Americas

From: Near Death Experience in Indigenous Religions - Gregory Shushan PhD

The Next World: Extraordinary Experiences of the Afterlife - Gregory Shushan PhD

Comparative religions scholar Åke Hultkrantz (1957) identified NDEs as a discrete phenomenon in Native American cultures, and found that the indigenous people themselves distinguished between dreams, visions, and NDEs. Most crucially, they gave the NDEs the greatest importance and value. Indeed, Hultkrantz presented a great deal of evidence to support his conclusions that Native American afterlife beliefs were widely based on NDEs.

The earliest recorded Native American NDEs are found in Thomas Hariot’s (1588) account of the first voyage to Virginia in 1585–1586 

The French Jesuit missionary Jean de Brébeuf (1636) lived with the Wyandot for fifteen years, learned their language fluently, and was a careful chronicler of their culture. He was told that their afterlife beliefs originated in reports of individuals who had died and were “brought back to life,” and were maintained by the retelling of such narratives. Brébeuf also recorded an Orpheus myth in which a man followed his sister to the other world after prolonged mourning.

In 1762, the prophet Neolin sought an encounter with the creator deity, the Master of Life. Following prolonged “fasting, dreaming and magical incantations,” he set off on his “journey to the spirit world.” After eight days he reached a brook at the edge of a meadow, and three paths cutting through a forest. The first two were blocked by the “wonderful phenomena” of a “bright flame” leaping from the ground. He walked for a day on the third path before coming to “a vast mountain, of dazzling whiteness.” From the summit, a beautiful woman told him that if wished to proceed he must rid himself of his guns, ammunition, supplies, and clothing, then wash himself in the stream. He obeyed, ascended, and at the summit he found a “rich and beautiful plain” with three fine villages in the distance. A “gorgeously attired” man appeared, welcomed him to the “celestial abode,” and took him to the Master of Life, who was surrounded by “unspeakable splendor.” He told Neolin that the indigenous people must fight the British; cease using European weapons, tools, food, and alcohol; adopt monogamy; cease sorcerous practices; and return to traditional ways of life. He gave Neolin a stick carved with a prayer summarizing the new teachings, and Neolin carried it back to Earth with him as evidence of his experience

However, the historian and geographer Johann Georg Kohl (1860) was told by the Ojibwe that they knew about the afterlife because “many of our of our tribe have been there and returned”. In one example, a hunter died of an illness, “and his soul went to the great wondering”. At a giant strawberry, he was interrogated by a man dressed as a raven. He refused to rest or taste the strawberry, and continued to the river.   At the village of souls he heard drums, and saw people playing sports and games. He met his deceased parents, and though his mother was happy and tried to feed him, his father asked why he had come and tried to send him away, reminding him that he had a wife and ice and son at home. The Hunter’s uncles arrived and agreed that he should go back to care for his family. He relented, but before he left, his mother gave him a packet of red powder. He turned the way he had come, though when he reached the river he found that it had become fierce and turbulent. The log had become a snake and the strawberry, “a red hot mass” with “a great savage man” wielding a hammer next to it. The Hunter successfully passed these obstacles, then saw his cousin walking toward the land of the dead. He tried to convince the cousin to try to earth with him, but he “was really dead, and must go to the land of souls”. After advising his cousin on what to expect on the journey, the hunter continued on his way until he became lost, surrounded by smoke on a burning prairie. He lept through flames, and awoken his body surrounded by his grieving family. He told him of his experience and produced the packet of his spirit mother had given him.  Inside was “a pretty little blood red sponge”. He ate a piece of it and lived a long life.

In a Lipan Apache NDE from 1935, a man was shot and left for dead. Everything went black, then became extremely bright. He followed a steep path to a beautiful place with green grass, trees, and a stream. In the distance was a village between hills. A group of men were playing “hoop and pole,” and he hid in some bushes to watch. When a score needed to be settled, the players called in the man’s father. When he saw his son, he had another man instruct him to return to Earth because his time had not yet come. He wanted to reassure his son, however, that the realm was “a good place, and that only those who have been good when on Earth belong here.” An impassable hill separated this realm from a dark, misty one to the north, reserved for witches and people “who shoot things into others.” They ate only what the living would not, such as lizards, snakes, and horned toads. Obeying his father, the man ran back to Earth. He saw “some awful object” ahead, which turned out to be his own body surrounded by blood. He tried to avoid it but was somehow impelled back inside. He revived and reported his experience to his people, and “That is what the Lipan believe about the place where they go at death.”

A shaman who was close to death was taken to the other world, and shown rewards and punishments. “People who committed evil deeds” were placed under an iceberg, tied to a post and starved, or kept in a corral. Those “who have done good deeds on the earth” went to a beautiful realm of dancing and plenty. Good shamans had a separate place, and the man recognized spirits of fellow shamans he had known in life. Bad shamans were burned or suffered other punishments. The man’s guide instructed him to tell his people what he saw, in order to renew their faith