There’s an old Scottish joke about the sinner who finds himself facing eternal damnation and protests: “Oh, Lord! Oh Lord! Ah didnae ken, Ah didnae ken.” (I didn’t know.) “Wull,” says an implacable Almighty, after a short pause, “Ye ken noo.”
I’m reminded of this by the current debate about whether terminally ill people should be helped to kill themselves, without legal consequences for those taking part in what is euphemistically called ‘Assisted Dying’. For this debate appears to be happening in a knowledge-free vacuum about the karmic debts that will inevitably be incurred by those involved, not only by the dying person but also by the people who facilitate their death.
This is yet another example of the difficulties we humans cause ourselves by our ignorance and denial of who we really are; that is to say, beings who live in both physical and spiritual bodies at the same time and who over many lifetimes move between incarnation into the physical world and excarnation into the spiritual worlds. There are spiritual laws that govern our lives and they are just as real as the universal physical laws which we all acknowledge, such as the Law of Cause and Effect.
We should pay more attention to the many people who have real knowledge about these issues and who are doing their best to make the rest of us aware of what is involved. I’ve just been reading a book by one such person, Iris Paxino. By following Rudolf Steiner’s anthroposophical path of development, she has cultivated the spiritual capacities, latent in all of us, that allow her to perceive and interact with those who have died and with the worlds they inhabit after death. She offers a detailed picture of the afterlife and describes the various stages a soul goes through on its journey after death. Among much other information, she writes about the difficulties experienced by those who take their own life.
Behind each case of suicide lies a very individual fate, telling of pain and loss, loneliness and despair, fear and hopelessness. Suicide is an existential act of desperation and as such bears the signature of a tragic life decision. Those affected find their situation hopeless and unbearable and see no other way out than to put an end to their existence. And yet, as Iris Paxino has found in her experience of counselling souls who have taken their own lives, they are horrified to find that, far from bringing an end to their consciousness, suicide has ended neither their existence, nor their suffering. To their dismay, they find that all they have done is destroy their physical body but the problems they wanted to erase, along with the feelings that oppressed them, remain part of their existence. What is even worse is that, deprived of their physical instrument, they cannot now intervene in their earthly development to change and reshape it.
It’s a great pity that the reality of the consequences of suicide is not more widely known. Does Dame Esther Rantzen, for example, herself a sufferer from Stage 4 cancer, who is currently leading an effective campaign in the UK to make assisted dying legal, realise that it is not just a case of extending to human beings what we do out of the best motives for our pets when they are old and unwell? Why doesn’t she know that taking the decision to end our life is an evasion which not only delays our further learning and development but will also have profound karmic consequences for ourselves and those who facilitated the suicide?
Paxino says: “Spiritual work with suicides shows that the proportion of those who must walk a challenging path after death predominates. I have never experienced a suicide that was ‘easy’ in the afterlife. The person affected must always endure stressful and difficult states of mind (…) Our inner being always experiences pain with this kind of death. It is only the quality of the pain that differs.”
Another perspective on this matter is provided by a general practitioner in Holland, Dr Zoltan Schermann. (I am indebted to Annie Blampied-Radojcin, course leader for the Quietude course at Emerson College in the UK, for providing me with the text of Dr Schermann’s lecture, which was given at the Goetheanum as part of the doctors’ conference in November 2014.) In Holland, assisted dying is widely socially accepted and has been governed by a law passed in 2002, which regulates the practice. Since then, Belgium and Switzerland have also legalised assisted dying, which in each of these countries is now simply seen as part of a GP’s field of work.
As an anthroposophical GP with 20 years of his career in general medical practice, Dr Schermann has always, through giving intensive palliative care and support, enabled the patient to avoid assisted dying, thus giving each patient the chance to live out his or her destiny. But he says that, in one case of a woman patient, nothing he tried had worked; he had never experienced someone suffer so much from an illness. There was no effective way of relieving her suffering, not even a little. The woman requested that she be helped to die.
