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The afterlife is a purported existence in which the essential part of an individual's identity or their stream of consciousness continues to live after the death of their physical body. According to various ideas about the afterlife, the essential aspect of the individual that lives on after death may be some partial element, or the entire soul or spirit of an individual, which carries with it and may confer personal identity or, on the contrary nirvana. Belief in an afterlife is in contrast to the belief in oblivion after death.
Kryptonite is a fictional material that appears primarily in Superman stories. In its best-known form, it is a green, crystalline material originating from Superman's home world of Krypton that emits a unique radiation that weakens Kryptonians. It is generally harmless to humans in the short term, but deadly in the long term. There are other varieties of Kryptonite, such as red and gold Kryptonite, which have different but still generally negative effects. Due to Superman's popularity, Kryptonite has become a byword for an extraordinary exploitable weakness, synonymous with "Achilles' heel". Batman and Lex Luthor are two notable individuals who have pieces of Kryptonite with them—the former being trusted by Superman to stop him if he goes rogue, and the latter using the mineral to ward off Superman, sometimes incorporating it into weapons to try to kill him.
Pre-existence, preexistence, beforelife, or premortal existence, is the belief that each individual human soul existed before mortal conception, and at some point before birth enters or is placed into the body. Concepts of pre-existence can encompass either the belief that the soul came into existence at some time prior to conception or the belief that the soul is eternal. Alternative positions are traducianism and creationism, which both hold that the individual human soul does not come into existence until conception. It is to be distinguished from preformation, which is about physical existence and applies to all living things.
Reincarnation, also known as rebirth or transmigration, is the philosophical or religious concept that the non-physical essence of a living being begins a new life in a different physical form or body after biological death. Resurrection is a similar process hypothesized by some religions, in which a soul comes back to life in the same body. In most beliefs involving reincarnation, the soul is seen as immortal and the only thing that becomes perishable is the body. Upon death, the soul becomes transmigrated into a new infant to live again. The term transmigration means passing of soul from one body to another after death.
Resurrection or anastasis is the concept of coming back to life after death. In a number of religions, a dying-and-rising god is a deity which dies and is resurrected. Reincarnation is a similar process hypothesized by other religions, which involves the same person or deity coming back to live in a different body, rather than the same one.
In many religious and philosophical traditions there is a belief that a soul is "the immaterial aspect or essence of a human being". Evidence supports that prehistoric peoples had a concept of a soul, and Egyptian, Chinese and Hebrew traditions had terms to describe a soul.
Spirit possession is an unusual or altered state of consciousness and associated behaviors purportedly caused by the control of a human body by spirits, ghosts, demons, or gods. The concept of spirit possession exists in many cultures and religions, including Buddhism, Christianity, Haitian Vodou, Hinduism, Islam, Wicca, and Southeast Asian, African, and Native American traditions. Depending on the cultural context in which it is found, possession may be considered voluntary or involuntary and may be considered to have beneficial or detrimental effects on the host.
Metempsychosis, in philosophy, refers to transmigration of the soul, especially its reincarnation after death. The term is derived from ancient Greek philosophy, and has been recontextualised by modern philosophers such as Arthur Schopenhauer and Kurt Gödel; otherwise, the term "transmigration" is more appropriate. The word plays a prominent role in James Joyce's Ulysses and is also associated with Nietzsche. Another term sometimes used synonymously is palingenesis.
A doppelgänger or doppelganger is a biologically unrelated look-alike, or a double, of a living person.
Deadman is a fictional superhero appearing in American comic books published by DC Comics. He first appeared in Strange Adventures #205, and was created by Arnold Drake and Carmine Infantino.
Ruth Shick Montgomery was a journalist with a long and distinguished career as a reporter, correspondent, and syndicated columnist in Washington, DC.
In Scientology, the concept of the thetan is similar to the concept of self, or the spirit or soul as found in several belief systems. This similarity is not total, though. The term is derived from the Greek letter Θ, theta, which in Scientology beliefs represents "the source of life, or life itself." In Scientology it is believed that it is the thetan, not the central nervous system, which commands the body through communication points.
In esoteric cosmology, a plane is conceived as a subtle state, level, or region of reality, each plane corresponding to some type, kind, or category of being.
