Conversations with God : An Uncommon Dialogue (Book 1)

Amazon.com

Blasphemy! Heresy! Who does this man think he is, claiming to speak directly to God?! Jesus did it, Muhammad did it, the Jewish prophets did it, but none of their Gods had the sardonic wit or raw verve of Prophet Walsch's God. Neale Donald Walsch isn't claiming to be the Messiah of a new religion, just a frustrated man who sat down one day with pen in his hand and some tough questions in his heart. As he wrote his questions to God, he realized that God was answering them... directly... through Walsch's pen. The result, far from the apocalyptic predictions or cultic eccentricities you might expect, turns out to be matter-fact, in-your-face wisdom on how to get by in life while remaining true to yourself and your spirituality.

Book Description

Conversations with God Book 1 began a series that has been changing millions of lives for more than ten years. Finally, the bestselling series is now a movie, starring Henry Czerny (The Pink Panther and Clear and Present Danger) and Ingrid Boulting (The Last Tycoon). Produced and directed by Stephen Simon (producer of Somewhere in Time and What Dreams May Come) and distributed by Samuel Goldwyn Films and Fox Home Entertainment, the theatrical release is set for October 27, 2006. The movie is the true account of Walsch (played by Cierny), who went from an unemployed homeless man to an "accidental spiritual messenger" and author of the bestselling book

Customer Reviews:

Flawless.......2007-10-19

This book is so utterly flawless. Recently I've been having the trouble of finding "faith" in the things that I thought. They just weren't quite turning into belief. This book has far exceeded in turning my thoughts into belief. They affirmed them in such a beautifully simplistic way that it brought me to tears. It has answered so many of my questions and I don't think by the end of this series that I'll have many left. It is the most flawless assortment of words in the English language I can possibly imagine. Please...buy this book.

Buy Individual Books in Order--Replaces Bible.......2007-10-16

I regret not paying better attention to the reviewer of the collected set (one book with three parts and no covers). Do buy the books individually for a more distributed appreciation.

This will sound like sacrilege to many, but in my view these three books in combination replace the Bible as the foundation work for the future of Humanity as God in Community on Earth. There is so much common sense in all three books that I am just blown away.

Although I am 10-15 years late in appreciating the cultural creatives, integral consciousness, one from many, I sense an imminent renaissance of humanity, aided by the amoral wickedness of Dick Cheney and those foolish enough to obey his unconstitutional orders. These three books are our manual for re-establishing Humanity in Community.

Book 1 introduces a God who loves us unconditionally, whom we can have faith in, and who does not need to bloated religious bureaucracies of fear-mongering, hate-mongering, sexually-inhibited priests, imams, and rabbis (some exceptions not withstanding).

The bottom line is this: you can live in fear or live in love--unconditional love. Fear is exclusive, love in inclusive.

Here are the notes I kept:

* Core values are truth, patience, open mind, open heart.
* Arts are inspiration and help spirituality grow and be shared
* Feelings are the language of the soul
* God is found in the highest thought, clearest word, grandest feeling
* Receive and embrace God directly, not via false intermediaries
* Knowing, experiencing, being
* Point of life is to remember the One and rewind back from fragmentation
* You, not God, determines outcomes--live the change you wish to see (Gandhi)
* We choose heaven or hell on earth
* Only by accepting responsibility for ALL poverty and other high-level threats to humanity can we resolve them.
* Judgment fragments and lessens community
* There are no coincidences
* You attract what you fear through emotions
* Choose love, end war--Humanity is losing patience (see Blessed Unrest)
* Sex with joy and sympathy is the ultimate form of love
* Money is the ultimate divider, irrelevant to achieving peace & prosperity
* Stop accepting "original sin" and start remembering you are one with God.
* Passion is in the doing
* Freedom is living life without expectations
* When you are so good you no longer need God, this is God's greatest moment.
* Religions that stress damnation are flat out WRONG. Not possible to offend God, whose love is unconditional.
* Priests and others are a major part of the schism of demanding religions.
* Purpose of relationships is to have another with whom you can share your completeness.
* Love is BEING, not fulfilling a NEED.
* God asks that you love yourself and always make the highest choice.
* Act before thinking; emphasize being, follow a calling in life.
* Gratitude in advance--reciprocal altruism, is the highest path.
* Worry can be fatal. Stop worrying.

On to Book 2
Conversations With God : An Uncommon Dialogue (Book 2)

See also:
Integral Consciousness and the Future of Evolution
Blessed Unrest: How the Largest Movement in the World Came into Being and Why No One Saw It Coming
Left Hand of God, The: Healing America's Political and Spiritual Crisis
One from Many: VISA and the Rise of Chaordic Organization
Escaping the Matrix: How We the People can change the world
All Rise: Somebodies, Nobodies, and the Politics of Dignity (BK Currents)

An easy read that will get you to think..........2007-10-14

Perhaps it is time for Amazon to only let people comment on books if they have purchased them or can prove they actually read the book.

I'm willing to bet that anyone who gave this book less that 3 stars never read the book. It is a fascinating read. Many of us question the existence of God. This book gives you an alternative to the religious doctrines out there today and will get you thinking.

I loved his take on the Ten Commandments and Original Sin.

If God really gave us Ten Commandments is there any power in the universe, other than God that would give you the power to break them?

Original Sin was in fact one of God's greatest gifts it proved that mankind could think and act for themselves. All the animals on earth act out according to Gods laws... sharks swim and eat and reproduce. They aren't going to do anything their nature has not laid out for them since they first appeared on earth but man... Man will look around pick up a rock, smash it, stick it in a fire, turn it into a metal, shape it... and end up flying to the moon with.

This is a great read... I'd tell you the uplifting description of why God allows horrible natural disasters to take place but no... read the book... I'll give you a hint... it involves a play ground.

just a comment.......2007-10-14

I havent read this book yet or any of the books, but i've seen it on the bookshelves. my youth leader sent an email to the department this past week advising volunteers to ck it out and beware of what our children are reading. parents are livid because the book appears on the scholastic reading list. i've read over some of the reviews and there is no overwhelming consensus either way good or bad. i do not think i will purchase the book for the sake of principle, but i will however look for it in my public library. how else can we help our children if we do not know what they are up against. upon completion of this book, i will of course draw my own conclusions and perhaps post a review. until then, i consider myself a biased individual leaning toward the word as presented in the bible. anything outside of that i consider blasphemy. training, learning, growing is a constant without it we parish.

be nice on here people. dont shut others down simply because their opinion differs from yours. state your position and leave it at that. it's up to the individual reading the review if they agree with you and are intrigued to read or not to read.

Below normal comprehension.......2007-10-10

This book is utter dribble. Some passages remind me of text written by hippies high on drugs. When one starts having conversations with themselves that's usually not a good thing. I don't need Mr. Walsch to answer my questions, if I have questions to ask of God, I'll go the original source -- my bible. I have more confidence in the consistency and accuracy of the bible's answers than I do of a man responding to voices in his head.

And why do people assume God does not love unconditionally. Wasn't that the whole purpose of Jesus' sacrafice. Plus He shows his love the way any parent would. Didn't all of our parents punish us if we did something wrong like lie. They disliked that we lied and punished us for it, but that didn't stop them from loving us or continuing to provide for us.

