THE STORM BEFORE THE CALM – Chapter 2

Whenever the functionality of life in any of its many forms is threatened, it adapts that manifestation, thus rendering itself sustainable in a new form.

This is the reason for the human experience that we call death. Death is not the end of life at all, but the continuation of life through the adaptation of the manifestation of a given life form, thus rendering that life sustainable in a new form.

This is true of everything in existence. Nothing “dies,” and you cannot “kill” a thing. Not anything at all. You cannot kill a person, you cannot kill an animal, you cannot kill a plant.

This is important to understand during this time, especially, for there are those who have died, and those who will die, during this Overhaul of Humanity, and it is both helpful and healing to know that death is not a process that takes a life, it is a process that changes a life.

We miss their presence here with us—we miss them terribly—but we need not mourn for them. The new form they have embraced has brought them great joy.

Wouldn’t this mean that it’s a splendid idea for us to end our own lives in our present form?

I get that question a lot, from people in many audiences and many cultures. My answer is always no. The soul’s departure from this physical life is never a sadness, but always a joy, whenever and however it happens.

This does not mean, though, that it is a “good idea” to simply exit this physical life. The soul’s agenda is what is being served here on the earth, and if the soul’s agenda is complete, the right and perfect circumstances will be co-created for its departure. But those circumstances will never be artificially produced by the mind.

Just as it is a joy to leave the physical body, so is it a joy to stay, and if life in the physical is not a joy, it is because we are not looking at it from the perspective of the soul, but rather, trying to figure it out with our mind.

Life will never make sense to the mind. It will only make sense, and can only produce long-term, sustained happiness, peace, and joy when embraced from the perspective of the soul.

The trick then, if we are not happy in life, is not to leave the body, but to join the soul. This can be done while one is with the body. Yet most people are not bringing the soul into their daily experience.

Before this conversation is over I will share with you exactly how do that. And when you communicate with your soul you will understand fully what is going on here—on our planet I mean. You will know that when the ability of any life form to continue in its present expression is compromised, that life form adapts its expression to allow it to immediately become sustainable again. It is in this way that life renders itself eternal.

Now there’s no questioning that the life expression that we call Earth (what some have come to name Gaia) has had its ability to continue in its present expression compromised. The conditions leading to this threatening circumstance have been created in part by the human life forms inhabiting the Earth. Those human forms, in turn, have had their own expression threatened.

In short, neither the planet nor its people can continue to go on as they have been.

Don’t worry. They won’t.

Having reached the limit of its ability to produce sustainability in the earth’s environment under present conditions, the Cycle of Life is now playing its effect, adapting all life forms in this environment, so that all life expression here may once again be rendered sustainable.

In other words, life on earth is changing in order to continue. The fact that it is changing is the guarantee that it will continue.

So that’s the why of what’s going on. Before I get to the when, let me explain where that question that was asked just above came from.

###

Voices that differ

A conversation is not a “conversation” if it’s a monologue. So from the very moment that I contemplated having this conversation with you through this book, I knew I wanted to avoid creating a single-voice oration, a soliloquy, a sermon or homily.

It’s all very nice to invite you to jump into a discussion online, but that doesn’t change what’s appearing here—which would, in fact, be a monologue.

Unless it wouldn’t. Unless I could find a way to convert what could come off as a “lecture” into an actual conversation, right on these pages.

Here’s what I came up with: I could create a “dialogue” growing out of conversations that have already taken place.

I could include here the thoughts, questions, and comments of other people, not just my own—offered in their voice. I could have a “conversation” that has been retrieved from my memories of previous exchanges with others.

In this way I could give voice to some who differ with what’s on these pages. I think that’s important. Voices that differ are voices that enlarge the scope of every conversation. They are also voices that represent a great many people. I hope we hear voices that differ in the online dialogue as well.

As for the voices that differ here, in this book…let me explain where they could come from.

I’ve been sharing the ideas being explored here for a good while, on the road. During a long string of evening lectures and weekend workshops, television appearances and talk show guestings, I’ve received some pretty tough questions and engaged in many vivid, spritely, sometimes challenging and once-in-a-while mildly aggressive exchanges—all of which have been totally okay with me, because I knew that all of them were serving me.

They were showing me where my thinking was perhaps a bit fuzzy, when my logic was perhaps faulty, which of my comments were hitting the nail on the head, and, in general, how other people were thinking about these same issues.

Over my 20 years as a member of the working press, I trained my mind to remember such encounters, often word for word—especially the more memorable ones—and I knew that I could bring the essence of these exchanges forward with the slightest stimulation.

So I thought, if anything I put down as I wrote this book brought back memories of one of those prior conversations, I could include my memory of it here. In that way, the present expression would not be just a monologue, with me rambling on and on from my point of view, but a “monoconvologue”—a monologue that includes conversations derived from previous dialogues.

