page_title: Supernatural
section_title: Reincarnation
hierarchical_section_title: Supernatural / Religion / Reincarnation
caption_attribution_description: English: This image four movements to four destinies of the soul as per the Jain theory of Karma
context_page_description: The supernatural encompasses all entities, places and events that fall outside the scope of scientific understanding of the laws of nature. This includes categories of entities which transcend the observable Universe, such as immaterial beings like angels, gods, and spirits. It also includes claimed human abilities like magic, telekinesis, precognition, and extrasensory perception.
  Historically, supernatural powers have been invoked to explain phenomena as diverse as lightning, seasons, and the human senses which today are understood scientifically. The philosophy of naturalism contends that all phenomena are scientifically explicable and nothing exists beyond the natural world, and as such approaches supernatural claims with skepticism.
  The supernatural is featured in folklore and religious contexts, but can also feature as an explanation in more secular contexts, as in the cases of superstitions or belief in the paranormal.
context_section_description: Reincarnation is the philosophical  or religious concept that an aspect of a living being starts a new life in a different physical body or form after each biological death. It is also called rebirth or transmigration, and is a part of the Saṃsāra doctrine of cyclic existence. It is a central tenet of all major Indian religions, namely Jainism, Hinduism, Buddhism, and Sikhism. The idea of reincarnation is found in many ancient cultures, and a belief in rebirth/metempsychosis was held by Greek historic figures, such as Pythagoras, Socrates, and Plato. It is also a common belief of various ancient and modern religions such as Spiritism, Theosophy, and Eckankar, and as an esoteric belief in many streams of Orthodox Judaism. It is found as well in many tribal societies around the world, in places such as Australia, East Asia, Siberia, and South America.
  Although the majority of denominations within Christianity and Islam do not believe that individuals reincarnate, particular groups within these religions do refer to reincarnation; these groups include the mainstream historical and contemporary followers of Cathars, Alawites, the Druze, and the Rosicrucians. The historical relations between these sects and the beliefs about reincarnation that were characteristic of Neoplatonism, Orphism, Hermeticism, Manicheanism, and Gnosticism of the Roman era as well as the Indian religions have been the subject of recent scholarly research. Unity Church and its founder Charles Fillmore teaches reincarnation.
  In recent decades, many Europeans and North Americans have developed an interest in reincarnation, and many contemporary works mention it.
caption: In Jainism, a soul travels to any one of the four states of existence after death depending on its karmas.
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