Here is another short view of reincarnation designed, like a Buddha Koan, to invite you to think about things in a different light. A Koan is a fundamental part of the history and lore of Zen Buddhism. It consists of a story, dialogue, question or statement, the meaning of which cannot be understood by rational thinking but may be accessible through intuition. It is hard to believe in reincarnation rationally and easy to believe if you believe certain religions but more difficult if you believe your soul goes elsewhere in death.
I had an aunt who suffered Alzheimer’s, the disease of mental faculty deterioration. By the end sufferers remember nothing and pee and poo without thought. Anybody who has kept fish knows that they too pee and poo without thinking about it.
What still inclines someone religious to believe their equivalent aunt has gone to a heaven where she would be restored? It is the affection previously held, during an active and happy life, for the almost lifeless form dying before their eyes. But now consider the flat fish in aquariums which like to come to the surface and turn over for their tummies to be rubbed by visitors to the aquarium. Do they not demonstrate some of the characteristics that made the aunt or granny loveable?
While I am not saying the fish is the equivalent of the granny or aunt, what I am saying is that it is not beyond the realms of possibility that the granny and the fish are part of the same super-consciousness in which our souls or spirits or beings, call them what you will, move in a dance over long periods of time. The Buddha teaches that this dance is an endless cycle which can only be escaped by seeking enlightenment.
Perhaps what we do in one life affects how we emerge into another, perhaps it is just random, like much of nature.
If my life since 1977 has indicated one thing, it is that some things we do appear to affect other parts of our life, perhaps including the dream world/illusion. But that could be because someone or thing (a god), is creating a judgemental environment in which what you do is subject to assessment but never freedom.
These are matters to consider but not things I can for definite declare any universal truths about.