Meeting God in the ICU: Frank Parisi's Journey Through Death and Back

Death isn't always the end of the story. Sometimes, it's just the beginning of something extraordinary.

Frank Parisi didn't just approach death's door – he walked through it. During what began as treatment for a persistent cough, Frank found himself on a ventilator with his heart, liver, and kidneys failing. What happened next defies conventional understanding: he died, left his body, encountered his deceased friend, and was given the choice to stay or return. For the sake of his young son, he chose to come back.

This episode takes us through Frank's remarkable journey from addiction to sobriety, from death to rebirth through a heart transplant, and from survival to profound purpose. Frank shares the incredible synchronicities that unfolded – how his doctors mysteriously all had connections to his father's past in organized crime, how a medium revealed information only his deceased father could know, and how he eventually met the family of his 19-year-old heart donor, Kaylee.

"God is everything, he is nothing," Frank reflects, sharing how his relationship with spirituality transformed throughout his recovery journey. Despite facing pain medications during recovery (after 14 years of sobriety), he maintained his commitment to sobriety and focused on rebuilding his body and mind through exercise, prayer, and gratitude.

Today, Frank leads multiple companies focused on helping humanity, has written a bestselling book, and speaks about his experiences. His message is clear and powerful: "Never let this life break you. It doesn't matter where you started or what your circumstances are – always have a vision, audit your circle, and take massive action every day."

Whether you believe in miracles or remain skeptical, Frank's story offers a profound perspective on the resilience of the human spirit and the possibility that our existence extends far beyond what we can physically perceive. Listen with an open mind, and you might just find yourself reconsidering what you thought you knew about life, death, and everything in between.

Chapters

• 0:00 Meeting Frank Parisi
• 10:08 The Beginning of a Health Crisis
• 19:25 Near-Death Experience and Beyond
• 32:20 Signs from the Other Side
• 44:45 Heart Transplant Journey
• 53:33 Living with Purpose After Death
• 1:03:27 Finding God in Recovery

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:00

Welcome back everybody to the truth about addiction. I cannot wait for you to meet today's guest. He is such a powerhouse. I haven't known him for that long and he's one of those people I feel like I've known forever. His story is jaw-dropping, not just because of what he came from and what he has survived, but mainly because of the way he's living today as a result of it. Frank Parisi is the author of Embrace Abundance and a living testament to the power of second chances, after not only overcoming addiction but literally dying and coming back to life. Frank carries a profound perspective on taking nothing for granted and finding miracles every day. His journey fuels his mission to help others break free from scarcity thinking, open their hearts to possibility and live with joy, purpose and gratitude. Let's dive in you guys and please, for someone who's struggling, who doesn't believe in miracles, second chances, god, a life worth living. Send them this episode. Share it with them. It just might save a life living. Send them this episode. Share it with them. It just might save a life, let's get it.

Speaker 1: 1:43

Welcome back everybody to the truth about addiction. I'm obsessed with the man who is here, virtually on the other side of the screen, and we were literally just gabbing and gabbing and we're like, wait, are we recording? Which of course we were, but we weren't formally at the start of the episode. So we were like, and we better stop talking because the audience is going to miss all the gems.

Speaker 1: 2:06

Frank Parisi, I don't know how I met you in March, but let's just talk about this for a second. I met this man at the Aspire Tour that was in Fort Lauderdale. I went there because I was invited by Dan Fleischman for his hundred million mastermind experience, and part of that was to go to the Aspire tour, which obviously is a stage I want to land and I think I'm getting closer. By the way, frank, we're going to have to talk about that and so I'm networking my face off and at some point, this chick I'm walking around with and at some point, this chick I'm walking around with and I bump into this man, frank Parisi, and he's like oh, what the this fucking accent? And I'm like, oh, my God, where are you from? Because we're from the same place and you're sober and wait what? You almost died? We're going to be friends.

Speaker 1: 3:03

We're going to be friends, we're also also gonna speak on the same stages how crazy we are not three months later, frank, and it looks like I've known you a really long time and I think there's something said for coming from the east coast. There is a strange guttural connection of the way people can tell the truth that feels very much like you were from that part of the world, but also this, the sober part, right, because the way we need to talk transparently about what we've been through in order to survive is different than the ordinary folk, and so I'm not surprised at all that we're friends. I love you and I'm so glad we're doing this podcast interview.

Speaker 4: 3:48

So cool. It's like so crazy Cause like literally March, I met you at Aspire and then I had you on my podcast, and then we spoke together at Dave's dinner, at the Aspire tour, on the panels, and then your agent is now going to be my agent, and then we had, and then we had booked this podcast out before I even had anything to do with Amy. And it's like all this stuff that I feel God is orchestrating in my life and you being part of that. There's a reason that we connected. I mean, and I'm so curious to find out more of where this all goes Like. I'm so curious about life. You know what I mean? I'm super curious about life. That's where I'm at nowadays is like I'm just open to God and all of his like opportunities and all of his new relationships that he's, uh, that he's he's putting in my life today, man, it's a beautiful thing and I had to get to that place by removing a lot of energy and you learn that stuff and everything that I've gone through, and today is my 14 year sober anniversary.

Speaker 4: 5:03

Let's go. Are you kidding me? Let's go. Like what? Today is the day. It's like today's the day, and my heart transplant is the other day and the day that I was born into this world is the other days. These are like three very important days, but this is probably the most important day, because there's no way that I am who I am, there's no way that I had the mindset that I do, and there's no way that I overcome what I did and be in the space that I am if it wasn't for my recovery. So today is an amazing day 14 days of sobriety.

Speaker 1: 5:40

I'm feeling really called to ask you about the metamorphosis of your relationship with God. Was there a God in your life when you were young?

Speaker 4: 5:52

I mean there was like an understanding of God. I went to like CCD. You know what I mean. I grew up Catholic, I did the whole baptism, confirmation, communion thing, but like I never had a real relationship with god, that never happened until I literally found recovery. You know, when I surrendered to the disease of addiction, uh, you know, I I got sober first, like I had. I suffered for years, like I got my opiate addiction. Really, I mean I still don't part of 12 years. I got my opiate addiction. Really, I mean I still don't part of 12 years old, but my opiate addiction took place in my late teens, early twenties, and that took me for over 10 years. But I found God first when I tried to get sober in 2006.

