The Aborigines of Australia believe in the existence of a life force they call kuran which is present in every living thing. The intensity of this force varies in the different creatures which have it: the Aborigines believe, for example, that it is stronger in a man than in a woman, in an emu than in a wild turkey, that it is the same intensity in plants and weak in more simple forms of life. They believe that the life-force is at its most powerful in the medicine man or witch doctor, the ‘clever fellow’.

The life-force does not cease to exist when an individual dies. In fact they believe that the force shows itself at its strongest at such times almost as if it were expressing its dislike of being excluded from physical life. The Aborigines do not believe that death is caused by natural causes such as illness, old age and accidents: to them death is always the work of an unfriendly supernatural power.

As soon as a dead person has been buried the whole Aborigine village moves away from the grave so as not to be troubled by the kuran of the deceased. After about three months it is thought that the life-force will vacate the old body and be reincarnated in another.