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 pla