Is Violence Ever Justified? by John Cali

Interesting question, and one that has been asked forever it seems.

One of my favorite spirit guides is Seth, channelled by Jane Roberts. Seth once said this: “There is never any justification for violence. There is no justification for hatred. There is no justification for murder.”

And he said this:

“No one dies who has not made the decision to do so. Your existence before and after death is as normal as your present life.”

Most of our world today condemns violence, hatred, and killing. But many are also able to find justification, at least under certain circumstances, for violence, hatred, and killing.

For example, the institutionalized, legalized killing called “capital punishment.” That phrase is a euphemism which I suppose is intended to help its advocates avoid admitting it’s killing, plain and simple.

According to Amnesty International 96 countries had abolished capital punishment as of December 2010. As they said, “…more than two thirds of the countries in the world have abolished the death penalty in law or practice.” That’s a good thing. But other countries, including the United States, still practice it.

Here’s Spirit.

We agree with Seth – violence, hatred, and murder are never justified. But, as John said, there are still countries and individuals who think (and practice) otherwise.

Let us briefly give you our perspective on this contentious subject.

You are all, as you say, “children of God.” But beyond that, you are God.

We define God as all that is. Everything that exists is created by, and part of, God. No exceptions. That includes all people, animals, plants, etc. – even so-called “inanimate” objects.

Given that perspective, it’s easy to see how harming even one small part harms the whole. You, who are God, are harming yourselves and the whole when you harm any part of creation, no matter how small or seemingly insignificant. It cannot be otherwise.

So every act of violence, hatred, or killing comes back at you like a boomerang. Your violent, hateful, or murderous thoughts and words (not to mention your deeds) contribute to the further wounding of your world. Your calm, loving, peaceful thoughts contribute to the healing of your world.

It’s that simple.

However, as Seth also said, “No one dies who has not made the decision to do so. Your existence before and after death is as normal as your present life.”

That is certainly true. So there are no victims or villains – only co-creators of your experiences. But that’s another subject for another day.

For this day we’ll leave this discussion by urging you to consider more deeply any thoughts you may hold of hatred or revenge, or anything less than loving. You are all connected and interwoven. What you do to others you do to yourselves and to all that is.


What are your thoughts about violence, hatred, killing, capital punishment? Please share with us below.

We welcome your comments and thoughtful opinions, whether you agree or disagree with us. Please keep your comments polite and relevant to the topic of this article. If needed, we’ll edit for clarity. Also, we’ll delete anything we consider inappropriate.


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16 Responses

  1. Chuck

    Hi all,
    I have been getting more spiritual since a year but i am not as evolved as some of you probably are on this group.
    I understand violence in NOT justified but i do have some scenarios where i am not sure. And would like your answers.
    #1 is self-defense. I understand that if my energy is pure then i guess according to Law of Attraction i would not be put in that situation to defend myself in that way. But lets take the case where some guy like the one who went on shooting rampage in the theatre and killed so many people. Now when the cops come in and also shoot him out. Is that fine? Or would they have to just take it easy and watch and say ok all humans are eternal beings so there is really nothing to be done? Or on the flip side the cops can say the killer is eternal, so there is no problem lets just shoot him too, he is only going to move from this physical to another dimension??

    #2 – question about life imprisonment if not death penalty. A guy has done serial killing and has been caught. Now if you leave him its highly likely (of course its not 100% sure) that he would kill more people. if i know 100% that he is reformed and could not kill anymore, then i am all for letting him scott free w/o any punishment. Do you confine him at all to prevent further deaths? I understand that the real solution is that society evolve to higher consciousness so no one ever gets to this situation at all. I totally support that. But what will u do right now if you are law enforcing office. Do you think its better to quit such a job and work on increasing global consciousness instead? or do your job according to rules but work more on increasing global consciousness.?

    #3 as you mentioned Hitler. I totally understand that hitler would be totally different and great person if he had changed his consciousness. Just as i myself did lot of embarrassing things and harmful things and am trying to be reach higher consciousness. so everyone needs a chance. So i get that part. But aren’t the Allies justified in defending and preventing more widespread torture?

    thanks
    chuck

    • Shih-Min

      To Chuck:
      There are three things to keep in mind before we offer opinions on your three questions.

      1. Life is a process of learning/evolution. Life as a human being on Earth is exactly like the period of time you have when participating in school.

      2. Death is not an all-wiping-out horrible end/elimination. It’s more like a graduation from school. You graduate from primary to secondary, from secondary to tertiary, etc.

      3. Learning/Evolving is a personal thing. You are student Chuck, you are not student Smith, you are not student Judy, you are not student Joe. You are You only.

      So, to your #1.
      Are you one of the cops? Are you Smith or Judy? If you are, we think you should phrase your question in a different way, a more non-detached non-screen viewerly personal way, then we will give you a different rely to sooth your inner struggling pain.
      If you are not one of the cops, we suggest, as all other spirits have suggested, Don’t be critical/judgemental. Don’t spend your time trying to figure out what “the other people” are doing fine or not fine, what “the other people” will say or not say. You have to stand on your own shoes Only.

