The Land of the Dead

I had been sick in bed for a long time, and the fever had plagued me badly. Finally my spirit left its body and flew away. I came to regions where I had never been before and the further I went, the duskier it became. I crossed a large ocean through wondrous forests and high mountains. Finally I reached a ridge of high hills from which I could see a black river. There were many people in the black river all trying to escape from it. Some of them sank even deeper into the stream and they tried in vain to work themselves out. Others climbed the smooth mountain slopes until their bloody hands were no longer able to continue and they would fall down again. In the river there was a tremendously high pole which many climbed. Large birds were flying around the pole and terrified the people so that they would lose their grip. Others drove back and forth on the river without trying to escape, but fished and had a good time on the sandbanks.

In the forests above the river, people were hunting and living just like on earth. A few of them were there with their entire families; others waited for their wives and children. After I had looked around, I walked on for a while and then went to sleep. When I awakened I found myself back on earth and the sun was just rising. Its rays awakened me and I felt completely healthy. Only when arising did I notice that I had been dead, for my mother had dressed me beautifully, brought me outside and covered my corpse with a bark mat, as one is accostomed to do with the dead. My mother told me later that I had died toward evening but that the rays of the sun had given me new life.
a member of the Samoyed tribe

When I shamanize, the spirit of dead Ilya (a brother, who was himself a shaman) comes and speaks through my mind. I was forced to become a shaman by my shamanic ancestors. Before I began to shamanize, I lay ill for a whole year. I became a shaman at the age of fifteen. The sickness that forced me to become a shaman caused my body to swell up and I frequently fainted. When I began to sing, the sickness usually passed away. After that, my ancestors made me into a shaman. They separated my bones and counted them. My flesh they ate raw. When they counted my bones, they found that there was one too many. Had there not been enough bones I could not have become a shaman.
the Tungus shaman Semyon Semyonov

I fell into a trance and saw a vast fine territory. In the middle of it a house stood. I stepped into it, and I beheld my uncle Tsigwee who had been a medicine man (halaait). He had died several years before. Then another uncle appeared - Gukswawtu. Both of them had been equally famous in their day. I heard them sing many songs. While they were singing, a Grizzly ran through the door, and went right around. Then he rose into the air above the clouds in a circle, and came back to the house. Each of my uncles took a rattle and placed it into one of my hands. That is why I always use two rattles in my performances. In my vision I beheld many fires burning under the house. As soon as I walked out of the house, my trance ended. From then on, I sang those chants just as I had learned them in my vision.
Isaac Tens, a Gitksan Indian shaman

The Siberian shamans, Sunchugasev and Kyzlasov, were asked what kind of things the soul of a shaman might encounter on its journey to the Land of the Dead. Sunchugasev replied:

His soul is taken to the shaman ancestor, and there they show him a kettle full of boiling tar. There are people in it. There are some who are known to the shaman. A single rope is fastened across the kettle and they order him to walk over it. If he succeeds, he will live long. If he falls into the kettle, he might still become a Kam (shaman), but usually they do not survive.

Then the wife of Kyzlasov spoke up:

That kettle is always there. Not only the shamans fall into it. They say that the soul of a sick person might also tumble into it. Some of the shamans cannot be persuaded to attempt passing over the kettle. This I know from certain people who told me that they were forced to pass around the edge of the kettle. They did it, and as they did not fall into the kettle, they became shamans.