We believe that it is necessary for you to receive all the information about The Group of 1000 before you make a decision to join. This may be one of the most meaningful decisions you can make at this point in your life, and we ask that you be very thoughtful and deliberate in considering this commitment.

If it is easier for you to read lengthy material in hard copy rather than from the computer screen, we suggest that you print off this page and read it on the bus on your way to work, or keep it by your bed so that you can read a bit each night before you sleep. Or just settle in your favorite chair with a cup of tea, and read it all the way through.

However you wish to digest this information, whether all at once or over a period of time, we want you to completely understand the commitment you are making so that you can make a fully conscious decision to be a part of The Group of 1000.

Dear Friend,

Thank you for your interest in the work of Conversations with God. You may now go directly to our website at www.TheGroupof1000.com to learn about The Group of 1000 or the Action Plan to Change Our World. We will also send you a series of four letters explaining the entire program over the next week or so. Please read them carefully and search your heart, and then contact us to let us know when you are ready to step into spiritual activism and support of the programs of the CwG cosmology. Conversations with God says there is nothing you have to do...but we are not compelled to do nothing. Unless that is what we choose. Please find letter #1 below.


Love and blessings,

Neale Donald Walsch

Letter #1

I am so grateful to you for requesting information about The Group of 1000. I know that by doing so, you are indicating an interest in learning more about this idea, and our Action Plan to Change Our World. I can't tell you how much it means to me to have your support in this effort. Thank you for your interest in this work.

Now, let me share with you my thinking so far...

I am seeking to gather 1000 people from around the world who are deeply committed, on a personal level, to changing the direction which our world is now taking. All of us see that we are headed toward our own self-destruction. We cannot continue on this path. Something must be done. And someone must step forward to do it.

That is where The Group of 1000 comes in.

I believe that if 1000 people from all over the world will join forces and use the power of exponential increase, the world could be changed forever, and we could launch at last the Thousand Years of Peace of which it has so often been written and prophesied.

I hope that this does not sound too grandiose to you. I think we can do it! If terrorists can change the world, so can we! If they can strike terror in the heart of humanity, we can replace it with joy.

Here is how that would work: Each member of The Group of 1000 would commit to supporting the Action Plan to Change Our World. This commitment will take personal sacrifice and personal dedication. It will take deep agreement and unified action. It will require a consistent effort on the part of every member over a long period of time. And consistency will be the watchword here.

In my idea of things, all members of The Group of 1000 would agree to live the Rule of Multifold Return. This cosmic rule says that what you send out to the world comes back to you, multiplied. The aim of The Group of 1000 is to create peace on earth, goodwill to all humans, at last, on this planet. The Group seeks to do that by assisting humanity in altering its most fundamental--but erroneous and therefore harmful--beliefs about God, about Life, and about each other.

The Group of 1000 shares a deep agreement that, as Conversations with God says, beliefs create behaviors. It agrees, as well, that for hundreds of years humanity has been trying to solve the problems it faces at every level except the level at which the problems exist. The Group now intends to launch a worldwide Action Plan, a global undertaking to approach the solution to humanity's problems at the level of Cause, rather than at the level of Effect.

I will be sending you continuing emails in this series as we explore all of this further. I do not want to put all that I have to say into one email, because I know that it is a lot to ask people to read 6 and 8 and 10-page emails. So I'm going to break my idea down into its component parts.

In Part II of this series I will outline, specifically, what the commitment is that we are inviting every potential member of The Group of 1000 to embrace. In Part III, I will speak more specifically of the Action Plan for which we will supply the supporting energy. You will know, right then and there, whether you are in deep agreement with me, and whether you wish to be a member of this group. It will be totally okay if you do not. I do not expect everyone to agree with me. Yet of those who do, I will ask sacrifice and determination.

Be looking for my next message. And thanks for reaching out. Your energy is so very, very welcomed by a world that is hungry for leadership.

With love and appreciation....

Neale Donald Walsch

Letter #2

My Dear Friend,

I am excited today to be able to continue rolling out to you my ideas and plans for The Group of 1000, in which you have expressed an interest.

I want you to know that I will be asking a great deal of the members of this group, in terms of commitment and willingness to serve a specific agenda-namely, the Action Plan to Change Our World.

