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METEMPSYCHOSIS (Gr. µF El.4/1Xco rts)
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See also:METEMPSYCHOSIS (Gr. µF El.4/1Xco rts) , Or TRANSMIGRATION OF THE SOUL, the See also:doctrine that at See also:death the soul passes into another living creature, See also:man, See also:animal, or even plant. This doctrine, famous in antiquity and still held as a religious tenet by certain sects of the civilized See also:world, has its roots far back in See also:primitive culture. It is See also:developed out of three universal See also:savage beliefs: (r) that man has a soul, connected in some vague way with the breath, which can be separated from his material See also:body, temporarily in See also:sleep, permanently at death; (2) that animals and even See also:plants have souls, and are possessed to a large extent of human See also:powers and passions; (3) that souls can be transferred from one organism to another. Innumerable examples might be mentioned of the notion that a new-See also:born See also:child is the reincarnation of someone departed, as in See also:Tibet the soul of the Dalai-Lama is supposed to pass into an See also:infant born nine months after his decease. Transmigration of human souls into non-human bodies is implied in See also:totemism (q.v.), for, as See also:Professor Frazer says, " it is an See also:article of faith that as the See also:clan sprang from the totem, so each clansman at death reassumes the totem See also:form." All these savage notions are to be regarded as presuppositions of metempsychosis, rather than identified with that doctrine itself as a reasoned theory. Till full investigation of See also:Egyptian records put us in See also:possession of the facts, it was supposed that the Egyptians believed in metempsychosis, and See also:Herodotus (ii. 123) explicitly credits them with it. We now know that he was wrong. All that they believed was that certain privileged souls might in the other world be able to assume certain forms at See also:pleasure, those of a See also:sparrow-See also:hawk, See also:lily, &c. Herodotus misunderstood the Egyptians to hold beliefs identical with those which were current in his See also:day in See also:Greece. In See also:India, on the contrary, the doctrine was thoroughly established from See also:ancient times; not from the most ancient, as it is not in the Vedas; but onwards from the Upanishads. In them it is used for moral retribution: he who kills a See also:Brahman is, after a See also:long progress through dreadful hells, to be reborn as a See also:dog, See also:pig, See also:ass, See also:camel, &c. This we always find in metempsychosis as a reasoned theory. It is formed by combina-tion of two sets of ideas which belong to different planes of culture: the ideas of See also:judgment and See also:punishment after death elaborated in a relatively cultured society by a priestly lass are combined with ideas, like that of totem-transmigration, proper to a savage society. In India we may explain the whole phenomenon as an infusion of the See also:lower beliefs of the non-See also:Aryan conquered races into the higher religious See also:system of their Aryan conquerors. In later See also:Hinduism metempsychosis reached a monstrous development; according to Monier-See also:Williams it was believed that there were 8,400,000 forms of existence through which all souls were liable to pass before returning to their source in the Deity. See also:Buddhism appeared as a reaction against all this, and sought by a subtle modification to harmonize the theory with its own pessimistic view of the world. According to Buddhism there is no soul, and consequently no metempsychosis in the strict sense. Something, however, is transmitted, i.e. See also:Karma (See also:character), which passes from individual to individual, till in the perfectly righteous man the will to live is extinguished and that particular See also:chain of lives is brought to an end. We do not know exactly how the doctrine of meterflpsychosis arose in Greece; it cannot, as was once supposed, have been borrowed from See also:Egypt and is not likely to have come from India. It is easiest to assume that savage ideas which had never been extinguished were utilized for religious and philosophic purposes. The Orphic See also:religion, which held it, first appeared in See also:Thrace upon the semi-barbarous See also:north-eastern frontier. See also:Orpheus, its legendary founder, is said to have taught that " soul and body are See also:united by a compact unequally binding on either; the soul is divine, immortal and aspires to freedom, while the body holds it in fetters as a prisoner. Death dissolves this compact, but only to re-imprison the liberated soul after a See also:short See also:time: for the See also:wheel of See also:birth revolves inexorably. Thus the soul continues its See also:journey, alternating between a See also:separate unrestrained existence and fresh reincarnation, See also:round the wide circle of See also:necessity, as the See also:companion of many bodies of men and animals. To these unfortunate prisoners Orpheus proclaims the See also:message of