A Shamanic Approach to Death & Dyingby Jim Perry
The Shaman's Medicine Hut
Shamanism is an ever-evolving path with its roots grounded in ancient traditions of healing and service. The word shaman comes to English from the Tungus of Siberia meaning "one who walks between worlds." Although shamanic practices vary from tribe to tribe, from country to country and century to century, shamans are fundamentally teachers, healers, and guides for their communities. They use altered states of consciousness to effect healing and to journey between the world of matter and the world of spirit.
Over the past few years I have been initiated into the medicine traditions of the Q'ero shamans of Peru, the direct descendants of the Inka, as a Mesa Carrier. And recently I have begun to explore the medicine teachings of the Anishinabe of North America. These traditions are both based on our relationship to Mother Earth (pachamama) and to the Great Spirit (Wiracocha). In fact, there are many similar shamanic teachings and pathways to knowledge -- so whether one is a Navajo medicine man, a Central American curandero or an Amazonian ayahuasquero, many of the basic practices, techniques and beliefs which constitute shamanism are remarkably similar.
Shamanism is not a religion, yet it is the basis of all religions. The shaman learns from nature and understands that all things are connected, even in death. Moreover, shamanism challenges the Western tendency to deny death and succeeds in transcending the limitations of our conscious mind and physical reality. Mircea Eliade, director of the History of Religions Department at the University of Chicago until his death in 1986, was the first to make a comprehensive study of shamanism across the globe. He discovered that the ability to leave the physical body and journey to other worlds was unique to shamanic practice. It is by exercising that ability that the shaman serves as a psychopomp, or conductor of souls between this world and the world after.
Shamans believe that people who have recently died, especially under sudden and/or traumatic circumstances, are often confused and disoriented. The shaman enters a trance state, travels into non-ordinary reality, finds the wandering soul, and helps direct it to where it needs to go.
For a shaman to serve in this way however, he or she must first personally experience death and learn to perceive death as a transformation. This is usually accomplished through a rite or ritual, shared by a teaching shaman with an initiate, that mimics a death experience. The man who instructed me in the ways of the Andean Q'ero guided me into a symbolic ceremony of death that offered tremendous personal insight.
I learned from my teacher that in the shamanic traditions of the Q'ero, there is a body of knowledge that can be "known but not told," part of the secret teachings shared by all shamanic traditions. These teachings are secret not because they are hidden or withheld from the seeker, but because it is a knowledge that cannot be given away -- it has to be discovered and experienced personally. So in sharing the death rites, he shared with me an entry point into that shamanic knowledge.
After some ceremonial preparation, I was asked to lie on the floor. My teacher was joined by several others who took strategic points at my head, feet and alongside my body. My eyes were covered and the room got very, very quiet. I took deep, gentle breaths in an effort to center myself in the experience. As they worked in ritual I could feel my breath becoming very shallow. Focusing their intent, my teacher and his helpers had begun to separate my "energy body" from my physical body. Working first at my seven chakras, or energy centers of the body, they disconnected the links that kept my two bodies attached. They seemed to have difficulty disengaging the connection at my heart, indicating the strong ties binding me to those I love.
As they did I began to get the incredible sensation of floating above myself and it was as if my physical body had deflated like a balloon. I could feel the energetic cord connecting my energy body to my physical body at the solar plexus -- I could actually sense their hands around the cord. As I floated there above my body I felt so light, as if I could easily ask them to release me from my physical bonds. The sense of peace was unlike anything I had ever experienced. Much like those who encounter a near-death experience, I knew I had sampled death -- I had been initiated into a shamanic journey.
J. Timothy Green, Ph.D., a clinical psychologist in California, has studied shamanic practice and near-death experience and suggests that those who experience a journey of this kind can learn that this realm is not one that awaits us only after death. It exists now and is, in principle, available in life to anyone who has learned the pathway.
After several moments had passed, I heard my teacher whisper instructions and they proceeded to bring my two bodies back into connection. Gently and lovingly they lowered my energetic body back into my physical body and restored the connections at my chakras. It took me several moments to reorient myself to my surroundings.
The experience of the death rites and the subsequent teachings I received taught me that the presence and awareness of my own death can be a great ally. Understanding a shamanic approach to death has provided an awareness that allows me to align myself with life. I now have the option to react to any situation as if I knew death was imminent. I have learned that death gives the shaman power and focus -- but it is power and focus that must be used for the benefit of others.
There is much more that I could say about the shamanic path relative to death and dying. But this article, like all things, must come to an end. The death rites helped me understand that life is nothing but a continuing dance of birth and death, a dance of change. The change of seasons, the setting sun, the passing of a friend -- serve as a reminder of the impermanence of all things. We do not really die, we just change. These ever-present changes prompt us to let go of all the things to which we cling. The shaman discovers in a ritualized way that learning to die, like learning to live, means learning to let go.
Resources
Archaic Techniques of Ecstasy, by Mircea Eliade, Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1964.
Dance of the Four Winds -- Secrets of the Inca Medicine Wheel, by Alberto Villoldo, Rochester, VT: Destiny Books, 1990.
The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying, by Sogyal Rinpoche, San Francisco: Harper, 1993.
Way of the Shaman, by Michael Harner, New York, NY: Harper Collins, 1980.
Based in Chicago, Jim Perry teaches and lectures nationally on contemporary men's issues, spiritual practice and personal transformation. With a degree in Pastoral Studies, he has explored the sacred mystery teachings of several cultures and been initiated into the medicine traditions of the Q'ero of Peru, the direct descendants of the Inka, as a Mesa Carrier. In his work, he strives to honor the spirit of all traditions that are based on our relationship to the Pachamama (Mother Earth) and the Great Spirit. Email him at jperry@medicinehut.com and visit his website at www.medicinehut.com - A place to explore and experience the world's healing arts and shamanic traditions.