Quantum Phyics

Chapter One Modern Science: A New View of Reality

I have included this chapter on modern science because the discoveries made by the New Physics scientists could help open our minds to the possibility that there are other ways of thinking about our world and our lives than the ones we were brought up to believe. More than one hundred years ago, Albert Einstein introduced a set of revolutionary ideas about the nature of reality. His theory of relativity and mass-energy equivalence, e=mc2 (the mass of an object is in reality a form of its energy), caused a profound change in thinking among twentieth-century scientists, who had to ask themselves: How much do we really know about our world?

Classical science as developed by Isaac Newton supplied us with a mechanistic model of the universe that served us well for the past three hundred years। Classical science contends that the universe is composed of two fundamental entities, material objects (matter) and three-dimensional space, and that space has an independent existence from the objects within it. In the classic model, we have solid bodies moving through empty space set in motion by the forces of gravity. Matter is built from fundamental building blocks (atoms), and the way to understand complex systems is by breaking them down into their constituent parts, for when you know enough about the parts, you can understand the whole. Furthermore, time is seen as an absolute quality flowing at a constant rate from the past to the present and into the future, independent of matter and space. These ideas of classical physics work well in what’s called the zone of middle dimensions, the realm where we all live. But these theories fail as we move into very large dimensions and very small dimensions. Scientists, using modern technology and advanced mathematics, looked out at the astrophysical world and into the subatomic world and realized that Newtonian physics didn’t work there.

The New Physics, as it is called, has linked matter, space, and time in a totally new way. Along with the three dimensions of space that define the location of an object, we now must include time as an integral fourth dimension. Space and time are no longer thought of as separate entities; they are considered a dimensional continuum known as the space-time continuum.

Einstein’s theory of relativity demolished the long-held concept that time progressed at a fixed rate. Einstein showed that time is a variable dependent on the speed of the frame of reference. He demonstrated with thought problems and complex mathematics that time is relative and can expand or contract depending on the situation of the observer. He liked to tell the story of a young man who sat with a beautiful girl for an hour and how for him it seemed like just a minute. Whereas if the young man sat on a hot stove for one minute it would seem like an hour. Time duration depends on the observer.

Time’s relativity has been proven by the experiment of observing two synchronized atomic clocks, one on board the space shuttle launched into space and one on Earth. At the end of the space trip, the space shuttle clock was slower than the Earth clock.

Furthermore, astronomers can actually look back in time a million years or more. If you look at our nearest star, you will see it as it existed four years ago, because that’s how long it takes the light from that star to reach your retinas here on Earth.

Quantum Theory and the Bootstrap Hypothesis
The “bootstrap hypothesis,” developed by the noted scientist Geoffrey Chew, built on the theories of the New Physics and introduced another set of revolutionary ideas about the nature of reality. The bootstrap hypothesis rejects the mechanistic view of the universe. It claims that matter and space are an inseparable whole and that there are no ultimate constituents of matter. It further contends that there are “no fundamental entities whatsoever—no fundamental laws, equations, or principles—and thus abandons another idea which had been an essential part of natural science for hundreds of years.” (Capra 1991, 286) Instead, it maintains that the universe is a dynamic web of interrelated events in which none are more fundamental than any other, and it is their interaction that determines the structure of the whole of the universe.

In the microworld of quantum physics we find matter and antimatter, matter coming into existence and going out of existence, time moving backwards, fields of instantaneous influence at a distance, and other phenomena that defy the very basic laws of classical physics. Scientists observing the activities of the microworld are finding that it is beyond their ability to create a theory that describes what’s going on.

That’s the subatomic world, the world that none of us can perceive. But what about the world of people, automobiles, pollution, and all the rest—the “zone of middle dimensions”? How does it really behave?