Speaker 4: 6:40

I worked the steps and I started to form a relationship, but I didn't enlarge on it. You know I didn't live in disciplines of 10 and 11. I was just going to meetings and meeting makers in my. For me it doesn't make it. You know, I have to be in action every day and that's what formed my relationship with God is this constant living in this disciplines of the 12 steps, along with personal development, uh, and service of others. Uh, I just grow, grow closer with him.

Speaker 4: 7:11

You know, I was just in new york last week and my mom has cancer, she's going through radiation and like, especially after my heart transplant we'll get into all these stories um, I got so close to God, you know, I got so close to him. Like you know, I love the 12 steps because, like it's not just words, like second step, god is everything but he is nothing. It's like what's my choice to be? Like that's deep. And it's like the third step I turn my will and my life over to care of god as I understand them. That's not like just words, that's deep, you know. And like when I faced what I did, and like death and completely abandoning myself, like second and third step, really abandoning myself to god. You know, I got so close to him.

Speaker 4: 8:00

And then, even after samantha, like after the transplant in the gym and the prayer, like I love my garage gym, like I don't go to the gym no more really, unless I travel, because that gym to me was like it was like church. You know I pray in there all the time when I train. Like I train and pray. It's weird, it's very spiritual to me, like working out is so spiritual to me, you know like I literally be on the treadmill crying today, like crying. Thank you, god, for the sobriety, thank you for this heart. Thank you, kaylee. Thank you for the blessings in my life, just gratitude. You know so grateful.

Speaker 1: 8:35

So I'm thinking about the person listening who is totally disconnected.

Speaker 1: 8:43

I always think about that person because that was me for so long and it was so excruciating and the word God made me viscerally uncomfortable and recoil.

Speaker 1: 8:53

So you know, right, I have that story of not feeling safe in the original container. That is the 12 step framework, and so if you could take me back in time to it was it was recovery that opened the door for you to not just kind of know about God but to live in the presence of God. And then, obviously, the idea of that has had to get shattered and bigger and re-imagined a thousand times. Right, but for the person who can't feel it, can't see, it, doesn't know, it, doesn't believe it, what was a moment, a story, an incident in your early recovery where you felt something shift, whether it was a part of yourself came back alive that you haven't heard in a while. Whether it was a miracle that you experienced internally or externally, like take me into something that made you go oh, I've been living outside of the presence of God and I actually want to live inside of it now. Oh man.

Speaker 4: 10:00

There's so many yeah.

Speaker 4: 10:02

So many, I mean first first was when I, when I I did my my fourth and fifth step. You know, when I got rid of all that stuff, I started to really have, uh, opening up, clearing away that wreckage, and then the amends process, clearing away that wreckage. Truly, uh, I access more power, access more relationship with god. Um, and then later on in my recovery journey, you know, uh, because the 12 steps take us so far, um, for me anyway, uh, I did deep inner child work, psychodrama, deep inner child work, psychodrama, deep inner child work, which opened up more healing for me to access more God, because God's in all of us.

Speaker 4: 10:53

Whatever you want to call it, power, universe, god source energy, whatever it is to you, I call it God. It's the creative being, there's something bigger than us. I met it, um, but the thing is like our environment, our traumas and our belief systems that were never asked to begin with, any of this shit we carry that yeah you know, we carry that, and until we heal that, that we just walk around in this state of I.

Speaker 4: 11:22

I always talk about it like and not to anyone's fault of like my family and how I grew up, but like it was chaotic. So it's like taking like a water bottle. That's still. That's who we are. God is still. He's with us, he's peace. It's like shaking us up right and it's like go operate in that system.

Speaker 4: 11:42

And when you're shooken up like this, it's hard to have any channeling, it's hard to have any openness, any connection. So we have to do that healing, deep work in order to open up, to have this power work through us. And it's continuous. It's not like I'm sober 14 years and I'm done. I'm continuously upgrading. You know, it's the 12 steps, it's personal development, it's service of others. It's a million different things. It's my daily protocols today of how I show up. So it's, it's, it's, it's all of it, but it all gives me more access to God. The main moment for me, though, was was, you know, july 31st. I don't know why god granted me a moment of clarity, to be honest with you, and I ran with it. You know, I literally ran with it tell me more.

Speaker 1: 12:31

What do you mean by that?

Speaker 4: 12:33

so july 31st, you know, I, I'm here, I am a grown man living in staten island, my wife's an attorney on wall street and I don't even have400 to pay my street that a kid comes, a little guy who comes looking for money. You know, and I had that moment of clarity because there were so many like incomprehensible, demoralizing experiences, you know, what I mean, but for whatever the reason, that day I looked myself in the mirror.

Speaker 4: 13:03

I had that moment of clarity, like I looked myself in the mirror and I said it doesn't matter about your childhood, how you grew up, where you come from. You're 31 years old. Like you're in a ditch, who cares how you, how you got here? Your only focus needs to be getting out of this ditch, and it's been just about evolution, elevation, creation and service. I say that all the time. I started to go to AA meetings, I started to work the steps, I started to invest in my recovery, I started to invest in God and everything just changed for me. My whole life took on a whole new meaning, whole new human being so.

Speaker 1: 13:39

when God shows up, is it a nudge, a feeling, a whisper, a download, and it could be so many things.

Speaker 4: 13:53

It's so many, it's so many.

Speaker 1: 13:55

How does God show up for you today he?

Speaker 4: 13:57

shows up for me in animals, like I see a red cardinal I know it's my father over here. He shows up in music. He shows up in people. You know, yeah, there's so many different ways that I get to experience God. I think that you know early in recovery I had a guy tell me that at the end of the day, review where God showed up in your life. And I think if you wake up to that, if you start to become aware of that in the day and you could review a journal you'll start to really see how he shows up, how there is this beautiful power of the universe that is guiding all of us this beautiful power of the universe that is guiding all of us.

