by Mark Pitstick MA, DC

Note: If you already know the following information scroll down to the article title in maroon below the seven asterisks.  However, I strongly recommend reading this introduction until you really ‘own’ it.  In addition, post The Great News where you’ll see it every day.  

Over the last 15 years, and especially during 2019 – 2024, data from a series of experiments at the University of Arizona have definitively demonstrated scientifically that life continues after physical death.  This research was conducted by Gary E. Schwartz PhD, former professor at Harvard and Yale, and pioneer in the fields of behavioral medicine and energy healing.  

Dr. Schwartz is assisted in this work by a team of electrical engineers, software developers, research assistants, evidential mediums, and postmaterial luminaries at the Laboratory for Advances in Consciousness and Health.  (To learn more about the SoulPhone Project and lab, visit LACH.Arizona.edu.  To learn about postmaterial luminaries, see article #31 at SoulProof.com) 

The Demo SoulSwitch is a binary (Yes / No) SoulSwitch device that postmaterial persons (the so-called ‘deceased’) can use to answer questions, verify their identity, and begin providing information to help many people and our planet.  This device should be ready for beta testing by the summer of 2024.  After sessions with project volunteers and larger donors, we will share data that scientifically demonstrates life continues after bodily death.  However, this ‘reveal’ will initially occur as an ‘incremental trickle’ versus a ‘sudden splash’.   Over time and under optimal conditions, we will gradually amplify how widely this news is shared. 

Likewise, demonstrations of this technology will occur in a stepwise fashion.  We anticipate, but cannot guarantee, that full announcements and demonstrations will occur by spring 2025.  These decisions were made in April 2024 after many strategic planning discussions with core project team members.  The many factors involved are much more complex than you might imagine. 

See articles #1, 60, and 115 for an overview of the scientific, clinical, and experiential evidence that indicates – with 99.9% certainty – that consciousness survives bodily death.  This collective evidence also shows – with very high degrees of certainty – The Great News that you and everyone else:

  1. continue to live after your earthly body dies. 
  2. can interact with ‘departed’ loved ones now and after you pass on. 
  3. are integral, infinite, eternal, and beloved parts of Source Energy now and always. 
  4. receive guidance and support from angels, guides, master teachers, etc. 
  5. are sacredly interconnected with all people, animals, and nature. 
  6. have special purposes for having this earthly experience now. 
  7. may manifest in other simultaneous time / space realities now and after bodily death. 
  8. have everything you need to enjoy an optimal earthly experience – no matter what your past or current circumstances. 
  9. can find meaning, as well as opportunities for growth and service, amidst your toughest changes and challenges. 
  10. co-create how heavenly your life feels – whether living on earth or elsewhere – by your predominant thoughts, words and actions. 
  11. can likely use SoulPhone technology in the future to communicate with postmaterial loved ones and access wisdom from luminaries who can help us heal our world.  

Statements #1, 2, and 11 are based on definitive scientific research.  The other statements are based on: (a) clinical research: near-death experiences, past life memories and regressions, perinatal experiences, life between lives sessions, shared crossings, terminal lucidity cases, and deathbed visions; and (b) evidencefrom firsthand experiences: after-death communications, out-of-body experiences, spiritually transformative experiences, electronic voice projection / instrumental transcommunication, and other ways of knowing.

This is, obviously, a new and exciting era for humanity.  When understood and internalized – even just a bit – The Great News can help you make the shift:         

  • FROM thinking, believing, and acting as if your time on earth is unfair, meaningless, cruel, and ends with cessation of consciousness or the possibility of endless suffering. 
  • TO thinking, believing, and acting as if this earthly experience is a totally meaningful, safe, and magnificent adventure amidst forever.

Conscious language can help you adopt a greater reality perspective and live based on the second bulleted worldview.  And that, in turn, can help you create the greatest life YOU have envisioned, fulfill your purposes for being on earth, serve others, and enjoy a magnificent journey.  In the pursuit of using more conscious / accurate terms, l:   

