others, or by accident. Their fate in Kâmaloka depends on the
conditions which surrounded their outgoings from earthly life, for not
all suicides are guilty of _felo de se_, and the measure of
responsibility may vary within very wide limits. The condition of such
has been thus described:

_Suicides, although not wholly dissevered from their sixth
and seventh principles, and quite potent in the séance room,
nevertheless to the day when they would have died a natural
death, are separated from their higher principles by a gulf.
The sixth and seventh principles remain passive and negative,
whereas in cases of_ accidental death _the higher and the
lower groups actually attract each other. In cases of good
and innocent Egos, moreover, the latter gravitates
irresistibly toward the sixth and seventh, and thus either
slumbers surrounded by happy dreams, or sleeps a dreamless
profound sleep until the hour strikes. With a little
reflection and an eye to the eternal justice and fitness of
things, you will see why. The victim, whether good or bad, is
irresponsible for his death. Even if his death were due to
some action in a previous life or an antecedent birth, was an
act, in short, of the Law of Retribution, still it was not
the_ direct _result of an act deliberately committed by the_
personal _Ego of that life during which he happened to be
killed. Had he been allowed to live longer he might have
atoned for his antecedent sins still more effectually, and
even now, the Ego having been made to pay off the debt of his
maker, the personal Ego is free from the blows of retributive
justice. The Dhyân Chohans, who have no hand in the guidance
of the living human Ego, protect the helpless victim when it