Speaker 1: 14:50

I love that so much because I have a daily inventory list that I do with a sober friend and it's gotten more robust over the years and part of it is is the blessings of the day or the glimmers right, the tiny micro moments that were just magical. And so sometimes when I write in that part of the list, I am writing about the God shots. But to have a separate additional category of you know proof of God, if you will.

Speaker 4: 15:18

Yeah.

Speaker 1: 15:19

Really spectacular and might might be something I actually take with me from.

Speaker 4: 15:25

I hope so. It's amazing and God is real. I mean, come on, I met a God.

Speaker 1: 15:31

Yeah, so so we can't keep teasing the audience about this whole not near death experience, actual death experience. I died.

Speaker 4: 15:41

Yeah, yeah.

Speaker 1: 15:43

Can you please I know you've shared this so many times, so, in whatever way is naturally coming up for you right now, take us through dying back yeah, so, uh, it's just like this whole journey is so crazy, it's so beautiful, though I wouldn't change any of this, none of it.

Speaker 4: 16:06

Like they are leaving us together right now, like this never happens, right, if all that didn't happen. So and that's what I hope that the listeners gain from this today is that it doesn't matter where we start in life or what your current circumstances. You always have to have a vision for where your life is going, no matter how bad it is, always have that vision. Things could always get better. There's always seasons and we never die. We don't die. We're spirits in this body. We just have names of frank and samantha, but who the hell is that? You know what I mean, so, so I'll get into the story. So you know, uh, I obviously today is my 14 years of sobriety, and it's been what a journey. It's been amazing. All the ups and the downs. It's been uh, so many lessons and I wouldn't change it for anything. And so January of 2023, um, you know, I'm helping build a company, I'm a consultant, I'm building this company out. I have my own consulting company.

Speaker 4: 17:08

Long story short I travel all around the country. So I developed this cough and I get a cough in January in Central Texas every year and they usually treat it with steroids and B12. And I usually get better right away because I'm in Central Texas. But this year, whatever, it didn't get better. I went to one doctor that gave me like Singulier. I never took that, I didn't like it, I didn't like him. I went to another primary care physician and she gave me steroids, pregnizone, did x-rays, nothing. It didn't clear it up. And so she was like you know, you should go see a specialist. So I was traveling and I came back from new york and I was like I told my wife I was like I really should start, like we need to go see a specialist now, during this time. It's so crazy, this story is so crazy.

Speaker 4: 18:00

During this time, um, I'm starting to feel like disconnected from life, and so my dad died in 2020. And so I make an appointment with a medium in like February, the end of February, and I don't have this medium appointment until March 18th because she's booked out. She's like very well known. March 18th because she's booked out, she's like very well known. Long story short, the cough gets worse and now I go see a. I make an appointment with a pulmonologist, a cardiologist and a gastrointestinal. So I go see the gastro because I'm losing weight now and I'm working out every day. I've been working out since I'm 14, you know, and I'm working out every day while I'm sick and losing weight, uh, and so I go to the gastro. Everything comes back, okay frank.

Speaker 1: 18:53

Do you have a feeling at this time? Do you have a gut feeling that something isn't right, or yeah, no, I, I know something is completely wrong.

Speaker 4: 19:03

I have text messages to friends that I'm saying I feel like I'm dying, I need you to pray for me and, like everybody's telling me, even my wife and I love her, it's not her fault. But like everyone's telling me, you're not dying and I'm like I'm not eating, I'm losing weight because I'm still going to the gym. I'm hitting like 15 pull-ups. I was benched. I can't even do it now. I was benched like 225, you know like. So you would not think that I'm dying because I'm showing up every day. But I'm dying. I'm losing weight. I can't eat. My son's eating more than me, six years old. I'm not holding food down now.

Speaker 4: 19:41

So I go to the pulmonologist after the gastro and they say that you have a rare pneumonia called organizing pneumonia. 3% of the population has it. After COVID we're going to treat you with 2,000 milligrams of amoxicillin and 60 milligrams of pregnazone. You're going to be on the pregnazone for six months and I'm like building this company. We're finally like in the black. We're making money. I'm like this is the worst thing ever.

Speaker 4: 20:11

So I cancel my cardiologist appointment Because why am I going to go to the cardiologist? I just went to a specialist that diagnosed me, gave me all these tests, said I have this rare pneumonia. So I go home and it gets crazy, this story, samantha, I get emotional sometimes. We'll see where it goes today. But my niece is with me. My niece has needed a kidney transplant her whole life. She's one kidney and she had reflux as a kid and it damaged her kidney. The doctors messed it up and so she's needed a kidney her whole life. She's here with me watching her uncle be sick, you know, but still show up. But I got this cough. So anyway, after the pulmonologist appointment, I'm getting worse. Now I can't eat. It got worse.

Speaker 1: 21:02

Did you start the medication I?

Speaker 4: 21:04

start the medication and it gets worse. It gets absolutely worse. I call them up and I'm like I feel like I'm dying. I got nurses coming here giving me fluid. I got an energy healer. I'm watching the movie Heal. I'm watching Dr Joe Dispenza having people pray for me. I'm like what's wrong? I tell the doctor, I feel like I'm dying. They give me more meds. They give me more medication. So then, finally, on May 8th of 2023, I cough up a half a bottle of blood Half a bottle. I got my kid freaking watching my wife takes Sonny to school that morning and then after, I'm like we got to go to the hospital. Something's wrong here. This is is not right.

Speaker 1: 21:47

This is not good now, up until this moment, you had never actually seen the cardiologist because you had that appointment. You canceled it, but you thought you had your diagnosis and now there's this extreme thing happening and you're now going to the hospital, which is going to become the place where you finally find out. Yeah, okay, yeah, so I go to the hospital, which is going to become the place where you finally find out.