  1. Will use the term ‘YOU’ to describe the totality of your energy / being. Your real self may manifest in different spacetime ways simultaneously since only approximately 50% of your consciousness is needed to have an earthly experience. The term ‘YOU’ recognizes both of these possibilities. 
  2. Won’t use the terms ‘die, departed, deceased, or dead’ without single quotation marks since those have strongly entrenched and erroneous meanings indicating an end of life. 
  3. Will use the terms ‘bodily death’ and ‘death of the earthly form’ to remind you that only the earth-suit dies. The rest – all the intelligence, love, personality, memories, preferences, sense of humor, and much more – continues living in other parts of the field of all possibilities. 
  4. Will use the terms changed worlds, passed on, transitioned and others that aptly describe a continuation of consciousness after bodily death. 
  5. Will primarily refer to those who have passed on as postmaterial persons. That term recognizes the points in #3. I also will use soul, consciousness, essence, and awareness. 
  6. Will primarily refer to ‘physical humans living on earth’ as material persons. Why? Because those terms within single quotation marks may apply to postmaterial persons.  That is, they can have physicality, visit earth, and are still human in meaningful ways.
  7. Will use the terms lower versus higher energies, emotions, and ways of being. These descriptors are not critical, judgmental, or subjective; rather, they are based on objective measures by, for example, David Hawkins PhD, MD author of Power Versus Force. He and other researchers found that higher-energy emotions of peace, joy, and love calibrate at 600, 540, and 500 respectively.  Conversely, lower-energy emotions of anger, fear, and guilt calibrate at 150, 100, and 30.  To be clear, energy / consciousness is who and what you really are, not just how you are feeling.  Your predominant energies create the quality of your life and the nature of your earthly or other time-space experience. 
  8. Will use single quotations marks with words such as ‘lose and fail’.  The Great News and collective afterlife evidence can expand your worldview about what seem to be losses and failures.  We can’t accurately judge the big picture of life – what is lost or how we failed – with our limited human senses.   

Note: To recognize and respect different genders and sexual identifications, I will alternate using ‘he’ or ‘she’ and related pronouns.  Depending on a person’s orientation, one, both, or neither of those may apply.

The free articles and radio shows mentioned are available at SoulProof.com.  To learn more about the collective afterlife evidence and The Great News, read Soul Proof, The Afterlife Evidence, Greater Reality Living (co-authored with Dr. Schwartz) and The Big Picture of Life (for ages 10 – 16 written with Schwartz and Katta Mapes MA, MEd).  To experience expanded states of consciousness to optimally heal and transform your life, use audio sessions under Shop at SoulProof.com. 

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What Is G.O.D. Like?

Better understanding the nature of God is important for many reasons.  The title of this article emphasizes that anything I say about the Creator and Sustainer of the Cosmos will be incomplete.  Here are my best understandings after walking closely, much of the time, with The Light.  

Some people struggle with images of Creator taught by ancient religions and philosophies.  They wonder why so much suffering occurs if a Supreme Being really is all knowing, loving, and powerful.  Bereaved parents justifiably ask why their child died.  Some feel angry about the difficulties on earth and question whether any Higher Power really exists.

Those are all fair questions that understandably arise when God is envisioned as a huge superman-like deity who judges, smites, and lives very far away.  Amazingly, millennia-old Greek, Roman, and Judeo-Christian images of a big guy in the sky still influence the thinking of many people.  Those ancient, and sometimes inaccurate, depictions of Source create fear and misinformation about life, death, and afterlife.

However, much collective evidence now indicates that the Creator and Sustainer of All Life – not just on earth, but throughout the cosmos – is NOT a big white-bearded giant sitting on a throne somewhere very far away.  This evidence includes clinical data, firsthand experiences, and more sensible input from love-based religious denominations and spirituality wisdom sources.

Humanity’s evolution has been hampered by believing the Divine is like us, but much bigger.  To the contrary, much contemporary evidence indicates that humans are most accurately described as beings of energy and consciousness that are part of the Ground of All Being.

During my theological school studies, God was defined as the highest power of love and wisdom that can be conceived. My image of this phenomenon is the sum total and origin of love, peace, creativity, wisdom, and other high energy attributes.

In his book The G.O.D. Experiments, Dr. Schwartz used the acronym G.O.D. to stand for the universal “guiding, organizing and designing” process in life.  This phenomenon has historically been called many names by religions, for example, Yahweh, God, and Allah.

I added the letters E and L that stand for Energizing and Loving.  The resulting acronym E.L.G.O.D. describes more of the attributes of this ultimately ineffable Life Source.  EL also honor ancient names for the Divine.  El or Al – the root words of Elohim, Eloha, Allah, and other sacred names – meant That, The One, or That One which expresses itself uniquely through all things.  These beautiful terms more accurately describe the oneness operative in all life.

In his book An Open Life, Joseph Campbell – the brilliant scholar, author and interpreter of sacred traditions – stated: “The divine lives within you . . . the separateness that is apparent in the phenomenal world is secondary.  Beyond, and behind, and within, and supporting that world is an unseen but experienced unity and identity in us all.”

