This document discusses how spiritual texts like Conversations with God may have a special "wave-form" structure. It analyzes the wave-form structures found in the Bible, works by Plato and Rudolf Steiner, and in prayers. The author examines the wave-form structure of Neale Donald Walsch's Conversations with God, finding mirroring themes between chapters that create a larger organic structure. Understanding the wave-form can help internalize the ideas in spiritual texts on a deeper level.

1. Talking in Waves: How God Speaks to
Neale Donald Walsch
By Mark Riccio
Have you ever felt that your favorite spiritual book, such as Conversations With God,
may just have a very special composition? Of course, content and message are essential, but
what if in addition to Walsch’s teachings, the message itself has a very special organic wave-
form? In my studies of great spiritual texts, I have learned that many writing have a wave-form.
Such wave-forms are fairly easy to find in the Bible, in Plato, Rudolf Steiner and so on.
The basic principle of a wave-form is that there are two sides to each book or chapter: a
left side and a right side, an ascending and descending, an outer aspect and inner aspect. Look at
the Gospel of Matthew and its wave form.
This wave-form was discovered by Medieval Jewish and Christian scholars and
published by E. Bullinger. (I added the colors, questions, and levels.) Matthew, Mark, and Luke
all have a similar form as do Job and Ruth. What is striking is how the topics mirror each other
on the levels. The right side has to do with the “proclamation” of Jesus while the left side with
“rejection.” We see the yellow level has to do with individuality of Jesus; while the blue level
with baptism; green with nature; and red with the kingdom. Was this Gospel written this way on
purpose?

2. Rudolf Steiner, the father of the Waldorf School and spiritual pioneer, once said that truly
timeless prayers have a godly wave-form:
Analyze every true prayer that exists - word for word - and you will find it to be no arbitrary stringing
together of words. Never has a mere blind impulse been followed to string together so many beautiful
words. Not at all; rather, the great wise men have adopted these prayer-forms from the wisdom teaching
that is now called “spiritual science.” Every true form of prayer was born of this great knowledge; and the
great Initiate who founded Christianity - Christ Jesus - had in mind the seven principles of human nature
when he taught his prayer, expressing in it the seven-principled nature of man.
Human beings are the measure of all things and Steiner is saying that the Our Father Prayer has
the same form as the seven-fold human being, ubiquitous in both ancient and modern spiritual
systems. The seven-fold human being contains in itself a wave-form consisting of seven
interrelated bodies: 1) Physical body, 2) Life-body, 3) Astral-body, 4) Ego-body, 5) Mana
(ennobled astral body), 6) Buddhi (ennobled life body), and 7) Atman (ennobled physical body).
How did Jesus create a wave-form in this seven-fold prayer? The most visible mirroring
is between the external Kingdom of God (sentences 1 thru 3) and the inwardness of the human

3. struggle (sentences 4 thru 7). This is denoted in the diagram by the change from the blue line into
a yellow line.
There is also mirroring between lines three and five in that both have double elements (in
line 3, heaven and earth; in line 5, trespassers and forgivers). Lines 2 and 6 have a qualitative
mirroring since they have distinct actions verbs: “come” and “lead.” Sentences 1 and 7 begin and
end with God’s good name and the evil. The mirroring in this prayer is more subtle than the
Gospel mirroring and therefore a little harder to see without some review.
The mid-point, sentence four, has as its theme the spirit bread, and is the only place
where in the prayer where human and God meet i.e., in the spiritual bread. In the case of this
prayer, the wave-form is not blatant while in the Bible and Plato there is more often a one-to-one
concrete repetition of themes or words.
What about Walsch’s message from God? Although it was a conversation, it does have
sections and chapters. The chapters seem to have their own special form. It is interesting that the
book has 14 chapters with two distinct parts. Chapters 1 through 7 seem to be about the basic
concepts and the individual reader, whereas chapters 8 through 14 show how to apply the
concepts to relationships and the world.
Look at the content and quality of the first seven chapters. See if there is a high-point in
Chapter 4. Do chapters 1 and 7 have a similar quality and theme, 2 and 6, and 3 and 5?
Chapter Synopses of the first seven chapters of CWG:
1. God’s basic principles:Sponsoring Thoughts: love or fear; Life is a creation; Reality is dyad
or triad; Each soul is a master; Jesus and healing the world
2. Changing our inherited judgments: God doesn’t judge Good and Evil: we create our world
and pain, we inherited values from our parents,Money and sex; Gospel writers and worthiness
3. The soul’s purpose:(13 questions) The three-fold reality; we forgot who we are; Watch your
words
4. Discipline your mind: 10 points of self-transformation; New Reality
5. Ten signs ofsuccess:living the 10 commandments, true path: pure being-ness; Heaven and
renunciation
6. Path of suffering?: Pain is a reaction; a master is quiet; Suffering means we still have
something to learn
7. God Consciousness:Life is scary? No attachment to results; Cause and effect,family and
survival,; God’s pay, difficult events become blessings or tests! Choosing and self-responsibility.

