Pekka Ervast – Suomi (Finland)
A Brief Introduction by Antti Savinainen
Pekka Ervast (1875–1934) was a Finnish Rosicrucian Theosophist and spiritual researcher whose public work lasted for more than three decades. One might wonder what the meaning of the qualifier “spiritual researcher” is. To me, it means that the person conducting spiritual research is not just drawing on what they have learned from esoteric books about the invisible world, but also has their own firsthand knowledge. What, then, makes me claim that Ervast could conduct spiritual research in the same sense as, say, Rudolf Steiner (1861–1925)? My position is based on the extensive study of Ervast’s work for almost four decades, as well as on comparisons of his descriptions of the afterlife with scientific research on near-death experiences. See for instance: https://www.theosophical.org/publications/quest-magazine/life-review-at-the-gate-of-death
The origin of spiritual knowledge is supersensible, often called clairvoyance. As with any knowledge, it can be incomplete and open to amendments and corrections. It goes without saying that one must always approach knowledge claims, especially those that are not amenable to direct testing, with caution. Keeping this in mind, I encourage the reader to delve into the following Ervast’s lecture on a deeply serious topic, suicide. More about Ervast’s views on the afterlife can be found in the book From Death to Rebirth (2017), available online at: :https://teosofia.net/e-kirjat/Pekka_Ervast-From_Death_to_Rebirth.pdf
+++++++
Lecture in Helsinki, Finland, October 18th, 1925
Various Attitudes to Suicide
In our Christian churches, we are accustomed to condemning suicide and those who commit it very harshly. We can understand that suicide, as such, can be condemned. The church has been right in saying that one does not give oneself life, and therefore one is not entitled to take it away from oneself; just as one received life as a gift from God, so one must also accept death from God.
Of course, we can all accept what the Christian church has taught us, but when we realize that the same faith has condemned suicides so harshly in practice that it did not grant them a place in the blessed churchyard, considering them to be particularly criminal beings [the situation in Finland in 1925; fortunately, this has changed since then], then we must admit that as thinking people we have recently taken a different position and have tried to understand suicides psychologically. Our doctors say in most cases, “The suicide occurred in a sudden mental disturbance. The person committing suicide should not be held fully responsible for their act. They should not be judged too harshly.” And we, as modern people, must admire this brotherly and tolerant point of view more. The fact that people, even criminals, are judged mercilessly is not the highest achievement of humanity; on the contrary, as human beings, we must learn to understand people, striving for the state of mind that the French phrase describes: “to understand everything is to forgive everything.” When we understand people, we no longer judge them.
If we want to remain compassionate toward other people, then even when talking about suicides, it is better to remain brotherly and forgiving than judgmental. Why would anyone ever judge anything? Are they so sure of themselves that they could never be tempted in the same way as another? It is unwise for a person to judge others, puffing out their chest and thinking proudly that they would never do such a thing, even when they are sure within themselves that they would not fall into the same temptation as another. If they have truly overcome something so that it no longer tempts them, then they are the least likely to judge, and they understand best those who may still fall into temptation.
Otherwise, the question of suicide cannot be quickly resolved from an emotional point of view. There have been people and tribes in history who have not considered suicide to be wrong in certain circumstances. If an individual had become ill or too old, it was natural for those people to hasten death and free others from the trouble and burden one caused them. When the ancient Vikings felt they had lived long enough, they would sail far out to sea in their boats and, as the sun set, set themselves on fire to die. They considered humane suicide to be a completely moral act.
But if we want to judge suicide properly, we should not just go with our feelings, like understanding and love, but we should also think about it from a rational and scientific point of view. How is this possible when the question is connected with death? Death is a mystery to most people, so how can we judge death scientifically? We can only do so if we rely on knowledge that is not accessible to the ordinary senses. We must rely on information obtained by studying people's lives beyond the grave, in this case, by examining the fate of suicides in Hades. If we can get information about the mysterious things connected with death, then we will naturally be able to resolve the question of suicide in a scientific manner.