Dr Schermann said that: “I then really wrestled with myself over her request. Why did I not want to resort to assisted dying in her case? Just because we anthroposophical doctors don’t do that? Or because I was afraid that she would not die at the right time? Or that I would interfere in her karma – but what could I actually know of that? Was I not just pushing her request, with which I now clearly empathised, away from me and hiding behind a rationalisation? Was I afraid of doing what the patient was demanding of me? Was I basically only a coward?”
Eventually, pressed by necessity and still feeling unwilling, the doctor finally agreed, much to the relief of his patient. A date was set, the doctor and the patient and her husband had thoroughly prepared, the couple had said their farewells and had talked over everything that was necessary for them. In Holland, how the doctor has to proceed is precisely prescribed: two medications must be employed which are in other circumstances used for anaesthesia and surgery. The first one is a very high dose of a barbiturate, thiopental, which induces anaesthesia. A very high dose of rocuronium (curare), which is a muscle relaxant, is then injected intravenously, after which the patient dies.
Dr Schermann has spoken about his perception of the dying process and in particular, about the departure of the etheric body from the dying person. (If you are unfamiliar with the concept of the non-physical bodies of the human being, please look here and scroll down for the description of the fourfold human being. And Iris Paxino’s book – see details below – is particularly helpful in its description of what happens to us after death.)
Dr Schermann says that during his work as a GP he has been able to experience the death of a person quite a few times, mostly after a fatal illness:
“When I look at the etheric body, I can perceive that the etheric body is just as large or perhaps slightly larger than the physical body. The physical body and the etheric body are, as I see them, almost the same size. That is the case throughout life. I have always been able to observe that the etheric body changes in a particular way at the moment of death. In the moment the soul leaves the body, the etheric body changes. It expands to a certain extent so that it extends beyond the physical body, but the form of the physical body remains. At about the height of the navel the etheric body begins to draw itself together and to rise up and stream out like a thread. The etheric body departs as a thin thread and disappears somewhere in the heights. This process of the etheric body drawing together, streaming out and withdrawing from the physical body lasts about three days, until no more etheric substance is left and withdrawal ceases.”
Dr Schermann’s patient and her husband were both convinced that assisted dying was right and that it was the right time for the procedure to happen:
“I came at the appointed time and found her on her sickbed. Only her husband was with her. Once again, I asked if everything was as she wanted it. She said yes and asked me to carry out the procedure. So first I injected the barbiturate, and then the curare. I waited for the moment of death to see what would happen. Then something completely different occurred which I had not expected. Instead of the gentle withdrawal of the etheric body, as I described before, the etheric body swelled up. It swelled up powerfully and exploded in countless pieces. The room was full of shimmeringly bright and swirling shreds. The process lasted only a short time, less than a minute, then everything dissolved and disappeared. The light in the room became dim as it was before and her husband seemed not to have noticed anything.”
“And I sat there, the syringe still in my hand. I was very, very shocked. Much became immediately clear to me. Immediately clear where the lie is. It is not only about premature death, and also not about the complete process of the illness. It goes much, much deeper, much further.”
(…) “People believe they are being merciful when they help someone. To help someone who can no longer endure his suffering from an illness. And afterwards everyone is supposed to be satisfied. That woman’s husband is to this day. But actually something quite different has happened. One does something that, viewed externally, seems helpful and human. But what happens? This human being is catapulted into the cosmos without a post-mortem experience of remembering, without a post-mortem vision of his life panorama, and without spiritual light, because his etheric body explodes.”
We have here a prime example of how the ahrimanic element works in our society to undermine the true interests of human beings. After a campaign by well-meaning people who think that they are advocating for a more humane system, Society develops a procedure for assisted dying. There is a precisely laid-out procedure designed to provide relief from hopeless suffering and to safeguard those who are dying from exploitation by the unscrupulous. This is put into law; it is effective, reliable and elegant as well as intelligent, reasonable and hygienic. Who could possibly object?