Speaker 4: 22:06

Yeah, okay, yeah. So I go to the hospital here in austin, I see my pulmonologist and they admit me into the icu. So now I'm in the icu unit hours and, uh, they, they're treating me. They say that I have sepsis infection in the blood. So now they're giving're giving me 17 liters of fluid pumping me with, which is the worst thing they could have done. So I'm still being misdiagnosed. My wife has to leave because we got no family here we in Texas, no families in New York. So I got my six-year-old son that my neighbor was watching. She comes home to be with my son, my wife. So I'm alone in the hospital now, and then one of the nurses Hold on, frank hold on frank we're getting choppy what happened.

Speaker 1: 23:29

I don't know. I don't know. Can you hear me?

Speaker 4: 23:36

I hear you, yeah, where do you want me to go?

Speaker 1: 23:38

So where it got choppy was when you said the nurses came in.

Speaker 4: 23:45

Let me go back to that.

Speaker 1: 23:46

Yeah, just start there.

Speaker 4: 23:47

I'll go back to the story and you're going to have to edit this.

Speaker 1: 23:49

Yeah, sorry, it's all good Zoom sucks, I know.

Speaker 4: 23:54

I know you ready. Yeah, zoom sucks.

Speaker 4: 23:57

I know, I know you ready, yeah, okay. So anyway, kathy leaves because Sonny's here alone, so she goes back to the house. They're pumping me with fluid and then one of the nurses comes in and puts the wrong pick, like she didn't make sure that the medication went in, and so she infiltrates my arm from the inside out. I get a third degree burn, and then one of the doctors finally figures it out. He goes Mr Parisi, you don't have, you don't have sepsis, you have 9% ejection fraction and your liver, your kidney and your heart is failing. And we have to take you to all places. It's not Austin, houston, san Antonio, dallas. We got four of the top 10 populated cities in the country with amazing doctors. You know they're going to take me to a town called Temple Texas with 20,000 people in it, samantha, like it doesn't make any sense, and like the word temple, god you know. So here I am now at like one o'clock in the morning, getting driven up May 9th to to temple Texas. Can I ask?

Speaker 1: 25:10

you. Can I ask you what? Can I ask you? What in that moment, on a on an emotional, psychological level, after feeling ill, after being misdiagnosed, after being not believed, then getting rushed to the hospital and still getting misdiagnosed, and what was the initial, not the godly response of like, did you surrender immediately and did you feel relief? Were you angry? No, Was that moment for you?

Speaker 4: 25:47

I wasn't angry, I was in fear and I was so sick that I just needed help. I was so sick, I was like what's going on? I didn't even understand what was going on.

Speaker 4: 26:02

You know, it was frightening, like the thing that saved my life was my son, like there's no, if I don't have my son, I let go, I don't fight, I don't come back. If I don't have my son, I let go, I don't fight, I don't come back. You know, when I came up to the hospital in Temple, texas, my wife was there waiting and I really know for a fact that that is what saved my life. She was waiting with a picture of Sonny and you met Sonny and that picture like saved my life, sam Cause she had a picture of him and she said you have to live for him. I had 10 minutes to wait with her and like discuss life without me in it, you know, life without me in it, you know, and that that picture of sonny is what saved my fucking life, because they're honest with you when you're going through this. They don't lie to you.

Speaker 4: 27:10

The doctors, you know and there was a doctor there named dr ready Reddy, who's not there, no more, and we're going to get into all this crazy shit and he reversed everything that night. He saw that there was fluid in my body and they were going to put me on the most advanced form of life support called ECMO machine, where it pumps your blood. But he saw that the fluid was in me, so they put me under on the ventilator and when that happened, I died and I left here and when you die, you float out of your body. It feels like if you've ever had a dream where you like fly and I went into a dark space and I was with my friend that I had helped from years ago, who he actually got killed, and he was there to take me to what was next. And I was looking down at my body on a ventilator and my wife next to me on the bed and there was a voice like you communicate, like with dots, like telepathically, and they were telling me that my friend is going to take me to them, like to what's next to them, like bring, probably to heaven, I don't know. You know, um, and I had a vision of sunny walking with another man and I said I said you have to let me come back for my son, you know, and uh, so I, I, I come back and I'm like I'm, this is so crazy. Uh, it's so, is this is very for me too, it's very, uh, therapeutic. Whenever I talk about this and I know I get to help so many people.

Speaker 4: 29:07

Um, I'm in the bed now and I'm like, maybe that didn't happen, because when you die, I don't know who the hell knows right, maybe there's stuff in the brain that's happening and there's delusions, because I'm not this guy. You know what I mean. But now I'm in a bed for nine days, like literally, I'm in the bed for nine days and there's doctors walking in with hazmat suits Sam, they got hazmat suits on and my room's boarded up with plastic and the only person allowed to touch me or be near me is my wife. Like you know what I mean. And I'm like, and they're telling me that I might need a mitral valve replacement or a heart transplant, and I'm like I don't know what the is going on over here right now, because this, none of this makes sense. Like this is so beyond what, like I could even comprehend right now.

Speaker 4: 30:17

Like what is going on? I'm in this bed now for nine days because they got the pump in my groin and I've lost 45 pounds. I'm withering away. I'm like I'm going to die If I can't get up and walk. I'm going to die. And what's the odds?

Speaker 4: 30:34

Now I'm in this bed for nine days and I got this appointment with the medium as I fight for my life. So my wife's like I don't want you to talk to the medium and I'm like you know what. None of this makes sense. So there's no way. I'm not like I'm. I have to like I'm. That's why I'm so curious about everything in my life now. So you could Google my name and find out about my dad, because I wanted to talk to my dad. So she channels my dad and it's my dad. She knew things that only my dad would know, you know. So she goes like this to me saying all of my doctors came from New York. They all were from Lenox Hill. Dr Reddy, who's not there, no more brought them all over my father was involved with organized crime.

Speaker 4: 31:43

I'm in a town of 20,000 people in Temple Texas. Okay, what's the odds that one of my doctor's father-in-law was in the mob, like my dad In a town of 20,000 people? What's the odds?

