Original subtitles

(soft music)

- My spirit guides tell me

that it's difficult to learn certain things

in the afterlife.

So I agreed to put a part of myself

down on this chaotic planet to learn and grow.

So wait a minute?

I agreed to this madness?

I agreed to some master plan

and intentionally subjected myself to misery

for the sole purpose of learning?

The answer I got was simple.

Yes.

(ethereal music)

There I was.

I was born into this cute little meat sack

and stumbled along with an optimistic stride.

What is this place?

What's it all about?

I had a gut feeling

I was gonna experience plenty of joy here,

but never once considered

hardship and pain.

(ethereal music)

(dramatic music)

In my exploration into spirituality,

I discovered an intriguing concept

that seemed to upset some,

but yet liberate others.

That concept is the pre-birth plan.

(soft music)

James, do we ever break away from our soul group

and maybe experiment with a little bit diverse--

- Good question. - Could groups.

- So when we look at a soul group,

I believe, and of course, I won't know until I pass over,

but I think we're part of many soul groups.

- Ah.

- Yeah.

I don't think it's just one soul group.

I think we're part of many soul groups

all at the same time, simultaneously.

And I really think that's closer to it.

So I like a lot about the tree.

The tree?

Analogy for tree,

because you have the trunk

and all those branches and leaves,

which make up that one tree.

So we're probably part of a lot

of different soul groups, I think.

- Safe to say that we choose

our parents, our children.

- Absolutely.

We certainly choose those relationships.

Those are very formative.

And some people are fortunate enough to have parents

that they have beautiful, loving relationship with,

that they feel loved and supported throughout their life.

And others are not so fortunate.

They might deal with a parent that has an addiction,

or that is not able to show them love,

or that are dealing with their own challenges.

And we really come in

to give them the opportunity to do better,

and also to learn and to choose to not be a victim

in these situations,

to have our own autonomy and identity.

Those are roles that I believe parents, siblings, spouses,

those are roles that I always agree to before we come in.

- You know, I always wonder if

we ever break away from our soul group

and want want to experience another soul group?

- My understanding of a soul group

is that it's a collection of souls

who are more or less the same vibration,

meaning more or less the same evolutionary stage.

And you take turns incarnating

with the various members of your soul group

playing every conceivable role for each other.

So you and the other members of your soul group

will be father and son,

mother and daughter,

brother an sister, husband and wife,

best of friends,

maybe even murder and the one who is murdered.

And there's no judgment at the soul level

of any of the roles.

They're all seen as opportunities

for expansion and learning.

Now in regard to learning,

some members of a soul group

invariably learn faster than others.

So they may evolve out of their soul group

and move into a higher vibrational soul group.

And by the same token,

there may be another soul group

of lower vibration than yours,

but there's some fast learners in there

who then move into your soul group.

So for the most part,

you're incarnating with the same souls again and again,

but some, a few, will move out,

and a few more will move in.

Although, when you put your life plan together,

if you need a soul to play a particular role

for something that you're scripting,

and there's no soul in your soul group

that is skilled at that,

or wants to take on the role,

you will go to another soul group

and ask another soul there

would you, you know, agree to play this role for me.

That happens quite frequently.

(soft music)

- It didn't take me long to realize

that this place is quite different from the afterlife.

A whole new set of rules

and things I wasn't exactly comfortable with.

The memory of the afterlife

was starting to disappear.

It was now time to immerse myself

into the human experience.

(ethereal music)

What's all involved in designing our life plan,

like what's all involved?

- Sure.

I believe that there's groups

who's job it is, beings, guides, teachers,

who gather together with the soul,

or soul group, and they figure out the curriculum

for that soul to learn.

The best opportune time for them to be born

so that various experiences will be available

at that particular second,

the first breath is taken.

It doesn't matter caesarian, or born naturally.

It's when that breath is taken.

And really, things will happen to that soul

because of that, in that way,

you know, the planets

are a certain position when we're born,

everything goes into movement in the physical

the moment we take our first breath.

So I think that they look at that,

the opportunities that soul needs

that can afford that soul to grow.

And that is interesting too.

It might be a soul that comes back.

Let's say there was a,

they left a body, suicide, let's say suicide.

And they left the body.

They were feeling great,

but they just, they left the body

'cause they didn't wanna be here anymore.

They might find that, let's say it's 30,

they might find they come back

that there's gonna be certain factors

that are the exact same factors they had

in a previous life around 30 years of age

and there might be a soul memory that comes back.

They feel negative.

They feel fearful.

But they gotta realize they can't leave the world

because in another lifetime they did.

So it might not be conscious,

but they might feel this at the same time, physical time,

30 years old, something's stirred inside of them.

