I've believed in reincarnation since I was about 13 years old and my cousin first broached the subject. He had more of a 'jacob's ladder' of experiance type idea...where we'd learn something from each life as we traveled toward the ultimate goal of 'heaven'.

I've since altered this based on my life and people I've known, things I've done or not, etc but the basics remain true to me. With one rather big difference: Since ancient times, humans have often considered life was much like a game of chess...the comparison has been seen in many books, poems etc all thru history and I totally went for that..but I've changed it a bit, and it was because of a rock. I told a friend I did not want to come back as a rock (as Buddists believe is possible) and she said, 'Why not? What makes you think a rock isn't important in the scheme of things?' the proceeded to point out how influential it could be to pick up a stone which will then remind you of something, good or bad that could affect your life...not to mention it's obvious uses as a weapon in the event you were attacked...basically, everything in on the earth, in the world has an affect on the human experiance, whether alive or static.

Not only that, it was further theorized, that every 'thing' or 'person' could have their own 'chess board' which would interact with others...sort of a 3D, treky chess board..so whatever move I make will affect others on different levels depending on where they are on their level. Somewhat like the so-called 'butter-fly' affect but without the assumption ALL moves affect everyone or everything.

This theory does leave the implication of both 'god' and 'satan', if one disputes the edict of random....as chess masters, the game is between them, with everything in play, and each move meant to be in persuit of the 'win'.

I found the idea facinating and with few disagreements, I decided it was as good a theory as any, and also proved to me the idea I'd long held that everything happens for a reason....this based on looking backward from an event to discover what and who was responsible for the conception and gestation of the event itself. 'Remembering' people you meet for the first time? This is explained because lives are linked and replay in different versions for different moves on the board...one may have a residual memory of someone they were with in a previous 'game' although actual memory is dimmed by the time between moves...and time is not linear in this case...yet another thing to wrap the mind around. lol

I just love the idea of it, and actually hope it's true. Otherwise...with as many people as there are in the world, and many more of the 'good' variety than the bad, heaven would be packed.