Most of us, however, do not have a consciousness which is sufficiently developed to see what is really going on. What seems to be really going on is that people who undergo assisted dying are thrust out of the natural process of death and remembering their lives, and thus lose all orientation in the post-mortem world. The ahrimanic element works all the more effectively because the procedure prescribes exactly those means which must be used and which will cause the bursting apart of the etheric body. Dr Schermann is convinced that the medicaments specified in the procedure are directly connected to the explosion of the etheric body. He says that he has never seen anything of that kind happen with the conventional medicines that are used in the final stages of illness, such as morphine, strong sedatives, tranquillisers etc. (Although it should also be said that Iris Paxino has observed that a diminished or weakened state of consciousness at the time of death, for example as a result of the effects of pain-relieving medicines, can lead to the deceased person only dimly perceiving their crossing of the threshold.)
But there is more to be considered, such as the effect of assisted dying on the practitioner. Dr Schermann continues his account of what happened:
“Because I was so shocked, I was perhaps a bit loosened up and could perceive more. Suddenly I became aware of an angelic form. It stood to the left of the dead woman. A tall and serious figure, frightening and powerful. I could sense how its power and might extended beyond human power and could not be compared with it. (…) It was clear to me that he had been waiting for me to notice him. But he did not say anything, he just looked at me seriously. It became clear to me that I had interfered with his work.”
“He came to me, held out his hand and pointed at me. And he wrote in me. I felt that he was writing in my bones. He looked at me, imprinted something in my bones and then disappeared. At that moment I had not understood at all what he had written in my bones. But I felt somehow relieved that he had done that. I literally felt right down into my bones that I would one day get the chance to make this good again. The threads are already spun. He will bring us together again.”
Since this experience, Dr Schermann has told his story to various patients who are thinking of assisted dying: “Without exception, all were glad and their doubts disappeared. From then on they have borne their suffering, differently, more courageously I would say.” But he is also convinced that the materialistic world view will never understand what is happening and that other countries will follow the example of Holland, Belgium and Switzerland by legalising assisted dying.
This is of course part of the dilemma faced by anthroposophists in this age of the consciousness soul, who live in societies in which many people not only do not have the concepts that would allow them to understand the issues at stake but who would also regard the wider spiritual viewpoint with disdain and would look on Dr Schermann’s experience as fanciful delusion.
So, given these constraints, is there anything that can be done? Do we need all to be in the same position as the Scottish sinner who didnae ken until it was too late? (The Almighty is not implacable, of course, and there are all sorts of non-harmful ways in which we can help those who are facing a painful and distressing end.) Can we try to look at assisted dying, not as a legalised means to bring about premature death but as an opportunity to accompany someone so that he or she is in a position to lay aside the physical body with confidence, at the right time and if at all possible with clear consciousness? This is by no means just a medical or ethical question: it demands attention from all of us and participation in the debate.
* “Bridges Between Life and Death” by Iris Paxino. Published by Floris Books.
ISBN 978-178250-645-4
anthropopper 
The situation is far worse in Canada. They have a whole program of medical assistance in dying (MAID). It seems it is not unusual for a poor, struggling single mother to be offered to “end the suffering” of her mentally disabled child. There is opposition of course https://www.rebelnews.com/amanda_achtman_euthanasia_medically_assisted_dying_alliance_responsible_citizenship
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You make it seem eternally hopeless for these souls that took their own lives. Is there no spiritual guides to help them once they cross over? So utterly sad and depressing. A recent documenetary described how folks are kept alive for months or years through the use of machines. Would turning off the machines cause karmic harm to the doctors? The issues around this are so complex and difficult. I know no one who wants to be kept alive by machines. In a world overwhelmed with depressing news this is just another sign of the seemingly hopeless condition of mankind.
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Dear Jim, I’m sorry if my post has given you a misleading impression, because there are many ways in which both spiritual guides and those of us left behind can help those who are finding it difficult to orientate themselves once they have died. This is just one reason why I’m keen on Iris Paxino’s book, because she offers a path of practical help based on the possibility of developing a fruitful relationship with the departed. She also describes ways of engaging in rescue work for those who experience particular difficulties in the life after death.