And it's an opportunity to grow.

And sometimes souls don't do it.

Sometimes some souls will choose to go back

to that old way and end their life,

or whatever experience is,

or sometimes will move on

and learn from it and move on.

So that's just something to look at.

I think very interesting.

- The best that I understand,

a pre-birth plan are plans that we make

before we come into the physical.

We usually make them with people in our soul group,

those are people that maybe

perhaps we've had other lifetimes with.

We come in.

We are surrounded by guides that will be with us

for all of our life.

We go to Akashic records.

We have a lot of help deciding on what we want to learn

and experience here in the physical.

Sometimes we might come in as a supporting player.

Say you need to have a lifetime

where you experience addiction, or loss,

or mental illness.

I might agree to come in and support you through that

and they'll be lessons that I learn through that as well,

or it could be vice versa.

It really depends on what lessons

the soul decided to learn.

- Why do you think it is hard

for people to grasp the idea

of a pre-birth plan?

What are some of the challenges you've seen?

- Part of the challenge, I think,

is being in western society.

Because this idea is not part of Western society.

And in Eastern societies, I think it's more easily accepted.

A lot of it has to do with religious conditioning.

You know, the conditioning you're raised with

by your parents, that's very powerful.

And if it doesn't include some kind of teaching

about pre-birth existence or pre-birth planning,

it can be very difficult to open up to that later in life.

But I think there's something else

even bigger going on here,

and that is there's an entire category of people

who are resistant to the idea

that we plan our lives before we're born.

And the reason they're resistant

is that it makes them no longer victims.

There are a lot of secondary benefits to being a victim.

- Secondary benefits.

(laughs)

- Well, there are.

You know, get get sympathy from other people.

- Sure, benefits.

- It's a way to bond with others.

- So celebrity.

You become a celebrity.

- It's a way to bond with others

who also see themselves as victims.

And I'm not judging or putting that down.

It's only natural that if people would be drawn

to those sorts of benefits. - Sure.

- But at some point, if you're really going to heal

and learn and grow,

you have to move beyond victim consciousness.

So if you buy into the concept

that you are the powerful soul

who planned all the major experiences in your life,

then you can no longer be a victim.

It makes you responsible for what's happening in your life.

And in order to really heal,

you have to take responsibility

for what happens in your life.

But there are people who are not ready to do that,

and they're very resistant to this idea.

- Yeah, accountability is difficult.

So why do you think it's difficult

for some people to grasp the idea

of a pre-birth plan?

- Well, a pre-birth plan

really puts the responsibility on us.

And a lot of people like to think,

or do think, or have been taught to believe

that that's outside of us,

there's someone else responsible

for the way that our life goes.

And from my experience,

what I've heard from my guides,

we are the ones that make those decisions.

We're completely supported in spirit.

Perhaps we take a little bit too much off,

come in and still have to have that experience anyway,

but usually we're really guided

as to what we should choose

and what would be best learning experiences for us.

And when we come here and have those experiences,

it can be overwhelming.

It can feel as though we're being punished or victimized

when we're really, we've made this choice,

our decision for ourselves.

- Yeah, well, I think it can be comforting to be a victim.

- Absolutely. - Attention.

- Absolutely.

That's a case as well too.

When we do choose to be responsible for our life, however,

that's a scary thing as well too

because there isn't an outside force we can blame on.

I had someone say to me just yesterday,

I really feel like God is testing me.

And I said to them,

how about if you were just testing yourself.

What if you knew that these experiences were coming,

and you would find the strength in yourself to overcome it.

And it really just shifted the entire way

that he looked at the situation.

It was a big ah-ha moment for him.

(soft music)

- Can we stray away from our life plan,

or are there guides that say hey, get back on track?

- Well, there could be guides, sure.

I think we have free will.

I think we have free will to,

let's say for instance, we're walking down a path.

And there's a pond or a lake in the distance.

We wanna go down there and hang out at that lake.

You have the right, the free will to hang out

at that lake as long as you want,

but eventually your higher self, or your guides,

think more as your higher aspects,

will get you back to that path

that you're meant to be on.

So that's really what it is.

And you know more about being on your path

the more in tune you are with your soul, right.

So and there, people talk about destiny and free will too,

which is, jump in here,

so it might be on your plan

that your destined, there are destiny points

a soul has to go through.

So it might be destined that you meet somebody.

You meet somebody.

You have a coffee.

You have a first date.

But you have the free will

what you're gonna do with that person.

You can date them,

and go out on several dates,

become a relationship,

or you can just have that one coffee

and then it's on to something else.

That's your free will.

You can choose that.

Choices again are made easier

the more you know yourself,

you know, the more you have that sense of intuition.

