When I was first accepting the Concept of Reincarnation, someone gave me this Analogy:

"Soul is like an Oak Tree. The Over-Soul (or Great-Spirit) is like the Tree Trunk. The Higher-Soul-Self is like the Large Branches. Then the part of Soul/Spirit that Inhabits Bodies is like the Small Branches that the Leaves grow on. And, of course, the Leaves are like our Bodies. Leaves/Bodies come & go, but all the Experiences of those Leaves/Bodies are Gathered Into the Branches and then the Trunk. When a new Leaf/Body is grown, the Life/Sap flows from the Trunk to the Branches and into the new Leaf/Body.

All the Knowledge & Experiences gone Before is Available to the new Leaf. But it is too busy blowing in the wind and shaking off bugs to think about what Knowledge & Experiences have gone Before. In the still of the Moonlight, the little Leaf Dreams of all the Leaves gone before, but does not Recognize its Self in any of the Dreams, until it Dreams of a Famous Leaf who grew larger than all the rest.

When the little Leaf awakes with the Dawn it tells all the other Leaves that it used to be the Great Leaf. But another Leaf on another Branch says that it was the Great Leaf. Still, another Leaf says that it's impossible for the other two Leaves to have been the Great Leaf, because it was the Great Leaf! They argue between themselves, trying to Validating their own Experience, while Invalidating the other's. The Leaves around them take sides, believing one or another. The Branches feed the Life/Sap from the Trunk, trying to Convey the Message: "We Are ONE!" Instead, more and more little Leaves announce that it was they who was the Great Leaf.

Ahhhhh, if they would only Listen................

"We Are One."