Who is Viktor Frankl? Before I arrived in federal prison, I often heard my mentor Michael Santos mention Viktor Frankl on calls, and I also saw him mention him in his personal blogs. I also heard of Viktor Frankl while I was nosily browsing through my co-defendants book collection in his room when I first arrived at the federal camp. He had the book sort of tucked away which drew my curiosity.

I always feel my spirit leads me to books that have meaning for me. Most books I’ve read that have had the most impact on my life always seem to beam out to me in my mind. I believe everyone’s life is about experiences, and the experiences we have are designed to help our reincarnated souls heal from whatever it is that we are here to heal from. In this book, Viktor Frankl quoted “The aim of psychiatry was the healing of the soul”.

I pose the question to you, what is your definition of psychology? Most people give the standard answer that psychology is the study of the mind or personality.

I remember reading in “Seat of the Soul” by Gary Zukav, his definition of psychology was psychology is “Soul Knowledge”. He followed by adding psychology is also the study of the spirit. Have you ever looked at psychology as the study of the soul and spirit?

I find enlightenment when looking at the expanded, non-illusional, timeless meaning beyond such a fascinating illusion-based mythology of psychology. My enlightenment finds grand allure in the philosophical meanings of soulful knowledge of the psyche provided by the writings of Viktor Frankl.

Viktor Frankl lived on this Earth school from 1905 – 1977. Dr. Frankl was a psychiatrist in Europe during Hitler’s reign to try and eradicate the Jewish population. Unfortunately, yet later proved meaningful, Dr. Frankl was a Jewish doctor who was arrested, captured, and deported along with his aging parents, siblings, and wife who was pregnant at the time.

The story unfolds that his wife, and unborn child were starved in the concentration camp that was separate from where Frankl was housed. Both of his parents and siblings were killed over the 3-year forced imprisonment. Dr. Frankl being a doctor was able to secure morphine for his father to ease his pain during his last days on Earth.

Throughout the torture and malevolent brutality that killed over 1.5 million Jews over a 3-4 year period, the ones who were able to survive were each presented a choice. How do we carry on with our lives? Will it be based on anger, resentment, and hatred, or will it be of forgiveness, grace, love, and reverence?

Viktor Frankl quoted in the aftermath, “I do not forget any good deed done to me, and I do not carry a grudge for a bad one.” “He was deeply committed to the idea that even a vile Nazi criminal, or a seemingly hopeless madman has the potential to transcend evil or insanity by making responsible choices”.

When I read and resonated with his attitude of reverence despite the pain and loss he suffered, I inherently knew that he discovered his personal quest for meaning of his life through suffering.

He quotes in the book “Suffering is not necessary to find meaning, only that meaning is possible in spite of suffering.”

As I meditated on that quote, my 5 sensory intellect agrees that suffering in not necessary to find meaning, but only through my multisensory, universal human intellect can I understand “meaning is possible in spite of suffering”.

One can find meaning in his life if he understands his true purpose, and for that, suffering is not required, but what is required, is pure consciousness combined with knowledge of self.

In Man’s Search for Meaning, Frankl states he was quickly forced to decipher if his own life still had meaning when enduring pain and torture inside the concentration camps. He survived because of his will to live, but also depended on timing of where he was placed at various times, the luck of who governed them, and instinctual daily decisions to decide who he could trust and believe.

I find meaning through his suffering because while in federal prison, you are forced to be cut off from the “free world”. Not only surviving inside prison walls but thriving while incarcerated to return to society productive and better than you came in is a choice that tugs at you daily. Choosing the positive choice is easy most days, but once you take the first step, your true commitment will speak through your actions.

I find meaning through his suffering because in federal prison, the unit in which you are housed, the guards that are on duty, the timing of your expected release, and your instincts that you follow, can all play a role in how your day unfolds very similar to Dr. Frankl inside the concentration camps.

Meaning through suffering makes me reflect daily on the importance of my attitude, and how it can affect my day and vitality for life. My attitude can affect challenges as well as opportunities that present.

Dr. Frankl talked about this very thing when he quoted, “a positive attitude enables a person to endure suffering and disappointment as well as enhance enjoyment and satisfaction”. He pointed out to the contrary how one’s negative attitude can do quite the opposite. Dr. Frankl quoted, “a negative attitude intensifies pain and deepens disappointments; it undermines and diminishes pleasure, happiness, and satisfaction.

How beautiful is the polarity of positive versus negative in reference to our attitudes? Can you understand positive if you don’t understand negative? Can you love the positive and hate the negative?

Most people state, I only focus on the positive. If that’s the case, you lose connection to power. Can a battery perform without a positive and negative pole? No. One should understand the only difference between positive and negative is varying degrees, but both must coexist in order to have internal power.

I’ve learned that in route to my ever-evolving search for life’s meaning, enlightenment on my path “flickers” each time I attain balance. Each time the negative and positive poles spark together, I feel authentic power I consciously created.

What is my life’s meaning?

My life’s meaning is to choose to act and respond with the loving parts of my personality instead of the fearful parts, in all my life’s experiences and interactions. In this life experience, I’m tasked at addressing as many fearful parts of my personality that need to be healed, and right as much karma as the infinite requires me to do in this lifetime.

My life’s meaning is to share with others in a collective effort the evolution that is taking place in the consciousness of humans. God is mind of man, and the biggest illusion is thinking that God and man are separate.