simple, pagans accept different views lol kidding.
myself, i believe in a few things. for starters, i believe your soul goes to Summerland to relax and wait until it's ready to be reincarnated. if the person dies in a horrible way, or feels like it wasn't their time, or like in Ghost they just choose to not cross over just yet, they become a spirit that wanders the earth doing whatever for a bit. kind of like Summerland, but you get to torment your best friend as a ghost [or maybe that's just was my friends and i are planning.] the final thing is, people [animals, plants, whatever you're reborn as] are born either random, or purpose. if you're born under purpose, you're born for a reason, you will live to a ripe old age and keep being reborn like that until your spirit fulfills that purpose. once you've done that, you're born under random, people who are killed in tragic circumstance. kind of sad, but i fell it makes sense. granted, i'm not trying to say a random spirit is worthless, maybe they were suppose to be in your life for a reason, or maybe they fulfill their purpose early in that life so they die sooner.
also heard this story once that i found nice about a man who died and went heaven only to be told he was retuning to earth. when he asked why he was told he had not lived every possible life, rich, poor, sick, healthy, smart dumb, man, woman, black white and so on. until he had lived every life, his soul could not appreciate heaven. i like that idea too.
winded, but that's how i see it, we get reincarnated, but our soul can sometimes be stuck here.
@embrace , i guess i shouldn't have got a bit defensive..sorry. i got a little miffed ealiear that's all.
Anyway , to the thread starter , i doubt that one could ever fully answer that question , as people from different cultures and different regions have different views on the afterlife. Although some believe in reincarnation , people from different cultures also have different views on the proccess. where some believing one reincarnates immediately upon death or wether there is a resting place or ..anything basically.
the main thing is that they both can coexist on some level , which is still unknown to us.
