|
 Is
there life after death? It's a question that people have grappled with
throughout history and across cultures - from the
Tibetan Book of the Dead to
Embraced by the Light.
James Lewis is a world-recognized authority on non-traditional
religions. He is the chairman of the
Department of Religious Studies at
the World University of America. His book,
Encyclopedia of Afterlife Beliefs and Phenomena explores the ritual,
lore, pageantry, customs, language, theory and other aspects of
afterlife. From alchemy to near-death experiences and from
Gilgamesh to the collective unconscious, you'll find
straightforward, objective and sensitive information on this
ever-fascinating and elusive topic. Is there life after death? The
following are the various answers to this question from some of
history's religious traditions. Be sure to read this website's
NDE research conclusions on religion.
Zoroastrianism
Zoroastrianism has been an unusually fruitful faith, exercising an
influence on the doctrines of other religions disproportionate to
its size. It was founded in ancient Persia in about 1000 BC
(some sources say much earlier) by the prophet Zoroaster.
The religion of Zoroaster is best known for its good versus evil
dualism. The god of light and the upper world and his angels are
locked in a cosmic struggle with the god of darkness and the lower
world and his demons. Unlike Christianity, in which the outcome of
the war between god and the devil has already been decided,
Zoroastrianism portrays the struggle as a more or less even match.
Individual human beings are urged to align themselves with the
forces of light and are judged according to the predominance of
their good or evil deeds.
As for the afterlife, Zoroastrianism teaches that for three days after
death the soul remains at the head of its former body. All of the
individual's good and bad deeds are entered in a sort of
accountant's ledger, recording evil actions as debits and good
actions as credits. The soul then embarks on a journey to judgment,
walking out onto the Chinvat
("accountant's") Bridge. In the middle of the bridge, there is
a sharp edge which stands like a sword; and hell is below the
Bridge. Then the soul is carried to where there stands a sword. If
the soul is righteous, the sword presents its broad side. If the
soul is wicked, that sword continues to stand edgewise, and does not
give passage. With three steps which the soul takes forward - which
are the evil thoughts, words, and deeds that it has performed - it
is cut down from the head of the Bridge, and falls headlong to hell.
If, when bad deeds are weighed against good ones, debits outweigh
credits, "even if the difference is only three tiny acts of
wrongdoing," the sinner falls off the bridge and into hell. Hell is
a dismal realm of torment, where the damned can consume only the
foulest food for nourishment. If debits and credits cancel each
other out, the soul is placed in Hammistagan
("region of the mixed"), a transitional realm in which souls
are neither happy nor sorrowful and in which they will abide until
the final apocalypse. In latter texts, a person's deeds greet him on
the bridge in personified form - a beautiful maiden for a good
person; an ugly hag for a bad person - who either leads the soul to
paradise
("the luminous mansions of the sky") or embraces the soul and
falls into hell, according to whether the person has been good or
evil.
After the final battle between good and evil, there will be a general
judgment in which everyone will be put through an ordeal of fire;
good individuals will have their dross burned away and evil people
will be consumed. Thus, the souls of the damned will trade their
ongoing torment in hell for a painful annihilation. The souls of the
blessed, on the other hand, will be resurrected in physical bodies,
which the "wise lord" will make both immortal and eternally
youthful.
(In a later modification of tradition, both good and evil souls
have their dross burned away, so that everyone shares the
post-resurrection paradise.)
The concept of resurrection as formulated in Zoroastrianism represents
one of the earliest efforts to conceive of immortality. It is part
of an optimistic vision of the end of the world, in which the forces
of light overcome darkness and all humankind rejoices with the
renewal of creation.
Many of the components of this vision of the end times - a final
battle between good and evil, judgment of the wicked, resurrection
of the dead - were adopted by Jewish apocalyptic thinkers. From
texts composed by these apocalypticists, such notions were adopted
by Christianity and Islam.
Essenes
The Essenes were a Jewish
monastic sect made famous by the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls -
the Essene monastery's library, which had been hidden in caves near
the Dead Sea - in 1947. A good deal of excitement was initially
generated by the scrolls' mention of a "Teacher of Righteousness,"
which some early investigators mistakenly thought might be a
reference to Jesus. The Essenes had also been romanticized by
certain occult/metaphysical writers who thought they perceived an
ancient mystery school in Josephus's and other authors' writings
about this group.