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I’ve two friends that took that path. I’ve ordered the book.
I’m glad you wrote this post.
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Thank you, Jeremy. From long-ago reading of Steiner my recollection is that one’s next life after suicide would be difficult, and the following one would have compensations–this in connection with Empedocles throwing himself into the fires of Mt. Etna, aware of that progression. I wonder also what things look like when people are artificially kept alive.
These lectures in Norway in 1923, which I only recently came across, give an interesting picture of the relations of the living and waking conditions and the after-death/before-birth and sleeping conditions:
https://rsarchive.org/Lectures/GA226/English/AP1966/ManBng_index.html
I don’t find them currently in print in English. They describe the unconscious will as karma formed from the previous life; might that raise the question of whether there could be a wise karma underlying the (conscious) wish for an (assisted) death?
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And thank you, John, for the link to these marvellous lectures!
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How are you, John? Just getting used to this new format, or maybe I have an old google chrome laptop. Thanks for your remarks.
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Thank you so much for this information. I am ordering Paxino’s book, today.
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Thank you. Remarkable and important. Here are also some quotes from Steiner about suicide.
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Thank you for finding these very relevant quotations.
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Thomas Mayer also discusses the exploding etheric body in his book, Covid Vaccines from a Spiritual Perspective: Consequences for the Soul and Spirit and for Life after Death. See page 111 among other sections of the book.
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Thank you, Karin. Incidentally, Thomas Mayer is coming to England (together with Agnes Hardorp) to give a workshop in anthroposophical meditation from September 20th to 22nd at Emerson College. Further details from Alex Wright, T. (00 44 0) 1342 827967.
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Hi Jeremy,
I would be highly suspicious of Thomas Mayer. He wrote a book entitled: Answering the Call of the Elementals, which is a showcase for a kind of meditative practice which serves to evoke atavistic clairvoyance. He can be likened to Richard Leviton, who has engaged this kind of practice since 1984.
I send two references: Steiner’s lecture on, “The Perception of the Elementary World”, and also the Google review of Mayer’s book, “Answering the Call of the Elementals”.
https://rsarchive.org/Lectures/GA147/English/Singles/19130826p01.html
https://www.google.com/books/edition/Answering_the_Call_of_the_Elementals/pikBEAAAQBAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1
Kind regards, Steve
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Don’t agree with you about Thomas Mayer, Steve – his book is very helpful for anyone seeking to work with the elementals and I don’t think there is anything like ‘atavistic clairvoyance’ about it.
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Hi Jeremy,
Here is the thing about working with elemental spirits, and it is that we need to be aware of their domain as spirits that are first experienced as those of destructive intention. I refer to the lecture from GA 147, and its warning about immersion into this domain. As such, working specifically with elementary spirits can only lead to gaining atavistic clairvoyance, while the real goal is to reach our Angel, which is the rightful path of Spiritual Science. Thus, Steiner warns here that true anthroposophical meditation must be through the methods afforded through Outlne of Occult Science, and Knowledge of the Higher Worlds and Its Attainment. Only then can we accommodate the Elementals, and see them for what they are, and put them in their place. I don’t think Mayer does that at all. He is more reminding of Richard Leviton, who I spoke about before.
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Steve and Tom, Thank you for your comments but I’m not going to publish any more contributions unless they are in response to the original post about assisted dying.
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Hello Jeremy,
Sometimes Thomas Mayer is confused with Thomas Meyer because both are Anthroposophists who live in Basel. Steve’s comment provides a good opportunity to distinguish them since Steve is a critic of Mayer and a fan of Meyer.
While T Mayer is a progressive Anthroposophist, supporter of democracy and civil rights, T H Meyer is a practitioner of what I call “atavistic anthroposophy” that enshrines Rudolf Steiner’s political views that were frozen in 1925 and thus support far right extremist politics and associated paranoid conspiracy theories.
I decided to consult the AI ChatBot Llama and asked it to distinguish Mayer from Meyer.
