The Near Death Experience: A Vehicle of Shamanic Initiation

Is the Near-Death Experience a call and/or initiation into shamanism? Drawing on two Near Death Experiences (communing with the "Light" both times) and a 40-year quest, the author attempts to answer this question within the the cultural framework of the African and African American reality. Koleoso, which means "build the house of the seer", has been initiated by a Hindu yogi, and is a pipe carrier & "sun dancer" in the Lakota tradition. He has also been initiated into the Brotherhood of the Sun by a Peruvian Shaman, and initiated in the West African Yoruba tradition as a priest of Shango and of Ifa (Babalawo). Additionally, Koleoso is a Reiki Master Teacher.