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These are seen at their most severe and their most obvious where suicide is involved — particularly in the suicide of the young. Later we will discuss some special cases of reincarnational influence connected with suicide, but for now we will be concerned with the increasing numbers of suicides by young adults.

The propelling force in all of existence is the desire to be, however — the impetus toward expression, development, and fulfillment. Some people who consider suicide believe in life after death, and some do not — and in the deepest of terms all deaths are somewhat suicidal. Physical life must end if it is to survive. There are certain conditions, however, that promote suicidal activity, and the termination of one’s own life has been held in great disrepute by many religions and societies, though not in all.

Individuals innately want to cooperate with their fellow human beings. They have a need to help other people, and to contribute to the common good. Many people who commit suicide feel to the contrary that they are no longer needed, or in fact that their very existence stands in the way of other people’s happiness. Young adult suicides are not necessarily from the poorest or the lowest stratas of society at all. In fact, poverty often serves as a strong impetus, leading the individual to fight for his or her daily needs.

Would-be suicides, for all their secrecy, usually do mention the subject to a friend, relative, or close family member. The subject should not be ignored or condemned, but honestly examined. Part of the mystique of the suicidal impulse is indeed the secretive aspect — so the very expression of the feeling is beneficial, and leads to better communication.

[...] After all, if you do choose suicide, you can always kill yourself. If you commit suicide, however, your choices for this life are over.

Some people might say, “I have a right to die,” when they are arguing the case for suicide. [...] In a certain sense, the energy of each individual does keep the world going, and to commit suicide is to refuse a basic, cooperative venture.

(Long pause.) If you are a person who contemplates suicide often, you should indeed talk to a confidante about your problem.

(3:54.) It is futile to tell such a person that he or she can not, or must not, commit suicide — and indeed, such a procedure can be quite dangerous, hardening the person’s leaning toward a death decision. [...]

[...] Under drugs, choices become limited, and certainly people have committed suicide while under the influence of drugs — who may not have otherwise. I am not saying that drugs alone will cause suicide, but that the psychology of drugs already includes an attitude that promotes a Russian-roulette kind of mentality, that can only add to the problem.

[...] Communication between several people, all of whom have contemplated suicide, can also set up an excellent supportive situation, particularly with some direction set by a therapist. All would-be suicides do not follow through, and many end up leading long and productive lives, so that even when negative ideas are present in their most severe forms, there is still hope for improvement and accomplishment.

[...] With some variation these drugs are actually sometimes given to overactive children, where their effects can be very unpredictable, and result in moods that encourage suicidal tendencies, even in those so young.

[...] It can also quite literally wash depression and suicidal tendencies away.

[...] You make your own lessons, so that these mass suicides and murders are an objective culmination, on those peoples’ part, of other, lesser psychological suicides committed on the part of millions who abdicate their personal responsibility in such a way.

[...] This had erupted in a mass suicide, involving over 400 Americans, in the community of Jonestown in what was formerly British Guyana, in South America. [...]

Now: the message is clear: fanaticism can lead to mass suicide and murder.

(I might add here that the Jonestown affair reminded me at once of the mass suicide of the defenders of the Jewish stronghold of Masada, in the First Century AD, in Israel. [...]

Suicides, as a class, for example, do not have any particular “punishment” meted out to them, nor is their condition any worse a priori. [...] This applies not only to suicides, however.

A suicide may bring about his own death because he rejects existence on any but highly specific terms chosen by himself. [...] Many others, however, choose to deny experience while within the physical system, committing suicide quite as effectively while still physically alive.

(9:38.) The conditions connected with an act of suicide are also important, and the inner reality and realization of the individual. I mention this here because many philosophies teach that suicides are met by a sort of special, almost vindictive fate, and such is not the case. [...]

[...] An amnesia effect is induced, so that the suicide itself is forgotten. [...]

[...] The problem would remain, though, and it is quite possible that overt suicidal tendencies could result; or more insidious hidden suicidal inclinations, where vital organs would be attacked.

[...] The same results as those given could be possible: the growth of suicidal tendencies or other self-destructive behavior.

[...] Certainly it is usually taken for granted that suicides are afraid of life. However, suicides and would-be suicides often have such a great literal lust for life that they constantly put it into jeopardy, so that they can experience what it is in heightened form. [...]

10. For some Seth material on suicide, see the first delivery for the 546th session, in Chapter 11 of Seth Speaks. In the 642nd session for Chapter 11 of Personal Reality, Seth mentioned that suicide can be “the result of passivity and distorted aggression, and of natural pathways of communication not used or understood.”

