In today’s episode of “Healing From Within” your host Sheryl Glick author of The Living Spirit Answers for Healing And Infinite Love a tale of learning to connect to the vibrations of emotion in order to know more about life and death, healing miracles and spiritual communication and a guide to inner soul awareness. I am delighted today to welcome Adele Paula Royce author of The Little Black Book of Suicide Notes to discuss a serious issue confronting society now more than ever the story of what might lead someone to give up their precious life ahead of their expiration date.
Sheryl and her guests share most intimate experiences leading us to appreciate life as a valuable journey towards self actualization and the mastering of our emotions and thoughts, no matter how challenging life can become. Sometimes challenges offer us opportunities to learn more about human nature, life and death and the process of the soul’s journey. Adele Paula Royce offers her extensive intelligent search of science metaphysics history and human nature to understand the need of a person to attempt suicide and presents a semi-fictional look inside the mind and heart of tortured souls on the verge of ending their own life. Referring to the many traumas of personal life health issues environmental issues, changes in technology, political and world problems we find a tremendous increase in suicide rates and the question we might ask is, “What could make a person feel that they no longer can go on living?” In today’s show Adele Paula Royce an artist and teacher of Western Spirituality and a student of Kabbalistic practice will share 27 entries by the narrator contemplating the thought provoking question whether or not her life really is worth living.
Adele was inspired to write a book on suicide which is a topic many people shy away from because statistics show over fifty percent of all people who die by suicide suffer from major depression. Depression affects nearly 5-8 percent of Americans age 18 and over More Americans suffer from depression than coronary disease cancer and HIV or Aids Nearly 400,000 people attempt suicide in the U.S. each year. About two thirds of people who complete suicide are depressed at the time of their death Thirty to seventy percent of suicide victims suffer from major depression or bipolar (manic-depressive disease. There are an estimated 8-25 attempts to one completion. The ratio is higher in women and youth: lower in men and the elderly. Suicide by firearms is the most common for both men and women accounting for 58 percent of all suicides in 1997
Depression is the most prevalent mental health disorder. Some symptoms include loss of interest in normal activities, weight gain, excessive sadness or unreasonable anger, failure to have normal sleep patterns, retreating from family and friends, addictions such as alcohol drugs sexual abuse. Adverse life events in combination with other risk factors such as depression or bi-polar disease may lead to suicide attempts. Risk factors include: impulsivity, family history of mental or substance abuse disorder, family history of suicide, family violence including physical or sexual abuse prior suicide attempt, firearms in the home, incarceration. The strongest risk factors are depression alcohol abuse cocaine use and separation or divorce.
Paula thinks someone might thing ending their life it the only option and gives a quote that expresses perhaps why one might think that ending their life is the only option. The quote is from Albert Camus from The Myth of Sisyphus, ”There is but one truly serious philosophical problem and that is suicide. Judging whether life is or is not worth living amounts to answering the fundamental question of philosophy. All the rest whether or not the world has three dimensions, whether the mind has nine or twelve categories –comes afterwards. These are games.” Paula writes, “ I mean in my experience being human is a solitary event and it’s only through our relationships which are based on a reflective process then begins to teach us what’s really inside of ourselves. If you’ve ever read Shelley’s poem OZymandias or John Clare’s, “I Am” or even Ecclesiastes from the Bible you then understand devastation, futility, and human suffering. It was Albert Camus who said there was really only one philosophical question of the absurdity of a man’s life. Does it require suicide?
Sheryl goes on to express that these ideas are of the mind or ego based intellect based on physical life and the needs of survival in a human state but when one remembers or discovers their true personal power is soul based on Universal Source or the eternal nature of life any challenge can be handled with love compassion and the beauty of our life experience whatever presents…Adele mentions that it is indeed A Wonderful Life if one choose life instead of perennial suffering which again is a choice of the mind perhaps not the heart or soul.
The fundamental question of philosophy is to answer, “What is life? and Why are we having a life?”
Sheryl attempts to answer that question as she perceives life to be and says, “As a hospice volunteer for years I watched people who were very sick, often in pain, and who had experienced great difficulties in their lives yet, they fought to stay just a little longer…just to live.
Sheryl Says In my book The Living Spirit when asked by Donna if life was worth living after the lost of her young husband, who had survived death at Twin Towers only to drown months later, while trying to save his father’s friend, I wrote this, ”Donna asked me if it was worth staying in this life with all its sickness and hardship. Without hesitation, I told her that I did believe life is a precious gift no matter the challenges. I remembered the words my mother had said to me after her three month hospital stay: Life was good: I have known love. Life with all its challenges, offers us endless possibilities to have relationships with others and to expand our understanding of love and Spirit. One can often find a moment of great courage and love, even in a time when so much seems to be lost.”