- So I would say that we choose our challenges

prior to birth. - Absolutely.

Absolutely, they're all chosen.

We do have free will when we're here.

I mean there's obviously choices and chances

that we can take,

and it might alter an outcome slightly.

But if we are supposed to transition a certain way,

or we're supposed to experience a certain disease,

or disorder, or relationship,

those are inevitable.

Even if we take a different path,

we always end up where we are meant to be.

- So how can we gain insight

as to better understand our life plan

so we can make sure we're still on track?

- Right.

I think that the people that ask that question

have nothing to worry about.

It's those of us that don't ever ask that question,

or don't ever wonder are we where we need to be.

A couple of ways that you can really check in.

I think we each have a little intuition.

We each have that little voice in knowing,

certainly if something feels wrong

and it's taking a lot of your energy,

or you just don't get any pleasure from it,

it's time to reevaluate that.

There's also meditation, yoga, spiritual, prayer.

For everybody, there's something different.

It just let's you kind of connect.

And also listening to your heart and your voice,

that really, that's your higher self.

That will never lead you astray.

- Do you think that it's possible

our soul could be working on two simultaneous lives

somewhere else, or is this even possible?

- Well my understanding is that

that is what the average could is doing.

There are a number of physical incarnations

all happening at the same point in time.

And there are also a number of non-physical lifetimes

happening at the same time.

So you might think of it this way.

You know, imagine that every lifetime,

both physical and non-physical,

that a soul is currently having,

each one is like a song on a CD.

Now you, because of the limitations of the five senses,

if you're playing a CD,

you can only listen to one song

at one moment in linear time.

But your soul has no limitation like that.

It's like your soul is listening to all the songs on the CD

at the same point in time

because it's perceiving all of those physical

and non-physical lifetimes in each moment.

- Again, the time thing gets in the way.

- The time thing, yeah.

(soft music)

- Is it true that

we choose things like cancer, alcoholism, abusive parents?

Do we choose these?

- I think it's a little more complicated than that

because I think there are many factors involved

in those issues.

So for instance, I think it has a lot to do with genetics.

I think the heredity that you come in with that,

that strain, that line of genetics

might be predisposed to cancer,

might be predisposed to alcoholism.

So that might be a possibility

that that soul takes on that condition

and they choose that family line

because maybe they have to learn something

through cancerous condition, or alcoholism.

So again, it's about learning

so they'll choose a family line

where that might be a possibility.

- Oh, okay.

- So it's an interesting way to look at it.

Now again, once you have that situation,

you can decide what to do about it, right.

This is an interesting thing too.

It came through with AIDS when AIDS first came around.

I worked a lot with AIDS patients.

I was a volunteer many places.

I came in, it was the first time it came through to me,

and some kinds of cancers as well,

and that that soul might have chosen that condition,

that it's AIDS or cancer or another condition,

to kind of be a martyr,

and that they're trying to relieve

a lot of the negative karma

of this planet.

It might be such an evolved being

that's taken on that condition

in order to take away the negative energy of the planet.

So that's an interesting insight too,

which is a possibility.

Another thing which is interesting,

I once brought through a lady's brother

who was a quadriplegic in life.

And he came through very clearly

and walking and dancing,

and he said I took on that condition

because I had to teach other people around me

about unconditional love.

And it was a very evolved being

that took on that condition

to teach others about unconditional love.

- Taking one for the team.

- Taking one for the team.

And when you're evolved,

and you look down, you realize life is very short.

So what's the point?

The condition is yeah, it's nothing

in the scope of time.

And it helps a lot of souls.

- Why would we choose experiences with great challenge?

- We don't really see them as great challenges

before we come in.

When we're doing our pre-birth planning,

we understand that these

are learning and growing experiences.

And again, it's something that we can read about,

hear about from others in spirit,

but until you've experienced them,

there's theory and then there's practice.

We put them into practice here

when we come into the physical.

So they only seem to be challenges and difficulties

when we're here.

And some people do agree to have these experiences.

Let's say not everyone that has cancer

chooses to have cancer.

But some people would come in to have that experience.

Perhaps they want to help others study the disease,

or perhaps you're my caregiver,

and you need the challenge

of learning how to care for others.

I would make that agreement

so that you could have an experience as well too.

(soft music)

- My understanding is that the personality

has what you could call an eternal core.

We talked earlier about soul archetypes.

So your eternal core would be determined

in large part by your soul archetype.

Your core would have certain intrinsic qualities to it.

- Right.

- And then wrapped around that,

each incarnation are different qualities

that are are part of the personality

just for that incarnation.

So your eternal core, your eternal characteristics

carry on across lifetimes.

