Suicide and spiritual progression

Morbid topic, I'll try and show discretion. Needed to include the S-word in the thread title though for obvious reasons.

From what I've read about attitudes towards the issue in Spiritualism, the general opinion seems to be the person continues to reincarnate with the circumstances becoming even more difficult with each return.

If they left when things were comparably "easier", how on earth are they supposed to stick it out when it actually gets harder each time? I'm heavily weary of any positive views of suffering. Yes, it can teach valuable lessons, but it seems in some cases there is no lesson. Just punishment for an action taken when the person felt they had been given more to deal with than they could. I have this horrible image of such people being screwed over again and again just so a point can be proven, while other people such as socialites and celebrities get to live wonderful but totally frivelous lives.

How anyone can think that a life of suffering deserves a bad afterlife or even more suffering next time round is beyond me.

A neighbour and family friend sadly took this path when I was much younger. For some reason I've been thinking a lot about him, and the thought he's being punished for his own tragic life occurences makes me...well, angry.

Welcome Misoph, I don't believe that suicides keep on suffering, they see the repercussions of what they did, and heal from the trauma. We choose our lifetimes, so they can choose something easier.

Thank-you. I really hope so.

[Michelle11]

I have had much the same thoughts as you as I have tried to sort through my struggle. I came into this life running from a very deep depression until I couldn't run anymore and as I have tried to work through it these past 3 years I have come to understand a few things. We are not judged for our lives that fail because nothing is really seen as a failure but rather one step in the process. When I fell into the depression and couldn't get out I had to stop and listen to what the feelings were telling me and they basically stated that I wanted to die. I even had to from time to time through out my life restrain myself from urges to jump out of cars or off boats. For the life of me I could never understand why I had the urges. There was absolutely nothing in my life to cause such feelings, nothing traumatic happened and yet there was this incredible urge to die. But there was also this inner knowing that suicide was not the answer. It would not solve the problem. This tells me that I must have suicided in a past life and now know it will not solve the problem. The problem does not go away and is actually even more confusing because you bring it with you but there is no frame of context for my desire to self destruct. And yet I believe I have been self destructing for many lives. I have had dreams that basically have shown me I was a drug addict in one life. And so in this life I have a body that cannot tolerate drugs or alcohol. I get deathly ill. Because I have gained the knowing that it will not solve the problem and so I chose a body that would prevent it from happening again. The point I am trying to make is even though I have had a number of failed lives I also take the knowledge from those failures with me. There is always a chance of repeating but I see I have had failures and now have strong knowings not to follow the same path that led to the failures. I haven't overcome the issue that brought the destructive behavior about so I still have self destructive urges but have learned enough that I also have strong impulses to not follow a destructive path and this tells me that we eventually do get it.

Now here is the biggest learning I have gained of all of this. My feelings of self destruction were not from anything other than I myself made a decision one life that I wasn't worthy of existing. No one else made that decision for me so the pain I was feeling was really all self inflicted and I am finally trying to bring it out to be healed. Again, with no frame of reference this has been a very confusing situation to sort through but I was assured in many dreams that we are not judged even if we can't handle it and bail. But the other thing that has been repeatedly imparted on me, because like you thought, I have felt tortured through some of this, but I have been told in many dreams that I signed up for this. I agreed, I signed the contract, I came here of my own free will to experience what I am going through. I think when in spirit we feel like superman and think we can conquer the earth world with no problem and then get here and wonder what the heck were we thinking and we sometimes fail but we are not judged for the failures because life is like a spiral. It may seem like we are going over the same ground but with each pass we are a bit farther up the spiral or down the road.

So though your friend has a difficult recovery ahead he is in the process of healing his most recent life and taking what he learned from the failure with him to plan out his next. But that won't happen until he is ready. A good book you might want to read that talks about difficult lives is Your Soul's Plan by Robert Schwartz. The book and my dreams really helped me put my life and depression into perspective. Essentially, in the end, I am coming to conclude that life is full of very difficult traumatic experiences so that we can truly understand what we are underneath because we can't really know what we are until we experience what we aren't. We are made of love and light but can't fully comprehend what love and light is until we experience what love and light isn't. When we finally do we come away with an appreciation of our essence. I still sometimes question whether or not it needs to be so intense but I guess there must be some value or there wouldn't be so many of us choosing a life path as a human. Well those are my thoughts anyways. Not sure if I gave you any peace about your friend but I am confident he is being loved, looked after, and not judged on the other side. Take care.

[sea-dove]

Originally Posted by Misoph

From what I've read about attitudes towards the issue in Spiritualism, the general opinion seems to be the person continues to reincarnate with the circumstances becoming even more difficult with each return.

If they left when things were comparably "easier", how on earth are they supposed to stick it out when it actually gets harder each time?

We have free will, our souls seem to have free will too (or at least some). Our lifetimes are choosen by our souls and how much they take on in a lifetime I personally believe is choosen by the soul too.

[knightofalbion]

We come here in the general sense to learn and grow (through experience), but there will also be some specific lesson we need to learn and probably a specific task we are charged with performing too.

Taking one's own life interfere's with one's destined path and the things we needed to fulfill to further our soul's progression.

These things still need to be done, so the soul will need to try again.

Life can be very hard. My heart bleeds for all those who are going through pain and emotional turmoil to the extent they think of, or try, taking their life...

I'm sure there is compassion and understanding on the Other Side.

That being said, no-one said it would be easy - and indeed nor should it be, for nothing worth achieving is ever 'easy'.
To the very limit of our abilities we should stand our ground. Everything is but for a season.
We will emerge the stronger for taking whatever life throws at us and not backing down.

[knightofalbion]

Originally Posted by sea-dove

We have free will, our souls seem to have free will too (or at least some). Our lifetimes are choosen by our souls and how much they take on in a lifetime I personally believe is choosen by the soul too.

I would certainly agree with that.

Just wanted to say thank-you for the helpful insights. Particularly michelle11, I greatly appreciate your frank honesty and advice. I think a lot of my own objections stem from my predominantly negative Christian experience of spirituality regarding the afterlife. For me personally, at least. I think I'm beginning to understand it a little better. I will definitely be looking for a copy of Your Soul's Plan. Thanks again everyone.

[Michelle11]

Yes, I agree. Religions have the right intentions but when humans are involved things tend to get misconstrued. Most people automatically assume they are based totally in truth when it was really man who invented religion in the first place. Interestingly enough I was raised Catholic but never took to it. I wasn't mad or anything I just couldn't comprehend how a God who was supposed to be unconditional would judge certain people. It just seemed hypocritical to me so I finished the classes and left religion behind. I just didn't agree with their dogma but for some people it does help them feel connected to God so it does serve a purpose for some. But in no way is your friend being punished. He may chose a rough next life but it will be his choosing but then again he may wait to try to deal with the issue for a few lives. You will see in the book we are really coached on plotting out our lives. A lot is taken into consideration and none of it is random. Of course this is just another man's opinion but a lot of it felt right to me. The rest I just leave to the side so just follow what feels right to you. In the end we will all eventually know the truth.

[knightofalbion]

Well done, dear Michelle. You went the extra mile to help... and you did.

That's the forum how it was dreamt of and intended.