0:00 Okay, so let's say you go back at age 45 or 55, 52, before you start writing your books, and you don't write any books, you don't achieve anything, like in the material sense, you're just being mellow and relaxed, like you started to become at 75, you said. Would you trade that for your career, for your books, just to be relaxed and kind to everybody? Yes. Will you do that? Yes. So 40 books doesn't matter. All the information, God conversation doesn't matter. It matters how do you feel. Yes, it's not about what I'm accomplishing. It's what I'm being. Am I being kind?
0:47 Am I being patient? Am I being compassionate? Am I being forgiving? Am I being understanding? Am I being helpful to other people? Or am I simply being successful in my life, but I'm not being any of the other things? I wish I had known when I was 21 what I know today. That's exactly what I would like to talk to you about, yeah. I'm going to ask you different ages. Okay, let's say what would you do different if you would know what you know right now at 21? I wouldn't pay so much attention to the events of my life. I wouldn't give them a meaning
1:37 that they don't really have. You know, when I was 21 or 31, or even 41, things would happen in my life and I made it very important. You know, I made it a big deal. whether I got the job or didn't get the job, whether I got the girl or didn't get the girl, whether I won the argument or didn't win the argument, whatever it was going on, it had a lot of impact on me. As I got older, I realized nothing has any meaning except the meaning that we give it. And so I stopped giving things meaning that was more important than it really was.
2:22 A good example is when I had open heart surgery. If I had had that surgery when I was 25, I'm sure I would have considered it to be a really big deal. I mean, open heart surgery? I would have been scared out of my mind, scared of dying. And, you know, what happens if it doesn't go well? You know, I would have given it a lot of meaning and I would have created a lot of tension. But when I actually had my open heart surgery, I was like 71, whatever I was. It was all different. I didn't give it any meaning at all. I thought, you know, it's either gonna work or it's not gonna work. I'm either gonna die and go to heaven or I'll stay
3:07 alive and the operation will be successful and I'll go home to the arms of my wife. Either way, I'll be in heaven. Either way. So I didn't give it any more meaning than I needed to. So that's one of the things that would change. Okay. So this is the age of 21 or 25. What would you do differently right now, let's say, looking back at age 35? I probably wouldn't be so defeated by the when the opposite of what I wanted to experience showed up in my life.
3:58 What I would have done differently is I wouldn't have stopped doing what I was doing because I wasn't achieving what I wanted to achieve. And the law, what I call the law of opposites has become very clear to me. And I, but when I was 35, when I was 21, I had no idea. I thought that if things didn't turn out the way I wanted them to turn out, that I was being defeated, that I was losing in the game of life. And now I have a completely different point of view about the law of opposites. So what I would have changed, what I would change, I would, I actually dropped
4:43 certain ideas or stopped certain projects because they weren't working out. I would never do that today. Yeah. So no attachment. The less we expect, the less we get disappointed. Yeah, exactly. And even more importantly, the less we expect, the more we accomplish. Yeah. Because the space is wide open for us to do whatever we need to do to make the moment work. So the less we expect, the more we accomplish. That's been my experience. Yeah. Okay, what would you do differently if you would be 45 years old, looking back? I wouldn't have waited so long to
5:29 step into the use of the metaphysical power that we are all given. I wouldn't have waited so long when I was 45. I wouldn't have questioned myself or stopped. I wouldn't have stopped using the power of metaphysics. I would have read The Power of Positive Thinking. I didn't really use The Power of Positive Thinking until I was 52 years old. So that's one thing I would definitely have changed, which is why I wrote this book, because I don't want other people to get to be 52 years old before they wake up to how life works. So I put all sorts of information together. in this book, hoping that
6:14 people who are 21, 31, or even 41 might read it and say, oh, yeah, I don't need to wait until I'm into my 50s in order to move forward with my life in an effective and joyful way. Yeah. Okay, now what would you do differently at age 55? At that point, you've already been writing, you've been writing and you've been in all that... accident and all that happened with you. So what would you do differently if you would do anything differently? Very little. I would do very little differently. Since I was 55 years old, I have been