===============
“. . . here are the key differences between Thomas Meyer and Thomas Mayer:
It’s important to note that Thomas Mayer’s views and writings are not associated with the same controversial and criticized beliefs as Thomas Meyer’s.
==================
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Read this book also. My suggestion is all spiritual scientist should.
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Thank you kindly for sharing this, I too have ordered the book.
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Thank you Jeremy. A valuable and thought provoking contribution. Steiner’s teaching that “Opting out is not and option” has been an extra burden for some people.
The recent suicide, at 3rd attempt, of a young family member has made this topic one of serious consideration. An academically brilliant person who became psychotic and unbearably haunted by ” Demons”. Had he been “helped” medically it could have led to solitary confinement alone with his Demons. Instead he chose to die nastily. Terrible for his parents, who blame themselves. And for a family which does consider “Karmic Consequences”.
The Assisted Dying question for terminally ill and also old people has to be seen in relation to availability for high class (= High PRICE) palliative care for a growing proportion of people who have forgotten that “the years of a man are three score and ten”.
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Read Mayers covid book. Made me wonder how the Brotherhoods of the Left might be promoting or using these sad souls. Are they chaining them to Earth? Is it a new type of lodge?
Follow the money on this topic. Do most of the countries promoting assisted suicide have socialized medicine? A couple of needles versus medical care is a no brainer to save $$$.
In the USA there are 11 states where it is legal. California, Colorado, Washington DC, Hawaii, Maine, New Jersey, New Mexico, Maine, Oregon, Vermont, Washington state. Montana must have a court order. There are varying laws in each state on this subject. Such as, is patient terminal and how long and some must administer the meds themselves. They are all what we would consider as liberal states here in the US.
My half-brother killed himself in 2002. Used a gun. I did not know him well but out of the blue had a dream about him a few months back. I got the impression he was able to move on now. He was 52 in 2002. Just thought I would relate this timing for others.
Thank you, Jeremy.
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”Useless Eater” anyone?
This discussion is as cold as the global communists pushing agenda 2030. The medical tyranny that was tolerated during the convid production will continue with the next pandemic.
What is more important than freedom?
In regards to assisted dying the matter is simple. Did Christ end his own life? No. Should humans end their own lives? No. Is suffering really annoying? You bet. Is it eternal? Let’s ask Sorat …
Do not be deceived; the Holy Ghost will lighten your vision.
Be at peace. If you have already succumbed to coercion you can change your path in a heartbeat … and not deny Christ a second time.
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Humble, had not come across the term ‘useless eater’ before. Upon searching this term has been around a long time. Very telling and glad you used it. To Know. Steiner mentions that knowing is a powerful tool against the evil powers as evil wants to come upon us unawares.
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Human beings will always make terrible mistakes out of ignorance of what they are really doing. Our ability to prevent that is limited, our greater task may be to become aware of the mistakes we have made and not to try to deny or blind ourselves to them in fear of the dreadful cosmic punishment we surely deserve. We must not lose faith in the ability of the higher worlds to take up our mistakes and redeem them, if we are willing to own them and repent, nor in the infinite forgiveness of our loving divine Parent.
The annihilating shame of perceiving how wrong and misguided we are causes most people to merely deepen the blindness. It’s deeply moving to read of this doctor’s experience and of its aftermath. It seems the individual who was hurt by their mode of crossing the threshold may have sacrificed something in order that others could learn from it. May those who are open to that message hear it, maintaining compassion for those who unready to admit their own weakness and error.
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Thank you, Jeremy. This was very interesting and helpful.
I have a couple of points:
1) Suicide is murder; it’s just that the murderer and the murdered are one and the same person. We are enjoined not to murder. “Would that the Almighty had not set His canon against self-slaughter”, as Shakespeare put into the mouth of Hamlet.
2) George G. Ritchie (I hope I have got all the spelling correct, in the light of the confusion over the Mayer/Meyer difficulty.) wrote very clearly and simply about his near death experience. He wrote, among other things, that he had seen some souls desperately trying to apologise to living human beings, whom they had hurt by their suicide, who could not in the slightest hear them.