In order for you to make such a commitment I know that you would have to be in deep agreement with my point of view on many things, including: the world and how it is, one solution to humanity's problems and how to achieve it, and the strategy and timetable for doing so.

If we disagree on any of these points, there is no way that I could or would ask you to do what I am going to ask you to do. On the other hand, if we are in deep agreement around these issues, I know that you will want to offer your support and your deep commitment.

In my next email in this multi-part series I will discuss those items in detail. I will lay out the Action Plan for which The Group of 1000 will supply the supporting energy. In this message, I want to describe just what kind of energy that all of us in The Group of 1000 will be asked to provide.

Now you may think this is backward -- that I should first tell you what we are going to do before I tell you how we are going to do it -- but I have turned things around a bit in this presentation because I want you to know "up front" what I'm going to ask of you before I even tell you why. That way you won't feel as if I'm trying to "sell you a bill of goods" before telling you the price.

I want you to know right here, right now, that members of The Group of 1000 are going to be asking to make a very personal commitment and a modest but significant sacrifice. I am looking for energy to support a world-changing idea.

I am seeking, with the creation of this group, a select number of people who see that creating a shift in our global reality is imminently important. Who, indeed, see it as their own personal mission -- and who have just been waiting for a way to come along in which they can undertake that mission with confidence that it is both practical and possible.

The way that I am going to propose is not the only way. It is just one way. But it is a way that will work. We are shown this path in the last three books of the Conversations with God series, which lays out the huge problem facing humanity right now -- and which lays out the solution, clearly, cleanly, and without ambiguity.

So I make no bones about the next point: I am looking for people who view the ideas in Conversations with God as seminal, valid, and important. Who, indeed, view them as their own. I am looking for people who have said to themselves, "I could have written that."

I seek -- and I candidly admit this -- a handful of people worldwide who find themselves in such Deep Agreement with the assessment, understandings, and insights of CwG as expressed in The New Revelations, Tomorrow's God, and What God Wants that once The Group of 1000 is formed and its goals are explained (as I will, in my next email, express, define, and articulate them), there will be discussion but not debate, discourse but not dissension, and alignment without argument.

This energy with be coupled with and fueled by Deep Determination and Deep Commitment to move forward with astonishing speed in the fulfillment of an ambitious agenda.

Not everyone will fall into this category. Not everyone will wish to. Not everyone will feel comfortable in such a profile. That is perfectly understandable and perfectly all right. Those who do not may choose to remain active in one of the many other change-agent programs or activities available in the world today, in which extended discussion and back-and-forth interplay between participants is more a part of the whole process. There is plenty of room in our lives for that kind of profoundly important contribution.

Those who do join The Group of 1000 will be, quite frankly, those who hold a point of view very similar to my own. Like any group of supporters standing behind, and energizing, a political candidate or a not-for-profit group such as MoveOn.org or The 700 Club, The Group of 1000 will not exist to discuss and determine a course of action, but to support a course of action that has already been determined.

Of course, you cannot know whether you agree with those determinations until you know what they are. That is why we shall go into detail in my next email, explaining these ideas and what I believe we can do if we choose to work together.

After reading that next email, you will know without a doubt whether you see yourself as a member of The Group of 1000.

But before you even hear of this plan, I want you to know of the deep commitment we will ask you to make, so that you can decide now if you are even capable of making it. I want you to see the sticker price before I start telling you about the features of the car. Unlike a slick sales person, I'm not going to get you all excited about the vehicle first, and then make you deal with sticker shock after I get you wanting it real bad. That's not fair. You should know the price up front.

So here's the price: I am hoping that you will be willing to set aside One For God. One what? Well, if you join The Group of 1000 we will ask you to:

1. Tithe 1% of your income each month to implement an Action Plan. This contribution will, of course, be fully tax deductible in the countries where such donations are deemed tax deductible. 2. Contribute 1% of your time each month to implement the Action Plan. 3. Tell 1% of the people you talk with each month about this Action Plan, and how they can join you in supporting it.

We will ask you to do this consistently and continuously for at least 1 year.

This is about experiencing that we are all one. And it is about demonstrating that we are one with God by setting aside one for God.

1% for 1 year. That would be your commitment. I am already meeting this commitment, and I am looking for 1,000 people to do the same. I know that it is only through the exponential power of numbers that you and I will be able to make a difference in the world at a level that will satisfy our soul -- and that will make a difference to anyone ELSE.