7:01 paying attention to what works in life. And I can't think of very many things, frankly, that I would do differently. One more. Yeah, go ahead. I might not have waited quite so long to implement what I had come to understand. For instance, I met my wife, the lady that I've been married to now for 18 years. I met her when I was 63. I probably wouldn't have waited until I was 63 to find a partner. that I could enjoy the last third of my life with. But, you know,
7:50 better late than never. That's what I was going to say. Okay. One more question then. What would you do differently at 65? I'd pay more attention to my behavior and I would be more self-aware. I would try to live into what I was teaching more completely. So I think I waited too long to admit that some things were not the way I wanted them to be. I mean, in terms of my own behavior. Yeah. I would have been nicer sooner. I didn't have to wait until I was, you know, 73 years old to turn into a halfway nice person. But
8:40 you know, when I was 65, I was still impatient and sometimes even unkind in some of the things I would say. And I was sometimes not easy to forgive other people when they treated me badly. But you know, when I got to be 75, all that stuff went away. I decided to change my behaviors so that my behaviors reflected my writings more closely. Okay, so you answered about age 75. Why do you think your behaviors changed that much at 75? Because I began to see that I was not living what I was writing about. Yeah. And I began to see the impact, the effect that it was having on
9:26 other people. I began seeing, you know, how it was affecting my friends, my business associates, even my family members. So I think because, and you know why I began seeing more of the effect that it was having? Because at 75, I had more time to reflect on my life process. At 45, 55, or even 65, I was all in there working it out, making sure I got done what needed to get done. I had my to-do lists. I had my goals, you know, but I wasn't paying a lot of critical attention to to how I was affecting other people. But when I got older, I began to say, you know, what's really important? What's really important? And I decided
10:16 that what's really important in my life is how I've affected and impacted my children, my grandchildren, my friends, my neighbors, my business associates, and even, frankly, total strangers. that I run into at the supermarket. So I decided that the most important thing in my life was how other people are experiencing themselves because of me. Okay, so let's say you go back at age 45 or 55, 52, before you start writing your books, and you don't write any books, you don't achieve anything, like in the material sense, You're just
11:05 being mellow and relaxed like you started to become a 75, you said. You understand my question? Let's say you, would you trade that for your career, for your books, just to be relaxed and kind to everybody? Yes. Will you do that? Yes. So 40 books doesn't matter. All the information, God conversation doesn't matter. It matters how do you feel. Yes, it's not about what I'm accomplishing. It's what I'm being. Am I being kind? Am I being patient? Am I being compassionate? Am I being forgiving? Am I being understanding? Am I being helpful to other people? Or am I simply being successful in my
11:52 life, but I'm not being any of the other things? So I realized, yeah, yeah. I wanted to become a human being, not a human doing. Okay, but that achievements in your books, you were homeless before that, and all that helped you to become, let's say, rich and famous and comfortable lifestyle. Do you think by not achieving all that, just being a mellow, happy person, you would have a better life without all that? I don't know if I would have a better life. I would have had a better life than I had back then. Yes. But it wasn't the
12:38 books that I had written that became bestsellers that changed my life. What changed my life is my time on the street, living on the sidewalk. That's what changed my life. And long before even the first book was written, I had made changes in my behaviors. which came about because I spent a year living on the street with no place to sleep, sleeping on the ground, in the rain, in the cold. Yeah, but still, I remember when you got that apartment, that little job you had, and you were crying to God, saying, God, why am I punished? What's happening? Nothing is happening in my life. You were still not happy. No, well...
13:24 I was happier than I had been before, but I was not as happy as I could be because I had lots of questions about why the first 50 years of my life had been the way they had been. You know, I just wanted understanding. I thought, you know, come on, God, help me out. Explain it to me. Explain it to me. Why? Why have I had to, and why do all people, not just me, why do all people have to go through so many challenging moments just to get to a decent place before they die. And then when they finally get to a halfway decent place where they have a little bit of security and a little bit of mellowness, they turn around and die.