Adele shows us through her own despair and despondency, that through confronting the dark forces she comes to realize that those denied spiritual factors if followed would prevent the tragic outcome in many instances. At the same time she has given legitimacy to suicidal impulses and feelings in an unbiased non-judgmental way without demonizing or pathologizing them. This is what a suicidal person needs to hear, rather than fearing these impulses or denying them. We need to incorporate and accept them as genuine without labeling the person as mentally imbalanced. They are not crazy, but just perceive the world and their own needs for happiness as perhaps not possible in a physical world.
Sheryl shares that many sensitive empathic and talented souls find this three dimensional world challenging and difficult to maneuver. It is only through understanding energy and the “seen and unseen world” that perhaps these empowered beings can begin to accept and live and enjoy their time in a physical life. We all have the person soul power to create and manifest the life that helps us grow in our own life path or destiny and free will affords us the ability to make choices but if one is unaware of who they are as a spiritual being having a physical life for a short time in order to refine their feelings and know themselves more intimately then of course the physical world as it is especially in these modern times where a connect to Spirit has been greatly diminished can be a daunting production.
Sensitivity to energy people and the physical world is a great gift, but one needs spiritual tools to manage the onslaught of emotions and feelings that this brings on. TOOLS include meditation, energy healing work, nature, and paying attention to the feelings and needs of your own body allowing you either to engage or remove yourself from certain activities. It is also necessary to learn to reflect on your intuitive wisdom rather than allow the outside world to dictate what is good or bad for you. It does take effort and consistency to attain a level of acceptance and calmness or peace, but it can be done. Applying the Law of Attraction and drawing “like energy to like energy” helps to change many of the negative or depressive elements within that can sadden or weaken a person resolve and inner will to thrive.
Sheryl as a teacher of metaphysical subjects believes that the purpose of life is to simply gather experiences and as a medium who downloads information from the “Unified Field of Consciousness” which is where your energetic soul resides after leaving a physical body knows that every thought and action lives eternally. This knowledge can be retrieved by people sensitive to energy who discipline themselves and learn to raise their vibration or energetic soul life force, moving past limiting thoughts to be in a clear and unbiased state, so they can connect to souls in the next dimension or level of life. The purpose for a physical life is to refine relationships and gain a greater gratitude and trust in the Universal Unfolding of life developing greater compassion and love like Buddha Jesus Moses and all spiritual teachers who have discovered a personal connection to Source or the Creative life force have been able to do. As a result they embraced their spiritual destiny and did not succumb to the demands and restrictions of the physical world: they held their free will and made choices from the heart essence. Some like Buddhists began to embrace an EightFold Path of True Vision, True Thoughts, True Word, True Actions, True Manifestations etc. Striving for personal excellence and a personal connection to Universal Source while moving beyond fear to trusting that there is a bigger plan and All is well at all times: no matter what gives one great strength.
1 What are ways we might suggest for parents spouse friends dealing with someone who is either depressed or lost in order to help them rebuild their fragile ego and enhance their spiritual soul wisdom?
Paula suggests that The Little Book of Suicide Notes is the first part of a planned trilogy based on the homeopathic effect of” like cures like.” Some of the most profound experiences of homeopathy may come from poetry. If you’ve ever read some of the great poets of the seventeenth and eighteenth century the reason they touch us is because in some way “misery likes company.” It’s kind of a confirmation that one isn’t as crazy as one may think. In a positive way it’s a connection of feeling one is not alone in their aloneness. Sheryl says that as a Reiki energy practitioner she helps clients connect to their own intuitive or Higher Self beginning to become aware of the energy within and also of the outside world. WE only often feel alone because in our inner essence our soul has been disconnected from its own world of eternal life and the physical world offers so many challenges to survive and feel safe at any cost. We really are never alone, but our mind or ego and the earlier patterns of our childhood training that helped socialize us to fit into a physical life, lead us to believe we may not be worthy of love and may have to live without it. This is a very painful thought for most of us. So to find love we adapt to what other people think while important and bits and pieces of our own soul being are often lost in the process. This makes us feel sad, alone and often desperate, as what we seek is within us all the time…Self-love.
Paula lists people who committed suicide by last name from A to Z and many were famous people or celebrities:
A Edward Armstrong the American inventor of FM radio jumped from a thirteenth floor window
B Cheyenne Brando Daughter of Marlon Brando hanged herself
C Cleopatra The Queen of Egypt dating back to 30 BC induced a snake to bite her
D Jeanine Decker musician known as the Singing Nun Overdosed
E Peg Entwistle American Actress Jumped from H in Hollywood Sign..