We plan on using the Rule of Multifold Return as a mechanism for spiritual, social, and political change on the earth. This is a mechanism so powerful that -- like an idea whose time has come -- nothing will stop it.

Okay... so what kind of Action Plan could I have in mind that could possibly cause you to offer your support at such a consistent level? If you came to this information as a result of hearing me talk about it in a public presentation, you already know. And if you read about it on my Internet blog, you, too, have a pretty good idea. And in my next email I'm going to line it all out to you. I know that it's going to have to be a pretty darn exciting plan-something that is really worth putting your personal resources behind-for you to embrace it.

I believe that it is. What I'm going to suggest to you in my next email is going to be the venture of a lifetime...an idea to turn this planet upside-down in 15 years or less. An idea that will take time and energy to bring to fruition. A lot of hours and a lot of energy.

This is an idea about how to spread an idea. This is An Idea Whose Time Has Come. This is an Action Plan to Change Our World.

See you in the next email. Be looking for Part III, in your mailbox soon!

Hugs and love... Neale

Letter #3

My Dear Friend,

Thank you for sticking with me so far. I know that after my last email it took an enormous amount of goodwill, willingness and determination on your part to hang in there with me and hear me out on the ideas, plans, goals, and objectives of The Group of 1000.

I can't say that I didn't plan it that way, because I did. That last letter was a qualifier. I knew that after hearing what I had to say there, many people who had placed themselves on our "tell me more" list might drop off. I notice that you are still here, and I appreciate you very much.

Okay, so here is the idea:

The Action Plan to Change Our World is a tri-level global undertaking to shift the collective consciousness within ten to fifteen years. We seek to produce not a short-term "band aid" effect, but long term medicine to cure the ills of our society. Our three pronged approach centers around three specific kinds of activities in the world:

The problem has to do with what we believe. It has to do with our most sacred beliefs about God, about Life, and about Each Other. These beliefs drive the engine of our experience.

Passed on from generation to generation through a system of education that includes madrassas, yeshivas, parochial and private schools of every kind, these understandings of the world and How It Is are placed into the minds of human beings when they are 8 and 10 and 12 and 14 years old. And so, when they are 18, 20, 22, and 24, many of them are ready to fly airplanes into buildings or over cities dropping bombs, and they do so with impugnity, firm in their belief that what they are doing is "right."

By the time these humans reach 40, 50 and 60 years of age they are at the head of movements and governments and corporate empires that encourage, direct, support and sustain such actions.

And so, the madness goes on. Even as this is being read by you, more 8 and 10 and 12 and 14-year-olds are being taught the same values, given the same understandings, presented with the same histories and scenarios, and offered the same worldview-so that while we are all biting our fingers about today, the Long Range Thinkers are already impacting tomorrow.

Conversations with God says we can change all that. Just as its message has changed you, so, too, can it change other people around the world. Already these books have been translated in 37 languages and published in over 60 countries. Yet getting the books out there is not enough. Now it is time for us to become Long Range Thinkers.

It is time for us to put together an Action Plan to Change Our World and to create, not wait for, the change we wish to see in the world.

We can turn the tide of events on our earth, but CwG has made it clear that the only way this can be done is through education, creating community about a new set of beliefs, and recreating ourselves anew in the next grandest version of the greatest vision ever we held about Who We Are.

Why? What's the point? Can it do any good?

YES! It is the most important thing we could possible do right now. You see, its humanity's ideas about God and about What God Wants, and about Life and How Life Is, that are driving the engine of humanity's experience. Change those ideas and you change the world.

Yet how can we do that? Write more books? Deliver more lectures? Produce radio and television programs? Well, those all help, but what we really need is to create a system of schools just like the madrassas and the yeshivas and the parochial and private schools that cover the landscape.

Just what is the "New Spirituality"?

It is a way of expressing our impulse toward the Divine without making others wrong for the way in which they are doing it.

It is a way of looking at the world, a way of understanding God and Life and Each Other, that brings each of us a new perspective of our relationship with all of that.

That new perspective would allow us to see ourselves as One, at last.

