I don’t think that energy recycling is enough to count as reincarnation. The whole point of re-incarnation is that it is the same thing coming back again. This would mean that there would have to be some fundamental thing that counts as us (the “real” us) that persists not just throughout our own life, but into some other life as well. But there is no evidence for anything meeting such a description.
We certainly cannot rely on the bits of manner and energy that make us up right now. Those won’t stay together for the next six seconds, let alone some hypothetical next life. But what else is there? Your mind, including your sense of self, is a product of your brain. And even that is an ever-changing bundle of impressions and ideas with no underlying identity except that which it builds for itself.
When we die, we are gone. Only the consequences of our actions live on. So if you’re worried about your legacy, try to make sure the ripples that emanate from your life become the kind of waves that push boats along rather than the kind that sink ships.
The obvious problem with Stevenson’s research, by the way, is that children are highly imaginative and typically have a shaky grasp on the precise boundary between lying and make-believe. Simply asking them if they’ve had a past life could lead them to invent one. And there is also no way of confirming after the fact the claims made by parents about things the child supposedly couldn’t know about. I also find it highly unlikely that any parent could possibly be aware of everything their child has ever experienced. “He’s never even heard German” Oh yeah? You monitored every conversation that has ever been had in your child’s vicinity. Despite the fact that adults—unlike children—have learned to tune out background noise? Sure…