Me*temp`sy*cho"sis (?), n. [NL., fr. Gr. &?;; &?; beyond, over + &?; to animate; &?; in + &?; soul. See Psychology.] The passage of the soul, as an immortal essence, at the death of the animal body it had inhabited, into another living body, whether of a brute or a human being; transmigration of souls. Sir T. Browne.

• transmigration of the soul, especially its reincarnation after death
       *1922: Metempsychosis, he said, is what the ancient Greeks called it. They used to believe you could be changed into an animal or a tree, for instance. What they called nymphs, for example. — james Joyce, Ulysses
       *1963: To go along assuming that Victoria the girl tourist and Veronica the sewer rat were one and the same V. was not at all to bring up any metempsychosis: only to affirm that his quarry fitted in with The Big One, the century's master cabal — Thomas Pynchon, V.
       *1993: Hers was a metempsychosis of novelty, her mind a vapid thing until animated by the next absolute conviction. — Will Self, My Idea of Fun