[quote author=candycandycandy link=topic=12000.msg695826#msg695826 date=1200362663]
You must be pretty fucked up and depressed to even consider setting yourself on fire. Hanging or pill overdose would be much more easier and pain free.
[/quote]
Self-immolation, while tolerated by Buddhism and Hinduism, was practiced by religious and/or philosophical monks, especially in India for Sati, throughout the ages, for various reasons, including political protest, devotion, renouncement, etc.. Certain warrior cultures also practiced it, such as in the case of Charans and Rajputs.
During the Great Schism of the Russian Church, entire villages of Old Believers burned themselves to death in an act known as "fire baptism". Scattered instances of self-immolation have also been recorded by the Jesuit priests of France in the early 1600s. Their practice of this was not intended to be fatal, though. They would burn certain parts of their bodies (limbs such as the forearm, the thigh) to signify the pain Jesus endured while upon the crucifix.
A number of Buddhist monks (including ThĂ*ch Quảng Đức) self-immolated in protest of the discriminatory treatment endured by Buddhists under the authoritarian administration of President NgĂ´ Đình Diệm in South Vietnam — even though violence against oneself is prohibited by most interpretations of Buddhist doctrine.
On November 2, 1965, Norman Morrison used kerosene to burn himself to death outside The Pentagon as a protest against the Vietnam War. Roger Allen LaPorte did so one week later outside the United Nations headquarters.
Jan Palach was a Czech student who committed suicide by self-immolation as a political protest against the Soviet-led invasion of Czechoslovakia in August 1968.
Sándor Bauer was a Hungarian student who committed suicide by self-immolation in front of the National Museum in Budapest as a political protest against the Communist Regime in January 1969.
Márton Moyses was a Hungarian poet who committed suicide by self-immolation in front of the Hall of Romanian Communist Party in Brasov as a political protest against the dictatorship in February 1970.
In 2001 a group of people self-immolated in Tiananmen Square, Beijing, China. Communist party broadcast the event nationally on Chinese new year and claimed the immolators were practitioners of the Chinese spiritual movement Falun Gong. The Tiananmen Square self-immolation incident has since been heavily debated internationally, as Falun Gong supporters claimed it was a setup by the Chinese government as part of the ongoing crackdown on the movement.
Malachi Ritscher was a Chicago musician and anti-war protestor who committed suicide by self-immolation as a political protest against the War in Iraq.
In 2007, it was revealed that more Kurdish women were attempting self-immolation.
http://www.reference.com/search?q=self-immolation