33

I’ve often heard the analogy that I am, to God, as a wave is to the ocean. The same
stuff, exactly. Just smaller in size.

That analogy has indeed been used many times, and it is not
inappropriate. So now, let us define this “ocean.” Let us propose here that God
is The Creator. Very few people who believe in a God at all have an argument
with that.

If it is true that God is The Creator, this means that you, too, are a
creator. God creates all of life, and you create all of your life. It’s that simple.

If you think of it that way you can hold it in your consciousness.

You and God are creating all the time—you on the micro level, God on
the macro. Are you clear?

Yes, I see! There is no separation between the wave and the ocean. None. The
wave is one part of the ocean, acting in a certain way. The wave does the same thing the
ocean does, in smaller degree.

That is exactly correct. You are me, acting the way you are acting. I give
you the power to act as you are acting. Your power comes from me. Without
the ocean, the wave does not have the power to be a wave. Without me, you do
not have the power to be you. And without you, my power is not made
manifest. Your joy is to make me manifest. The joy of humanity is to manifest
God.

Now there’s a statement.

Here’s another…

Life is God, made physical.

What is important to understand is that there is no single way in which

life makes God physical. Some waves are small, barely a ripple, while other
waves are huge, thunderous in their sweep. Yet, whether minuscule or
monstrous, there is always a wave. There is no time when there is not a wave
on the ocean. And while every wave is different, not a single one is divided
from the ocean itself.
 34

Difference does not mean division. Those words are not

interchangeable.

You are different from God, but you are not divided from God. The fact
that you are not divided from God is why you can never die.

The wave lands on the beach, but it does not cease to be. It merely
changes form, receding back into the ocean.

The ocean does not get “smaller” every time a wave hits the sand.
Indeed, the incoming wave demonstrates, and therefore reveals, the ocean’s
majesty. Then, by receding into the ocean, it restores the ocean’s glory.

The presence of the wave is evidence of the existence of the ocean.

Your presence is evidence of the existence of God.

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 35

 
 

The Holy Experience

Chapter Six
 
The second step in creating the Holy Experience is understanding that
you are worthy of having it.
We touched upon this briefly in the preceding chapter. You might say
that the first step in creating the Holy Experience is believing that such a
thing is possible, and the second step is believing that such a thing is possible
for you.
As I said in Chapter 5, most people who suffer from unworthiness
around this picked up their thoughts from religion. Many people have been
told that they are sinners, that they were born in sin, and that they will die in
sin, their only hope for salvation being their constant call for forgiveness, and
God’s mercy in granting it, or their belief in God’s Son as the Redeemer.
Others have been told that even if they were worthy of seeing God—
which is what the Holy Experience is all about—they would not be able to see
God anyway, because God is so magnificent and utterly unfathomable that
God cannot be seen, comprehended, or experienced.
Still other religions teach that to even try to fathom God, to try to
understand God, is blasphemous. God is the Inexplicable, and should remain
so.
Conversations with God tells us that all of these premises are false.
No one is “born in sin.” Indeed, sin itself does not exist. There is no
such thing as “offending” God. Nor is God subject to stress, anger,
frustration, or disappointment. That is simply not the nature of That Which Is
Divine.
Perhaps this is a good juncture at which to undertake a brief review of
just who and what God is.
In The New Revelations we were told…
“God is not a singular Super Being, living somewhere in the Universe or
outside of it, having the same emotional needs and subject to the same emotional
 36

turmoil as humans. That Which Is God cannot be hurt or damaged in any way, and
so, has no need to seek revenge or impose punishment.”
We are told something else there as well, something perhaps a bit
more unexpected:
“God needs nothing. God requires nothing in order to be happy. God is
happiness itself. Therefore, God requires nothing of anyone or anything in the
universe.”
Now if these statements are true (and I they are), there is no reason for
us to worry about God being angry with us, nor to assess ourselves unworthy
of God’s love, or of God’s presence in our lives, or of the Holy Experience.
Two years later, in Tomorrow's God, we were given an even more
comprehensive close-up view of God and the nature of Divinity, with some of
the earlier revelations being essentially repeated, but with new ones added.
Few of the ideas found there, however, are held by the majority of people in
today’s society. Nearly all of these concepts violate most people’s most
fundamental beliefs about God. Yet if we were to embrace these concepts, I
believe that our whole lives would change.
Here is what that extraordinary text tells us:
* Tomorrow's God does not require anyone to believe in God.
* Tomorrow's God is without gender, size, shape, color, or any of the
characteristics of an individual living being.
* Tomorrow's God talks with everyone, all the time.
* Tomorrow's God is separate from nothing, but is Everywhere Present, the
All In All, the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End, the Sum Total of
Everything that ever was, is now, and ever shall be.
* Tomorrow's God is not a singular Super Being, but the extra-ordinary
process called Life.
* Tomorrow's God is ever changing.
* Tomorrow’s God is needless.
* Tomorrow’s God does not ask to be served, but is the Servant of all of Life.
* Tomorrow’s God will be unconditionally loving, non-judgmental, non-
condemning, and non-punishing.
 37

