Personal Accounts »

Black Elk was a warrior and mystic who lived from 1863 to 1950. In Black Elk Speaks, written with John Neihardt, Black Elk describes a spiritual journey he took to the land where his ancestors live after their earthly death.

Black Elk as a young man

Black Elk was participating in a religious ceremony when he fell into a trance. As his body sunk to the ground, his spirit was lifted high and transported over a river which many men and women were struggling to cross. He touched ground on the other bank in the land of his ancestors. Two men greeted him and assured him that his father, who had died years before, was happy here, but that it was not yet Black Elk’s time to join him.

Looking around, he saw that the world of his ancestors resembled his own world, the Midwestern plains. Only it was more perfect:

I could see a beautiful land where many, many people were camping in a great circle. I could see that they were happy and had plenty. Everywhere there were drying racks full of meat. The air was clear and beautiful with a living light that was everywhere. All around the circle, feeding on the green, green grass, were fat and happy horses; and animals of all kinds were scattered all over the green hills, and singing hunters were returning with their meat.

The inhabitants appeared to be in the prime of life: “all the people were beautiful and young. There were no old ones there, nor children either–just people of about one age, and beautiful.”
When Black Elk returned to ordinary consciousness, an audience thronged around him, eager to hear of his otherworldly journey. His tribe, like most cultures throughout history, believed in survival of the spirit and looked to those who had experienced altered consciousness to provide them with a map of the unseen world.