Stop Telling, Start Selling: How to Use Customer-Focused Dialogue to Close Sales

Average customer rating:

Great advice (if you can assimilate it)
excellent, customer oriented common sense
should be a textbook for sales classes
Eye-opener and Instant Results Obtained

Stop Telling, Start Selling: How to Use Customer-Focused Dialogue to Close Sales
Linda Richardson
Manufacturer: McGraw-Hill
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0070525587

Book Description

In this revised edition of her best-seller, noted sales consultant Linda Richardson offers salespeople the tools they need to successfully use customer-focused, dialogue selling. Featuring real-world dialogue samples, helpful dos and don’ts, self-tests, checklists, and other useful tools, this guide offers insight on every aspect of face-to-face selling, from the initial introduction through the needs identification and the negotiation of terms and price to the successful close, with prime emphasis on the six critical skills necessary to the dialogue-driven sales call: presence, rapport building, questioning, listening, product positioning, and checking.

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Customer Reviews:

Great advice (if you can assimilate it).......2001-05-25

The problem with any "how to sell" book like this is, until you can integrate the advice given here so that it comes naturally to you, you will sound as mechanical and forced as some of the "tellers" Richardson criticizes. I used to sell big-tiicket business-to-business, and I can say the advice here is timeless: engage your customer, identify what your customer's needs are and position your product so that the customer realizes that your product meets their needs. Of course, if the customer doesn't need your product, then maybe you need to learn some of those "hard-ball sales" techniques (or find a better product!). No amount of customer empathy, listening, or product positioning will help you overcome a customer-product mismatch. Which brings me to a point: although Richardson argues against this, I think playing hardball has a place in negotiations; remember, the party you are negotiating with doesn't always have to feel warm and cozy inside in the process. A true persuader will know when to be soft and fluffy and when to apply the pressure.

Also, the whole paradigm-replacement languuage ("we are moving into a new age of selling...") is corny. The advice Richardson is giving is not new or revolutionary, as she claims. But she has succeeded in organizing a lot of really good sales principles in a clear and coherent way which can easily be appreciated by readers.

I read this book together with Richardson's "Selling by Phone" and frankly, one is just a rehash of the other. Richardson copied entire paragraphs from one in writing the other. So save your money and buy just one of the two. But if you are an accidental salesperson, or even if by trade you are not a salesperson but you are occasionally called upon to negotiate (maybe you are a lawyer or a manager) Richardson's books will be a refreshing introduction to the discipline of negotiation and persuasion.

excellent, customer oriented common sense.......2000-07-08

After reading plenty of those "say what I say, exactly as I say it" sales books, none of which I found truly helpful out in the field, this book was like a breath of fresh air. Easy to read and easy to adapt to personal styles it is a treasure trove of good advise. If you actually care about your customers and want them to return to you on a regular basis, this is the book for you.

should be a textbook for sales classes.......2000-06-09

From my many varied experiences, I realize that I just don't like selling, but when I was trying to bone up on my sales skills, I found this book to be the most useful. It is heads and shoulders above other books on the subject and it was so intersting that I probably read it cover to cover in a day or two. The advice is extremely practical and you are learning great principles of selling. You are not learning a bunch of closing dialogues that only work for the person who invented them. Easily digested, the principles allow you to adjust your approach in mid-sale because you are asking questions whose answers will tell you what you need to do or say next (positioning.) Tons of great info here. It should really be a textbook for sales classes.

Eye-opener and Instant Results Obtained.......2000-04-01

I manage a distributor sales force throughout the U.S. and Canada. After reading this book (actually WHILE reading this book) I applied the information and witnessed immediate success, as did my sales reps. The information is direct, common sense, well presented, easy reading and entertaining. It is not full of 'theory', but actual 'meat' that can be applied each day after reading even a chapter or two the night before. I am buying books for each of my reps and feel it is one of the best gifts I could ever give them. Well done!

Conversations With God : An Uncommon Dialogue (Book 2)

Average customer rating:

Buy the Individual Books--As a Set, Replace the Bible
The Best Books I've Ever Read
Amazed
Not as good as book 1, but still has some good questions.
Disappointing

Conversations With God : An Uncommon Dialogue (Book 2)
Neale Donald Walsch
Manufacturer: Hampton Roads Publishing Company
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 1571740562

Amazon.com

In Conversations with God: Book II, Neale Walsch and God resume their discussion and move on to larger topics than the personal issues addressed in their previous dialogue in Volume 1. For an "unedited transcript" of a conversation, Book II is remarkably well organized and articulate, as if Walsch anticipatd our "but what about" questions before we asked them. The peculiar pair discuss time, space, politics, and even kinky sex, but Conversations with God: Book II isn't here for just shock value. It is an honest look at some of the broad issues important to all of us on the planet, and a suggestion of how things might go if we are all willing to open our minds and have our own conversations with divinity. --Brian Patterson

Customer Reviews:

Buy the Individual Books--As a Set, Replace the Bible.......2007-10-16

See my review of Conversations with God : An Uncommon Dialogue (Book 1) for comments that apply to all three books. These books as a set replace the Bible as a foundation for Being with God as Community in Heaven on Earth.

Book 2 reiterates the common theme, forget religions, have faith, do love, BE the light.

Fastest way to find God is to find one another--ALL of us.

Fastest way to stop evil and hiding from evil is to tell the truth.

Seek, know, accept, praise, and embrace the truth at all times.

Humanity is ready for a new paradigm of communal belief in goodness. Everything we are experiencing today is an opportunity to remember and restore One from Many.

Religion is the opposite of spirituality.

Soul creates, mind reacts.

Energy at the root of everything.

USA in decline because religions have become falsely righteous and intolerant, divisive.

Lesson of Hitler: group consciousness that speaks of separation and superiority leads to a loss of compassion and virtual genocide.

LOTS of coverage of sex, almost a virtual manual for rediscovering the joy and love that should be the foundation for sex. Enjoy it, don't hide it, don't raise kids to be repressed about it.

Education is a mess, teaching knowledge (rote memorization of the past) instead of wisdom (learning to learn, learning to share). Teaching children WHAT to think instead of HOW to think.

Must teach three core concepts: Awareness, Honesty, Responsibility.

Rudolph Steiner and the Waldorf School are on the right track.

Need to achieve societal shift in consciousness--love, family, unity--at all levels from neighborhood to globe.

As of 1994, we are spending $1 trillion a year on war (while peace and prosperity for all would only cost $230 billion a year according to Medard Gabel and other authorities such as E. O. Wilson).

Eliminate money or make it completely transparent. Money is what allows hoarding, theft, and related evils such as corruption, all of which deprive the community and the commons of optimal stewardship. This resonates with the work of the Natural Capitalism Institute and the Open Money pioneers.

On to Conversations With God : An Uncommon Dialogue (Book #3)

See also
Thank God for Evolution!: How the Marriage of Science and Religion Will Transform Your Life and Our World
Wars of Blood and Faith: The Conflicts That Will Shape the 21st Century
Piety & Politics: The Right-Wing Assault on Religious Freedom
American Fascists: The Christian Right and the War On America
Religion Gone Bad: The Hidden Dangers of the Christian Right
The Lucifer Principle: A Scientific Expedition into the Forces of History
Tempting Faith: An Inside Story of Political Seduction
What Kind of Nation: Thomas Jefferson, John Marshall, and the Epic Struggle to Create a United States

The Best Books I've Ever Read.......2007-10-04

I have read all 3 of the Conversations With God Trilogy and they have changed my life forever. I was raised as a southern Baptist Christian and was always scared of the whole God thing. After reading these books I know that God is a LOVING God and he does not judge and punish people. Written in plain easy to understand english these are a must for anyone on a spiritual journey.