      The following is an example of how one, in his/her own shoes, can watch his/her own footsteps:
      ********************************
      Paomei is a screen-viewer. When she saw the scenes, she felt pained for the running and fallen. Then she felt a little bit safer when she saw the police car; but when she saw the guns in their hand, she began to fear again: she wouldn’t like to see any one killed. Afterwards, when she saw/read on news the mourning of the bereaved families, her heart went out to each of them, she would like, if possible, to hug them and tell them that their beloved is fine, he/she is now on another journey, and the precious loving memories of their time together will exist in the form of blessing energy accompanying him/her always.

      Paomei also saw the police working hard. She thought “My God, that’s really difficult. Those guys are dealing with tremendously unpleasant matters. I wish I would never be in such a position.” She felt sorry for them, and almost wanted to apologize for their heavy job and extra time spent not with their wives/husbands and kids.

      As for the shooter. In the beginning Paomei tried to not hate him too much. She read story about him. She saw his photo and listened to his parents’ talk. Paomei began to remember her deceased brother. And then she remembered to listen to her “inner guidance”. Immediately the feeling of love swelled up from within. She was relieved of negative feelings. She was now calm/unimpulsive enough to look into factors which might provoke him and negatively influence him in a long run, and what were behind his decision to kill.

      She wanted to learn from this tragedy what she, herself, would beware of and be aware of, as a member of a human society. She learned how to more sensibly pick her choices, make her decisions, and do things which will contribute to desirous outcoume. She learned all these from watching a very wrong deed–its causes and effects, while remembering what she had learned before, including the aforementioned three things.
      **************************
      We believe the above can also serve your #2 and #3.

      With Love

      • Chuck

        thanks for your in-depth reply!

        I had another advise/question based on your #2 where you said death is graduation from school from primary to secondary etc.
        I have been following and learning about law of attraction, spirituality etc since about more than a year. I have had some evolution to trust my intuition sort of. i have been doing meditation and many times i have been silent and nonjudgmental with stuff going on in life and i could see things improving . Like i got into salsa dancing and before i would be impatient about improvement, or judge others, or not have consistency of practice etc but this time my energy was pure, i was happy to help others over my own interests and did lot of things to shut my ego as much as possible and i could see i made tremendous strides in that area. And i attribute it to my calmness and being bit more connected to Source.
        But when it comes to matters like what might happen after our death, that we are moving on to another dimension when we die etc. i have no clue about it except reading and listening from people like maybe John or now you are saying it and several others. I totally believe that what the masters are saying but how can i know this kind of truth to myself, that there is dimension after death?
        If you could share how you are able to know and some pointers about it, it would be totally awesome.

        Love and light!
        Chuck

        • Shih-Min

          To Chuck:
          You may go to Youtube searching “The day I died. NDE….” to find many people’s personal pre-timely experiences of the graduation ceremony. Those people are people you’ll meet every day on parks, in the neighborhood, in swimming/dancing pool, etc, people that you probably meet, say hello to, get a warm smile back, and pass, in your environment.
          The film is there before you asked. Be happy.

          With Love
          Shih-Min

  2. Ed

    Hi John:

    Great BLOG once again. As discussed in Tuning In, there are no victims or villains, only willing participants. As such, those that perform atrocities, do so with intent, to those that allow it. Both are aware of the repercussions and a party to it, before they commit the action. This is another dance in the “play of life”. While it is hard for us to accept, one would assume that the “perpetrator” needed to experience the execution, just as the “victim” needed to experience being a victimized.

    We should also remember that we have all lived lives, and have all done the very things we see as atrocities. While we may not wish to acknowledge our own “barbaric” lives, we are then lying to ourselves. We need to remember that there cannot be “only light”, for this ignores “the dark” which exists in our world as well. We need to work on our acknowledgement and integration of the two, for our lives (and our society) to become balanced.

    We are here to grow and learn, and to help society do the same. We have to acknowledge that there are souls with varying degrees of development on Earth, a planet of free choice. As such, we all seek to experience things that we need for growth.

    We can only hope that through increased awareness of connecting with our guides and our higher-selves, we can learn the lessons in a less “barbaric” way. Both personal and public channeling has helped us leap forward in this evolution. Thank you John for bringing Spirits’ wisdom public.

  3. Chieko

    Hi John,

    I loved the way Spirit left this discussion by urging us to examine our thoughts more closely. Any thoughts that are less than loving really matter because “it’s easy to see how harming even one small part harms the whole.” It’s really worth remembering “What you do to others you do to yourselves and to all that is.”

    I totally agree with all that Spirit, Seth, and you said. But I just hope anyone such as soldiers, veterans, those who are employed to execute the actual process of death penalty, those who have to “kill” animals or plants for food on behalf of us, someone who killed someone without intending to, etc., etc., will not feel guilty. As Spirit said in this article, “…there are no victims or villains – only co-creators of your experiences. But that’s another subject for another day.” That really IS completely another subject.

