There seems to be some inconsistency in observations on suicide. Robert Monroe basically said that there was no ban on suicide and that no-one worth listening to was going to punish or even condemn you for this.
However, Michael Newton's books have many interlife (if that's the word) hypnotic regression sessions where the person who had committed suicide had to face up to their soul groups and guides and account for their actions. So while there was/is understanding of what happens, you have to face up to it and realise that you will still have to face whatever problems that you had in future lives.
Mind you, this is a world away from one book I read that stated that suicides had their guardian angels taken away from them. I get the impression that that was just a bit of propaganda dressed up so as to discourage people from considering it.
Anyway, why should suicide cases be punished? We're supposedly given no more than we are capable of handling in our lives, BUT (and this is a big but) when you're really going through the mill and you can't take any more, life seems to be crapping all over you and you see no future ahead, then AT THE TIME and WITH THE INFORMATION YOU HAVE AT THAT TIME it might seem to be the only logical course of action.
Anyone who would punish you as a result of your conclusions would be unreasonable at best and totally controlling at worst. I can understand anyone wanting to end it all through circumstances they can neither control or understand, and at times like these, trust seems impossible and irrelevant, and being in emotional turmoil then trying to listen to guides is absolutely impossible.

Probably other folks here can comment further on this.

Best wishes,
David.

In the NDE that inspired modern interest in this phenomenon, George Ritchie sees a tormented young suicide following his grieving mother and repeatedly shouting, "I'm sorry, I didn't know!  I didn't know!" If suicides are forced to face the tragic consequences of their actions, this in itself seems to be a form of self-imposed punishment.

Don 

What most people seem to say on this board is that when you kill yourself you are lost in a state of confusion and emotions in which you cannot get out of until you accept what you have done and become ready to move on.

Not saying I believe it, I don't believe anything for certain. HaHa!

Well, I mean, think about it. Some people might need to express some anger, after all that. Some people might need to express their feelings of victimization. Some people might need to feel loved, in a big way. Who can say?

Wouldn't it be appropriate to have the time to do that? My own personal interpretation is that the universe allows us to be who we are to the best extent possible. There's a momentum going, even if a person decides to end their life. There are energies that must be released.

Who am I to say how that should be done?

spooky2 wrote on Sep 27^th, 2009 at 9:53pm:

Spooky;
Well said.. and to the point.

sorry to say that what you felt like...betrayed..yes you did betrayed the love you share with those members of family/friends/acquaintance etc.

People who suicide only care about themself and only themself not about  the peoples who love them and care for them, otherwise they will have made the effort to talk to those they love before doing it.

I personally find it very hard to care for those suicidal especially when they leave young children s/husbands behind. I know i should not and try to change that, but it's hard to care in those circumstances..it's something i have to learn.

PUL
Romain

Romain,
"People who suicide only care about themself and only themself not about  the peoples who love them and care for them, otherwise they will have made the effort to talk to those they love before doing it."

Love is irrelevant when faced with an emotional black hole. Even more so when the ones around, not even close to the same degree of emotional turmoil, can't muster a purple heart.

"PUL
Romain"

You're full of it allright. Jeezaloo, that's the most pompous punch line ever. Can you even spell unconditional?

Of course, the depressed person needs treatment and perhaps medication.  But it is universally recognized by Christian contemplatives and mystic masters that "the dark night of the soul" can be an advanced spiritual state.  Some of the most effective Christian preachers have been clinically depressed!  The depression of "the dark night of the soul" often renders its victim more sensitive, more empathetic to the suffering of others,  and hence more capable of spiritual growth and insight.  In this sense, it can be a superior spiritual state to "normal" balanced consciousness. 

People commit suicide for many reason--some very  immoral, others understandable and tragic.  In the latter category, I would place a deeply spiritual parishioner who could no longer bear the pain of a growing, malignant, inoperable brain tumor.  So he shot himself in the head in his driveway and his wife called the church and just flatly observed, "Al is in the driveway!"  She needed to say no more. 

The Bible never treats suicide as a sin.  It discusses 2 cases.  (1) Judas betrays Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane.  Then he grasps the enormity of his mistaken disillusionment and goes out and hands himself.  But this suicide expresses remorse and makes Judas more of a tragic figure than an evil figure.

(2) In a lost battle with the Philistines, King Saul lies mortally wounded on the battle field and asks his armor bearer to finish him off before he is captured, tortured, and executed by the victorious Philistines.  Saul was a flawed character, but his suicide is treated as a tragic, heroic act, not as a sin. 

Don