by Mark Pitstick MA, DC

My e-books, ​audio books, audio programs, documentary film, radio shows, articles, and ‘Greater Reality Healing, Living & Helping Program’ are ​all FREE at SoulProof.com.  In lieu of payment, I ask that you fully use the products, share them, and help others as you feel called.

This evidence-based information and holistic resources will help you . . .

  1. Adopt a more accurate worldview based on contemporary understandings about ‘the big picture of life’ and live accordingly – whatever that means for you. (see article #19 ‘The Great News’ about the Nature of Reality at SoulProof.com)
  2. Experience shorter and lightened grieving after loved ones change worlds and other big changes that seem like losses.
  3. Fine-tune yourself physically, emotionally, mentally, and spiritually so you have the vitality to handle life’s demands AND share your greatest gifts / soul’s missions.
  4. Become more aware of, benefit from, and share life’s silver linings that always accompany opportunities masquerading as adversity.
     
  5. Create the greatest life YOU have envisioned. (The term ‘YOU’ refers to your higher self / eternal consciousness / soul)

  6. Fulfill your highest purposes for being on earth and help make our world a better place. This is now practically possible as discussed in article #125 Eight Developments for Widespread Conscious Living Now. As enough people do this, widespread personal and planetary change will naturally unfold.

To learn more about how you achieve these lofty goals, read the following articles at SoulProof.com/ArticlesAND watch videos at SoulProof.com/Greater Reality Program.  

Traumatized by Fear-Based Preaching?
How to Heal and Upgrade Your Knowledge about Life, Death, and Afterlife

A frequent question I’ve been asked over the years is: ‘How can I overcome trauma from fear-based ‘religious’ teachings.  Here’s the latest example from a woman I’ll call Rachel . . .

Q: I hope you can help with something I’m struggling with.  I discovered your website SoulProof.com as I was researching the afterlife.  I have a terrible fear of death because of my strict Christian upbringing.  People in my old church make me think the spiritual research I’m doing is wrong and isn’t what The Bible teaches.  Is there anything you can recommend that might help me with this?  I constantly worry that I’ll go to hell for questioning what I was taught . . . but then that sounds crazy to me too. 

In this article, I’ll share how to heal the trauma and upgrade your knowledge about topics that religion is supposed to address with love and wisdom. 

The word religion originally meant ‘connecting to the Divine and sacred in life’.  As such, fearful teachings about life, death, and afterlife aren’t religious.  I’ll use the term fear-based preaching to describe inaccurate fire-and-brimstone messages often delivered by lay ministers.

My short answer to Rachel and everyone who has been traumatized by fear-based preaching is this: many people have been scared to death by ignorant preaching that blasphemes the Creator and Sustainer of All Life.  One litmus test for discerning if religious teachings are true is this: ‘If they scare people, they aren’t.’  While in theology school, I discovered this wonderful quote by Max Muller: ‘Nothing can be really true that offends the sensibilities of a child.’  I heartily agree. 

Five of the most common fear-based preachings include . . .   

1: You might end up in a fiery eternal hell or cease to exist because ___. 

2: Thou shalt fear the Lord thy God!

3: You were born into sin because ___.

4: There is only one true religion, God, way to salvation

5. God took my loved one away because ___.

For each of these, I’ll provide holistic strategies for healing and evidence-based information to upgrade your knowledge.  You can apply these to any other bizarre preachings that concern you.  I’ll limit my remarks to Christianity since fundamentalist denominations in that religion are the most vocal source of schizoid preaching about life, death, afterlife, and Creator.  (Most Christian denominations do not teach those five points but they are ‘the silent majority’.) 

My religious background includes attending Lutheran services as a youth and Methodist theological school.  To expand my understanding of different denominational messages, I also attended services at Catholic and Baptist churches.  For three years, I attended a fundamentalist church for the most important reason to a young man – my girlfriend went there.  Later, I attended Unity, Unitarian-Universalist, Christian Science, and United Church of Christ services.  I’ve also learned much from Buddhism, Hinduism, Judaism, Sufism (an esoteric Islam denomination), Sikhism, and Native American / Indigenous People’s wisdom sources. 

History clearly shows The Bible has been mightily changed over time via additions, deletions, transcription errors, and mistranslations.  In addition, purposeful alterations were made to aid powerful church and political ‘leaders’. 

There is no factual record of what was actually taught by Jesus and other key figures in the birthing of Christianity.  The overall messages were shaped over time and we can’t know what one individual said for sure.  After 1 1/2 years of Biblical history courses in theology school, the head professor said ‘In conclusion, it’s clear that there is very little – if any – factual evidence behind details in the Bible.  Ultimately, the Christian message must be taken on faith.’  (When I heard that, I thought ‘I wish you would have told me this on the first day of classes.  I could have saved a lot of money!)

