Christine Marie Tsou, age 9, of Eugene, Ore., for her question:

WHAT IS REINCARNATION?

Ancient Greeks and Egyptians believed that after death the soul goes into the body of either an animal or another human being. This belief was called reincarnation, or transmigration of the soul. Some Buddhists and Hindus as well as others still believe in the theory.

Plato came up with a well developed doctrine of immortality and rebirth of the soul. According to him, the soul passes from one body to another until it is purified. It finally returns to the dwelling place of its god.

The theory also says if a person lived like an animal, he will return to earth in the body of an animal. If he lived a good life, he will be reborn, or reincarnated, as a human being, with his character in the last life determining what he will be in his next life.