Bell’s theorem, developed by the late physicist John S. Bell, gives us some of the answer. Bell’s theorem is a mathematical proof that, in effect, says our common-sense ideas about how the world works are woefully inadequate. It contends that not only does the microworld behave in ways that are contrary to common sense, the macroworld, the “real” world, behaves in irrational ways. These ideas cannot be dismissed as fantasy, because they are based on proven quantum observations that have been shown to be correct in explaining things like subatomic particles, transistors, and the energy of the stars.

New Physics scientists posit that matter cannot be separated from the space surrounding it. Further, it speculates that matter is in reality a condensation of energy in a surrounding field and that particles of matter seemingly come into existence out of nothing, the void. What we used to think was empty space is in reality a continual dynamic of creation and destruction. It is thought that matter at the subatomic level is surrounded by interpenetrating fields and behaves very much as light does.

Quantum mathematical analysis also points to the possibility that superluminal connections (that is, faster than the speed of light) in the material world may exist. According to the classical laws of physics, to effect change over a distance there has to be a signal transmitted at the speed of light. It turns out this may not actually be the case. Quantum theory points to a universe that is of one substance that cannot be separated into parts, and it seems that anything done in one place has an instantaneous effect on the system many miles away. Now that’s a revolutionary idea, and if it is true, it could explain phenomena such as telekinesis, telepathy, extrasensory perception, premonition, and other psychic mysteries.

In view of these new observations about the nature of the universe, in 1927 a group of esteemed scientists met and formulated a set of theoretical principles known as the Copenhagen interpretation of quantum mechanics (CIQM). This was a defining moment in modern science, for CIQM refuted the idea that there could be a one-to-one correspondence between theory and reality, a hallmark of classical science. Classical science asserts that there is one world and it is just as we experience it; this is it and it is exactly as it appears. CIQM says that the world is quite different from the way we think it is. CIQM doesn’t explain specifically what the world is like, just that it is not as substantive as we perceive it. And so this eminent group of scientists had to acknowledge that it was impossible to construct a theoretical model of reality.

Considering what the New Physics is discovering about the universe, I think it wise to keep an open mind about what is possible and what is not. We should not cling too tightly to our notions of reality. As astonishing as these theories are, new theories about the nature of reality will quite likely be developed and present something even more fantastic to future generations.


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The Great Mystery

The following entry is from The Soul of the Indian by Charles Eastman (Ohiyesa) in which he presents his understanding of Indian spirituality. He is writing from the perspective of the early 1900s, but this worldview is still held by many Indian people today.

Ohiyesa’s story is an amazing one of adaptation and success. He came from a mixed-ethnic family of Santee Dakota and Euro-American ancestry. His maternal grandfather was a graduate of West Point and served many years in the United States Army. He was brought up by his paternal grandmother in traditional Dakota style in the wilderness of Manitoba, Canada, until he was fifteen. The traditional Dakota lifestyle was quickly disappearing, and Ohiyesa’s father had the foresight and ability to arrange a Western education for him.

Ohiyesa was a quick learner, earning an undergraduate degree and going on to become a medical doctor, one of the first American Indians to do so. During the early 1900s he served as reservation doctor for the Lakota Sioux on the Pine Ridge Reservation, again the first Indian to hold that position. It was during this time that the terrible Wounded Knee Creek massacre occurred, and he treated the wounded and dying from this grave tragedy.

As a result of his experience at Pine Ridge, he became active in Indian rights issues, and after leaving there, he traveled extensively across America and to England giving speeches in support of Indian causes. He did much to further the cause of Indian justice and increase understanding between Euro-Americans and Indian people.

Ohiyesa’s Story

The worship of the “Great Mystery” was silent, solitary, [and] free from all self-seeking. It was silent because all speech is of necessity feeble and imperfect; therefore the souls of my ancestors ascended to God in wordless adoration. It was solitary because they believed that He is nearer to us in solitude, and there were no priests authorized to come between a man and his Maker. None might exhort or confess or in any way meddle with the religious experience of another. Among us all men were created sons of God and stood erect, as conscious of their divinity. Our faith might not be formulated in creeds, nor forced upon any who were unwilling to receive it; hence there was no preaching, proselytizing, nor persecution, neither were there any scoffers or atheists.

