We Are All the Reincation of Beethoven

Every atom you possess has almost certainly passed through several stars and been part of millions of organisms on its way to becoming you. We are each so atomically numerous and so vigorously recycled at death that a significant number of our atoms — up to a billion for each of us, it has been suggested — probably once belonged to Shakespeare.

A billion more each came from Buddha and Genghis Khan and Beethoven, and any other historical figure you care to name.

So we are all reincarnations – though short-lived ones. When we die our atoms will disassemble and move off to find new uses elsewhere – as part of a leaf or other human being or drop of dew.

Bill Bryson, A Short History of Nearly Everything

This is an amazing truth, popularized by scientists like Neil deGrasse Tyson & Lawrence Krauss, not to mention the “We Are All Connected” video by Symphony of Science:

For most of my life, i would often ponder & amaze myself with the truth that the water & air we’re breathing is the same stuff the dinosaurs drank. My vision was narrow, but it hinted at a broader truth: Not only are we sustained by the same resources which have sustained life on Earth since life began, but our very atoms are tied to the past.

Past life. Past stars.

Maybe even past alien civilizations?

We are all connected.

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