A person's continued existence after death is a difficult issue.
             Death is a territory that is very difficult to explore, since returning and
             documenting findings are problematic. The best any explorer can do then is
             to give the matter some thought and philosophically explore the possibility
             of survival in whatever form. Perhaps a good location to start exploring
             the regions after death would be the commonly held beliefs of humankind.
             The two most common beliefs regarding continued life after death are
             reincarnation, or eternal spiritual union with God.
             The Christian concept of eternal union with God rests on the
             assumption that the personality remains intact after the event of physical
             death. The soul is the seat of the personality. In this way the identity
             a person was born with on earth remains after death. All the good and evil
             of a life is remembered, and a kind of account is given for the reward of
             union with God. Only one life on earth is given, after which a spiritual
             Reincarnation is the rebirth of the soul into a different body after
             death. If this is valid, it is assumed that all memories of the previous
             personality are erased. The soul is assumed to learn important lessons
             during its various journeys on earth. The self in this case is infinitely
             more complicated than the more simplistic vision of eternity. Here one
             could perhaps assume a core personality, or a subconscious as it were.
             This core personality then records the lessons over the various lifetimes,
             to synthesize them at whatever end there is to the journey.
             Life after death is a contentious issue, about which it is very
             difficult to give a conclusive answer for obvious reasons. The best the
             living can do in this regard is to speculate, make the best of the years on
             earth, and hope for the best afterward.
             ...