Richie was not in the slightest anthroposophical, as far as I know.
(George G. Ritchie and Elizabeth Sherrill, Return from Tomorrow. Old Tappan, NJ: F.H. Revell, 1978. ISBN 0-8007-8412-X.)
3) With an early death, such as with a child; whilst it is obviously a sort of tragedy for those who remain alive and especially the parents, they can (and probably should) strengthen themselves with the knowledge that some of us only need a very short incarnation. The early death is in the karma of, and wanted by, the higher being of the child who dies early. They do not do it to hurt us, even though it does. We cannot understand this with materialistic thinking. A suicide, on the other hand, seems to be creating karma through the intelligence; through the thinking; hence taking it away from their higher ego.
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Thank you, Luke. The book you mention, ‘Return to Tomorrow’, by Ritchie and Sherrill, is really well worth reading.
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Thank you for your thoughtful exploration of this difficult, heartbreaking topic. Never did I dream that one day I would be faced with my own mother in chronic, unresolvable pain begging me to help end her life. Because of my own spiritual journey and intuitive understanding, I immediately felt in my heart that this was deeply wrong, even if my compassion for this wonderful woman who raised me felt a pull to help ease her pain.
In that moment I understood this: her death is none of my business, it is hers and hers alone. My role as her loving son is to love her, support her, uplift her spirits, and to be by her side courageously- but never, ever to hasten her death, even if she asks. It sounds cold but it’s not- I cannot take my mother’s pain or illness on myself and I cannot die for her or with her. I have to let her ‘own’ the experience completely and pray for her to rise to the occasion of her transition through physical death, even if it entails great pain and forbearance. Of course, I will do what I can to act as her advocate in medical treatment but I must always remember to answer to the Highest authority, which is even above my own mother. I pray that she will forgive me and understand, both while she’s still with me and after she passes.
Many of my peers will not understand my position because they have been indoctrinated with this postmodern ‘humanism’ which views assisted suicide as merciful, noble, and somehow enlightened.
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Thank you for this moving account, Pascal. I’m guessing that you are a doctor or some kind of medic, so it is very helpful to hear your experience of a dilemma that increasing numbers of doctors will be facing as Society moves closer to the legalisation of suicide.
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My husband of 27 years died of cancer at age 51. He started becoming ill two and a half years before, and after the first tumour was removed, he asked me if I would help him commit suicide, should the cancer ever return. I said no, that I would not do that, but that I wouldn’t stop him if he was to ask someone else who might agree. The cancer did indeed return, and everyone was astounded at the transformation that occurred in him. He mended many relationships before he died, with people he had long lost contact, because of his fractious nature. A few days before he died (in excrutiating pain), he came to deep insights he would never have reached in any other way. Accompanying him to the very gate of death was an unforgettably beautiful experience for all of us who had the privilege to do that. He died at home, in his own bed, and accompanying him in the three days after his death, as he lay in wake in our home, was also an extraordinary and beautiful experience. I would deny this to no one, if at all possible. His death belonged to him, as does the death of every human being. It is a profound experience. Steiner describes it as one of the most beautiful experiences we can have. I know this to be true.
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Thank you for sharing this moving account with us, Shirley.
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I can highly recommend going onto youtube and listening to Anthony Cheney’s interviews with people who have had NDEs (near-death experiences). His interviews are free for anyone to listen to, which is one of the reasons I recommend him. These accounts are all, without exception, deeply moving. And life-changing. They serve as tremendous inspiration to anyone considering ending their own lives prematurely. I certainly recommend reading anthroposophy, too, especially Steiner’s Karma and Reincarnation volumes, but not everyone has a relationship to anthroposophy. But whether you do or not, listening to these NDE accounts is a powerful experience. Many of them are as powerful as they are because the people who have them are often confirmed atheists before their NDE, and afterwards it is impossible for them to deny the Spirit, ever again. I think these accounts are incredibly helpful tools in this particular battle, and one that leaves your will completely free, not least because of how Cheney allows these interviews to unfold and the questions that he poses.
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