The following description of Creator is, based on the collective evidence, quite accurate. In Destiny of Souls, Michael Newton PhD, quotes a female client who was one of the most evolved beings he had interviewed during a Life Between Lives session.  To slightly paraphrase, she described Oneness / the Presence as: ‘Massive but soft.  Powerful yet gentle.  There is a breath, a whisper of sound that is so pure.  The sound creates all, including light and energy.  The sound holds this structure and makes it move, shifting and undulating, creating everything.  It is a reverberating bell, then a high-pitched pure humming like an echo of a mother full of love singing to her child.’

These descriptions of E.L.G.O.D. are, needless to say, quite different from horrific ones that many of us were taught at an early age.  Do the words “wrathful, judging, and fearsome” sound familiar?  Some denominations still teach about a God of unfathomable love, but then – in the next sentence – warn that He will send us to, or allow us to choose, a fiery hell for eternity.

Can you say schizophrenia?

Clark H. Pinnock, theology professor at McMaster Divinity College, stated: “How can Christians possibly project a deity of such cruelty and vindictiveness” as to inflict “everlasting torture upon his creatures, however sinful they may have been.”  I agree with his conclusion that a Higher Power who would do such a thing is “more nearly like Satan than like God.”

We need to reconsider our notions about Creator, to refute half-truths and mistruths that were taught to invoke fear, collect riches, and control people.  The collective evidence listed above refutes any notion of a potentially vengeful Source that watches, judges, and smites us accordingly to His will.

Notice that ancient patriarchies always used ‘He, His, and Father God’.  Making fearful claims about ‘She, Her, and Mother Goddess’ would instantly sound ludicrous.  Consider, for example, the statement: ‘If you do not believe and act a certain way, She will put you in hell forever.’

Think about it for a moment with common sense instead of brainwashed fear.  What loving parents – especially mothers– would pass their child’s finger over a flame, even for a second, for any transgression?  How, then, could any person believe that an all loving, all knowing, and all powerful Creator would do that for eternity?

Rediscovering the original meanings of sacred teachings conveys greatly different views. Aramaic translations, for example, reveal more accurate understandings from pivotal times and places that so greatly influenced Judaism, Islam and Christianity.

Regarding the primary Aramaic meanings for the Supreme, Neil Douglas-Klotz PhD stated on my radio show: “The root words for God are ‘Eloha’ or ‘Alaha’ from the Hebrew ‘Elohim.’  All these words mean ‘unity, sacred unity, or one Beingness’.  The Jewish or Aramaic notion of the Divine is not a being sitting somewhere, someplace as in a room above us, but a unity of which we are a part, of which our being is a part.”

He continued, “Both Jesus and the Hebrew prophets before him shared this bigger picture of the Divine.  That’s quite different from our Western conception.  Our problem is that when this conception was squeezed through the Greek language and thinking into Western Christianity, only a very small part of this meaning was carried across the language bridge.”

If you were taught notions about a Source that seemed scary and strange, realize that the offending information was incomplete or incorrect.  Some people become agnostics or atheists because they understandably find the idea of no Higher Power to make more sense than the bizarre images they were taught.

Some children know this. They may remember from whence they came before visiting earth. Or they may in touch with their hearts and minds before receiving too much earthly and religious indoctrination.

Years ago, I visited an old chapel with my twin four-year-old granddaughters. A large painting of ‘God’ hanging above the altar depicted a huge guy in the sky with long white hair and beard. We hadn’t talked about the nature of Creator before since they were so young. They stared at it and then one said with complete certainty: ‘That’s not what God looks like.’ I said, ‘Really. What do you think God looks like?’ She looked at me as though I was dense and should already know the answer. ‘A circle of light’, she said. The other nodded her head as though this were common knowledge.

For more information about this topic, I and eleven consciousness experts discussed contemporary understandings about the nature of God in my book The Eleven Questions.

I also share writing from several great teachers who have more evolved views of Source than you may have been taught.

Many people are shocked by denominations that claim their view is the only right one and all others are doomed to a fiery eternal hell.  At the “God at 2000 Conference,” professor of religion and author Marcus Borg PhD said: “I find it literally incredible that the God of the whole universe has chosen to be known by one religious tradition.”  He said that all great religions of the world believe in an encompassing Spirit that is part of everyday life.  In this view, termed panentheism, Universal Intelligence is not only transcendent (beyond human experience), but also immanent (dwelling within all life).