Can such a radical notion be taught? YES. The answer is yes. But we must be willing to undertake the venture, we must be willing to embrace the mission. Together, we can meet this challenge. Yet let's not kid ourselves about it. It will take huge energy, huge resources, and huge numbers of people. And that is why the huge commitment laid out in our last email is being asked of each member of The Group of 1000.

There are those who have ideas about how our world should be who are willing to offer others (including women and children!) a chance to strap a bomb to their body and blow themselves up in a subway station somewhere. And, startlingly, those who are being offered this chance are jumping at it. How is this possible? It is possible because they have been given a point of view about the world since they were 8 and 10 years old.

We are not talking here about that level of commitment. We are not asking that you give your life, we are asking that you USE your life -- about 1% of it -- to change our world.

Here is, specifically, what we seek to do:

Letter #4

My Dear Friend,

Once again, thank you for receiving this four-part series of e-mails outlining an Action Plan for Changing Our World. This email will be the longest of the four you have received, as it contains the most detail.

Whatever your decision regarding joining The Group of 1000, I am so grateful to you for your genuine interest in this initiative. It gives me hope that there truly are people on the planet who have hearts big enough to want to embrace all of humanity in their thoughts, and who are willing to use their most loving and powerful energies in a way that can make life better for all people everywhere-and even save the future for the generations to come.

I promised you in my last letter that I would give you a rundown of all that is now being undertaken and accomplished by three of the non-profit organizations for which The Group of 1000 will provide spiritual, physical, and financial support, so that you could make your own mind up about whether this seemed worthy of your support. I said I would outline in detail exactly what Humanity's Team is now doing, just what the ReCreation Foundation is now producing, and precisely where we are right now in our planning for The School of the New Spirituality.

Here now is that summary. I am so excited to be able to share this with you! There are a lot of words here, so I hope you will give yourself permission to print this out and read through it at your leisure. It is very important that you know all about the important and inspiring work you are being invited to do as a member of The Group of 1000.

Humanity's Team...

Now over 15,000 members strong in more than 94 countries on six continents, Humanity's Team was formed in 2003 as a worldwide movement committed to creating the space for a New Spirituality to emerge upon the earth.

I have called it a "Civil Rights Movement for the soul," freeing humanity at last from the oppression of its beliefs in a righteous, jealous, angry, demanding, exclusive, vindictive, vengeful, and violent God, and offering people everywhere the freedom to follow their natural impulse to seek and experience the Divine without fear of being socially ostracized, legally punished, or militarily attacked for the way in which they are doing it.

We should each be able to follow the God of our heart -- or no God at all -- without feeling that we have given up, by default, all the safety, security, and power that citizens in a civilized society have a right to claim.

The work of Humanity's Team is grounded in the understanding that beliefs create behaviors, and that the only way to alter humanity's behaviors in any long term way is to alter humanity's beliefs. It is the belief in the ancient God that I have described above that has created and supported so many of the dysfunctional behaviors of so many human beings, leading to the altering of life as we have known it on this planet.

Humanity's Team is already hard at work creating community, placing citizen-based, grassroots programs in cities, towns, and villages across the globe aimed at offering people everywhere an alternative definition of God, an alternative explanation of Life and its purpose, and an alternative idea about each other.

Now, even as we work to support and sustain those undertakings, we wish to simultaneously and vigorously move to the next level in terms of impact, outreach, and outcome.

The intention for 2008 is to add to the New Spirituality Study Groups now formed in many cities around the world by creating a special event, called A Celebration of Life.

This will be a weekly 90-minute program open to the public and offering an inspirational lecture on the New Spirituality, followed by an interactive emotional support activity, and concluding with a celebration in song, dance and ritual of our true identity as One with each other and One with the Divine.

These Celebration of Life events will take place on the same night in locations around the world (Thursday evening), so that no matter where one finds oneself in the world, one knows that there will be easy access to such an opportunity for soul nurturing and spiritual reconnection.

Weekly lecture topics can be suggested by the International Humanity's Team, with outlines offered, and even a fully prepared lecture available, to presenters who request such content assistance. This regular outreach will also provide a wonderful avenue for coordinated, on-the-ground, highly personal communication (as opposed to computerized "Virtual Reality" communication) with individuals around the world. Humanity's Team also envisions coordinated worldwide video feeds to these many locations at special times throughout the year, such as the first night of Hanukkah, or Christmas Eve.

