Editing Reincarnation (section)

====Gnosticism====
Several [[Gnostic]] sects professed reincarnation. The [[Sethians]] and followers of [[Valentinus (Gnostic)|Valentinus]] believed in it.<ref>Much of this is documented in R.E. Slater's book ''Paradise Reconsidered.''</ref> The followers of [[Bardaisan]] of [[Mesopotamia]], a sect of the second century deemed heretical by the Catholic Church, drew upon [[Babylon|Chaldean]] [[astrology]], to which Bardaisan's son Harmonius, educated in Athens, added Greek ideas including a sort of metempsychosis. Another such teacher was [[Basilides]] (132–? CE/AD), known to us through the criticisms of [[Irenaeus]] and the work of [[Clement of Alexandria]] (see also [[Neoplatonism and Gnosticism]] and [[Buddhism and Gnosticism]]).

In the third Christian century [[Manichaeism]] spread both east and west from [[Babylonia]], then within the [[Sassanid Empire]], where its founder [[Mani (prophet)|Mani]] lived about 216–276. Manichaean monasteries existed in Rome in 312 AD. Noting Mani's early travels to the [[Kushan Empire]] and other Buddhist influences in Manichaeism, [[Richard Foltz]]<ref>[[Richard Foltz]], ''Religions of the Silk Road'', New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2010</ref> attributes Mani's teaching of reincarnation to Buddhist influence. However the inter-relation of Manicheanism, Orphism, Gnosticism and neo-Platonism is far from clear.