to start from CwG book 1 and work your way up, Communion with God is not for everyone.

Anyhow, the book is split into roughly half. The first half discusses the 10 illusions that people have made up over time and shows how perception of the world is shaped by these 10 illusions. The second half is instruction on how to rise above the illusions if you choose to do so.

I’ll list the 10 illusions with some discussion, with some quick background of the illusions. When I mention Neale, I really mean Neale who is writing as God (or God writing through Neale) to differentiate between the God of Communion with God and the God we all know from various religious sources.

01. The Illusion of Need

Essentially, the illusion is that God has needs, apparently. Neale claims otherwise that God is the same as life; the sum totality of everything in the Universe. Where would these needs come from if God is everything? Apparently, people rationalised that after seeing some peoples lives were working out better than others, therefore they figured if they could give God what God needs, their lives would be better too.

02. The Illusion of Failure

Apparently, in order to have needs, God must fail to have God’s needs met, obviously. Otherwise, God wouldn’t need anything, right, since God is the sum totality of everything? People rationalised that the only way God could have needs not met is that God could fail to get what God needs.

03. The Illusion of Disunity

So, in order to have needs not met, early people rationalised that God is separate from humans. This enabled it to be possible that people could do things that ran contrary to God’s omniscient and omnipotent will, particularly where the Devil was concerned. Interestingly enough, the only way this could happen is if God allowed it to be so (ie, the gift of Free Will). Therefore, God was absolved of any wrong doing on behalf of God’s creations as they were separate from God and with the gift of free will, they were able to go against God’s Will.

04. The Illusion of Insufficiency

Since people thought they were separate from God, they began to worry that there wasn’t enough resources to go around (such as life, love, money, God’s approval) and so on. Life became difficult as people strove to claim more and more of what they thought they needed, which generally lead to conflicts with other people as they had what they though they needed forcibly taken from them by people who thought they needed it more than them.

05. The Illusion of Requirement

Since there apparently wasn’t enough to go around, people thought that there were requirements in order to get what they wanted. In particularly, requirements on how to be on side with God, mostly as they were scared that they might not be.

06. The Illusion of Judgement

So, in order to get in God’s good graces, there had to be some sort of judging criteria with which (hypothetically) people had to pass in order to get whatever it is they thought they needed. (Everlasting life in Heaven, 72 virgins, freedom from reincarnation, there’s a variety of them).

07. The Illusion of Condemnation

Since there were requirements and you would be judged on them, people reasoned and thought what would happen to people who didn’t pass the grade. Therefore, condemnation existed. Most people are familiar with the usual “Hell for eternity” or “Karmic treadmill” or “purgatory” as condemnation.

08. The Illusion of Conditionality

Since a good outcome and bad outcome existed, it meant there were conditions that needed to be met in order to shift from having a bad outcome to a good one. A person who passed the conditions and avoided condemnation on the final judgement were obviously better off than someone who didn’t pass.

09. The Illusion of Superiority

In order to appease the conditions to avoid condemnation, people rationalised that if you knew the conditions beforehand, you were superior to someone who didn’t. In particular, many people came up with many different ways to argue that their way was better than anyone elses, which naturally didn’t go down too well with everyone (who thought the exact same thing).

10. The Illusion of Ignorance

Since some people questioned whether all these illusions were really real, people found it necessary to defend against such radical ideology that would destroy their support foundations based on the illusions. Therefore, people rationalised that they simply couldn’t know everything; that you weren’t meant to know. Therefore, if anyone enquired into things closely, it was possible to avoid examining things closely by claiming it wasn’t possible to know.

There you have it! The 10 primary illusions that people believe in. Perhaps people should investigate and see where these illusions fit into their own lives, in particular in religion and how it relates to other religions.

I’ll write up more later and post an update.