Stepping away from arrogance

Given all that we have now come to know about God, any thoughts of
unworthiness melt away. This assumes, of course, that we accept these new
understandings and embrace them as truth.
In order to do this we would have to be willing to step away from
practically everything we have been told in the past about God and ourselves.
We would have to consider the possibility that there may be something we do
not fully understand about God, the understanding of which would change
everything. We would have to give up our spiritual arrogance.
That  may  seem  like  a  strong  phrase  to  use,  and  it  may  not  even  apply  to  
you,   individually.   Yet   the   fact   is   that   the   vast   majority   of   the   world’s   people   who  
believe   in   a   God   are,   in   fact,   spiritually   arrogant,   in   the   sense   that   they   have  
adopted  as  their  particular  conceit  the  idea  that  all  there  is  to  know  about  God  is  
now  known  as  fully  as  it  can  possibly  be,  all  there  is  to  understand  about  God  is  
now  understood  as  fully  as  it  can  possibly  be,  and  all  there  is  to  explore  and  say  
about  God  has  been  explored  and  said,  as  far  as  it  can  be.    
My friend Bill Fischofer likes to say, “In fairness, no religion claims
they ‘understand’ God, for all believe that He is infinite and thus beyond
understanding. The problem, always, is that our concepts of God are too
small. Since God is infinite in all ‘directions,’ wherever one turns one finds an
inexhaustible terrain. Religion A and Religion B both find themselves in
infinite fields of wonder and thus assume that they have ‘found God.’
Indeed, they have, but God is so unfathomably vast that what they fail to
notice is that God is ‘big enough’ to contain the entirety of their (seemingly
different) infinite vistas (and more). This is why it is in the mystical traditions
of religions that one finds spiritual unity (and, of course, in Conversations with
God), for only here is this larger realization glimpsed.”
The followers of many of the world’s so called “mainline” religions
will tell you that everything you need is in the doctrines and dogmas of their
particular faith. It’s a complete road map, and all we have to do is follow it.
It’s the surest path to our salvation. Indeed, say some, it is the only path.
Yet that path has not brought humanity to its salvation, but rather, to
its knees. It is time now to do something that we have not been willing to do.
It is time to question the prior assumption.
 38

Our prior ideas about God and Life and each other may very well be
incomplete. I do not believe that they are “wrong,” but I do believe that there
is more to know, that there are gaps to close, that there are blanks to fill in
regarding our understanding of who we are, who God is, and what life is all
about.
I believe that the gathering of this knowledge (presuming that we have
the courage to do so), the closing of these gaps, and the filling in of these
blanks will render obsolete all question of your worthiness for the Holy
Experience.

Forgiving ourselves
Yet even if we accept that God will never judge us and never has, there
is still the question of our own self-judgment—the harshest judgment of all.
And so a major process for us, a huge portion of our internal work and of our
personal preparation for the Holy Experience, has to do with self-forgiveness.
Some of what I’m going to say now is going to sound repetitive, and
that’s on purpose. You can’t hear this stuff enough. So hear this…
Almost always, it is easier for people to embrace the idea that God
forgives them than it is for them to forgive themselves. We have a whole list
of “wrongs” we imagine ourselves to have done in our lives, and we can’t
forget them.
We, and only we, know the inner workings of our mind, the quiet
scheming of our heart, the sad assessment of our very human conscience, as
we look at our lives and give ourselves a grade.
The trick here is not to try to forget our misdeeds, but to do just the
opposite. Remember them, and remember them vividly – for it is what you
resist that persists, and what you look at that disappears. That is, it ceases to
have its illusory form.
Remember all of your alleged wrong-doings, then do two things at
once: (a) agree with yourself never to repeat those behaviors again, and (b)
allow yourself to let go of any guilt you have about them, replacing all guilt
with regret.
Guilt and fear are the only enemies of man. Elisabeth Kübler-Ross used
to say that (it was one of her most oft-used lines), and she was profoundly
 39

right. So get over your guilt about what you’ve done in the past. Just get over
it. Get over it.
All of us have made mistakes – and for some of us they have been
some pretty big whoppers – but that has nothing to do with your worthiness
to see God, to be loved by God, and to have the Holy Experience.
Indeed, part of the Holy Experience is understanding this.

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 40

 
 
 

The Holy Experience

Chapter Seven
 
The third step in creating the Holy Experience is knowing that you are
having it.
In truth, one does not create the Holy Experience at all (nor, for that
matter, does one create anything). One simply expands one’s perspective,
allowing one to notice that the experience is already occurring and is just
waiting for us to realize it.
All things that “are” now, have ever been, or ever will be, are now. In
our Timeless Multiverse (we do not live in simply one Universe, but in a
multiplicity of universes—something that science is now telling us), nothing
will ever be created again. Everything already exists in the Eternal Moment of
Now. It was all created at once! Ours is to merely reach into that Moment and
all that it contains and, with the tool of our perspective, pull out anything that
we wish. Like a magician pulling a rabbit from a hat, so, too, do we
experience the wonder and the magic of Life.
Remarkably, few people are aware that they are now having the Holy
Experience. There are two reasons for this.
1. Most people do not know what the Holy Experience is.
2. Most people do not know who they are.
Our extraordinarily limited perspective allows us only a very limited
perception. You can only see what you are able to see. Thomas Aquinas put
this eternal truth wonderfully in his Summa Theologica when he said: “The
thing known is in the knower according to the mode of the knower.” Total
Knowledge, True Knowledge, is not possible for Aspects of Being or
Individuations of Divinity of limited perspective—and all Individuations of
Divinity hold a limited perspective of Ultimate Reality by virtue of the fact that they
are Individuations.
Yet all is not lost, for the degree to which one’s perspective may expand
is, in human terms, beyond extraordinary, and, in cosmic terms, virtually
 41

unlimited. This presents a dichotomy, for how can a thing which is inherently
limited be virtually unlimited?
One of my friends, who I have quoted before here, Bill Fischofer, adds
this: “Mathematically, this is the distinction between being infinite and being
unbounded. The divine is an actual infinity, something which is completely
beyond any attempt at comprehension. Individuations of the divine are finite
but unbounded, meaning that at any instant they have finite extent but that
their capacity for growth and new experience is not limited. We are thus
asymptotes of the divine.”
(I probably would spend the rest of my life without ever using the
word “asymptotes, but then, Bill is a genius and I, a mere human.)
The solution to the paradox lies in the fact that we are unlimited in
what we can ultimate know and experience of ourselves—and the moment
we know and experience all that there is to know and experience, we will
immediately create more to know and experience. So we can know our Selves
completely, and the moment we know our Selves completely, we do not. We
accomplish this neat trick by simply changing the definition of “completely.”
Only a God could do this, and that is, of course, exactly who we are.