    I just thought the following Abraham video will soothe those who had to take others’ lives for some reason. I think the more they resonate with this John’s article, the more they may feel guilty about their past or even their current present for some people. But that really IS another subject.

    Hope everybody is having a wonderful day.
    When I look at the stars in the sky or even when I imagine them, my day immediately becomes wonderful. I’m sure everybody has that kind of magic too.

    Much love and big hugs to all,
    Chieko

  4. Shirley McLain

    Hi John, very interesting blog. I have been studying in the area of spirituality for the past couple of months. It’s wonderful to experience but I still have questions. As a God filled human I would like to ask Spirit what happens to people in the afterlife who do atrocities while here on earth?

    • John Cali

      Hi Shirley,

      That’s a good question, and one of my spirit guides have answered before. The short and simple answer is everyone goes to the same “place” in the next life. As Seth once put it, Hitler went to heaven. I don’t know if you’ve seen the movie, Tuning In. But the subject is discussed at length there.

  5. Mikala

    While I fully understand, agree with, and live what Spirit has said here, I continue to find myself disturbed by some of the super negativity in the world. This is especially true of the political arena in the U.S. today. Since I do not want to react to the unbelievable negative behavior, I must remove myself from mass media, and a few social contacts.

    As I listened to the video, I thought of how that negative energy flows out to the world. Aren’t we truly blessed to have the All That Is continuing to keep that Sun just where it is supposed to be each day? Since Love is the stronger emotion, I choose to send that out to the All, for my highest good and the highest of all.

    Mikala

    • John Cali

      I agree completely with you, Mikala. If I begin to think about all the negativity out there, I quickly catch myself and turn my focus elsewhere. I scan the mass media just so I know what’s happening in the world. But I do not immerse myself in it. I also do my best to avoid folks who focus on “bad” news and then complain endlessly about it. There’s too much good happening in our world for me to waste my time on what’s bad.

      Blessings,
      John

  6. deborah

    I think if more people realized we are all god then most violence would end.

  7. Shirl

    I love Seth and Abraham and so many others who have taught and assisted in awakening us to the reality of who and what we really are.

    I was very blessed to bring with me into this particular lifetime on planet earth the knowing that violence is and can never be justified. I knew this as a very small child. I have never changed my mind regarding this knowing. I know there are many who disagree with my perspective on this, even many who are very dedicated to their spiritual quest and journey.

    The largest disagreement I hear from those who think perhaps I am an absolute “nut” regarding such things is “What about self-defense?”

    I do not know if there is actually an automatic physical human response that would lead you to defend yourself. . .I certainly know about the well considered theories of “Flight or Fight.”

    But I have not experienced such things in my own life. I have said since I was a teenager that if you are in a harrowing or worrisome situation you are going to want to have Shirl there because instead of fear or panic those type of situations immediately take me to a very deep, clear-headed calm. I have always seemed to know just what to do and how to calm those who are panicking and in extreme fear.

    Certainly I have not reached the experience of 72 years here without having some interesting and potentially dangerous experiences run through my very adventurous life. But I have always had the same response of deep calm and clear thinking.

    Some of them I have thought were really quite humorous, like the time I was skiing with a friend and neither of us were very accomplished skiers. She and I had just gotten off the ski lift and started down a very steep slope when she fell right in front of me, downhill from me and I had to fall in order to not run over her. Her ski pole entered my upper inner thigh all the way to the round guard at the bottom (about 5 or 6 inches). She became almost hysterical because she had caused this injury to me. I had to calm her down and ski her off the mountain. Then I had to drive the 35 miles or so to a clinic to have my own injury looked after all the while talking her into some state of less hysteria. Fortunately I only injured the fatty part of of the inner thigh tissue. All was well. . .as it always is. I have laughed about this for many years.

    I have stood up to harassing young men (I was also young) in bars a few times. I mean that literally. When things would get out of hand I would Just stand up and tell them enough and they needed to either move to another spot in the establishment or leave altogether. For some reason, they always did. I did not ever threaten them and certainly they could have easily physically contained me with a punch or a shove. That has been good for many laughs over the years as well.

    People have often said to me that I’m “nuts” or just plain stupid and what if someone attacked me. . .I have always said. . .”Well, what’s the worst that could happen? They kill my physical body? I don’t see any downside to that. It’s just the place my spirit lives in for the moment. I could go home and be perfectly fine with that.” I have always found it difficult to take myself to a place of fear.

    So when it comes to violence, I am right there in the shadow of Ghandi. Never any justification as far as I am concerned. It is for each to come to their own knowing of it for themselves, but I cannot see it as a viable choice, ever.

    Blessings and hugs
    Shirl

    • John Cali

      Thank you so much, Shirl, for your wonderful comments, and for sharing your stories. What a magnificent role model you are for so many women in our world today! And probably for far more men. Men, after all are the “denser” of the two sexes. 🙂 But they’re beginning to “get it,” thanks in large part to the women in their lives.

      Lots of love & hugs,
      John

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