Speaker 4: 32:04

one of the other doctors went to the same college as my wife in Staten Island Wagner College, baked her her favorite rainbow cookies. When you remove everything and all the noise and all the bullshit and you sit and you watch and you see. You see God working in your life, sam, I was in that ICU room with no more distractions. It was just me and God. How do you get through this shit? God is everything. He is nothing. The second step I turned my will and my life over years ago to the care of God. As I understood him. My life has nothing to do with me anymore, even in the face of fucking death. So the medium goes Fuck, all your doctors are from New York, right? And I said, yeah, she goes, your dad sent them there. Oh, hmm, new york, right. And I said, yeah, she goes, your dad sent them there.

Speaker 4: 33:04

Oh, she kept telling me about a pendant and a chain and a birthday and I had no idea what she's talking about. I have no idea what she's talking about. The next day my mom comes in and I tell her all about this fucking medium and I said she got two things wrong. She said she kept telling me about a birthday, independent in the chain and my grandma died when my dad was 14. I never met her. My mother, today's your grandmother's birthday and then she goes dependent in chain. When your dad died, your aunt Dolores gave a pendant of your grandma to me. I gave it to your Aunt Camille, who's my dad's sister, and I FaceTimed her. In the bed, sam, and she's wearing the pendant in the chain Ugh. Hmm.

Speaker 4: 34:13

So I knew I knew that at that moment that all this happened, that this is all real. This isn't real, we're in, but that's real, what happened. All that is real, what happened, and we all have a mission and a purpose, and I know that for myself today of what my mission is like. I'm sober today, july 31st of 2011. I'm sober today, but that day when I got sober, I didn't know that it was all part of god's mission. It had nothing to do with me. Everything to do with sonny and his future generations. Because I'm the fucking one in my family.

Speaker 4: 34:55

Because if I didn't change and do all this shit to become this fucking man, then he would have been doing the same shit jails, institutions just like everyone fucking else in my family. I'm not the only one that went to jail and addicted to drugs. It's my father, my uncles, every fucking body. It's fucking passed down until someone becomes the fucking one in the family. I bet my life talks about this shit, but it's true and you got to take on those burdens sometimes. So I had confirmation. I had confirmation from God that he's fucking working in my life, that this did happen and he did. Let me come back for my son for my future generations, not me, none of this has to do with me.

Speaker 4: 35:44

And I said to myself in that moment, because I've been in and shout out nick santana sasso in dubai, I love you. Because he told me this. He said, when you're going through the hardest of times, you got to ask yourself these two questions what's the gift in what you're going through and what are you going to become because of it? And I started to write a book. I mean, I started to write a book so if I were to die, my son and his future generations would know about their father, their grandfather, where I came from, who I became. But the accident steps saw and the book became a best seller in three countries. So there's no victim in life, there's no victim mentality ever in life. That's not who I am. That guy died 14 years ago on this day today. That guy died and I said to myself in the hospital I said maybe, frank, maybe you ain't been here before, bro, but you've been here before you've been in hospitals you've been in before.

Speaker 4: 36:37

You've been in hospitals. You've been in jails. You've been in institutions. You've been in situations mostly like a fucking, like a, like a soldier. You didn't know if you were gonna get out of them. The difference today, bro, is you got God, you got personal development, you got the 12 steps. You got you know, when you're at your darkest and your lowest of times, what you need, because life's a mirror and if I smile at it, it's going to smile back. So I start to give love in the fucking units. I start to fucking walk. I got to learn how to walk. Then they're going to put a pump in my chest 13 staples and what do I take with that? Because they're going to put an impeller pump in my chest to see if my heart's going to recover. Because your heart, could you imagine? May 8th you wake up and this is your. God is everything, he's nothing. Everyone's struggling out there. God is everything, he's nothing. It doesn't matter. It doesn't matter that I'm facing a heart transplant right now. God, if you want me, you got me. Take me because I've surrendered my life to you, so it ain't about me, no more. So I know he let me come back.

Speaker 4: 37:38

I'm here to serve and that's what I start to do. I start to bring breakfast, lunch and dinner to the nurses. I learn how to walk. They put the pump in 13 staples ibuprofen I'm not even fucking with the pain meds because I was addicted to that for years, so I didn't even do that ice and ib, whatever. They gave me tylenol and I started to walk one, two and you gotta learn how to walk. In a bed for nine days you gotta learn how to walk and I had a pump in my chest. I got this thing on my arm. Now I got all this stuff going on to tell me I might need a heart transplant. And I'm serving. I'm serving. I'm walking five miles in the ic union and every day I got old people getting up and walking that are facing heart transplants. I got them and you know, you know you're here. You know you're here, you know you here and I see you. When you're in the cardio thoracic unit you hear code blue. That means someone else died. You hear that all the time. That's what you're bad on.

Speaker 4: 38:33

Again, just a spiritual battle, even the cutting me open spiritual, but I see I, I was born in a dark and I know how to lead in it. I was good at that too, but I know how to lead in the light and I seen what was happening there in the hospital. I saw the battle of what was happening between the dark and the light after my fucking soul and it was like now they're like all right, we're going to debride your arm June 1st, we're going to debride your arm, which means this much of my arm is going to be missing. Okay, and they say now Mr Parisi, you might need a heart transplant. I go in to see Dr Hassan, I need a heart transplant soon. My heart's dead. So now I get the arm deployment and they're like and, by the way, like for all the listeners, when you have 9% ejection fraction, you have under a 10% survival rate. Also, because people aren't educated on this I wasn't, why would you be? There's only been less than 30 000 heart transplants that's been done in our country in the past 10 years. There's 365 million people in our country. It's 0.000178 percent of people get a heart transplant. So like, just to get an idea of like what I'm facing in this moment, and like whoever is facing out there to feel me on this, never victim. So now you gotta get on our transplant list and you gotta get on our transplant list and you gotta get uh, they, they vote not. Anyone gets a heart. So there's two options lvad. Lvad is a machine that goes in my chest, into my heart and wires come out of my stomach and then I get to plug 18 hours into an electric socket. I get 18 hours to live, I got to charge it, or a heart transplant.

