Of course, yours is an excellent point. I for one do not buy into this delusional, utterly implausible idea that the pain and suffering sentient beings experience in this material world has "a higher purpose". Such horrific means would not justify any (supposedly) benevolent purpose - it would be a blatant contradiction in terms.
Many of the sections in my book tackle this difficult subject head on. Here's one example that includes some fantastic quotes from near-death experiencer Natalie Sudman:
Chapter 34
The Sweet Spot
Six centuries ago, a Catholic nun named Julian of Norwich (1342 - 1416), had a near-death experience. Along with discovering, in direct opposition to the church’s teaching, that God loved everyone, unconditionally, she also discovered that everything in the universe was unfolding perfectly: “All shall be well, and all shall be well, and all manner of thing shall be well,” she declared.
By this she meant that all the injustices we see and experience in this world serve a glorious purpose that lies beyond human comprehension. "Our reasoning powers are so blind now, so humble and so simple," she wrote, "that we cannot know the high, marvelous wisdom, the might and the goodness of God."
If you’ve read this far, you know many other near-death experiencers report the same thing.
And they go a step further.
Along with declaring that every kind of evil, rotten, distasteful experience under the sun serves the greater good, they also declare that we create our own realities. We aren’t innocent victims when our car is stolen, our identity is hijacked, or we (or the ones we love) contract deadly illnesses. Ditto when wars, plagues, political upheavals, economic disasters, fires, floods, earthquakes, and tornadoes turn our lives upside down. On some level, we not only agree to every awful thing that happens to us, but we cheerfully collaborate. Here’s how near-death experiencer Natalie Sudman tackled this topic in her book, Application of Impossible Things:
"As outrageous as it may seem to our perspective in the physical, the man who built the bomb that blew me up may have performed that action at my own request. This is not to imply that because it was at my request, his actions are acceptable within the physical world and ought to be overlooked. The role may have been agreed upon in order for the bomber himself to experience what it’s like to be chased, arrested, detained, or killed for the violence he visited on others. The bomber’s actions don’t have to be condoned in the physical world because he and I as Whole Selves agreed to blow me up; we all keep playing our roles within the context of the physical (the collective reality that we as Whole Selves have chosen to focus upon and participate in) according to what we think is good and right.
“That as a Whole Being I actually chose to be blown up flies in the face of more than one cultural base assumption. We generally assume that things happen to us and that there are many things that we simply can’t control. Accidents happen, mistakes are made, some people are lucky, and some are not. My experience simply doesn’t support this base assumption. Whether consciously aware of it in the physical mind or not, my Whole Self is fully aware of every experience as a cooperative effort between my focused awareness within the physical world, my Whole Self, and other individual Selves. I craft my physical experiences. Things don’t happen to me without my consent; they happen because I created, co-created, or agreed to experience them."
Let’s repeat that last sentence:
“Things don’t happen to me without my consent; they happen because I created, co-created, or agreed to experience them."
While this is a tough pill to swallow, the blessing in adopting this perspective is that it gives the power back to us. We are no longer victims of outside forces. When we encounter challenging situations, we can turn to the deeper parts of ourselves to find out why. And what to do about them.
Which brings me to the sweet spot.
The sweet spot is first learning, feeling, intuiting that all is well. Then, when we are confronted with aspects of our lives that we are unhappy about, we engage the creative forces within us to find out how we created them, and how they can be changed – or, if not changed, handled in ways that turn lemons into lemonade.
And speaking of lemonade, let’s not forget all the good things in our lives. Near-death experiences also insist that we, in cooperation with the deeper parts of ourselves, create them as well.
Learn More About Near-Death Experiencer Julian of Norwich
Application Of Impossible Things
Learn More About Near-Death Experiencer Natalie Sudman