Reversing the paradigm

Earlier I said that “knowing” you are having the Holy Experience is
the third step in “creating it.” (Again, for clarity: I use the word “creating”
here in the limited human sense. Everything has already been created. What
we call “creating” is really a “remembering” or a “noticing” or an
“awareness” that something is already there, already exists, and always did.
Yes? So if we understand this, then I will continue to use the word “create” in
the human sense.)
So….earlier I said that “knowing” you are having the Holy Experience
is the third step in “creating it.” Some people will see this as a juxtaposition of
knowing and creating, and, of course, it is exactly that. Such a juxtaposition is
required when we speak (as most of us usually do) within the limited
understandings of our current perspective.
Allow me to explain.
 42

Many people believe that creation precedes knowing. That is, you can’t
truly “know” about something that “is not.” This is how it seems to work in
the actual living of our lives. Yet what I am saying here is exactly the
opposite. We cannot create anything that we do not first know about.
Knowing precedes creation, and produces it. This is a reversal of the paradigm
within which we generally experience ourselves. With such a reversal comes
a complete turnaround in our experience.
Knowing is part of the act of creation. It is the first part. It is what must
happen before anything else can happen. When one thinks about it logically,
it becomes obvious that this is true.
Conversations with God tells us that the three Tools of Creation are:
• Thought
• Word
• Deed
The first step in the creation of anything is to have an idea about it. An
idea about something is your Thought about it. It is what you “know” about
it. So, knowing is the beginning of creation.
That initial thought may come to you in First Form as a picture, or a
feeling. Eventually, you shape that thought into a Word, or several words, or
many. This is the second Tool of Creation.
Finally, you turn your Words into Action—the third Tool of
Creation—and you have manifestation.
This is an elementary way of understanding the process of life. It is an
extremely primitive perspective. Yet it works. For people living within the
paradigm of an extraordinarily limited perspective, this crude device, these
three very crude tools, can seem like magic.
In truth, because there is no such thing as Creation, there is only a
Knowing that everything has already been created, and our task is to merely
Call It Forth. This is a higher level of understanding, and is demonstrated
through consistent and predictable physical manifestation, which is
accomplished by very few people, whom we have called masters and avatars.
The rest of us may produce such demonstrations on occasion (perhaps even
on several occasions, but rarely on many, and never on every), and such
moments inevitably lead us to deeper comprehension.
 43

Deeper comprehension is, of course, the Holy Experience. It is

Knowing more fully, through the demonstration of it, Who We Really Are.
Thus it is possible for everyone, and not only masters, to have the Holy
Experience (or, in more accurate terms, to Know that we are always having
it). This, of course, is the promise of God, and the pledge of all true religions.
Knowing you are having the Holy Experience is as simple as knowing
that you are Life. All people know they are living, but few people know they
are life. And what is life? A process.
You are, therefore, a process.

Knowing what you are

Very few people think of themselves in this way. They may think of
themselves as something that IS, but they seldom stop to ask themselves, “is
what?”
Others think of themselves as a being, a sentient biological creature.
Yet they seldom stop to ask themselves, a creature being what?
Still others say that they are not their body, but rather, they are that
which is using the body as a tool. But a tool in the creation of what?
Themselves, they say. Yet what is that? They will not know until they have
created it, they say. And they are right. Profoundly right.
And so, we are all nothing more than a process. We are also nothing
less, which is saying a great deal. For we are the process called Life—and that
is All There Is.
Our identity becomes more clear to us when we really hear those last
words—because “all there is” is, of course, another way of saying, “God.”

Putting this into practice

None of this verbal explanation will mean anything if we cannot put it
into practice. None of it has any use if we cannot place it on the ground,
minute to minute, in our every day lives. Ruminations can be fascinating, but
they carry no practical value if we cannot make them live and breathe and
manifest in our reality.
 44

From rumination to manifestation—that is the journey. From our

thought about ourselves to our experience of ourselves—that is the path. It is
the path upon which the Soul is embarked eternally. It is the Eternal Joy of
God.
Putting esoteric wisdom into practice and making it part of our daily
lives is the greatest opportunity we will ever have—and we have it every
moment. It is the opportunity to know and experience our divinity.
Practicing Esoterism is a lifelong undertaking. Very, very, very few
people attempt it. Most do not even know it is there to attempt. They are far
too busy simply staying alive. That is why it is the first duty of every society
that would call itself enlightened to lighten the load of those who barely
survive. What we will do for the least among us tells us everything about
what we will do as a species.
When the least among many can take their minds off of the constant
worry and anxiety of day-to-day survival, they can at last turn their attention
to achieving a larger understanding of the matters that will make simple
survival a given. This is the means by which is accomplished the transformation of
an entire society.
Personal and societal transformation is arduous. It is immensely
challenging. It is not work for the feint of heart or the weak-spirited. It is
work for the strong and the courageous. It is the last step in having the Holy
Experience.
The next step is declaring that one is going to do just that.
 45

The Holy Experience

Chapter Eight
 
The fourth step in creating the Holy Experience is declaring that you
are having it.
Declaration is the most powerful fuel in the engine of manifestation. It
is about “speaking your word.” The three Tools of Creation are Thought,
Word, and Deed, and declaration is the second and third tool combined.
Declaring that you are having the Holy Experience requires, of course,
that you are aware that you are having it. You must be aware that every moment
of your life is Holy.

