According to the World Health organization (WHO), around 1 million people kill themselves every year around the world, and every 40 seconds one person commits suicide. In Brazil alone, 24 people kill themselves everyday and unfortunately the numbers are rising. The estimation from the WHO is that, in the next 20 years, numbers should rise to 1,5 million a year. Today, suicide occupies the second ranking in causes of death in the world between teenagers of 15 to 24 years of age, falling behind only traffic accidents as the main cause.

As incredible as it may seem, most occurrences happen in rich countries. Eastern Europe shows one of the highest rates proportionally. Countries in Asia, such as China and Japan, hold world records. 

Why does suicide happen? 

To science, the causes of suicide may be related to psychosocial disorders, such as social exclusion, chemical dependency, hopelessness and emotional trauma. It is considered a consequence of mental illness in individuals with bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, anorexia and personality disorders.

Even with the significant advancements in medical science, some manifestations remain obscure in the field of psychology as the human mind holds mysteries yet to be unraveled. Researchers seek to answer to what leads human beings to disrespect the instinct of self-preservation. It is also not possible to explain, for instance, why some people who go through the same situations do not commit suicide as others do. In the eyes of science, the causes of suicide are not yet completely explained.      

Suicide according to the spiritualistic doctrine 

In order to explain suicide in the spiritualistic view, we shall use the considerations contained in The Book of Spirits, highlighting questions 943 to 946:

934. Where does the distaste of life that, without apparent reason, takes over certain individuals?

“A consequence of laziness, lack of faith and satiation.”

944. Has man the right to dispose of his life?

“No; only God has this right. Voluntary suicide is a transgression of this law.”

945. What to think of suicide whose cause is distaste for life?

“Senseless! Why didn’t they do some work? Existence wouldn’t be such a burden to carry.”

946. What about the suicide whose purpose is to get away from the sorrows and deceptions of this world?

“Poor Spirits, who lack courage to endure the miseries of existence! God helps those who suffer and don’t deprive them of energy or courage. Life’s troubles are trials or expiations. Happy are those who endure them without complaining, for they’ll be rewarded! Poor those who hope for salvation, from what they call chance or luck! Chance, or luck, to paraphrase them, may favor them for a while, but harshly make them feel, later, the emptiness of these words.”

Analyzing the answer provided by the Spirits who conducted the codification, it remains clear the stand of Spiritualism on suicide. Every form of violence against life is a violation of Divine Laws; therefore, suicide is considered a very serious offense, because the Spirit puts an end to the valuable opportunity that was given him to improve morally and intellectually.   

What happens to the suicidal after disincarnating? 

Let’s take as a source of research the book “Memories of a Suicide”, psychographed by the Brazilian medium Yvonne do Amaral Pereira, from the spiritual author Camilo Candido Botelho, who narrates his own saga as a suicide in the spiritual plane. The book was published by the Brazilian Spiritualistic Federation (BSF) in 1954 and has become one of the main references on the subject from a spiritualistic viewpoint.

Camilo Candido Botelho was an alias adopted by the famous Portuguese author Camilo Castelo Branco, who used a different name in order to avoid conflicts, once he was a well-known personality in Portugal as well as in Brazil.

In the book, the author describes his own journey in the spiritual world after committing suicide with a shot in his right ear in the year 1890, after receiving the news that his blindness would be irreversible.

The writer reports that in the first months of his ordeal, he wandered between the cemetery (where his remains were and where he saw, many times, despite his blindness in the spiritual world, his decaying physical body) and the streets in the area where he lived, feeling strong pain in the area affected by the projectile and experiencing serious mental disturbances inflicted by the physical sensations ingrained in his Perispirit:

“Nasty and horrible stenches brutally offend your sense of smell. Excruciating, violent and sickening pain, took over my whole body, located mainly in the brain and in the eardrum. Struck by pain, I touched my right ear: blood was spurting from the hole made by the bullet I used to kill myself with and stained my hands, clothes, my body… I could see nothing though. It’s worth remembering my suicide derived from my anger for finding myself blind, an expiation I found too hard to bear. I thought it was an unjust punishment. I was, therefore, still blind; and, to add insult to injury, I found myself wounded. Only wounded but not dead! Because life remained in me, as it did before the suicide!”

A year after his disincarnation, Camilo was taken from a spiritual region, named by him “The Valley of Suicides”, a dense region that housed suicidal Spirits, from Portugal and its colonies in Africa, as well as Brazil and Spain. The renowned Portuguese writer defines the Valley as an evident manifestation of suffering, a kind of hell created by the sick thought of the spirits who were there themselves:

“There wasn’t there, as it has never been, peace, consolation or hope: all around it was marked by disgrace, dread, despair and horror.