Further investigation into the scrolls, however, indicated that the
Essenes were an apocalyptic Jewish sect descended from the pietists
(Hasidim, not to be confused with contemporary Hasidism) of
the Maccabeean era. They withdrew from society and established a
monastery on the shores of the Dead Sea at Qumran in the middle of
the second century BC, where they had a community until attacked
during the Roman-Jewish war of AD 66-70.
In stark contrast to other forms of Judaism and to early Christianity,
the Essene sect believed in the notion of an immortal soul. In their
very un-Jewish antagonism toward the flesh, as well as in certain of
their notions of soul, they appear to have been influenced by
Gnosticism, or by one of the other Neoplatonic mystery religions of
the Hellenistic period. Their beliefs about the soul and the
afterlife were described by Josephus in "The Jewish War":
"It is indeed their unshakable conviction that bodies are corruptible
and the material composing them impermanent, whereas souls remain
immortal forever. Coming forth from the most rarefied ether, they
are trapped in the prison house of the body as if drawn down by one
of nature's spells; but once freed from the bonds of the flesh, as
if released after years of slavery, they rejoice and soar aloft.
Teaching the same doctrine as the sons of Greece, they declare that
for the good souls there waits a home beyond the ocean, a place
troubled by neither rain nor snow nor heart, but refreshed by the
zephyr that blows ever gentle from the ocean. Bad souls they consign
to a darksome, stormy abyss, full of punishments that know no end."
Sadducees
As anyone passingly familiar with the New Testament knows, biblical
lands were under the control of the Romans during the lifetime of
Jesus. The new social situation resulting from this foreign
occupation led to the development of competing factions within the
Jewish community. Although all parties agreed on the authority of
the Torah, they disagreed on certain interpretations. One powerful
faction was the
Sadducees, a group of long-time landowners that included many
priests. The name of this party may have come from Sadoq, the priest
of David.
The Sadducees emphasized the authority of the first five books of
Hebrew scriptures
(the books of Moses) and dismissed most later interpretations
- particularly the oral laws articulated by the Pharisees - as human
invention. Consequently, they also rejected the influx of new ideas
that was reshaping popular Judaism, such as beliefs in a final
judgment and belief in resurrection. As both the historian Josephus
and the New Testament witness, the Sadducees emphatically rejected
the notion of an afterlife; like the ancient Hebrews, they
emphasized the present. As the aristocracy, the Sadducees were
comfortable with the ancient Hebrew idea that God's rewards and
punishments were meted out in the present life.
Gnosticism
You can read more about Christian
Gnosticism on this website including Gnostic texts. The
Apocalypse of Paul which is remarkably similar to a near-death
experience is an account of Paul's NDE to heaven.
Gnosticism was primarily a movement and school of thought
prominent in the Hellenistic Mediterranean world and influenced
paganism, Judaism, and Christianity. Its core teachings were that
this world - especially the human body - was the product of an
evil deity (i.e., the
Demiurge) who had trapped human souls in the physical world. Our
true home is the absolute spirit
(the "pleroma"), and hence we should reject the pleasures of
the flesh as a way of escaping this prison.
Unlike Christianity, in which one is saved by faith, in this school of
thought one was saved by proper intellectual insight, or "gnosis"
(Greek for "knowledge"). Gnosticism in its original sense died
out before the Western Middle Ages, although the term continued to
be used to refer to any deviations the Church deemed excessively
world-denying, or that seemed to stress mental insight over faith as
the essential mode of salvation.
Although many mystery religions and other religious movements in
antiquity emphasized a dualism between the body and the soul, none
went to the extreme of Gnosticism. Rather than yearning for
immortality in this life, the Gnostics viewed living in this world
as a kind of hell. Like the southern Asian religions, which may have
influenced this school of thought, Gnosticism saw human beings as
trapped in a cycle of reincarnation and believed that even suicide
could not release one from bondage to the flesh.
Cathars was the name given by the Catholic Church to members of a
dualistic heresy of Gnostic origin in the twelfth century. Catharism
arose in the eastern Mediterranean region during the Middle Ages and
spread slowly westward. Among its most important adherents were the
Albigensians of southern France, who were militarily destroyed in
the early 1200s by the only successful medieval Crusade, which began
in 1209.
Cathars were distinguished from other medieval heretic groups for
rejecting such basic Christian beliefs as the doctrine of
incarnation, Christ's two natures, the Virgin Birth, and bodily
resurrection. They also repudiated the Church hierarchy and
sacraments, particularly baptism by water and matrimony, and
followed an ascetic lifestyle that included celibacy, vegetarianism,
and even ritual suicide. Most Cathars accepted only the New
Testament, which they read in its Catholic version.
