Shamanistic Journeys to the Afterlife
Shamanistic Journeys to the Afterlife
From: Near Death Experience in Indigenous Religions - Gregory Shushan PhD
The word shaman originally related to Asia and the subarctic rim who use the Evenki word “shaman” – although even this usage is challenged by the fact that the word has earlier roots in the Sanskrit sramana, meaning a religious mendicant or monk. One definition of shamanism are restricted practices involving an individual entering a trance state “during which his soul is believed to leave his body and ascend to the sky or descend to the underworld.”
Other terms can include indigenous, healers, prophets, diviners, mediums, and so forth, who use culturally situated ritual techniques involving altered states of consciousness to effect healing, soul-retrieval, protection, exorcism, or knowledge acquisition.
Unlike NDEs, which are spontaneous, shamanic experiences are deliberately generated through culturally particular practices, such as repetitive drumming, dancing, chanting and drug use. In many cultures, they involve individuals entering a trance-state, which is said to enable them to temporally leave their bodies in order to rescue the soul of a dangerously ill person, or to gain healing, powers, wisdom, or other supernatural information from gods, spirits or ancestors in the realms of the dead.
Underworlds could be positive places they could alternatively, be gloomy and negative with earthly conditions inverted. In such instances, the dead feared living “visitors” (e.g. NDEers and shamans), as if they were ghosts, and found them to be offensive-smelling. Time was distorted and food was unsavory, or would be inedible to the living (e.g thorns, dirt)
When the Wanapum prophet Smohalla went into trance, skeptics stuck him with needles and cut him with knives to ensure he was not faking. Only when he did not react—and indeed not bleed—did they accept what they were seeing.
A key function of shamans around North America was to travel to the other world in spirit-form to retrieve the soul of a sick or dying person. This was achieved by deliberately inducing altered states of consciousness through practices such as smoking, fasting, extended graveside vigils, and continuous, repetitive drumming, dancing, and singing.
The German missionary David Cranz described Greenlandic Inuit beliefs in souls that could leave the body and travel on voyages, particularly in dreams, and via shamanic activity. Shamans could retrieve the souls of those in danger of dying, and restore them to health, or exchange a sick soul for a healthy animal one.
One shaman named Kunigseq under took a journey to the underworld by descending through the floor, assisted by “helping spirits”. He reached a place of sunshine, and heather-covered hills, saw children by a river, and met his brother and mother, who had been gathering berries. When she tried to kiss him, a helping spirit pushed her away, and said “He’s only here on a visit.”
The spirit warned Kunigseq that if he ate any of the berries, he would not be able to return home. His mother tried to get to convince him to stay, pointing out that his family was already there, and describing a life of abundance in the underworld, with smooth seas, good hunting, and no snow. He could see newly dead men on kayaks, and hear their laughter. “I will come again when I die.” he told his mother.
For Gilgulim Inuit, some believed that the dead were judged by the sea spirit Takanakapsaluk. Good people who did who did not break taboos like violence or suicide, were sent to the eastern heavens, while those who failed to observe the ancient rules of life or detained by Takanakapsaluk to atone for their misdeeds before, proceeding to the undersea realm.