Talk:Transmigration of the soul

NPOV language

"Blowing away" Plato's hypothesis?

Is it appropriate for an encyclopedia article to heavily criticize a philosophical concept? The arguments laid out against Plato's conception of transmigration seem solid -- but do they really belong in an encyclopedia? It hardly seems NPOV. We're here to present neutral information, not sway opinions one way or the other. 66.17.118.195 15:59, 16 November 2006 (UTC)

This section is weak and should be eliminated in favor of a reference to the article on Metempsychosis. In particular, the treatment of Plato's conception of the transmigration of souls is invalid. Plato's concept held that souls acquire perfect knowledge when they are in the realm of the forms and among the gods, rather than merely from past lives, so both the treatment of Plato's argument (or a strawman of it) and its critique aren't meaningful. Plynn9 16:57, 22 November 2006 (UTC)

Shinto

Does this ever occur in Shinto? Chris 23:58, 11 March 2006 (UTC)

- AFAIK Shinto adherents view human souls in the afterlife as becoming kami, or deified, and they do not return as new people, but remain near shrines or people to assist (or injure). The cycle of birth, death and re-birth was introduced to Japan by the Buddhists.Plynn9 17:04, 22 November 2006 (UTC)

Plato's hypothesis?

As stated, “A second difficulty lies in explaining the varying, and especially the apparently increasing number of incarnated souls over history." Though a reasonable argument, it lacks in contributing clarity to the section. Moreover, the argument above relies on the assumption that a transmigration of the soul has a celestial restriction. --Johnmccalmont 16:03, 18 January 2007 (UTC)

What's the difference between transmigration and re-incarnation

I'm having difficulty understanding what the difference is between transmigration, reincarnation and Metempsychosis. It would be useful to have a short sentence at the beginning of each of these articles to explain that difference (althouhg metempsy.... does say it is used in a greek context). —The preceding unsigned comment was added by Haseler (talk • contribs) 12:08, 22 February 2007 (UTC).

Hello Haseler, as I understand it Reincarnation is a general term meaning 'to take birth again', whereas Transmigration is a specific philosophy of reincarnation. Metempsychosis is a Greek term for a philosophy very similar (if not identical) to Transmigration. Thus some people may believe in Reincarnation, but would disagree with Transmigration which an ancient Greek would refer to as Metempsychosis. You're right it should be made more clear. Best Wishes, Gouranga(UK) 12:34, 22 February 2007 (UTC)

I came here to ask part of the same question, what is the difference between transmigration and reincarnation. The current article contains the sentence "Some psychic mediums of a variety of religious persuasions (including Hinduism and Wicca) and some Spiritualists believe in transmigration of the soul but hold that reincarnation is an anomaly if it occurs at all." This seems to imply that transmigration is not a subset of reincarnation. But I cannot find anything in the article clear enough to distinguish them in any way. --Ørjan (talk) 21:42, 16 January 2010 (UTC)