S. Harrison

Amazed .......2007-09-02

I am amazed at the effeciency and customer service on all the products I have ordered. I wish more companies would follow your lead. Thank you and keep up the great work.

Not as good as book 1, but still has some good questions........2007-06-25

I loved book one and went and bought book 2. The beginning was interesting, but I found myself skipping pages around the end. This book talks alot about politics which I found to be pretty boring. It is still and interesting book because of the questions it asks. I read reviews of people saying that these books are satanic. These books are not satanic. These books were not written for a religion, but for an open mind. I believe that satan is not peace, he is not about bringing the world closer to God, and satan is not about finding yourself. Its makes me sick how many Christians focus on Satan and give him so much credit. This is a good book that will allow you to think. And think for yourself.

Disappointing.......2007-06-09

The author seems to have run out of ideas for the second book rather hoping the success of book one would sell this one. I found him struggling in this one and only just managed to finish it.

A Year In the Life of an ESL (English Second Language) Student: Idioms and Vocabulary You Can't Live Without

Average customer rating:

An ESL text you really "can't live without"
Good application of the lexical method.
An excellent resource for English as a Second Language classrooms or self-study for students learning English
Francis Nails It!
An Invaluable Work Book

A Year In the Life of an ESL (English Second Language) Student: Idioms and Vocabulary You Can't Live Without
Edward J. Francis
Manufacturer: Trafford Publishing
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 1412020034
Release Date: 2006-06-30

Product Description

A Year In The Life Of An ESL Student is a must for ESL students who are serious about improving their comprehension and usage of idiomatic English.

Customer Reviews:

An ESL text you really "can't live without".......2006-12-02

Research in second language vocabulary acquisition demonstrates that learning idioms is one of the most important aspects of acquiring a second language. ESL students who do not understand idioms will not be able to understand a large portion of the English language. Consider that an ESL student can understand the grammar of the phrase "kick the bucket" without having any clue as to its actual meaning. Furthermore, ESL students who do not understand idioms will have a much harder time fitting into the culture of native English speakers. This struggle can be severely detrimental to a learner's intrinsic motivation, which is one of the most important factors influencing language learning success. A Year in the Life of an ESL Student: Idioms and Vocabulary You Can't Live Without is an outstanding resource that addresses this important issue of idioms by teaching ESL students an expansive number of them in an engaging and enjoyable manner.

As to the expansiveness of the text, it provides idioms that address a wide variety of situations from attending a TOEFL class to suntanning on the beach. The following examples give a glimpse of the range of idiomatic expressions that students will learn: "better late than never," "cover for someone (to)," "hangover," and "work one's butt off (to)." The presentation of each idiom is clear with each of them first appearing in bold letters in a stimulating dialogue. This feature of the book is beneficial since research has shown that lexical items are much better remembered when learned in authentic contexts. As the author states, "Context is the key to making the daunting task of understanding and using idiomatic English not only possible, but enjoyable too." The dialogues are followed by pages where each idiom is placed in glossary format. After that, there are a significant number of exercises for students to learn the idioms interactively.

Beyond meeting a need in the ESL community, the other aspect of this text that makes it so successful is its engaging style. Many language learning materials present grammatical and cultural information with pictures and other helpful graphics; however, when it comes to vocabulary and idioms these items are often still presented in lists. On the other hand, A Year in the Life places idioms in interesting dialogues that often contain humor and are related to the actual experiences that an ESL student may have. In addition to the dialogues, learners also have the opportunity to learn idioms by playing games. Two common exercises found throughout the book are crosswords and word searches. The realistic dialogues and the exercises make learning the idioms interesting and fun.

Considering the need for a text of this kind in the ESL community and its engaging style, I would recommend it without reservation to both ESL teachers and students. A Year in the Life will lead learners into a much more native-like competence.

Good application of the lexical method........2006-11-20

Michael Lewis caused quite a stir in the world of ESL when he published his "The Lexical Approach" in 1993. Lewis's point was basically thus: ESL students are force feed too much English grammar. The idea that grammar can be mastered and then students fill in the blanks with vocabulary is naïve, according to Lewis, and makes it difficult for students to understand natural English phrases such as "Let's have a coffee," because students have only studied "Shall we drink coffee?" Having taught English to Japanese students, who are taught grammar and only grammar in high school, I found this to be a huge obstacle. Lewis's book caused a huge sensation on the ESL teaching community, and many teachers thought they didn't have to teach grammar anymore, it was fine just to teach idiom after idiom. Lewis followed up a few years later with a book on how to apply the lexical approach, saying that it is idioms, expressions and grammar are not so far removed from grammar. In other words, idioms and expressions should be taught as a part of grammar.

Since Lewis shook up the ESL world, there have been attempts to bring out commercial textbooks that implement the Lexical Approach. However, most of them are not so different than previous textbooks, with traditional grammar the focus of the lesson, and idioms kind of tacked on as an afterthought. "A Year in the Life of an ESL Student" does a good job of introducing idioms as an integral part of communication, not just as an added bonus. Colorful idioms such as "Drink like a fish" or "toss one's cookies", as well as expressions that are not idioms, but present difficulties to ESL students, such as "mope around" are presented in natural conversations, and than reinforced through various exercises, such as crossword puzzles, word find exercises, and so on. Many ESL students have the goal of being able to watch Hollywood movies with no subtitles. Just studying grammar and straight vocabulary will never allow this to happen. However, this book will equip students with hundreds of natural and useful expressions that will help them understand and by able to speak more natural English.

The book focuses on a Swiss student, Andre, as he studies for a year at a private language school in North America. All of the conversations in the book involve Andre and his friends at the language school. Students will like this because it makes the stories easy to follow and understand. Teachers will like this book because there are lots of good exercises in each of the 16 chapters, making it easy to teach good lessons with no or very little preparation. Then there is the theme of this book, studying language abroad for a year. This should be the goal of many of your students, and if it is not, studying with this text will hopefully get them interested in the possibility. For classes with more advanced students, this can be a good springboard for a discussion on the topic.

An excellent resource for English as a Second Language classrooms or self-study for students learning English.......2006-02-09

A Year In The Life Of An ESL Student: Idioms And Vocabulary You Can't Live Without is an excellent resource for English as a Second Language classrooms or self-study for students learning English. Following Andre, a student from Switzerland spending a year completing his English studies at a private language school, the lessons cover a wide variety of language situations directly relevant to adult ESL students, from disembarking at the airport to getting around the city to hanging out with classmates. A Year In The Life Of An ESL Student is particularly valuable for its definitions of common idioms - English phrases with a specific meaning that is not immediately identifiable to those unfamiliar with the language's nuances, such as "blow someone away" (astonish someone), "into something" (enjoy something), "give someone a ring" (phone someone), and much more. Simple exercises for idiom recognition and daily use and a host of online resources round out this consumable textbook.

