Observations placeholder
Pythagoras - Alexander Cornelius Polyhistor - Reincarnation
Identifier
003488
Type of Spiritual Experience
Background
A description of the experience
Alexander Cornelius Polyhistor referred to the Druids as philosophers and called their doctrine of the immortality of the soul and reincarnation or metempsychosis "Pythagorean":
Alexander Cornelius Polyhistor
"The Pythagorean doctrine prevails among the Gauls' teaching that the souls of men are immortal, and that after a fixed number of years they will enter into another body."
Among the ancient Greeks, Socrates, Pythagoras, and Plato taught the doctrine of reincarnation. Several ancient sources affirm that Pythagoras claimed he could remember his past lives. An association between Pythagorean philosophy and reincarnation was routinely accepted throughout antiquity.