4. Let us go from the whole to the parts. The first three chapters have to do with how things
are: the nature of our reality: How God is (Ch. 1), creation and thought (Ch. 2), the three-fold
reality (Ch. 3). Chapters four through seven have to do with self-transformation and the results
such as the 10 signs (Ch.5), make pain into learning (Ch. 6), and God Consciousness (Ch.7).
Next come chapters eight through fourteen. See if you can find the organic relationships. Is there
a difference in theme and quality between Chapters 8,9,10, vs. Chapters, 12, 13, and 14? What
role does Chapter 10 play being that it is so short? See how the chapters relate to one another
thematically. God does not think, create, and organize arbitrarily!
Synopsis of Chapters 8-14
8. Smooth relationships? Relationship purpose: to challenge you to create the higher you;
Salvation is in your reaction; The highest good for you is good for the other too! What would
love do? See the higher in yourself and partner.
9. Life, killing, and pain: Life is challenging! Acting on authority instead of experience means
trouble! Killing: Pain, love and wisdom
10. I love you:
11. Change sponsoring thought:List of questions; Reverse the process:deed, word, thought;

5. Gratitude vs. worldly success
12. Fun and making a living: Insistence on being happy vs. being grumpy; Soul mechanics
13. Health Problems:Self-created illness and negative thoughts; Healer’s absolute faith; Mental
lepers; Care of the body and living forever; Creation and evolution
14. Karma and reincarnation: God’s closing words; The three volumes; Listen to your soul!
Now let us turn to the structure of all 14 chapters. It is a bit much for the eye to grasp
and one does not usually remember what one has read. This is why it is important to
sketch out your favorite spiritual book so that you can see not only what the main
contents are, but also how they relate to each other as a living Idea. Since God thinks
in whole thought-formations, we need to practice thinking this way too, however, one
step at a time. When looking at the diagram of all 14 chapters, keep in mind that the
first seven cover one theme, and second seven another theme. And, that the blue
chapters discuss God’s basics, and the green level our problems. The red level has to
do with positive soul experiences and the yellow with transformative ideas.

6. Here we have the shell or mold that God poured her ideas into. Each chapter serves as a
limb in the organic structure of the fourteen chapters. The book can be read linearly, that is, from
Chapter 1 to Chapter 14, or can be read sideways Chapter 1 to 7 to 8 to 14 (blue level) or can be
read from Chapter 4 to Chapter 10 (across the yellow level). The entire book carefully builds on
and enhances each theme. When the reader masters the various perspectives and inter-
connections, the book begins to speak to the reader its hidden message. This may be
called: living in the wave of the text.
Take this dynamic approach one step deeper and one may see that some chapters also seem
to have their own form. This wave-form emerges in spite of the fact that there is a conversational
style. Look at Chapter One from CWG.

7. In Chapter One, seven main themes seem to appear. The form is not as clear as some of
the others and may actually be inaccurate. However, putting the chapter information into a
diagram makes it easier to survey and learn. I could have made the summaries more detailed, but
for now I just wanted to shed light on the general structure of this great book, Conversations
With God.
Once asked how well Neale put these ideas into practice, Neale responded, not so well.
CWG needs to be studied in the same way it was written: in its wave-form, in a dynamic
organic-living manner. Once studied for its form and content, people will learn to internalize
these amazing ideas that refresh the mind and soul again and again.
Mark Riccio has been studying CWG, Rudolf Steiner’s work, and writing about what a spiritual
writing style is. His recent book is The Logik of the Heart: the organic templates of spiritual
writers, Rudolf Steiner, and the Philosophy of Freehood.