Rev. Matthew Fox is a theologian, Episcopal priest, founder of Creation Spirituality, and author of over twenty books including Natural Grace with biologist Rupert Sheldrake PhD.  Fox rejects theism, the concept that “God is way out there someplace, as far away as he can get.”  In his view, “God is life per se life, God is in the midst of everything that’s bubbling, everything that’s vital.  And that is panentheism, to see God in all things.”

In Wisdom of the Ages, Wayne Dyer EdD stated, “Imagine being fully aware that you carry God about with you.  If God is everywhere, then there is no place that God is not.  And this includes you.  Once you connect to this understanding, you regain the power of your very source.  Rather than seeing yourself as separate from the miraculous power of God, you claim your divinity and reclaim all the potency that God is.  You are a principal work, a fragment of God Himself.”

Joseph Campbell said that humanity’s search for the Supreme has been encumbered by conceiving the Absolute as a personality.  He wrote, “As soon as you smash the local provincial ‘God-form,’ God comes back.  And that’s what Nietzsche meant when he wrote that God is dead.  Nietzsche was himself not an atheist in the crude sense; he was a man of enormous religious spirit and power.  What he meant was that the God who’s fixed and defined in terms appropriate for 2,000 years ago is no longer so today.  The divine lives within you.  And what is God?  God is a personification of that world-creative energy and mystery which is beyond thinking and beyond naming.”

As discussed by Jeffrey Moses in Oneness: Great Principles Shared by All Religions, the theme of being one with Creatoris echoed throughout the world’s religions:

  • Hinduism: “God bides hidden in the hearts of all.”
  • Shintoism: “Do not search in distant skies for God. In man’s own heart is He found.”
  • Sikhism: “Why wilt thou go into the jungles? What do you hope to find there?  Even as the scent dwells within the flower, so God within thine own heart ever abides.  Seek Him with earnestness and find Him there.”
  • Christianity: “The kingdom of God cometh not with observation: neither shall they say, “Lo, here! Or, lo there! For, behold, the kingdom of God is within you.”
  • Confucianism: “What the undeveloped man seeks is outside; what the advanced man seeks is within himself.”

I had a multi-sensory experience of Life Source in 1997 during a long yoga and meditation session at 5:30 in the morning.

While silently repeating the mantra OM, a louder and deeper chorus of that sound spontaneously resounded within and all around me.  It sounded so real that I thought I would see a huge choir if I opened my eyes.  Then I smelled fresh flowers even though it was winter and there was no source for the fragrance.  Next, even though my eyes were shut, I saw a radiant golden-white light in my mind’s eye.  Then I felt what seemed to be Divine love, acceptance, and understanding.  Finally, a mild electrical current coursed throughout my body.

These sensations were so overwhelming that tears welled up in my eyes.  It seemed that information and energy were being transmitted to me.  The power and splendor were so great that, after just a few minutes, I felt I couldn’t handle the current.  I murmured aloud, “Oh my God!” and started laughing.  Then the experience was over.

But that sweet memory helps carry me through life’s challenges and reminds me I’m always Home and an integral part of All That Is, no matter what is happening to or around me.

One teaching from that event is that I was not prepared to directly experience higher energies for very long.  That level of power ‘blew my mind’ and my circuit breakers.  I felt that my nervous system wasn’t strong enough to handle the current.  That experience still motivates me to live a healthy and balanced life so I can enjoy and share those higher energies.

That’s the main reason for centering practices: not to work yourself toward the Light, for that is our very nature.  Centering techniques upgrade the power and clarity of your perception so you can comprehend the greater reality more accurately.  Your true and unending nature – right now – IS energy, love, light, intelligence, peace, beauty, joy, creativity, and much more.  Certain practices help you remember and demonstrate that truth more deeply and consistently.

When I pray, I address Creator with the following terms of endearment that address Its different facets.  I take great joy in reciting this list just before following to sleep, while driving, and other times when I want to remember how vast and magnificent All Life – including you and me – really is.

ELGOD, Great Spirit, the Light, the Presence, All That Is, the Ground of All Being, Mother-Father God, the Above One, One Mind, Life Source, the Creator and Sustainer of all life, the Great Mystery, Boundless Consciousness, Universal Intelligence, Source Energy, Creator, the One, the Divine, the Infinite, Higher Power, the Beloved, the Supreme, Creative Energy, Creative Mind, the Force, the Source Field, Infinite Intelligence, First Spirit, Life Itself, Life Unfolding, Cosmic Dreamer, the Omniscient One, Sacred Beingness, Birther of All Life, the Infinite One, Breather of All Existence, the Source.