The idea here is to create on-the-ground presence each week in the lives of people in cities, towns, and villages across the globe, expanding the work of creating community and causing to emerge the emotional, physical, and spiritual support systems that flourish naturally in such an enriching environment.

Look for the Celebration of Life event where you live in 2008. If you do not hear of one being presented, offer to create one yourself by joining or creating a Humanity's Team chapter in your location.

For more information, go to http://www.humanitysteam.org.

The ReCreation Foundation...

ReCreation, the foundation for personal growth and spiritual understanding, is a non-profit educational organization formed in 1995 to place the messages of Conversations with God into the world. It has also been known as the Conversations with God Foundation, and its work includes...
A.     The creation and presentation of Spiritual Renewal Retreats attended by people from all over the world on topics directly related to bringing the New Spirituality into every day life.
B.     Presenting the Life Education Program, which offers people an opportunity to acquire certain life skills highly useful to those wishing to become messengers of the New Spirituality in the world at large, working one-on-one as a Life Coach, or in groups as a lecturer or retreat facilitator.
C.     Distribution of a Weekly Bulletin carrying the message of the New Spirituality to over 40,000 people across the globe, and the creation of a wide variety of other educational materials, including booklets, video tapes and DVDs, audio cassettes, teleclasses and online courses, all designed to render the message of Conversations with God and the New Spirituality more clear and understandable.

More information on the Spiritual Renewal Retreats planned by the Foundation can be found by www.cwg.org. The Life Skills program, a very logical next step for many people who attend our Spiritual Renewal Retreats, is part of the LEP and is ideally suited for persons who are:
•    Committed to taking their own personal, emotional and spiritual growth to the next level.
•    Eager to explore how the concepts of the New Spirituality can be relevant, practical and inspiring in everyday life.
•    Called to learn how to articulate and share the concepts of the New Spirituality with others.
•    Interested in joining a community of like-minded people to support them in creating their grandest vision for themselves and for the world at large.
•    Wanting their life to be a demonstration of authenticity, compassion and joy.

This 12-month program includes weekly conference calls and exercises sent via the internet and can be done from one's home, anywhere in the world.

Each month a new topic is explored, topics addressed in Conversations with God such as Abundance, Relationships, Conscious Creation, Total Visibility and more. The full Life Education Program runs 18-months (the FasTrak version can be completed in four) and is the cornerstone of the Foundation's work. It is designed to bring people practical, immediate, hands-on assistance in creating themselves anew.

For more information go to http://www.cwg.org.

The School of the New Spirituality...

The New Revelations, Tomorrow's God, and What God Wants -- the Final Trilogy in the CwG cosmology-makes it very clear that the key to changing our world is education, education, and more education.

We need to change the world's mind about God. When we do that, we will change the world's mind about Life. And when that is accomplished, we will be able to change the world's mind about each other.

These are the three steps that humanity must take now if we are to reclaim our world.

As former President Jimmy Carter makes very clear in his astonishing and breathtakingly courageous new book, Our Endangered Values, the world is in danger of being overtaken, not only in its religious, but also in its political, economic and social, institutions, by far-right radical fundamentalists, some of whom have it as their agenda to change our world forever-if not to end it.

Now I know that many people in the so-called "new thought community" don't like to hear such talk. They want all words and thoughts about our world and its future to be positive, and all statements to be affirmations of what we now choose, rather than what we oppose. And to an extent, I agree with this view. Our attention should always be focused on the positive rather than the negative, on the chosen outcome rather than the rejected experience. And yet, as a practical matter, we cannot focus on the best way to get off the tracks unless we know that we are on them-and that the train is coming.

So I think that it is important for us to find a useful and workable balance, emphasizing for sure the glorious and positive future which we very much intend to create, but certainly not walking around with blinders on, oblivious to our present circumstance and bumping into walls.

So I am clear that the words of the Final Trilogy, and books from world leaders such as former U.S. President Jimmy Carter, have come to us to wake us up.

I am awake and aware. I hear the train coming on down the tracks. And I know that we can redirect that train by doing some new training of our own.

In five years I intend to see little schools all over the world where children and adults can come to receive instruction in the principals of the New Spirituality. This is what is needed in our world right now.

In the vision for the school, there will be three levels.