Speaker 4: 40:43

Well, may 8th this is not what I was thinking when I woke up. Now I'm in this hospital for like three, four weeks. I haven't even seen my son. How do I talk to him? Like, what does this all look like? God is everything. He's nothing. I'm going to keep serving. I'm going to keep serving. I'm going to keep showing up as the greatest version of myself, even as I'm dying. This is not bullshit. This is all real shit.

Speaker 4: 41:06

So I meet the social worker, I meet the psychologist, I do the colonoscopy, I get my teeth checked, the blood. I get all these things done because you have to get this all done before you get on a transplant list and then they vote to see if you even should be on. Or you get the LVAD machine and hopefully get a heart. So they debride my arm and they say it's going to be six to eight weeks before I get accepted to be on the heart transplant. And they say it's going to be six to eight weeks before I get accepted to be on the heart transplant. And they say it's going to be six to eight weeks before you're going to get a heart because you're O positive. So plan to be here for the summer. So mentally I prepared to be there for the summer and I'm like, damn, I'm not going to see my son, like I just want to see Sonny.

Speaker 4: 41:50

I had that picture that Kathy had hanging. I looked at every day. It was hanging right in front of me, every room. They put me. In that picture was there, him in his little cap in kindergarten, his kindergarten graduation picture. And I fucking love my kids so much. And they deprived my arm this much of my arm.

Speaker 4: 42:19

And then they come in the next day and they say, mr Parisi, you get a heart tomorrow, one day. And it's like if you don't believe in God, then I don't know what to tell you. And so you see on my instagram it's, it's on there. You know, I, I because, like I'm a good drug addict, not that I'm a drug addict anymore, but my tolerance was so high that I came to all the time on the ventilator. So I'm like awake on the ventilator after my heart transplant and in like the worst pain of my life. And I wrote because gratitude and love are the highest frequencies we cooperate from besides enlightenment. And I wrote I don't care about pain, I'm grateful to feel and be alive. That's just the truth. You know, I was just so grateful to be alive and I started this whole journey, you know, of healing and self-awareness and growing with God, and so I got blessed with a heart on June 3rd of 2023.

Speaker 1: 43:34

Oh my God, that's your birthday.

Speaker 4: 43:38

Yeah, june 3rd of 2023.

Speaker 1: 43:39

Oh my God, that's my birthday.

Speaker 4: 43:39

Yeah, june 3rd, on my birthday, and then on July 14th I got my arm debrided and then it was like, let's go. And the thing I also want to touch on is like when they cut me open and they did my arm, I did have to take the pain medication, samantha, I had no choice. I had no choice like I fought it not to, but I was taking 15, 15 milligrams of of oxycontin, like three, four times a day, and then they would shoot me with the lotted, because when they would clean my arm it would feel like you get a fire, like like flamethrower to your arm for 24 hours. After, like it would, this little, little lady would come and clean my arm. She was so sweet but I hated her because it would be the worst excruciating pain. So I had to mess with the, with the pain meds, and I saw that too.

Speaker 4: 44:37

It was like that test between the dark and the light that was after my soul and it was like, are you going to like? Yeah, you're lowest right now, but this makes you feel good. This is the stuff that was your crutch. And, yeah, you're lowest, you just lost your heart. You don't know what your future is going to look like, but I have to take this candy because it's helping their body to heal. Like literally, like you're in so much shock when you get your chest sort open that you need pain. You can't do it. Your body needs to heal. It's the only way it's going to heal. But I saw it and what's crazy about this is like I was on Oxycontin for 25 days and I didn't withdraw after I was on Oxycontin for 25 days and I didn't withdraw after.

Speaker 4: 45:17

Like, talk about God working in my life, there's no way that happens to anybody. Like, you're going to go through a withdrawal, it doesn't matter, you're physically getting physically addicted no withdrawal. And then I just started to focus in that gym, on the comeback in my garage. I would sit there and cry and build my body back and build my mind back. And then I wrote the book. It became a bestseller.

Speaker 4: 45:40

And then in the summertime, samantha, I go and get the mail. It's like, come on, I get the mail on a friday night and it's my donor's family and my donors parents are divorced. I talked to to Cora and I talk to Matthew and Matthew, what's the odds, samantha? What's the odds? What's the odds that he's renewing his vows of his wife of 10 years the next day in Longview, texas, and then he invites me out to participate in the ceremony and I walk his mother-in to participate in the ceremony and I walk his mother-in-law down the aisle and my daughter is a 19-year-old girl named Kaylee Bearden. And you met Matthew when I spoke at the Spire Tour with you and they all listened to her heart. You know. They all listened to her heart and my body. Matthew is a beautiful man, you know. After that night he texts me and he says you know I love being near you, because I feel my daughter.

Speaker 4: 46:54

It's like this is all beautiful Because I chose to make it beautiful. You understand, I chose to make it beautiful.

Speaker 4: 46:58

You understand, I chose to make it beautiful. What's the odds that after the wedding, I, you know, I do all this social media shit. I you know, and my niece has needed this kidney transplant all life. Life and I do a reel and it gets like I don't know, 180,000 views for my niece, for people to go donate for her. What's the odds? May 8th, the day that I died, is the day she gets worked up for a kidney transplant. What's the odds that 20 people donated for my niece? What's the odds that my donor's mother and sister took the test for my niece? We got two matches for my niece. You can't make any of this stuff up. Samantha. God is so good, whatever it is to any of this stuff up, samantha. God is so good, whatever it is to any of you guys out there. It's so good, it's so beautiful. This life is so amazing. It's all about perspective it's never a victim in life.

Speaker 4: 48:09

It's never why me, it's why not me? And as long as you have a vision for where you want your life to look like right, you make those non-negotiable daily habit agreements that you're going to show up no matter what, like the man in the bed saw this fucking guy right here.

Speaker 4: 48:32

And sometimes we got to cut out energy. Because I had to cut out so much energy? Because when you go through what I went through, you see the truth in everybody, because not only did I lose my heart, I lost business too. In april, the company that we were talking about earlier, that I helped grow, cut me after five years of helping making the millions of dollars. So you get to see in all of that the truth of people who are there for your mission and who are not there for your mission, because I'm not here for breakfast, lunch and dinner no more and to have fun. Like I'm on a mission and I know my purpose and I feel like we came together because you're part of it too, samantha. That's some real shit. I feel like you're part of this with me because there's a reason this is what's happening with us too that we're going to be sharing stages together and all this.

