I'm going to move everything I wrote in here (Skeptiko Forum) so far to this location:
My understanding of incarnation is old. Reincarnation implies something other, and the proper term should be incarnation because we all incarnate again and again and again. When the Human species expands beyond existing numbers the consciousness of another from another species can move in to fill the demand, and this is actually reincarnation. Sometimes at this stage a consciousness can move back to where it came from, if the shock of the "new to it" species is too much, but generally speaking evolution is a one way process where there is much incarnation, and then very periodically reincarnations when a consciousness moves species, from a lesser species to a greater species. And, because the Human population has been growing lately, it is very likely that we all have met someone who was from another species and this is their first time as a Human. They are, I found, very neutral about anything, very simple in their discussions, and very nice people.
Also, evolution itself is not even possible, at all, if all that ever happened was you were "created" when your parents had sex, and then you leave this Earth never to return. This simple understanding implies that evolution can happen in less than one century, for, that is the duration (for the most part) of one lifetime as a Human Being. This makes no sense, and perhaps relating it to other species may help in this understanding.
There have been many insect species that follow certain life cycle phases during each year. Many of these involve hatching, growth, maturity, prom night, where there is an unusually high number of them out and about, everybody gets laid, and the next crop of eggs are set in place, and then they all die. An examination of June Bugs, for example, where at roughly the same time every year they all just fall to the ground and stop living. If we examined all the dead June Bugs or any of a large number of insect types that do these yearly mass die offs, I believe that an autopsy would reveal that there was no cause of death. Their bodies are immaculate and as perfect this day as they were the day before, and the only difference is that the spark of life has left them. Not starvation, not disease, not any physical cause of death, the insects just did their thing, and then leave again. The eggs are set, and they will do it all again the next year.
Also, the word "instinct" is very very undefined, and "just because" is a paltry explanation; it is not an explanation at all; and once we all fully realise that it is the very same consciousnesses doing this over and over again, then it all makes perfect sense.
And evolution is, more than it is anything else, the gaining of knowledge. I am the vessel to which this knowledge is carried into the future and I keep coming back here. I have deep in my memories the aqua-ducts which were all over Europe for many thousands of years, and they were the first power grid that our species used extensively, and I vaguely remember them. Keystones, gears, many things are in the back of my mind about these times from the past. Also, energy is everything, and I am energy too.
There is a Law in Physics which states that energy can neither be created nor destroyed: only moved.
Before all of the matter in the Prime Material Plane was built (built by us and others) there was energy. Even after all this time, trillions of years, we still need to return to this energy stream daily, and this is the Dreamscape. The difference between the Dreamscape and the Prime Material Plane is also the reason we built the Prime Material Plane in the first place. If I set a guitar down in the Dreamscape, for example, I may never see it again, and if I set a guitar down here in the Prime, it is right there leaning up against the wall where I left it the next time I return. This building of the Prime Material Plane occurred too many trillions of years ago to even contemplate, but it is worth noting because at some point it did happen, and everything in the Prime is here now, and, works, and because we are energy, it is worth noting the Energy Stream itself, that which was there before, during and after all else. And no, no actual physicists believe the big bang theory, it is just yet another dogma set into motion by the systems of control here on Earth that everything must endure. Mordor is Switzerland and the bankster families have their fingers on, exclusively, the "print money" button, and they have been using this power to the detriment of all Life on Earth. That is off topic, though it is worth noting as well.