So far, so mainstream - but I would add that at least some of the most spiritually wise people who have taught reincarnation are or were themselves reincarnates - which is why they personally have a strong insight or revelation as to the truth of this teaching.
On the one hand, I do not feel or believe myself to be reincarnated - but just for fun I will speculate on who I might have been, if I was.
This is based upon those things for which I have a spontaneous affinity.
Language - that would have to be Middle English - the dialect of English spoken and written around 1350... so that is the time I would assume to have been alive.
Place - Somerset, England - especially around the Mendip Hills (the area that Jesus was legendarily supposed to have visited as a boy or young man, before his ministry).
Job - some combination of physician, philosopher and wizard. I find it easy to identify with the solitary (celibate), long bearded, staff-carrying figures of Gandalf, Merlin, and Getafix.
From these 'facts' and also some of my non-affinities/ aversions I can make a sketch of a wandering magical scholar-doctor in the West Country - an isolated figure at odds with, somewhat hostile to, my time - including the mainstream priests and monks (e.g. at Glastonbury).
My liking for the ancient city and university of Oxford probably means I studied there, but I have a feeling that I never graduated - and certainly I was never ordained (although I may have studied for the priesthood for a while). This may have been related to my inability to learn Latin - perhaps I was someone who paraphrased what knowledge I gleaned from manuscripts and conversation into the vernacular.
I imagine I had a fairly hand-to-mouth existence, and lived in some kind of woodland hut; but happy to accept hospitality in return for my services.
What about you?
