When it comes to the topic of death, many of us are left with questions and lots of discomfort. It is the most feared topic in our society, as we have lost touch with our eternal nature. Home With God is a profoundly wise book that connects us back to remembering who we are, and that we in fact never truly die. It explores all of the themes surrounding death in a brilliant manner to shed light and understanding on one of the most misunderstood topics in human history.
Home with God: In a Life That Never Ends is the ninth book by Neale Donald Walsch in the famous Conversations with God series. This book has been known as “the last conversation”, however Neale has gone on to write many more books based on these conversations following it.
Both Neale Donald Walsch and this entire series of books have been instrumental in my personal life, as it was the original trilogy, or the first three conversations with God that I credit to the immense spiritual awakening process that has occurred in my life four years ago. And while I own over half of the books in this series of conversations, I have to date, only read the first three (several times) and now this one, the last one in the initial conversation.
What happened to Neale Donald Walsch and the work that came out of his personal transformation resonates with me so much, because it has freed me from all the shackles that were falsely put upon my mind since childhood conditioning. It has shown me a new way to live, and as Neale shares in his books, “not a better way, but an alternate way.” There is no doubt though, that anyone who synthesizes the wisdom of these books does consider it a better way, as the happiness, joy, peace and fulfillment it can bring into one’s life is beyond what any words can describe. It is something that must be lived and experienced.
Therefore, it is with utmost joy that I introduce you to this life-altering work and share with you about Home with God: In a Life That Never Ends, which is in my opinion the best resource out there to date, to understand the process and purpose of death and dying, and be supported by during times of grief.
Format and Structure
Home with God: In a Life That Never Ends was written by Neale Donald Walsch, and published in 2006.
If you are new to Neale’s work, in the early 1990s, Neale was at perhaps the lowest time in his life. He actually lived as a homeless person for about a year. He lost his family, his job and even had a car accident that left him seriously hurt.
Neale got angry, really angry as to why he was “dealt” this card by God. What came out of this was a set of 9 books that Neale wrote as “conversations with God” over an 11 year period. This book was the last book in that series. And rightfully so, as it deals with the topic that we all consider the “finality”, about which we all want to know more, and perhaps are most afraid to talk about – death.
So was Neale really talking to God in all of these books? I have no doubt he was. We all do, except that most of us have God on mute, while others have forgotten his voice and thus today no longer recognize the beloved voice in our head that always leads us along divine paths. Even if you are skeptical, and have a hard time believing that these are “REALLY” conversations with God, I assure you it is just due to your perception of God at this time, that you feel that way. Once you read these books, most people will have no doubt, that they are what they are.
The hardcover edition of this book is just over 300 pages. It includes a beautiful introduction and afterword, from Neale.
The book is arranged in no-name, numbered chapters, however it is all, one, long conversation. Thus one can quickly see how typical chapters would not really work well, where this book is concerned. It is a beautiful and flowing conversation, instead.
In the original trilogy, special edition set, the words of Neale and God are color coded, different colors. In this book, changes in font differentiate between Neale’s and God’s words.
Content and Personal Commentary
My God, where do I begin to tell you all about this book. If you have not heard of this book, or read it yet, let me begin by telling you that it is to my knowledge the best, most wisdom filled, loving and detailed book about the process and purpose of death, that we can ever ask for.
This book eloquently, gently and wisely answers questions for us like:
“What is really going on here in this life?”
“What happens when we die?”
“Will we be with our loved ones at death? After Death?
“Will we be judged?”
“Is there a Heaven or Hell?”
“What happens when we are born?”
“Will we still recognize ourselves and exist as an entity after death?”
And so many more!
I have to tell you, being brought up in a traditionally Christian household, I had the basic ideas about life and death, and I am sorry to dishearten any of you out there, but boy were they off. How do I know that? Because they did not and do not make sense, when we start asking the deeper, more profound questions. Many of us keep repeating what we know about death to our children and each other, simply because we have heard it from others, never really once stopping to ask if this actually makes sense to us.
Is this book the end all and be all, and the authority on death? Of course not. No book out there is, yes I do mean that – no book. You know why? Because every book out there is told or written through the lens of someone else. And it is up to each one of us, to decipher the message and see what from it makes sense to us. Maybe all of it, maybe half of it, or maybe none of it. But we must be willing to think for ourselves and ask the tougher, deeper and less convenient questions, and be open to the answers.