The Secret of Awareness

Awareness is one of the most important experiences that I could ever
give my Self during the time that I’m here, living upon the Earth.
To be aware, it seems to me, is to be alive in the extreme. It is to live in
Completion every moment. Or, as wonderful science-fiction writer Robert
Heinlein put it, it is to "grok in fullness."
Awareness is a Quality of Being. It arises out of a decision that we, and
only we, can make a very conscious decision to open our Selves to the wonder
and the glory and the beauty of Life. Also, to the sadness and the hurt and the
darkness.
When one decides to become Aware, one is choosing to be deeply
committed to observing, and consciously noticing, the Totality of Every
Single Moment.
That’s an interesting phrase, isn’t it? Conscious Noticing.
Awareness is not merely observing, but noticing at a very high level of
consciousness exactly what is happening and exactly what is “so”… Right
Here, Right Now.
 46

Recently I was walking down the street with a friend and I looked at
one of the trees that we were passing on our city street. "Wow, look at that!" I
exclaimed. "Isn't it just beautiful the way that tree just sort of hugs that
building over there?" My friend hadn't even noticed, until I mentioned it.
"That's what I like about you," she said. "You see everything."
Well, I'm not sure that I see everything, but I do try to see as much as I
possibly can of what is going on around me. Wouldn’t it be great if we all
did? Someone once said that “enlightenment” is nothing more than paying
attention.
One thing I don't see as well as I wished I did is myself. I’m not always
aware of the way I’m moving through the world, and how that is impacting
and affecting others.
So I think that Awareness is not just noticing what’s going on around
you, but what’s going on within you as well. And, what is going on within
others.
Of course, we can't always know that, and this is nothing to be playing
guessing games with, so one thing we might do if we’re unclear about such
an important matter…and yes, what is going on within others IS an
important matter…one thing we might do is to check in with them, and
simply ask.

Becoming spiritually vital

At the very least, this shows that you are totally present and care
genuinely about them and about how things are with them and about how
you are impacting them. This is another way of saying "I love you," and it
feels very good on the other side of the room, I can tell you. I’m not sure that
we spend enough time checking in with each other.
So I think that Awareness is a very, very important aspect of Life. I
think it’s an important quality to nurture and to grow. If we can grow in
Awareness, I think that we grow in one of the most vital ways. I think that
Awareness is Vitality. I think it is Spiritual Vitality. I think that one is
“spiritually vital” when one is Aware---and I think that when one is Aware
one becomes “spiritually vital.” I’m saying that I think the effect is circular.
 47

So look deeply into each moment. Savor each nanosecond. Don't miss
a single cloud formation, if you can help it. Or a single fragrance. Or a single
nuance in the energy of your Beloved. Don't miss this; don't miss this, DON'T
MISS THIS.
When you are aware—deeply aware—of the wonder of Now (Eckhart
Tolle has written marvelously on this subject), you find it really very easy to
declare that you are now having The Holy Experience.
In the previous chapter I said, “Personal and societal transformation is
arduous. It is immensely challenging. It is not work for the feint of heart or
the weak-spirited. It is work for the strong and the courageous. It is the last
step in having the Holy Experience. The next step is declaring that one is
going to do just that.
Now I want to tell you that personal and societal transformation
doesn’t have to be arduous. It can be easy when you step out of Yesterday and
into the Now.
Stepping out of Yesterday is as simple as realizing: that was THEN and
this is NOW.
NOW has nothing to do with THEN. We think that it does, but it does
not. Yesterday was Yesterday, and it has nothing to do with Today. You are
not who you were Yesterday, and nothing you did Yesterday, and nothing
that happened to you or through you Yesterday, has anything to do with
Today.
Each moment is the Moment of Creation.
This is the Wonder and the Glory of Life. This is precisely why each
Moment IN Life is, in fact, a Holy Experience. What makes it holy is that it
embodies the sacred process of creation itself.
This is not something that most people know, or realize in the specific
sense. When they do, they often declare openly that they are having The Holy
Experience.
Yet we do not have to wait until we are having that experience (or
know that we are having it) to declare that we are having it. Indeed, the very
act of declaring it produces it.
 48

That was a mouthful right there, that was an extraordinary thing that
was just said, and so it deserves to be said again. With regard to The Holy
Experience, the greatest secret in Life is that the act of declaring it produces it.
This is true of ALL of Life. What you declare is what you produce.
Speak your Word, and the word is made flesh and dwells among us.
So never look over your shoulder to know Who You Are right now.
You are NOT who you WERE. You are who you are RIGHT NOW. Let go of
Yesterday and of all that has happened to you and through you, then simply
declare: I Am That I Am.
I Am What I Am Right Here, Right Now.
And just exactly what is that? It is whatever you choose for it to be.

Do not “future-ize”
Declaring that you are having The Holy Experience right now also
requires that you refuse to step into Tomorrow before Tomorrow comes. This
means that we must give up our habit of “future-izing.”
Future-izing is a common human trait. All people look into the future,
their own future in particular, and begin to construct realities around that.
They imagine what is going to happen and how it is going to happen—and,
amazingly, they very often imagine the worst. Then (and here comes the
sneaky, tricky part) they live their lives in this moment, Right Now, as if that
negative outcome is certain to be a reality.
Future-izing is not the same as visualizing. Worrying is not the same
as creative visualization. It is all well and good to imagine a positive
Tomorrow, but it is even more powerful to experience a positive NOW.
Future-izing is the act of living Today as if it were Tomorrow.
The Bible advises us (and I am paraphrasing here)…
So don’t go around asking “What are we to eat? What are we to drink?
Wherewithal shall we clothe ourselves?” Each day has problems of its own. Keep your
eye where? On God, and the Kingdom of Heaven—and all else will be added unto
you. For where your heart is, there will your treasure also be.
 49

I have stopped worrying about Tomorrow. When you worry about

Tomorrow you cannot know that you are having The Holy Experience right
now. Worry robs the Present Moment of its awesomeness.