As such, I recommend taking that and other religious holy books seriously, but not literally.  You can now confidently focus on more contemporary and accurate understandings about the nature of reality.  Some of those align with common religious teachings while others do not. 

Note: all articles and audio programs are free at SoulProof.com/Articles or SoulProof.com/Shop)


1: You might end up in a fiery eternal hell or cease to exist because ___.
I’ve heard from many adults who were exposed to horrific preachings about a fiery eternal hell as children.  Some of them ‘saw through’ those obviously schizoid messages, for example, that a God of unfathomable love could even imagine let any of His creation / children endure suffering forever.  However, others trusted the preachers and suffer intense fears like those described by Rachel. 

I understand the school of thought that scaring children is the best way to make them behave.  I believe that approach is most useful for little children so they don’t shock or burn themselves.  However, using fear-based tactics after that age can cause deep-seated problems.  For example, many atheists and agnostics I’ve counseled rejected ignorant notions about a vengeful God and hellish afterlife. 

People who think for themselves and listen to their heart understandably reject bizarre fear-based messages.  An elderly woman I interviewed described attending a church service as a child with her parents.  The preacher talked long and loudly about a fiery eternal hell and the importance of avoiding it.  Afterwards, the family stopped by the front door to greet the preacher.  ‘How did you like the service, little girl?’ he asked.  She answered ‘I didn’t like it.  God wouldn’t put anyone in hell forever.’  The preacher replied ‘Well, maybe you shouldn’t come here anymore!’  The girl’s parents answered ‘Maybe we shouldn’t.’ 

Original meanings of the word ‘hell’ included how you feel when you have a life review after dying.  During this review, you see and feel what you did to others during your time on earth.  If you hurt others, you temporarily experience that pain to educate you about the wisdom of The Golden Rule.  ‘Hell’ was also a term used to scare children to behave: ‘If you don’t behave, we’ll throw you into the burning pit!’  However, this became misunderstand as a literal place after translations from Aramaic to Hebrew, Greek, and German before English.   

Regarding the ‘cease to exist’ part, life after death has now been definitively proven by scientific and clinical research.  That evidence is reviewed in articles below at:

#1 Scientific Evidence That Bodily Death Is NOT the End of Life

#14 Heaven and Hell . . . What Are They Really?

#42 What Is the Afterlife Like for Evil Doers?

#45 The Life Review: How Would Yours Feel Today?

#60 Clinical Evidence That Life Continues After Physical Death

#107 What Is the Afterlife Like?

2: Thou shalt fear the Lord thy God!
This one puzzled me as a child.  God was supposed to be all knowing, all loving, and all powerful.  You would think that He would be more loving than the best earthly parents.  So why should we fear The Creator as taught in, for example, Deuteronomy 6:13-16 (King James Version): Thou shalt fear the Lord thy God, and serve him, and shalt swear by his name.  Ye shall not go after other gods . . . lest the anger of the Lord thy God be kindled against thee, and destroy thee from off the face of the earth.” 

Is this how the Creator and Sustainer of All Life really is?  Joseph Campbell, professor of comparative religion and author of The Hero’s Journey, said the ‘God’ behind all creation in the cosmos differs greatly from local ‘provincial gods’ as viewed by warring tribes millennia ago. 

Views from fundamentalist denominations are often still tied to Roman and Greek images from 300 BC or earlier: a huge white-bearded and long-haired white man who sits on a throne in the sky and arbitrarily decides who lives or dies when and how.  That hopelessly inaccurate image keeps people from wanting a personal relationship with The Light. 

Learning ‘the real story’ about this and other strange religious teachings was a big reason I attended theology school.  To my amazement, I found that the word ‘fear’ could also have been translated as ‘respect’.  The latter makes sense but the former scares and controls people more. 

Clinical evidence from Near-Death Experiences and Life Between Lives research indicates that you are an integral and beloved part of The Light right now.  As such, why would you fear your own nature and source?  Since the word ‘God’ automatically conjures up images of a big dictatorial guy in the sky, you may want to upgrade your terms.  I prefer The Light, Source Energy, Higher Power, The Divine, and Cosmic Intelligence.  I also love the Unity affirmation ‘There is only one Presence and one Power in the world, God the good omnipotent.’ 

For more information, see articles . . .

#13 What is G.O.D. Like?