The Cathars believed the universe consists of two coexisting sphere:
the kingdom of the good God, who is spiritual and suprasensible and
who created the invisible heaven, its spirits, and the four
elements; and the kingdom of the evil god, Satan, who created the
material world and who, being unable to make the human soul,
captured it from heaven and imprisoned it in the material body.
Thus, the fundamental aim of their religious practice was to release
the soul from the body by freeing it from Satan's power and helping
it to return to its original place in heaven.
In marked contrast with orthodox Christian belief, bodily resurrection
was not viewed as part of the scheme of redemption. Rather, only the
destruction of the body and of all Satan's visible creation - which
is hell - was adequate to ensure salvation of the soul and its
ascent to heaven. The only way to do so was to receive the Cathars'
unique sacrament, the "consolamentum", which was administered by the
laying on of hands.
Individuals could come to recognize evil through a series of
reincarnations, and could eventually free their souls from Satan and
thereby become perfect. According to Catharism, at the end of time
all souls will be saved or damned, even though there were some
differences between the doctrine of the absolute dualists and that
of the mitigate dualists. For the former group, free will played no
part in salvation, and in the end the material world would fall
apart after all souls had departed. For the latter, Satan would be
captured, and the proper order of all things would be reestablished.
Manichaeism
Manichaeism was a religious movement that arose in the third
century and spread across the Mediterranean world. Founded by Mani
(a Persian born into a Christian and Jewish community in AD 215),
Manichaeism was a mixture of Gnosticism, Zoroastrianism, and
Christianity that spread across the Western world and lasted for the
better part of a thousand years
(it may even have lasted until the twentieth century in China).
Its central teaching was a severe dualism between spirit and matter,
soul and body. St Augustine, the most influential of the church
fathers, converted to Christianity from Manicheism, and some have
said that Christianity's antagonism toward the flesh was influenced
by Augustine's former religion. Although this movement died out
during the Western Middle Ages, the term Manichaeism continued to be
used to refer to any sect or teaching that seemed to overemphasize
the struggle between good and evil.
Mani began preaching his new religion at age 24. He was eventually
executed by orthodox Zoroastrians around the year 276 AD. Mani's
extreme dualism was similar to certain strands of Gnosticism, which
emphasized the antagonism between the body and the soul. The soul
was a fallen divine spark from the realm of light, while the body
was the creation of the evil god and his associates, the archons.
Also as in Gnosticism, Mani saw human beings as trapped in a cycle
of reincarnation that not even suicide could end. Manichaeism
preached a rather severe asceticism, especially with regard to the
sexual instinct.
Through ascetic living and following Mani's teachings, the elect were
thought to be able to ascend directly into the light. Everyone else
reincarnated until they completely purified themselves. However, at
Christ's return, the unrepentant were to be thrown into flames that
would engulf the material world.
Baha'i
 Read the wonderful near-death experience of
Reinee Pasarow, a woman of the Baha'i faith, and a very loving
and spiritual person.
Watch her video online: http://lightafterlife.com.
The Baha'i faith has its roots in
Islamic culture. It was established in 1844 in Persia, from where it
spread throughout the world. Baha'i is based on the writings of the
founder, Baha'u'llah, and espouses the essential unity of all world
religions. According to this faith, God expresses himself through a
success of divine Teachers, the Manifestations, the most recent of
which is represented by Baha'u'llah, who claims that during the
present historical period human spiritual destiny will be fulfilled.
Baha'i adherents believe that the physical world is a reflection of
the world of the spirit and, likewise, the fundamental reality of
each individual is the soul, whose education represents the main
purpose of physical creation itself. Spiritual progress, which is
equally available to all, and this process of development continue
after the dissociation of the soul from the physical body at death,
and it occurs in the presence of God in an eternal and more
expansive stage of spiritual education.
Therefore, death is regarded as a time of happy release and
achievement, even though one is not automatically ensured of
success, because each individual is believed to enter the next world
in essentially the same condition in which he or she departs this
life, which condition is evaluated in a sort of judgment at the
point of transition to the afterlife.
The progress of each soul depends on its own efforts, and its
salvation is regarded as a motion toward endless possibilities, the
soul being capable of infinite development. Also, there is no
regression in the afterlife, only progress.