Why declaring is so powerful

People tend to have the experience they say they are having. Did you
know that? This is an amazing truth, and it works. I mean, as a process, it
works. Announce the truth you wish to experience and more often than not
that is the truth you will encounter. This is because all of Life is creative, and
the Tools of Creation, as we have already learned, are Thought, Word, and
Deed.
Each day when you awaken, thank God for The Holy Experience. Then
declare to your Self, “I am having the Holy Experience, Right Here, Right
Now. I AM THE HOLY EXPERIENCE.”
This Act of Declaration has more power in it than you may ever have
imagined. Try it. Try it for seven weeks running, without interruption. Make
your Declaration every morning, noon, and night.
I mean that literally. Stop what you are doing every morning, every
day at 12 Noon, and every night and make this declaration: I AM THE HOLY
EXPERIENCE.
Do this for seven weeks running. It will change your life.

The final step

So, having firmly decided to dwell in the Here and Now, and having
firmly declared yourself to be having the experience, right now, that you have
so long desired, take that Holy Experience and share it with all the world. Do
whatever it takes to make it known that not only are you having The Holy
Experience---you ARE The Holy Experience.
This sharing is your next and final Step in the five step process that
will allow you to move into The Holy Experience in all times and places, at
will.
 
 
 
 50

The Holy Experience

Chapter Nine
 
The fifth step in creating the Holy Experience is sharing it with others,
so that they may have it.
This is a bold step. It takes spiritual courage. You must be willing to be
seen as someone whose head is above the crowd. For not many people in the
crowd called humanity are aware of having the Holy Experience. As I have
said now several times, they are not even aware that it is possible for them to
have it. They believe that such an experience is for avatars and masters and
monks, or “holy ones.” The idea of the Holy Experience being available to
anyone, to everyone, is not something that most people can easily accept.
The fastest way to convince others that it is available to everyone is to
tell others that you are having it right now. Of course, if you just do this “out
of the blue,” others may look at you as if you are a bit daft. You have to find
the time and the place for it. You have to create a context within which your
announcement will make sense and be heard, not be ridiculed and ignored.
Why bother? If you are having the Holy Experience, why not just keep
it to yourself? Because your experience of everything in life is magnified and
verified when you share it with another. Held within, kept secret, you may
eventually come to think that it is all just a figment of your imagination.
Shared with another, it becomes real.
There is also the larger point that until others are having it, you are not
having it. Not completely. Not fully. That is because the You that is having
the Holy Experience is larger than the “you” that you may imagine yourself
to be. The You that you are does not stop at the end of your fingers. It
extends outward to all the world. The only thing that ends at your fingertips
is the particular physical manifestation that you call “you.” But the You that
You Really Are encompasses every other person. Therefore, if they are not
having the Holy Experience, then You are not. Not completely, but only in
part.
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So, if you want to have the Holy Experience completely, cause another
to have the Holy Experience completely—and another, and another, and
another. Share your experience with others, that they, too, may have it.

It’s like money

The Holy Experience is just like any other form of wealth. You cannot
fully experience it until you share it with others. What good does it do you to
have inherited a million dollars if you never spend so much as a nickel of it?
Like the Walt Disney comic book character Uncle Scrooge McDuck sitting
there ogling his pile of gold, you’ll find that there’s not much joy in holding
onto it. Yet if you grab a handful of it and give it to others—go on a
“spending spree”—suddenly you know experientially what having that money
is all about.
Similarly, if you keep the Holy Experience all to yourself, you will find
after a very short while that you are experiencing the smallest part of it. Yet if
you grab a handful of it and give it to others – go on a “spiritual spending
spree”—suddenly you know experientially what having the Holy Experience
is all about.
There is a wonderful instruction in the Conversations with God material
that says, “That which you wish to experience within yourself, cause another
to experience.” CwG also says, “That which flows through you sticks to you.”
The very act of flowing the Holy Experience out to others causes that
experience to stick to you, and if you ever doubted that you were having the
Holy Experience, sharing it with others removes that doubt absolutely.

The easiest way to share it

As I explained in the second chapter of this book, the Holy Experience
is the experience of knowing Who You Really Are. It is the actual experience
(as opposed to the intellectual “knowing”) that you are every other person
and thing. It is the experience of nothing being separate from you. Not even
God.
Especially not God.
How to share this experience? The easiest way I can think of to cause
yourself to know that you are not separate from anyone else is to cause
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everyone else to know that they are not separate from you. That is why
sharing the Holy Experience with others works.
And the easiest way to cause others to know that they are not separate
from you is to act that way.
This means that you may have to change your whole ground of being.
You may have to alter the entire way that you relate to other people. You can
begin with feelings.

Feelings: the key to closing the gap

The next time you are with someone, try to gauge what they are
feeling. Don’t just listen to their words, look deep inside to see if you can get
a handle on what they are feeling. Read between the lines. Look past the
words. Practice what I call Active Listening.
This is a form of listening in which you tune into the communication of
the Soul rather than of the Mind of the person before you. Feelings are the
language of the soul. This is not a language that it is impossible for you to
understand. In fact, just the opposite. You can often understand a person’s
feelings a lot faster than you can understand their words.
Think of how many times you have listened to a person who is
distraught or frightened or very sad or deeply disappointed. Often, their
words come out in jumbles, and make no sense at all. You may even have
caught yourself saying, “You’re not even making sense.” You might even
have used this as a defense during some verbal exchange.
A person who listens to words rather than feelings often will throw
another’s words back in their face, reciting perfectly what they’ve just said
word-for-word in order to show them that they are making no sense at all.
Right about then is when the other person will say, “Can you hear anything
at all about how I am FEELING?”
Right about then is when you know that you have been listening to
that person’s Mind, and have made a decision to have nothing at all to do
with their Soul. If that other person thinks that he or she is your “soul
partner,” this can be a devastating experience. They will wonder why you
cannot hear them at the level of Soul, but insist only on taking their words
apart, one by one, and analyzing them to show them how silly they are being.
 53

A few experiences such as this can change a relationship forever.