1st level function of the School of the New Spirituality: Train Teachers

The two-fold purpose of the school at Level 1 is to provide a comprehensive, formal education in the New Spirituality, including comparative theology and other doctrinal studies, leading to a degree and certification as Teachers for the classrooms around the world.

This program goes beyond the Life Education Program, bringing the student into a New Pedagogy academic environment to study the New Spirituality in a comparative way by seeing and coming to deeply understand the differences and comparisons between the New Spirituality and more traditional, religious doctrine. We are currently considering placing this program under the umbrella of an already existing degree-offering educational institution.

2nd level function of the School of the New Spirituality: Educate Adults

The School of the New Spirituality will serve as a local level community resource in adult education for people who want to learn more about the New Spirituality, in a more academic way. Some examples of classes are; a course similar to bible study, for adults, New Spirituality and Relationships, New Spirituality and Right Livelihood, etc.

The participants in these courses will receive a Certificate of Completion.

3rd level function of the School of the New Spirituality: Teach the Children

The third function of the School of the New Spirituality will focus on children. This school will be a perfect latch-key activity, providing a place for children to go after school. It will include programs, activities as well as formal classes in the New Spirituality. Certain of these classes can be taught be some of the graduates of the adult programs, as well as those who have completed the Life Education Program of the ReCreation Foundation. Eventually, full-time schools, running all day long, will be established, with graduates of the first level program mentioned above, as headmasters and master teachers.

Before the next two years are out-and hopefully sooner than later-we may very well be coming back to you to ask you and your friends to establish a small School of the New Spirituality in your own location.

Your school can be something as small as a one room meeting space. It can be in your converted garage or in your family room, or in a space that you lease or rent downtown, or in a church building somewhere. Wherever it is, you could be one of those who will provide us with an opportunity to instantly (almost overnight) create a network of such classrooms and schools around the world!

And that is the idea behind the School of the New Spirituality. We know that this will surprise a lot of people who were not expecting it. Suddenly, overnight, we will blossom these schools virtually everywhere. Yet it is about time that, in addition to madrassas and yeshivas and parochial schools, Schools of the New Spirituality dot the landscape.

We want to produce this outcome not because we seek to convert or oppose anybody, but because we wish to provide equal opportunities for humanity to consider its most sacred beliefs about God, about Life, and about each other in a wider context that includes more than one point of view-including a new and startlingly healing point of view called the New Spirituality.

For more information go to: www.schoolofthenewspirituality.com

Summary...

And so, this is the three-pronged approach of the Action Plan to Change Our World.
1.     Through the School of the New Spirituality we will be creating understanding.
2.     Through Humanity's Team we will be creating community.
3.     Through ReCreation Foundation we will be creating ourselves anew.

All three non-profit organizations will work together, each in their own area of effectiveness, and The Group of 1000 will provide some of the spiritual, physical, and financial support which will drive the effort.

As a member of The Group of 1000 you will have the option to join Humanity's Team and to direct your ten hours a month of service to any of its undertakings. Or you may wish, as mentioned above, to work to establish a School of the New Spirituality classroom in your locality. Or you may choose to participate as a volunteer or a paying participant in the programs of the ReCreation Foundation. And, of course, you may choose to divide your time commitment among all three.

Again, as mentioned in Letter #3, the financial resources of The Group of 1000 will initially be contributed in the following proportion:
A.     45% of contributed funds will flow to the School of the New Spirituality
B.     45% of contributed funds will flow to Humanity's Team
C.     5% of contributed funds will flow to the ReCreation Foundation
D.     5% of contributed funds will flow toward Administrative Costs


Activate your decision

Now it is time to activate your decision as to whether you wish to be a member of The Group of 1000. I know that you have already made that decision as you read this. If you feel deeply called to help send the message of Conversations with God and the New Spirituality into the world in a healing and meaningful way, please activate your membership in The Group of 1000 by getting on your computer and going to...
www.TheGroupof1000.com
 
and click on the Join G1K link at the top of the page

If our world is going to change, it is going to take dedication, intention, and a very real commitment from people just like you. That is why I am asking you to set aside One For God -- 1% of your income, 1% of your time, 1% of your personal conversations with others - to make this dream come true.

God bless you all, and thanks again for being the kind of person who changes the world. You inspire me!
Neale Donald Walsch

Author
Conversations with God