Emily Dickinson Lexicon

ME-TEMP-SY-CHO'SIS, n. [Gr. μετεμψυχωσις, μετα, beyond, and ψυχωσις, animation, life; ψυχοω, to animate.]

Transmigration; the passing of the soul of a man after death into some other animal body. Pythagoras and his followers held that after death the souls of men pass into other bodies, and this doctrine still prevails in some parts of Asia, particularly in India and China. Encyc.