14:10 Yeah. So what's all that about? So I decided I wrote this book, Letters to a Young Seeker, because I want people to come to those awarenesses when they're in their 20s, 30s, and 40s, not when they're in their 60s, 70s, and 80s. You shouldn't have to wait so long. I wish that someone had said to me, when I was in my 40s, what I'm saying right now. You see, the reason I'm asking, because you started writing those books as journaling, like talking to yourself, but then you start hearing God, and you put it all in books and all that. But... How about this book, Letter to a Younger Seeker? Was this written as a journal as well? Is it the same
14:59 way like the previous books, or is it a different format? No, it's a different format. I just decided to condense, to pack into one book 21 important things that I have learned through the years. And so I just looked deep into my life, and I came up with my list of 21 books. principles of life that I wish I had known when I was in my 20s or 30s or 40s. I wish I didn't have to wait until I was 60 or 70 years old. So that's a whole different format. Okay, so now at 82, if I'm mistaken, 82 years old you are right now. Yes, that's correct. So looking back from 82, we're trying to get some wisdom from you. So you're saying
15:49 that all these achievements, the books, the name, Neil Donald Walsh, the fame and everything doesn't really matter as long as you are happy and wise and understanding at this point. Well, and as long as I'm able to help other people around me, family members, neighbors, friends, people around me, as long as I'm able to help them be peaceful, happy, and content. It's not just about me being peaceful, happy, and content. It's about those people who are around me. Okay, but By writing the books, you influence millions of people. But not writing any books, just being yourself, you only influence one or two or three or four family members.
16:35 Does that make any difference for you? Well, I'm happy that the books I've written have touched the lives of a number of people around the world. But I don't think that's what makes a person's soul complete. You know, A person's spiritual essence can feel complete and more evolved whether they write a best-selling book or not. So I don't think that it's the book's success that has created my contentment in my soul. You know, there are millions and millions of people who are wonderfully content and living peaceful, joyful, and contributing lives who have never written a book. Yeah,
17:21 nobody knows about them, but they're still content and happy. And the people whose lives they touch are influenced and benefited. Yeah, like the butterfly effect. Yes, exactly. So I don't think that success is about the numbers of people that you impact, whether it's 1 million or 22. If the only people I would have touched were members of my family and my close friends, It's not about numbers. It's about the quality of my expression in life. When I die, will people say he was a very famous person? Or will they say he was a very nice person? Will they say
18:07 he was a wealthy person toward the end? He made a lot of money? Or will they say he was forgiving, compassionate, patient, kind, generous? No, I... I don't care how many books I sell. I care how many smiles I create on the faces of others. Okay, you touched on heaven. You said, I could go to heaven and I'll be okay. Right now there's a lot of theories about abstain files coming, a lot of crazy stuff. Do you think these people are going to go to hell or to heaven? I don't know what abstain files means, so I don't know what that meant. Yeah, well, there's a lot of stuff about pedophilia and government, and everybody is affected, and
18:56 all the government heads around the world are on all those files. You're probably not looking at the news. Probably it's better for you. But it's really insane. It's just mind-blowing what's happening. If you think about this and you say, are these people afraid of God? What's happening here? I think that everyone who... dies, goes to heaven. There's no other place to go. Hell doesn't exist, in my understanding. It's purgatory. There's no such place as hell. Heaven is the only place to go. It's called the realm of the spiritual. It's paradise. And I think that every sentient being winds
19:42 up moving from the physical realm to the spiritual realm when they do the thing that we call die. Then they may choose to reincarnate and come back into the physical realm so they can continue to experience and to demonstrate their true identity as individual expressions of divinity. But I think that everybody goes to heaven. In my understanding, God does not judge or condemn or punish people. Regardless of how much pain they... they caused here on this planet, they caused a lot of pain to a lot of people and little kids, and still they're going to go to heaven. Yes, because the process of life is not a transaction. God's love is
