Near death experience

[Kathryn]

Do you think it is necessary to have one to become a medicine person?

[Sitting Owl]

The quick answer is yes, but it can take unlimited forms of experiences for each individual. For some it is a type of depression; for me it was seriously considering suiside, and for others it can be an actual near death through heart attacks or such. Joseph Campbell called it the Shaman's Scitzophrenic 'Crack Up', where the whole consciousness falls inward, usually to the centre of our beingness; the source of life itself.