Either way, what Neale Donald Walsch has done with the “conversations with God”, including this book, is nothing short of prophetic.
There is no way to get into the Kingdom of God. It is not a place you get into or out of. It is a place where you always ARE. It is the only place you can ever be.
God, Home With God: In A Life That Never Ends
If you have no intentions of purchasing this to add to your personal home library, I strongly urge you to go out this summer to your local library, take out this book and give it a chance.
It is not powerful because it will make you feel better about death – although it will. It is not powerful because it will bring peace and comfort to all those who have ever grieved , are grieving, or will grieve – although it will. And it is not powerful because it will answer your deepest questions about death – although it will.
It is powerful because it MAKES US CHANGE OUR IDEAS ABOUT DEATH.
This and this point alone, is more than the word “salvation” can encompass.
So what is wrong with our ideas of death? Well, it is not the time or place to cover that, but the way the world sees death today does not serve the greater good, most importantly it does not serve us in our personal evolution of soul growth. For the most part, we see death as something to be feared, as some tragedy or as some negative event, all the while nothing could be further from the truth, if we only allow ourselves to see a little deeper. But as most of us should know by now, we only fear and negate things that we do not understand. That is where this book again is so powerful, as it is like a beautiful course in understanding death.
In this book, Neale asks every hard question, that many of us have dared to think, and even more we haven’t, when it comes to life and death. And he gets answers – boy does he get answers. Some ideas are mind boggling for our human brains at this point to grasp, so Neale asks for explanations over and over, until every single person who has picked up this book can walk away understanding.
There is no such thing as “good” and “bad”. They do not exist in Ultimate Reality. Good and bad are judgments made in the mind.
God, Home With God: In A Life That Never Ends
Aside from the fact that the book covers what is death and what happens at the time of it and in the afterlife, other critical topics are covered as well. Probably the most important one that helps us tie in all the ideas together here, is a thorough explanation of free will and the process and power of personal creation. No stone is left unturned.
If you wanted to know about death in babies, children, suicides, accidents, slow deaths, fast deaths and any other deaths, be prepared to find out, and not in some airy-fairy kind of way, but in a lovingly concrete, no-nonsense kind of way.
Throughout the book, aside from the highly enlightening conversation that ensues, God also provides “18 Remembrances”. As it has been pointed out in the conversations before, that it is not about knowing, as much as it is about remembering.
These 18 remembrances are powerful on their own, and some lucky few out there, may read them alone (they are summarized on the last page of the book) and have all the answers they need, or things they needed to remember where life and death are concerned. But for the rest of us, I thank Neale for the tough questioning that provides thorough explanations.
In fact it is my hope to one day ask for permission to write these remembrances out on this site, to continue to awaken other souls to what they have always known.
I could probably go on forever about this book, but you need to read it, much more than my words here. I am simply serving as the pointer to the answers you seek. For any of you who have come to this point in reading this review, remember that nothing comes to us by chance. We have signposts, markers and pointers all around us to the answers that we seek, that remind us of our highest potentials and of who we really are.
I will finish off by simply telling you, that although every single page was priceless where deep wisdom is concerned, and I look forward to rereading this book many times more throughout my life, page 213 in the book, a 2 page section where God lays out 12 ways of what it would look like if we were actually acting on what we already knew deep within us, and put into immediate action, as soon as we consciously remember it, was probably the most instrumental for my evolving journey right now. Here is an excerpt:
First, you would never have negative thoughts in your mind again. …Eighth, you would never deliberately hurt another human being again – emotionally or physically. Least of all you would never do this in the name of God.
God, Home With God: In A Life That Never Ends
Before I finish, I just want to also share with you that if you yourself are grieving right now, or know someone who is, this book is perhaps the best gift anyone of us can give to another or ourselves at that time. It is I think more comforting, than anything else that can be done or said.
In conclusion, we may not fully grasp the whole, big picture of the ALL that is, but it feels good to keep seeing the picture getting bigger and keep remembering more and more of who we are. Either way, I cannot think of a more empowering book to read, when it comes to understanding birth and death, and how they come together in the whole process and purpose of this thing called life.