Fortunately, for most of us, our desire for life overshadows our desire for death.
In Part One of this Post, we recognized the tragedy of the Germanwings flight that crashed into a French mountainside killing 150 people. Andreas Lubitz, the co-pilot responsible for the crash, was undoubtedly suffering from depression. However, I introduced the notion that for someone to consider suicide when depressed, he or she is psychologically escalating and deepening their thoughts to the extent whereby they enter into an “existential crisis.” Furthermore, I’m suggesting that when in this state of mental crisis, the subject can be consumed by a “natural” desire for death.
It is not understood that before life [when your Essence/Higher/Greater Self is deliberating on entering the physical domain] an individual decides to live. … Each person born desires to be born. He dies when that desire no longer operates.
…The desire for life has been much flaunted, yet human psychology has seldom dealt with the quite active desire for death. In its natural form this is not a morbid, frightened, neurotic, or cowardly attempt to escape life, but a definite, positive, “healthy” acceleration of the desire for survival, in which the individual strongly wants to leave physical life as once the child wanted to leave the parents’ home. (Seth, The Individual and the Nature of Mass Events, p.24.)
Consciousness knows It is inextinguishable, and as your consciousness is an individuated part of It, so too are your non-physical, spiritual “bodies” inextinguishable. Furthermore, at a deeply subconscious level, you are innately aware that leaving physical life returns you to an unencumbered (by your ego-self’s depressive and troublesome beliefs) natural state of existence where “survival” is a given.
Reports suggest that Andreas Lubitz had difficulties in his relationship with his long-standing girlfriend. The recent news of her pregnancy would initiate within him the deepest feelings associated with the joy of a new life entering the physical realm. Amongst these feelings would be a resonating connection with the new life’s “desire for life”–which incorporates the “quite active desire for death—an acceleration of the desire for survival.” Distortive depressive and existential thinking can then misinterpret this desire for death as being the answer for a desperate ego bent on survival.
In other words, the mental and emotional confusion resulting from the breakdown of his primary relationship, particularly if Andreas felt unable to express his joy in some way for the creation of his child, instigates a psychological decent into depression, an existential crisis, and a pathological obsession with the desire for death.
The desire for suicide is often the last recourse left to frightened people whose natural impulses toward action have been dammed up—intensified on the one hand, and yet denied any practical expression. (Seth, Ibid, p.239.)
In Part 1 of this Post, I asked the following questions:
What is so important about suicide that 150 people need to sacrifice their lives on a French mountainside in order that we examine the issue?
Andreas Lubitz, along with 149 others, sacrificed their lives in order to reveal to us an insidious, yet crucial aspect of our desire for life. This desire powers our instinct to survive, but this drive to survive includes death! At the deepest subconscious level, we are aware that from a spiritual perspective death is another way to survive. We can always shed the pain of our physical situation by ending our physical life.
However, 150 souls want us to understand something very important in this. We must remember that life is ultimately about growth through experience and learning. From the spiritual perspective, suicide does not lead to your overall growth—that is, the growth of the entirety of your Self, which includes both the physical you of your ego-self and the spiritual you of your Essence.
Yes, your personality will survive physical death, but your Essence self created your life for reasons of learning that will enhance the growth of your overall Self. An ego-self instigated death means that your Essence will need to create another lifetime for itself in order to get the lessons learnt and to continue its growth!
This is the hugely important thing about suicide for us to understand. It gets your overall Self nowhere, other than it learns that suicide is an unproductive action.
Once we consciously accept this, we should be better able to empathize with someone who is feeling depressed, and address the situation with a newfound compassion for his or her ego-self and where it might be psychologically heading. Remember that depression is usually treatable, even though it may take some time. Continual monitoring (regular connection with others) of those prone to depression is a prerequisite that does not have to be an impediment for them to live a fulfilling life.
One hundred and forty-nine souls have told us that those prone to depression cannot be left in a position of sole responsibility for the lives of others. The desire for death can more easily overtake them whilst they are alone. This is because being alone can stimulate thoughts of disconnection.
As an integral constant within our desire for life, we must learn that the desire for death can overcome anyone who feels disconnected from others. Life is about connection.
What is suicide trying to tell us about our Selves?
Any suicide tells us that as individuals we are prone to judging and criticizing ourselves. We doubt whether we are worthy of love, and we don’t trust in our creative ability. At the roots of self-criticism are the beliefs we hold about ourselves. Dwelling on the thoughts that associate with these beliefs can bring on a depressive interlude.
Most of us are able to “cheer ourselves up” quite readily if we connect with someone, (anyone!), so that their presence offers not just sympathy or medication, but a more positive view on the situation. The vast difference between female and male suicide rates reflects the fact that women like to connect, and when they do, they like to talk about their feelings. Males, on the other hand, are still reticent about talking with others about their feelings.
Remaining alone with our thoughts, disconnected from others, can lead to a downward spiral of thoughts revolving around existentialism. Creating an existential crisis, which is more likely if we are in a relationship crisis, can bring our desire for death out from the shadow of our desire for life.
The message underpinning any physical death that shocks us is that we need to encompass a more expansive understanding of our overall existence and the true nature of our being. The slackening of the reins on spiritual guidance by religious institutions offers us the opportunity to explore and develop a purer model of our spiritual existence—one that embraces the knowledge that physicality is a projection of our spirituality.
