Life After Life – A Shamanic Perspective
The notion of life after life is one of the most intriguing topics of our time. The classic book Life after Life by Dr Raymond Moody was boldly published in 1975, opening millions of western world minds to the concept of near death experiences (NDE) and the survival of consciousness after our physical body dies. While Dr Moody’s colleagues and peers watched in horror as he risked his entire career and credibility, Life after Life would eventually become a runaway bestseller and establish Moody as the world’s leading NDE authority. Not bad going for a skeptic and atheist who began his research in 1968. After hearing thousands of detailed accounts from both patients and doctors, how could he deny the reality of survival of consciousness?
Dr Moody’s book crossed my path in the mid 80s as I quietly struggled with the impossible grief that followed the sudden loss of my father. Complimenting his deeply comforting masterpiece, was Many Mansions, another enlightening book that taught me about Edgar Cayce, a visionary ‘sleeping prophet’ and healer. I can still feel the soothing waves of solace that washed over me as I immersed myself in their words. A spiritual cocoon of love, healing and understanding. I was able to breathe again.
Introducing the ‘Cosmovisional’ don Oscar Miro-Quesada
Another significant teacher who specialises in non-ordinary states of consciousness is Peruvian born curandero (shaman) and pioneer NDE researcher, don Oscar Miro-Quesada. His long list of achievements include founding The Heart of the Healer Shamanic Mystery School, originator of Pachakuti Mesa Tradition™ cross-cultural shamanism and OAS Fellow in Ethnopsychology. I discovered him by a happy online accident in 2017 and have to say that his ‘cosmovisional’ teachings continue to expand my world view and consciousness on many levels. Wisdom teachers of don Oscar’s ilk are a rare breed. His book ‘Lessons in Courage’ is a great place to start.
Shamanism is a spiritual practice, grounded in a reverent awareness that the world is animated, conscious and energetically interdependent. A shaman, also known as Curandero or Curandera, is one who develops a personal and intimate relationship with the unseen world for the purpose of being of service as a healer. ~ Heart of the Healer Shamanic Mystery School
Into the Mystic With the Shining Ones
When he was ten years old, don Oscar experienced a powerful healing from chronic asthma. It was facilitated in his bedroom by three entities that he describes as ‘the shining ones’, who also showed him key life events that awaited him. This extraordinary ‘beyond the veil’ experience planted a powerful seed that would eventually see him embrace his 3000 year old ancestral shamanic heritage.
In 1969, the 17 year old don Oscar embarked upon a rigorous shamanic apprenticeship with revered Peruvian elder Celso Rojas Palomino and later, don Benito Corihuamán Vargas. His first shamanic ceremony with don Celso invoked the presence of the three ‘shining ones’ that cured him of his asthma. That mind blowing experience motivated him to pursue a path academic research into non-ordinary states of consciousness.
The years of don Celso’s ‘uncompromising tutelage’ would also see don Oscar fulfil the dual role of auxilio de mesada (healing altar auxiliary or ceremonial assistant) and rastrero (clairvoyant diagnostician/diviner). He eventually became don Celso’s segundo de mando en banco (second in command for curing sessions) and continued this work in Peru each year until don Celso’s passing in July, 1982.
Within weeks, he began a less formal four-year shamanic apprenticeship with don Benito Corihuamán Vargas. By November, 1985, don Oscar received his sacred ‘musqochiwarqa qallariy’ transmission as ‘altomisayoq’, the highest level of an Andean priest or mystic. Don Benito made his earthly transition seven months later.
We can write many books. We can teach many classes. Yet the most important medicine at this time – this rite of passage for our planet – is to teach love by the way we live. ~ Oscar Miro-Quesada
Breaking Through The Veil
Age 33, a life changing NDE experience turned his then tumultuous life around once and for all. In true don Oscar style, he needed to understand the science of it all and was fortunate to travel to the USA where he immersed himself in undergraduate studies at the Duke University, North Carolina. This was the headquarters for the Institute for Research on the Nature of Man (now the Rhine Research Centre), founded in 1962 by Dr. Joseph Banks Rhine, the ‘father of experimental parapsychology’. It was here that the intrepid shaman revelled in an academic approach to studying more anomalous phenomena including the link between psychokinesis and poltergeists. The nearby psychical research centre where leading researchers documented out-of-body experiences (OBE), was a bonus.