The evil twin is an antagonist found in many different fictional genres. The twin is physically nearly identical to the protagonist, but with a radically inverted morality. In films, they may have a symbolic physical difference from the protagonist—such as a goatee beard, eyepatch, scar, or distinctive clothing—which makes it easy for the audience to visually identify the two characters. Sometimes, however, the physical differences between the characters will be minimized, so as to confuse the audience. Both roles are almost always played by either the same actor or the actor's actual twin.
In folk belief, spirit is the vital principle or animating essence within all living things. As recently as 1628 and 1633 respectively, both William Harvey and René Descartes still speculated that somewhere within the body, in a special locality, there was a "vital spirit" or "vital force", which animated the whole bodily frame, just as the engine in a factory moves the machinery in it.
Preta, also known as hungry ghost, is the Sanskrit name for a type of supernatural being described in Hinduism, Buddhism, Taoism, Chinese folk as undergoing suffering greater than that of humans, particularly an extreme level of hunger and thirst. They have their origins in Indian religions and have been adopted into East Asian religions via the spread of Buddhism. Preta is often translated into English as "hungry ghost" from the Chinese and East Asian adaptations. In early sources such as the Petavatthu, they are much more varied. The descriptions below apply mainly in this narrower context. The development of the concept of the preta started with just thinking that it was the soul and ghost of a person once they died, but later the concept developed into a transient state between death and obtaining karmic reincarnation in accordance with the person's fate. In order to pass into the cycle of karmic reincarnation, the deceased's family must engage in a variety of rituals and offerings to guide the suffering spirit into its next life. If the family does not engage in these funerary rites, which last for one year, the soul could remain suffering as a preta for the rest of eternity.
The Hallowed Hunt is a fantasy novel by American writer Lois McMaster Bujold, published in 2005. It placed fourth in the annual Locus Poll for best fantasy novel, and the series it is a part of, World of the Five Gods, won the Hugo Award for Best Series in 2018.
Steel is a fictional superhero who appears in comic books published by DC Comics. He is a genius engineer who built a mechanized suit of armor that replicates Superman's powers and bears Superman's logo. Initially, he sought to replace Superman after Superman was killed by Doomsday. After Superman was resurrected, Superman accepted Steel as an ally. His real name is John Henry Irons and he wields a sledgehammer—this is a reference to the mythical railroad worker John Henry. He has a niece named Natasha Irons who is also a superhero in a similar mechanized suit of armor.
The body of light, sometimes called the 'astral body' or the 'subtle body,' is a "quasi material" aspect of the human body, being neither solely physical nor solely spiritual, posited by a number of philosophers, and elaborated on according to various esoteric, occult, and mystical teachings. Other terms used for this body include body of glory, spirit-body, radiant body, luciform body, augoeides ('radiant'), astroeides, and celestial body.
Reincarnation is regularly mentioned in feature films, books, and popular music. The similar concept of transmigration has been used frequently to the point of cliché in the sense of people "switching bodies", in which the identity of a character transfers to another's body, either unilaterally or by exchange, or to an animal or object. This concept has been used many times in various films, particularly in Indian cinema and television.
References
- 1 2 3 Lewis, James R. The Encyclopedia of Cults, Sects, and New Religions. Prometheus Books, 2002. p. 382.
- 1 2 Lewis, James R. Legitimating New Religions. Rutgers University Press, 2003. pp. 130–131.
- 1 2 York, Michael. The Emerging Network: A Sociology of the New Age and Neo-pagan Movements. Rowman & Littlefield, 1995. p. 72.
- 1 2 McClelland, Norman C. Encyclopedia of Reincarnation and Karma. McFarland, 2010. p. 276.
- 1 2 3 Bjorling, Joel. Reincarnation: A Bibliography. Taylor & Francis, 1996. pp. 141–142.
- ↑ Partridge, Christopher. UFO Religions. Routledge, 2012. pp. 114–115.
- ↑ Stern, Roger. The Death and Life of Superman (novelization of the Death of Superman storyline). Random House Publishing Group, 1994. p. 365. "I knew all along that Superman would return, and now he has. Not necessarily in the form people might have expected, but it was him. Listen, have you ever heard of a walk-in spirit? When a body has been abandoned by one spirit but is not yet uninhabitable, then another spirit can move in. Anyway, whatever he is, the cards tell me for sure that the man who saved me today is definitely the Man of Steel. For sure."