Waldir Silva (photo) works for the state-owned electricity company in the Brazilian state of Minas Gerais, CEMIG. He is a volunteer worker at the Manoel Maria da Silva - Cantinho de Jesus Spiritist Centre in Belo Horizonte. Waldir has a long experience in mediumship groups, working mainly in the assistance of Spirits who committed suicide in a previous incarnation, as he explains in the following interview:

What stands out from your experience in this area? 

The diversity of cases of suicide and the reasons behind them. Also, the number of cases in which people commit what is called indirect or unconscious suicide. 

How exactly do you describe indirect suicide? 

The issue is discussed in questions 943 and 944 of Allan Kardec’s The Spirits’ Book. Kardec asks the Spiritual Benefactors if human beings have the right to dispose of their own life and they reply that they don’t; only God has that right. Voluntary suicide is, therefore, a breach of divine law. In the following question, 944a, Kardec asks how suicide can be involuntary. And they reply that “a crazy person doesn’t know what they’re doing when they kill themselves.” That is one of several possibilities of unconscious suicide. It also happens when someone doesn’t plan to kill themselves at a particular point in time, but ends up killing themselves slowly because of all the excesses it carries out along the years. 

What would be the impact of indirect suicide for the Spirit? 

Many Spirits who go through that express surprise, disbelief, anger and regret, but once they understand what has happened. A very relevant example is included in the book Nosso Lar - Our Home, written by André Luiz through the medium Francisco Cândido Xavier. In the fourth chapter of the book, a spiritual doctor talks to André Luiz and says he regrets the fact he had returned to the Spiritual World through suicide. He reacts and says that his cause of death had been cancer. The doctor then asks him what had caused his cancer, his syphilis and other illnesses that he had, in a reference to his drinking habit and other bad health habits. Spirits are often surprised when that happens because like most of us, they don’t think, as incarnates, that by overworking, overeating, overmedicating or complaining constantly, as well as failing to seek proper medical care, not to mention vices and addictions, they are moving towards indirect or involuntary suicide.  

The abuse we inflict on our bodies is indeed a cause of indirect suicide. How about looking after our health, seeking treatment etc? 

In the book Cartas e Crônicas (Letters and Chronicles) dictated by Brother X to Chico Xavier, there is such a case. After death, Belarmino Bicas makes an assessment of all his bad behaviour and compromising health decisions and realises that he had shortened his life by 22 years. The ideal would be for us to become better people and deal with bad habits before it's too late. In the accounts I have heard from many Spirits, it’s clear that their neglect with their physical health can bring forward the moment of death, which amounts to indirect suicide. I remember in particular the case of a woman who refused to follow a medical recommendation to have her leg amputated. She had thrombosis, which eventually spread to other vital organs and she passed away a few years later. When she arrived in the Spiritual World, she was told that she would have lived many more years on earth and would also have been able to atone for many faults of the past thanks to her new condition. Her own conscience told her she had committed indirect suicide. 

What has been your experience with those who plan the suicide and eventually take their own life? 

I would like to mention question 957 of The Spirits’ Book, when Kardec asks about the consequences of suicide. The Spiritual Benefactors replied that “a consequence that a suicide cannot avoid is the feeling of disappointment.” Spirits who take their own life get desperate when they realise that their life hasn’t actually ended. So they ask for help in their attempts to effectively die. They are told then that the Spirit never dies, only the body. What also happens very often is that the Spirits come to the conclusion that they didn’t really want to die. All they wanted was to get rid of a problem, for which they couldn’t envisage a solution. Death, for them, seemed to be the only way out. When we talk to them and manage to explain that the problems they were trying to escape from are no longer there, they calm down and begin working in the Spirit World, preparing themselves for a new incarnation. 

Is anger a common feeling among those who commit suicide? 

Yes, most Spirits are already feeling a lot of anger before they take that drastic decision. When they realise they haven’t been able to end their own lives, their anger grows and is followed by a sense of disappointment. We had many cases like that when, in the early 1990s, a new Brazilian government froze the bank accounts of everyone for many months in a radical attempt to tackle inflation. People got furious and many took their own lives, after losing access to all their money. Others did so unconsciously, after they began drinking too much. After arriving in the Spirit World, they got very angry by realising that they were still alive. Some of them were eventually overcome by a sense of deep remorse and regret.  

What else would you like to add?