Francis Nails It!.......2005-09-01

Never before in my 20 years of E.S.L. teaching have I seen a better idioms textbook. A Year in the Life is simple to use, is extremely comprehensive, and helps meet a need for relevant, structured, higher level material dealing with spoken English. There are a variety of exercises and activities that can be utilized/skipped according to needs and tastes, and the extensive definitions and examples make it possible for students to learn correct usage at home. All in all, a great find for students and teachers alike. Bravo Mr. Francis!

An Invaluable Work Book.......2005-05-23

One of the most challenging difficulties teachers of a second language face is creating an atmosphere where the learning process becomes meaningful and at the same time practical, painless and enjoyable.

From my own personal experience learning French, it was only when my ear became tuned in to the nuances and subtleties of the language, and I ceased translating from English to French, that I achieved a certain amount of fluency.

One of the keys that aided my personal plight was being immersed into situations, where I had no alternative than to make myself understood to individuals, who could not converse in English, such as in a shopping mall, a restaurant, or hotel.

When I picked up a copy of Edward J. Francis' A Year In The Life Of An ESL Student: Idioms And Vocabulary You Can't Live Without, I asked myself, would life not have been far simpler if I had at my disposal this excellent workbook?

Francis is an ESL professional with over 15 years of teaching experience. He has put together an innovative and creative workbook that serves as a compliment to the classroom teaching of English as a second language.
Specifically, through the various exercises included in the book, students are exposed to a variety of practical circumstances, wherein certain words and idioms are regularly employed.
Rather than just providing vocabulary for the sake of language, students are stimulated by true- life situations rather than abstract concepts.

Divided into sixteen chapters, the workbook format follows the life of André, a student from Switzerland, who spends a year in North America in a private language school learning English. André experiences include his arrival in the country, wandering around the city, sitting in the student lounge, attending a TOEFL class, eating dinner with a roommate, shopping in a mall, picking up a friend at the airport, a day at the beach, waiting for a fireworks show, working out at a fitness club, drinking in a bar, catching a movie, driving to a cabin for the weekend, finishing classes, snowboarding and returning home.

Each chapter is set in motion with a conversation between André and another party, wherein certain key words and idioms are identified and printed in bold letters, and subsequently defined. As an example, where André works out at a fitness club, some of the key words and phrases are tuckered out, cleaned up my act, kicked the habit, pooped, carried away, do wonders for and many more.
This is followed by a series of exercises where the words are reinforced by having the student match the words/idioms, use them within sentences, complete a cross word puzzle, rewrite sentences using the word/idiom from the dialogue, fill in the blanks, comprehension questions, discussion questions, and identifying where certain words were more apt to be heard.

Also included at the back of the workbook are a list of related websites to the topics covered, answers to the exercises, and a glossary of terms.

No doubt, the traditional methods of teaching a second language are passé. Gone are the days when students only regurgitated vocabulary and rattled off verbs without integrating what they have learned into everyday situations. For the most part, with excellent workbooks as, A Year In The Life Of An ESL Student: Idioms And Vocabulary You Can't Live Without, there is recognition that what is the key to learning a second language is creativity, innovation and experimentation in the classroom.
This workbook should be a must for anyone who wishes to learn English, and will definitely prove to be an invaluable learning aid.

Norm Goldman, Editor of Bookpleasures.com

Conversations With God : An Uncommon Dialogue (Book #3)

Average customer rating:

Buy the Individual Books--Replaces the Bible
Are You Listening?
Beautifully Inspirational Truths
Fundies Christians are the Anti Christ (if there was one)
CWG #3

Conversations With God : An Uncommon Dialogue (Book #3)
Neale Donald Walsch
Manufacturer: Hampton Roads Publishing Company
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 1571741038

Amazon.com

In keeping with the first two books in this trilogy, Conversations With God, Book 3 continues to clarify the muddy waters of our spiritual existence, but moves from individual and global issues to "universal truths," which apply to all levels of existence from the microscopic to the macrocosmic. It is difficult to criticize God, but if he is as pleasant as he presents himself in Walsch's books, then he won't mind the paltry mention of a structural problem. A hefty portion of Conversations With God, Book 3 backtracks to topics that were well covered in Book 1, and while a certain amount of recap is good to build on, Walsch's repeated return to these earlier conversations gets a bit frustrating for the reader who is familiar with the earlier books. Minor blemishes aside, Conversations With God, Book 3 explores some of the most fantastic subjects that people are prone to ponder under starry evening skies: What happens when we die? What is time? Are we alone in the universe? Walsch's dialogue with the creator puts these and other imponderables into comprehendible terms. If these revelations are true, and it is ultimately up to us to know them as truths or not, then the universe is a very intriguing place, and we haven't come close to realizing our potential in understanding it. However, the great thing Conversations With God, Book 3 makes clear is that we can understand the universe if we so choose. --Brian Patterson

Book Description

Inspirational music to remind us again of beauty and wonder, and to return us once more to our feelings.

Customer Reviews:

Buy the Individual Books--Replaces the Bible.......2007-10-16

See my reviews of Books 1 and 2 for the full context of this excellent work. The set replaces the Bible and other convoluted religious "rule sets" and anecdotes, with a single sensible dialog with God that all of us can achieve. Religions of hate and division are part of the problem and the opposite of spiritual communion of man, one with God in community.
Conversations with God : An Uncommon Dialogue (Book 1)
Conversations With God : An Uncommon Dialogue (Book 2)

Book 3 was harder for me, in part because it deals with the afterlife, rising from the dead, and psychic powers, while I am more focused on the practical challenge of eradicating the ten high-level threats to humanity in the next 20 years.

Still, plenty of food for thought here, and I will probably come back to Book 3 for a second reading at some point.

Key points:

Society that marginalizes the elderly is destined for collapse.

Young should bear children, but they should be raised and taught by the elders.

Highly evolved civilizations understand that sharing is the key to plentitude and peace, and that no actions are shameful, competition is divisive and harmful.

Paradigm IS shifting.

Two basic principles: 1) We are all one; 2) There is Enough for All.

The trinity of body (emotion), mind (logic), and spirit (intuition) is repeatedly stressed. I am constantly reminded by this book of Gandhi's phrase, "be the change you wish to see in the world."

More on sex, God is sex, sex is love, sex is sharing, sex is union.

Past 100 years has taken Humanity from the 6 yard line to the 12 yard line in relation to a notional 100-year field of possibilities.

On the basis of this book I am also buying and reading:
The Seven Spiritual Laws of Success: A Pocketbook Guide to Fulfilling Your Dreams (One Hour of Wisdom)
Conversations with God for Teens

See also:
The Lessons of History
Lost History: Contras, Cocaine, the Press & 'Project Truth'
Fog Facts: Searching for Truth in the Land of Spin
Weapons of Mass Deception: The Uses of Propaganda in Bush's War on Iraq
The Cheating Culture: Why More Americans Are Doing Wrong to Get Ahead
Vice: Dick Cheney and the Hijacking of the American Presidency

Are You Listening?.......2007-05-18

This book series is a must read for all seekers of truth. But if you are not open minded, if you are not teachable then do not bother. You must admit to yourself that you may not actually know the truth in these matters. If you can do that then the seeds of truth may sprout and grow. If you dismiss this opportunity then you may very well miss your calling in this life. Time is short for those who wish to rise for the coming changes on Earth. Listen if you have ears!

