many people come back from near death experiences with insight about the whole structure of the universe. one common theme they report is that we all chose the lives we're living because these lives offered the best opportunity to learn and grow. they say we come back many times until we learn everything we need to.

so, if true, the downside is that you and I will probably be back. but, the upside is that we won't keep coming back forever and that we can curtail the number of times we will return by being the best people we can and by learning as much as we can.

I wouldn't want to be reincarnated to earth, but reincarnated to a fantasy world with magic might be nice to try out. My biggest hangup with reincarnation is not bringing the wisdom of hard learned lessons with.

I appreciate the Zen Buddhist (with a mild leftist slant) take on reincarnation. Questioning the existence of reincarnation is asking the wrong question.

If it's real, you have nothing to worry about—you're living the best life you can given your material conditions. So it'll work out.

If it isn't real, you also have nothing to worry about—you're feeding trees now.

The right question is what you can do better, right here and now. The only life that matters is this one.