Your question presupposes time and space, but it’s all good—I’ll answer anyway. Lifetimes do not follow one another in a linear fashion. Action is instantaneous, and action also exists within action (♾️). 

What you perceive as a world outside yourself is merely a concentrated focus of nonphysical perception on an aspect or element of simultaneous action. The ego then takes this perspective and interprets it according to its own proclivities as a pseudo-creator of action.

All your incarnations exist now. Who you have been and who you will be exist simultaneously, and these incarnations hold the same validity or realness as your current lifetime. 

The ego places itself on the throne of creative action, will, and choice. It seldom accepts other ego personalities as part of its own identity, which is why a division of past and future selves exists within the mind of an individual. However, many ego personalities influence each individual, and these personalities are part of your overall self, affecting you at a conscious level.

Every personality is different. Reincarnation is simply a cycle of collective creation. For you to experience a full range of feelings and emotions, humanity must work as one organism to accomplish this. 

This is built into the “junk DNA,” as scientists call it 🫤, in everyone. These collective periods of creation are examples of action within action. You have instantaneous action with ♾️ potential for variability and change, and this applies to action within action ♾️ as well. Any reference to time is arbitrary and only holds validity within your collective cycle of personalities, who subconsciously agree that time benefits your creative process at this moment.