A question on rebirth (I know, another one, I'm sorry)

I've been reading as many of the responses on r/Buddhism explaining rebirth in buddhist tradition and have come across a recurring explaining analogy that if anything can be used more closely to explain a functionalist theory of mind.

The analogy (I'm sure you'll recognise) is as follows: let a flame represent a beings consciousness, it is sustained by the combustion (a process on) of wax in the presence of oxygen (some matter). The brain (and other physical aspects if consciousness such as sensory organs) is represented here by the wax, and the oxygen is the stimulus. The analogy continues by saying that the atoms of wax oxygen and other gases at any point in time Tx, are different to those at T(x+n) as long as n!=0. And finishes by comparing transferring the flame to another candle.

The problem I have here is that this analogy actuslly perfectly fits a monist (functionalist/pysicalist/materialist) model of consciousness. Imagine the flame burning out, this particular flame (this particular conscious being) is now dead, the material causes of consciousness have ceased and so has the consciousness itself (the flame has gone out). It is still possible to light another candle, consciousness in the abstract (the idea of fire) has not been destroyed, but that particular flame has. Conservation of mass/energy occurs, but there is no conservation of coherent informstion (the informstion still exists as knowing the position and velocity of every particle in the room would allow you to know about the candle, but it's not in a coherent manner - a conscious being would have to put considerable effort into collecting it).

Lighting another candle doesn't have any actual connection with the candle that went out, other than in the Homo Sapiens (or any other sufficiently intelligent being) perception of reality equating the two in a general sense, in that they are composed of the same thing.

In addition to this specific response, I would like to ask some questions if I may. How does rebirth occur - what is the causal process? How is it determined which person is rebirthed into which other person/being? Obviously there's no abrahamic God making decisions, so by what process is the allocation determined? Is rebirth constrained to this planet? Given the size of the observable universe its highly likely some manner of life exists, and probably at least at a level equivalent to Earth's plants or animals. So does rebirth occur across intergalactic distances? And finally, I guess the most important, what is it that is reborn. What is the composition of the entity that continues after death, what is its nature and how did it come to be?

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