Esoteric Aquarian

Beautifully Inspirational Truths.......2007-04-08

Best book of the trilogy. I noticed that about 90% of the negative reviews are from Christians who tout the Bible as their source to discredit the inspirational truths in this book. The problem with trying to convince them that this book rings true on many points is like trying to teach a kindergartener calculus: They just won't get it until they are ready. Their egos seem to be so rigid at this point in their growth cycle they just can't let go. Eventually they will learn. So I have given up on trying to convince them that their path is not the only one. Someday, like I did, when they are ready they will learn.

Fundies Christians are the Anti Christ (if there was one) .......2007-03-23

I do not believe in the Anti Christ, but it is self-evident that evil is the stupidity and darkness on earth best represented in the western world by the fundie Bible thumping simpletons who think they actually have a mission by spreading their bigoted and narrow minded message to the more intelligent populous. If this sounds harsh it is because I cannot stand that self-righteous, ignorant bunch.
While CwG is not perfect nor it is complete I love the message (actually the truth) and despise the ignorant morons who say it is not right because it "contradicts the bible".
If you take the Bible word by word then what say you to the following passages?
Happy To Kill Children
"Happy shall he be, that taketh and dasheth thy little ones against the stones." (Psalms 137:9, KJV)

"How blessed will be the one who seizes and dashes your little ones Against the rock." (Psalms 137:9, New American Bible)

"Happy the man who shall seize and smash your little ones against the rock!" (Psalms 137:9, New American Bible)

"a blessing on anyone who seizes your babies and shatters them against a rock!" (Psalms 137:9, Jerusalem Bible)

CWG #3.......2007-02-14

The best of the CWG books and the one most given away to others. It answers the question of is there other life out there and what is it like. Even if this was totally science fiction it would be worth the read. And I believe there is much to think on here based on my life's research as a scientist.You can't have to much information so this must be read if you seriously call yourself a seeker or quester.

Conversations with God, Book 1 Guidebook: An Uncommon Dialogue

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A REAL CONVERSATION? PERHAPS; BUT A GREAT READ!
What IF
Guidebook
Hilarious
Christians beware.....

Conversations with God, Book 1 Guidebook: An Uncommon Dialogue
Neale Donald Walsch
Manufacturer: Hampton Roads Publishing Company
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 1571740481

Customer Reviews:

A REAL CONVERSATION? PERHAPS; BUT A GREAT READ!.......2007-10-15

Like most, I read this book out of curiosity. It's hard to believe that any one person can have a two-way conversation (interaction) with the Almighty. Nevertheless, I kept an open mind and suspended my doubts.

What I learned is that perhaps our Higher Power or G-d Force speaks directly to us through insight. I grew up believing in a witholding god; if we obey the rules and conform to religious standards and basically "be good," we will be rewarded. All well and good to encourage appropriate and moral behavior.

Many have strayed from their path of rightfulness and behaved badly at times. As a therapist, I've known many who can't let go of guilt and shame for what has been done -- especially when ammends can not be made for a variety of reasons.

We have learned to condemn ourselves to a living hell through our actions. What I get from this book is that there are consequences for our actions.

If you have a spiritual curiosity or are looking to view life and death from a newer perspective, definitly check this book out.

What IF.......2006-08-30

It seems to me that the people who have given this book a less than desireable review are the ones who are steeped heavily into the brainwashed religious diatribes of what religions have been pushing down their throats as the truth. What they forget is that the bible was written and re written and edited so many times over and over, that one can only believe that the end result is nothing more than what those religions want you to believe....which of course is for their own agenda.

After being a student of many books along these lines, it only comes to say that these people are "young souls" and are NOT ready for the next step. So you can only go by what they say, with that in mind. Eventually in some life time they will awaken.

This book is one of the best ones I have read, other than Sheppard Hoodwin's "The Journey of Your Soul." These two books together answer and explain any question that you may ever have. I belong to no organized religion, nor ever will be as I find that the "rules" that have been made up in them are just not believable at all.

Open your mind and really look inside these books. You will find a wealth of information beyond anything that you could ever hope for. A world so totally amazing it will boggle your mind.

Guidebook.......2006-02-24

It goes one more further step in the book of the Conversation with God (Book1). Very analytical and offers tips and guidance along CWG book1.

Hilarious.......2006-02-24

It's amazing what some people believe. This is basically
blasphemy. The author's definitely inspired from something,
but it's not God. And all of you so-called "ministers" that
are buying into this trash is mind-boggling.

When the Bible says in 2 Tim.3:16 that God's Word is inspired by God, God was saying through Paul that it is God-breathed, that these words are actually God's Words to us of the salvation story. NO ONE since the conclusion of the writing of the books of the New Testament are inspired by God in the same way. No one
can write or speak today without fallacy or error. Those writers of the Bible wrote what God said to write without error or contradiction. Those words are life-changing words as no other writings are. They are living words from God's mouth.

Christians beware............2006-02-22

If you are a Christian and believe in the Bible, then you need to stay away from this book. As the old adage goes, "You can't judge a book by its cover".

The author purports to answer various questions from kids using the "voice of God". However, the "answers" that he gives are not Bible-based and go against the very infallible word of God. For instance (and I paraphrase), when a girl asks the question "Why am I a lesbian?" His answer is that she was born that way because of genetics (just as you were born right-handed, with blue eyes, etc.). Then he tells her to go out and "celebrate" her differences.

Another girls poses the question "I am living with my boyfriend. My parents say that I should marry him because I am living in sin. Should I marry him?"
His reply is, "Who are you sinning against? Not me, because you have done nothing wrong."

Another question asks about God's forgiveness of sin. His reply "I do not forgive anyone because there is nothing to forgive. There is no such thing as right or wrong and that is what I have been trying to tell everyone, do not judge people. People have chosen to judge one another and this is wrong, because the rule is "'judge not lest ye be judged.'"

And the list goes on. Not only are these books the false doctrine, but in some instances, it even quotes the Word of God in error.

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A 21st Century Management Tool
Dialogue: the art of thinking together
Dialogue - Communications alternative
A Dialogical Dissection
Insightful!

Dialogue: The Art Of Thinking Together
William Isaacs
Manufacturer: Currency
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0385479999
Release Date: 1999-09-14

Amazon.com

Modern conversation is a lot like nuclear physics, argues William Isaacs. Lots of atoms zoom around, many of which just rush past each other. But others collide, creating friction. Even if our atomic conversations don't turn contentious, they often just serve to establish each participant's place in the cosmos. One guy shares a statistic he's privy to, another shares another fact, and on and on. Each person fires off a tidbit, pauses to reload while someone else talks, then fires off another. In Dialogue and the Art of Thinking Together, Isaacs explains how we can do better than that.

Isaacs, who is Director of the Dialogue Project at MIT and a consultant to major corporations, including AT&T and Intel, believes that corporate, political, and personal communication can be a process of thinking together--as opposed to thinking alone, and then trying to convince others of our positions by refusing to consider other opinions, withholding information, and ultimately getting angry and defensive. This is not pie-in-the-sky, let's-all-hold-hands-and-sing stuff. He offers concrete ideas for both listening and speaking; for avoiding the forces that undermine meaningful conversation; for changing the physical setting of the dialogue to change its quality. The outcome, he says, can be quite different from the traditional winner-loser structure of arguments and debates. Businesses can make more reasoned decisions, and thus earn more money. Governments can create peaceful resolutions to seemingly intractable problems. (For example, Isaacs cites secret conversations between Nelson Mandela and F.W. de Klerk in South Africa, which occurred over a number of years, while Mandela was still under arrest and led to a new framework for their country.) And, although this is a book primarily geared toward managers, even married couples can learn a few new ways to communicate. --Lou Schuler

Customer Reviews:

A 21st Century Management Tool.......2007-07-08

To many hard core business types, the idea of sitting around talking with each other for the purpose of identifying common ground would probably sound a little too soft for their liking. If not handled properly, it most likely would.