But then within each lifetime,

each personality has certain unique aspects to it.

- Do you think that when we're,

let's take into consideration

a pre-birth plan,

and we decide to be an abusive person.

- Okay.

- That to me sounds like

something that's here on this planet.

- Right. - Do you think

that we put on that personality like a jacket?

Like I'm gonna be a jerk.

- It would be something that I would've agreed to come in.

And usually those are souls

that have not come here to the physical very, very often.

They are souls that tend to reside on the other side.

They just don't seem to have much life experience.

They come in with those lower positions,

that lower energy,

and they would wear and assume the coat,

or the cloak of an abuser,

someone that's cruel,

or someone that's very self-destructive

or destructive to others.

And that is not their true self.

That is not their higher self.

Their higher self is that piece of divinity.

The duality is that their soul

is this perfect, loving state of being,

and here in the physical,

they've agreed to come in to experience

what it is like to be an abuser.

- So I think that plays

directly with judgment then.

If we see a person that's mean,

or sarcastic, or rude,

or something like that,

we automatically pass a judgment

that this person's rotten.

- Some people do, but--

- But I mean if we know

that it's just a, just a learning tool.

- Absolutely, it takes away our need

to judge that situation, or that person.

They came in to have this experience

of being a jerk, or being sarcastic, or being cruel.

They needed to learn that.

And they might not even be doing it for themselves.

They might be doing it for the people

that are in their life

for their learning experience.

- So they can overcome.

- Right. - And stand up.

- Absolutely.

And their soul can grow from that.

And they can learn what they need to learn.

(soft music)

- And that's just it, you know,

coming back to the idea of judgment,

we have all sorts of judgments as a society

about people who fall into certain categories of experience.

Homelessness,

drug addicts,

alcoholics,

again, people with certain illnesses like AIDS,

we think of those people as losers.

We say they need to get their act together.

They need to pull themselves you by their bootstraps.

And yet, what is actually happening there

is that these are very, very courageous souls

who are taking on a huge challenge

that most of us wouldn't dare to take on.

They're doing it in part

in service to the rest of us

so we can learn non-judgment,

unconditional love, compassion,

and yet we have all these terrible judgments of them

because we don't understand what is actually happening.

- The service to others through suffering.

- Yeah. - Yeah.

(soft music)

I'll have to admit the idea

that we choose suffering

to learn and to teach others

was difficult for me to grasp at first.

But once I understood the idea,

I noticed that I started to lose my grip on judging others.

(soft music)

So what is it about particularly challenges

that is so important?

- I think challenges expand a person,

depending on how you respond to them,

can lead to great expansion, great wisdom.

As I said earlier,

it breaks people's hearts open,

which sounds painful and certainly is painful.

- Yeah, very, yeah.

- But that's where the unconditional love is.

And once your heart is fully open,

you're a conduit for divine love.

You're channeling diving love

into the physical realm.

That's, I think, ultimately

what the soul is aiming for.

But to get there,

you have to open up to divine love,

and many souls will not do that

until some kind of great challenge breaks them open.

And then they're put on a spiritual path.

Then they want to know

why am I suffering.

What does it mean?

Is it meaningless, arbitrary and random?

Or is there some deeper purpose served by this?

Once you're on that path,

your intention to find answers to those questions

draws the answers to you.

It creates an energetic vortex

that pulls the answers to you.

But people don't embark upon that kind of path usually

unless there's something pushing them to do it,

and often the thing giving them the push

is something painful.

- Suffering is really, unfortunately,

one of the biggest ways that we learn.

It's one of the really big ways that we grow.

If you've ever experienced a tremendous loss,

you go through the grieving process.

And usually at the end of it,

there's a transformative process that happens to you.

Some relationships end, people change jobs.

They realize their mortality is glowing in their face.

And we tend to make big decisions at that time.

Hey, I'm not happy with the direction of my life is going,

or I'm very happy with this,

and I want to do something to help others,

or I want to do something else for myself.

It seems to take those really moments

when we're on our knees and very much suffering

for transformation to occur.

It shouldn't.

It shouldn't take those moments,

but it does seem to occur that way.

And when we're in spirit,

we can't experience the suffering.

It is a place of love and bliss.

We can hear about it,

but only here in this form of the physical

can we know what that feels like.

And we go back, when we go back

into spirit, we share our experience with those around us.

- So it's hard to learn,

suffering is a place that we only can experience here.

- Absolutely.

- Of course, in the afterworld,

there is not suffering.

- There is no suffering there.

- So how would you,

how would you really be able to put the boots on

and be that person?

- There's learning something in theory,

and there's putting the clinical hours

into actually doing the event.

I can know.

