Reincarnation is acknowledged by some religions and intentionally not by others. The act of exploiting this fact of human existence is ancient.
Egyptian religion taught Heaven with Ra for obedience and Hell with Anubis for disobedience. The souls are in a good cop/bad cop game. One priest (Anubis) will punish them and/to erase their memory; the latter is more important. The punishment is a cover story for those who can see. The other priest will befriend the new soul and teach them to worship Ra, the pharaoh until reincarnation time.
This concept of heaven and hell was adopted by Judaism. Previously they believed a valley, Gehenna was where the dead went.
Cannibalism is done so the soul of the consumed will reincarnate in the group that did the consuming. The idea is it stresses or enrages the soul eaten and the spirit will not leave. The soul can then be controlled; his or her memory can be erased. The priest who erases their memory then befriends them. The souls begin to associate with him and his tribe. In Papua New Guinea the honor is to eat the most powerful enemy warrior. They believe it’s for their energy. The souls reincarnate in the new tribe.
Keeping a body part of deceased people has a similar effect. Shrunken heads, a skull, foot or finger (relics The Guardian) all serve this purpose. The embalming or mummification of bodies is similar (Smithsonian).
The Zoroastrians (Parsis) leave their dead for the carrion bird (BBC). In places where this practice is not allowed they generally opt for cremation.
Certain Buddhist monks practiced self mummification. This process was dietary and finished by drinking fluids that caused their own body to be embalmed (Ancient Origins). These monks obviously wanted to stay in their society.
In Japan (Wikipedia), China (Trip101) and other places in Asia (Listverse) souls are supposed to go monasteries where monks protect the souls from being stolen or abused. This is dependent upon them having served their emperor or master well.
Genesis 14:21 And the king of Sodom said to Abram, “Give me the souls, and the possessions take for yourself.” 22 And Abram said to the king of Sodom, “I raise my hand to the Lord, the Most High God, Who possesses heaven and earth. 23 Neither from a thread to a shoe strap, nor will I take from whatever is yours, that you should not say, ‘I have made Abram wealthy.’
On the left is the birth chart of Alfred Ploetz, a German physician and eugenicist. He twisted the theory of evolution to justify racial hygiene and the euthanization of “inferior races” for the Third Reich. Of course the real reason the Nazis wanted the Jews to be eradicated was to erase the history held in the Tanakh. Ploetz’s crime against the Nazi way was his statement, later recanted;
“The high aptitude of the Jews and their outstanding role in the progress of mankind considering men like Jesus, Spinoza, Marx has to be kindly acknowledged without hesitation… All this Antisemitism is a flop which will vanish slowly in the light of scientific knowledge and a humane democracy”
Because of this he was “demoted” in his next lifetime as a harvester, targeting young gay men as he would have in ages past for the church.
On the right is the birth chart John Wayne Gayce. He was the serial killer known as the “Killer Clown.” He preyed on young men and buried many of them under his house. He stated he could control their souls after death to prevent them from revealing his crimes.