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One of the best known of these is in Hinduism. Hindus
believe that after a person’s death the soul returns to a new
body. Whether the new life is better or worse than the one
before depends on how that person lived his or her life, an
idea known as
karma
. A person who lives well and practices
his or her religion in each life will eventually be released from
the cycle of rebirth and achieve
nirvana
, becoming one with
the infinite spirit. Buddhism shares with Hinduism some of
the same beliefs about karma and nirvana.
Unlike Hindus and Buddhists, people in many West
African cultures believe that life on earth is better than a
permanent life of the spirit and that rebirth is a good thing.
People are generally reborn into the same family. Sometimes
one soul will die in an infant or young child and be born into
the same family over and over again.
Some of the ancient Greek philosophers also believed
in reincarnation. Plato taught that the soul is immortal (it
lives forever) and is reborn many times, choosing its next life
based on its experiences in past lives. But Aristotle, one of
Plato’s students, rejected his teacher’s ideas of reincarnation
and
immortality
. He believed the soul couldn’t be separated
from the body, so it couldn’t live on after a person died.
life in another realm
Many cultures throughout human history have believed in
a place where souls go after death—in some cases, to be
judged.
For example, the ancient Egyptians believed that after
death the soul went on a long, dangerous journey through the
underworld
, deep within the earth. People spent their whole
The Greek philosophers Plato (left) and his star
student, Aristotle.
RAPHAEL/WIKICOMMONS
NEAR-DEATH EXPERIENCES
Many people who come very close to
dying describe experiences like leaving
or floating above their bodies or moving
through a dark tunnel toward a bright
light. Or they see people they love who
have died either telling them to come to
them or telling them to go back.