I can know everything about how to do a heart transplant.

I've learned that.

I've watched it be done.

But until I actually am down there with my tools

and having this chest open,

I can have no idea what that experience is like.

That's what it is like in spirit.

We can hear about it.

We can learn it.

We can see it.

But we can't experience it, only coming here--

- Immersion. - That experience.

That's immersion.

- Isn't there any way around the suffering?

- I think there is.

I think you can learn just as much,

and Buddha said this, I believe.

He said you can learn just as much

from joyful experiences as painful ones.

But having said that,

painful experiences provide a lot of opportunity

and a lot of motivation for learning.

And for many people,

it accelerates the learning process.

- [Craig] Of course it does.

- Yeah.

(soft music)

- [Craig] I would like to introduce you to Rebecca.

Rebecca was an energetic and physically fit woman.

She was surprisingly successful at an early age.

She had beautiful homes and several cars,

and was moving into more financial success.

But then at age 24, an event happened

that changed her life forever.

In a very short time, Rebecca was blind

and a quadriplegic.

This did not happen due to an accident,

but rather something went wrong in her body

where her cells began to kill themselves.

Time was running out and they could not figure out

what was happening to her.

She was getting worse.

The rate of the disease was killing here

and she was given a week to live.

They successfully managed to stabilize the disease,

and she was eventually able to go home.

Although Rebecca was home,

she now couldn't see or move.

She just laid in darkness,

bedridden.

Was this just a random event that happened to her,

or take into consideration the idea

of a pre-birth plan?

Did Rebecca choose to have this happen to her?

And if so, why would she choose something like this?

(soft music)

- It was two days after my 25th birthday,

I went to go to the bathroom,

and I couldn't get myself back up.

And I had to call for help.

And it was the last time

that my legs actually worked normal.

When I went to see that doctor about a couple days later,

I was in a wheelchair to see him.

And he'd see me for about five minutes

he looked at me and said

I think I know what's happening with you.

I don't want you to go home.

I want you to go straight to the Cleveland Clinic.

They're gonna have a bed waiting for you.

I think what's happening is your body

is trying to kill itself.

I think your immune system

is trying to eat away,

and I think because of the vision loss,

it's made it's way to your brain.

And he was exactly correct.

And so I went right from there,

me and my mom to the Cleveland Clinic

and I was there for 2 1/2 months.

I got in there on a Tuesday.

They did a grand round with me,

which means they flew doctors in from around the world,

about 12 to 14 doctors came in the following day

to just try to save my life

because they said my immune system was

fighting against my body

to try and kill me.

And so they gave me til Friday to live

if they could not stop it from happening

because it had entered my brainstem

and had gone into my brain,

which is why I was losing my vision.

- Now did you and your mother have

discussions about being told that this is the end?

Like what-- - Well.

- [Craig] What was that conversations with your mom?

- You know, I look back and I think

you know, sometimes it's harder to watch people

be sick and you know, go through those situations

than actually be in those spaces.

- Be, yeah. - 'Cause my mom said

I wish I could trade places with you.

I'd trade places with you in a heartbeat.

And I said well I wouldn't want that

because then I'd be looking at you,

you know, sick and trying to figure out

if you were gonna live or die.

So when they brought us the last will and testament

to go over,

it was just so funny, you know, being 25.

- 25.

- Like what am I gonna leave in my will, you know.

- [Craig] A car.

- I worked really hard, you know,

and I had some things.

And she's like what do you want me to do with your body?

- Oh wow.

- And my best answer was like well,

if we could find a way where you could just

put me outside and like

the old ways, you know,

just put me, leave my body there.

Even put me to the fire,

and maybe play some Pink Floyd "Comfortably Numb".

That was all my mom.

My mom's like you know what,

we're not gonna do this right now.

And Thursday, I just ended up having this dream.

You know, I had a dream about this big bear.

And I was walking with this bear,

and I was just petting this bear.

And we were walking down this path that had already been,

it had already been created for me to walk down.

And I told this bear,

I said you know,

they say I'm gonna die.

And this bear says you're not gonna die.

And I said are you sure?

- Now did it feel like a dream?

Or this feel sort of real?

- It felt like a dream, but it felt so real,

especially when I could see myself in the dream.

It just felt so real.

Even me walking with this bear

and me touching this bear,

I could almost like feel the sensation of the, yeah--

- Thick.

- [Rebecca] It was amazing.

- The air, the breeze, the sun--

- Everything, all of it, the sun.

It was just, it was so real.

And he said I said you're not gonna die.

- Do you think you were having an out of body experience?

- I think I was.

And I couldn't believe it.

It was my confirmation of saying

I'm not gonna die.