However, when handled in the way described in this book by William Isaacs, the founder of the Dialogue Project at MIT, it works. As Peter Senge (author of The Fifth Discipline) says in the foreword to Dialogue and the Art of Thinking Together, "in almost every (business) setting where practices of dialogue have become embedded and part of everyday routines, the ensuing changes have become irreversible . . . . Once people rediscover the art of talking together, they do not go back."

Based on a simple set of core skills or practices--listening, respecting, suspending (judgment), and voicing (speaking authentically)--true dialogue often has a profound impact on the quality of the interaction amongst those who are willing to engage in it.

This book is full of practical examples of what to do, how to do it, and what happens in high stakes business settings, like labor-management negotiations, and other less stressful situations when you do.

I have used the principles in this book successfully for many years with clients and students to create breakthroughs in business and education.

I highly recommend it.

Robert E. Levasseur, Ph.D., author of "Breakthrough Business Meetings: Shared Leadership in Action"

Dialogue: the art of thinking together.......2006-11-11

This book is an excellent intorduction to the area of dialogue. It has very good application to the business area for consultants and managers interested in increasing effectiveness of communication.

Dialogue - Communications alternative.......2006-08-31

Isaacs offers alternatives to edicts, confrontations, arguments, debates. He uses anecdotes and metaphors to make his points memorable, often vivid or amusing. He makes how-to-do-it understandable. His most important points are simply stated:
* Listening
* Respecting
* Suspending Opinion
* Voicing
I would add empathy to this list. When empathy is present, dialogue arises naturally. This omission is my only reason for only four stars.

An extract: "The heart of dialogue is a simple but profound capacity to listen. Listening requires we not only hear the words, but also embrace, accept, and gradually let go of our own inner clamoring. As we explore it, we discover that listening is an expansive activity. It gives us a way to perceive more directly the ways we participate in the world around us... This means listening not only to others but also to ourselves and our reactions."

Isaacs points out that while we may work hard in preparing to speak, we do not work equally hard in preparing to listen. The listening element of dialogue cannot be overemphasized.

William Isaacs is to be commended for giving us a fundation upon which to reach through the common barriers of temperament mismatch. Dialogue is the art of relaxing our hang-ups (and biases) to the point where we hear eagerly and naturally think of extensions to what others are saying. In searching for truth, we can then reply thoughtfully instead of defensively, and this encourages responses in kind. Dialogue also works between and among nations. Dialogue is needed more than ever in our times where humanity has achieved the capacity to make itself just another extinct species. William Isaacs is my guru for dialogue.

A Dialogical Dissection.......2003-06-06

Isaacsý book is at once highly readable, pleasant, challenging, thorough, and dense. The author brings together theoretical works from physics, linguistics and psychology to assess modern communication problems and how, through dialogue, those problems can be overcome. He also uses many of his own experiences and case studies to show how dialogic approaches have helped resolve serious differences between groups in the private and public sectors. This book not only offers us the opportunity to reflect on our own mindsets and practices, it also provides useful frameworks and strategies for those compelled to help groups resolve differences. As someone seeking leadership positions in education, this book will always be kept close at hand.

Isaacsý describes the four ýpathologiesý of thought as abstraction, idolatry, certainty, and violence. When we engage in abstraction we separate the parts from the whole and treat them as if they are separate when, in fact, wholeness (interconnectivity and interrelatedness) is a condition of the parts. Idolatry is a problem ýof memoryý. It is the acceptance of ýthe false gods or images that we unquestionable accept to guide us in the way we operate, and which blind us to other possibilitiesý. (p.59) Our certainties limit our capacity to think and reflect. We canýt learn when we are certain. Violence refers to our tendency to assert and defend our certainties, our views of the world, at the expense of the thoughts of others. ýThought that imposes or defends is violent. It applies forces to try to make someone different.ý (p.68) What is most interesting about Isaacsý pathologies is that they call into question those habits and ways of thinking that we generally consider to be necessary for self-actualization. Perhaps too many of us have come to be consumed by these pathologies. Perhaps, when people have to work together to resolve dilemmas, these pathologies are at once magnified and amplified creating a context in which truths are subverted and humane change is ultimately averted.

The challenge for individuals and groups is less to dispense with these pathologies than it is to recognize and control them. Here, dialogue serves a necessary social function. The problem is that, for whatever reason, dialogue (ýa conversation with a center, not sidesý, p.19) as a theory is not widely understood, and as a practice is not common to most relationships, public or private. For each pathology of thought Isaacs describes a countervailing principle of dialogue ý participation, unfolding, awareness, and coherence. Dialogue taps these principles as critical resources. They are no less necessary to self-actualization than our pathologies, but perhaps because individualism pervades the western consciousness, they are less apparent. Participation refers to the notion that we are a part of the world and the world is a part of us. Unfolding is ýthe gradual process of learning to tell the truthý. (p.63) Awareness is the ability to suspend our certainty. Coherence is the process of seeing oneself in others and others in oneself. We participate when we listen, we unfold through voicing, we become aware by suspending our certainty, and we seek coherence through respect. To each of these principles and practices, Isaacs devotes an entire chapter all written, it would seem, to invite reflection and reading aloud to close friends or colleagues.

So how do we turn all these nourishing ideas into food for change? We develop our ability to understand what is happening as it is happening (our ýpredictive intuitioný). We seek new patterns of action by speaking about what we know while inquiring into what we donýt know (balancing advocacy with inquiry). We learn to identify and discuss the contradictory forces (ýstructural trapsý), which inhibit our ability to seek and act on shared realities. We learn to develop and support cultures that produce energy, possibility, and safety. (I believe that Isaacs uses the term ýcontainerý as a synonym for culture.) Central to the development of such a container are the practices of listening, voicing, suspending, and respecting. In this environment, leaders can help groups navigate through the fields of conversation (there are four) to achieve reflective, if not generative dialogue. Isaacsý description of the four fields of dialogue represents a useful model for anyone interested in analyzing and redirecting their professional or personal conversations. He argues for the importance of dialogue in a democracy and in our organizations (we cannot adapt and change without an open system approach to communication), and he provides practical advice and strategies for cultivating dialogue in our society, and within an organization.

This is a book for anyone seeking personal growth and for any citizen or employee who believes that the quest for a more humane world can be achieved through our collective intelligence, or perhaps more significantly, for anyone who needs to see the potential of authentic communication.

Insightful!.......2001-10-12

Sometimes the corporate environment is not tranquil. Managers hate workers, workers hate managers and nobody seems to understand or talk to anybody else. Author William Isaacs believes that's because people don't communicate very well. Companies that succeed have made effective, positive communication part of their culture. Dialogue is a two-way street and negative, ineffective dialogue can kill a company's prospects. Isaacs, a corporate consultant with a doctorate in philosophy, uses a very un-businesslike style to convey his ideas. The book is full of parables and company stories, and the whole mood feels more like a literary narrative, instead of a to-the-point business book. ...