#15 The Nature of Humans

#94 Near Death Experiences

#98 Life Between Lives

3: You were born into sin because ___.
I remember also negatively reacting to this one as a youth.  Despite God creating everything and judging it as ‘very good’, many Biblical quotes indicate that we are worthless sinners from birth.  What?  Explanations for this strange preaching said this is true because the flesh is weak and sinful.  Others blamed poor Adam who was tempted and, supposedly, caused all generations thereafter to be born into sin. 

This is one of many examples why religious texts should be taken seriously but not literally.  Religious teachers often used parables and metaphors since most people in those days couldn’t read or write.  They were likely trying to explain the difference between relying solely on brain-based consciousnes and limited perceptions for understanding the big picture of life.  Perhaps they were trying to highlight the importance of higher-energy thoughts, words, and actions such as love, peace, and compassion. 

However, as with scaring people about hell, many people were understandably repulsed by the horrific teaching that all people are born into sin.  What depraved Creator would work like that?  To learn more, see articles . . .

#80 Why Are You on Earth Now? S.A.G.E. Training

#108 Higher Energies, Emotions, and Ways of Being

#118 Who and What Are You Really?

4: There is only one true religion, God, and way to salvation
Again, as youth, I wondered how this one could be true.  Part of this teaching was that those who weren’t ‘saved’ Christians would suffer throughout eternity instead of going to heaven.  This was patently absurd and unfair, especially when you consider what about . . .

  1. people who were brought up in a different religion from Christianity?
  2. mentally imbalanced people who couldn’t reason and decide for themselves?
  3. brain-damaged people whose cognitive abilities were even more impaired

In each case, the supposed answer was that ‘God has a special plan for them’.  It was just ‘a short putt’ to see God has a special plan for all of us.  This view makes even more sense given clinical data that indicates we are not separate from Source.  As many near-death experiencers return saying: ‘We each are one with The One and part of Source Energy right now.’   

Regarding salvation, we each are eternal souls / beings of consciousness and energy right now.  Energy can’t be destroyed and consciousness is primary, that is, not a temporary result of brain functioning.  As such, the soul doesn’t need saved.  The only salvation needed is from ignorance about the nature of reality and how life is really set up.  People who believe fear-based preaching often suffer from the accompanying anxiety, confusion, and self-loathing. 

For more information, see articles . . .

#16 Evidence-Based Teachings About the Nature of Reality

#31 What Is a ‘Postmaterial Person’?

#83 Am I a Christian?


5. God took my loved one away because ___.
This is perhaps the most damaging fear-based preaching of them all because it arises when people are grieving over loved ones. I most often hear this from parents who ask: ‘Why did God take my child?’ This question is answered by well-meaning pastors who share banal sayings such as ‘It’s Gods will’, ‘God works in mysterious ways’, or ‘God wanted your son / daughter to be with Him.’  None of these answers are satisfying for people in deep grief.  My current understandings about this question include:

a. You and your loved ones are integral and beloved parts of G.O.D. right now and always.

b. Souls / people choose – ideally in alignment with their spiritual support team and God’s will – options for when and how to transition from earth. That was not a unilateral decision by a huge dictator in the sky, nor does any such deity exist.  Multiple potential off-ramps from this earthly experience are reportedly designed during pre-birth planning. 

c. Your loved ones who hve changed worlds aren’t a billion gazillion miles away.On the contrary, many afterlife contacts reveal that at least part of your dear one’s energy / presence can be right beside you. 

To learn more, see articles . . .

Having reviewed the most common fear-based preachings that traumatize people, let’s look at five ways you can heal and learn new evidence-based information.  


Five Keys to Healing Trauma from Fear-Based Preaching and Upgrading Your Knowledge

1. Release old wounds and fearful misinformation
My Holistic Breathing Technique audio program helps you do this naturally and safely. Use this session after reading article #70 and following the pre-session recommendations. After a month or so of using this technique two or three times per week, you will feel ‘more clear’ and less encumbered by erroneous teachings from the past. 

2. Learn ‘The Great News’ about how life is really set up
Much of what people believe about life, death, and afterlife comes from millennia-old teachings that tried to help people.  Today, much scientific, clinical, and experiential evidence indicates more accurate understandings.  After learning this information, it’s important to internalize

#19 ‘The Great News’ about the Nature of Reality

#123 Eleven Ways to Deeply Internalize ‘The Great News’

3. Forgive preachers who scared you and ministers whose input was limited
In their defense, they are doing the best they can given their limited training.  In theology school, I was shocked to see how little pastoral counseling preparation was given.  Blaming them serves no one and keeps you stuck in lower energy emotions of anger, blame, etc.  You can flip your perspective and have gratitude for their role in showing you what you don’t believe.  If these emotions run deep, read article #40 before using my Love, Acceptance, and Forgiveness audio program.

