Afterlife, Rebirth, and Immortality

Metempsychosis: An Interreligious History

Diverse religious and philosophical traditions as well as literary trends around the world have adopted ideas of metempsychosis or the transmigration of the soul. Christians, Jews, and Muslims have also experimented with the idea, while such Abrahamic experiments have been disregarded and even silenced. On the other hand, these engagements can teach us not only the diversity within each of these faiths, but also the deep interconnections between their intellectual heritages. The adoption of metempsychosis often mirrored intellectual exchanges between religious traditions, as in the case of the prominent School of Illuminationism, which exemplifies such philosophical interactions between Muslims, Jews, and Indian religions. This project aims to generate renewed academic focus around the interreligious history of reincarnation. The project team will provide English translations of a rich set of original mystical, theological, and philosophical texts on the transmigration of the soul. They will develop an archive of historical sources on metempsychosis, and pursue the hypothesis that the history of metempsychosis is also the history of forgotten transcultural and interreligious exchanges.

Perspectives on Death, Afterlife, and Reincarnation Public Seminars

The monthly seminars are composed of a 5–10-minute introduction and a 40-minute presentation followed by a 10–15-minute Q&A session. The presentations are recorded, and made available on the project website below and on our YouTube Channel. All seminars are open-to-public and free, while registration will be required to receive the Zoom link.

2024 Schedule

2023 Schedule

Project Team

Dr Ashkan Bahrani (project coordinator)

Dr Aydogan Kars (project lead)

Prof Constant Mews

Dr Giovanni Arca

Dr Raphael Dascalu

Dr Tamara Prosic

Painting Credits: Hom (Diptico) by Hashim Cabrera, 2019.