Theosophy
The name Theosophy originated
in Alexandria, Egypt, in the third century AD in connection with the
Greek mysteries and referred to the divine wisdom believed to
underlie the teachings of all religions. In contemporary usage,
Theosophy refers to the particular synthesis of ideas from the
philosophical systems of China and India and from the works of the
Gnostics, the Neoplatonists, and the Cabalists, manifested in the
Theosophical Society, which was founded in New York in 1875 by Helen
Blavatsky.
As a part of the religious phenomenon known as esotericism, Theosophy
concerns a gnosis
(intellectual insight) offering enlightenment to the
individual through knowledge of what is believed to unite that
person to the world of the divine and to its hidden mysteries.
Although Theosophists might reject the characterization of the
society as a religion
(the Theosophical Society and its offshoots claim to have no
dogma, creed, or ritual), Theosophy, as do other religions,
shows its followers a way to salvation, a way to guarantee their
soul a more favorable destiny.
Theosophy postulates a rather complex view of the universe within
which humanity's origins, evolution, and destiny after death are
delineated. According to its principles, the visible world arises
from an omnipresent and immutable Source, and immaterial reality of
which, as in Hindu philosophy, the universe is the manifestation and
from within it is worked and guided.
The process of cosmic manifestation is characterized by two phases,
the first being involution, during which a multitude of spiritual
units emerge from the Source and, after becoming more and more
involved in matter, finally achieve self-consciousness in the
physical world. Thus, the individual spiritual units
(the monads) reach the causal body (a spiritual body
containing the seeds of karma that "cause" everything else) by
descending through various grades of being. During the second phase,
evolution, the human monads - which possess the triple functions of
will, wisdom, and activity, like the ultimate being from which they
come - develop their inner potentials, free themselves from matter
and return to the Source, with an increased consciousness.
The spirit, which can never be lost (it is intrinsically eternal),
attains mastery through cycles of reincarnation, in accordance with
the inexorable law of cause and effect called karma. In each
incarnation new experiences are attained, leading to development of
the soul to a degree that is proportionate to the use that is made
of each experience. According to Theosophy, a long series of
reincarnations is required for the soul to achieve its supreme aim,
which is rising to its original Source, and the duration of the
period spent on each realm before another incarnation depends upon
good and evil deeds done in the body.
Spiritualism
Spiritualism is a religious movement emphasizing the belief in
survival after death, a belief Spiritualists claim is based upon
scientific proof and communication with the surviving personalities
of deceased human beings by means of mediumship. Spiritualism is
regarded by its adherents as a religion based on science, combing
elements from other religions and creeds. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
wrote, "Spiritualism is a religion for those who find themselves
outside all religions; while on the contrary it greatly strengthens
the faith of those who already possess religious beliefs."
The continuity of the personality after death through a new birth into
a spiritual body
(not a new physical body) is a central tenet of Spiritualism.
According to Spiritualists, at death the soul, which is composed of
a sort of subtle matter, withdraws itself and remains near the earth
realm for a period of time. After this, it advances in knowledge and
moral qualities and proceeds to higher realms, until it eventually
reaches the sphere of pure spirit. The rapidity at which the soul
advances is in direct proportion to the mental and moral faculties
acquired in earth life. Spiritualists originally conceived of realms
as spheres encircling the earth, one above the other, whereas now
they are more commonly supposed to interpenetrate each other and to
coexist at different rates of vibration. Bliss, hell, and eternal
damnation are not part of Spiritualists belief, nor are a last
judgment and the resurrection of the physical body. Communication
with the dead, through the agency of mediums, is the second central
belief of Spiritualism.
Greek
Plato (428-347 BC) was a
Greek thinker who has been widely acknowledged as the greatest
philosopher of Western history. A student of Socrates, Plato was
also the teacher of Aristotle.
The world of ideas was far more real for Plato than the world we
experience through our bodily senses, which is a watered-down copy
of the realm of essences. The world of everyday experience Plato
likened to a group of people who had been chained in a cave from
birth so that they were able to perceive only the shadows cast by
models of objects that were passed in front of a fire. He further
held out the possibility that the aspiring soul could escape the
thralldom of this world of shadows and seek the realm of pure ideas.
Plato's criticisms of this world led to a philosophy in which
withdrawal from everything that is worldly is seen as necessary in
order to concentrate on higher, spiritual truths. Plotinus further
taught that individual souls descend from the World Soul
(where they are in unity with the One), incarnate in this
finite world, and lose all memory of their spiritual origins. In
this way, they became trapped by detaching themselves from the
physical world, purifying themselves, and contemplating the One.