Learning to Listen, Learning to Teach: The Power of Dialogue in Educating Adults

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The Need for Dialectic and Active Learning
How to be a Listener yet a Teacher
Quantum Change
Fabulous
Excellent, thought-provoking book

Learning to Listen, Learning to Teach: The Power of Dialogue in Educating Adults
Jane Vella
Manufacturer: Jossey-Bass
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0787959677

Book Description

In this updated version of her landmark book Learning to Listen, Learning to Teach, celebrated adult educator Jane Vella revisits her twelve principles of dialogue education with a new theoretical perspective gleaned from the discipline of quantum physics. Vella sees the path to learning as a holistic, integrated, spiritual, and energetic process. She uses engaging, personal stories of her work in a variety of adult learning settings, in different countries and with different educational purposes, to show readers how to utilize the twelve principles in their own practice with any type of adult learner, anywhere.

Customer Reviews:

The Need for Dialectic and Active Learning.......2007-01-02

Learning to Listen, Learning to Teach is designed to demonstrate the power and value of dialogue over monologue, and active over passive learning when it comes to educating adults. Vella demonstrates through real life examples how her twelve transcendent principles flesh out in a variety of specific contexts all around the world. This book is designed to help all adult educators embody and model a more effective way to facilitate actual learning. Not only does the book clearly explain and illustrate the twelve principles, but it also calls us to engage and analyze the principles along the way. This book demonstrates what active learning is all about.

A quick summary of the principles for effective adult learning:
1. Needs Assessment: The First Step in Dialogue
It is important to have a need-oriented approach to learning, where the scratch meets the itch by asking the www (political) question - "Who needs what as defined by whom?"
2. Safety: Creating a Safe Environment for Learning
Creating an atmosphere where learners feel safe: where they can trust in the feasibility, relevance and sequence of the learning objectives; where the learners can be both "creative and critical" in their response to the program in an affirming environment.
3. Sound Relationships: The Power of Friendship and Respect
The relationship between the teacher and student is vital. The more that the teacher can formally and informally create a relationship of mutual respect, the greater the motivation and learning potential of the adult learner.
4. Sequence and Reinforcement: Knowing Where and How to Begin
Based upon the needs assessment, the teacher designs an appropriate sequence of lessons moving from simple to complex and from group supported to mastering the lessons alone, in a way the reinforces the learning outcomes. The Seven Steps of Planning: Who, Why, When, Where, What For, What and How help design and reinforce the achievement-based objectives.
5. Praxis: Action with Reflection
Praxis is practice in dynamic relation with thought, where the learner engages in the practice of a new skill, attitude or concept - then immediately reflects on what they just did. The process of action and reflection, practice and thought is repeated in a cyclical process, each informing the other.
6. Respect for Learners: Learners as Subjects of Their Own Learning
In as far as it is possible, allow adult learners to determine what occurs in a learning event, based on their need assessment and the seven steps of planning.
7. Learning with Ideas, Feelings and Actions
Active learning is more effective than passive learning and requires learning objectives that help people think, feel and do.
8. Immediacy: Teaching What is Really Useful
Inviting people to immediately use a skill and see its benefit, gives them motivation to continue to learn more of the skills set out in the learning sequence.
9. Clear Roles: Reinforcement of Human Equity between Teacher and Student
The goal is to do whatever is necessary to foster honest dialogue, so that adults can learn together - while at the same time clarifying who has a deliberate voice and who has a consultative voice.
10. Teamwork: How People Learn Together
By using small groups in healthy competition with each other, the learners are able to provide reinforcement and constructive feedback with each other, enabling effective learning.
11. Engagement: Learning As an Active Process
The goal is not to cover a set of materials, but to allow the learner to engage in an active process of learning by doing.
12. Accountability: Success Is in the Eyes of the Learner
In the end, the educator wants to understand if the learner has actually learned the achievement-based outcomes. The best way to determine if someone has learned is to see if the learner is able to put into action what they have learned and if they have confidence that they "know that they know".

This is a great book to help teachers engage their students in active learning.

How to be a Listener yet a Teacher.......2006-11-09

This is an excellent text for today's teachers. It helps the teacher move from the monologue style (lecture style) of teaching into a more improved style of teaching (the dialogue style). It shows how to get the students more involved in the class and how the students will be able to retain what the teacher is presenting over the lecture style. Students retain more when they take part in the teaching process. I highly suggest this text for those who want a more interesting class.

Quantum Change.......2006-05-16

Jane Vella's, Learning to Listen, Learning to Teach: The Power of Dialogue in Educating Adults challenged me to intentionally adopt several principles in my ministry to university students. I'm convinced these principles are useful for church ministries as well. That is why I recommend this book to you.

Jane Vella educates adults in many cultures and for many different groups, mostly community development projects. I'm very familiar with this kind of work and many of the places and people she writes about. One of the goals I have set for the summer teams of student interns serving in community development projects is for the students to have the best learning experience of their lives. Vella refers to this learning as the `quantum' concept, that the whole is greater than the sum of its parts.
I need to encourage my staff to participate in the process of writing their own job descriptions. I need to be more effective at listening and giving open questions, especially in the teachings I give. Those open questions need to be put to the `safe' environment of small groups. I have practiced this sort of thing at some level, but I see I need to be more intentional. For example, I have asked the question, "What was your best learning experience?" Sometimes, but not always, I send the participants to small group to discuss the question. I need to be more effective at defining learning tasks and follow through on them so that the participants truly participate in the learning process.

1. How can I adopt principles of Vella's dialogue education and quantum thinking?

Vella's key assessment principle, `Who needs What and defined by Whom' or `WWW', is what we will adopt in all of our student ministry programs. To do that, I need to keep a journal. As I pray for individuals in my team and network around the world, I am writing a WWW assessment for YWAM Campus Ministries staff and their projects.

2. Which of the quantum thinking principles have I already practiced and how can I improve on them?

The Field Ministry Internship programme is a serving/learning outreach project for university student teams integrating their field of study with ministries cross-culturally. Vella's book referred to so many things that I have been attempting to do since 1989. For example, to help students feel `safe' we form small teams of 4 to 7. During the first few days in the host country, we typically send small teams out on a `scavenger hunt' in order to learn how to get around with some measure of independence within the safety of their small group. We send small teams to integrate well as a short-term team on a long-term field project. In this way, the students also gain a greater level of participation in the serving/learning process. The students design their own field projects on site as they assess the needs of the long-term personnel and projects they are serving.

I can see how we practice a learning needs assessment, but we do not involve the students enough. We are concerned for safety in the learning process, but I can see that some additional structure and demonstration of concern for the students learning process will raise the energy level and create an environment where learning can take place even when there is much uncertainty. We have structured the outreach program with four phases: Orientation to Cultural Awareness to Ministry to Debriefing. I have learned that we need to add a fifth phase, an Assessment Phase, before the Ministry phase. To date it has been assumed by the leadership, but students have had little understanding of that important phase. To show more respect for the students, we need to document the Assessment phase. By doing so we will be showing more respect to the students giving them more opportunity to participate and take responsibility to decide.

This book is providing a guideline for a full team leader training program. I am very excited about the potential increase in skills that our team leaders can develop through a week-long seminar for FMI team leadership.

