>>"We Minbari believe that upon death, our souls rejoin the universe until such time as we are reborn."

The eastern philosophers -- the yogis, sufis, and so on -- from whom this idea comes, will also tell you that this soul never separates from the universe in the first place while inhabiting the flesh, so that there is no "rejoining"; it is only the development of an ego, the social self and individual personality that we call "identity," that obscures the fact from our waking consciousness. There are many names for that obfuscation; for the Advaitists (non-dualistic Vedanta), this is part of what they call "Maya." According to them, the aim of every spiritual practice and technique is to strip away the layers of this obfuscation ("onion-peeling" is a commonly used metaphor) until the waking mind can apprehend at an experiential level that soul and universe (Atman [Self] and Brahman [the Whole, or the Absolute], as the Advaitists call them) are identical -- they are the same thing, just seen from different viewpoints.

I always had a sense that Straczynski was aware of that, and created the Minbari as a largely spiritual race devoted to "God consciousness" as practiced by Eastern ascetics. I think he made that point right in the pilot for the series, where Delenn is bemused to find that any segment of humanity should have a level of awareness sufficient to be able to create a Zen Stone Garden.

TINA, I TOO AM A FAN OF BABYLON 5. MY FAVORITE CHARACTER IS GARIBALDI. YOU, MY FRIEND HAVE WRITTEN A STORY THAT FITS VERY WELL INTO THE BABYLON 5 UNIVERSE. THE IDEA OF MINBARI AND EARTH SOULS BEING ALIKE IS RATHER UNIQUE, BUT EXPLAINS WHY PEACE WAS MADE WHEN MANKIND WAS ON THE BRINK OF EXTINCTION. YOUR PHRASE "PAY FOWARD" IS SO LIKE DIANA HUNTER. WAS SHE A MINBARI TOO? i LOVE THE WAY THAT THE PSI CORPS WAS STOPPED BY JAMIE CHANGING BOTH GENDERS AND RACE. BEST OF ALL, NOBODY KNOWS OUTSIDE OF GREEN SECTION. EVER THOUGHT OF DOING A STAR TREK STORY? REMEMBER THAT KIRK SWITCHED BODIES WITH LESTER. WHAT WOULD HAVE HAPPENED IF HE WAS STUCK IN HER BODY? I ALWAYS THOUGHT THAT LESTER IN KIRK'S BODY WOULD HAVE HAD SOME FUN, LEAVING JAMIE KIRK PREGNANT. BUT BACK THEN, SUCH A SITUATION WOULD NEVER HAVE PASSED THE CRITICS. OH WELL, WE CAN ALWAYS SPECULATE CAN'T WE?

Very good !!
Just discovered this and sorry not to have seen it when first posted.

Yes I am a long time B5 fan, but the story stands well on its own and has that distinctive B5 feel to it.
Feels authentic if you know what I mean

Wow Have you ever thought about penning a full episode! You must be a true fan

Extremely well written and dead true to the B5 universe. I'd gladly pay to read more. [ quite a compliment coming from a such a tightwad as I :)]