Death - Alexandra Brown

So last night I found out that a friend of mine died. Talk about a shocker. At first I sort of just smiled and nodded. Then I went into the bathroom...and completely lost it. And I didn't stop for so long. Death is one of those things that you don't ever really think about until it happens to someone you're close to. It was a rough night for me, and today was even hard to get through. I was in a kind of trance. I usually really hate confronting death, but I recently did a bunch of research on the topic for my paper. I was thinking...whenever someone dies, the shaman acts as a psychopomp and goes into a trance to help guide the soul to the spirit world. I felt, after I found out about my friend, that I sort of went into a trance, and while I was thinking about my friend, I hoped that he was at peace wherever he was, and that he wasn't in pain before he died. I have no idea if my thoughts helped to "guide" him to his afterlife, but I like to think that it might, and that I was HIS shaman.

Wright, Robin M. "Guardians of the Cosmos: Baniwa Shamans and Prophets, Part I." History of Religions. 32.1 (1992): 32-58. Print.