Book Review - Conversations with God

The Conversations with God series is a trilogy revolving around a man who hears God speaking to him and transcribes his conversations in a series of questions and answers.  I first saw CWG about 10 years ago, but didn't pick it up because I was put off by the title.  I thought it was going to be about Christianity and Jesus saving your soul and dying on the cross for your sins.  But that's not the case at all.

Throughout the trilogy, and the subsequent title, Friendship with God, we learn the true nature of God as presented to the author, Neale Donald Walsh.  The main take home from the series is that god is everything and in everything.  He/She/It is you and is in you, He is the creator and the created, She is with you alway in all ways.  God has no preference and doesn't care what you do.  There is no good or evil.  Everything happens for a reason.  This is quite a simplified view of the book, of course.  It explores topics such as reincarnation, marriage, sex, your purpose on Earth, life on other planets, education, and society.  It's brilliantly written, and God is quite cheeky.  I like God.

I devoured these books.  I read all four in the span of about two weeks.  I highly recommend them if you have any inclination towards spirituality.

Now, I have an interesting manifestation story connected with these books.  I picked up number 2 at the Largo library used book store.  I was drawn to it because I'd remembered seeing it in the bookstore years ago, but didn't pick it up for the reasons I mentioned above.  Well, this time I picked it up and started thumbing through the preface and the author was talking about how its not a coincidence that the reader picked up the book, etc.  That line cinched it, and I bought it... it was only $1, so I figured I had nothing to lose anyway.

Well, after reading the 2nd book, I wanted more and went to the used section at Barnes and Nobles to see if I could find it there.  It wasn't there, and I decided to do an experiment.  I decided that I wanted to buy the rest of the series, but I didn't want to pay full price.  I visualized myself seeing the books in the used section of the bookstore, picking them, and feeling happy because I had manifested the books I wanted and manifested them at a used price.  I was thinking between $1 and $5.  That was my experiment.

Not a week later, my grandpa and I are having a tour of Rochester's used bookstores because he had a trunkful of books he was trying to sell.  We weren't doing so well... no one was too interested in the books we had.  Though, I did have a chance to look around the other books, and saw The Secret which I also wanted.  We had been at it for about 3 hours, we were getting tired and had only made about $12 on books.  But we decided to go to one more bookstore.  This man picked out 18 books he wanted from our pile and offered us either $15 cash or $30 in store credit.  Grandpa let me take the store credit, so I had a look around the bookstore.  And guess what I found:

All the Conversations with God books AND the fourth book that I didn't even know existed, Friendship with God.  So I got all the books I'd asked for a week earlier... FREE.  Plus, I got The Secret, which I'd seen earlier that day and two others!!!  What a great testament to the universe... you really do get whatever you ask for... Exactly the ideas in the CWG books too.  Perfect.

Deepening affect of seeing auras #2

You create your own reality


This was hard for me to understand in the past, though I'd heard the concept before.  Generally, we go about our everyday lives experiencing events and reacting to the stimuli that is in front of us.  Sometimes we experience chance or luck and great things materialize.  Other times we are challenged, or an event happens that is out of our control... we are not to blame for certain things, they are out of our hands. That seems to be the experience of most people anyway.  Simplified, of course.

We have a world of victims... random events out of our control.  It's someone else fault for running into me, or I don't have enough money, or it's all because of my childhood.  Whatever story we tell ourselves for not living up to our full potential.  I hear it all the time.  Just the other day, an adult friend of mine told me she's scared all the time, and generally in bad space because of something her father did to her when she was a child.  She had an elaborate story to go with it about how it's not her fault and there is nothing she can do about it.  And really, what could I say to that?  She was so attached to her story, it would have been an insult if I had referred to it as a story.

And we all have them.  I am not saying that I am immune to it.  What I am saying is that I recognize it now and I don't accept the story that I am a victim of anything.  People don't "do" things to me.  I am a creator.  I create my life, and I create the circumstances in it that I need to grow.  And so does everybody.  I like that way of seeing the world much better than the idea that I am merely reacting to events outside myself.

Let me give you a concrete example that I think will illustrate my point.  When I was applying to MBA programs, I had certain beliefs about what kind of school I wanted to go to and how much I wanted to pay.  I liked UBC because it was about 1/2 the price of all the other schools I applied to and a slightly shorter program, though I didn't like the aspect of it and wanted the extra time in school.  5 of other schools I applied to I felt were out of my league and a stretch to get into.  And the other one, it never even occurred to me that I wouldn't get in.  It was my back up school.  Though I wanted to go there because I'd be with my family and friends and it was on familiar territory.  This was my thought as I began to apply to schools.

