Transmigration of the human soul means its reincarnation (metempsychosis) as a person or other living being [8]. The ancient traditions (of Pythagoreanism, Platonism, and especially Neoplatonism) mostly died out in late antiquity, as pagan intellectuals (e.g. the Neoplatonists of the 6th century) rejected the concept of transmigration, which was in any case irreconcilable with Christian theology. The medieval Cathars’ ideas on the soul remained essentially without consequence.

Early modern concepts of transmigration came mainly from three sources:

(1) Transmigration …