Observations placeholder
Knud Rasmussen - The Iglulik Eskimos and the tube down
Identifier
004345
Type of Spiritual Experience
Background
A description of the experience
Knud Rasmussen – Intellectual Culture of the Iglulik Eskimos
. . . For the very greatest [shamans], a way opens right from the house whence they invoke their helping spirits; a road down through the earth, if they are in a tent on shore, or down through the sea, if it is in a snow hut on the sea ice, and by this route the shaman is led down without encountering any obstacle. He almost glides as if falling through a tube so fitted to his body that he can check his progress by pressing against the sides, and need not actually fall down with a rush.
This tube is kept open for him by all the souls of his name-sakes, until he returns on his way back to earth