Well guess what happened.  I ended up getting EXACTLY what I believed.  I only school I was accepted to was the one that I had NO doubts about getting in to - the one near my family and friends.  But even more than that... I ended up getting nearly a half scholarship from the school, which brought the price down to the price that UBC would have been - and actually even cheaper because I wouldn't have the extra expense of rent.  As a bonus, it's a better school and has all the programs and activities I could want from a school.

And I created this.  Because of my beliefs and because of my actions.  I use this example a lot because, I realized what had happened after the fact.  I didn't consciously create this, I recognized what had happened after I'd learned a little about creating your own reality and I saw this example in my life.  My immediate reaction was "Wow!  Look what I created... exactly what I asked for and believed.  Now, what can I do if I start doing this consciously!?"

I add that I got exactly what I wanted and believed because beliefs are a key part of creating your reality. The school I was accepted to was initially my last choice, for various reasons, but it was the only school I really believed without a doubt I would get in to.  If you don't believe something is possible, it's not.  No matter how much you want it, or how many times you ask the Universe for it.  Sometimes the beliefs are deep-rooted and you may not even know you had them.  It was after the fact that I recognized that the only school I really believed I'd get into was the only one that I did.

Now I've started playing with it.  I've started playing with manifesting what I want in my life.  And it really works.  I set the intention and ask the Universe for what I want and it comes into my life.  Not always in the way I expect, but it comes.  For example:  I had three experiences at the pow wow where I manifested what I asked for.

1.  I wanted to wear a buckskin dress at the pow wow, but couldn't find any for sale and didn't know where to find them.  When I got to the pow wow, there was a woman who made them custom-made.  She usually did them made to order, but she just happened to have one on display that she'd made for her daughter, but her daughter decided she didn't want it.  To make a long story concise, my dad ended up buying it for me and I got to wear a beautiful buckskin dress the whole day.

2.  I had seen Turtle soup on the Travel channel and decided that I wanted to try it.  But there were NO restaurants in the area that served it.  Well, at the pow wow, guess what they had:  Turtle soup!  A week later, it came into my life.

3.  I'd been searching the internet to find ways to buy silver under spot price.  But everybody selling silver was selling it over spot price.  Which makes sense, spot plus a premium.  Well, at the pow wow, guess what I found?  1 oz .999 silver coins for $10 each.  I did a little bargaining and got three for $9 each... That's 1/2 price of the current spot, which is about $18 an ounce!

I created everything I'd wanted within a week!  I am continuing to play with this and I am seeing what I can manifest and create in my life.

If you're interested in more about creating your own reality, Pam talks about it on her show a little here.
She takes calls, but stops at around minute 25 and starts talking about how to create your own reality at about minute 32.  I did these techniques in the above examples and these are what I am continuing to play with.

Deepening affect of seeing auras #1

Validation and deepening of Self

What I want to write about now is the journey I have embarked on since starting to see auras.  I feel like my whole world has expanded in a way that I had never even thought possible before.  I feel like I have a lot to say, but I want to keep these posts relatively short, so I will break them up into multiple parts.  To give you some background, I will also detail the experience that lead me from one place to the next.

As wrote previously, after seeing my aura in the mirror for the first time, I immediately went to the bookstore to look around see what I could find on the subject.  There, I found Pamala Oslie's book, Life Colors.  And that's where my journey began.  Seeing my aura was a gateway to a much bigger picture, rather than an end itself.  It's so hard to describe, because it's a shift in perception, yet if you look at me in my life, it would appear that I am doing the same actions.  Yet, I am different.

First of all, seeing and learning about my aura color gave me a deep sense of knowing who I am in a way that I have never been able to articulate before.  I don't think it would have had the same effect if someone had told me my color, or if I had taken a test to find out what my color was.  Actually, someone did tell me my color before I saw it, which was what prompted my interest in the first place, and it didn't have the same effect on me at all.  I was interested in it, of course, but he couldn't tell me much about what the color meant, at least not in the same terms that Pam could.  Even still, I only had a mental image of what the actual color looked like - it wasn't real to me.  Seeing it myself shifted that and gave it an entirely different meaning.

Understanding myself gave me "permission" to be myself.  I didn't feel like I had to fit into someone else's mold of who they thought I should be anymore, no matter how much of an "authority" they thought they were on something.  My aura color validated for me that the way I interact with the world and the way I perceive the world is just as valid as someone else's.  Simultaneously, it allowed me to accept other's for who they are and to recognize that they have an equally valid way of interacting with the world as well.  It is different than mine because of differing personalities and differing purposes for being on the planet.

