Reincarnation is believed to occur when the soul or spirit, after the death of the body, comes back to life in a newborn body. This phenomenon is also known as transmigration of the soul or metempsychosis.

This doctrine is a central tenet within the majority of Indian religious traditions, such as Hinduism, Jainism, and Sikhism; the Buddhist concept of rebirth is also often referred to as reincarnation. The idea was also fundamental to some Greek philosophers and religions as well as other religions, such as Druidism and later on, Spiritism, and Eckankar. It is also found in many small-scale societies around the world, in places such as Siberia, West Africa, North America, and Australia.

Although the majority of sects within Judaism, 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 Kabbalah, the Cathars, the Druze and the Rosicrucians. The historical relations between these sects and the beliefs about reincarnation that were characteristic of the Neoplatonism, Hermeticism, Manicheanism and Gnosticism of the Roman era, as well as the Indian religions, is unclear.

Conceptual definitions

The word "reincarnation" derives from Latin, literally meaning, "entering the flesh again". The Greek equivalent metempsychosis (μετεμψύχωσις) roughly corresponds to the common English phrase "transmigration of the soul" and also usually connotes reincarnation after death, as either human, animal, though emphasising the continuity of the soul, not the flesh. The term has been used by modern philosophers such as Kurt Gödel and has entered the English language. Another Greek term sometimes used synonymously is palingenesis, "being born again".

There is no word corresponding exactly to the English terms "rebirth", "metempsychosis", "transmigration" or "reincarnation" in the traditional languages of Pāli and Sanskrit. The entire universal process that gives rise to the cycle of death and rebirth, governed by karma, is referred to as Samsara while the state one is born into, the individual process of being born or coming into the world in any way, is referred to simply as "birth" (jāti). Devas (gods) may also die and live again. Here the term "reincarnation" is not strictly applicable, yet Hindu gods are said to have reincarnated (see Avatar): Lord Vishnu is known for His ten incarnations, the Dashavatars. Celtic religion seems to have had reincarnating gods also. Many Christians regard Jesus as a divine incarnation and they and many Muslims believe he and some prophets may incarnate again. Some ghulat Shi'a Muslim sects also regard their founders as in some special sense divine incarnations (hulul).

Philosophical and religious beliefs regarding the existence or non-existence of an unchanging 'self' have a direct bearing on how reincarnation is viewed within a given tradition. The Buddha lived at a time of great philosophical creativity in India when many conceptions of the nature of life and death were proposed. Some were materialist, holding that there was no existence that the self is annihilated upon death. Others believed in a form of cyclic existence, where a being is born, lives, dies and then is re-born, but in the context of a type of determinism or fatalism in which karma played no role. Others were "eternalists", postulating an eternally existent self or soul comparable to that in Judaic monotheism: the ātman survives death and reincarnates as another living being, based on its karmic inheritance. This is the idea that has become dominant (with certain modifications) in modern Hinduism.

The Buddhist concept of reincarnation differs from others in that there is no eternal "soul", "spirit' or self" but only a "stream of consciousness" that links life with life. The actual process of change from one life to the next is called punarbhava (Sanskrit) or punabbhava (Pāli), literally "becoming again", or more briefly bhava, "becoming", and some English-speaking Buddhists prefer the term "rebirth" or "re-becoming" to render this term as they take "reincarnation" to imply a fixed entity that is reborn. Popular Jain cosmology and Buddhist cosmology as well as a number of schools of Hinduism posit rebirth in many worlds and in varied forms. In Buddhist tradition the process occurs across five or six realms of existence, including the human, any kind of animal and several types of supernatural being. It is said in Tibetan Buddhism that it is very rare for a person to be reborn in the immediate next life as a human

Gilgul, Gilgul neshamot or Gilgulei Ha Neshamot (Heb. גלגול הנשמות) refers to the concept of reincarnation in Kabbalistic Judaism, found in much Yiddish literature among Ashkenazi Jews. Gilgul means "cycle" and neshamot is "souls." The equivalent Arabic term is tanasukh: the belief is found among Shi'a ghulat Muslim sects.

History

Antiquity

Origins

The origins of the notion of reincarnation are obscure. They apparently date to the Iron Age ( around 1200 BC ). Discussion of the subject appears in the philosophical traditions of India and Greece from about the 6th century BCE, but is conspicuously absent from the earlier Vedic texts of India..Also during the Iron Age, the Greek Pre-Socratics discussed reincarnation, and the Celtic Druids are also reported to have taught a doctrine of reincarnation.

The origin of the Indian tradition is usually assumed to lie in the non-Vedic sramana traditions, which would explain why it only enters the historical record with the adoption of sramana elements into mainstream Brahmin orthodoxy at the end of the Vedic period. along with the associated concepts of karma, samsara and moksha. Some scholars suggest that the idea is original to the Buddha. Another possibility is an origin in the native tribal religions of the pre-Indo-Aryan Ganges valley, or in prehistoric Dravidian traditions of South India.

Whatever its ultimate origin, Indian discussion of reincarnation enters the historical record from about the 6th century BCE, with the development of the Vedantic tradition, in the early Upanishads (around the middle of the first millennium BCE), Gautam Buddha (5th century BCE) as well as Mahavir the Tirthankar of Jainism.

Early Greek discussion of the concept likewise dates to the 6th century BCE. An early Greek thinker known to have considered rebirth is Pherecydes of Syros (fl. 540 BCE). His younger contemporary Pythagoras (c. 570-c. 495 BCE), its first famous exponent, instituted societies for its diffusion. Plato (428/427 BC – 348/347 BC) presented accounts of reincarnation in his works, particularly the Myth of Er.

Proponents of cultural transmission have looked for links between Iron Age Celtic, Greek and Vedic philosophy and religion, some even suggesting that belief in reincarnation was present in Proto-Indo-European religion. Authorities have not agreed on how the notion arose in Greece: sometimes Pythagoras is said to have been Pherecydes' pupil, sometimes to have introduced it with the doctrine of Orphism, a Thracian religion that was to be important in the diffusion of reincarnation, or else to have brought the teaching from India. In Phaedo Plato makes his teacher Socrates, prior to his death, state; "I am confident that there truly is such a thing as living again, and that the living spring from the dead." However Xenophon does not mention Socrates as believing in reincarnation and Plato may have systematised Socrates' thought with concepts he took directly from Pythagoreanism or Orphism.

Early Buddhism and Hinduism

The systematic attempt to attain first-hand knowledge of past lives has been developed in various ways in different places. The early Buddhist texts discuss techniques for recalling previous births, predicated on the development of high levels of meditative concentration. The later Yoga Sutras of Patanjali, which exhibit heavy Buddhist influence, give similar instructions on how to attain the ability. The Buddha reportedly warned that this experience can be misleading and should be interpreted with care.

