As it turns out, Koji Fox has dropped some helpful lore on this, though it's not perfectly aligned with the question. It offers a few clues, though.
Per that link, when a being dies, their anima disperses into the Lifestream. With enough faith, enough aether, and Ascian guidance, the disparate parts of an entity can be pulled back together through the ritual of summoning. However, this summoning reconfigures those parts, producing something like, but not the same as, what once lived.
This tells us that the Lifestream contains the collective memories and existence of every being that has ever lived (very FF7, that). Is it possible to, then, see parts of one's own past life? Theoretically, it might be, but "past life" is a bit of a complicated thing. Since anima disperses at the time of death, then gets mixed up in the "giant blender" of the Lifestream, while every piece of your current essence has lived before, each bit lived different lives, and wasn't even necessarily from a Son of Man. So, any memory or glimpse would be from the collective memory of the world, not from "your" past life, since there was no "you" before your soul was clad in flesh. Once you die, there is no more "you" (revenants, summonings, and so on excluded). This has certain implications regarding the Echo that I'll leave as an exercise in speculation.
So, tl;dr, is reincarnation in the sense we think of it possible? I would suggest that the lore says "theoretically possible, but exceedingly unlikely," since it'd require all, or most, of your aether make it through the Lifestream and into a new body after dispersal. Note that this is different than, say, transferring a complete anima into a new or different body, which appeared to be something Allag could do (as evidenced by the CT story line and most specifically the weekly quest giver, "Noah-as-miqo'te").
Per that link, when a being dies, their anima disperses into the Lifestream. With enough faith, enough aether, and Ascian guidance, the disparate parts of an entity can be pulled back together through the ritual of summoning. However, this summoning reconfigures those parts, producing something like, but not the same as, what once lived.
This tells us that the Lifestream contains the collective memories and existence of every being that has ever lived (very FF7, that). Is it possible to, then, see parts of one's own past life? Theoretically, it might be, but "past life" is a bit of a complicated thing. Since anima disperses at the time of death, then gets mixed up in the "giant blender" of the Lifestream, while every piece of your current essence has lived before, each bit lived different lives, and wasn't even necessarily from a Son of Man. So, any memory or glimpse would be from the collective memory of the world, not from "your" past life, since there was no "you" before your soul was clad in flesh. Once you die, there is no more "you" (revenants, summonings, and so on excluded). This has certain implications regarding the Echo that I'll leave as an exercise in speculation.
So, tl;dr, is reincarnation in the sense we think of it possible? I would suggest that the lore says "theoretically possible, but exceedingly unlikely," since it'd require all, or most, of your aether make it through the Lifestream and into a new body after dispersal. Note that this is different than, say, transferring a complete anima into a new or different body, which appeared to be something Allag could do (as evidenced by the CT story line and most specifically the weekly quest giver, "Noah-as-miqo'te").
The Freelance Wizard
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((about me | about L'yhta Mahre | L'yhta's desk | about Mysterium, the Ivory Tower: a heavy RP society of mages))
Quality RP at low, low prices!
((about me | about L'yhta Mahre | L'yhta's desk | about Mysterium, the Ivory Tower: a heavy RP society of mages))