There were no temples or shrines among us, save those of nature. Being a natural man, the Indian was intensely poetical. He would deem it sacrilege to build a house for Him who may be met face to face in the mysterious, shadowy aisles of the primeval forest, or on the sunlit bosom of virgin prairies, upon dizzy spires and pinnacles of naked rock, and yonder in the jeweled vault of the night sky! He who enrobes Himself in filmy veils of cloud, there on the rim of the visible world where our Great-Grandfather Sun kindles his evening campfire, He who rides upon the rigorous wind of the north, or breathes forth His spirit upon aromatic southern airs, whose war-canoe is launched upon majestic rivers and inland seas—He needs no lesser cathedral!

That solitary communion with the Unseen, which was the highest expression of our religious life, is partly described in the word bambeday, literally “mysterious feeling,” which has been variously translated “fasting” and “dreaming.” It may better be interpreted as “consciousness of the divine.”

The first bambeday, or religious retreat, marked an epoch in the life of the youth, which may be compared to that of confirmation or conversion in Christian experience. Having first prepared himself by means of the purifying vapor-bath, and cast off as far as possible all human fleshly influences, the young man sought out the noblest height, the most commanding summit in all the surrounding region. Knowing that God sets no value upon material things, he took with him no offerings or sacrifices other than symbolic objects, such as paints and tobacco. Wishing to appear before Him in all humility, he wore no clothing, save his moccasins and breechcloth. At the solemn hour of sunrise or sunset, he took up his position, overlooking the glories of earth and facing the “Great Mystery,” and there he remained, naked, erect, silent, and motionless, exposed to the elements and forces of His arming, for a night and a day to two days and nights, but rarely longer. Sometimes he would chant a hymn without words, or offer the ceremonial “filled pipe.” In this holy trance, or ecstasy, the Indian mystic found his highest happiness and the motive power of his existence.

When he returned to the camp, he must remain at a distance until he had again entered the vapor-bath and prepared himself for intercourse with his fellows. Of the vision, or sign, vouchsafed to him, he did not speak, unless it had included some commission which must be publicly fulfilled. Sometimes an old man, standing upon the brink of eternity, might reveal to a chosen few the oracle of his long-past youth.

The Native American has been generally despised by his white conquerors for his poverty and simplicity. They forget, perhaps, that his religion forbade the accumulation of wealth and the enjoyment of luxury. To him, as to other single-minded men in every age and race, from Diogenes to the brothers of Saint Francis, from the Montanists to the Shakers, the love of possessions has appeared a snare, and the burdens of a complex society a source of needless peril and temptation. Furthermore, it was the rule of his life to share the fruits of his skill and success with his less-fortunate brothers. Thus he kept his spirit free from the clog of pride, cupidity, or envy, and carried out, as he believed, the divine decree—a matter profoundly important to him.

It was not, then, wholly from ignorance or improvidence that he failed to establish permanent towns and to develop a material civilization. To the untutored sage, the concentration of population was the prolific mother of all evils, moral no less than physical. He argued that food is good, while surfeit kills; that love is good, but lust destroys; and not less dreaded than the pestilence following upon crowded and unsanitary dwellings was the loss of spiritual power, inseparable from too close contact with one’s fellow men.

All who have lived much out of doors know that there is a magnetic and nervous force that accumulates in solitude and that is quickly dissipated by life in a crowd; and even his enemies have recognized the fact that for a certain innate power and self-poise, wholly independent of circumstances, the American Indian is unsurpassed among men.

The red man divided mind into two parts—the spiritual mind and the physical mind. The first is pure spirit, concerned only with the essence of things, and it was this he sought to strengthen by spiritual prayer, during which time the body is subdued by fasting and hardship. In this type of prayer, there was no beseeching favor or help. All matters of personal or selfish concern, as success in hunting or warfare, relief from sickness, or the sparing of a beloved life, were definitely relegated to the plane of the lower, or material, mind, and all ceremonies, charms, or incantations designed to secure a benefit or to avert a danger were recognized as emanating from the physical self.

