Informal opinion poll

[mccoyxyz]

I'd like to find out what the overall group opinion is on this topic please.
When I first started reading about reincarnational topics (ie dinsoaurs roaming the earth LOL), I read about a dozen books on the topic in general. As I recall, only a couple of these actually stated that you have the choice of what your family of origin is.
The majority consensus of these books was that you had an overall choice of which culture you might choose, provided They had no compelling reason to deny you this. Other than that, choice of family of origin was left up to Them, to fit you to whatever issues you had to deal with in life.
The modern new-age genre of reincarnation belief generally accepts (most sources do) that you have choice of family of origin.
None of my Indian friends believe you have this choice, or else none of them would have chosen what they did. The view being, if that is really true, then a lot of families would be destined to be childless, or one child only, as they're undesirable.
Personally, I tend to favor the choosing culture only view, not the choice of family. As quite frankly I can't imagine myself actually choosing this unless I'm the reincarnation of Sigmund Freud (LOL). And on a more serious tone, Sigmund and I never crossed paths in the geographical sense.
Given that probably half of all families are dysfunctional to at least some degree, I wonder about this, how does the Earth population keep increasing?
Given that I'm a lot older than everyone else on this site, I'm intrigued to see the views of younger people.
Quite frankly, it scares the heck out of me. I wouldn't really mind coming back to another life, if you got to say arrive at age 18, with high school diploma in hand (LOL). The thought of actually rolling the dice and being a kid again, nein Kamerad.

[Miss Bothmann]

I am kind of split on this topic. I think that in some cases, the soul (or a higher power) chooses what life you will be born into (family, culture, etc.) However, I also believe that at times our soul is simply thrown into another life where we have to even the playing field on our karma. Whatever situations happen to come up in that life, you must draw on your knowledge from previous incarnations. For example, say in this life you are offered a prestigious job far from your family and friends. However, it would greatly benefit your life. What do you do? In your past life, you may have been very clingy to your family or were not allowed to leave them . So that might have carried over into this life. You have to look at what's best for you. Perhaps, in this situation, you should break the cycle and take that job. This may very well end a lot of co-dependency.

So, I guess it just depends on where your soul needs to take its journey. It either needs to be placed in a guided life where everything is laid out...or, you just float free and wing it as you go.

[Laurasia]

I'm really not sure what to think about the subject myself, though Miss Bothmann's theory seems to make some good sense to me.

I have real issues with the theory that souls always choose the major aspects of their lives for themselves. As you said McCoy....why would some souls choose what they experience then? Why would a fetus choose to be aborted or a child murdered for example? And, yes, I have heard the arguement that in such cases the soul has chosen such a fate in order to help another soul to experience something that they need to experience. I can see that in some cases, but definitely not in many of them.

Sincerely,
Laurasia

[msmir]

The soul is constantly evolving and the only way it evolves is to gain new experiences and perspectives. What you have learned stays in your soul memory even when you consciously forget everything. If you were born in a rich family and took everything for granted, then in the next life you may be born into poverty in order to appreciate what you have... if you successfully appreciate what you have instead of whining about being poor, you may be born in a wealthier setting again, which will be a test for you to have material wealth AND counting your blessings... if you do that successfully you will not have to learn the lesson of living in poverty again in a future lifetime, unless you decide to for other reasons. We will also repeat life cycles if there is something that these lives were trying to teach us and we missed the lesson.. so the cycle repeats until we get it and break the cycle. Anyway I would write more but it's 3:20AM AHHHH, okay time to turn in.. and watch me sleep for the rest of the day tomorrow

[mccoyxyz]

I would say Miss Bothmann put it best, thank you, that is a view to which I can subscribe.