Tibetan Buddhism has developed a unique 'science' of death and rebirth, a good deal of which is set down in what is popularly known as The Tibetan Book of the Dead. The Hasidic tzadik was believed to know the past lives of each person through his semi-prophetic abilities.

Classical Antiquity

The Orphic religion, which taught reincarnation, first appeared in Thrace in north-eastern Greece and, about the 6th century BC, organized itself into mystery schools at Eleusis and elsewhere, and produced a copious literature. Orpheus, its legendary founder, is said to have taught that the immortal soul aspires to freedom while the body holds it prisoner. The wheel of birth revolves, the soul alternates between freedom and captivity round the wide circle of necessity. Orpheus proclaimed the need of the grace of the gods, Dionysus in particular, and of self-purification until the soul has completed the spiral ascent of destiny to live for ever.

An association between Pythagorean philosophy and reincarnation was routinely accepted throughout antiquity. In the Republic Plato makes Socrates tell how Er, the son of Armenius, miraculously returned to life on the twelfth day after death and recounted the secrets of the other world. There are myths and theories to the same effect in other dialogues, in the Chariot allegory of the Phaedrus, in the Meno, Timaeus and Laws. The soul, once separated from the body, spends an indeterminate amount of time in "formland" (see The Allegory of the Cave in The Republic) and then assumes another body.

In later Greek literature the doctrine is mentioned in a fragment of Menander and satirized by Lucian. In Roman literature it is found as early as Ennius, who, in a lost passage of his Annals, told how he had seen Homer in a dream, who had assured him that the same soul which had animated both the poets had once belonged to a peacock. Persius in his satires (vi. 9) laughs at this: it is referred to also by Lucretius and Horace.

Virgil works the idea into his account of the Underworld in the sixth book of the Aeneid. It persists down to the late classic thinkers, Plotinus and the other Neoplatonists. In the Hermetica, a Graeco-Egyptian series of writings on cosmology and spirituality attributed to Hermes Trismegistus/Thoth, the doctrine of reincarnation is central.

In Greco-Roman thought, the concept of metempsychosis disappeared with the rise of Early Christianity, reincarnation being incompatible with the Christian core doctrine of salvation of the faithful after death. It has been suggested that some of the early Church Fathers, especially Origen still entertained a belief in the possibility of reincarnation, but evidence is tenuous, and the writings of Origen as they have come down to us speak explicitly against it.

Some early Christian Gnostic sects professed reincarnation. The Sethians and followers of Valentinus believed in it. The followers of Bardaisan of Mesopotamia, a sect of the 2nd century deemed heretical by the Catholic Church, drew upon Chaldean astrology, to which Bardaisan's son Harmonius, educated in Athens, added Greek ideas including a sort of metempsychosis. Another such teacher was Basilides (132–? CE/AD), known to us through the criticisms of Irenaeus and the work of Clement of Alexandria. (see also Neoplatonism and Gnosticism and Buddhism and Gnosticism)

In the third Christian century Manichaeism spread both east and west from Babylonia, then within the Sassanid Empire, where its founder Mani lived about 216–276. Manichaean monasteries existed in Rome in 312 A.D. Noting Mani's early travels to the Kushan Empire and other Buddhist influences in Manichaeism, Richard Foltz attributes Mani's teaching of reincarnation to Buddhist influence. However the inter-relation of Manicheanism, Orphism, Gnosticism and neo-Platonism is far from clear.

Taoism

Taoist documents from as early as the Han Dynasty claimed that Lao Tzu appeared on earth as different persons in different times beginning in the legendary era of Three Sovereigns and Five Emperors. The (ca. 3rd century BCE) Chuang Tzu states: "Birth is not a beginning; death is not an end. There is existence without limitation; there is continuity without a starting-point. Existence without limitation is Space. Continuity without a starting point is Time. There is birth, there is death, there is issuing forth, there is entering in."

The Celts

In the 1st century BCE Alexander Cornelius Polyhistor wrote;

Julius Caesar recorded that the druids of Gaul, Britain and Ireland had metempsychosis as one of their core doctrines;

Middle Ages

Around the 11-12th century several reincarnationist movements were persecuted as heresies, through the establishment of the Inquisition in the Latin west. These included the Cathar, Paterene or Albigensian church of western Europe, the Paulician movement, which arose in Armenia, and the Bogomils in Bulgaria.

Christian sects such as the Bogomils and the Cathars, who professed reincarnation and other gnostic beliefs, were referred to as "Manichean", and are today sometimes described by scholars as "Neo-Manichean". As there is no known Manichaean mythology or terminology in the writings of these groups there has been some dispute among historians as to whether these groups truly were descendants of Manichaeism.

Norse mythology

holding the dying Helgi in their first incarnation of three.]] Reincarnation also appears in Norse mythology, in the Poetic Edda. The editor of the Poetic Edda says that Helgi Hjörvarðsson and his mistress, the valkyrie Sváfa, whose love story is told in the Helgakviða Hjörvarðssonar, were reborn as Helgi Hundingsbane and the valkyrie Sigrún. Helgi and Sigrún's love story is the matter of a part of the Völsunga saga and the lays Helgakviða Hundingsbana I and II. They were reborn a second time as Helgi Haddingjaskati and the valkyrie Kára, but unfortunately their story, Káruljóð, only survives in a probably modified form in the Hrómundar saga Gripssonar.

The belief in reincarnation was probably commonplace among the Vikings since the annotator of the Poetic Edda wrote that people formerly used to believe in it:

Renaissance and Early Modern period

While reincarnation has been a matter of faith in some communities from an early date it has also frequently been argued for on principle, as Plato does when he argues that the number of souls must be finite because souls are indestructible, Benjamin Franklin held a similar view. Sometimes such convictions, as in Socrates' case, arise from a more general personal faith, at other times from anecdotal evidence such as Plato makes Socrates offer in the Myth of Er.

During the Renaissance translations of Plato, the Hermetica and other works fostered new European interest in reincarnation. Marsilio Ficino argued that Plato's references to reincarnation were intended allegorically, Shakespeare made fun but Giordano Bruno was burned at the stake by authorities after being found guilty of heresy by the Roman Inquisition for his teachings. But the Greek philosophical works remained available and, particularly in north Europe, were discussed by groups such as the Cambridge Platonists.

19th to 20th centuries

(1842 - 1910) was an early psychical researcher.]]

By the 19th century the philosophers Schopenhauer and Nietzsche could access the Indian scriptures for discussion of the doctrine of reincarnation, which recommended itself to the American Transcendentalists Henry David Thoreau, Walt Whitman and Ralph Waldo Emerson and was adapted by Francis Bowen into Christian Metempsychosis.

