it really IS "consciousness" that defines who we are
not the other way around; this is certainly true with past lives
which are nothing more than "shared shards of consciousness" expressed in "form"
. . . thought into existence by a multi-dimensional supra-rational idea "maker" and it is the thought and the thought that thinks about itself (yep . . . a mouthful, I know -- however) that passes "form" along to/within body after body after . . .
even if the body that comes after actually comes "before"
complicated or just totally badass in ways not so easily imagined
we live in a universe defined by consciousness
and that consciousness is (if you must find its home zip code)
housed "somewhere else"