Minus the theory of reincarnation, mystical Neoplatonism was
incorporated into early Christian mysticism.
In the afterlife myth in Plato's work "Phaedo" the judgment of the
dead is supposed to take place at the Acherusian Lake. The incurable
evil ones will spend an eternity of punishment in Tartarus. The
curable evil may spend only a year there. If those whom they
mistreated in life agree to pardon them, they may be sent back to
earth to live another life, the same fate as those who led lives of
goodness. Philosophical souls are granted the ultimate boon, freedom
from another bodily birth and an eternity of contemplation among
beautiful surroundings.
In Plato's "The Republic"
the afterlife is described by a man who had what today would be
termed a near-death experience. In his long and detailed story, the
soul is supposed to journey to a place where there are two openings
into the earth and two into the sky. Judges sit in the middle and
send the good souls up one of the upper openings and the evil souls
down one of the lower ones. There, the souls are either rewarded or
punished tenfold for one thousand years. After that time the souls
come down or up the other openings and meet together in a meadow to
swap experiences. The worst souls do not emerge, but are thrown
forever into Tartarus. The rest, after seven days, travel to a place
where the Fates, the Sirens, and all manner of powers orchestrate
the move into the next life. Each soul makes a free choice of the
kind of life to be born into. Souls that have been enjoying
themselves for the last thousand years tend to be innocent and
unwary and can choose themselves into trouble by becoming a tyrant.
Souls that have been punished for the last thousands years are more
careful and may choose to be an animal.
Mysteries
Read the fascinating revelations of
Edgar Cayce, who by means of his multiple near-death
experiences, was able to confirm
the truth of the mysteries. Cayce had no conscious knowledge of
these mysteries and his journey's to heaven was the only way he
could obtain this information. Everything he revealed about these
mysteries has turned out to be true.
The classical period of ancient Greece saw the development of a form
of religious expression that has been referred to as mystery
religions. As part of the
mysteries, initiates were
required to take a vow of secrecy. These secrets were so well kept
that we moderns are unable to reconstruct the ancient mystery
religions. What we do know is that individuals were attracted to the
mysteries because of the promise of a better fate in the afterlife.
The most famous of the mystery religions was the Eleusinian
mysteries, centered in Elusis, outside of Athens.
By the time of the development of the Eleusinian mysteries, the Greek
conception of the afterlife had developed to the point where not all
of the dead met the same drab rate of an endless, boring life in the
realm of the dead. In the later Greek view the departing soul went
to the underworld to stand before the throne of Peresphone and be
sentenced to reward in the Elysian Fields, or to punishment in
Tartarus. Apparently the whole point of being initiated at Eleusis
was that one was thus adopted as a child of Demeter; hence when one
stood before Demeter's daughter Peresphone, she would judge one as a
family member, not as a stranger - a status which made all the
difference in Greek society. This may be why such concepts as
adoption and sonship are emphasized in some New Testament writings.
In any event, this Greek belief is one of the major sources of the
Christian concept that each person is judged and sentenced
immediately after dying.
American Indian
Read the near-death experience of the famous shaman
Black Elk.
Despite the intrinsically problematic nature of making generalizations
about such a broad variety of different peoples, we can,
nevertheless, discuss afterlife beliefs that are found in many - not
necessarily all -
American Indian cultures. We can, for example, assert with
confidence that most traditional Native Americans believed in some
sort of survival after death. In all areas of traditional North
America except the Southwest, we can also assert that there were
beliefs about the human being having more than one "soul" - a "free"
soul that can detach itself from the physical body, still maintain
its individuality, and survive death; and a vital soul, often
identified with the breath, that animates the body and does not
survive death.
Locations of the abode of the deceased vary widely, from quite nearby
to great distances. The realm of the dead is also characterized
quite differently among Native American societies. In many cultures,
the otherworld is a lively copy of the present world. Giving rise to
the Anglo stereotype of the American Indian afterlife as a "happy
hunting ground," many traditional Plains Indian societies imagined
the deceased as "existing on a rolling prairie, successfully hunting
buffalo, living in tipis, feasting and dancing". In other Native
American societies, the afterlife is a pale, gloomy realm, not
unlike Hades or She'ol
(the Hebrew abode of the dead). Yet other traditional North
American cultures, such as the Eskimo, accept the notion of
reincarnation as their primary concept of what occurs after death.
