This article is about a hard subject that keeps coming up recently. Suicide. If you’re not interested in this, feel free to step away now. I have been guided to stories and people who have been discussing the topic. It’s a sign to throw in my two cents on the subject.

I’m coming at this in two different ways. I’m a person who knows people who have committed suicide and talked to those seriously considering it. I’m also a shaman who has spoken to spirits who have taken their lives. It’s a strange place to be, but here is my perspective on it.

Life can be brutal. Think of the worst thing that could ever happen to you and then understand that what you thought of happens to someone every minute somewhere in the world. For some people, the worse thing that can happen is death. I would disagree and say that there are many things worse than death. In my opinion, to live life in excruciating pain would be worse.

Friends and I have discussed the state of the U.S. healthcare system and why others who have been diagnosed with incurable diseases might choose to opt-out of life. While we are firm believers in the love and light of the Universe with its wisdom, grand plan, and divine timing, we are also human. We can understand the desire to end suffering.

It’s the instances of suicide with those who seem to have it all, money, fame, power, etc., that make no sense. These are things that others would and have killed for. With a full bank account and the unobstructed view of the ocean from the house, what could make a person commit suicide? This is not a judgment. It’s a genuine question of curiosity that most of us have. Things need to make sense to us, and this doesn’t. That’s what makes suicide so difficult for those left behind. Trying to understand what was terrible enough to warrant this extreme response.

I heard a famous psychic and healer say that we all choose our date and mode of death prior to incarnation. I’ve never asked those who have passed if that was true or not. I’m still on this side of the veil, working to comprehend the logic and dealing with the grief over the loss of life. What I have asked them is, was it worth it?

I was told by someone who was in pain in life that there was no more physical pain, but the anguish and suffering they had while alive, they still had. The thoughts, feelings, and the negative energy they had in life, they still had to deal with in death. Then there was the added burden of the thoughts and feelings of their loved ones. A man I knew in life told me that now that he was crossed over, he realized that he had acted on impulse and should not have done it. He felt terrible for the amount of grief he had caused his family.

Eventually, both souls will work through those issues, but the point is that some people believe that suicide is the answer because it is the end. For some things, it is, but not for other things. We are still who we are on the other side. We still have issues to work out, which is made harder because we can no longer communicate with those who could have helped us if only we would have let them.

Speaking from the point of energy, after someone commits suicide, it leaves a void, a vacuum. It’s likely part of the reason that not long after someone commits suicide, it increases the chances that someone close to them might do the same. They get sucked into the void of emptiness, and life loses value to them.

We see all the time that after a student commits suicide that counselors are brought into the schools immediately to prevent more suicides. I think it’s because teenagers’ energy is heavily meshed with their friends at that age, and they can feel the void more strongly even if they didn’t know that person well.

I recently had a conversation with someone who has been considering suicide for over a year. I could understand her reasons for wanting to end her life and said as much. I also reminded her that she was in the process of accomplishing something great and that it would never be done if she wasn’t here to finish it. She got angry and shouted that she didn’t care. That’s when I saw what I believe to be the fine line between choosing life or death.

Does something still matter?

She calmed down a bit afterward and said that she did care about it but wasn’t sure how long she could go on. I told her I didn’t have any miracles for her and that she would have to make her own decisions about what to do on that point. A decision like that is made between the person and their higher power. Whatever I might think about it doesn’t matter. Ultimately, it’s none of my business.

Being born, living life and dying are markers for our souls. None of them are easy, yet despite all that, we have moments of joy and happiness. We live, we love, and we thrive. We can also suffer and wither. What we end up with all depends on our choices. Where we direct our thoughts, energy, and actions.

It all depends on how we define what matters.