by Carol Bowman C 2001 EDIT
Beloved Relatives Reincarnated Within Your Family
HarperCollins Publishers
Page 140-141, hardback about how a soul selects its next life...
"All the regression studies agree that the planning process is done in collaboration with the spiritual guides. The guides present the soul with options for the next life. The soul's previous actions, or karma, determine the parameters and limits of its options. based on its past performance, the soul is offered a menu of lives that will teach it what it needs to learn next. It does not have unlimited choice. If that were the case, why would anyone choose a life of hardship or tragedy.'
"Even with karma limiting the options, the soul still has a mind-boggling number of lives to choose from. The coordination it requires to choose the right one is complex, a matter of balancing multidimensional factors in intricate ways. The decision must consider not only the needs of the soul, but must also coordinate its choice with the needs and plans of other souls it expects to join - particularly the parents... Relationships are vital to our learning and spiritual growth. So, arranging to reunite with certain souls in the coming life is a central element of the reincarnation plan. All the studies agree that we often reincarnate with souls we have been close to in other lifetimes. We may choose to return to those who nurtured and supported our growth in the past... To learn forgiveness, we may elect to return to someone who hurt us or did us wrong. ....Because relationships are so important, and because family relationships are so intense, it makes sense that a soul would have many, many reasons to return to the family it just left. This is why, I believe, same-family reincarnation is so common."
Note: December 2024. Just got this book from my library and reread it!