And they came in about an hour later

and checked my vitals,

and all my vitals had shifted around.

And so whatever it was in that moment,

it just kinda gave me--

- A little boost. - That fire, yeah,

of belief again and saying okay.

You're telling me I'm not going anywhere.

I'm just gonna trust in that.

And it was amazing.

- You were in the corporate world.

Okay.

And then this experience, this profound experience happens.

Three years later, you're--

- Well, I wouldn't say three years later

I was back to normal.

I was still laying in a bed.

My movement would start, you know,

I would be sat up every day.

And I'd still have to be cared for.

But my, my movement was still limited.

- So it forced you to really look within.

- Yeah.

I mean I could not really get myself

into my wheelchair by myself.

I still needed assistance.

I couldn't get out of my bed.

And so one day a friend of mine came and said

hey, I gave your information to a friend of mine.

And he said he wants to work with you,

that you're gonna be his next student.

And I said really.

And he said yeah, he's amazing.

I'm not gonna tell you anything about him.

- He said you're gonna be--

- I'm gonna be his next student.

And I didn't really know what that meant.

And my friend said he's amazing.

He doesn't just go and work with anybody.

He waits until he gets a sign to work with people.

- Okay.

- He came over two days later.

And at this time, I did not have my vision.

I had friends over, and family was there.

And this man comes in my house,

and I could feel his energy walk into my home.

I could feel him.

And I knew as soon as he entered into my room

that something was taking place already,

and that something was about to take place.

And he sat down in front of me,

and he put his hands over my eyes.

And he said don't open your eyes.

You're gonna see white flashes of light.

Don't open them until I tell you to.

And within about four or five minutes,

he was done.

He finished.

I could feel the heat and that energy coming off his hands.

I could see those white flashes of light

that were so bright in my eyes.

And he took his hands away from me

and he told me to open up my eyes.

And ever since that time when he did that,

to this day, I've had better than 20/20 vision.

My eyes have been amazing,

and I got my sight back.

And this man bowed in front of me,

and he said I'm going to be your teacher

until spirit says otherwise,

if you'll have me.

I would just stare at certain parts of my body

and just connect with them,

my hands, I'd be like just almost asking them

to please move, you know,

my thumbs, please move, move.

Let me just see some movement.

- So you would sit there-- - My feet,

and just concentrate. - Will that thumb

to start to--

- Yes.

And one day my thumb moved.

- [Craig] You connected?

- Yep.

- Sometimes you just need to be able

to have enough guts to begin placing the pieces in

together and seeing the bigger picture.

Then it's powerful.

Then it's empowering.

And you move from the frustration and anger

to possibly empathy, understanding yourself,

empathy of life experiences

and what it can do to you or for you,

and the ability, the awareness

to see other people with that empathy,

to have compassion

and to be able to, as she said, listen to them.

- He'd be listening,

it's just so amazing the things that we do not hear

when our eyes are open

and our ears are open

and our hearts are open, we hear.

But to really listen to what's going on around you

when your eyes are closed and everything's in shadow,

and you're just laying there listening.

It's definitely different than when your eyes are open

and all senses are peaked.

- So it sounds like at this point in time,

this man that came to you was a healer.

- Amazing.

He did things that were amazing

that not only my eyes and heart witnessed,

there were many that witnessed what he did.

- So there were other people in the room?

- It was amazing.

It was amazing.

And I mean it was very emotional.

And my eyes were restored ever since.

And he would then come over

and he said I don't want you to give me anything.

I don't want any money.

I don't want nothing.

I just want you to do

everything that I'm going to guide you to do.

And when someone does something like that for you,

and brings your vision, I'm just like I'm in.

You tell me whatever, I'm gonna do,

and he said as long as it feels good to you.

- Sure. - And I want you to do it,

but if you just go through the steps

no matter how hard,

you know you and I are gonna handle this

and tackle it together.

And you're going to heal, Rebecca,

out of necessity because these are things

that you are going to go on to do.

And at that time, coming from a corporate world--

- Go on to do?

- Healing work.

- Okay.

So he was getting you back to--

- To center. - To healthy?

- Yeah.

- And then he was going to

also start teaching you on how to do what he does.

- Well he said that I would find my ways,

but he taught me so many things

that were just so advanced

for someone who knew nothing of his teachings.

I mean he was a master of so many different arts

and their culture of the asian world

that I couldn't even grasp some of the things

that he would be speaking and telling me about.

I was grasping it at some level.

And the protocol, but the openness also.

It was just so very powerful

that for me to thy to think that

after his teachings of so many years

to become a master of all these arts,

that I was gonna grasp this

within a few hours or a few days

because something of how he explained it to me.