4. Know that you can be a Christian without believing fear-base preaching
There are 40,000 denominations in the Christian religion and over 10,000 religions in the world. As such, there’s a wide range of teachings – not just one way that a Christian can believe. One measuring stick is if you live as much as possible with love, forgiveness, service to others, and knowing your true nature as a soul / spirit.  I fully discuss this topic article #83 Am I a Christian?

I encourage people to consider three sources of information about the nature of reality and how to optimally live while on earth:

     (a) indications from contemporary evidence

     (b) religious / spiritual teachings that resonate with you

     (c) your inner knowing while walking with your Higher Power

5. Remember that you are not alone during this earthly journey
In addition to family and friends on earth, you have ‘an invisible’ support team of your real self / soul, spiritual support team, and The Light. Their guidance, assistance, and love is especially useful when you ask for it in prayer, detect it, give thanks, and use it to help others. This love-based message is the antithesis of fear-based ones so be sure to stay in close contact with your team.  To learn more, read articles . . .

#20 Discerning Your Inner Wisdom

#73 Angels and Higher Energy Assistance

#77 Centering Practices

#89 Prayer

#51 Meditation, Yoga, and Relaxation

In addition, use my audio program Ask Your Soul, Angels, and The Light to access your and their wise and loving teachings. 

I hope this article helps you release and heal trauma from fear-based preaching.  That will help you see life more clearly and learn love-based views about how life is really set up.  And it’s all great news! 

*       *       *       *       *       *       *

Thank you for telling others about this article!  Your life, and that of others around you, will be more enriched when you:  

  1. read the article again so you really know it.
     
  2. discuss with close family and friends to more deeply internalize it.
     
  3. take action steps that seem right for you.
     
  4. share it with others via social media, discussion groups, and other ways.

Hugs, love, blessings, and let it shine!
Mark

Mark Pitstick MA, DC

– a​uthor, lecturer, c​ounselor, and holistic chiropractic physician 

– spokesperson, researcher, and strategic planner for SoulPhone Project

– ​founder of ‘Greater Reality Healing, Living & Helping Program’

SoulProof.com     SoulPhone.org     ​​GreaterRealityProgram.com ​

University-based research has now scientifically proven that life continues after bodily death.  The SoulPhone Project will enable communication with postmaterial (so-called “deceased”) loved ones and luminaries who want to help us heal our world. How does this project, The Great News, and The 8 Developments affect the way you live and treat others and our planet?  (To learn more, see articles #35, 19, and 125 at SoulProof.com/Articles)

Dr. Pitstick is a master’s clinical psychologist, holistic chiropractic physician, and clinical nutritionist.  He has also helped others in pastoral counseling and suicide prevention / education settings.  His goal is to help you know and show that this earthly experience is a totally safe, meaningful, and magnificent adventure amidst eternity. 

To learn more about the Greater Reality Healing, Living, and Helping Program, visit the ‘Greater Reality Programs’ top tab at SoulProof.com and SoulPhone.org.  Also see  articles #19, 72, 82, 119, and 125 at SoulProof.com/Articles.

SoulProof.com provides many FREE resources:

  • 8 e-books Radiant Wellness, Soul Proof, The Eleven Questions, Greater Reality Living, The Big Picture of Life, The Afterlife Evidence, Ask the Soul Doctor, and Shining Light Parents Speak
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  • 25 Radio Shows: interviews with experts on consciousness, afterlife, and creating an optimal earthly experience. These include Wayne Dyer, Brian Weiss, Anita Moorjani, Raymond Moody, Michael Newton, Caroline Myss, and others. 
  • 27 Videos on different pages
  • monthly newsletters (sign-up at bottom of com and SoulPhone.org)

In lieu of payment, he asks that you: (1) fully use and appreciate the products, (2) share them with others, and (3) help others in ways you feel called.

The following are also available for a fee:

  • 8 printed books Radiant Wellness, Soul Proof, The Eleven Questions, Greater Reality Living, The Big Picture of Life, The Afterlife Evidence, Ask the Soul Doctor, and Shining Light Parents Speak

  • Coaching / Counseling Sessions with Dr. Pitstick by Zoom to gain answers to your biggest questions and holistic solutions to your toughest challenges.

Note: This article is intended as a reference source, not to replace professional treatment for physical, emotional, or mental problems.  The author disclaims any liability arising directly or indirectly from the voluntary use of action steps discussed in article. 

Dr. Pitstick created this article while ‘wearing the hat’ of a clinician, counselor, and educator.  His statements are based upon some scientific research; much clinical and experiential evidence; his personal experiences; and best current understandings.  This article does not reflect his role in the SoulPhone Project since that requires scientific data for all statements.