Sam Bercholz

Sam Bercholz is a senior teacher in the Kagyu and Nyingma lineages of Tibetan Buddhism and has been teaching Buddhist meditation and philosophy for over forty years. He holds the lineages of both Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche and Thinley Norbu Rinpoche who both empowered him to teach dharma.

Sam’s recent book is about his near ­death experience and journey to a hellish bardo state. After a sextuple coronary bypass surgery, Mr. Bercholz experienced a vision of the underworld, a place of unending suffering where human souls go to meet their karmic retribution. Mr. Bercholz relayed his story to the renowned Tibetan artist Pema Namdol Thaye, and the result is truly astounding. Part Dante’s Inferno, part Tibetan Book of the Dead, part Hellboy, the images graphically transport the reader and viewer into the horrifying world Bercholz describes. These paintings are complex, unforgettable, and truly unique, and several prestigious art institutions have already signed for special exhibitions of this work.