Mortality of the Soul and Past Lives

Discussing Epicurism's teachings on the mortality of the soul made me think about my own past lives. Epicurus argues that the soul is mortal and that when our body dies, our soul dies as well. As a practicing, yet highly skeptical Buddhist this is idea is of particular importance to me. I spent some time traveling through Northern India this summer. While my purpose there was to work in Tibetan refugee camps, I found a lot of time to sit and talk about cosmology to Buddhist nuns and monks. Buddhist believe in reincarnation and that information about our past lives are available to certain skilled monks, who have learned to read charts. I have had my chart read and they were able to give me information about my last three lives. Buddhist believe our past lives have effect on the individuals we are in our present lives. For instance, to verify any reading of a life chart, the monk determines where you birth marks are on the body and looks for confirmation. Without hesitation, an very old monk demanded I remove my shirt so that he could verify the large birth marks I have on my shoulders and back. These birth spots are physical markers of the things we have experienced in our past lives. After verify my marks, he named my past lives from latest to earliest, I was an elephant, a demon in the hell realms, and a Naga. For the monks, this was an exciting reading because it meant I was in the heaven realm as a Naga but for me my past life as an elephant was much more exciting. My Christian family was shocked to hear this as they all know about my life-long devotion to elephants.... Did you know that they have language groups and that an elephant from the Congo cannot talk to an elephant from Mozambique? Did you know that herd members linger over the bodies of their dead for days? Did you know an elephant can map thousands of miles in its head and remember these maps for a lifetime.? .... While i am not convinced, the monk would argue that my affection for elephants is a product my a previous life. The rational part of me is inclined to agree with Epicurus's description of the soul but whether looking into the eyes of elephant or a human, I am inclined to believe there is something universal, essential, and immortal about the souls of all life. Although... I might just be saying this because I like the idea of a previous elephant life.