Eventually moving on to the University of West Georgia’s Psychology Department, don Oscar ended up sharing an office with Dr Raymond Moody, who also became a firm friend. Surprise, surprise! Given that his own NDE made him question his sanity at a deep level, don Oscar credits Dr Moody as being instrumental in his ability to integrate his ‘beyond the veil’ experiences into a meaningful life of service.
His insatiable appetite for NDE research would also take him to other faculties including a scholarship with the Emory University. The collective academic experience enabled don Oscar to firmly ascertain that the shamanic world view cosmology and the current approach to near death studies both recognise that consciousness survives bodily death; there is a primacy that exists beyond this material universe; consciousness is a pure cosmic awareness that is not bound by space or time.
The trick, however, is how to individualize that experience of unlimited awareness and allow it to be a guiding light for others in the world; an ability to open up a path of initiation, a rite of passage not only for one’s self as a soul but for the living soul of our earth.
He also credits this necessary blend of ancient shamanic teachings and western academic studies for enabling him to live in “an aboriginal cosmology that included a fascinating, rich world of spirits, souls, intelligences, powers, and virtues; great information that his normal waking life didn’t have a container for.”
International Association for Near Death Studies
This article was sparked by an engaging video segment from the 2021 International Association for Near Death Studies (IANDS) online conference. It features keynote speaker don Oscar Miro Quesada who presents some deeply insightful observations and personal experiences that clearly demonstrate the survival of consciousness.
I am reminded of what my dear father told me in a lucid dream many moons ago, “Linda, there is no death.” If you have just lost someone you love with all your heart, and are struggling with the grief of it all, this is for you.
The Paleo Christian gnostic teachings embrace the notion of: ‘If you die before you die, then when you die, you won’t die.’ As researchers of Near Death Experiences and other anomalous phenomena, this is the same teaching that we understand to be true for humankind as a whole. ~ don Oscar Miro-Quesada
Excerpt from Heart of the Healer Shamanic Mystery School
Why Peruvian elders don Celso and don Benito requested that don Oscar carry the ‘prophetic vision of our Ancient Ones’ to as many people as possible in Western nations.
‘A few days prior to his destined earthly passing, the renowned maestro don Celso Rojas Palomino from Salas sanctioned don Oscar with a ‘compacto de voz y palabra’ (a traditional orally transmitted bequeath to serve as kamasqa lineage carrier for the people –or an’emisau de la nacion’), requesting that he carry the “prophetic vision of our Ancient Ones” among as many people possible born and living in Western acculturated developed nations of the world. Ironic as it may sound, both don Celso and don Benito often insisted this was the only way of safeguarding the soul-animated inner wisdom (‘gnosis’) known to the earth-centered spiritual traditions and healing arts continuously practiced by indigenous Peruvian people since pre-Columbian times.
With deep prescience, both maestros insisted this remained the only viable antidote in preventing further usurpation and destructive misuse of these ancestrally revered wisdom traditions and ritual healing practices if solely left in the hands of their own people. In other words, within the largely unscrupulous hands and self-serving agendas of Peru’s Western acculturated population, which like so many people from developing nations, remain unconsciously vulnerable to the insidious impact of unbridled consumerist globalization.
Taking don Celso ‘compacto de voz y palabra’ at heart, following many moons of vision seeking, with great patience and precision reflected in vocational life purpose, don Oscar began to lovingly nurture the worldwide emergence of heartfelt earth-honoring sacred communities, where the Pachakuti Mesa Tradition™ (PMT) of cross-cultural shamanism would organically blossom as a soul-infused vehicle for deep personal healing and beneficent evolutionary global transformation. Thus, don Oscar continues fulfilling the noble intentions of both venerable elders who bequeathed him the task of preserving their Heart Island (South America) shamanic ways as a seven generation legacy of healing service to the world.’
Sources
Dr Raymond Moody: lifeafterlife.com
Oscar and Cindy Miro-Quesada : heartofthehealer.org
Edgar Cayce: edgarcayce.org
