I've written a few stories on reincarnation, including this one that stems from a reader reacting to the 17,043 number and which is a mini memoir. https://medium.com/about-me-stories/my-journey-spiritual-and-otherwise-9d5f6aca18ee As I understand it, 17,043 is not a lot, but yes it did throw me for a loop when I first heard it. I later decided that we incarnate into different realities/timelines, otherwise the math doesn't work.