When we consider the question of suicide impartially from a rational point of view, our research naturally divides into two parts: on the one hand, it asks about the causes of suicide, and on the other, it asks about its consequences, and it asks these questions from the perspective of the invisible world.
Causes of Suicide
When our doctors say that a sudden mental disorder caused suicide, this is at best an assumption. If a sudden mental disorder did indeed occur, then the person who committed suicide was not responsible; then one was no longer a fully human being. But in the same way, we can say that someone who murders another person or commits any serious crime was in a state of mental disorder. This is true in a way, because if we ask the perpetrators themselves—murderers, sex offenders, thieves—many of them explain it this way: “I didn't know what I was doing. I was overcome by a strange temptation, a terrible inner compulsion, and I could not find peace until I had committed my crime.” (Of course, there are criminals who consciously and deliberately pursue their evil deeds—especially among thieves, and they are then fully responsible for their actions.) Even though most suicides could be compared to criminals who fall victim to a sudden, mind-altering urge, there's an important psychological factor to consider. What is the psychological origin of this mental disorder? No one can become a murderer or a thief unless they have thought about it beforehand. Unless they have imagined theft and murder in their mind, temptation cannot overcome them, and they cannot fall into sudden mental disturbance. In the same way, the temptation to commit suicide cannot suddenly and unjustifiably overcome a person unless they have previously thought about such a solution, feeling that life is too hard and that they want to escape from it.
It should be noted that most people, even the best of people, have thoughts about the harshness and burden of life, its suffering and hopelessness. How many times do they ask themselves whether death would be the best solution, and how many times do they pray to God to deliver them from evil! But when they turn to life in prayer, asking it to take them away from here, life does not take them; it coldly replies, “Continue, continue despite the difficulties.” Fortunately, most people are sensible and conscientious enough not to leave this life before their time. But precisely because this idea of the heaviness of life, its overwhelming difficulty, is natural to almost all people, we also understand that some people cannot bear it.
Even young, unspoiled people can feel so alienated in this world that they develop a strong desire to commit suicide. The world, the whole of existence, is so strange to them that they do not understand why they should live and exist. They see suffering and only suffering around them, everyone has their worries, everyone has their burdens to bear, and then they, young people who are not attached to the charms of this world in their hearts, but who, free from passions and ties, can look at things objectively, wondering about life and humanity, they think: “Why do people still enjoy being here? You could get away from this by leaving voluntarily.” The fact that most people do not commit suicide when they are young depends on their strong sense of duty towards their loved ones, and also on the fact that they have an inner, instinctive conviction that life, or in other words God, has sent them here for some morally important reason. This instinctive intuition or knowledge enables them to overcome suicidal thoughts before they crystallize into actual temptations. Eventually, life engulfs them in its whirlwind, they become enthusiastic about some task in life, they find some attraction that captures their minds, they develop a practical reason for existing, and they realize that they belong to the same humanity whose foreheads bear the mark of Cain: “Look, your heart is attached to some idea, some person, some insignificant attraction, and therefore you must exist.” In this way, most people survive suicidal thoughts.
However, when we study suicides, we find that behind every suicidal thought there has always been that impartial and pure feeling of the heaviness of existence that we just mentioned. Of course, there is also a personal element involved, because the suicidal person has also thought, “This life is too heavy for me.” But alongside this thought, another thought moves in the soul of the suicidal person: “Death will end the suffering; death will set me free.” If they are materialistic, they think, “Death is the end of everything,” and the temptation tells them, “When you kill yourself, everything will end, and you will be free of everything.” If they do not dare to be materialistic in the face of death, they say to themselves, “When you die, you will find rest.” Deep down, they may still think: “Life after death cannot possibly be this hard — at least I will be free of this.” And closely related to this idea is the hope that a better life will follow death. Such is the psychological background, so to speak, of the suicidal person's spiritual life.
