Reincarnation

In discussing reincarnation with a friend of mine, I've come to a slightly different belief on the issue. I certainly do subscribe to the idea; life is a cycle, and mass and energy getting recycled makes more sense to me than a finite destination of either heaven or hell, especially since there is no real good or bad.

But I am rethinking the idea that I will come back as another person after I die. In fact, if mass and energy is conserved (no new mass or energy can be created), and mass can be converted to energy and vice versa, then it is possible that I could come back as 100 trees (more mass in exchange for my energy). Given that humans can do more than other animals, there is more energy that would be released when a person dies than, say, a cat.

This new idea of reincarnation that I have started to entertain makes for an even greater feeling of our current lives being so short. Not that I ever looked at reincarnation as a reason for not making the most of my current life, but now I feel like I need to live this life to the fullest even moreso. It doesn't seem that I will be the same person coming into a different body after I die in order to do the things I've wanted to do but can't in this lifetime. I guess it's possible that if my desire to do a specific thing in a next life is so great that there is where that energy will go, but I cannot be certain of it.

So our current lives are fragile and temporary. I do believe we communicate with each other subconsciously, but not everyone taps into their subconscious and so if you really want to be sure that someone you love knows it, it is really important to say so at the end of each conversation, to ensure that that is the last thing that special someone hears you say.

What are your thoughts on reincarnation? This new idea that I have gets away from the idea of there being a supreme being and is more scientific. Does that make the existential question "Why are we here?" even more salient?