By the early 20th century, interest in reincarnation had been introduced into the nascent discipline of psychology, largely due to the influence of William James, who raised aspects of the philosophy of mind, comparative religion, the psychology of religious experience and the nature of empiricism. James was influential in the founding of the American Society for Psychical Research (ASPR) in New York City in 1885, three years after the British Society for Psychical Research (SPR) was inaugurated in London,

Théodore Flournoy was among the first to study a claim of past-life recall in the course of his investigation of the medium Hélène Smith, published in 1900, in which he defined the possibility of cryptomnesia in such accounts. Carl Gustav Jung, like Flournoy based in Switzerland, also emulated him in his thesis based on a study of cryptomnesia in psychism. Later Jung would emphasise the importance of the persistence of memory and ego in psychological study of reincarnation; "This concept of rebirth necessarily implies the continuity of personality... (that) one is able, at least potentially, to remember that one has lived through previous existences, and that these existences were one's own...". case studies from around the world of children that seemed to him to be able to remember events in a life that had ended, often in a violent way, before the child was born. Stevenson compared each child's account with the personal history of the deceased and attempted to gather information before any contact between the child and the deceased's family had occurred. Stevenson also searched for evidence that could provide alternative explanations for the reports aside from reincarnation, discounting some reports.

Stevenson's work tended to polarize opinion: While supporters see him as a misunderstood genius, skeptics found him to be gullible and superstitious. Some reviewers praised Stevenson for the scientific rigor they saw in his investigations, while others criticized his interpretations and conclusions as being unwarranted supposition. Though Stevenson avoided speculating on physical mechanisms for reincarnation, subsequent researchers from his group have appealed to quantum mechanics as an explanation in a way that is criticized by experts as being based on incorrect or pseudoscientific interpretations. Researchers who believe in the evidence for reincarnation have been unsuccessful in getting the scientific community to consider it a serious possibility.

Prevalence of belief in reincarnation

Recent studies have indicated that some Westerners accept the idea of reincarnation including certain contemporary Christians, modern Neopagans, followers of Spiritism, Theosophists and students of esoteric philosophies such as Kabbalah, and Gnostic and Esoteric Christianity as well as of Indian religions. Demographic survey data from 1999-2002 shows a significant minority of people from Europe and America, where there is reasonable freedom of thought and access to ideas but no outstanding recent reincarnationist tradition, believe we had a life before we were born, will survive death and be born again physically. The mean for the Nordic countries is 22%. The belief in reincarnation is particularly high in the Baltic countries, with Lithuania having the highest figure for the whole of Europe, 44%. The lowest figure is in East Germany, 12%. In Russia, about one-third believes in reincarnation. The effect of communist anti-religious ideas on the beliefs of the populations of Eastern Europe seems to have been rather slight, if any, except apparently in East Germany.

Skeptic Carl Sagan asked the Dalai Lama what would he do if a fundamental tenet of his religion (reincarnation) were definitively disproved by science. The Dalai Lama answered; "if science can disprove reincarnation, Tibetan Buddhism would abandon reincarnation... but it's going to be mighty hard to disprove reincarnation."

Ian Stevenson reported that belief in reincarnation is held (with variations in details) by adherents of almost all major religions except Christianity and Islam. In addition, between 20 and 30 percent of persons in western countries who may be nominal Christians also believe in reincarnation.

One 1999 study by Walter and Waterhouse reviewed the previous data on the level of reincarnation belief and performed a set of thirty in-depth interviews in Britain among people who did not belong to a religion advocating reincarnation. The authors reported that surveys have found about one fifth to one quarter of Europeans have some level of belief in reincarnation, with similar results found in the USA. In the interviewed group, the belief in the existence of this phenomenon appeared independent of their age, or the type of religion that these people belonged to, with most being Christians. The beliefs of this group also did not appear to contain any more than usual of "new age" ideas (broadly defined) and the authors interpreted their ideas on reincarnation as "one way of tackling issues of suffering", but noted that this seemed to have little effect on their private lives.

Waterhouse also published a detailed discussion of beliefs expressed in the interviews. She noted that although most people "hold their belief in reincarnation quite lightly" and were unclear on the details of their ideas, personal experiences such as past-life memories and near-death experiences had influenced most believers, although only a few had direct experience of these phenomena. Waterhouse analyzed the influences of second-hand accounts of reincarnation, writing that most of the people in the survey had heard other people's accounts of past-lives from regression hypnosis and dreams and found these fascinating, feeling that there "must be something in it" if other people were having such experiences.

In the US, two studies have indicated that these beliefs are more common in survivors of violent psychological trauma and people suffering from posttraumatic stress disorder. However, these ideas do not appear to be associated with improved outcomes from such traumas. Indeed, one study noted that these ideas are "associated with more ill health and greater levels of trauma and suffering." and proposed that they are a coping mechanism to deal with past trauma. Where the idea of reincarnation are a cause of distress, such as in the case of a young boy who was haunted by what he thought were memories of a past life, therapy has been tried which included psychotherapy and medication.

Other researchers, examining the traditional belief in reincarnation in Nigeria, noted that the disease sickle cell anaemia might have contributed to this belief. The recurrence of this genetic disorder within families may have led people to conclude that the child involved is a malevolent spirit called a Ogbanje, which is chronically ill and repeatedly reincarnated within its target family.

Contemporary religious philosophies

Hinduism

In Hinduism the soul (atman) is immortal while the body is subject to birth and death. The Bhagavad Gita states;

) repeatedly takes on a physical body.]]

and,

According to the Hindu sage Adi Shankaracharya, the world - as we ordinarily understand it - is like a dream: fleeting and illusory. To be trapped in samsara (the cycle of birth and death) is a result of ignorance of the true nature of our existence. It is ignorance (avidya) of one's true self that leads to ego-consciousness, grounding one in desire and a perpetual chain of reincarnation. The idea is intricately linked to action (karma), a concept first recorded in the Upanishads. Every action has a reaction and the force determines one's next incarnation. One is reborn through desire: a person desires to be born because he or she wants to enjoy a body, which can never bring deep, lasting happiness or peace (ānanda). After many births every person becomes dissatisfied and begins to seek higher forms of happiness through spiritual experience. When, after spiritual practice (sādhanā), a person realizes that the true "self" is the immortal soul rather than the body or the ego all desires for the pleasures of the world will vanish since they will seem insipid compared to spiritual ānanda. When all desire has vanished the person will not be born again. When the cycle of rebirth thus comes to an end, a person is said to have attained liberation (moksha). All schools agree this implies the cessation of worldly desires and freedom from the cycle of birth and death, though the exact definition differs. Followers of the Advaita Vedanta school believe they will spend eternity absorbed in the perfect peace and happiness of the realization that all existence is One Brahman of which the soul is part. Dvaita schools perform worship with the goal of spending eternity in a spiritual world or heaven (loka) in the blessed company of the Supreme Being.

Jainism

Jainism, like Buddhism, is historically connected with the sramana tradition with which the earliest mentions of reincarnation are associated.

Buddhism

, Lord of Death and Desire, clutches a Wheel of Reincarnation which outlines the Buddhist cycle of reincarnation.]]