Someone who was once very close to you can decide that it is not safe to
remain that close—that perhaps they were never that close—because you have
no idea at all of how they are feeling.
The fastest way to let someone know that you and they are One is to
feed back to them exactly what they are feeling. This means giving up defense
in all verbal exchanges—even arguments—and realizing that, if the two of
you are One, there is no one to defend against. There is only to understand what
the Totality called the Oneness of You is now experiencing.
This means honestly looking at your own feelings and opening to the
feelings of others.

Defenselessness is the Holy Experience

In the Holy Experience one is defenseless. There is no need to defend
because the experience of attack is not possible, nor is the experience of
damage. There is only what is happening, what is now going on, but it is
labeled neither attack nor damage by The One, hence, there is no need for
defense, judgment, or forgiveness.
This is exactly what was experienced by Jesus when he was crucified
on the cross. He understood that The One was doing this to Oneself, for
purposes much higher and grander than that which was seen or understood
by the Individuations of The One who stood in the moment, observing
everything but seeing nothing.
When having an exchange with another, be sure that you are not
standing in the moment observing everything but seeing nothing. Too often
among human beings this is the case. Not only when people are arguing with
each other, either. Sometimes this happens even when they are loving each
other. Even when they are making love. They are observing everything but
seeing nothing.
To have the Holy Experience, share the Holy Experience. Do this by
sharing in the feelings of others. As you listen to what they are saying, do not
repeat their own words back to them. Never repeat someone’s own words back to
them if you want to get closer to them. Do you think they do not know what
they have just said? Or, if they do not know, do you think that they want this
pointed out to them?
 54

What they want is to be heard at the level of feelings. Therefore, instead

of repeating their words back to them, say what you think they are feeling.
This is Active Listening. A dialogue with an INactive listener could go
something like this:
“You always come home late from work, even when you promise that
you’ll be on time for dinner.”
“I do not always come home late from work. I was not late even
yesterday. You always do that. You always make it worse than it is in order
to make your point.”
“I’m not making it worse than it is! You may have gotten home on
time yesterday, but today is the third time this week you’ve been late!”
“Third TIME? I didn’t even GO to work on Monday. I was sick,
remember? You see what I mean? You don’t even know what you’re talking
about.”
“Okay! It was twice this week, three times last week! I don’t have a
calendar on my wrist. All I’m saying is that you’re late again, and I’m tired of
yelling about it.”
“You’re tired of yelling about it? I’M tired of yelling about it. Now I
don’t even want to EAT dinner. Forget it. I’ll be in the den if you want to
talk to me nicely for a change…”
Now that exchange could have gone a lot differently, if even one of the
two people had been an Active Listener…
“You always come home late from work, even when you promise that
you’ll be on time for dinner.”
“I see that you’re disappointed that I’m home so late, and I’m really
sad that you’re disappointed. Is there anything I can do to make you feel any
better?”
“This is the third time this week you’ve been late!”
“Wow, you’re really upset.”
“I am upset, and I’m sorry to be so upset, but gosh, this keeps
happening all the time.”
“I hear that you’re sad, and even a little angry. I want you to know
that I hurt inside when you’re sad or angry. I love you.”
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“I love you, too. Could you please try to make it home on time a little
more often?”
“I’ll try. Sometimes the time gets away from me. I’ll try to watch the
time more closely. Thanks for saying you love me. I know that if you didn’t,
none of this would matter to you. It feels good to be loved that much.”
“Well, I do love you, for heaven sake. So come on over here and sit
down. It’ll take me just a minute to warm our dinner.”
This is just a simple example of what it is like to have the Holy
Experience in an Everyday Life kind of situation.
The Holy Experience is when you give every person back to
themselves. It is when you cause them to know who they really are. Namely,
that they are important to you, that they are part of you. And that they are
part of God. You treat them as if they were Godly, as if they were Divine.
This is the Holy Experience, made real.
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The Holy Experience

Chapter Ten
 
There are many areas of life, many situations, in which you may
choose to have the Holy Experience.
Now that may sound like a strange thing to say, so let’s take a look at
it. At first, it may seem strange to speak of the Holy Experience as something
that you “choose to have.” Most people think of things that are holy as things
that are rare. Or at the very least, not controllable in the first person. That is,
they do not seem themselves as being at cause in the matter.
In fact, they are. We all are. All of us. We are “choosing to have” all
of the experiences that we are having, moment-to-moment.
Now remember, I said all of the experiences, not all of the conditions,
circumstances, or events. An “experience” is something that you feel inside
about something that is happening outside. Your “experience” of something
is “how it felt to you.” It is nothing more, and nothing less, than that.
In the world of Duality Thinking (which is the world in which most of
us live), you could imagine that somebody else is “doing something” to you,
or that some seemingly uncontrollable outward condition, such as the
weather, has been encountered by you, without you having anything to do
with it. (This is impossible, actually, but in the world of our illusion such
impossibilities can seem very real.)
The world of Duality Thinking says that there is US and IT, or US and
THEM. In the world of Non-Duality Thinking there is only US and US.
There is nothing else but US, in differing form.
If there is only US, then nothing can be happening TO us, and
everything must be happening THROUGH us.
This is, in fact, the case. Nevertheless, an event could have the
appearance of happening TO us—and when it does, if it is a negative event, it
will be very hard to stop from thinking of ourselves as the victim of that
 57

circumstance. We see ourselves as the victim, rather than the creator, of our
present situation.
The movement from victim to creator is an astonishment. It is the
movement that Masters make.
Everyone can be a Master—indeed, everyone already is a Master—and
it is true that not everyone knows this. In fact, few people do.
What is takes to experience the fact one is already a Master is to make a
commitment to having the Holy Experience every day. Indeed, all day every
day, if it is possible. And it is.
Let us look now into the various areas or aspects of our lives, to see,
one area at a time, how one may move into the Holy Experience, at will.