20:33 not transactional. God doesn't say, I love you if... I love you if you obey the commandments. I love you if you're a good person. I love you if you never make a big mistake and hurt anybody. I love you if you're never cruel to anybody. God says, I love you no matter what. I love you no matter what. It's pure love. Pure love needs and requires and demands nothing in return. It's the way we love our children, hopefully. We don't say to our children, if you're good, I will love you, but if you're bad, I won't love you. I know people, I know of people, I don't know anybody personally, but I've heard of people whose children actually committed a crime and
21:20 wound up being in jail. But the parents go to visit them in jail and give them hugs. It's very common, actually. And help them, help them feel better about the rest of their life. So parents don't say, I mean, a good parent does not say, no, you misbehaved, so I'm not going to love you anymore. And God doesn't say that either. God says, I love you no matter what. And if you made some mistakes, or if you didn't understand, or if you were cruel to other people because you thought that was the only way you could survive, or if you loved the wrong things, if you loved power over other people, you know, if you simply didn't simply didn't understand you were
22:07 not sufficiently evolved to live what other people would call a good life, I'm not going to punish you because of your mistakes. You may decide to go back and to reincarnate and to try to do better the next time. That's one of the wonderful blessings of reincarnation. We have an opportunity after opportunity after opportunity to do better next time. You touched on, you said, what is a good life? So this is my question. What do you call a good life? I call a good life a life that creates a good life for those people he touches. That's a good life. Yeah, but you have to think about yourself to survive in this world. Because
22:53 otherwise everybody's going to take advantage of you. Nobody can take advantage of you. Nobody does anything they don't want to do. Nobody can take advantage of you. If you don't want to do something, you just don't do it. And if you make a mistake, you made a mistake. But I don't think that people can be forced into making decisions and choices they don't want to make. God said to me, Neil, nobody does anything they don't want to do. One of the most important messages I received in the 3,000 pages of the dialogue, nobody does anything they don't want to do. They might say that they didn't want to do it, but they did it anyway for very good reasons, whatever they did. Okay, Neil. Next
23:41 question. At 82 years old, what's your biggest realization in life? What a powerful question. My biggest realization in life. I guess my biggest realization is that life offers me an opportunity in every moment to experience the highest part of myself and to bring joy to myself and to others because of how I'm experiencing myself, because of what I'm saying, what I'm doing, what I'm thinking, and how I'm being. So the biggest realization for me is that life is a constant opportunity to experience the
24:29 wonder of who I really am. All I have to do is understand the wonder of who I am and make a commitment to express it in every golden moment of now that life brings me. You know something, Sergei? I never thought I'd live to be 82. My mother passed away when she was 63. My older brother, who was two years older than me, died at 65. I wound up living... longer than almost anybody else in my family of origin. My father lived to be 83, God bless him. But he and I were the oldest, and no one ever thought I'd live to be. I've had a heart condition since I was born. I was born with a congenital heart defect. So
25:20 when you're told that by doctors when you're 10, 12, 15, 18, 25, and 30, that you could die any minute. Be careful what you do. Be careful. Don't exercise too much. Don't stress yourself. Don't strain. Don't put yourself under too much pressure. Be careful. Be careful. Be careful. When you live that way through your 20s and your 30s, and then your 40s, and then your 50s, and then your 60s, and then your 70s, you have a whole different point of view about life. And the biggest realization about life is that Not only if I had died at 25, it would have been okay because I would simply return to the realm of the spiritual. And then I could, if I chose to, I could reincarnate and come back to the physical world and experience the whole process again. But you realized this
26:08 later at 50 or 60 or 70. You didn't realize that at 25 that you can come back. No, no, no, no, no, of course not. I wish I had. Yeah. Yeah. But you asked me, you know, what at 82 was my, now what I experienced as my biggest realization. And that's my biggest realization at 82. Was it my biggest realization at 22 or 42? No. Yeah. But that's why I wrote the book. So that people who are 22 or 42 could reach that realization and not have to wait until they're 82. Yeah. Yeah. Did you work out at all in your life? You mean physically? Physically. No. No, my, no.
