QA188 QUESTION: My father just died. Can you tell me whether his years of suffering and paralysis have furthered his development, whether something happened to him that is good?
ANSWER: I cannot put it in these words, because this is a distortion. You cannot say that a result of stagnation is, by necessity, good at this time. It depends when the soul truly awakens. Then whatever he has suffered will become good. That is merely a question of time. Everything, every result, every suffering that is a result of distortion, in every entity ever created, will become medicine from the moment the soul understands it and gropes for the total understanding of it. This is not yet the case with this soul.
This soul is still in the state of sleep and needs this. Perhaps at a later period that sleep will no longer be a necessity, for the strengthening and a very gradual awakening will come. Then, to the degree the awakening comes, the suffering will be a beneficial aspect.
But I would also like to say to you that the suffering wasn’t as much as you imagined, precisely because of the state of numbness that this spirit has induced upon himself. So that is perhaps the unfortunate part from the point of view of the time element. But it is fortunate from the point of view of the immediate sensations. Therefore, the suffering was not as much as you believe.