The early Buddhist texts make it clear that there is no permanent consciousness that moves from life to life. Gautama Buddha taught a distinct concept of rebirth constrained by the concepts of anattā, that there is no irreducible ātman or "self" tying these lives together, and anicca, that all compounded things are subject to dissolution, including all the components of the human person and personality.

In Buddhist doctrine the evolving consciousness (Pali: samvattanika-viññana) or stream of consciousness (Pali: viññana-sotam, Sanskrit: vijñāna-srotām, vijñāna-santāna, or citta-santāna) upon death (or "the dissolution of the aggregates" (P. khandhas, S. skandhas)), becomes one of the contributing causes for the arising of a new aggregation. At the death of one personality, a new one comes into being, much as the flame of a dying candle can serve to light the flame of another. The consciousness in the new person is neither identical to nor entirely different from that in the deceased but the two form a causal continuum or stream. Transmigration is the effect of karma (kamma) or volitional action. The basic cause is the abiding of consciousness in ignorance (Pali: avijja, Sanskrit: avidya): when ignorance is uprooted rebirth ceases.

The Buddha's detailed conception of the connections between action (karma), rebirth and causality is set out in the twelve links of dependent origination. The empirical, changing self does not only affect the world about it, it also generates, consciously and unconsciously, a subjective image of the world in which it lives as 'reality'. It "tunes in" to a particular level of consciousness which has a particular range of objects, selectively notices such objects and forms a partial model of reality in which the ego is the crucial reference point. Vipassana meditation uses "bare attention" to mind-states without interfering, owning or judging. Observation reveals each moment as an experience of an individual mind-state such as a thought, a memory, a feeling or a perception that arises, exists and ceases. This limits the power of desire, which, according to the second noble truth of Buddhism, is the cause of suffering (dukkha), and leads to Nirvana (nibbana, vanishing (of the self-idea)) in which self-oriented models are transcended and "the world stops". Thus consciousness is a continuous birth and death of mind-states: rebirth is the persistence of this process.

While all Buddhist traditions accept rebirth there is no unified view about precisely how events unfold after death. The Tibetan schools hold to the notion of a bardo (intermediate state) that can last up to forty-nine days. An accomplished or realized practitioner (by maintaining conscious awareness during the death process) can choose to return to samsara, that many lamas choose to be born again and again as humans and are called tulkus or incarnate lamas. The Sarvastivada school believed that between death and rebirth there is a sort of limbo in which beings do not yet reap the consequences of their previous actions but may still influence their rebirth. The death process and this intermediate state were believed to offer a uniquely favourable opportunity for spiritual awakening. Theravada Buddhism generally denies there is an intermediate state, though some early Buddhist texts seem to support it, but asserts that rebirth is immediate.

Some schools conclude that karma continues to exist and adhere to the person until it works out its consequences. For the Sautrantika school each act "perfumes" the individual or "plants a seed" that later germinates. In another view remaining impure aggregates, skandhas, reform consciousness. Tibetan Buddhism stresses the state of mind at the time of death. To die with a peaceful mind will stimulate a virtuous seed and a fortunate rebirth, a disturbed mind will stimulate a non-virtuous seed and an unfortunate rebirth. The medieval Pali scholar Buddhaghosa labeled the consciousness that constitutes the condition for a new birth as described in the early texts "rebirth-linking consciousness" (patisandhi).

Sant mystics and Sikhism

Reincarnation remained a tenet of the Sant Bhakti movement and of related mystics on the frontiers of Islam and Hinduism such as the Baul minstrels, the Kabir panth and the Sikh Brotherhood. Sikhs believe the soul is passed from one body to another until Liberation. If we perform good deeds and actions and remember the Creator, we attain a better life while, if we carry out evil actions and sinful deeds, we will be incarnated in “lower” life forms. God may pardon wrongs and release us. Otherwise reincarnation is due to the law of cause and effect but does not create any caste or differences among people. Eckankar is a Western presentation of Sant mysticism. It teaches that the soul is eternal and either chooses an incarnation for growth or else an incarnation is imposed because of Karma. The soul is perfected through a series of incarnations until it arrives at "Personal Mastery".

Islam

The idea of reincarnation is accepted by a few Muslim sects, particularly of the extreme Sh'ia (Ghulat), and by other sects in the Muslim world such as Druzes. Historically, South Asian Isma'ilis performed chantas yearly, one of which is for sins committed in past lives. (Aga Khan IV) Sinan ibn Salman ibn Muhammad, also known as Rashid al-Din Sinan, (r. 1162-92) subscribed to the transmigration of souls as a tenet of the Alawi, who are thought to have been influenced by Isma'ilism.

Modern Sufis who embrace the idea of reincarnation include Bawa Muhaiyadeen. However Hazrat Inayat Khan has criticized the idea as unhelpful to the spiritual seeker.

Judaism

Reincarnation is not an essential tenet of traditional Judaism. It is not mentioned in the Tanakh ("Hebrew Bible"), the classical rabbinical works (Mishnah and Talmud), or Maimonides' 13 Principles of Faith, though the tale of the Ten Martyrs in the Yom Kippur liturgy, who were killed by Romans to atone for the souls of the ten brothers of Joseph, is read in Ashkenazi Orthodox Jewish communities. Medieval Jewish Rationalist philosophers discussed the issue, often in rejection. However, Jewish mystical texts (the Kabbalah), from their classic Medieval canon onwards, teach a belief in Gilgul Neshamot (Hebrew for metempsychosis of souls: literally "soul cycle", plural "gilgulim"). It is a common belief in contemporary Hasidic Judaism, which regards the Kabbalah as sacred and authoritative, though unstressed in favour of a more innate psychological mysticism. Other, Non-Hasidic, Orthodox Jewish groups while not placing a heavy emphasis on reincarnation, do acknowledge it as a valid teaching. Its popularisation entered modern secular Yiddish literature and folk motif.

The 16th-century mystical renaissance in communal Safed replaced scholastic Rationalism as mainstream traditional Jewish theology, both in scholarly circles and in the popular imagination. References to gilgul in former Kabbalah became systemised as part of the metaphysical purpose of creation. Isaac Luria (the Ari) brought the issue to the centre of his new mystical articulation, for the first time, and advocated identification of the reincarnations of historic Jewish figures that were compiled by Haim Vital in his Shaar HaGilgulim. Gilgul is contrasted with the other processes in Kabbalah of Ibbur ("pregnancy"), the attachment of a second soul to an individual for (or by) good means, and Dybuk ("possession"), the attachment of a spirit, demon, etc. to an individual for (or by) "bad" means.

