Yes, that’s a great question to frame any discussion about reincarnation. I posed that very question to my sons a few years ago as we languished in the hot tub. Reincarnation tends to be framed as a temporally linear event that is bound to this world. Why would that be the case?

Another good question is: Why fear death? Was there something fearful about the time before we were conceived?

As you suggest, we don’t think of other life forms on our planet as having some special purpose, yet we believe that there must be some special purpose for us. That’s quite a disconnect. On the other hand, maybe there is some special purpose on a grand scale that we can’t possibly fathom. If so, we’re all in it together!