When we examine the psychological causes of suicide, we do not need to pay attention to all kinds of factors related to physical life that are familiar to us: one person fears impending bankruptcy, another fears losing their reputation, another is in despair over unhappy love, another cannot bear the consequences of some wrongdoing they have committed, and so on. There are many kinds of personal, somewhat lower motives, which we will not discuss here, because if we begin to judge suicides based on these external causes, we must also take into account that there are lofty and even beautiful personal motives. Someone may commit suicide to save other people from danger or hardship. Madam Blavatsky mentions a historical case in which suicide was a most noble act. She tells of the Russian Emperor Nicholas I, who died during the Crimean War, that he murdered himself, and why? Because Russia was on the verge of ruin during the Crimean War. The emperor knew that the Russian people, out of respect and love for the tsar, were prepared to sacrifice anything and continue the unfortunate war for as long as it took. But the emperor thought, “Why should I force people to do that? If I live, I cannot prevent it, nor can I make a shameful peace, because the Russian people will not allow it. But if I leave the stage, then it will be possible for my successor to make peace.” And peace was made immediately after the emperor's death. So he sacrificed himself out of love. Madam Blavatsky says: “It was such a beautiful act that it was in no way held against Nicholas.”
For further details regarding this historical case, follow this link:
Suicide, the Invisible World, and the Afterlife
As researchers of the causes of suicide, who study the phenomena of the invisible world, the world beyond death, we cannot limit ourselves to the physically living person who kills themselves and their psychological motives, which are related to external circumstances. We must also consider whether there are factors outside the human being, but at the same time in the invisible world, that cause suicide. And then we must acknowledge and recognize that there are two kinds of temptations from the spirit world. The first is the temptation that says: kill yourself. It comes from those deceased people who have murdered themselves. In addition, there is another temptation, like heaven, which has an inspiring effect on living people. It is inhabited by non-human beings, gods, nature spirits, elves, remarkably intelligent beings who are not born into this physical world at all, but whose physical and lowest material level of existence is invisible. These elves live there in close contact with the human world, belonging to the planet's invisible state. They live in extremely harmonious conditions and could be compared to fairies dancing in the sunshine and moonlight, spinning and jumping with the most graceful movements, sometimes appearing and sometimes disappearing from view. They come to humans and whisper to them—and their whispers are always heard by those who are more spiritually developed—“Oh, you who have achieved so much, you who are a wonderful personality, what are you still doing on earth, where everything is misery and futile suffering? Leave that world; come to us. We understand you, we know how to respect and love you, and we will make your whole life feel like a walk on fragrant rose petals. Come here!”
This inspiration from the strange heaven resonates especially with highly developed people, but still, that heaven is not for humans. Spiritually evolved people make a mistake if they go there. But the same heaven has an attractive effect on humanity in general; its inspiration is heard in the soul of all humanity: “Whatever you are doing on earth, leave it!” Young people may feel that earthly life is not beautiful enough, that they actually belong to another world. Great thinkers and philosophers may take a thoroughly pessimistic stance, telling themselves and repeating to others that life on this planet is utterly pointless. Schopenhauer's philosophy teaches us that all existence is futile. However, Schopenhauer did not kill himself, and it was precisely because he did not follow the ultimate consequences of his teachings in his own life that his theory was refuted; it showed that, even though existence is meaningless on the one hand, it is also extremely good on the other. Therefore, we are not at all alarmed if someone is a pessimistic philosopher. Some are pessimists, others are optimists. Few kill themselves, and their reasons are deeper; they are either much more sensitive people or much more superficial.
Now we must take a look at the consequences of suicide. When we examine the phenomena that follow the act of suicide in the afterlife, only then will we be able to judge suicide better. You see, we note that, viewed objectively, suicide is a crazy act. And why? Because the most striking phenomenon when we examine the fate of suicides after death is that in most cases, death came as a great surprise to them, they had no idea what death would be like, because they thought: after death, there will be rest, or everything will be over, or in any case, life will be easier then. That is what they thought, and in that they were disappointed, because 1) death did not end anything; they remained, 2) death was not rest, but became a great burden to them, 3) death was not easier, but more painful than life on earth. What do you see as the prevailing feeling among most suicides after death? What is so different from what they had imagined? The fact that they are entirely alone!
