"Visionaries who have made their way to the realm of the dead and then returned have told of its secrets."\nIn this scholarly but highly readable book, the famed anthropologist and historian of religions Åke Hultkrantz takes us on an in-depth exploration of Native American afterlife journey myths and shamanism. Anticipating the western "discovery" of near-death experiences by nearly 20 years, Hultkrantz recognized them as phenomena distinct from other extraordinary experiences such as dreams and vision quests. Equally remarkable, Hultkrantz found that Native American afterlife myths were actually influenced by NDEs and shamanic otherworld journeys. Weaving this discovery together with various cultural and psychological factors, Hultkrantz also delves into other supernatural beliefs and practices such as soul-retrieval, ghosts, funerary rituals, reincarnation, and the Ghost Dance religions in which initiates deliberately induced NDE-like experiences. Rounding off his study with comparisons to afterlife journey myths in ancient Greece, Mesopotamia, across Asia, and the Pacific islands, Hultkrantz crafted an unsurpassed masterpiece of comparative religion and paranthropology, many years ahead of its time.\nOriginally published as a small edition in Europe, the book was never widely available to the general public and has been out-of-print for decades. Afterworlds Press is proud to now make this groundbreaking work accessible to a new generation of readers.

The North American Indian Orpheus Tradition: Native Afterlife Myths and Their Origins

Politics & Social Sciences

Hultkrantz, Åke

Anthropology

Afterworlds Press

"If dying is not oppression, my knowledge that I am going to die will no longer oppress me. Instead of making me feel melancholy it will expand and deepen me."\nSimultaneous with Raymond Moody's landmark book Life After Life, Johann Christoph Hampe independently "discovered" near-death experiences in the 1970s. Though both authors explored the phenomenon as possible evidence for life after death, Hampe took a very different approach and produced a profound, thoughtful, meditative exploration of "dying before we die." Hampe wrote To Die is Gain after he himself recovered from temporary clinical death caused by a serious illness and had personally experienced "dying seen from within," as he put it. This lends weight and poignancy to his reflections, particularly concerning the implications of NDEs for our time here on Earth. Hampe shows how we can gain a new vision of life from a deeper knowledge of dying, and coming to terms with our own death.\nThe book created a great stir on its first appearance in Germany, though this translation appeared only after the NDE "boom" in the English-speaking world, when the focus of research had already been established. To Die is Gain is thus an important though neglected classic on the spiritual and philosophical meanings of NDEs, unique for being wholly uninfluenced by contemporary near-death studies. In other circumstances, for its insight and social significance, the book might have rivalled Elisabeth Kübler-Ross's On Death and Dying.\nTo Die is Gain is a remarkable look into the dynamics, emotions, myths, and human concerns with death, dying, and beyond. Many of the NDE case studies Hampe presents will be unfamiliar to readers, and are drawn from a wide range of sources and interviews.

To Die is Gain: Near-Death Experience and the Art of Dying Before We Die

Self-Help

Hampe, Johann Christoph

Death & Grief

Beginning in her early childhood, the world-famous trance medium and grande dame of parapsychology Eileen J. Garrett had numerous encounters with an entity she called the "Noble Stranger." When she asked his identity one day, this mysterious figure responded, "You may call me Lucifer." 
Call me Lucifer: Dialogues with a Noble Stranger, features Garrett's writings about her encounters with this Noble Stranger, and reflections on her intellectual "duels with her Devil." The book includes extensive verbatim transcripts of Lucifer's communication with Garrett, together with Lucifer's Compendium of Guidance.\nThough prepared with great care over the course of her life, the book has lain dormant in Garrett's family archives for decades. Her granddaughter, Lisette Coly, current President of the Parapsychology Foundation, has now decided that it should be shared with the public as an aid to our spiritual evolution.\nThe book can be enjoyed on at least three levels: an unflinching psychological self-portrait of a highly cultured, intelligent woman of the last century interrogating her own extraordinary experiences; a long-lost chapter in the history of parapsychology and another piece in the puzzle of Garrett's mediumship; and perhaps most importantly, a source of thought-provoking wisdom and startling ideas. Whether they originated with Lucifer himself or from somewhere deep in the medium's subconscious, readers will appreciate these texts for their insight into life's most pressing spiritual and existential questions.\nTogether with Coly's engaging and informative Foreword, Call Me Lucifer is one of the most fascinating discoveries in the history of parapsychology and alternative spiritualities.