In Lurianic Kabbalah, reincarnation is not retributive or fatalistic, but an expression of Divine compassion, the microcosm of the doctrine of cosmic rectification of creation. Gilgul is a heavenly agreement with the individual soul, conditional upon circumstances. Luria's radical system focused on rectification of the Divine soul, played out through Creation. The true essence of anything is the divine spark within that gives it existence. Even a stone or leaf possesses such a soul that "came into this world to receive a rectification". A human soul may occasionally be exiled into lower inanimate, vegetative or animal creations. The most basic component of the soul, the nefesh, must leave at the cessation of blood production. There are four other soul components and different nations of the world possess different forms of souls with different purposes. Each Jewish soul is reincarnated in order to fulfil each of the 613 Mosaic commandments that elevate a particular spark of holiness associated with each commandment. Once all the Sparks are redeemed to their spiritual source, the Messianic Era begins. Non-Jewish observance of the 7 Laws of Noah assists the Jewish people, though Biblical adversaries of Israel reincarnate to oppose.

Rabbis who accepted reincarnation include the mystical leaders Nahmanides (the Ramban) and Rabbenu Bahya ben Asher, Levi ibn Habib (the Ralbah), Shelomoh Alkabez, the Baal Shem Tov and later Hasidic masters, and the Mitnagdic Vilna Gaon. Rabbis who have rejected the idea include Saadia Gaon, David Kimhi, Hasdai Crescas, Joseph Albo, Abraham ibn Daud and Leon de Modena. Among the Geonim, Hai Gaon argued in favour of gilgulim.

Native American nations

Reincarnation is an intrinsic part of many Native American and Inuit traditions. In the now heavily Christian Polar North (now mainly parts of Greenland and Nunavut), the concept of reincarnation is enshrined in the Inuit language.

The following is a story of human-to-human reincarnation as told by Thunder Cloud, a Winnebago shaman referred to as T. C. in the narrative. Here T. C. talks about his two previous lives and how he died and came back again to this his third lifetime. He describes his time between lives, when he was “blessed” by Earth Maker and all the abiding spirits and given special powers, including the ability to heal the sick.

T. C.’s Account of His Two Reincarnations

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Christianity

Though Christian doctrine does not officially accept reincarnation, a large number of Christians profess the belief. In a survey by the Pew Forum in 2009, 24% of American Christians expressed a belief in reincarnation. In a 1981 Survey in Europe 31% or regular churchgoing Catholics expressed a belief in reincarnation .

New religious movements

Eckankar

Awareness of past lives, dreams, and soul travel are spiritual disciplines practiced by students of Eckankar. Eckankar teaches that each person is Soul, which transcends time and space. Soul travel is a term specific to Eckankar that refers to a shift in consciousness. Eckists believe the purpose of being aware of past lives is to help with understanding personal conditions in the present. Practicing students of Eckankar can become aware of past lives, through dreams, soul travel, and spiritual exercises called contemplations. This form of contemplation is the active, unconditional practice of going within to connect with the "Light and Sound of God" known as the divine life current or Holy Spirit.

====Scientology====

Past reincarnation, usually termed "past lives", is a key part of the principles and practices of the Church of Scientology. Scientologists believe that the human individual is actually an immortal thetan, or spiritual entity, that has fallen into a degraded state as a result of past-life experiences. Scientology auditing is intended to free the person of these past-life traumas and recover past-life memory, leading to a higher state of spiritual awareness. This idea is echoed in their highest fraternal religious order, the Sea Organization, whose motto is "Revenimus" or "We Come Back", and whose members sign a "billion-year contract" as a sign of commitment to that ideal. L. Ron Hubbard, the founder of Scientology, does not use the word "reincarnation" to describe its beliefs, noting that: "The common definition of reincarnation has been altered from its original meaning. The word has come to mean 'to be born again in different life forms' whereas its actual definition is 'to be born again into the flesh of another body.' Scientology ascribes to this latter, original definition of reincarnation."

The first writings in Scientology regarding past lives date from around 1951 and slightly earlier. In 1960, Hubbard published a book on past lives entitled Have You Lived Before This Life. In 1968 he wrote Mission Into Time, a report on a five-week sailing expedition to Sardinia, Sicily and Carthage to see if specific evidence could be found to substantiate L. Ron Hubbard's recall of incidents in his own past, centuries ago.

Theosophy

The Theosophical Society, the first institution in the modern west to spread the concept of reincarnation, draws much of its inspiration from India. The idea is, according to a recent Theosophical writer, "the master-key to modern problems," including heredity. In the Theosophical world-view reincarnation is the vast rhythmic process by which the soul, the part of a person which belongs to the formless non-material and timeless worlds, unfolds its spiritual powers in the world and comes to know itself. It descends from sublime, free, spiritual realms and gathers experience through its effort to express itself in the world. Afterwards there is a withdrawal from the physical plane to successively higher levels of Reality, in death, a purification and assimilation of the past life. Having cast off all instruments of personal experience it stands again in its spiritual and formless nature, ready to begin its next rhythmic manifestation, every lifetime bringing it closer to complete self-knowledge and self-expression. However it may attract old mental, emotional, and energetic karma patterns to form the new personality.

See also

Afterlife

Arthur Flowerdew

Bhavacakra

Joan Grant

Life review

Past life regression

Planes of existence

Pre-existence

Shanti Devi

Soulmate

Subtle body

Xenoglossy

Zalmoxis

Notes

References

About Reincarnation: There are five ways to understand that we have lived before

Acharya, Pt. Shriram Sharma, , 1999.

Alegretti, Wagner, Retrocognitions: An Investigation into Memories of Past Lives and the Period Between Lives. ISBN 0-9702131-6-6, 2004.

Archiati, Pietro, Reincarnation in Modern Life: Toward a new Christian Awareness. ISBN 0-904693-88-0

Atkinson, William Walker, Reincarnation and the Law of Karma: A Study of the Old-new World-doctrine of Rebirth and Spiritual Cause and Effect, Kessinger Publishing, 1997. ISBN 0-7661-0079-0.

Bache, Christopher M., Lifecycles, Reincarnation and the Web of Life, 1991, ISBN 1-55778-645-3

Besant, A.W., Reincarnation, Published by Theosophical Pub. Society, 1892.

Boulting, W. Giordano Bruno, His Life, Thought, and Martyrdom, London: Kegan Paul, 1914.