I can describe myself to people, which is great for interviews and writing essays about myself.  I can tell strangers what I am doing and what is important to me, and they understand better now because I can articulate it better.  I know my weaknesses and understand why I act the way I do sometimes.  I can also think of creative ways to work around them, or with them.  I am not afraid of people anymore or afraid of people rejecting me in the way that I used to be.  I do not feel the need to justify myself to people who are different than I am because I accept who I am and I love myself.  I feel important and needed in the world and I feel like I have an articulated purpose.

It's a wonderful feeling... world's different from the way I felt a year ago.  Because of this understanding, I am no longer afraid to do what is in my own best interest even though it may not be what another wants.  I no longer feel the need to take another's word as sacred or as gospel and have developed a trust in myself.  I can speak my truth to others without fear, and I think they appreciate that and can benefit from that honesty as well.  I do no fear honesty because I do not fear myself.  I wish for everybody to experience this deepening.  It's empowering.  It's given me confidence that I used to think was reserved for others, but now I know I deserve it as well.

It's changed my relationship with people in my past who did not accept me.... especially as a child.  Though I haven't spoken with them, and won't, it's changed the way I perceive them and my relationship to them.  I no longer feel that there was something "wrong" with me... I was just being me.  I can love my younger self for all her glory and see the ways I was expressing my color.  It's beautiful.

I really believe the world would be a much happier, creative place if everybody could have this understanding of themselves.  And I know they can.  It's just a matter of wanting it and seeking it out.  It's a matter of reaching into that place inside you that knows there is something more and then manifesting it.  It's not about adding anything to your personality, or following someone else's way of doing things.  Those I find to be fleeting, but this is authentic.  I am playing with seeing all the aura colors because I want everyone to experience what I experienced...

A short update on my progress

I apologize for neglecting my blog lately.  Unfortunately, since I will be starting school in a month, I don't anticipate that I will start updating regularly again, but I will do my best.  I can account for my shortcoming, mostly for the fact that I have no new developments in my ability to see auras to report.  I am still practicing my exercises about once or twice a week, and I continually go into wide-angle vision whenever I am looking at someone for a prolonged period of time in order to glimpse their aura.

Violet auras comes relatively easy to me, and I have not, as yet, seen other colors, with exception of an occasional yellow, and of course the white glow around people and objects.  I have seen many shapes and intensities of violet in people's aura:  violet radiating 6 feet away from a person, violet extending 8 feet in the air, but only about 1 foot wide on top of the person's head, violet floating in a cloud about a foot away from the person's head, violet around the person's face, faint violet about 3 feet in both directions but with clear gaps.  I love seeing the different variation of sizes and intensities of the auras and I'm excited to see the other colors as well.

Auric pair colors off of objects come to me fairly easily as well.  I find it a bit disconcerting when I see them because I know I am seeing the paired color off the object and not the person's aura.  On the one hand, I want to allow myself to experience this image because it is good practice in training my eyes and my mind to see auras.  On the other hand, I know it is not the person's aura, so I find it a bit distracting.  My initial reaction is to try to refocus my attention so that I don't see the pair color, but I catch myself at that and continue to allow myself to see it, even though it might be distracting.

I found myself having that experience during an interview last week.  The man interviewing me was wearing a light yellow button-up shirt, and I saw the light blue auric pair color emanating about 5 inches off his shoulders.  I wonder if that experience had something to do with the lighting in the room and the setting of the environment.  We were seated in a small, stark room with fluorescent lighting - the wall behind him was plain white and the lighting flickered subtly the way fluorescent lights do.  I don't know the exact significance of my surroundings, but I imagine they had an impact on my perceptions.

Another experience I had during that same set of interviews happened in a similar room, with similar lighting.  This time there was a window to my left leading out into the hallway, that I could see out of my peripheral vision.  As I was talking to the interviewer, I could see people walking past the room.  One particular person (I have no idea who it was, as I could only see blurry outlines of people), walked by and as he did, I could see a thin whitish-blue light emanating from the top of his head.  It was laser-sharp and rose up to the ceiling.  It went with him as he walked by and was about an inch thick.  He walked by twice, going in opposite directions, and I perceived it both times.

Other than that, I have nothing new to report, as far as seeing auras are concerned.  I do, though, have much to report in off-shoot experiences, which I will write about in another post.