The aboriginal peoples of the Americas were influenced by the complex
of ideas and practices known as shamanism, a fairly specific set of
ideas and practices that revolve around religious figures known as
shamans. Characteristically, shamans are healers, psychopomps
(someone who guides the souls of the dead to their home in the
afterlife), and, more generally, mediators between their
community and the world of spirits - who are most often animal
spirits and the spirits of the forces of nature, but are sometimes
also the spirits of the dead. Shamans also have different helping
spirits, which may take different forms, from animals to personified
forces of nature to the spirits of the dead. The religious
specialists of traditional American Indian societies that people
sometimes refer to as medicine men are examples of shamans.
As a system, shamanism frequently emphasizes contact and communication
with spirits in the otherworld, healing practices in which the
shamans search for lost souls of the living, and rituals in which
shamans guide the spirits of the deceased to the realm of the dead.
As a consequence, certain afterlife beliefs of American Indian
societies naturally reflect shamanistic themes. For example, the
notion that after death the departed must undertake a more or less
arduous journey to the land of the dead is widespread in both North
and South America, and reflects the shamanic practice of undertaking
special rituals to guide souls to the otherworld.
The deceased require assistance when either they cannot find their way
to the realm of the dead or they want to remain around the family
for some reason, and as a consequence do not even begin the journey.
When a lingering spirit begins to bother the living, the shaman is
called in. Entering a trance state, the shaman convinces the
deceased to leave the living alone, and then conducts the spirit to
the city of the dead. Often the Milky Way is viewed as the path
souls take during this journey.
The motif of a human being descending while yet alive to the
underworld is widespread in world culture. In certain kinds of
shamanic healing, the sick person is diagnosed as having lost his or
her soul. The attending shaman then performs a ritual in which he or
she enters a trance state in order to seek out the lost soul, which
has often wandered off to the realm of the dead
(often an underworld). If the rite is successful, the
wandering spirit is persuaded to return and the ill person recovers.
Shamanic healing, as well as the shaman's role as psychopomp, appears
to provide the backdrop of ideas for what Ake Hultkrantz has
referred to as the North American Orpheus tale, a mythological motif
that derives its name from ancient Greek myths associated with
Orpheus. Orpheus was the legendary musician who journeyed to the
underworld in a vain attempt to bring his deceased wife, Eurydice,
back to the land of the living. He was allowed to lead Eurydice out
of the underworld on the condition that he not look back at her
until after they had emerged entirely from the realm of death. As
they approached the entranceway, however, Orpheus could no longer
restrain himself, and he glanced back at his wife. She immediately
disappeared back to Hades, and Orpheus found the back back to the
underworld blocked.
Similarly, in story after story found among traditional Native
Americans, a living person seeks out a departed relative. Successful
completion of the quest often entails Orphic-like prohibitions, such
as neither touching nor looking at the deceased. When there
conditions are violated - as they always are - the quest has
permanently failed, in the sense that, as for Orpheus, there are no
second chances. Such stories thus carry the message that death is
inevitable.
The Pawnee story of the man who originated the whistle dance is a good
example of an American Indian Orpheus tale. In the Pawnee tale, a
man whose young wife has passed away encounters an elderly woman
living in a tipi covered with fox skins, eagle feathers, and sage.
She provides him with four balls of mud and tells him that he can
use the mud balls to attract his wife's attention in the realm of
the dead. With the help of the wind, he travels to the land of the
dead, successfully attracts his wife's attention, and then returns
her to the land of the living.
On their way back, they encounter the old woman, who provides the man
with various items and teaches him the whistle dance
(also called the elk dance) to help people remain aware that
in the future they will eventually reside in the realm of the dead.
With the help of the old woman's magic, the man becomes a great
warrior, and he soon takes a second wife. One day, while visiting
his new wife, he speaks harshly about his old wife. Returning home,
the man finds that all that remains of his first wife are her bones.
Despite various efforts to communicate with her, she does not
respond, indicating that she is forever lost to him.
Shamanism
Although the terms shaman and
shamanism have come to be used quite loosely, in the disciplines
of anthropology and comparative religion shamanism refers to a
fairly specific set of ideas and practices that can be found in many
world cultures. Characteristically, the shaman is a healer, a
psychopomp
(someone who guides the souls of the dead to their home in the
afterlife), and more generally a mediator between her or his
community and the world of spirits
(most often animal spirits and the spirits of the forces of
nature).