What might prevent an individual turning to suicide?
Knowledge.
The more of us that understand that suicide is a premature ending of the learning experience of life, and that it does not ultimately resolve the issue for the overall Self, the better.
Conveying this understanding to someone contemplating suicide may not stop him or her from doing so, but it may help bring them into a space where they are more open to connection again.
Connecting with others is the key to prevention.
The alarming rate of suicide for men suggests that we need to address the archetypal role many men adopt after puberty—the strong, silent type that does not reveal his emotions. Indeed, suicide is the biggest killer of 20–34 year-old males in the UK. Case studies suggest that this figure is exacerbated by a young man’s inability to conform to this role model. For 40-44 year-old males (the peak range for suicide), research suggests that a relationship breakdown is a common factor before suicide, and this age range is also the peak for men who report experiencing an “existential crisis.”
A person that contemplates suicide is desperate for answers to the questions thrown up by their depressive thoughts and their existential angst. As always, the beliefs they hold about themselves are crucial to addressing any such “negative” event in a person’s life. Weeding out the self-critical beliefs that propagate in their subconscious garden of beliefs is a prerequisite in bringing the ego-self back into the treatable realm of depression.
Recognizing depression for what it is (ego-enforced isolation) and what it can lead to if left unchecked (an existential crisis), and ending the taboo surrounding mental illness in general, is something we must aspire to if we are to understand suicide to be an alternative means of survival that your Essence does not appreciate.
If you are a male of the species, embrace the feminine instincts within you, get in touch with your feelings, and share them as much as possible—particularly if you feel a strong urge for death.
The biggest barrier to people getting help [with depression] is stigma and fear of disclosure.
In this country [Germany] we have seen a recent fall in stigma, an increase in willingness to be open about depression and most important of all, to seek help. Should it be the case that one pilot had a history of depression; we must bear in mind that so do several million people in this country.
We do not yet know what might be the lessons of the loss of the Airbus, but we caution against hasty decisions that might make it more, not less, difficult for people with depression to receive appropriate treatment. This will not help sufferers, families or the public. (Declaration to reporters by a German medic.)
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Assuming that we are all prone to a depressive interlude now and again, have you ever experienced the desire for death?
Hi David
As I hope my Post conveys, yes, at a deeper or higher level of our “collective consciousness” an “agreement” is made between all 150 individual inner selves (souls) to create this mass event, for the reasons I attempted to explain. We could, and most of us probably will, blame Andreas Lubitz for the deaths of 149 innocent people, because he was clearly “mentally deranged.”
In my opinion, to do so, dishonors the lives (and deaths) of all involved.
Seth constantly reminds us in his work that every birth into the physical realm is an important addition to the learning and expansion of Consciousness/All-That-Is. A human birth, and thereby human life, is an important addition to the learning and expansion of the collective human consciousness.
He also reminds us that every physical death (sticking with humans here) is also important, because the nature of the transition also holds learning – for the Essence Self to which a lifetime’s personality belongs, and for the collective human consciousness.
At the moment (but things are changing due to our collective “shift in consciousness”), our collective worldview, to which most individuals subscribe, has no real understanding of the non-physical (spiritual) aspects of our being and existence. Moreover, this ignorance gives rise to our fear of death, because the ego-self believes physical death is the end to existence.
Mass events that involve large numbers of deaths are indicative of creations at a collective level that hold enormous meaning for human consciousness, and ultimately to the individual. Hence the title coined by Seth for his book, The Individual and the Nature of Mass Events. He is bringing to our awareness the deeper meanings that underscore mass events, and how these impact upon the individual.
Because each person born “desires to be born,” and has a lifetime imbued with the desire for life (and thereby survival in the physical realm), he or she also incorporates a “desire for death” – which gives them the opportunity to choose the nature of their death. Our Essence Selves choose to “individuate” and be born into the physical domain in order to expand and evolve through learning experiences in this “medium” of existence. Importantly, the manner by which the life is brought to a physical end is also a crucial part of the learning experience.
From the perspective of each person’s Essence Self, the individuated you chooses to be born, and also chooses how to die. And the choice of death, and what can be learnt from it, is something that can be collaborated upon by the Essences of many individuals.
Now, I certainly understand how all of this reasoning would be difficult in the extreme to convey to the families and friends of the victims of this plane crash. Or indeed, to the families of any mass event that claims the lives of many people. However, as we find constantly reported in the media, these people want to understand why this happened, and whether there was any meaning to their loved one’s physical death.
Hopefully, when the ego-selves are calmer, and the realization that assigning blame does not satisfy their mental and emotional anguish, such explanations as above and in the Post may be better received and more consoling.
The fundamental spiritual message that underpins any event that incorporates physical death that invokes incredulity, bewilderment and an emotionally charged reaction (other than sadness), is that our understanding of death needs revision, and our beliefs on the subject need a thorough examination and overhaul.
Why? Because to fully understand and enjoy life, we must fully understand death.
You used a Seth quote….”Each person born desires to be born. He dies when that desire no longer operates.”
One couldn’t argue with that as far as the pilot is concerned but must we assume that the 149 passengers all at some deeper level, no longer desired to live?
Try getting that philosophy over to the relatives of those who died…..