Conversations not simply quoted, but inserted into the narrative flow as if they were happening now. I could dialogue with a composite voice of the many folks who have dialogued with me in the past.

###

A conversation with humanity

The more I thought about it, the more I liked the idea. So I decided to do it! And that’s where the question that just popped into the narrative above came from. You’ll be hearing from this “composite voice” on the pages that follow as well.

And what kinds of people comprise this composite voice? Who will be represented in these remembered exchanges?

Well, my prior explorations of the life-changing ideas presented here have taken place with folks all over the world, from Denmark to Norway to Sweden to France, from South Korea to South America, from Ireland to Poland, from Jamaica to Japan…from the steps of Machu Picchu to the steps of the Great Wall of China, from Red Square in Moscow to Vatican Square in Rome, from down under (Australia and New Zealand) to up over (Iceland), from Central West Africa to Central America, from across the United Kingdom to across the United States.

The inquiries and the opinions I’ve heard in these many places and from these many sources reflect a wide range of cultures, backgrounds, religious affiliations, political convictions, and social conventions, making for a spirited—and definitely not one-sided—monoconvologue.

And when you add your point of view later, in the online discussion, we will really have what I believe our species could truly benefit from right now: a conversation with humanity.

So, on the pages that follow you’ll get a glimpse of what people from all over the world have been thinking and asking about our tumultuous times and about the messages that I’m sharing, which I believe could change our world. I’ll present their views here in a dialogue format, so that you can experience the exchanges very much as they originally took place, yes?

Now then, back to where I was going…

 ###

The when of the Overhaul

Several famous prognostications appear to indicate that the time of our species’ next great evolutionary step is now.

Looking back, we have seen that Life Cycles are actually not that difficult to predict. Beginning in ancient times people began to observe certain rhythms in events. Wise ones listened carefully to oral histories and began keeping track of the cycles. They used their observations to estimate the timing of future cycles.

This estimate of timing is what we find in the prognostications of Nostradamus, the prophesies of religious figures from all of the world’s great religions, the predictions of the Maya Calendar, etc., many of which point to this very moment in human history as being significant.

Wikipedia tells us “that numerous cases of prophecy exist among the Native American populations,” and that “the Onondaga and Hopi, among others, have prophecies that appear to relate to the times we are entering now.

“For example, the Onondaga talk of a time when the water will not be fit to drink from the streams. This, they say, will signify the beginning of a period they call the great purification, where the peoples will go through immense trials to purify themselves of the corrupting influences that have beset them.

“This, they say, will be seen as a period of joy for those who understand what is happening and engage this period as a time of purification, but will be a period of immense suffering for those who cling to their…worldview and lifestyles.”

There was a big twinkle in my eye and a huge smile on my face as I read this prophecy, because I couldn’t have put it better myself. That is exactly what I have come here to tell you. We are in for a period of joy—yet this period will include suffering for sure if we insist on clinging to our old worldview and lifestyles.

Just look at what that old worldview produced in just the few months before this book was published…

* Several nations had their future altered forever by revolutions.

* Other countries were devastated by the worst natural disasters in decades.

* People around the world saw their individual lives continue to be dismantled by a global financial meltdown that began 24-months earlier.

Add all that has happened in our world since then and we may well understand why much of humanity is looking to its future a bit nervously, wondering…Is this just the beginning of what the final month of that much-talked-about year, 2012, will bring? What lies ahead, not just in December 2012, but beyond?

­­_________

POINTS I HOPE YOU WILL REMEMBER…

* The Overhaul of Humanity is part of a natural process by which life sustains itself.

* What would be beneficial right now is a conversation with humanity.

* The scope and sweep of events tells us that the Overhaul of Humanity has already begun; the time is now.

ACTION I HOPE YOU WILL TAKE…

* Think about ways in which you may be clinging to an old worldview and lifestyle. What does this mean to you? How does this look?

* Contemplate what’s been going on in this world and in your life between the time this book was written (early summer, 2011) and now. Ask yourself, does it feel as if a “shift” is taking place? Perhaps begin a personal journal about all that you’re observing, as part of your process.

* Begin thinking about what you would put into a New Cultural Story for humanity if you were asked to write it. (Which you are being asked to do, right here.)

8 Nov 2015.
© Neale Donald Walsch.

Prepared for publication by Dr. Gil Dekel www.PoeticMind.co.uk . Book published with permission from Neale Donald Walsch www.cwg.org .

The Storm Before the Calm: Book 1 in the Conversations with Humanity Series – by Neale Donald Walsch. Paperback published 1 October 2011, Emnin Books, Oregon, USA; ISBN-13: 978-1401936921