Bowman, Carol, Children's Past Lives, 1998, ISBN 0-553-57485-X

Bowman, Carol, Return from Heaven, 2003, ISBN 0-06-103044-9

Cerminara, Gina, Many Mansions: The Edgar Cayce Story on Reincarnation, 1990, ISBN 0-451-03307-8

Childs, Gilbert and Sylvia, Your Reincarnating Child: Welcoming a soul to the world. ISBN 1-85584-126-6

Doore, Gary, What Survives?, 1990, ISBN 0-87477-583-3

Edwards, Paul, Reincarnation: A Critical Examination ISBN 1-57392-921-2

Foltz, Richard, Religions of the Silk Road, New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2010, ISBN 978-0-230-62125-1

Gyatso, Geshe Kelsang Gyatso, Joyful Path of Good Fortune, pp 336–47, Tharpa Publications (2nd. ed., 1995) ISBN 978-0-948006-46-3

Gyatso, Geshe Kelsang Gyatso, Living Meaningfully, Dying Joyfully: The Profound Practice of Transference of Consciousness, Tharpa Publications (1999) ISBN 978-0-948006-63-0

Gyatso, Geshe Kelsang Gyatso, Transform Your Life Tharpa Publications pp 23–9, (2001, US ed. 2007) ISBN 978-0-9789067-4-0

Head, Joseph and Cranston, S.L., editors, Reincarnation: The Phoenix Fire Mystery, 1994, ISBN 0-517-56101-8

Jefferson, Warren. 2009. “Reincarnation Beliefs of North American Indians: Soul Journeys, Metamorphoses, and Near-Death Experiences.” Summertown, TN: Native Voices. ISBN 978-1-57067-212-5

Heindel, Max, The Rosicrucian Cosmo-Conception (Part I, Chapter IV: Rebirth and the Law of Consequence), 1909, ISBN 0-911274-34-0

Leland, Kurt. The Unanswered Question: Death, Near-Death, and the Afterlife. Hampton Roads Publishing (2002). ISBN 978-1-57174-299-5

Lönnerstrand, Sture, I Have Lived Before: The True Story of the Reincarnation of Shanti Devi, 1998, ISBN 1-886940-03-7

Klemp, H. (2003). Past lives, dreams, and soul travel. Minneapolis, MN: Eckankar. ISBN 1-57043-182-5

Newton, Michael, Life Between Lives: Hypnotherapy for Spiritual Regression, 2004, ISBN 0-7387-0465-2

Newton, Michael, Destiny of Souls: New Case Studies of Life Between Lives, 2000, ISBN 1-56718-499-5

Nikhilananda, Swami. Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna, (8th Ed. 1992) ISBN 0-911206-01-9

Prophet, Elizabeth Clare, Erin L. Prophet, Reincarnation: The Missing Link in Christianity, 1997, ISBN 0-922729-27-1

Palamidessi Tommaso, The Memory of Past Lives and Its Technique, ed. Archeosofica, 1977

Palamidessi Tommaso, Reincarnation And Christianity

Ramster, Peter, In Search of Lives Past, ISBN 0-646-00021-7

Rinehart, Robin, ed., Contemporary Hinduism, (2004).

Roberts, Jane. Seth Speaks: The Eternal Validity of the Soul, (1972). ISBN 1-878424-07-6

Semkiw, Walter, Return of the Revolutionaries: The Case for Reincarnation and Soul Groups Reunited, 2003, ISBN 1-57174-342-1

Steiner, Rudolf, Karmic Relationships: Esoteric studies, 8 volumes, various dates, Rudolf Steiner Press. ISBN 0-85440-260-8 and others.

Steiner, Rudolf, A Western Approach to Reincarnation and Karma: selected lectures and writings; ed. and intr. by René Querido. Hudson, NY: Anthroposophic Press, c1997, ISBN 0-88010-399-X

Steinpach, Richard, Hidden Connections Determine Our Earth-Life, 1988, ISBN 1-57461-013-9

Stevenson, Ian (1980). Twenty Cases Suggestive of Reincarnation, second (revised and enlarged) edition, University of Virginia Press. ISBN 978-0-8139-0872-4

Taylor, Michael, "Master of the Rose", Comstar Media LLC, 1997–2007, ISBN 1-933866-07-1

Tucker, Jim, (2005). Life Before Life: A Scientific Investigation of Children's Memories of Previous Lives, ISBN 0-312-32137-6

Van Lommel, Pim. (2001). "Near-death experience in survivors of cardiac arrest: a prospective study in the Netherlands." The Lancet. 358: 2039-45.

Weiss, Brian L., Only Love is real: the story of soulmates reunited, 1996, ISBN 0-446-51945-6

External links

Vedanta Philosophy: Five Lectures on Reincarnation'', by Swami Abhedananda (online Book)

Do We Live More than Once?

Dharma, Transmigration & Reincarnation in the Vedas

Rebirth according to Buddhism

Did Plato Believe in Reincarnation?

Wandering Souls: The Doctrine of Transmigration in Pythagorean Philosophy, by Dr. James Luchte

The Columbia Encyclopedia: Transmigration of souls or Metempsychosis

The Catholic Encyclopedia: Metempsychosis

Jewish view of reincarnation

Did Plato Believe in Reincarnation?

Jewish view of reincarnation

Ask the Rabbi - aish.com

Jewish Spiritual Teachings on Reincarnation from Sefer Gilgulim by Reb Chaim Vital

Sefer Nishmath Hayyim by Menasseh Ben Israel

Category:Esoteric Christianity Category:Esotericism Category:Hindu philosophical concepts Category:Jain philosophical concepts Category:Buddhist philosophical concepts Category:Philosophy of mind Category:Reincarnation Category:Afterlife Category:Paranormal Category:Shabd paths Category:Death in Greek philosophy Category:Ismaili theology Category:Kabbalah Category:Druze

Name	Kenji Kawai
Sex	male
Background	non_performing_personnel
Born	April 23, 1957Shinagawa, Tokyo, Japan
Genre	Movie musicElectronic musicInstrumental music
Occupation	Composer, musician (guitarist), conductor
Years active	1986–present
Associated acts	Mamoru Oshii
Url	www.kenjikawai.com

, born April 23, 1957 in Shinagawa, Tokyo, is a Japanese music composer, for motion pictures, anime movies, video games and televised programs. He has contributed to the musical scores for numerous films from Japan and other countries in Asia, working in film genres as diverse as anime, horror, sci-fi and historical epic. Among his credits are Tsui Hark's The Seven Swords; Mamoru Oshii's films The Red Spectacles, , Ghost in the Shell and Avalon; the anime adaptations of Rumiko Takahashi's Ranma ½ and Maison Ikkoku; and Hideo Nakata's films Ring, Ring 2, Chaos, Dark Water and Kaidan.

Career

After dropping out of a nuclear engineering program at Tokai University, Kenji Kawai began studying music at Shobi Music Academy. However, he dropped out after half a year. With a few friends, he created the band Muse, playing fusion rock and participating in music competitions. Through competing in such contests, the band members became technically competent to enter the music industry and decided to part ways.

After leaving Muse, Kenji Kawai began composing music for commercials in his home studio. While recording music for radio actor and seiyuu Yūji Mitsuya he met music director Naoko Asari, who advised him to compose anime soundtracks. Some of his work for anime soundtracks can be found in Ranma ½, Ghost in the Shell and in the well-known recent (live action) film Death Note.

Following his success as an anime movies music composer, he became involved in live action movies. He contributed music to horror films: Ring, Ring 2, Dark Water, Japanese-Polish science-fiction film Avalon and the Hong Kong film Seven Swords.

