I have this loosely held belief in reincarnation.
I can't tell you exactly what it is, or exactly how it works. But I can tell you some of the things which inform it.
First, way, way, way back I stumbled across The Egg, written by Andy Weir.
Here's a great little YouTube performance of it.
Then, years later I began listening to Alan Watts lectures, and heard his take on it.
It's eerily similar. It's not some sort of spooky, ineffable, vague mystical process, either. The essential idea is this - you're "I". Me, too. When you think "I'm reading this," or "I think Mako is a bit of a hippie woo-woo oddball, with this reincarnation nonsense.", or perhaps, "It's way too early for this, and I really want a large coffee and some eggs." you're identifying yourself as "I", the being that is oneself.
I too, am this being.
So is every being that feels that way. Which is every being, simultaneously. That's how it is right now. Which, by the way is the only time there is, ever was, and ever will be. You're every one and everything, all at once, everywhere.
I know. The first time I really got this, it made my head pound like someone had struck it hard with a large mallet.
(I suppose to be fair, the way Andy Weir's story spins it, there's God and you, and the way Watts talks about it, there's not even God there. It's a quibble. Adjust as needed.)
So years go by, and I've got this idea floating around in my head. On Friday I found this excellent cartoon.
"A kid is manifested by God, sent down to earth, comes back an old man, and babbles on about what a great time he had playing down there. God listens as he prepares to make dinner for their guests. "What are we having?" the man-kid asks. "EVERYTHING!" God says. "Somebody's coming over for dinner?" he asks again. "Yep, God says, EVERYBODY."
It's maybe on the other side of the quibble I mentioned. But it's the same idea. Again.
I'm grateful every single time I see it.