I mean I respect the service and the work

a little bit more than that,

the ancient arts of their teachings--

- Did he ever tell you why

you were summoned?

How did it come?

Did you guys ever have a conversation about well why me?

Why, out of the blue,

you just picked me.

- You know, we did.

I had conversations a lot about that

because you know, I couldn't find myself in a poor me space.

I've always been a very positive person, thank goodness.

- Yeah.

- But we did talk about that.

And he said you know, there's people that

are chosen for certain things,

you know, that the weave and the web of life

is a huge network.

And we're all a part of it in our way.

And you know, I remember him saying to me

there are billions of people in the world.

And we all have our little fingerprint,

which means we all have our imprint, you know, to offer

our service and our medicine here.

And you're gonna go on and do it in your way.

We can learn the same medicine

and you would offer it differently than I would.

(soft music)

- When I talk in my books about learning through opposites,

I'm referring to the soul.

The soul learns best through the experience of opposites.

A very common life plan, for example,

a soul wants to deepen in compassion

in the upcoming incarnation.

That soul will often plan to incarnate into a family

which they're going to be treated

with a profound lack of compassion.

The reason for that is that the absence of compassion

in the external environment

is intended to provide both the opportunity

and the motivation

to go within and cultivate self compassion,

and then invariably the life plan

calls sometime down the road

for them to take the self compassion

and turn it outward in service to others.

- We don't know how to be happy

if we don't experience sad.

- [Isabella] Right.

- Or--

- We would really, I would never really know what joy is

unless I've experienced heartbreak and devastation.

- Right.

- I could never really appreciate those moments of joy.

And we never really reflect on those moments of joy

as when we're in those moments of suffering.

We look back on all of the wonderful, beautiful memories

of people, places and things that we've experienced

when we're either in deep suffering,

and then we can appreciate the joyful moments.

And then when they began to show up again,

we have an appreciation for them once again.

And they are much more meaningful at that point.

- The concept of duality,

it's not exactly contrast, but--

- It's contrast in the form of polar opposites very often.

So you have up/down, left/right,

good/bad, black and white.

It comes back to the analogy of the white room.

- Yes. - We talked about it earlier.

- Yes it does.

- You know, if you are a white being in a white room

and that's all you ever experience,

you can't really understand

what it means to be the white being in a white room.

But if you come into this room with duality

where there's something other than white,

then you really learn

what it means to be the white being in the white room.

- So I think that if I experience sorrow,

it's not necessarily bad.

It's not necessarily, or pity on myself,

or you know, 'cause I know when we get into the life review,

they're like well why did you

spend so much time pitying yourself?

Well I think it teaches us the duality of joy.

- Everything we experience here

is a developmental stage.

It's a step in learning.

And this is why the quote unquote higher beings

on the other side

have no judgment.

They never say that something is good or something is bad.

It's just viewed as another step

in the evolutionary process.

(soft music)

- When you're faced a challenge,

like an addiction,

and you just, you hit this point.

- I think that is what's happening there.

I think that's the most intense and extreme version

of having one's heart broken open.

The way you phrased the question,

it makes me think of the gentleman

in my first book, "Your Soul's Plan",

who is the subject of the chapter on alcoholism.

And he talks about an extended period of his life

in which he was abusing alcohol.

And then one day, literally,

fell to his knees

while he was alone in his own home

and called out to God

and said I just can't take it anymore.

Help me.

And from that moment, his life changed.

But he hit rock bottom in that moment.

And that's what it took for him to open up

to the divine.

- I think addiction, there's two things

that I've been shown why addiction might be a problem.

Usually, and the biggest one is

that it's something that we've agreed to

to come in and experience that.

It might be for ourselves.

It might certainly be for someone in our family.

It might be to further research.

The other thing that occasionally,

very occasionally, does happen

is that we've chosen way too much

in our pre-birth life, really.

And we don't always--

- You took a big course load.

- We did.

And we don't always have to,

again, this is where free will comes in again.

We didn't listen over there.

Perhaps we were advised, hey, maybe not have

six or seven things that you wanted to learn.

Maybe have two or three.

We didn't listen.

So we would come in and find that alcohol, drugs,

some of these things might help us cope and deal

with those.

- A lot of ambition.

- I think when we talk about life plans

and planning certain experiences before birth,

we have to define what we mean by plan.

It does not mean that there's only a plan A.

There is.

But there's also a plan B, C, D, E, F

and on and on and on.

So many quote unquote backup plans

that it's really beyond human comprehension.

Your soul knows that you have free will.

Your soul wants you to have free will

because it's your free will of choices

that really bring about

the growth and learning.

So the pre-birth plan is like a framework,

and within it there are many, many sub plans

or backup plans.