26:58 Because getting to 82 and looking good, I mean, you should, because people work out. At least you do some walking probably, right? Like 6,000 steps, no? No, I didn't. I hardly, actually, I hardly even did a lot of walking. You know, when I was in my 30s and my early 40s, I played a little tennis. Maybe I played a little tennis. But since I was 42 years old or 43 years old, I don't even know how to spell the word exercise. Let's see, exercise. A-X-O-U-B. No, I can't even spell the word. So I don't exercise at all. Okay, so you've been dieting, you've been eating right. Yes, now that's true. I've been eating very well. I have a wife who makes
27:47 sure that I don't eat anything that I should not be eating. And she's been watching every piece of food that goes into my mouth for the past 18 years. Okay, so you started to eat right 18 years ago at age 63, right? Yeah, somewhere in there. Yeah, but... Until the age of 62, you've been eating like everything, or you've still been dieting a little bit? No, I think I understood what the rules were, and I obeyed the rules of good eating. I didn't eat a lot of sweets. I didn't eat a lot of sugar. I didn't eat a lot of salt. But my wife has made sure that I don't break any of the rules. So you see, this means that the
28:35 diet is more important than exercise. I don't know if it's more important than exercise. I wouldn't say that. But I would say it's just as important. Okay. So return to the source, you say, returning and then realizing that if you want to come back, you make a decision to come back to reincarnate. You realized all this when you were writing the books in your 50s, or do you realize that later? No, I didn't realize it until all the dialogue. The dialogue covers 3,000 pages. Many things were not clear to me until the dialogue was complete. Then I began to put it all together.
29:26 And it started to make wonderful sense to me. You mean 3,000 pages of the first three books? I don't think there are 3,000 pages, the first three books. No, the nine books. The nine books, okay, yeah, yeah. That makes sense. Yeah, there are nine conversations with God, dialogues. Yeah, because the first three are called conversations with God. The other ones are called, they have different names. Yeah. Yes, and then also book four, Conversations with God, book four. Yeah. So there are four books called Conversations with God. Then there's Friendship with God, Communion with God, Home with God, you know, the New Revelations. So, yeah, you're right. Some of the books have different titles. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But they're all dialogues.
30:17 Okay, Neil. Now, what made you happiest in your life? Wow. What made me happiest in my life? So far, the day that the lady I loved said, I do. I remember when she said, I do. When you proposed and you got married. The minister said, do you take this man to be your lawfully wedded husband? in sickness and in health, to be richer or poorer, in good times and in bad times, until death do your part. And the lady that I was in love with
31:04 said, I do. And she's kept word. Yeah. That's amazing. That was the top moment of happiness, but let's say what made you happy, like throughout your life? What moments made you happy throughout your life? When I put a smile on someone else's face, as I mentioned a minute ago. When I experienced that my having been in someone else's life for that moment or for that time or for that event, has made it better for them.
31:52 It could be something small, like telling a good joke and getting a good laugh, or it could be something huge. You know, I remember walking down the street and seeing a man who was homeless. And I had been homeless, so I knew what he was going through. And he had a little basket in front of him. And on the basket, he was sitting on the ground, leaning up against the building. And in the basket was a little sign that said, anything helps. Now I remember I reached into my pocket and I took out some folding money and I threw it in the basket. And then I kept on going. But I heard him say, as I was walking away, he saw that I had put some, not just coins, but some paper money in the basket. And I heard him say, oh boy. And I
32:38 realized how much that meant to him, that he could maybe eat a halfway decent meal that day. So you know what? What's made me happy through the years is is knowing that I have touched other people in a way that brought them benefit and joy and happiness. From my own opinion, because I read at least 10 of your books, your books affected, their books were recommended by somebody else. Some other guy just borrowed and gave me the books, so he was affected very much too. So I'm pretty sure you had a big influence to your books as well. I'm so happy to hear that. It makes me feel good to hear that. Thank you for telling me that. Yeah, yeah, yeah. He was amazing, I'm telling you.
