This list has been set up to prepare different related projects.

The first purpose of this list is the preparation of an International Conference on "Spiritual approaches to suicide - Death of the body or death of the ego?" which will be held in Finland in the Summer 1999.

As the title describes well, this conference intends to offer a wide approach to the question of suicide, through self-knowledge, self-understanding, wisdom and metaphysics.

You will find some information about this project at: http://essence-euro.org/iasp/finland.html. This site will be regularly updated.

As an introduction and preparation, a first conference on "Spiritual approaches to psychology and psychopathology" will be held in Finland in the Summer 1998. It will introduce the International Conference of 1999. Some information will soon be available on the above site.

The second purpose of the list is to offer a forum of dialogues and discussions on the question of suicide, developing different points such as:

• exploring the mechanisms of suffering: the role of the I-image, the question of identification and disidentification, the emotional involvement and witnessing, etc. ;
• being aware of the habit of escaping suffering by different ways;
• inquiring into the possibility of encountering and dealing with suffering without escaping;
• understanding the question of death through the understanding of life;
• approaching the role of external, social, cultural and religious factors in the genesis of the suicide desire or the opposite in the fighting of suicidal behaviors;
• observing the role of internal patterns for instance concerning the possible relationship between the physical body and suffering, underlying the belief that the death of the body will end suffering (reality or illusion?);
• defining the place of spiritual practices such as relaxation, meditation, self-awareness and others in the fulfillment of a feeling of despair and dissatisfaction.

To subscribe to the suicide list, just send a command "sub suicide firstname lastname" to <listserv@maelstrom.stjohns.edu>, where you replace firstname with your real first name and lastname by your real last name. You will receive a confirmation of registration and some technical instructions. A digest form and archives are available.

You will find here some technical instruction concerning the functioning of the list.

For a start, if you wish, you could present yourself - it will give the opportunity to directly communicate with people interested in your orientation -, send to the list your ideas about what the question of suicide means to you, and also indicate the topics that you would like to be explored in this forum.

The list has two coordinators:

Olavi Noronen is a Finnish Transpersonal therapist.
You can meet him at <http://www.netti.fi/scorpitos/>
and contact him at <scorpitos@kolumbus.fi>

Jean-Marc Mantel, M.D., is a psychiatrist, founder and coordinator of the International Association for Spiritual Psychiatry,
whom you can meet at <http://essence-euro.org/iasp/jm-bio-e.html>
and contact at <jmm@essence-euro.org> .

The International Association for Spiritual Psychiatry is the main sponsor and organizer of this project. The information on this non-profit organization is available at : http://essence-euro.org/iasp

Hope to meet you soon !

With friendly thoughts.

Jean-Marc Mantel, M.D. and Olavi Noronen

RETURN TO THE FINLAND PAGE