ABSTRACT

Although there is a wide variety of belief about the afterlife from a crosscultural perspective, this richness possesses a common thread that concerns the destiny of the individual after death. Within many cultures, it is the soul that survives in contrast to the perishable body, although the soul is not always considered immortal. Among the Native American Ojibwa, there is a belief in two souls: body-or ego-soul and free-soul. The latter soul possesses a separate existence from the body, being able to travel during sleep. After death, the free-soul becomes a ghost that is eventually reunited in the afterlife with the body-soul.