God is not blind and God is not uncaring.  I awakened with these words in my mind on 12/17/20.  Then the following words flooded in as I scrambled to write them down: ‘Unlike humans, Creator does not suffer from spiritual amnesia or optical delusions.  When you awaken more – even a little bit – to the fullness of life, you can better understand the mind of God.  You can more deeply realize just how safe, meaningful, magnificent, and loving life really is.  And that knowledge makes all the difference for your earthly journey.’

I hope this discussion about the Creator and Sustainer of all life helps answer your toughest questions that naturally arise when struggling with life’s greatest changes and challenges.  The great news?  You are part and parcel of the same intelligence and energy that created and sustains the universe.  As such, you have everything we need to survive and even thrive through all events.

May you always deeply know who you are, why you’re here, and Who walks beside you always . . . and live accordingly.

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Your life, and that of others around you, will be more enriched when you:  

  1. read this article again within a few days so you really own it.
  2. discuss it with trusted family members and friends.
  3. take recommended action steps that seem right for you.
  4. share it with others who can use it.

Let it shine,
Mark

Mark Pitstick, MA, DC is an author, master’s level clinical psychologist, holistic chiropractic physician, frequent media guest, and webinar / workshop facilitator.  He has also helped others in pastoral counseling and suicide prevention / education settings.  Mark directs The Soul Phone Foundation, founded Greater Reality Living Groups, and assists research on the SoulPhone Project.  To learn more about how Dr. Pitstick might help you, visit SoulProof.com/About.

Dr. Pitstick’s goal is to help you know and show– no matter what is happening to or around you – that this earthly experience is a totally safe, meaningful, and magnificent adventure amidst eternity.  Visit SoulProof.com for free articles, newsletters, and radio interviews with top consciousness experts.  Other resources include his very reasonably priced books, audio-products, and documentary film.

Note: Because of his many outreaches, Dr. Pitstick can no longer answer complex and/or multiple questions.  However, he has created many resources to answer your biggest questions and provide holistic solutions for your toughest challenges . . .  

FREE ARTICLES, RADIO SHOW, AND E-NEWSLETTERS

– Articles for Transformation and Healing (top tab Articles at SoulProof.com) address the most common questions, concerns, and challenges about life, death, and afterlife.

– Radio Shows (top tab Radio Shows at SoulProof.com) share his answers and those of top experts to life’s biggest questions: “Who am I? Why am I here?  What happens after I die?  Is there a God?  Why is there so much suffering?  Why do children die?” and others.

– E-Newsletters (sign up on any page at SoulProof.com)

AUDIO-PRODUCTS, BOOKS, AND DOCUMENTARY FILM

 Transformational Audio Products  (see Shop at SoulProof.com) provide quality sessions at home for a fraction of the cost of an office visit.  These CDs and digital audios use deep relaxation, visualization, breathwork, and/or other techniques to: access your inner wisdom, visit with “departed” loved ones, release old wounds and lower energy emotions, evaluate your pre-birth planning, have past life regressions, and other goals.

– 
Books and Documentary (Shop at SoulProof.com) provide information and strategies to help you more deeply realize and demonstrate that:

  • you are a forever being of energy / consciousness
  • the many wonderful benefits of realizing this
  • how to reflect this great news in every aspect of your life — even when confronted with big challenges and changes

Webinars and Workshops: to learn about these, subscribe to newsletters at SoulProof.com and SoulPhone.org (Classes & Interviews at SoulProof.com)

Greater Reality Living Groups: these local and online groups share information from Dr. Pitstick, Dr. Gary Schwartz, and other experts on consciousness and holistic wellness topics.  (Visit Greater Reality Living at SoulProof.com)

Coaching / Counseling Sessionmeet with Dr. Pitstick by Zoom to gain answers to your toughest questions and holistic solutions to your biggest challenges.  (Shop at SoulProof.com)

Disclaimer: This information is not designed to replace medical or psychological care.  Dr. Pitstick’s remarks are based on his personal and professional training and experience during forty-eight years of helping many thousands of people.  Collective clinical, scientific, and experiential evidence supports some, but not all, of what he shares.  Mark’s views may change over time, and he does not claim to have all the answers or the only answers.

Dr. Pitstick encourages you to consider this information and decide for yourself what makes the most sense.  Note: the articles and other resources at his SoulProof.com site are NOT purely based on scientific research as is the SoulPhone Project.