By Mark Pitstick, MA, DC
When I was 20 years old, I worked part-time as a respiratory therapist. On one of my first calls to the emergency room, we worked on a five-year-old boy who had been hit by a truck. As we treated him, the story unfolded: He had been walking to his first day of kindergarten and was the only child of young parents. Despite hours of resuscitative care, he died from multiple injuries. In shock, I stumbled out into the hall just in time to see his parents’ faces contort in grief as a doctor told them the news.
I went outside, shook my fist at the sky, and cursed God. How could an all-loving, -powerful, and -knowing God allow a little one to die so tragically? What kind of world was this where innocent children suffer and die and people experience such losses? Afterwards, I entered a period of agnosticism and experienced the emotional pain and confusion that accompany a bleak spiritual perspective.
Over time, this and other difficult events in my life motivated me to search for answers to life’s existential questions, such as: “Who am I? Why am I here? Is there a loving and just God? Why is there so much suffering? What happens after I die?” You know the questions. I began a quest to prove to myself whether or not God and the afterlife really exist.
During 30 years of intense searching, I assembled sensible, evidence-based answers to these questions. Here are the answers in a nutshell:
1. We each are timeless beings of energy, consciousness, light, spirit. We are integral and forever parts of God/Creative Energy/Source.
2. We are briefly here on earth for the rich opportunities for service, adventure, growth, and enjoyment.
3. There is a Divine Presence/Light/Power/Intelligence that is infinitely loving, wise, and fair. It’s not a big man in the sky, though.
4. We suffer when we forget to view life from a spiritual, more cosmic perspective. For example, that little boy’s tragedy compelled me and, I presume, others to find sensible answers to life’s most difficult questions. Since then, many thousands of people have been helped just by my outreaches. So was his death a tragedy or a victory?
5. When you die, everything about you—except for your body—continues on in another dimension of your creation, in the next page of life’s never-ending saga.
I invite you to consider two important and powerfully life-changing questions.
First, what would it take for you to be convinced that you really are a timeless energetic being who eternally experiences life? Are you like a Miami talk-show host who told me he would only believe in afterlife when he saw an embalmed corpse climb out of a casket? If so, you will probably have to wait until you pass over and see for yourself.
But maybe you are more open-minded than he. What if you knew that many people—including renowned scientists, famous individuals, and probably some of your loved ones—have had firsthand experiences of spiritual realities? Would it help to know that denominations in every religion and spiritual wisdom source believe in universal salvation, an eventual heavenly afterlife for all? Would you be more convinced if you knew that ground-breaking clinical and scientific research strongly indicates a continuity of consciousness?
My second question is: If—as the evidence indicates—we all really are timeless awareness, how would that change your life? Would it help to know that you can’t ever lose loved ones, but are only separated for a while? Could you better survive, and even thrive, through life’s changes if you deeply grasped that you are eternal by nature, an indestructible being of energy? Might this knowledge assist your life in many ways and improve the way you treat yourself and others?
Take a few moments and think about these questions. Internalizing the great news that you are an infinite and integral part of Life helps you realize just how exciting, rich, and safe your earthly experience can be. You can connect with the tangible—and sometimes instantaneous—benefits that accompany a deeper understanding of your undying nature.
Earth is a difficult place to live, I know. Like most of us, I’ve grieved over loved ones who have passed on. Broken relationships have saddened and haunted me. I’ve experienced cruelty, disappointments, unfulfilled dreams, financial loss, depression, and health challenges. Despite the beauty and many positive aspects of planet earth, life here is no picnic. Hardships, loss, and eventual death are integral parts of the human experience.
No one is immune from these struggles trials. However, the Soul Proof evidence clearly shows that, no matter what does or doesn’t happen to you, you can handle it and you’ll survive it. To paraphrase Nietzsche, that which does not kill you makes you stronger—and nothing can kill your spirit. Your real self is much more resilient and mighty than any difficulties you might encounter.
Look at it this way. Do you worry and grieve the next day after watching a movie in which the main character struggles or dies? Of course not—it’s just a movie. Well, in this earth experience that is a minute fraction of your life’s movie; you—as a soul—are the producer, director, and actor. Much collective evidence strongly indicates that our relatively brief lives on earth are very much like movies. Life is like a play, a drama, a learning experience. Your true self has lived before and will live after this and every episode.
My wish is that you will enjoy the many great benefits of an internalized knowing about your true infinite self. As always, feel free to contact me with any needs or questions so you can enjoy the greatest life you have envisioned.
Mark Pitstick, MA, DC is an author, holistic chiropractic physician, clinical psychologist, frequent media guest, and workshop leader who helps you know and show your magnificence in body, mind, and spirit—no matter what is going on around you. Visit his websites at www.soulproof.com and www.radiantwellness.com for free radio shows, e-mail newsletters, and articles. Contact him at mark@soulproof.com to schedule Soul Proof Experience workshops for your church/group and ask him your toughest questions.
