The Shards in a nutshell

The Shards is a reincarnation religion which differs from every other reincarnation religion.

What happens when you die is that your soul is shattered into billions of Shards.

Each one of these Shards contains what might be thought of as a "proto-soul". Which is to say it carries the complete information concerning Knack, and Desire that was present in the soul from whence it came (actual physical knowledge, however, is not preserved). Knack (or Knacks) and Desire (or Desires) are passed on.

Immediately after death those Shards or "proto-souls" begin the search for receptors.

The receptors are the infants. As with most processes on this Earth, living organisms must be at a certain level of maturity before they can attempt certain things, ie. a bird has to be a certain age before it can fly, people reach puberty when the time is ripe. This means that the receptor cannot begin receiving Shards into its "soul center" until it has reached a particular level of maturity. This level of maturity is only reached shortly before birth, and continues for only a short time after the child is born until the point where the child begins to build up defenses. The period of "shardal reception" by the infant is limited to the days immediately surrounding the birth.

Anyone who dies within that period surrounding birth will very likely, if they are strong enough, become a part of this receptor. This means that at birth, or shortly after birth, when the collection of Shards is finally completed, that the child is not reincarnated from only one person. The child is reincarnated from thousands of people. These Shards, being quite distinct from each other, nonetheless still mix together to create a totally unique individual personality.

Shards©1984