Death, Rebirth and Destiny

This group gathers the beliefs in the atlas whose main subject is what becomes of a person at and after death, whether that is continued existence in a realm beyond death or rebirth into a new life, together with the related question of how far a person's destiny is shaped by what they have done. Wikipedia describes the afterlife as speculation concerning existence after death, in which the essential part of an individual's stream of consciousness or identity continues to exist after the death of the physical body, and notes that the surviving aspect varies between belief systems. In some views continued existence takes place in a supernatural realm, while in others the individual may be reborn into this world, a process referred to as reincarnation. Beliefs are placed here by their own recorded subject, so a reader can compare how different traditions answer the same question, and each belief entry keeps its own tradition, wording and sources.