This Saturday, September 28, I’ll be speaking at the 1st Annual Fight For Life event here in Chattanooga. My topic is the urgent need to re-frame suicidal ideation–the thought of killing yourself–into what religious and spiritual traditions have always considered it: an opportunity for transformation. There’s no positive model out there in our culture that accounts for the natural growth process that leads many of us to contemplate suicide. Many so-called spiritual leaders (such as Eckhart Tolle) have passed through such a “Dark Night of the Soul.” It’s time to demystify the process and get the message out that suicidal ideation is designed by nature as a prelude to rebirth, not actual death. I’ll use Mezirow’s transformative learning theory and Maslow’s hierarchy of needs as examples of how the inner revolution serves the maturation process. Hermann Hesse’s Siddhartha (his novel about Buddha) will serve as the exemplar.