The rites of this physical worship, again, were wholly symbolic, and the Indian no more worshiped the Sun than the Christian adores the Cross. The Sun and the Earth, by an obvious parable, holding scarcely more of poetic metaphor than of scientific truth, were in his view the parents of all organic life. From the Sun, as the universal father, proceeds the quickening principle in nature, and in the patient and fruitful womb of our mother, the Earth, are hidden embryos of plants and men. Therefore our reverence and love for them was really an imaginative extension of our love for our immediate parents, and with this sentiment of filial piety was joined a willingness to appeal to them, as to a father, for such good gifts as we may desire. This is the material or physical prayer.

The elements and majestic forces in nature, Lightning, Wind, Water, Fire, and Frost, were regarded with awe as spiritual powers, but always secondary and intermediate in character. We believed that the spirit pervades all creation and that every creature possesses a soul in some degree, though not necessarily a soul conscious of itself. The tree, the waterfall, the grizzly bear, each is an embodied Force, and as such, an object of reverence.

The Indian loved to come into sympathy and spiritual communion with his brothers of the animal kingdom, whose inarticulate souls had, for him, something of the sinless purity that we attribute to the innocent and irresponsible child. He had faith in their instincts, as in a mysterious wisdom given from above; and while he humbly accepted the supposedly voluntary sacrifice of their bodies to preserve his own, he paid homage to their spirits in prescribed prayers and offerings.

In every religion there is an element of the supernatural, varying with the influence of pure reason over its devotees. The Indian was a logical and clear thinker upon matters within the scope of his understanding, but he had not yet charted the vast field of nature or expressed her wonders in terms of science. With his limited knowledge of cause and effect, he saw miracles on every hand—the miracle of life in seed and egg, the miracle of death in a lightning flash and in the swelling deep! Nothing of the marvelous could astonish him, as that a beast should speak or the sun stand still. The virgin birth would appear scarcely more miraculous than is the birth of every child that comes into the world, or the miracle of the loaves and fishes excite more wonder than the harvest that springs from a single ear of corn.

Who may condemn his superstition? Surely not the devout Catholic or even Protestant missionary, who teaches Bible miracles as literal fact! The logical man must either deny all miracles or none, and our American Indian myths and hero stories are perhaps, in themselves, quite as credible as those of the Hebrews of old.

If we are of the modern type of mind, that sees in natural law a majesty and grandeur far more impressive than any solitary infraction of it could possibly be, let us not forget that, after all, science has not explained everything. We have still to face the ultimate miracle, the origin and principle of life! Here is the supreme mystery that is the essence of worship, without which there can be no religion, and in the presence of this mystery, our attitude cannot be very unlike that of the natural philosopher, who beholds with awe the Divine in all creation.

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"Choice" review

I was very glad to get this recommendation from Choice magazine which publishes book reviews to academic libraries.

"This very interesting volume is a compilation of reincarnation beliefs, experiences, movements, and stories among North American Indians, including near-death experiences, soul travel, and metamorphoses. The accounts were taken largely from two sources: the Smithsonian Institution's Bureau of American Ethnology publications and The Internet
Sacred Text Archive.

"Most range in date from the 19th to the early 20th century. Many different North American groups are represented, including the Inuit of the North, the Kwakiutl of the Northwest Coast, the Hopi of the Southwest, the Winnebago of the Great Lakes, the Cherokee of the Southeast, and the Sioux of the Plains.

"The collection is preceded by a chapter with an overview of North American Indian religious beliefs. The final two chapters offer a brief comparison of North American Indian reincarnation beliefs and experiences with those from Greek and Roman history and from the world's great religions, pointing to the commonalities among all premodern peoples.

"Black-and-white photos appear throughout, largely taken from Edward Curtis's 20-volume set The North American Indian (1907-30).

