Christian Cyclopedia

Transmigration of Souls

(Gk. metempsychosis, “animation after [death]”).

1. View that at death the soul passes into another body (human, animal, or plant) or demonic or divine form. Based on animism (see Primitive Religion).

2. Prominent in religions of India. See Brahmanism, 3; Hinduism, 3.

3. Theoretically Buddhism* teaches neither the existence of the soul nor its transmigration; practically it does teach metempsychosis. See also Karma.

4. Plato,* Plutarch,* and other Gk. writers say that Egyptians taught metempsychosis.

5. In Greece, the view is assoc. with Pythagoreanism,* Empedocles,* Plato and Neoplatonism.*

6. The view is also assoc. with Gnosticism,* Manichaeism,* Judaism,* Druids,* Theosophy,* savage and barbarian peoples in many parts of the earth, and others. It is rejected by Christianity.

See also Reincarnation.