In Plato's The Republic after people die they are taken to this place where they drink this water that causes them to forget their past life. At first I thought it was so utopic that they would be reincarnated and they would be able to live their life over again but as I thought more about it I realized it sounds awful to live your life over and over again, not remembering everything you have done previously, and never seeming to make much progress.
The way Plato explained this reincarnation was that there were lives strewn across the ground and people could pick their own life. I found it very interesting that the souls could choose their own life. I liked that their was a sense of responsibility given to the soul's so that there was no "Oh, I was born into this horrible life!" No. They chose the life and they had to take responsibility for it. The souls that chose unwisely were more likely to make bad decisions in life and therefore chose a life poorly and suffered the consequences of that decision. Although that might not sound utopic, I think it is realistic. This picture models the idea that you build your own life.
I found it very beautiful that the souls could choose to live the lives of animals. That life has always seemed more pure to me than a human life. Maybe a truly utopic life would contain the aspects and elements of an animal's life? Who knows.
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