Call me Lucifer: Dialogues with a Noble Stranger

Religion & Spirituality

Garrett, Eileen J.

New Age & Spirituality

Katsugoro and Other Reincarnation Cases in Japan

Masayuki, Ohkado

"Drugs in different forms have served as stimulants for ecstasy 
in shamanism since archaic times."\nThe Attraction of Peyote is an unrivalled exploration of the use of psychedelics in Native American spiritualities by one of the world's foremost anthropologists of religions, Åke Hultkrantz. The author highlights how this psychoactive cactus began as a basis of shamanic power and eventually became a cult object and medicine for the initiated. He examines the formations and spread of Peyote-based religions and the extraordinary experiences that inspired them, showing the relationship between the trance states achieved in traditional "shamanic seances" and the effects of this potent hallucinatory drug. The book is nothing less than a cultural history of Peyote, in religion, symbolism, and practice, incorporating a consideration of Christian and inter-tribal influences on Peyote traditions.\nOriginally published in a European small press edition, The Attraction of Peyote is available now to the general public for the first time. Unique to this edition is the author's memoir of his own Peyote experience with the Shoshone people.\n"In a career spanning half a century Åke Hultkrantz has proven his prowess repeatedly as a scholar of American Indian religions. His latest investigation upholds his high standards of thoroughness in explaining the spread of the peyote religion among Native Americans over the past two centuries.... He reviews virtually all published (and many unpublished) accounts of the peyote religion, including his own field notes among the Wind River Shoshonis of Wyoming." - Prof. Christopher Vecsey, Shaman: Journal of the International Society for Shamanistic Research.

The Attraction of Peyote: Native American Psychedelic Spiritualities

Social Sciences

This book is the first to scientifically explore the phenomenon of telepathic dreaming in depth. It recounts how psychiatrist Montague Ullman and psychologist Stanley Krippner conducted experiments to determine whether persons acting as senders can transfer their thoughts to the minds of sleeping receivers, thereby altering their dreams. Their results were astonishing: the researchers were able to verify several instances of telepathic communication between participants. Participants often gave uncannily accurate descriptions of images that the senders attempted to project to them - apparently confirming the reality of extrasensory perception during the dream state.\nIn fascinating detail, the authors explain the intriguing process and results of their 10-year study, researching and experimenting with the human ability to communicate across the barriers of time, space, and sleep. They also review the history of previous research in this area, describe their own controlled experimental procedures, document their subjects' reactions, provide transcripts of several dream sessions, and critically engage with scientific reviewers. All this is done in straightforward language, making the book accessible to both general readers and serious scholars. Rarely has a scientific work been so readable, engaging, and entertaining.\nThis new 50th Anniversary Edition features a never-before-published article by Montague Ullman on interpreting dreams in light of theoretical physicist David Bohm's concept of an implicate order; and a new afterword by Stanley Krippner, highlighting recent developments in dream telepathy research.

Dream Telepathy: The Landmark ESP Experiments

Krippner, Stanley

Vaughan, Alan

Ullman, Montague

Occult & Paranormal

Death and Immortality in the Religions of the World

Badham, Paul

Badham, Linda

The Philosophical Possibilities Beyond Death: Exploring the Evidence from Psychical Research

Moore,Brooke Noel

Philosophy

See the best price to sell, buy or rent books by the Afterworlds Press publisher. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by Afterworlds Press