metempsychsis

Metempsychosis, also spelled metempsychosis, is the transmigration or migration of a soul from one body to another after death. The term comes from the Greek meta ("beyond" or "after") and psychē ("soul"). In Western philosophy and religion, it denotes the soul’s passage through successive lives, often influenced by moral conduct.

In ancient Greece, Pythagoreans and later Platonists taught a form of metempsychosis in which the soul is immortal and cycles through incarnations, sometimes ordered by justice or purification. The soul might inhabit animals or other bodies, and through philosophical or ethical attainment it might attain release.

In Indian thought, forms of transmigration are central to Hinduism, Buddhism, and Jainism, though the frameworks differ. In Hinduism the atman is eternal and travels through many bodies as a consequence of karma until moksha. In Buddhism rebirth occurs without an enduring self (anatman) but as continuity of karmic aggregates. Jainism teaches a similar karmic cycle propelled by intention and action.

Metempsychosis has been used by some European interpreters to translate these ideas, but it does not always map cleanly onto non-dual or non-self traditions. In modern discourse, it is discussed as a historical concept illustrating beliefs about the soul, life after death, and moral consequence. Some sources treat it as synonymous with reincarnation, while others reserve the term for cross-species migration.