• Part I
  The Overlap Between NDEs and Shamanism
  
• Part II
  Contemporary Western Shamanism and the Work of Michael Harner
• Part III
  Shamanic Extractions
  
  
• Part IV
  Shamanism
  and Applied Science

Shamanic Extractions

This is an excellent description of the ecstatic nature of the shamanic experience. Ten to fifteen minutes into the drumming and singing, Peters has left his body and is witnessing the scene from above. When he returned to his body, he found himself transformed:

“I'm not exactly sure how I returned to my body, but I became aware I was kneeling next to the patient, clawing at black poisonous spiders and other insects I saw crawling in his veins. I saw large wasps with huge stingers in his heart. I growled and hissed as I jumped at the insects. I thought to myself, ‘I'm behaving like a tiger.’ Suddenly I was an orange, black, and white tiger with large saber fangs - the tiger Gajandra had taught me to be, the tiger that bites and sucks flesh at healing ceremonies. I bit and sucked out the insects. I felt their sharpness inside my mouth, then spat them out. There were so many I thought I'd never get them all. I sucked the man's back. I bit and sucked his sides and rolled his body over. Saliva covered my face as I growled and bared my teeth. Picking up his shirt, I went straight for his heart.

“At the time, I didn't know how long I had worked on the man. As I shape-shifted back into ordinary reality and fell back into my seat in the circle of drummers, I was exhausted. Sweat was pouring from me. I felt dazed and unbalanced. I remember feeling out of time, and I kept holding onto my colleagues for reassurance. The patient was visibly shaken. His hands and body continued to tremor as he was hurriedly escorted back to the hospital ambulance that brought him.”

Although Peters was deeply concerned, he later learned that the man's condition had improved dramatically! In fact, when he visited with the man and his family a week later:

“He was vibrant, smiling and joking and embracing his wife. As his family served us dinner, he said he felt no pain. He sat tall. It was as if he were another person. He talked about going back to work. He had developed a passion for life, disclosing that he had changed his diet, and I noticed that he didn't drink while the others toasted each of us. His coloring and countenance had completely changed.”

Peters has never had an NDE. However, his own training with Tibetan and Nepalese shamans has included numerous initiations into what is referred to as cham which Peters describes as a “psychogenic near-death experience.”

Another dramatic healing comes from Robert Moss (1996). Moss reported having had a number of NDEs between the ages of two and eleven while suffering recurrent bouts of double pneumonia. Moss, who incorporates both shamanic techniques and dreams in his approach, which he refers to as active dreaming, described the experience of a woman named Wanda who was a natural healer and who had worked with him for several years. Over a period of 20 years Wanda had a recurring dream during which she was told that she would die in her 40's. She was diagnosed with breast cancer at age 43. The cancer was thought to be spreading quickly and she underwent a modified radical mastectomy and chemotherapy. During and following the chemotherapy, she was having a very difficult time. Moss journeyed on her behalf:

“One night in a hypnogogic dream state, I journeyed to check on her. I found her in a night setting, near a cave that was also a temple. A circle of women were performing a ritual nearby, but Wanda was not part of it. She was frozen, paralyzed in terror of some shadowy, snakelike forms that menaced her on all sides. I grabbed two of the "snakes" and wound them into the form of a caduceus. Instantly, the healing staff came brilliantly alight in my hand. It radiated intense golden light. I touched Wanda with it. She promptly vanished.”

Wanda later told Moss that she had also had a dream that night, a dream in which he had "flooded her with light." Following the dream she also felt buoyant and released from the malaise of the past weeks. Apparently, this dream energized Wanda and prepared her for a dream that she had on the night before her 44th birthday, a dream that Moss writes "quite literally, gave her a new lease on life." [41] Wanda dreamt:

“I am climbing to the top of a mountain where an awesome presence is waiting for me. I know that this powerful being sent the messenger who told me I had to leave Earth. It moves like waves of light. It conveys its wishes and emotions by thought. I am terrified, but I never back away. The entity reminds me that I agreed before I came to this planet that I would leave at forty-three. I acknowledge this is true. I am shown a contract with my signature on it.

“I argue that this contract should not be executed. I tell the entity that I didn't want to come here when I made the contract. But now I have people that I love and people I believe I can help to heal, because of my own experiences. I tell him, ‘You must know this, because you allowed me to discover my illness through dreams before my time was spent.’

“There is a time lapse. It seems like an eternity. Then I am presented with a new contract. I am given more time to help others.”

Awakening from this dream, Wanda found herself trembling and crying with joy. Later, she told Moss that the dream was unlike any she had ever had before because she was both awake and asleep at the same time.

The article entitled "Near Death Experiences (NDEs), Shamanism and the Scientific Method," first appeared in the Journal for Near-Death Studies and is reprinted here with the author's permission.