An investigation into the phenomena and practices of spiritual ...

selfish as her sister does not do enough for her husband who is ill and has to go intohospital. When asked if her sister was suffering she said that her sister was not sufferingbecause her sister has always managed to get other people to do things for her and has notdone much for herself throughout her life. She implied that her sister was a malingerer asdescribed by Asher (2002) who described self-manufactured illnesses.In her account of suffering this respondent perceived other people‟s illness as suffering butshe could not perceive her sister‟s suffering. It may be that there is a superimposition ofher own experiences onto that of her sister as she is so emotionally close to her sister.Respondent 4 gives as an example of suffering when a young person dies, withoutspecifying if this meant that that person is suffering in death or the suffered before death ortheir loved ones left behind are suffering. This concept of suffering may depend on thebelief of a life after death where there is change and we imagine that the change could be alife of continued suffering or relief from the suffering. The fact that death causes sufferingat different levels for those who are alive cannot be disputed. When a young person dies itcauses suffering because of the loss of financial and other contribution that that personcould make to society had they lived? It appears to be a wasted life. Psychologicalsuffering can be as real as physical suffering and the two cannot be separated into discreteaspects of the person.Respondent 4‟s somewhat judgmental approach to her sister may mirror traditionalChristian interpretations of the suffering of Job, the biblical character who is taken toillustrate the suffering of the innocent in her comments on children and the parents ofchildren who die. C.S.Lewis (2003) argued that the ultimate purpose of suffering is for191