He has worked on several projects with director Mamoru Oshii (both Headgear members) and has written scores for all of the Hideo Nakata's films. The most recent film featuring his music is 2009's Assault Girls by director Oshii. Kenji Kawai's music has received the Annie award and Hong Kong Film Award. In 2005, for Innocence: Kôkaku kidôtai () he was nominated for an Annie award.

For the music found in Seven Swords and A Battle of Wits he was nominated for Best Original Film Score Awards at both the 25th and 26th Hong Kong Film Awards in 2006 and 2007.

Description of selected albums

Ghost in The Shell (1995)

The original soundtrack for Ghost in the Shell used Japanese choir singing parts of the Shintō prayer too kami emi tame and taiko drums. Other tracks are mostly instrumental, peaceful, with the dominance of drums. The CD also included pop song "See You Everyday", sung in Cantonese by Fang Ka Wing.

Avalon

The OST for Avalon featured songs sung only in Polish, telling the story of the mystical land Avalon. Works were performed by the Polish National Philharmonic Orkiestre, Choir of Philharmonic Orkiestre, and solo parts by opera singer Elzbieta Towarnicka (Elizabeth Towarnicka). There are a few songs of joyful mood, "Log in" or "Voyage to Avalon" for example, but also traditional instrumental songs with drums and electronic music.

Ghost in the Shell - Innocence

The OST for the second Ghost in the Shell film used the main theme from the first part in a different arrangement. Two completely new works were added to the CD ("The Doll House", "The Doll House 2") and two songs sung by jazz singer Kimiko Itoh ("Follow me", "River of Crystals").

Vampire Princess Miyu - TV OST

This CD include 34 works. The opening for TV series – "Shinma no Kodou" uses flutes, a feminine chorus and piano. Solo parts are sung by Kasahara Hiroko ("Aitai"), Nagasawa Miki ("Manmaru Temari Uta" - sings with children) and Suzuki Saeko (ending Miyu Yachiyo with flute and piano). There are many fight scene themes which use fiddles, piano and sometimes drums.

List of works

Years 1985 – 1990

{| BORDER="0" CELLPADDING="2" cellspacing="2" WIDTH = "750" |- ! WIDTH=5% | Year ! WIDTH=70% | Title ! WIDTH=25% | Genre |-bgcolor="FFEFD5" | 1986. || めぞん一刻 (Maison ikkoku, Ikkoku House) || TV series |-bgcolor="FFEFD5" |1987. || 地獄の番犬：赤い目がね (Akai Megane, The Red Spectacles) || movie: Mamoru Oshii |-bgcolor="FFEFD5" |1987. || デビルマン (Devilman - The Birth) || OAV |-bgcolor="FFEFD5" |1988. || 機動警察パトレイバ— (Mobile Police Patlabor) || OAV |-bgcolor="FFEFD5" |1988. || 吸血姫美夕 (Vampire Princess Miyu) || OAV |-bgcolor="FFEFD5" |1989. || 機動警察パトレイバ— (Mobile Police Patlabor) || TV series |-bgcolor="FFEFD5" |1989. || らんま１／２ (Ranma 1/2) || TV series |-bgcolor="FFEFD5" |1989. || 機動警察パトレイバ— 劇場版 (Mobile Police Patlabor: The Movie) || movie |-bgcolor="FFEFD5" |1989. || らんま１／２　熱闘編 (Ranma 1/2: Hard Battle) || TV series |-bgcolor="FFEFD5" |1990. || デビルマン (Devilman - The Demon Bird) || OAV |-bgcolor="FFEFD5" |1990. || プロジェケトA子 (Project A-ko) || OAV |}

Years 1991 – 2000

{| BORDER="0" CELLPADDING="2" cellspacing="2" WIDTH = "750" |- ! WIDTH=5% | Year ! WIDTH=70% | Title ! WIDTH=25% | Genre |-bgcolor="FFEFD5" |1991. || バ—ンナップ (Burn up!) || OAV |-bgcolor="FFEFD5" |1991. || ミカドロイド () || movie |-bgcolor="FFEFD5" |1991. || らんま 1/2 中国寝崑崙大決戦! 掟やぶりの激闘編!! (Ranma 1/2: Big Trouble in Nekonron, China) || OAV |-bgcolor="FFEFD5" |1991. || 人魚の森 (Mermaid Forest) || OAV |-bgcolor="FFEFD5" |1991. || 地獄の番犬: ケルベロス () || movie |-bgcolor="FFEFD5" |1991. || 魔獣戦士ルナ・ヴァルガ— (Demon Warrior Luna Varga) || OAV |-bgcolor="FFEFD5" |1992. || ト—キング・ヘッド (Talking Head) || movie |-bgcolor="FFEFD5" |1992. || 姫ちゃんのリボン (Hime-chan's Ribbon) || TV series |-bgcolor="FFEFD5" |1993. || らんま1/2 OVA (Ranma OVA) || OAV |-bgcolor="FFEFD5" |1993. || 無責任艦長タイラ— (Irresponsible Captain Tylor) || OAV, TV Series |-bgcolor="FFEFD5" |1993. || 機動警察パトレイバ—2 the Movie (Mobile Police Patlabor 2: The Movie) || movie |-bgcolor="FFEFD5" |1994. || ブル—シ—ド (Blue Seed) || TV series |-bgcolor="FFEFD5" |1994. || 戦え!! イクサ—1 (Fight!! Iczer-1) || OAV |-bgcolor="FFEFD5" |1995. || プリンセス ミネルバ (Princess Minerva) || OAV |-bgcolor="FFEFD5" |1995. || 攻殻機動隊 (GITS, Ghost in The Shell) || movie |-bgcolor="FFEFD5" |1996. || 爆れつハンタ— (Sorcerer Hunters) || TV series |-bgcolor="FFEFD5" |1996. || 赤ちゃんと僕 (Baby and Me) || TV series |-bgcolor="FFEFD5" |1997. || はいぱ—ぽりす (Hyper Police) || TV series |-bgcolor="FFEFD5" |1997. || 吸血姫美夕 (Vampire Princess Miyu) || TV series |-bgcolor="FFEFD5" |1998. || リング (Ring, The Ring) || movie: Hideo Nakata |-bgcolor="FFEFD5" |1998. || ディープフィアー (Deep Fear) || game:Sega Saturn |-bgcolor="FFEFD5" |1999. || 逮捕しちゃうぞ　the MOVIE (You're Under Arrest! The Movie) || movie |-bgcolor="FFEFD5" |1999. || リング2 (Ring 2, The Ring 2) || movie: Hideo Nakata |-bgcolor="FFEFD5" |1999. || 地球防衛企業ダイ・ガ—ド (Dai-Guard) || movie |-bgcolor="FFEFD5" |2000. || サディスティック＆マゾヒスティック (Sadistic and Masochistic) || movie: Hideo Nakata |-bgcolor="FFEFD5" |2000. || ガラスの脳 (Sleeping Bride) || movie Hideo Nakata |-bgcolor="FFEFD5" |2000. || カオス (Chaos) || movie: Hideo Nakata |}

