Dying Young
DEAR JEANETTE: What happens to the soul’s plans when the person dies as a teenager or in the case of infant deaths, etc.? The automobile accidents, suicides, war deaths, infant deaths really worry me.
DEAR: There are accidental deaths from the soul’s viewpoint. But not nearly all of the deaths which WE see as accidental would be considered so by the soul. The auto accidents and deaths from illnesses would usually be planned by the soul. Suicides and war deaths would be more likely to be unplanned and unwanted by the soul. Even they are not always unexpected, however.
With our limited knowledge of the reasons for the Earth experience of a particular personality, it is difficult for us to see how a young person “cut off in the prime of life” could be experiencing a planned death.
First, consider the different kind of experience a soul would have as an incarnate as a female in a very primitive tribe in the jungles of Brazil or a daughter in a wealthy artist’s family in Paris. Both can present very valuable lessons from the soul’s standpoint. If the principal lesson has to do in each case with the teen years and the soul chooses the French lifetime, then to what purpose does the soul keep the incarnate alive another forty or fifty years after the lesson has been learned? In this particular example, an early death to the French girl could still leave time for the jungle lifetime as conditions usually change only slowly in the more primitive cultures.
What I am trying to say is that a soul may feel that it is a waste of time to stay with a “lifetime”, (meaning the incarnate portion of it) when the lesson for which it was created has been learned. Thus an early “death” may be desirable.
In at least some cases, the death of a young adult is the result of the personality not following the soul directions. If the soul has had the incarnation for a special reason and the personality (using its free will) takes a different path, the soul then must decide if there is enough to be learned to continue on the new path. If there is not, the personality will be “pulled” and experience the death of the body.
While most souls will have had the experience at some time or other of having a personality commit suicide, there is little, if any, indication that this is ever the BEST path that the personality could have taken. If a problem is not met now and here, it will be met later on the Earth or the astral levels. We do not ever escape a problem by running away from it which is essentially what suicide is. That is, the soul does not escape the problem when the personality runs away.
So it is doubtful if a soul ever PLANS for a personality life to end in suicide with the rare exception of that suicide being planned as a part of a service to some other incarnate. But it is important that those left on Earth feel neither blame nor guilt when a loved one takes his/her own life. This is too important to be dealt with briefly so we will take it up in tomorrow’s column.
Even deaths due to war, widespread famine, large disasters such as earthquakes, epidemics, etc. are often a part of the soul’s plan for a personality. Sometimes it fulfills karma, or teaches a lesson that the soul had failed to learn in a former lifetime. The event may be coming at approximately a time when the soul is through with the experience anyway and is taken as an opportunity to end it. But war death especially may be unplanned and unwanted by the soul. (The possibility that there will be a war during the lifetime is usually known by the soul but, since most are eternal optimists, the soul may hope it doesn’t happen or that its personality makes it through.) These war deaths often result in a very fast return to earth which in turn may cause troubles for the incarnate.
Part 2
DEAR READER: In yesterday’s column which dealt with “accidental” deaths, suicides were mentioned with the promise that the subject would be more fully considered today.
Remember that, at least as far as we can find from past life research, suicide is seldom, if ever, the answer that the soul would have chosen for the personality but the personality does not always listen to the soul’s directions.
The personality may use its free will to decide that it absolutely WILL NOT continue to face its problems. Believing that it can “end it all”, the personality commits suicide. Obviously this would seldom be the choice of someone who had a strong belief in hell or heaven or in reincarnation.
Since there is no way to succeed in running from a problem, the soul will simply have to deal with the problem in a different way.
But that is not our main concern today. The thoughts and feelings of those who remain on the Earth (incarnates) and who feel responsible for the death of a loved one need our attention today.
First, we must realize that no one else can ever be responsible for such a decision. Only the individual involved is responsible. But parents find this difficult to accept, especially if the person committing suicide was still young and under their guidance. Letting go of our sense of responsibility for others (and assuming the responsibility for ourselves) is probably one of the most difficult tests facing each of us.
Yes, adults are responsible for the welfare of children and for their training in the Earth sense. But when you notice how very differently several children in the same family (being in approximately the same environment) react, you realize that even as small children, the personality has its own individual characteristics which the quality of the home-life will not change.
Past life research definitely shows us that there is life both before and after “death” and that the soul, with the guidance of others wiser than itself, is responsible for choosing the situation into which it will be born. This means that your child literally chose to come into your family with a surprisingly complete knowledge of the conditions under which it would be raised! This does not relieve you of the responsibility to do the best you can and to become the best parent possible for you to be (most of that is for your own progress) but it does relieve you of responsibility for the way in which your children react to that training you have given them.
Please! If you have had someone that you love commit suicide, let go of any feelings of blame or guilt. God does not “blame” you and remember that He/She will correct the mistake gently and in love. His love for the “victim” is infinitely greater than yours can ever be so you know He will deal kindly with them as He helps them learn the necessary lessons.