liberation, that they stand in need of the See also:grace of redeeming gods and of See also:Dionysus in particular, and calls them to turn to See also:God by ascetic piety of See also:life and self-See also:purification: the purer their lives the higher will be their next reincarnation, until the soul has completed the See also:spiral ascent of destiny to live for ever as God from whom it comes." Such was the teaching of Orphism which appeared in Greece about the 6th See also:century B.C., organized itself into private and public mysteries at See also:Eleusis and elsewhere, and produced a copious literature. The earliest See also:Greek thinker with whom metempsychosis is connected is Pherecydes; but See also:Pythagoras, who is said to have been his See also:pupil, is its first famous philosophic exponent. Pythagoras probably neither invented the doctrine nor imported it from Egypt, but made his reputation by bringing Orphic doctrine from North-Eastern Hellas to Magna Graecia and by instituting See also:societies for its See also:diffusion. The real See also:weight and importance of metempsychosis is due to its See also:adoption by See also:Plato. Had he not embodied it in some of his greatest See also:works it would be merely a See also:matter of curious investigation for the anthropologist and student of folk-See also:lore. In the eschatological myth which closes the See also:Republic he tells the See also:story how Er, the son of Armenius, miraculously returned to life on the twelfth day after death and recounted the secrets of the other world. After death, he said, he went with others to the See also:place of Judgment and saw the souls returning from See also:heaven and from See also:purgatory, and proceeded with them to a place where they See also:chose new lives, human and animal. " He saw the soul of Orpheus changing into a See also:swan, Thamyras becoming a See also:nightingale, musical birds choosing to be men, the soul of See also:Atalanta choosing the honours of an See also:athlete. Men were seen passing into animals and See also:wild and tame animals changing into each other." After their choice the souls drank of Lethe and then shot away like stars to their birth. There are myths and theories to the same effect in other dialogues, the See also:Phaedrus, Meno, See also:Phaedo, See also:Timaeus and See also:Laws. In Plato's view the number of souls was fixed; _o birth therefore is never the creation of a soul, but only a trans-See also:migration from one body to another. Plato's See also:acceptance of the doctrine is characteristic of his sympathy with popular beliefs and See also:desire to incorporate them in a purified form into his system. See also:Aristotle, a far less emotional and sympathetic mind, has a doctrine of See also:immortality totally inconsistent with it. In later Greek literature the doctrine appears from time to time; it is mentioned in a fragment of See also:Menander (the Inspired Woman) and. satirized by See also:Lucian (See also:Gallus § 18 seq.). In See also:Roman literature it is found as See also:early as See also:Ennius, who in his Calabrian See also:home must have been See also:familiar with the Greek teachings which had descended to his times from the cities of Magna Graecia. In a lost passage of his See also:Annals, a Roman See also:history in See also:verse, Ennius told how he had seen See also:Homer in a See also:dream, who had assured him that the same soul which had animated both the poets had once belonged to a See also:pea-See also:cock. See also:Persius in one of his satires (vi. 9) laughs at Ennius for this: it is referred to also by See also:Lucretius (i. 124) and by See also:Horace (Epist. II. i. 52). See also:Virgil works the See also:idea into his See also:account of, the Underworld in the See also:sixth See also:book of the Aeneid (vv. 724 sqq.). It persists in antiquity down to the latest classic thinkers, See also:Plotinus and the other Neoplatonists.
Attempts have been made with little success to find metempsychosis in early Jewish literature. But there are traces of it in See also:Philo, and it is definitely adopted in the Kabbala. Within the See also:Christian See also: Outside the somewhat narrow circle of theosophists there is little disposition to accept the doctrine: but it may be See also:worth while ,to point out that there are two fatal objections to it. The first is that See also:personal identity depends on memory, and we do not remember our previous incarnations. The second is that the soul, whatever it may be, is influenced throughout all its qualities by the qualities of the body: modern See also:psychology discredits the idea that the soul is a metaphysical essence which can pass indifferently from one body to another. If (to suppose the impossible) the soul of a dog were to pass into a man's body it would be so changed as to be no longer the same soul; and so, in a less degree, of See also:change from one human body to another. See A. Bertholet, The Transmigration of Souls (trans. from the German by H. J. Chaytor); E. Rohde, See also:Psyche. (H. Additional information and CommentsThere are no comments yet for this article.
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