"Summing Up: Highly recommended. Lower-level undergraduates and above; general readers." -- M. R. Dittemore, Smithsonian Institution Libraries

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Winnebago Shaman Story

The Winnebago were known for their powerful shamans and had a strong belief in reincarnation. The ancestral lands of the Winnebago tribe are around Green Bay (Lake Michigan), Wisconsin, and the Lake Winnebago region. In the 1840s, the Winnebago were forced to give up their lands and subject to removal a number of times. Eventually they were allowed to settle on land in northeastern Nebraska, but a significant number resisted removal and remained in Wisconsin. The Nebraska reservation contains approximately 120,000 acres. In 1852, the Winnebago population was estimated to be 2,521. In 2007, it was 2,600.

The following is a story of human-to-human reincarnation as told by Thunder Cloud, a Winnebago shaman referred to as T. C. in the narrative. Here T. C. talks about his two previous lives and how he died and came back again to this his third lifetime. He describes his time between lives, when he was “blessed” by Earth Maker and all the abiding spirits and given special powers, including the ability to heal the sick.

T. C.’s Account of His Two Reincarnations

"I once lived in a party that numbered about twenty camps. When I had grown up to be a lad, although one not large enough to handle a gun, a war party attacked us and killed us all. I did not know, however, that I had been killed. I thought that I was running about as usual until I saw a heap of bodies on the ground and mine among them. No one was there to bury us, so there we lay and rotted.

"I (my ghost) was taken to the place where the sun sets (the west). There I lived with an old couple. This place (spirit land) is an excellent place, and the people have the best of times. If you desire to go anywhere, all that you have to do is to wish yourself there and you reach it. While at that place, I thought I would come back to earth again, and the old man with whom I was staying said to me, “My son, did you not speak about wanting to go to the earth again?” I had, as a matter of fact, only thought of it, yet he knew what I wanted. Then he said to me, “You can go, but you must ask the chief first.”

"Then I went and told the chief of the village of my desire, and he said to me, “You may go and obtain your revenge upon the people who killed your relatives and you.” Then I was brought down to earth. I did not enter a women’s womb, but I was taken into a room. There I remained conscious at all times. One day I heard the noise of little children outside and some other sounds, so I thought I would go outside. Then it seemed to me that I went through a door, but I was really being born again from a woman’s womb. As I walked out, I was struck with the sudden rush of cold air and I began to cry. At that place, I was brought up and I was taught to fast a great deal. Afterward, I did nothing but go to war, and I certainly took revenge for the death of my relatives and myself, that being the purpose for which I had come to earth.

"There I lived until I died of old age. All at once my bones became un-jointed, my ribs fell in, and I died the second time. I felt no more pain at death then than I had felt the first time.

"This time I was buried in the manner used at that time. I was wrapped in a blanket and then laid in the grave. Sticks were placed in the grave. I watched the people as they buried me. There in the grave I rotted.

"As I was laying there, someone said to me, “Come, let us go away.” So then we went toward the setting of the sun. There we came to a village where we met all the dead. I was told that I would have to stop there for four nights, but in reality I stayed there four years.

"The people enjoy themselves there. They have all sorts of dances of a lively kind all the time. From that place we went up to the place where Earth Maker lived, and there I saw him and talked to him, face to face, even as I am talking to you now. I saw the spirits too, and, indeed, I was like one of them.

"From that place I came to this earth again for the third time, and here I am." (Radin, 1923)

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Characteristics of Reincarnation Belief Systems

While there have been, and currently are, a number of different reincarnation belief systems throughout the world, there are basic characteristics they all share:

1. The dead person has only temporally left the body. Some part of them (the soul) survives and returns to the world of the living to continue a purpose.

2. There is a cycle of birth and death in effect. People are born, live out their lives in “this world,” and die. Their disincarnate essence (soul) passes into the “afterworld,” stays for a time, and is reborn. There are some belief systems that do not include a journey and/or stay in an afterworld.