How often, for example, do two people who love each other commit suicide together, thinking that since they have been prevented from being together on earth, they want at least to walk hand in hand through the gates of death? And what is their terrible awakening? On the other side of death, they are hopelessly alone and separated from each other! That is the terrible fate of the suicide: one cannot and will not be with others.
For many suicides, a slight fear of death has come to mind at the moment of death or shortly before, so suicide has, in a way, been a courageous act. In killing themselves, many must have had to encourage themselves. But what has that moment of hesitation and fear caused in relation to the state after death? It is a remarkable psychological force. It causes the suicide victim to relive over and over again, in an etheric state, all the reasons and moments that led to suicide, all the feelings that preceded suicide, and then the act of suicide and awakening on the other side. This series of images, conjured up by an unnaturally heightened memory, is repeated over and over again. The unhappy deceased is like a squirrel in a spinning cage that cannot be stopped. This is a painful and challenging experience for many who commit suicide.
The Three Categories of Suicide
When talking about life after death, we must remember that not all suicides can be measured by the same yardstick; they differ from each other in terms of both their motives and their state of mind. Therefore, suicides must be divided into three categories.
The first category includes those who killed themselves for altruistic reasons, for example, by putting their lives at risk to save others. They are good people, and nature takes care of them in a strange way: it lets them sleep in a dreamless sleep. And for how long? As long as they have enough physical vitality. It should be noted that we humans are born with a measure of life force that is determined by fate. Of course, this is a crude way of putting it, but the length of life, the amount of life force, which, as Jesus says, we cannot increase through meditation, is measured by karma. We live as long as we have enough vitality, and we usually have much more vitality than we use up during our physical life. We need illnesses, at least in our old age, so that we can depart with dignity.
Every person has a lifespan determined by karma, that is, the amount of life force. When a person kills themselves, they have cast aside their physical body, but they have not been able to shorten their own age. They therefore remain here on earth until their vitality would otherwise have been exhausted. Suicides “float in the air,” and the good ones are allowed to sleep, as if in a state of unconsciousness, until they wake up in Hades.
But all mediocre suicides, who are neither good nor evil, belong to the second category of our classification. They remain in solitude in the atmosphere of the earth, and either they relive their terrible deed over and over again, or they wander as if in a lonely wilderness and feel an indescribable sorrow. These deceased souls like to attach themselves to mediums or to people who are themselves contemplating suicide. When they come into contact with a person living on earth, they seem to absorb them, and a wistful feeling resonates in their souls: “Oh, I am alone, could you not be my companion?” And their unspoken longing is reflected in the living person's soul, supporting and reinforcing their own thoughts and feelings. Thus, suicides almost involuntarily become tormentors of the living. And if they come into contact with a medium, they can express their thoughts to the living. They are so elated by the opportunity that they usually express their remorse and how difficult it is for them. But coming into contact with a medium is very disadvantageous for a suicide unless the leader of the séance enlightens, warns, and teaches them, because it prolongs their etheric afterlife state and makes it more difficult for them to ascend to Hades, which resides in the astral plane.
