Near-death experiences are known around the world and throughout human history. They are sometimes reported by individuals who have revived from a period of clinical death or near-death and they typically feature sensations of leaving the body, entering and emerging from darkness, meeting deceased friends and relatives, encountering beings of light, judgment of one's earthly life, feelings of oneness, and reaching barriers, only to return to the body. Those who have NDEs almost invariably understand them as having profound spiritual or religious significance.
In this book, Gregory Shushan explores the relationships between near-death experiences, shamanism, and beliefs about the afterlife in traditional indigenous societies in Africa, North America, and Oceania. Drawing on historical accounts of the earliest encounters with explorers, missionaries, and ethnologists, this study addresses questions such as: Do ideas about the afterlife commonly originate in NDEs? What role does culture play in how people experience and interpret NDEs? How can we account for cross-cultural similarities and differences between afterlife beliefs? Though NDEs are universal, Shushan shows that how they are actually experienced and interpreted varies by region and culture. As the historical documents reveal, in North America, they were commonly valorized, and attempts were made to replicate them through shamanic rituals. In Africa, however, they were largely considered aberrational events with links to possession or sorcery. In Oceania, Micronesia corresponded more to the African model, while Australia had a greater focus on afterlife journey shamanism. Polynesia and Melanesia showed an almost casual acceptance of the phenomenon as reflected in numerous myths, legends, and historical accounts.
This study examines the continuum of similarities and differences between NDEs, shamanism, and afterlife beliefs in dozens of cultures throughout these regions. In the process, it makes a valuable contribution to our knowledge about the origins of afterlife beliefs around the world and the significance of related experiences in human history.
Gregory Shushan, PhD, is an award-wining author and the leading authority on near-death experiences and the afterlife across cultures and throughout history. His other books in include The Next World: Extraordinary Experiences of the Afterlife, and Near-Death Experience in Ancient Civilizations (forthcoming 2024). He is a Visiting Research Fellow at University of Winchester, Research Fellow at the Parapsychology Foundation, and Adjunct Professor of Thanatology at Marian University. Dr. Shushan was previously Perrott-Warrick Researcher at University of Oxford's Ian Ramsey Centre for Science and Religion; Scholar-in Residence at the Centro Incontri Umani, Ascona, Switzerland; and Honorary Research Fellow at the Religious Experience Research Centre, University of Wales. University of Wales Trinity Saint David. He has lectured at universities in the UK, Ireland, Switzerland, and US, has given numerous talks on his research in nine countries, and has appeared on the History Channel.