Speaker 4: 49:21

This is all part of God's bigger plan for all of us, and that's what the listeners need to see is that you never, no matter what, you're never out of the game, never Like. If you can't draw from me. Never Like. If you can't draw from me, then I don't know what's going to be. Because, like, I've been down in the gutter from birth, like we didn't even get into the insanity of my life my dad in and out of jail and the drug addiction of that and and unlearning all that shit with the good that he taught me. You know what I mean, like. But you get to see the truth in everything when you go through the hardest of times, you get to see the truth of people who showed up, who didn't, and then you get to cut that energy out To make room for the good, for the new, for the Jasons, for the Darrens, for the Samanthas. You know what I'm saying. So that was a big part of this whole thing and it was the greatest lessons.

Speaker 4: 50:12

I wouldn't change any of this. I wouldn't change any of this. I wouldn't change having a heart transplant. There's no way. What a blessing that I truly know the truth of what the hell's going on. Not that I know everything of what we're in, but I'm not Frank and you're not Sam. I was looking at the body of Frank Parisi. I don't care what nobody thinks. I know and I teach my son the same we don't die, we just move on to another space where we're going to be together again. How beautiful to know that to be truth, not just belief. Oh, I'm so grateful, I'm so blessed.

Speaker 1: 50:50

Your story is just so unbelievable, and something that keeps coming up for me is like and there's this idea, this feeling that if you survive something at the level that you did and come to know God at the depth that you have, that it would almost make you unshakable. But we know that isn't true, right, because we are affected by worldly things.

Speaker 4: 51:26

And our human gets in the way Sure does.

Speaker 1: 51:29

And I just keep wondering. You know, how does that show up today? How does fear show up, when, seemingly, you're someone who doesn't ever have to be afraid again?

Speaker 4: 51:47

it still comes up. It still comes up. Is that crazy?

Speaker 2: 51:52

knowing the truth of this?

Speaker 4: 51:54

yeah, because there's no, truly. This is the truth. There's nothing to fear because death is an illusion. So, like, what is there to fear? We're infinite. But my human, because of I believe, and I'm breaking it my subconscious still has like that old programming that rears itself up from time to time that gets caught up in the worldly uh things.

Speaker 4: 52:25

Well, one like the fear I do have is is is because the mission is to be here for my son, to raise him to be a man. That's out. So, like the fear is like God taking me from this experience sooner than I would like to. That's a huge fear, you know, even though I know that we're all going to be together, I want to be here longer with him. So that's like that's just that's. That's, that's a fear.

Speaker 1: 52:54

And then, like I have, all the same, what do you do when that fear comes up?

Speaker 4: 53:02

I have so many tools in the box.

Speaker 1: 53:26

Tell me, tell me like a very for the listener who is struggling with a particular fear that is on repeat, that probably is touching on something that is historical for them what it, what is something that they could do, that could reverse, engineer where they are energetically?

Speaker 4: 53:33

so I mean everything is fear is like is resetting the central nervous system, so like there's a million different things. It's like prayer. Is you like? I'm deep into prayer? I I'm huge into picking up dude, I've done it with you pick up the phone and say, hey, this is what the hell is going on like I did it with you recently I forgot where I was, but I, I so like, I like, pick up the phone, get it out.

Speaker 4: 54:02

It's not real, but it stays real when we keep it in here Ground workout, run, get out of the head and into the body. You know, get it, turn your thoughts to somebody else. You know, these are all tools that help me, are all tools that help me meditation, prayer, grounding, uh, sauna, a run, a walk, a workout, picking up the phone and talking to somebody, getting more clarity, getting their perspective on things, because when it's in here, it's hard to have that perspective for yourself. That's why it's so important to have a strong circle. The circle is important too because we're all wired the same.

Speaker 4: 54:46

We all have, like financial insecurity, we all have like like body issues, like everybody, and there's no one that's any different, everybody's. We're all wired the same and it's just about having the awareness of it and not letting it run. Fear can't be in the driver's seat. You know what I mean? Yeah, so it's just shifting the vibration and frequency, the mindset, whatever you want to call it, and it's through these tools and it works every time. It works every single time, and then reminding myself that, dude, this isn't real. Yeah, yes yeah.

Speaker 1: 55:37

Where are you in five years from now?

Speaker 4: 55:40

Oh my dude, we're speaking all over the world. That's a hundred percent. I told Tim story that we're speaking all over the world.

Speaker 1: 55:47

Amen, you're going to be with me.

Speaker 4: 55:52

Emotion is emotions is exploding. Jason, turn, I love you. We we're going to have multiple where we're already opening a private practice which is freaking cool man, it's like this cool thing that we got going on um, so that's gonna be exploding nationally.

Speaker 1: 56:09

uh, the podcast hey, hold on, let's wait for one second, just because people need to know who are listening that a few episodes prior to this episode, I talked about accessing the realm of miracles and in that episode I talked about doing a facilitation workshop at Frank and his partner Jason's IOP in San Antonio and what I experienced not even not even when IOP in San Antonio, and what I experienced not even when I was in the facility, even though that was its own miraculous experience, but before it. So I'm not even going to give away any of that. You guys are going to have to go back and listen to that episode and then you'll understand what I'm talking about, and also what Frank is talking about when he's referencing part of his five-year vision and what he sees happening for emotion. So just a little side note for the listener. Okay, keep going.

Speaker 4: 57:16

And definitely speaking. We're going to speak all over, all over the world, like that, I know, is my mission, not just America all over, literally all over the world. Like that I know is is my mission, not just america all over, literally all over the world. I see myself speaking and talking about this whole experience. I'm demonstrating god's power, so it's like this has to be told everywhere. I mean they've talked about there's been people talking about movies and stuff like that, but I don't know, I'm open to all that stuff, but I truly see myself speaking. I see the podcast doing extremely well and I see emotion growing and I definitely I mean there's other business stuff that's in the works as well that I also see that is going to explode. So you're going to see like a lot Like I put together deals in the backside background that aren't fully exploded yet but that'll be a whole nother.