Looking at life, one part at a time

Let’s break down the average person’s life into five distinct areas, then
use the next five chapters to explore each of them as they relate to the Holy
Experience.
Loosely, most people’s lives might be broken down into these areas or
situations:
1. Yourself
2. Your significant other
3. Your family
4. Your work or chief activity
5. Your larger life in the world
Of course, such arbitrary “categories” are always deceiving, always
incomplete, always fuzzy as to borders and boundaries. Nevertheless, it
could be said that, in the main, one’s activities during a typical day will
involve interactions with either one’s self, one’s significant other, one’s other
family members, one’s work or chief activity, or one’s “larger world”
contacts, acquaintances, and outside-of-the-house connections (the clerk at
the post office, the lady at the supermarket, the people at the hair styling
salon, etc.)
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As already noted, there are overlaps, certainly. But let’s focus in, for
the purposes of this exploration, on those five areas of human interaction.

The Holy Experience and Yourself

This is where it all starts. This is where everything begins, if it is to
begin at all. All experience commences with the Self. All experience resides
within the Self. All experience is created by the Self. Absent the Self, there is
no experience at all.
That is the answer to the classic question: Does a tree falling in the forest
make a sound if there is no one there?
The answer is, yes, of course. Yet the tree making noise is an occurrence.
The act of someone hearing the noise is an experience. In life, if a thing has
occurred but it has not been experienced, its occurrence means nothing at all.
Nothing has any meaning, save the meaning we give it. If there is no
one to give it meaning, it has no meaning. Things to no have meaning in and of
themselves. There is no such thing as intrinsic meaning. As well, there is no
such thing as intrinsic truth.
This is the Holy Experience, right here. The Holy Experience is the giving
of meaning to something by us.
It is in the moment that we give something meaning that the most
sacred experience takes place.
The experience is pure creation—and that is sacred, indeed. It is the
most extraordinary thing that a sentient being can do.
There are two ways to give something meaning: (1) we can pull the
meaning from our Past, or (2) we can choose the meaning in our Present, as
Highly Evolved Beings would do.

(Once again, this is explained with wonderful clarity in the CWG book
When Everything Changes, Change Everything, where will be found an
extraordinary explanation of the Mechanics of the Mind and the System of the
Soul.)
Lower animals do not create meaning, they simply remember it. A
deer hears a twig snap in the forest and “decides” that it means danger. The
 59

deer doesn’t wait around to see if he’s right or not. The deer scampers.
Because the deer remembers.
The first time that deer heard a twig snap, he may have been very
young, and he watched his parents scamper. So he scampered, too. Now he
scampers even though his parents are not there. What made his parents
scamper? Their parents scampered. What made their parents scamper? Their
parents scampered. Deer-scampering has been going on for generations.
Higher animals do not scamper if they hear a twig snap in the forest—
unless they choose to. Higher animals hear the same sound, but go through
an entirely different process. They think about the snap. They think about
who or what might have made the noise, how close the noise is, what it
means, and what level of danger they are in, if any.
As soon as you think about something you are acting, as opposed to
reacting (which means to “act as you did before”)—which is what deer do.
You give the snap meaning. Just as you give everything in your life meaning.
What meaning you give the events of your life depends on whether you are
coming from your Past, or your Present; from you Mind or from your Mind
PLUS your Soul, working co-jointly.
Most people come from their Past. In fact, most people find it
impossible not to. They make their decisions based on their prior thought
about a thing; their Past Data. Masters, on the other hand, make their
decisions based on their Total Comprehension (a product of the Mind AND
the Soul, working together) and their Future Intention.
Memory, or Intention.
That is the choice.
Always.
When you come from your memory, you create one kind of
experience. When you come from your intention, you create another kind of
experience altogether.
Always, with your choices, you are answering a single question: Who
am I?
Remember what Conversations with God taught us. Every act is an act of
self-definition.
I said, every act is an act of self-definition.
 60

Study that sentence carefully. When you embrace its implications

utterly, you begin the process of the Holy Experience with your Self.

Who are you when you are alone?

Self-creation is a Holy Experience. It is sacred. It is you, deciding Who
You Are.
What do you think of yourself in the morning? First thing in the
morning, what is your idea about yourself? How about the last thing at
night? What is your final assessment of Self just before falling asleep?
This is you, deciding about you. Some people call it “wrestling with
your conscience.”
In the quiet moments of your day, what do you think and do? When
you are with your Self and no one else, how does life proceed for you? Do
you eat well, or do you “sneak” a treat that you would not have if someone
were watching? Do you meditate every morning, or only the mornings that
another is there? Do you exercise each day, or only on the days that another
reminds you, cajoles you, shames you into it? Who are you when you are alone?

