It becomes necessary at this point to call your attention to the general subject of Metempsychosis, for the reason that the public mind is most confused regarding this important subject.  It has the most vague ideas regarding the true teachings, and has somehow acquired the impression that the teachings are that human souls are re-born into the bodies of dogs, and other animals.  The wildest ideas on this subject are held by some people.  And, not only is this so, but even a number of those who hold to the doctrine of Reincarnation, in some of its forms, hold that their individual souls were once the individual souls of animals, from which state they have evolved to the present condition.  This last is a perversion of the highest Yogi Teachings, and we trust to make same plain in these lessons.  But, first we must take a look at the general subject of Metempsychosis, that we may see the important part it has played in the field of human thought and belief.

While to many the idea of Metempsychosis may seem new and unfamiliar, still it is one of the oldest conceptions of the race, and in ages past was the accepted belief of the whole of the civilized race of man of the period.  And even today, it is accepted as Truth by the majority of the race

The almost universal acceptance of the idea by the East with its teeming life, counterbalances its comparative non-reception by the Western people of the day.  From the early days of written or legendary history, Metempsychosis has been the accepted belief of many of the most intelligent of the race.  It is found underlying the magnificent civilization of ancient Egypt, and from thence it traveled to the Western world being held as the highest truth by such teachers as Pythagoras, Empedocles, Plato, Virgil and Ovid.  Plato’s Dialogues are full of this teaching.  The Hindus have always held to it.  The Persians, inspired by their learned Magi, accepted it implicitly.  The ancient Druids, and Priests of Gaul, as well as the ancient inhabitants of Germany, held to it.  Traces of it may be found in the remains of the Aztec, Peruvian and Mexican civilizations.

The Eleusinian Mysteries of Greece, the Roman Mysteries, and the Inner Doctrines of the Cabbala of the Hebrews all taught the Truths of Metempsychosis.  The early Christian Fathers; the Gnostic and Manichaeans and other sects of the Early Christian people, all held to the doctrine.  The modern German philosophers have treated it with the greatest respect, if indeed they did not at least partially accept it.  Many modern writers have considered it gravely, and with respect.  The following quotations will give an idea of “how the wind is blowing” in the West: 

“Of all the theories respecting the origin of the soul, Metempsychosis seems to me the most plausible and therefore the one most likely to throw light on the question of a life to come.”—­Frederick H. Hedge.

“It would be curious if we should find science and philosophy taking up again the old theory of metempsychosis, remodelling’ it to suit our present modes of religious and scientific thought, and launching it again on the wide ocean of human belief.  But stranger things have happened in the history of human opinions.”—­James Freeman Clarke.