metempsychosis

3 definitions found

metempsychosis - Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 :

  Palingenesis \Pal`in*gen"e*sis\, Palingenesy \Pal`in*gen"e*sy\,
     n. [Gr. ?; pa`lin again + ? birth: cf. F. paling['e]n['e]sie.
     See Genesis.]
     [1913 Webster]
     1. A new birth; a re-creation; a regeneration; a continued
        existence in different manner or form.
        [1913 Webster]
  
     2. Hence: The passing over of the soul of one person or
        animal into the body of another person or animal, at the
        time of the death of the first; the transmigration of
        souls. Called also metempsychosis.
        [PJC]
  
     3. (Biol.) That form of development of an individual organism
        in which in which ancestral characteristics occurring
        during its evolution are conserved by heredity and
        reproduced, sometimes transiently, in the course of
        individual development; original simple descent; --
        distinguished from cenogenesis (kenogenesis or
        coenogenesis), in which the mode of individual
        development has been modified so that the evolutionary
        process had become obscured. Sometimes, in Zoology, the
        term is applied to the abrupt metamorphosis of insects,
        crustaceans, etc. See also the note under
        recapitulation.
        [1913 Webster +PJC]

  Metempsychosis \Me*temp`sy*cho"sis\, n. [NL., fr. Gr. ?; ?
     beyond, over + ? to animate; ? in + ? soul. See
     Psychology.]
     The passage of the soul, as an immortal essence, at the death
     of the animal body it had inhabited, into another living
     body, whether of a brute or a human being; transmigration of
     souls. --Sir T. Browne.
     [1913 Webster]

metempsychosis - WordNet (r) 2.1 (2005) :

  metempsychosis
      n 1: after death the soul begins a new cycle of existence in
           another human body [syn: metempsychosis, rebirth]