You and you

Are you reconciled with your Self? When you talk to your Self, in your
mind or even out loud, is your Self happy with you? How do you make the
Self happy? How do you bring the Self joy? The answer to these questions
says a great deal about you.
From where does your joy originate? Is it from something exterior to
you, or from something interior? Is it from something you are doing, or
something you are being?
And how do you bring your Self peace?
Finally: who do you think you are, anyway…?
The Holy Experience with the Self is the living of the highest decision you
have made about yourself. The beginning of that experience is the making of
that decision.
Who do you think you are, anyway? Do you think you are a
scoundrel? Do you think you are a trustworthy person? Do you think you
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are a teller of truth, always? Do you think you are a less than consistently
truthful person, who slips and slides around the truth just a little in order to
get through the moment? Do you think you are a person of integrity, who
never cheats? Do you think you are a person who will cheat a little on others
if it gets you something you want?
Who do you think you are, anyway?
Do you think you are a person of patience? Do you think you are a
person of compassion? Do you think you are a person who easily becomes
impatient, and then snaps at others? Do you think you are a warm and
humorous and loving person? Do you think you are a person who instantly
brightens up whatever room you enter?
Do you think you are who you were yesterday, or who you choose to
be right now? Do you think you are a product of your ideas, or of the ideas of
others? Do you think you are doomed to repeat old behaviors, or designed to
create new ones?
Who do you think you are?
Are you a person who becomes annoyed easily, or are you easy-going?
Are you a person who laughs easily and lustily, or who grins quietly and
holds most of the joy in? Are you a person of quick generosity, who does not
think twice about giving away money, allowing the use of your possessions,
and extending your home and your time and your love to others, or are you a
person who is a bit more circumspect, a bit more cautious, in these matters?
Are you the person you wish you were?
Most people cannot see themselves. They are one thing, and they see
themselves as another. They act one way, and they swear that they don’t act
that way at all. Their behavior has to be pointed out to them over and over
again before they will even look at it, much less accept it. Some people
wouldn’t believe it if you showed them a video tape of themselves. They
would say you edited it, or doctored it, or that, well, you may have caught
them at a bad moment, but that is unfair and that is not how they really are.
It is an irony of the human condition that most people deny the worst
of themselves—and that most people deny the best of themselves.
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Yet if they would embrace the best of themselves, claim it and call it
real, the “worst” of themselves would soon fall away and disappear. This is
the Holy Experience: embracing and claiming the best of yourself.
Of course, there really is no “best” and “worst”. Those are judgments
that humans make, having nothing to do with Ultimate Reality. But there
ARE many ways of showing up in the physical world, and you get to choose
which way speaks most clearly of Who You Choose to Be, and of Who You
Really Are.
Do you think you are a messenger?
You are. You are bringing a message TO life, ABOUT life, through the
process of Life Itself. You are doing this in every moment. You are a
messenger and a creator.
The Holy Moment is when you understand this.
The Holy Experience is when you become it.

You and God

Of course, a major part of your experience of your Self is your
experience of yourself as you relate to the thing that you call God.
Somewhere along the way in your life you have to make some pretty big
decisions. You must decide, for yourself…Is there a “God”? If so, Who or
What is this thing you call The Divine? What is Its purpose? What does it
want, need, or require? What is your true relationship with It?
I cannot answer these questions for you, but only for myself. Yet you
must answer them, it seems to me, if you are ever to have any peace of mind.
At the end of the day, each human being must decide, What is my relationship
to all the Rest of This? What am I doing here? Why am I doing it? What happens, if
anything, when this is all over?
I want to suggest to you that your answers to those questions will
color the entirety of your life and the way you experience it. These are not,
therefore, unimportant matters. The answers that I have found extremely
helpful to me may be found in the Conversations with God dialogues. If those
explorations assist you in finding your own answers, I am blessed and
grateful that they have served you.
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The Holy Experience

Chapter Eleven
I said in Chapter 10 that we were going to break down the average
person’s life into five distinct areas, then use these chapters to explore each of
them as they relate to the Holy Experience.
Loosely, most people’s lives might be broken down into these areas or
situations:
1. Yourself
2. Your significant other
3. Your family
4. Your work or chief activity
5. Your larger life in the world
In Chapter 10 we looked at the Holy Experience and yourself. Now
let’s look at the Holy Experience and your significant other.
Everyone has a significant other—whether they are in an intimate,
romantic relationship or not. Of course, the term “significant other” does not
refer only to a person with whom you sleep. It refers to any being with whom
you share the largest portion of your life. That could be a sister or brother, a
parent, a child, a close friend.
When discussing the Holy Experience and yourself, I said: “Always,
with your choices, you are answering a single question: Who am I? Every act
is an act of self-definition. When you embrace the implications of that
sentence utterly, you begin the process of the Holy Experience with your
Self.”
Now I am going to say the same thing, only as it pertains to your
significant other. Always, with your choices, you are answering a single
question: Who is this other? Every act involving another is an act of definition
of the other. When you embrace the implications of that sentence utterly, you
begin the process of the Holy Experience with your significant other.
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Everyone is who you say they are. If you say they are your best friend,
they are. If you say they are your enemy, they are. If you say they are your
most trusted companion, they are. That is because you are the one doing the
deciding.
Other people tend to show up in our lives exactly as we think that they
will. Even if they don’t in their world, in our world they do. This is another
way of saying that if you have a definite thought about someone, it almost
does not matter what they do. You will still think of them in the way that you
do.
Have you ever noticed how two people can have nearly polar-opposite
experiences of the same third party? One person says that the third person is
wonderful, while the other says that the third person is horrible. Both are
right, for both have created their experience of that third person in their reality.
It doesn’t matter what that third person does. In fact, that third person
can do the exact same thing to both of the others, and one of the others will
think it’s wonderful while the second will think it’s horrible. I’ve actually
seen this happen!
I saw a person bid $10,000 once at a local charity auction, and two
people with whom I am acquainted saw it in entirely different ways. The first
thought it was wonderful and incredibly generous; a typical gesture of a very
kind and open-hearted man. The second thought it was show-offy and
incredibly gauche; a typical “over the top” gesture by an ego maniacal power
grabber and attention-getter.
Osama bin Laden was thought of in one way by millions, and in the
exact opposite way by millions of others. Our experience of our significant
others depends more than we will ever know on our own thought about
them.
The Holy Experience is an act of creation. That sentence is important
enough to repeat. The Holy Experience is an act of creation. It is not something
you step into. It is something you step out of. It is where you come from as you
encounter any other person.
Love is not a reaction, it is a decision.
I’ll never forget the first time I heard that wisdom. I think it was in The
Road Less Traveled by M. Scott Peck. It hit me like a ton of bricks. I was