Years 2001 – current

{| BORDER="0" CELLPADDING="2" cellspacing="2" WIDTH = "750" |- ! WIDTH=5% | Year ! WIDTH=70% | Title ! WIDTH=25% | Genre |-bgcolor="FFEFD5" |2001. || ガイスタ—ズ (Geisters - Fractions of Earth) || TV series |-bgcolor="FFEFD5" |2001. || アヴァロン (Avalon) || movie: Mamoru Oshii |-bgcolor="FFEFD5" |2001. || UNLOVED || movie: Kunitoshi Manda |-bgcolor="FFEFD5" |2001. || 新白雪姫伝説プリ—ティア (New Snow White's Legend Pretear) || movie |-bgcolor="FFEFD5" |2001. || 修羅雪姫 (The Princess Blade) || movie |-bgcolor="FFEFD5" |2002. || 仄暗い水の底から (Dark Water) || movie: Hideo Nakata |-bgcolor="FFEFD5" |2002. || パトレイバ—　WXIII (Patlabor WXIII, Wasted 13: Patlabor the Movie 3) || movie |-bgcolor="FFEFD5" |2002. || Le Samouraï (Samurai, Samuraj) || movie: Giordano Gederlini |-bgcolor="FFEFD5" |2002. || Bloody Mallory || movie: Julien Magnat |-bgcolor="FFEFD5" |2003. || ガンパレ—ド・マ—チ -新たなる行軍歌 (Gunparade March) || TV series |-bgcolor="FFEFD5" |2004. || 跋扈妖怪传之牙吉 (Kibakichi: Bakko yokaiden) || movie: Tomo-O Haraguchi |-bgcolor="FFEFD5" |2004. || 跋扈妖怪传之牙吉2 (Kibakichi: Bakko yokaiden 2) || movie: Tomo-O Haraguchi |-bgcolor="FFEFD5" |2004. || イノセンス () || movie |-bgcolor="FFEFD5" |2004. || ウルトラマンネクサス (Ultraman Nexus) || TV series |-bgcolor="FFEFD5" |2004. || 風人物語 (Windy Tales, Fūjin Monogatari) || TV series |-bgcolor="FFEFD5" |2005. || スタ—シップ・オペレ—タ—ズ (Starship Operators) || TV series |-bgcolor="FFEFD5" |2005. || MAKOTO || movie: Ryoichi Kimizuka |-bgcolor="FFEFD5" |2005. || めざめの方舟 (Open Your Mind) || movie: Mamoru Oshii |-bgcolor="FFEFD5" |2005. || Namgeuk-ilgi (Antarctic Journal) || movie: Yim Pil-sung |-bgcolor="FFEFD5" |2005. || 七劍(Qī Jian, Seven Swords) || movie: Tsui Hark |-bgcolor="FFEFD5" |2005. || "Nobunaga's Ambition Online" (Chapter of Hiryu) || Video Game |-bgcolor="FFEFD5" |2005. || 輪廻 (Rinne, Reincarnation) || movie: Takashi Shimizu |-bgcolor="FFEFD5" |2005. || 奇谈 (Kidan) || movie: Takashi Komatsu |-bgcolor="FFEFD5" |2006. || フェイト/ステイナイト (Fate/Stay Night) || TV series |-bgcolor="FFEFD5" |2006. || 立喰師列伝 - Tachiguishi-Retsuden (Tachigui: The Amazing Lives of the Fast Food Grifters) - music and actor || movie: Mamoru Oshii |-bgcolor="FFEFD5" |2006. || デスノ—ト (Death Note) || movie: Shūsuke Kaneko |-bgcolor="FFEFD5" |2006. || 야수 (Running Wild) || movie: Kim Sung-soo |-bgcolor="FFEFD5" |2006. || 龍虎門 (Dragon Tiger Gate) || movie: Wilson Yip |-bgcolor="FFEFD5" |2006. || Trapped Ashes || movie: Sean S. Cunningham |-bgcolor="FFEFD5" |2006. || || movie: Shūsuke Kaneko |-bgcolor="FFEFD5" |2006. || 墨攻(Mo Gōng, A Battle of Wits) || movie: Jacob Cheung |-bgcolor="FFEFD5" |2006. || ひぐらしのなく頃に (Higurashi no Naku Koro ni) || TV series |-bgcolor="FFEFD5" |2007. || 怪谈 (Kaidan) || movie: Hideo Nakata |-bgcolor="FFEFD5" |2007. || 精霊の守り人 (Seirei no Moribito) || TV series |-bgcolor="FFEFD5" |2007. || ひぐらしのなく頃に解 (Higurashi no Naku Koro ni Kai) || TV series |-bgcolor="FFEFD5" |2007. || Mobile Suit Gundam 00 || TV series |-bgcolor="FFEFD5" |2007. || "FolksSoul" || Video Game (Ps3) |-bgcolor="FFEFD5" |2008. || The Sky Crawlers || movie, director: Mamoru Oshii |-bgcolor="FFEFD5" |2008. || 葉問 Ip Man || movie, director: Wilson Yip |-bgcolor="FFEFD5" |2009. || Eden of the East || TV anime Noitamina original series, director: Kenji Kamiyama |-bgcolor="FFEFD5" |2009. || アサルトガールズ (Assault Girls) || movie: Mamoru Oshii |-bgcolor="FFEFD5" |2009. || || Historical documentaries on WWII by directors Isabelle Clarke and Daniel Costelle |-bgcolor="FFEFD5" |2009. || Samayou Yaiba || movie |-bgcolor="FFEFD5" |2010. || 劇場版フェイト/ステイナイト Unlimited Blade Works (Fate/Stay Night the movie: Unlimited Blade Works) || movie, director: Yuji Yamaguchi |-bgcolor="FFEFD5" |2010. || 葉問2 Ip Man 2 || movie, director: Wilson Yip |-bgcolor="FFEFD5" |2010. || 劇場版機動戦士ガンダム00（ダブルオー）-A Wakening of the Trailblazer- (Mobile Suit Gundam 00 The Movie: A wakening of the Trailblazer) || movie, director: Seiji Mizushima |-bgcolor="FFEFD5" |2010. || インシテミル 7日間のデス・ゲーム (The Incite Mill: A Death Game in 7 Days) || movie, director: Hideo Nakata |}

See also

Hideo Nakata

Mamoru Oshii

J-Horror

Anime

Japanese movies

External links

Official site of Kenji Kawai

Category:1957 births Category:Living people Category:Japanese composers Category:Anime composers Category:Japanese film score composers Category:People from Tokyo