Oh! Honest to God! A double self-referential synchronicity in the book & there is no such thing as chance!After the page where Brad proclaimed 'The pope has been reading "Conversation with God"' & stole Neale punch line & they both were astonished that the press didn't give headlines to the new revelation from John Paul II, on July 28th 1999 (2 day from my birthday), when Paul proclaimed the experience of hell "is not a punishment inflicted by God from outside", instead put it in on page 36 of some newspaper.
There is my number, as pure miracle in shortened form, being mentioned twice, once within the page & as the page # with a difference of 100.
On the page following, the quote from the movie "Instinct" by Neale is worth restating. The main character had a would-be lawyer by the neck & kept on asking the would-be lawyer "What have you just now lost?", the would-be lawyer replied first "Control" then "Freedom" and after several attempts with threat of one last chance or his neck would be broken, the would-be lawyer finally writes "My illusions" and he was let go.
That story I declare, as an incarnation of the 6th & last Zen patriarch (plus Judas - the 13th in the last supper & Attila the Hun - known as the scourge of God by the Romans & Isoris - the Egyptian god of death, ect) is purely a modern Zen analogy.
Like Ken Keyes in his book 'Discovering the Secrets of Happiness", Brad is completely free to do unconditional honesty or transparency or love, while Neale still cannot 'let go' of his most important 0.1%, e.g. in Friendship with God, Neale chose not to be transparent about his relationship with 5 ex-wives & hiding behind the Fifth Amendment in order to protect their so-called privacy. An excuse is indeed a lie to one's self.
The same thing happened when I met Neale in early 1999 at a Natural Party's fund-raising & asked him, before the publication of FwG, "Why is the CwG series not in paperback?" Neale replied that it's in the hand of the publisher. Later he recanted by saying & wrote in my copy of CwG 3 "This book should be free". A lie to this day.
Furthermore, later on p.26 when FwG became published, God explicitly asked Neale "Why didn't you just make them (3 CwG series) available for free?" & Neale answered reluctantly with his 'own' excuses. More lies to God, nonetheless!
The CwG series became paperback by 2003 & too late to make the best-sellers list, so Harry Potter made it to further entrap our educational mass dis-illusion. So I observe that Neale, in this lifetime, is still a simple messenger (of God aka Oneness aka Alah aka Buddha aka etc, nonetheless) & not yet a master, like the few others mentioned in this review.
This book is a simple discussion between a master & a messenger. Indeed, one's own lie or truth when 'disowned' or 'let go' by facing them is simple mastery, no more excuses like taking the fifth or hiding between the veil of privacy.
The latter is exactly what Lisa hid herself behind too & in the end of the relationship after I reminded her numerous times at least not to lie anymore to others, she wanted to have a fake marriage with me in order to stay in the US for $2k. I simply asked her to give up her $100k penthouse, earned from her fake pregnancy to me, to my then girl friend. Lisa replied if I married her, the penthouse would be still joint-property, so there is no need to transfer title. Ha! How smart & materialistically addicted! 6 months after I let her out of my life.
On p.143 Werner Erhard - the father of Est & Forum - is mentioned as a brilliant mind, I experienced my first enlightenment while attending the Forum in 1996. I have read his biography of the same title & found out that Werner is certainly a modern Zen Master when he experienced enlightenment while driving on SF Golden brigde & realized he knew nothing & at that single moment understood everything. Alas! He chose like Neale not to face the consequences of his past lies & his daughter's face on. This is as best as I can tell why he chose to self-exile to Japan where I chose to meet him in 1999 in Osaka & proposed that I can help him bring a cut-down version of Forum for less into China & for him to be the 7th Zen patriarch. He chickened out.
In passing, The book's last section written after 911 was too light, both Brad & Neale were irresponsible by choosing to work within the current dictatorial & hierarchical governmental structure & simply adding more titles. They didn't think outside the box & their new age small circle. The only story enlightening there was, that of 92 year-old grand lady Doris Haddock & I thank Brad from the bottom of my heart to have chosen to go to prison for 7 hours in her place, although he was plenty rewarded by a kiss from that grand lady. So food for thought, why not get rid of the notion of national border, simply create a world leadership committee. This could include Doris or Brad & congresslady Barbara Lee - the only person both houses who voted against Bush's patriot act or Jimmy Carter & some other radically honest noble hearts.