3. There is a desire to have an ancestor reborn in a friendly place among people they know. Thus a person is usually reborn among immediate family or relatives. Accordingly, ancestors play a large role in many of the societies that believe in reincarnation. But ancestor worship is not found among North American Indians. Indic religions (Hindu, Buddhist, Jain) are an exception to this, for in over half the reported cases, individuals were reborn in another area among people they did not know. This is also true for reports of rebirth in the Western reincarnation model. Very often a person is reborn into another ethnic group altogether.

4. In a number of reincarnation belief systems, including North American Indian, rebirth as an animal or insect is possible.

Most everyone knows that Hindus and Buddhists believe in reincarnation, but few know that North American Indians have well-developed rebirth concepts, many of which show striking cross-cultural similarities to Indic beliefs. Although belief in reincarnation was expressed somewhat differently among the various tribes, it was found throughout Native North America and was a central aspect of tribal cosmologies in these societies. Reincarnation belief is widespread among Northwest Coastal and Inuit tribes, and it is from them that we have the most reported cases of reincarnation in the literature. (Mills 1994)

Central to the Indian idea of reincarnation is the belief in the connectedness, continuity, and interdependence of all life. Traditional people believed, and many still do, that the life force of the planet comes from a realm beyond creation and that plants, animals, and humans recycle, or are reborn, over and over again.

Analysis of the historical records collected by anthropologists of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries allows a look back into the distant past of human development and the evolution of belief systems. Many of the beliefs of North American Indians regarding reincarnation and the soul can be found in premodern societies throughout the world. If we can strip away the cultural influences and understand the limitations of experience and what is referred to as the “myth of the given,” we see that what is being described are universal human experiences shared by people of all cultures since the beginning of time, even into the present.

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Topics Explored

Chapter one delves into the foundations of the modern world’s view of reality and challenges our accepted ideas about how the world works. The theories and laws of classical physics do not hold up in the microworld or macroworld. New physics posits that matter, the rock-solid part of our everyday world, is in reality a bundle of energy and fundamentally behaves very much like light. “As I saw it, a scientific truth was a hypothesis that might be adequate for the moment but was not to be preserved as an article of faith for all time.” (Carl Jung in Campbell 1976)

Then, in order to get right to the Indian experience, the story of human-to-human reincarnation is presented as told by Thunder Cloud, a Winnebago shaman. He dies in battle but does not know it until he sees a heap of bodies on the ground and his own among them. He is taken to the “spirit land” and is reborn two more times.

The modern-day case of Rhonda Mead of the Gitxsan tribe in British Columbia, Canada, who it is thought to be the reincarnation of her own great-grandmother, is explored next. Her family believes the young girl is the matriarch of the family reborn, because she will not let anyone sit in a chair that the great-grandmother always sat in. That, along with the fact that she knows things only the deceased great-grandmother could know about, convinces everyone she is the relative reborn.

Chapter two presents an overview of the religious beliefs of the North American Indian in order to put reincarnation in context. We learn that Indian religion is comprehensive and multifaceted, and that it held a central position in the life of the average person. The Indian’s life was infused with the supernatural, and there was constant interaction between the spirit world and humans. Also discussed are the guardian spirit and shaman complex within these societies, the Indian emphasis on vision quests for the attainment of personal connection with beings in the spirit world, and animal helpers.

Chapter three compares Indian reincarnation beliefs with world religions. The ethnological record shows that American Indian reincarnation beliefs have a very long history and that Indic and ancient Greek belief systems do not predate them. Their metaphysical concepts are as elaborate and complete as those found in these other ancient cultures.

This chapter also presents soul concepts found throughout the world and shows that the Indian concept of rebirth is quite different from the Christian concept. In many groups there was a belief that the human soul could be reborn to live again in a newborn person. There was also a dual-soul concept, wherein it was believed that a person has within him two souls, a life soul and a breath soul. Some also believed that a soul could reincarnate in more than one person at the same time. Most North American Indians believed that all living creatures possess a soul and that even inanimate objects have a soul.

