Thanks for the positive feedback... To answer your first question in accordance with my previous point, I don't really feel like I have the awareness to answer such a question, nor would anyone else really while in physical form... I think it's perfectly fine to ponder such a question, but cannot conceive how anyone would be able to comfortably arrive at an answer and have confidence in it being accurate. I can only guess or throw out ideas with no knowledge of their accuracy. Perhaps whatever force was responsible for the creation of our consciousness can only grow through our own individual conscious experiences. So perhaps our individual experiences are feeding the force that created us. Parts of a greater whole?

When I was a child or adolescent I was firmly against the notion of reincarnation. I never really found life to be enjoyable and saw that it was filled with much pain and suffering. The thought of having to return here on an infinite cycle with no knowledge of one's prior identity scared the crap out of me - so I dismissed it.... That was just how I conceptualized the process at that stage in my life. But as I grew older I began to look at the process in a different light and my exploration into the subject matter of past lives and children having researchable/verifiable recollections of them, it changed my perspective. I don't really believe that you don't possess knowledge of your past lives, I believe there is a part of your identity that has this awareness, it's just repressed for the time-being. Call it temporary amnesia. We know that humans can suppress and eventually repress experiences in a single lifetime - push memories out of their conscious awareness and into the subconscious, so I would not be surprised to learn this could take place in a different context. The information is still there, it's just not easily accessible/retrievable. I don't believe you can learn all the lessons that you need to learn in a single lifetime as you see that the circumstances we are born into are quite varied and life can abruptly end without notice.

Wanted to say sorry if some of my previous replies yesterday came across as being short or snippy, I did not intend to express myself in that manner. I was getting frustrated reading some of the replies in this thread because they were very black & white and limiting of the consciousness. I see now that you have an open-mind and are actively trying to increase your awareness and I think that is fantastic and also a trait that many individuals lack.