Spiritual aphorisms about suicide

– suicide is a mistake, of course. It may be the result of great despair, of a total lack of faith in the future – the result of materialism – it may be the result of a habit – whenever he faces a difficulty, he chooses to give up -, etc., but the fact, seen already in the study from the first year of the Revista Espírita (1858), is that we cannot link the action of suicide to standardized effects, such as, for example, saying that this spirit will suffer in the “valley of suicides” (which is not a place, as many think). Each case is different. And, after all, it is a mistake, like so many others. There is nothing “major sin” or “major crime” before God. God doesn't charge.

– I remember, finally, that the serious study of the Spiritist Doctrine in its originality, removed from the religious dogmas of sin, fall and punishment, linked to its inseparable twin sister – the science of Magnetism – led and leads many non-believers to reasoned and to regain the spirit for life.

– the Spiritist Doctrine is not a doctrine of false ideas, but a Doctrine that returns the Spirit to responsibility for itself, for autonomy and conscience.

– Moreover, I think that the best way to help someone in a state of depression or giving up is to demonstrate that:

1. He is not being punished for anything. Pains and sorrows, joys and pleasures are part *of matter*, and we all go through them. Happiness, however, is the conquest of the Spirit, who walks towards good and self-improvement, while unhappiness is the result of imperfections, developed by autonomous and conscious actions of the Spirit, linked to sensations, pleasures and passions. A happy Spirit will also go through pain and sadness in the flesh, but this will not define its state of happiness or unhappiness. Therefore, in order to achieve happiness and inner peace, we need to learn and place ourselves, in all honesty, under constant analysis of ourselves, seeking to detach ourselves from those factors that lead us to imperfections - remembering that making mistakes and learning is one thing, every world does in the learning process, while making mistakes and clinging to mistakes, in a conscious effort, because of pleasures and passions, is the big problem.

2. The difficulties faced are sometimes the result of wrong choices, even in this life. Other times, they are planned as tests, with the purpose of helping to overcome an imperfection. Anyway, these are opportunities that need to be faced, and the spiritist knowledge helps *too much* in this process.

3. Interrupting a life through direct or indirect suicide will only cause suffering*moral* last longer, because, as it originates from imperfections, it will only cease when these are overcome, through autonomous and conscious effort.

4. Trying to help someone to overcome the ideas of suicide through fear, which arises from false ideas, is a mistake, because the person who believes himself to be unfortunate or even sinful is already desperate. Instead, it is necessary to seek to help her to reason about the usefulness of every second of incarnate life to precisely overcome the imperfections that prevent her from being truly happy.

You have to be careful and study hard. False ideas are linked to our spiritist education for more than a century, but they are not an original part of the Doctrine.

Finally, I highlight question 957, from The Spirits' Book, which points to a very important conclusion:

957. What, in general, in relation to the state of the Spirit, are the consequences of suicide?

"The consequences of suicide are very diverse.. There are no specific penalties and in all cases they always correspond to the causes that produced it. There is, however, one consequence that the suicidal person cannot escape: the disappointment. But luck is not the same for everyone; depends on the circumstances. Some atone for the fault immediately, others in a new existence, which will be worse than the one whose course they interrupted.”

Observation really shows that the effects of suicide are not always the same. There are some, however, common to all cases of violent death and which are the consequence of the sudden interruption of life. There is, first, the more prolonged and tenacious persistence of the bond that unites the spirit to the body, since this bond is almost always in the fullness of its strength at the moment it is broken, whereas in the case of natural death it gradually weakens, and often dissolves before life is completely extinguished. The consequences of this state of affairs are the prolongation of the disturbance that follows death and of the illusion in which, for more or less time, the Spirit maintains that it still belongs to the number of the living. (155 and 165.)