Chapter four is on shamans and medicine men, who developed the myths of the spirit world and traveled to the land of the dead. Shamans were sometimes called upon to help someone defeat an enemy or cause a death, and this chapter presents an example of magic by analogy, or sympathetic magic, in the Cherokee formula to destroy life. You’ll also read numerous accounts of shaman initiations, reincarnations, and journeys to the land of the dead, including a number of Inuit stories.

Chapter five is about death and near-death experiences and introduces, among other entries, James Mooney’s account of the Ghost Dance, which swept across the plains in the 1860s. It was initially a peaceful revival movement that prophesied that the Indian world would be restored, the whites would be gone, and the dead would live again. But the dancing was perceived as a threat by the white authorities, and an armed attack was ordered on a group of dancers on the Sioux reservation. As a result, we are left with the tragic massacre at Wounded Knee Creek as part of American and Indian history.
In this chapter you will also find numerous accounts of Indian experiences dealing with death and dying and journeys to the underworld, including the Cherokee Orpheus myth, a legend found among numerous Indian groups. Next, you will read about the Winnebago view of death, which considers death just a different kind of consciousness. Although the dead are no longer seen, interaction with them has not ceased, for they return in dreams or visions to communicate with the living. The dead may also come back again as newborn babies.

Chapter six presents more stories on death, the afterworld, and soul journeys from various tribes, including the Pueblo, Tlingit, Kwakiutl (Kwakwaka’wakw), Omaha, Coastal Salish, and Sioux. In chapter seven you will learn about the world’s great religions and their concepts of reincarnation, both historically and how they are perceived today. This chapter also covers the Western concept of the soul and reincarnation.

Chapter eight is on ancient cultures, focusing on Egyptian, Greek, and Roman beliefs, with particular emphasis on Plato and his writings on reincarnation. You’ll learn about the Greek Orpheus myth, which describes how a newly married husband unsuccessfully attempts to bring back his young bride from the underworld. This myth, with slight variations, is widespread among various Indian groups.

The stories that follow are mostly from traditional Indian people of North America of the nineteenth and early twentieth century. Told in their own words, they recount experiences of death and rebirth, near-death experience, journeys of the soul and soul retrieval, travel to the land of the dead, and people becoming animals in this life and the next. May these stories take you on fantastic journeys, stir your imagination, and illuminate a part of the complex psychic life of American Indians so that you can share in their rich spiritual traditions.

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Introduction

As conscious beings endowed with reason and reflection, we are perhaps uniquely aware among the creatures of this world of our own mortality, which has been, since time immemorial, the ultimate mystery for humankind. Experience shows that at death we perish and our body turns to dust, but the existential question remains: Is death really the end?

The belief in reincarnation seems to be an early development in
human consciousness. Evidence discovered in a number of Neanderthal burial sites and cave sanctuaries suggests these early humans held a belief in reincarnation. (Homo neanderthalenis, an ancient and primitive form of humans, appeared in Europe as early as 150,000 CE. They walked the earth with our ancestors for more than five thousand years until they disappeared in 24,000 CE.) Carl Jung, the noted Swiss psychiatrist who researched the “collective unconsciousness,” considered the idea of reincarnation an archetype, or primitive mental image, common to all humanity.

It may be helpful at the outset to offer definitions for some of the terms used in this book. These are taken from The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language.

Eschatology The branch of theology that is concerned with the ultimate or last things, such as death, judgment, heaven, and hell.

Exist To have being or actuality; to be; to have life.

Incarnate Invested with bodily nature and form.

Reincarnation The discarnate soul of a deceased person that comes back into bodily nature and form; to have died and come back into being and actuality; to be; to have life again.

Soul The animating and vital principle in man credited with the faculties of thought, action, and emotion, and conceived as forming an immaterial entity distinguished from but temporally coexistent with his body. . . . . more

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