Re; Discrepancies in what is reported concerning reincarnation and other aspects of the afterlife that Alex asked about.
First, I'm a big believer in the Bell Curve and its ramifications. Second, my research and experience causes me to dispense with the notion that upon passing out of this physical plane and into the next that one becomes enlightened and obtains perfect knowledge of everything. In fact, it appears to me that the deceased are little changed from who and how they were in life. If we accept that the evidence points toward people remaining as they were in life, then the disparate reports of what it is, how it all works, reincarnation yes and no become more understandable.
Most people are incurious. For every forum like this there are 10s of thousands (probably 100s of thousands) where people expend their time and energy discussing and debating the most mundane of topics. Most people want a full belly, nice things to wear, a circle of friends and maybe a few people, like family, that care more deeply about them, a little recognition at work, enough money to cover the bills and entertainment. If life isn't working out, they turn to addictions and other carnal distractions to escape. Rarely do they ask the big questions, let alone derive reasonable answers. Lending confirmation to that is that in the spirit world it seems, from the available data, that most - especially the more recent arrivals - are in a place called "Summer Land"; which is a nice enough spirit equivalent of a full belly, nice things to wear, nice neighborhood, etc.
Furthermore, my experience in life has been that people have no problem tossing out their opinion - even though it may be totally uninformed - as if it's fact. They just don't have intellectual integrity. They really don't care about truth and they want to sound as if they are "in the know".
Add to pervasive incuriosity and lack of intellectual integrity that the majority, even among the 2 standard deviations or greater above the mean in intelligence or adventurousness, simply aren't good communicators, even when they truly understand the subject matter they are trying to describe. Again, we're going with the idea that passing out of the physical doesn't substantially change this characteristic. Then we have that problem that mediums are subject to these same issues.
Bottom line is that encountering a spirit/medium combo that has asked the big questions, objectively explored, hypothesized, analyzed, tested and formulated an answer is going to be a very rare event. So we get a bunch of junk and half-baked, poorly communicated concepts. And that's before we factor in the tricksters, psychopaths/demonic deceivers. As below so it is above.
I think there is ample evidence that suggests reincarnation does occur in some instances. We all know about Ian Stevenson and ongoing work at the University of Virginia. The James Leininger case appears pretty convincing and as do others. What we don't know is if hypnotic regression can get us there. Beyond issues with hypnotic suggestion, there is the problem of hypnosis inducing a state of mind similar to remote viewing wherein one is viewing the past and then assuming that the past that is viewed is a former life that one lived, as opposed to something lived by someone else. It is very challenging to assign meaning when we don't know the parameters of what is possible.
Finally, the idea that we consciously plan out our next life with the help of spirit guides has always irked me for some reason. I can see the therapeutic value to those who have suffered the loss of a loved one (as Rob mentioned), but beyond that I just can't hang with any of it. I can't put my finger on exactly why it bothers me so. I guess I agree with what Alex said to Rob about how the true breadth and impact of the negativity effects people is down played. Sure, a tsunami, a murder, any tragic event might bring out some sympathy and good vibes from concerned people, but it also causes a lot of people to become bitter and question God, etc. People that have been abused as children often go on to have terrible lives and outlooks. Souls can become hardened and coarse if faced with evil more, often than achieving a higher understanding. These things have a ripple effect through history that is not measurable when ethnicities or nations are involved . Saying it's all for the greater good seems flippant to me. Maybe some people sort of kind of "plan" their next life based on karmic forces, but that's probably pseudo-voluntary and pseudo-consciously done. I would have to personally examine Rob's processes for eliciting and collating these reports before I began to seriously consider them.