The Suicide in Heaven

Harry Edwards asks:  Is he damned whom circumstance has driven to end his own life?

I have been asked on several occasions to give my views on the question of what happens to suicides after they pass over.  I am moved to do this now because a reader has written to me to say that his vicar told him that his relative who took his own life will " dwell in hell for ever and never reach heaven".

Moreover, there is a view that is commonly held that a suicide is a wanderer in spirit life, and is condemned to a long period of penance.

These ideas are archaic and out of touch with all enlightened views of what is reasonable to expect in the greater life.  Our ideas of evil and sin change with spiritual progress.  At one time it was considered a Christian right to own and beat slaves, and to send little children into the mines to warp their bodies at the loom.

At one time the idea of heaven was to enter by the pearly gates, and spend eternity reclining on couches, eating and drinking from golden plates and goblets while listening to harp-playing, singing, angels.

So it is, that the idea that a suicide is forever damned is likewise out of date.  We all cling tenaciously to life; therefore when one deliberately ends his or her earthly existence, it is because one is grievously ill.

Often the illness takes the form of mental stress and fear, it may be the seeking of release from the pain that is greater than the afflicted one can bear, or it may be through the loss of reasoning power.  One thing is certain in almost every case, the suicide is extremely ill, and this for no conscious fault of his own.

Sin is surely only a sin where there is a conscious, evil motive, and it would be hard to find a case where this applies to a suicide.  On the contrary, a sinner is usually a selfish person and the last thing he would do is give up his life.

So we view the suicide as a very sick person, possibly far more sick than those who enter the spirit life from other disease.  Therefore, there is all the more reason to believe that they are received into the arms of loving kindness to nurse them out of their fears and stresses, to help them to realize the infinite possibilities of spiritual progression and happiness.

It is the natural thing in earth life to help anyone who is in trouble and in sickness.  This is the inherent divinity within us.  If we know of one who is desperately ill either of the body or the mind, do we turn vindictive thoughts towards them?   Of course not, we do all in our power to soothe and ease the distress.

Are we therefore, to assume that those who have passed into the new life, and who have acquired greater wisdom and compassion, are less human than we?  If love is the mainspring of spiritual progression, as we believe it is, how can we reconcile this with the contention that when a tortured mind arrives in spirit it will be subjected to persecution and be outlawed?

I believe that a person considered to be a pillar of the church and yet who in normal  life is mean spirited, and who will take advantage of another, whose life-motive is the worship of self, of power and adulation, is far more likely to undergo a period of tribulation than an unfortunate woman who is driven to take her life through great grief.

 I wonder what will be the comparison between an archbishop or bishop who is so imbued with his self-importance, that it is beneath his dignity to go into a poor home to seek divine healing for a sick one (and who ever heard of one of these present day dignitaries doing this?) and a man who cannot face a blank future who knows that he cannot provide food for his family - and out of love for them takes them with him into death.  I suggest it may well be the ecclesiastic who will be found "wanting".

So, whenever we hear of an unfortunate who has through force of circumstance been driven to the extreme of ending his earthly life, let us think of him with love and compassion, and pray that he will soon be nursed through his stress into the happiness of free and spiritual progression.

And let us also consider how far it has been human responsibility in failing to help him in his time of need.

No one condones the act of suicide; we certainly do not, but let us consider it in its right perspective, and shun the idea that a suicide is eternally damned.

Harry Edwards (1893-1976)

Spiritual Healer - Teacher - Author