A bit offtopic, but still somewhat relevant. At first I read Typoz's answer and agreed with him on his stance about the conclusion of that article. However, the article has, IMO, a very good point in presenting an alternative explanation to reincarnation: that of spirit possession. And I'm not talking spirit possession in the typical Christian sense of "evil entity possesing the body of a victim", but more of non-local mind/consciousness being channeled into a new body.
What do mediums do? They channel the personalities of people(dead or alive, most often dead), which exist within the collective subconscious. There are extremely good mediums, who may almost become the person they're channeling, including changing physical characteristics of their own (e.g. the medium may change his/her voice pitch, gait, manneurisms depending on who they're channeling). What if this channeling may sometimes happen 'automagically' and especially if it happens during early foetus development? For relevant examples, please consider the reincarnation cases of:
Dorothy Eady -
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dorothy_Eady (She started having memories of a "past life" only after falling down the stairs when she was 3)
and
Sobha Ram enters the dead body of Jasbir -
http://www.iisis.net/index.php?page...n-sobha-ram-jasbir-jat-walter-semkiw&hl=en_US
In more traditional hypnotherapy, there's a technique called Deep-Trance Identification (
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deep_trance_identification ) which has been successfully used to 'channel' the artistic traits of artists into hypnotized people. Vladimir Raikov has used this technique to channel Russian painters for example (
http://drpulos.com/blog/the-other-side-of-the-mind/):
Raikov would then provide his subject, Elena, in this case, a mathematics major with a sketch pad, pieces of charcoal and coloured pencils. She was encouraged to take time off from her science and math courses and practice sketching on her own.
Over a period of eight weeks she was re-hypnotized twice a week, taken into a deep hyperalert trance and the “artificial reincarnation” of Repin was reinforced on each hypnotic session. At the end of this “training” or profound alteration of beliefs, Elena was not a Repin. However, according to invited art critics who examined her work, she had the abilities of a highly seasoned art illustrator and could have taken on a new career as a professional artist had she chosen to do so.
And in Tibetan Buddhism there is(was) a technique called Throng-jug (
http://www.chinabuddhismencyclopedia.com/en/index.php/Trongjug) in which a highly-developed adept could possess the body of a younger, healthier person.
IMO, Mediums, Deep-trance identification and Throng-jug(if we're to believe it existed) point to the fact that it's entirely possible to transfer one mind, or at least part of it, to another body (= possession). Maybe that's what happens during reincarnation?
[end of offtopic, I know the thread was not intented to discuss possible explanations for reincarnation, but I just felt like writing this here]