When I was a teenager I did believe in reincarnation at some point. But only now I realised that all that interest in Hinduism, in lives starting over and over again, came from earlier years, when I played way too much game boy.

Mario had many lives. If I make it to 100 coins I get an extra, or if I'm lucky enough to catch that hidden 1up treasures. Pokemons would kind of loose totally their energy after an unfortunate battle, but just look for the right pokehospital and they will be alive again. In sims I could be even more accurate and create a immortal version of myself, or to be more correct, many reincarnations of me. And some times the reflection of that mirror was further realistic. In that sims reality I could be free to act and do what I really wanted. When I was lost in the internet I could talk with all the strangers I wanted and tell them what I really think and live, being more truthful than for the ones around me.

As a digital kid, my experience of death and life was shaped by this strange industries of video games. Only now I can clearly understand how weird it was to feel more comfortable in that cyclic virtual being than confronting myself in the mirror.