Plot The book was originally published by the Brazilian Spiritist Federation in 1954, twelve years after its writing, allegedely because it didn't fit the usual spiritist novel profile. The plot is centered on the afterlife story of Camilo Cândido Botelho (a spiritual pseudonym of Camilo Castelo Branco), who commited suicide after going blind, on 1 June 1890. He was utterly surprised when his soul survived death. He feels the terrible pain from the shot to his right ear and his brain, waking up amoung the putrid smell of his own corpse. Earing the voices of a crowd he compulsively joins to, all of them are forcefully brought to an inhospitable, dark and horrendous low astral place, the so-called «Valley of the Suicides», where like-minded spirits of suicides are localized. The scenery is hellish, full of an overall despair, never ending noise, horrible screaming and crying. The sky is darkly cloudy and thunderous, the atmosphere is cold and foul smelling, the ground is muddy and excremential. The valley is surrounded by lurid dark caves. Those unfortunate spirits are reliving over and over the tragic circumstances of their self-inflicted deaths. One is not restricted to one's own despair but is sharing others sufferings too. The lowest and darkest instincts come to the fore and spirits are never at peace with each other. One can never sleep or take a moment of rest or privacy. The most perverse and violent acts are commonplace. One can easily be a victim or become a tormentor. Even the most horrid conditions on Earth turn heaven-like compared to the sufferings in the «Valley of the Suicides». The book is a cautionary tale about suicide. Death does not put an end to the suffering of a suicide. On the contrary, it aggravates it and prolongs it, years and sometimes centuries long in the low astral realms. Upon a new rebirth on Earth, most probably one has to undure again the same challenges one had tried to escape through suicide, further aggraved by more physical and existential handicaps than before.
Plot The book was originally published by the Brazilian Spiritist Federation in 1954, twelve years after its writing, allegedly because it did not fit the usual spiritist novel profile. The plot is centered on the afterlife story of Camilo Cândido Botelho (a spiritual pseudonym of Camilo Castelo Branco), who committed suicide after going blind, on 1 June 1890. He was utterly surprised when his soul survived death. He feels the terrible pain from the shot to his right ear and his brain, waking up among the putrid smell of his own corpse. Hearing the voices of a crowd he compulsively joins to, all of them are forcefully brought to an inhospitable, dark and horrendous low astral place, the so-called «Valley of the Suicides», where like-minded spirits of suicides are localized. The scenery is hellish, full of an overall despair, never ending noise, horrible screaming and crying. The sky is darkly cloudy and thunderous, the atmosphere is cold and foul smelling, the ground is muddy and excremential. The valley is surrounded by lurid dark caves. Those unfortunate spirits are reliving over and over the tragic circumstances of their self-inflicted deaths. One is not restricted to one's own despair but is sharing others sufferings too. The lowest and darkest instincts come to the fore and spirits are never at peace with each other. One can never sleep or take a moment of rest or privacy. The most perverse and violent acts are commonplace. One can easily be a victim or become a tormentor. Even the most horrid conditions on Earth turn heaven-like compared to the sufferings in the «Valley of the Suicides». The book is a cautionary tale about suicide. Death does not put an end to the suffering of a suicide. On the contrary, it aggravates it and prolongs it, years and sometimes centuries long in the low astral realms. Upon a new rebirth on Earth, most probably one has to endure again the same challenges one had tried to escape through suicide, further aggravated by more physical and existential handicaps than before.
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allegedely because it didn't
allegedly because it did not
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commited
committed
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amoung
among
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Earing
Hearing
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undure
endure
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aggraved
aggravated