33:27 I was... And I asked that guy, I said, my God, this is beautiful writing. And I said, is he alive? Because I thought you are like 300, 400 years old, like from the 16th, 17th century. He said, no, no, he's still around. He's in his 70s, something like that, because that was 10 years ago. Now... Talking about the homeless, yesterday I was walking through the underground and I saw one man and he had a sign, he said, you know, some money or some food, anything. And he was playing a harmonica. But I was in a rush, I was going to an appointment, I had no time. I was gonna go buy some food for him, because I didn't want to give money, I was just gonna go with some food. But I'm gonna fix that, because he's not far from here, I'm gonna
34:14 go and find him, I'm gonna buy him some food. Good for you. Not just good for him, good for you. Because when you experience yourself in that way, then your soul says to your mind, that's why I came here to this physical realm. That's why I came here to experience who I really am. What would you say, Neil, on your netbed? Let's say you know you have one day to live. What would you say to your wife or to people? Well, of course I would say to my wife, I love you. You've made me the happiest person I ever thought I could be. You've given me the best gift of all of my years on earth.
35:04 Thank you. Thank you for loving. This is what I would say to my wife. What I would say to myself is, you did your best. Yeah. It may not have been perfect, but you did your best, and you never stopped trying, and at least you knew what you were attempting to accomplish. Yeah. That's what I'm saying to myself also often, you know, because this world tried to make us guilty because we didn't do that, we didn't achieve that. But then I say to myself, you know what, I'm doing my best. I'm doing what I can. That's all I can do. Exactly. Exactly. So now about the book, Neil. Do you
35:50 think this is going to be your last book, or are you still going to write more? I'm probably going to be writing books until I die. So, you know, I'm not sure it'll be my last book. It could be, because I could get hit by a car tomorrow. Yeah. Or run over by a bus. But if I live another five or six years, there may be more, who knows. Yeah. Because I'm a writer. I can't stop writing. Yeah. And there's much that I want to say. About this book, Letter to a Young Seeker, what's the main theme of this book? The main message? The main message is there's more going on here than meets the eye. Don't let life pass you by
36:38 without looking deeply into every moment because there's more going on here than meets the eye. What do you mean by that? I mean exactly what I mean. There's more going on here. Take a look at every moment. For instance, this interview as an example. There's more going on here than you're asking questions and I'm giving you my best answers. There's more going on here. Many, many people are hearing what you and I are saying to each other. And if only one person, Sergei, if only one person walks away from this interview, with a new idea about life and what its purpose could be and how they can fulfill that
37:23 purpose. Then when you die, God will say something to you. Well done, good and faithful servant. Well done. Okay, now, Neil, would you like to share some information about what people can find more about you and about the book? They can find out more about me by simply going to neildonaldwalsh.com, which is my website. And they can find the book at any online bookstore. Yeah. That was an interesting conversation. Anything else would you like to say to people, Neil? I hope that they will allow themselves to know that there is an essence in the universe that I call God, the supreme being, the highest
38:12 power, and that we are individual expressions of that essential energy. And that when we bring our awareness of that to our everyday decisions, our lives and the lives of those people who we touch are made better forever. That's been my experience. And that's what I would share with people as my closing thought. One more question. Do you meditate? No. It doesn't work for everybody. I think meditation, your meditation is writing, especially when you write a book like... introspecting, like journaling, that's your meditation. I agree with you. You don't have to sit in the lotus pose and do that 20 minutes of breathing and stuff like that. Well, it helps, but it's not mandatory. Not in my
39:00 understanding. Yeah. Okay, Neil. Thanks very much for being on my show again. It's an honor. Thank you for having me. It's been lovely again to be with you. and I appreciate the opportunity. Thank you very much.