F Rene Favaloro Argentine cardiac surgeon who created the technique for coronary bypass surgery….Gunshot to the heart
G Vincent Can Gogh shot himself
H Ernest Hemingway shot himself and granddaughter Margo Hemingway Overdosed.
W Virginia Woolf Drowned herself
Socrates believed that human beings were the property of the gods and didn’t have the right to take away something, namely life, that didn’t belong to them…Ironically he was accused of impiety and forced to take his own life by drinking hemlock.
Research then goes on to the early Judaic Christian struggles, The Christian condemnation of suicide, The Middle Ages, the Renaissance and Reformation.
Though some religions denounce suicide and say you will punished or suffer as a result of such a choice Sheryl believes that beyond this life we are all loved and not judged for our acts while human. She knows regardless of religious beliefs everyone leaves this life at the appointed or designated time and there is no price to pay for choosing suicide. Free will means just that and you have the option of leaving, but often hurt those you left behind and when you have a life review in Spirit you are able to see how your choices affected others and feel what they felt. That experience is a great learning experience: not to know something with your mind, but to feel it with your soul essence.
Adele has tried to learn ways to find joy in life moving past sadness loneliness and depression and wrote “Yes the fact of this life is hard to assimilate, even in the best of circumstances. People as a species have been brought to their knees from many a battle, whether it was fought within the confines of their own minds or with some outside force. Some live through it, some live past it, and yet there are those who choose not to live at all. But the truth is, the facts don’t lie and the facts and figures are brutal. International statistics say that each year approximately one million people in the world die by suicide, about every 14 minutes in the U.S. and suicide in the military rate is surging. I think I found a loophole. I believe I died through the 27 notes in this book reflecting parts of me that I loathed and was too afraid to face and in some strange yet fascinating way this journey of self-acknowledgement brought me to a true beginning.”
Adele as a seeker of truth began studies with a Master Teacher of Western Spirituality and became a student of Kabbalistic practice. In business Adele taught people about Thoreau, quoted Biblical scripture and shared stories of inspiring fascination. She used her interest in the arts and mystical aspects of life to seek the Higher Self and move above her sadness or pain and helped others to do the same and as a result Adele would like readers of her book to know that her time on earth was nothing short of the erratic seeking of thought and purpose: an experience in direct proportion to their virtues and vices and that no one is all good or bad..even Hitler with the spirit of the Devil within was an avid animal lover. Dr Kevorkian was incarcerated for the noble gesture of helping people ending their suffering.
Adele wrote the following truth, “You come into this life with two major obstacles which by experience are almost impossible to overcome. One is a karmic debt that runs for generations back, better known as the sins of the father. The next is the conditioning and crazy stuff one faces as soon as they enter the world.” Sheryl might say simply try to find your way home from death to life and from life to death and perhaps learn to allow and accept life without judgment, too many illusions or beliefs, so you can begin to observe the goodness within and the beauty without and find a real sense of peace.
We have explored in this episode of Healing From Within the mystery beauty agony and pain of physical life as we search for meaning of a Universal message of love and compassion for self and life and the reasons some souls find it necessary to explore the themes of life and death. We can see how a soul so sensitive can be affected by the energies of other people, situations and events, or internal stresses to the physical body and mind and may find that dealing with the many issues of physical life are sometimes overwhelmingly painful. Perhaps the inconvenience of life brings one to know the soul in a more profound way allowing for greater compassion and love. If we live in a state of denial or numbness, we might not find our path to eternal life or beyond, so by opening up our mind and heart to the many challenges of life we actually live more fully and then gather experiences and greater wisdom that will serve us in other times and places.
Adele has shared an understanding of the physical and energetic principles of life in search of truth and her expanding or evolving soul. Adele wrote, “I think about the great artists, the tortured souls like Pollack, Van Gogh and Gaugain whose desire to rage against themselves left the world with such staggering beauty. Why can’t I look up to the sky one day and see the color has changed to pink or yellow or green? Why won’t you let me know the ultimate game plan here as I travel through the turmoil of illness, death fear, poverty, brutality, hate and lack of wisdom that surrounds me each day? My father once said,” Life is easy and doesn’t take much courage, what takes courage is to commit suicide.” So my last why question is I wonder if my father knew just how courageous he raised me to be?
Adele and Sheryl would have you know that life offers many opportunities to know yourself: some are more challenging than others, but in the middle of all pain and sorrow and life, lies the moment of truth when you will see beyond the falseness of daily life to see the grandeur of your own soul and know whether in a body or out of a body you are pure energy and there is always the possibility for joy and happiness if you simply live.
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