Near Death Experiences

In almost all cultures throughout the ages, near-death experiences (NDE’s) have been reported and recorded as interpretations of ones perspective of the afterlife.  Within Bhutanese-Tibetan Buddhist cosmology, the legendary text, the Tibetan Book of the Dead (Tib. bar do thos grol), is the most definitive guide on the subject: it outlines the experiences of consciousness after death and its journey through the bardo.  The contemporary paintings featured on this website are visual interpretations of some of those bardo realms.

The paintings in this collection portray the near death experience of American Buddhist teacher Sam Bercholz who experienced a voyage in hell after nearly dying from a heart attack and then lived to tell about it.  Drawing upon his own childhood memories of intense lucid dreams of horrifying bardo realms (the “intermediate state” between death and rebirth), artist Pema Namdol Thaye portrays Sam’s harrowing visions in vivid detail.  Thaye’s inspiration largely draws from his own near death experience, a frightening journey which accompanied an illness during his childhood.