Afterlife

The afterlife or life after death is a 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 their physical body. The surviving essential aspect varies between belief systems; it may be some partial element, or the entire soul or spirit, which carries with it one's personal identity.

In some views, this continued existence takes place in a supernatural realm, while in others, the individual may be reborn into this world and begin the life cycle over again in a process referred to as reincarnation, likely with no memory of what they have done in the past. In this latter view, such rebirths and deaths may take place over and over again continuously until the individual gains entry to a spiritual realm or otherworld. Major views on the afterlife derive from religion, esotericism, and metaphysics.

Some belief systems, such as many pagan ones, hold that the dead go to a specific place (e.g., paradise or the underworld) after death, as determined by their god or gods, based on their actions and beliefs during life. In contrast, in systems of reincarnation, such as those of the Indian religions, the nature of the continued existence is determined directly by the actions of the individual in their ended life.

Different metaphysical models

Theist immortalists generally believe some afterlife awaits people when they die. Members of some generally non-theistic religions believe in an afterlife without reference to a deity.

Religions, such as many various pagan belief systems, and some versions of Abrahamic religions, believe in the soul's existence in another world, while others, like many forms of Hinduism and Buddhism, believe in reincarnation.