User blog comment:Mohrpheus/Spiritual Imbalance in Bleach - The End of the World?!/@comment-44061-20100830232425/@comment-44061-20100831003939

Well the concept is that the world runs on this cycle so that would mean that yes all human beings in the human world are in fact the reincarnation of a person that has previously passed on into Soul Society. So yea your right we are dealing with a constant consistent number of souls throughout time except for those that go to hell and those that are Shinigami and those that are removed from the cycle by the qunincies actions.

What we dont understand yet is whether the souls eaten are released back into the cycle upon purification of a hollow. That more resides on detail rather then simple purification of the dominant personality.