Finally, we consider the third category of suicides, those who are proud and cold-hearted, who killed themselves consciously and with a clear mind, and whose motive was ignoble. When we look at their state after death, we must say that it is harsh and severe. They know in their hearts that they will face a special revenge or punishment from life. They have killed themselves for bad reasons, and after death, they feel that life demands compensation, atonement from them. This compensation, or revenge, is that they lose their connection with their higher selves; in other words, they are heading toward actual death, and therefore, they are forced to become vampires to the living. After death, they no longer want to die! They are the dead who attack the living and incite them to kill themselves. They come as tormentors to those who even slightly consider suicide on earth; they absorb themselves into them and enjoy the weakness of another human being, increasing the power of that weakness by whispering, “You must kill yourself.” If a medium falls into the hands of such a vampire, they are in grave trouble. And those who participate in such a spiritualist séance may all develop a mental illness, so that even if they had never dreamed of suicide before, they now begin to think about it. If a deceased vampire has attached itself to their astral aura, it can drive them to the brink of insanity. And these vampires are not content with tormenting only humans; they also attack animals. They try by all means to escape the fate that secretly threatens them. Jesus Christ once had the opportunity to save some people and animals. The evil spirits in the shepherds cried out, and Jesus commanded them to leave and allowed them to go to the pigs, as they requested. Then Jesus probably gave the pigs a little hint: “Now go into the sea.” Animals, which do not usually kill themselves, could only free themselves from their tormentors by drowning themselves. The vampires were probably so powerful that they would not have left the people unless they could enter the animals. (Matthew 8:28–34)
The fate that awaits these human souls, who murder themselves in their haughty wickedness, is, as has been said, because they have severed their connection with their own divine spirit. Their entire personal identity has sunk into defiance and hatred. The divine in them is covered and falls into their inner selves, and as personal beings [with no contact with their higher selves], they remain outside of God. The school of life must start all over again, for they have failed. Life is thus always full of mercy, for their spirit is allowed to give birth to a new series of personalities who gradually learn to seek connection with God.
So far, we have only talked about the consequences of suicide in the afterlife, but we must take into account that suicide also has consequences in our future earthly life. A human being is a reincarnating being; therefore, one is sent to the school of life again and again so that one may gradually learn one's lesson. If a person kills themselves for some reason, they will find themselves in similar situations in their next life, facing the same difficulties again. Once again, they will be asked: Can you overcome yourself now?
We must learn to overcome ourselves, to overcome our karma. If we are “slaves in the house,” we have not yet reached the goal of life. We must become “sons of the house,” as Jesus says, and that means we must not flee from suffering, we must never be cowardly, we must learn to carry our cross with a joyful heart, to overcome ourselves and our circumstances. This is the task set for all of us.
Helping in the Invisible and Visible World
One thing must be kept in mind. It concerns life after death in general. A remarkable change has taken place in the conditions after death, first with the Buddha and then especially with Christ. Through Jesus, as we know, the cosmic Christ entered into the life of our Earth, and Christ's immediate presence in the spiritual world has transformed the afterlife from a passive state into an active field of work. On an ever-expanding scale, missionary work is being organized in the halls of Hades. Both living people and the deceased are called to this work. It is not as it was before, when human souls were left to their own devices, but rather, systematic attempts are made to help them. For this reason, attempts are made to guide and instruct even those who have committed suicide in the afterlife. However, it is difficult to reach them in that atmosphere, especially those who live in the aforementioned vicious cycle. But as soon as their minds are awakened, they too are susceptible to influence. They are told what life is and where they have gone wrong. The most beautiful sights in the afterlife are offered by a suicide victim who, through their helper, has come to realize their mistake and is full of remorse. Led by their helper, they arrive before the Lord of life and death, Christ, and fall to their knees at His feet. They raise their tearful gaze toward the glorious being standing before them and confess: “Oh, how small and wicked I am, how I have erred in the great task of life. What will happen to me now? Can I ever atone for my deeds? Is there any mercy for me, Lord?” And then, from the eyes of that bright and glorious being, eternal love, infinite mercy, and grace shine forth, and his voice is like heavenly music as he gently replies: “I understand you, my child, and I forgive you. Get up and go to work, but sin no more.” [1]
And why should we not say something to ourselves at the end? We who live in this visible world can undoubtedly be of help to many sick souls, we can certainly prevent suicides from happening, if we want with our hearts and souls to be involved in alleviating the sorrows of the world, if in our private lives we each extend a helping hand, say a word of encouragement, give an understanding look, and always remember the Master's advice: “What you want others to do to you, do to them.”
Translation by Antti Savinainen
+++++++
The Finnish version of the lecture is available here: https://media.pekkaervast.net/books_files/Itsemurha.pdf
[1] Interestingly, an Anthroposophist, Iris Paxino (b. 1970), describes a very similar scene in her book Bridges Between Life and Death (2021). A book review is available here: https://hermesrisen.wordpress.com/2021/09/10/bridges-between-life-and-death-book-review-by-antti-savinainen/