As a system, shamanism frequently emphasizes contact and communication
with spirits in the otherworld, healing practices in which the
shamans search for lost souls of the living, and rituals in which
shamans guide the spirits of the deceased to the realm of the dead.
Shamanism thus has certain parallels with Spiritualism. The word
shaman comes from the Tungusic term for this religious specialist,
shaman. The term was originally coined by an earlier generation of
scholars who were studying societies in Siberia and central Asia,
and was later extended to similar religious complexes found
elsewhere in the world. Depending on how one interprets the
archaeological evidence, shamanism is many thousands of years old.
There are various traditional ways in which one becomes a shaman.
Often the role is simply inherited. At other times, the person to
become a shaman is chosen by spiritual forces. This supernatural
election frequently involves a serious illness, in which the chosen
person comes close to death, making this part of the process a kind
of initiatory death in which the old person "dies" to her or his
former self. The death theme is emphasized in certain traditions in
which the chosen individual has a vision of being slain,
dismembered, reconstructed, and revived. In other traditions, the
initiate is swallowed alive and regurgitated
(e.g. the story of Johan and the whale, which has shamanic
overtones).
Sometimes it is during the course of the initiatory sickness that the
shaman-to-be learns how to enter supernatural realms and meets the
spirits that will be central in the initiate's shamanic career. It
is easy to see the parallels between this initiation and the near
death experience. After healing, shamans usually complete their
training under the guidance of an experienced shaman.
Egyptian
Unlike most other ancient cultures, Egypt believed in a ethically
based judgment after death. Egypt thus represents a major shift in
afterlife concepts, and the whole idea of afterlife judgment may
well have been pioneered by the
Egyptians.
The afterlife was experienced in various ways by the different parts
of one's self. The tomb was the natural location of the "khaibit", a
shadowy, skeletal figure. The "akh" was a ghost or an illuminated
spirit and could live either among humans, usually in the vicinity
of the tomb, or in the next world. The "ka" was the guardian spirit
or life force and looked exactly like the person. This spiritual
double tended to hover around the tomb. The "ba" was the breath or
soul, the principle animating the person, both physically and
psychically, and was pictured as a human-headed bird. The ba was
able to perform all bodily functions, but shared with the akh the
ability to exist as well among the gods.
The theology indicates that the pharaohs entered the divine realm,
that is, the circuit of the sun-god, by right. They did not have to
answer to anyone and did not have to visit Osiris in the underworld.
Even so, the pharaohs sometimes gave evidence of anxiety about the
journey. In general, the newly dead, in the form of their ba and ka,
traveled in the boat of Ra the sun-god as he made his way across the
sky. In the West, as Ra reached the underworld with his load of new
arrivals, the deceased disembarked and proceeded through seven
gates, each with a gatekeeper, watcher, and herald. At each gate,
and at several other instances, they had to consult the Book of the
Dead in order to recite the names and formulas that would follow
further progress.
Finally, with the ka clad in white, Anubis (who has been described
variously as a jackal-headed god or a faithful dog that guides the
soul in his role as psychopomp) would provide escort to the Hall
of Justice.
In the court proceedings, Thoth, an ibis-headed god of wisdom, acts as
prosecutor, and Soirees sits on the judge's throne, flaked by Isis
and Nephthys. Forty-two divine figures sit as jurors. Again using
the Book of the Dead and as much eloquence as they can muster, the
deceased make an accounting of their lives. In particular, the dead
need to be able to recite a ritual confession of innocence.
After the talking was done, the heart of the deceased was placed on a
scale is-a-is a feather, symbolic of truth. If the heart was too
heavy, the sinful party would be considered to have failed the test.
According to some accounts, the unfortunate person would then be
eaten and destroyed by a terrible creature called Ambit. According
to other accounts, the person would be placed in a pit of fiery
tortures. If, however, the heart balanced the feather, all was well
and the person, now with a new body called the "Oahu", was free to
enter the happy world of the Skeet Aura, or Field of Rushes. The
hardest part was over, but there were still some dangers or trials
to face, as the Oahu was not invulnerable. The Book of the Dead was
still useful for spells to protect one from crocodiles, suffocation,
and any number of problems.
The place of the afterlife was usually described as a place not unlike
the Nile valley, complete with canals, damns, and farms. Once having
arrived, the deceased would be able to make use of all the items
left for their use in the crypt, such as food, beds, chairs, and
utensils. They would choose one of the 15 "acts"s or regions of the
Field of Rushes in which to live, each region having its own ruler.