Summary

I have created a matrix grid in my journal with Vella's 7 steps for course design for follow up. The key words, RESPECT and ENERGY, are at the top of the list to encourage me to focus my attention on these key values for the adult learners. I have placed a column on the page for each of the 10 different student internship and YWAM leadership training programs I am leading or developing. For each of the seven steps I am considering the different approaches for each of the different programs, depending on the participants, the outcomes, the context, the content, and how learning can be measured and sequenced for greatest effectiveness. I'm expecting quantum changes in all of our programs.

Fabulous.......2006-04-29

Jane Vella does an incredible job of providing "laymans" terminology to get underneath the 12 principles of effective adult learning. I read a colleague's copy and rushed out to buy my own for my personal library.
Trinice Speight Moses
Mount Holly, NJ

Excellent, thought-provoking book.......2005-08-09

This book should be on every educator's shelf. No, it should be on every educator's DESK - well worn and used!

The Collected Dialogues of Plato: Including the Letters (Bollingen Series LXXI)

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"Discovering things that might also be remembered". Good Book
This is the wrong collection to buy.
it's better than...
I Hate Plato
The Collected Dialogues of Plato

The Collected Dialogues of Plato: Including the Letters (Bollingen Series LXXI)
Plato
Manufacturer: Princeton University Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0691097186

Book Description

All the writings of Plato generally considered to be authentic are here presented in the only complete one-volume Plato available in English. The editors set out to choose the contents of this collected edition from the work of the best British and American translators of the last 100 years, ranging from Jowett (1871) to scholars of the present day. The volume contains prefatory notes to each dialogue, by Edith Hamilton; an introductory essay on Plato's philosophy and writings, by Huntington Cairns; and a comprehensive index which seeks, by means of cross references, to assist the reader with the philosophical vocabulary of the different translators.

Customer Reviews:

"Discovering things that might also be remembered". Good Book.......2007-05-13

Plato and Socrates Dialogues stand on their own and in a short review attempt to say that they are "good or not worth it" seems a little shallow.

The chapter Gorgias it reaches out and offers some direction. It says "This is the truth of the matter, as you will acknowledge if you abandon philosophy and move on to more important things is perhaps that philosophy is no doubt a delightful thing, Socrates, as long as one is exposed to it in moderation at the appropriate time in life. But if one spends more time with it than he should, it's his undoing.

So maybe it is just a delightful book if you like Plato and Socrates. It is nice to have this all in one book. I recommend it.

Reading all of the dialogues develops thoughts on specific themes best. It helps to have them in this format. I especially like the to follow the question of whether knowledge is discovered or remembered, whether justice is absolute or relative, whether virtue can be taught, and of course a great deal more in these chapters.

It brings together enough to find out what Plato's epistemology is and how his ethics relates to his metaphysical theory. Lots more.

I found the chapter overviews useful. It pointed the way that the chapters would take and suggested some core issues but didn't pretend to have been answers than the chapters themselves did.

A book like this is a better way to own and read "The Collected Dialogues"

This is the wrong collection to buy........2006-05-22

You could do worse than to buy this collection -- after all, there are translations of the complete works of Plato into English that date to the 18th century. But you could sure do a whole lot better.

By and large -- and with the exception, perhaps, of what is now the standard translation of Laws -- modern translations of Plato are more evenhanded, better researched, and more frank than old ones. And this edition, unfortunately, has some very old ones indeed, like those of Jowett. Moreover, it includes -- according to no particular logic -- a few works many consider spurious, while omitting others whose status is in debate, and it places the dialogues in an order that is not easy to justify.

The edition to buy, if you want a complete Plato without the benefit of the Greek text (if you want the Greek, buy the Loeb, and know that the facing-pages English translations aren't much worse than the ones offered here!), is the one edited by Cooper and published by Hackett. This one will suffice -- but that one is excellent. Few instructors will insist that you buy some edition in particular, and fewer still will insist that you buy this edition -- so don't, buy that one.

it's better than..........2004-09-03

As if after reading Plotinus, Augustine and all those Arabian philosophers with those names one can never recall, we needed another commentary on the works of Plato. Cela va de soi (it goes without saying), Plato has been remembered for a reason. Although, there are some philosophers who would consider Plato a mistake (Quine for example, if I remember rightly, refused to teach a class on Plato), I think it would be absurd not to consider Plato at all. There are some dialogues in this book (such as the Timaeus) that will make you yawn, others, like Gorgias, the Symposium and the Laws will make you wide-awake in wonder. But most importantly, these dialogues will introduce you to Socrates. Although, there is no way to ascertain whether it was Plato or Socrates speaking in these dialogues, most assume that in The Apology, The Crito and a few of Plato's other early dialouges, one gets a glimpse of the real Socrates. Socrates, in Plato's (and also Xenophanes) dialouges is a good man, one who will inspire you. He'll teach you the advantages of being open-minded, of realizing human ignorance, and above all, self-knowledge ('know thyself', 'the unexamined life is a life not worth living'). Which, in my opinion, makes Plato worth reading. I would encourage you to read these dialogues and take what you can, and then go on to Aristotle.

Also recommended: Toilet: The Novel, by Michael Szymczyk. The Oxford Companion to Philosophy. The Complete Works of Aristotle. Early Greek Philosophy by Jonathan Barnes. Lives of Eminent Philosophers by Diogenes Laertius.

I Hate Plato.......2002-08-14

Yes, I think Plato's philosophy is one of the most despicable things unleashed on this Earth. His idea that this world we live in is only semi-real has lead to most of the bad philosphy in recorded history. Only a few philosphers have escaped from under his glare. It's most ironic that one of those is his most famous student: Aristotle.
However, as a lover of knowledge and a student of philosophy, I realize the tremendous debt owed to Plato. First, he understood how imprtant it was to record his ideas. Socrates did not and for this the world is almost assuredly the worst for it. Secondly, he was and absolutely amazing writer. His ability to put his ideas forth in a lucid manner that anyone can uderstand is amazing. Thirdly, he was the first philosopher who devised a full system of knowledge. He wrote on metaphysics, epistemology, ethics, politics and aesthetics.
It is further unfortunate that this text has become the standard by which philosphy students must study Plato. The text is rigid, and as an earlier reviewer noted, Hamilton's intros suck. It is ridiculous to think of her as a serious Platonic scholar. But the Cooper text is much harder to come by, and the Hamilton is required in most courses on Plato. If you have the means, secure yourself a copy of both.

The Collected Dialogues of Plato.......2002-03-02

I have read several of the translations of Plato's dialogues by different scholars... this is the best one that I have come across. Granted Ms. Hamilton's introductions are a little sparce, but that leaves the reader to form a better opinion... not one jaded. This edition is one of the most complete volumes available... where Letters, Menexenus, Lesser Hippias and Ion are found with a rather extensive index and the standard numbering lines from the Greek text.

We have meaningful translations, translations of what Plato was trying to say in todays English language... I know that over time languages grow and evolve but here we read the dialogues like a short story full of life and viable.

The translations in this volume are from: Lane Cooper, F.M. Cornford, W.K.C. Guthrie, R. Hackforth, Michael Joyce, Benjamin Jowett, L.A. Post, W.H.D. Rouse, Paul Shorey, J.B.Skemp, A.E. Taylor Hugh Tredennick, W.D. Woodhead, and J. Wright.