Beings in suffering took turns amidst screaming and crying, pain and sadness, guilt and regret in a dark, cold place, sliced through abysmal zones and tenebrous caves difficult to grasp or reproduce for the human mind:

“Words haven’t yet been invented in Human language to describe the unconceivable impressions that begin to contaminate the “I” of a suicide a few hours after the disaster, which grow bigger and bigger and crystallize in a crescendo that translates into a vibration and mental state that man cannot grasp, for it is beyond his understanding as a creature at the mercy of God. In order to understand and measure precisely the intensity of this dramatic surprise, only another Spirit whose faculties have been burned by the same kind of pain!” 

Camilo remained in the valley for long thirteen years, and only after deeming himself abandoned and incapable of reacting for having all his energies drained and sincerely regretting the crime he committed against his own life; he is rescued by a team of helpers and brought to “Maria de Nazare Hospital”, in order to reestablish his spiritual organization for his incursion in a new carnal existence. All the while, the spiritual author makes clear the suffering experienced by him:

“In general those who resort to suicide, hope to get rid, for good, of burdens deemed unbearable, of depressing regrets. I also thought this way, despite the halo of idealism that my vanity believed in. I was wrong though; and struggles more livid and rougher waited for me beyond grave in order to punish my soul of a disbeliever and defaulter, with deserving justice”.

In the Hospital, Camilo was an intern for over ten years, experiencing great anguish. As the Spirit acquired knowledge about Divine Laws in the spiritual realm, the feeling of regret and guilt got worse. After being discharged from that institution, he won the right to see his parents again and later was admitted into the University linked to the Hospital, in order to be prepared for a new reincarnation.

During the narration, the author tells about things that happened to other Spirits that made up his group and said that not everybody were happy enough to recover and ended up experiencing a painful psychic imbalance, needing treatment in specialized isolation, in order to be later led to compulsory reincarnations:

“Oh! A dramatic future waits, in the expiatory confusion of an unavoidable and near reincarnation!”

The suffering of a suicide only ends when the Spirit is able to go through all the trials that led him to commit suicide and rescue the accumulated losses from the criminal act. It may take centuries, extending through two, three or more subsequent existences. For the Spirit enjoying plain consciousness of the law of progress, it is an immensurable waste of time.    

Consequences of suicide for the Spirit 

Many are the consequences for those who attempt against their own life; however, they vary from Spirit to Spirit, because one has to take into account the motivations for the crime and the conditions in which it was committed. As a rule, the consequences for suicides are the torments caused by them.

A suicide in the spiritual realm becomes slave to his own consciousness and is stricken by a great feeling of guilt, which causes them pain, therefore, those who commit suicide thinking that they put an end to their own suffering are wrong, for after disincarnation they go through many tribulations caused by their criminal act and later have to return to earthly life to go through the same trials that made them succumb.

As the disincarnation of a suicide, which usually happens violently, the Perispirit remains wounded, causing a great deal of imbalance in the Spirit. In most cases it is necessary to submit him to a compulsory reincarnation in order to readjust his spiritual organization, having to take ‘internship’ in atrophied physical bodies, which may explain some cases of children who are born in complete idiocy or with a disability.

It all depends where the lesion is in the perispirit. For instance, a suicide who disincarnated by firing a gun to his skull may return to matter bearing a mental deficiency, like the area compromised by the projectile. If the lesion compromised a part of the brain responsible for speech, that child is born mute, if it hurt the optical nerve, the child may be born blind and so on.

If the suicide disincarnated by hanging, it is natural to be born with a fractured vertebrae, if ingested chemical substances, he will have his digestive apparatus compromised. All these trials cause a lot of suffering to the suicide.

When the suicide is followed by a homicide, the consequences are even greater. It is not rare that a suicide compromise the reincarnation of other Spirits, such as, family members who are in distress. All of this worsens the situation for a reckless Spirit.

But like we said before, the consequences depend on determining factors, for there is not effect without a cause. 

Conclusion 

When idealizing this article, we aimed at calling the attention of those who go through difficult trials in the physical plane and by chance think, or thought, at some point about attempting against their own life.

Earthly life must be understood as the most valuable asset acquired by the wandering Spirit, for it is through life that we have the opportunity of moral and intellectual advancement.

To think that we’ll extinguish our problems, which seem without a solution, constitutes a naivety from our part, besides showing lack of faith and trust in the Creator who is always near us.

As bad as our problems seem to be, we should always thank God for the opportunity given to us to rescue debts from the past. A sincere prayer done at a moment of despair may seem without effect and often won’t solve our problems, but it’ll bring the wisdom and patience to seek the solutions we need. No suffering lasts forever and all effort will be rewarded, so, let’s meditate over these reflections.

References: 

The Book of Spirits – Allan Kardec

Memories of a Suicide – Yvonne do Amaral Pereira, by the Spirit Camilo Candido Botelho.