Why Is It Necessary to Experience Pain to Grow Spiritually?

by Carlton Haney

Question Submitted by
Joanne Rogers, M. D.
Baltimore, MD


Can you imagine life without pain?

     Pain has been endured in all forms ever since man has walked this earth. It is the one sensation that affects our entire body. If I may Joanne, please allow me to break this down into several areas. We embody the physical, mental, spiritual and, of course, our altered state of consciousness when we are experiencing pain and suffering.

     Severe life threatening illness, the death of someone close, murder, divorce, mental illness suffered through with a family member, a lost encounter with love, loss of a job, any injustice, you name it, the pain and it’s sensations and the occurrence of it, is very real.

     When experiencing pain, whether mental or physical, so many times we look up and say, “Oh my God, help me to endure the passage through this experience.”

     Faith rebuilds your body and reaching out to understand creates the way for expansion along these lines. Pain is just one of many transitions that take us on a journey to reach a higher level for the realization of God’s love.

     The Law of Cause and Effect (God’s Law) most certainly comes into being when we experience pain. The cause is the situation we are in and the effect is the implication of how we digest it. Things do not always work out the way they should. Our higher intellect reveals to us that the pain moves us into a state of wanting to grasp for relief. We live on three planes; we are spirit, soul, and body. There is something in all of us that transcends tragedy, sorrow, grief and loss.

     When we enter spiritual thrust, we proceed on the mistaken assumption that enlightenment lies elsewhere usually at the end of a long path of struggle and effort. Ralph Waldo Emerson wrote, “Life is a series of surprises.” He also added, “We do not guess today the mood, the pleasure, the power of tomorrow when we are building up our beings.” We move into a journey that gets us caught up in a game of control that brings us disappointment and disillusionment. Spiritual evolution is not about controlling our lives, but rather about giving up control to a higher Authority. Then, and only then, can our lives unfold in ways that foster our highest good, as well as the highest good if others.

     We all have the ability for spiritual communication and communion. It is drawing the essence of reality into our own minds through keeping the tune with a higher ultimate harmony. Man cannot only talk to God to rise to a higher lever of spirituality, what we are doing is restating our own position by saying that we cannot believe in a supreme power which acts more favorably for one than for another. Such a belief would immediately take us out of the realm of law and order into the realm of chaos.

     During this period of time, do not pretend to be that which you are not. Know that through your faith, prayer and good will, you can solve your problem and there by you will definitely succeed. You must build your mental household on the positive solution and successful outcome.

     I worked in hospice for four years and experienced the revelation of patients in their last days of living. Their self-realization was astonishing by the peace and harmony for a total surrender and their expectations of something much better to follow. In the end, there is no pain, just the expression of letting go and the spirit slipping into pure spirituality and seeing the angels to escort them into Paradise.

My mother died in hospice last year and the day she died she was reaching out to grasp the light. Her vision of the other side is what I have witnessed so many times just before the final transition of someone’s life. Near death experiences of people who have died and come back will speak of the highest level of joy, release and enlightenment.

     When we realize our Oneness with God, it is easy to comprehend that there is never anything to heal, for we already are as perfect as we will ever be. We can then live in the now, knowing that release from pain is ours to hold.


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You can purchase Carlton's new book, You Can't Get out of the Blender Until You Turn it Off! at this link on Amazon.com.