Speaker 4: 58:06

There's like three companies that I'm also part of, outside of emotion, that I really feel are going to like make huge impacts in our society and people are going to like know about all of these companies. So, but I see them all all doing well, like I see it all exploding. It's all to help humanity, so, but I see them all all doing well, like, I see it all exploding. It's all to help humanity. Sober water is ending. That's a company I'm part of that's ending plastic and, uh, and and, and, I think, homelessness. A portion of our proceeds is going to build out a, a treatment facility in Southern Colorado. Uh, that's going to be full of scholarship for people.

Speaker 4: 58:41

You know, there's another company called Brain One that I'm a part of and that's an amazing AI, neuroscience fitness app. That's like going to revolutionize stuff. It's, it's it. It's just all things to serve. And then there's another company that I can, I know is going to would seek in funding for it right now. But that's what? Uh, you know me, darren Dominique Wilkins. It's an app design Brian Stone and Paul Ashmore they're the founders of it. It's an app designed to get people away from gambling. So it's it's. It's bringing the love back into sports without people losing their ass. They just without people losing their ass. They just get to pick teams and win prizes, no money in.

Speaker 4: 59:27

So all these things, I know, are going to explode and just be out here to help and serve humanity and we're going to be speaking all over the world. So it's like we're going to be talking about not just our journeys, but also all this other cool shit too. I'm just so excited for all of it. I'll be honest with you, I really am. Like, I'm just so excited for all of it. I'll be honest with you, I really am. I'm just so grateful to God for his mercy, his grace, for letting me come back here and do all this, because this is the other thing that all the listeners need to hear.

Speaker 4: 59:52

Literally last year at this time, I was unemployed and I just told you I own five companies, so good. So what does your, your guys, next year, look like? Because, fuck, if I did this in one year after I had a heart transplant and I'm jacked too. Like I mean, not bad for 45 over there, I got abs. You know what I mean. Like I mean I'm skinny but I like I'm in good shape. Like what are you? Like? There's no fucking excuse. I don't give a fuck who you are. There's no excuse. You know it's. Here's the crazy part, going back to the fear. I'm like I'm not doing enough. I'm not, but this is how crazy our minds are.

Speaker 1: 1:00:38

But, like, when I say it, I'm like holy fucking shit, what I've done in a year, man right, and that's what's so important to reflect you have to reflect every night so powerful to to talk about this, right, because I think this business of you can't see the picture from inside the frame. We've talked about this a lot when we, when we sort of transported you out of this deep communion with God and then back into the real world quote unquote which is not the real world, post-heart transplant and all the fear that pops back up right. And so what did we just do? What just happened here? I asked you one question, which is what is the vision five years from now? You just got so fucking excited on an energetic level that you were like oh, that's right, that's what everything has been for, that's literally my destiny. I know it fully to be true and and that is a total elevation of your consciousness and your frequency that you now get to go out into the world. And so this idea of reverse engineering, when we're down low in things like fear, guilt, regret, shame, anger, resentment, betrayal loss, shame, anger, resentment, betrayal loss Not not that this is an easy road, right, but when you have the right people and when you have a toolkit and you can elevate your consciousness to remember who the fuck you are, it literally will change the course of your life. That's what just happened and that was so so you know.

Speaker 1: 1:02:23

There's so many takeaways from this episode for the listener, and I do want to know one more thing from you, frank. But God damn it, you guys, if, even if you can't get down with God in your own right from what you heard, maybe you could get down with trying to envision your future self that is so much like the creator, so filled with wholeness that there is no lack, that everything becomes available to you. And if that's possible, if your future self allows everything to be available, then what does it look like? And imagine it and speak it out loud and write about it and dream about it until until it feels real. Yes, frank, what's a final thing you would want the listener to know?

Speaker 4: 1:03:35

Never let this life break you. It doesn't matter where you are right now, where you started in life, as long as you have a vision for your life. Create that vision, get a vision board. Create that vision for your life. Write it down. Make a contract with yourself that you're going to show up in agreements that you make in that contract off that vision that you did. Audit your circle. Make sure you surround yourself. You have to cut some people out. Make sure you surround yourself with people that see you, for you or even further down the line, that believe in you and are supporting you, because not everybody is. And then you take massive action every single day. Fucking, shut the noise out, even a heart transplant. Shut the noise out and you take massive. I was the guy in the bed, so this guy today. You understand.

Speaker 4: 1:04:33

So you shut the noise out, you take massive action and rinse and repeat. That's how you embrace abundance. I love you frank dude, we have so much fun like the future's ours, let's go waking up.

Speaker 2: 1:04:58

I hear the desperation call. I turn my back and hit my head against the wall To meet a crucifix. To take me to my knees, whipping my mistakes. To jump over the grief. Breaking the circuit, making it worth it. Oh, sick and tired of the voice inside my head Never good enough. It's leaving me for dead. But perfection's just a game of make-believe. Hey, gotta break the pattern, find a new reprieve. Breaking the circuit.

Speaker 5: 1:05:45

Making it worth it all. I am ready to make a change. I am bigger than my pain. There's no deep inside. I gotta let the light.

Speaker 2: 1:06:08

I can be brave and afraid at the same time. Practice self compassion, start to calm my mind, taking tiny steps to loving all of me. Just the process, cause it's gonna set me free, breaking the circuit.

Speaker 5: 1:06:30

Making it worth it all. I am ready to make a change. I am bigger than my pain. There's no deep inside. I got the, the life. Gotta gotta gotta break it or fake it till we make it. Gotta gotta gotta break it. Come on, woo, two, three. I am ready to make a change. I am bigger than my pain. There's no deep inside. I got left alone my pain. There's no deep inside. I got left alive. I am ready to make a change. I am bigger than my pain. There's no deep inside. I got this, this life.