The deceased could transform themselves into a bird and live that
sort of life, or live as in the midst of an orchard, with delicious
fruits of never-ending yield.
Aztec
The
Aztec postulated four different realms, corresponding to the
four directions, to which the soul could go following death.
Warriors who died in battle, sacrificial victims, and tradesmen who
died during their journeys were cremated, went to the eastern
paradise, and become companions of the sun. Women who died in
childbirth also become companions of the sun, although they went to
the west.
People who died by lightning, drowning, and marsh fevers (all
having to do with water or rain) were buried and went to
Tlaloc's southern paradise. This realm was said to be free of sorrow
and the souls there enjoyed a luxurious tropical garden. Although
there was apparently no notion of an afterlife retribution, Mictlan,
the northern land of the dead and the ultimate destiny of the
majority of people, was distinctly unpleasant. The deceased took
four years to traverse nine intervening subterranean realms
containing mountains, ferocious beasts, and chilling winds. All the
dead were buried with amulets and cremated dogs to help them during
their journey.
Voodoo
Voodoo is a Caribbean religion blended from traditional African
religions and Catholic Christianity. Originally a slave religion, it
is especially associated with the island of Haiti, although
identifiably voodoo forms of spiritual expression are also present
in Jamaica and Santo Domingo. Voudoun is a derivative of the
Nigerian word vodu, which means divinity or spirit or deity in the
Fon language of Dahomey. The term has been variously spelled voudou,
voudoun, vodoun, voodoo, and hoodoo. Partly because of
sensationalistic portrayals in the entertainment media, voodoo has
come to be regarded pejoratively.
Voodoo postulates a complex and extensive pantheon of divinities,
referred to as loas or mysteres. A supreme being who created the
world, Gran Met, is acknowledged, although he is too distant from
the world to be worshiped. Voodoo focuses instead on the more
immediate divinities, serving the loas in return for favors. In line
with African tradition, ancestors are revered.
Within Voodoo, the human being is pictured as being composed of five
ingredients: n'dme, z'etoile, corps cadavre, gros bon ange, and ti
bon ange. Corps cadavre refers to the physical flesh. N'ame is the
vital energy that allows the body to function during life. Z'estoile
refers to the star of destiny of the particular human being. Gros
bon ange
(literally, "big good angel") and ti bon ange (literally,
"little good angel") constitute one's soul. The gros bon ange
enters humans during conception. It is a portion of the universal
life energy, the life force that all living things share. The ti bon
ange, by contrast, is one's individual soul or essence. This "small
soul" journeys out of the body when one dreams, as well as when the
body is being possessed by the loa. It is the ti bon ange that is
attacked by sorcerers.
When one dies, according to voodoo belief, the soul remains near the
corpse for a week. During this seven-day period, the ti bon ange is
vulnerable and may be captured and made into a "spiritual zombie" by
a sorcerer. Assuming the soul has escaped this fate, the priest
ritually severs it from the body so that the soul may live in the
dark waters for a year and a day. At that point, relatives ritually
raise the soul, and put it in the govi now referred to as espirit
(spirit). These spirits are fed, clothed, and treated like
divinities. Later they are set free and abide among the rocks and
trees until rebirth. Sixteen embodiments later, spirits merge into
the cosmic energy.
Communion with a god or goddess occurs in the context of possession,
referred to as "the hand of divine grace." The gods sometimes work
through a govi, and sometimes take over a living person, referred to
as "mounting a horse." The person loses consciousness, the body
becoming completely the instrument of a loa. Gestures and facial
expressions become that of the possessing loa. A special priest
(houngan) or priestess (mambo) assists both in
summoning the divinities and in helping them to leave at the
termination of the possession. These priests and priestesses are
also diviners, healers, and religious leaders.
Aboriginal
Traditional Australian societies share the notion that human beings
and society were created in a distant time period referred to as the
Dreaming or the Dreamtime
(considered sacred time). Simultaneously, the Dreaming refers
to the realm of the spiritual, which is coextensive with the time of
origins
(creation). As the name indicates, the Dreaming realm can be
reached during dreams. Many of the rituals of aboriginal religion
also link the everyday world of human existence with the Dreaming.
As one might anticipate, at death the true soul returns to the
eternal Dreaming, where it had resided prior to birth.
Other
religious afterlife beliefs:
Christianity,
Hinduism,
Buddhism,
Judaism, and
Islam |
