In a message dated 97-12-31 15:53:14 EST, you write: << I'm not sure I think Seymour is necessarily the reincarnation of Teddy--or vice-versa--but "Teddy" was the story that sort of led me to that conclusion. More than the passage you quoted, the passage that directly follows, about people not wanting to move on to better things. Brendan >> yeah, it was just a speculation, and we have to weigh buddhist doctrines of reincarnation against, say, Platonic or Hindu. Rather than the actual soul passing from one life to the next, it's more like a string of pearls, one life influencing the next... but still, even this is guessing. There's similarities, hints, etc, nothing definite...and they could simply be similar souls without necessarily being identified with one another... Jim