This is obviously not the case with all suicides¹⁰ or would-be suicides, or all risk-takers. [...]

[...] She may initiate suicide attempts. [...]

[...] And I even wonder about the woman [Mrs. Anderson] who lived in this house, and committed suicide later—though it’s no big deal. I don’t feel suicidal, as far as I know. [...]

[...] We will discuss the aspects connected with a long, healthy, fairly happy lifetime, and those involved with early death, severe illnesses, and suicide — particularly with the suicides of fairly young persons.

4. Current statistics show that in the United States the suicide rate for psychiatrists, doctors, and dentists is three to four times higher than it is for the rest of the population. There’s much discussion now of the additional stresses and frustrations encountered by those in the medical disciplines, aside from personality traits or conflicts that can lead an individual to take his or her own life; the suicide of a doctor, for instance, may be triggered by his inability to fulfill the role society expects of him.

[...] Psychiatrists have a high suicide rate. [...]

3. In none of our conversations involving Mrs. Steffans did Jane and I talk of blame or guilt in connection with suicide. As we searched for understanding, we reviewed the excellent material on death, as well as suicide, that Seth had given in the very first session for Mass Events: In Chapter 1, see the 801st session for April 18, 1977.

(After lunch today Jane and I were visited by our old friend David Yoder, who’s been in Florida recuperating from the heart bypass surgery he underwent early this year.¹ David brought news that was at first startling, then quickly developed into several conflicting emotions and ideas for us: He’d just learned from a relative of hers that a few weeks ago Mrs. Steffans [not her real name], the wife of the couple we’d purchased the hill house from in March 1975, had committed suicide at her home in a Western state while her husband was away on a business trip.

(“Earlier today we were talking about the suicide of Mrs. Steffans, who used to live in this house—”)

These ideas do not only inflict severe difficulties upon older members of the population, but they also have a vital part to play in the behavior of many young people who commit suicide directly or indirectly. [...]

[...] The subject of suicide will also be discussed in a different context, and when I invite my readers to start over, I want it understood that you can indeed start over regardless of your age or circumstances.

[...] We might be better off than the way you treat us now,” or as if it were a kind of suicidal drama in which the messages read: “See to what ends your actions have led us!”

I am not saying that AIDS victims are outright suicides — only that in many instances the will to live is so weakened and a despondency so strong sets in that such individuals often acquiesce, finally, to their own deaths, seeing no room in the future for their own further growth or development.

[...] The suicide story bothered him simply because it reminded him of Will (Ives), who had attended classes, and of a friend of Venice’s, who committed suicide many years ago, although a session was held for her.

(At suppertime tonight we read a newspaper article about a 27-year-old man from Philadelphia who’d committed suicide in our area by having himself decapitated by a railroad train. [...]

[...] She attempted suicide again, this time by taking an overdose of phenobarbital. [...]

(11:28.) I had told her a few days before the suicide attempt that I was leaving. [...]

[...] Barb and I drank our stingers and divided Rob’s. She talked about her past; suicide attempts, miscarriages, operations; very emotionally charged. [...]

[...] What I said I don’t know now, though apparently at the end I was reliving some suicide attempt of Barb’s? [...]

(Another point: Barb must be highly neurotic, attempting suicide by her own count, four times. [...]

[...] His mother had attempted suicide several times. [...] He felt responsible for his own mother’s suicide attempts, to some degree, and this added to the situation.

[...] The friend committed suicide, and Jane regarded the session as a failure. [...]

(Here Seth refers to the suicide of a woman last Wednesday, May 22. [...] The woman had threatened suicide before. [...]

When Venice’s friend committed suicide some time ago, this affected him deeply, for a session had been held and it did not stop the suicide. [...]

An automobile accident, suicide, or another kind of accident might result. [...] I am not here condoning suicide, for too often in your society it is the unfortunate result of conflicting beliefs — and yet it is true to say that all deaths are suicide, and all births deliberate on the part of child and parent. [...]

(11:44.) I am not speaking here of the desire for suicide, which involves a definite killing of the body by self-deliberate means — often of a violent nature. [...]

[...] In the case of suicide, for example, the self is to some extent acting out of context with the body, which still has its own will to live.

(Long pause, one of many.) I will have more to say about suicide, but I do not mean here to imply guilt on the part of a person who takes his or her own life. [...]