You can't go outside the framework.

You can't do something

that is not within the scope of possibility

for that lifetime,

but within that lifetime,

you can stay on plan A, the highest vibrational plan,

or go to B, C, D, E, and F, and so on.

Very few people are going to stay on plan A

for their whole lifetime.

And that's not a bad thing

because if you make mistakes,

that's how you grow.

And your growth is your service to to world.

That's how you raise your vibration.

So you have some sense before you were born,

and your guides do as well,

that this particular path is highly probable for you.

Whether or not it actualizes

depends again on your free will decisions.

But given everything we know about who you are

and what your intentions are for this lifetime,

we think this is the path that is most probable.

So you're being shown a future scenario

of high likelihood.

But it isn't guaranteed to happen.

Again, that depends on your free will decisions.

Now there are some things that are planned as certainties.

For example, let's say that you plan to have

a particular physical handicap

that can't be treated by medical science

in whatever period you're incarnating in.

And you would know that before coming in a body.

Then short of a miracle,

what we call a miracle,

you're going to have that physical handicap

for that lifetime.

Or your choice of parents, once you're born,

you can't undo that choice.

So those kinds of things are planned in certainty.

But that's a small minority of the planning.

Most of the planning is possibility, probability,

and high probability.

(soft music)

- Are the people that are involved in our lives,

are they all there?

Our mother, father, children,

grandparents, are they all there at the meeting?

- Absolutely.

- 'Cause I'm trying,

I'm trying to get an idea of when does it take place.

It must take place

prior to my parents being born.

- Absolutely, it does.

Like I said, there seems to be a very large gap

between rebirth when someone would come in

and when someone would transition.

There seems to be a time where

we're all, the soul group would all have a time

to communicate together.

We would innately remember-- - Sure.

- As soon as we're on the other side

what we were supposed to do here, perhaps.

And because we're so benevolent,

because we're so altruistic over there,

sure I'll come in and help you deal with your alcoholism.

Of course I'll deal with abuse

if it helps you, we just,

we make these agreements because we do understand there

how temporary this physical form is, this life,

and that we do get to go right back home.

So every significant relationship that we're in,

we absolutely have an agreement with them to come in.

I would have agreed to my children.

You would've agreed to your parents.

We all make these agreements to come in,

learn from each other,

have these experiences together,

and then go right back home.

- So I would think that the life plan,

you know, would take a great deal of planning

and a lot of discussion.

Do you agree with that?

- I absolutely agree.

From what I've been shown,

it takes a significant amount of time.

I think that if we do decide to reincarnate,

from what I understand,

it's usually about 50 to 75 years

before we come back.

Some people take a little bit longer.

Some people come back a little bit quicker.

But we are guided and directed during that entire time

of what we should be doing

when our soul decides to learn what we need,

maybe perhaps to balance out in our life.

Let's say we were

someone that was very cruel to others our last lifetime.

We might come in this lifetime

and just agree to have someone be cruel to us.

There always seems to be a balance,

a yin and a yang of every experience.

- Does that have something to do with karma?

- I believe that it does a little bit,

but that karma relays a little bit

of a punishment for something.

- The connotations of karma.

- The connotation of a punishment,

and that's not what spirit is like at all.

It's a loving experience.

There is no judgment.

Humans have judgment.

When we're in spirit, judgment simply doesn't exist.

So our soul has an understanding when we're in spirit

of what we could have done better,

how our actions and behaviors affected those around us.

And of course we'd want to make that right.

- I think there is a tremendous amount of discussion,

but I think it all happens in what would just be considered

a moment of linear time.

Again, that time difference between the physical

and the non-physical.

But taking that out of the picture for the moment,

what happens as I understand it,

is that the life plan is created by the soul

in conjunction with the spirit guides,

other enlightened beings who are coming in to help,

and also God.

And once the life plan is put into place,

then the guides share the life plan with the personality,

again, a portion of the soul's energy

in the physical body,

but before it's become physical.

And the personality almost always agrees to the life plan

because it's apparent that it's based on great wisdom

and complete unconditional love.

Now in a very small percentage of cases,

the personality starts to feel human emotions

before coming into body.

And specifically, maybe some fear

around some of the challenges that have been planned.

So if the personality expresses doubts

that perhaps the life plan is going to be too difficult,

then the personality is reassured by the guides

we think this is for the best.

The highest good of all beings,

we feel that you can do it.

We encourage you to do this.

And at that point, most of those

who've expressed fear or doubt

agree to go ahead with the life plan.

There's a very small percentage

who continue to say well,

I don't know, this might be too much.

I'm concerned.

I'm worried, and I feel afraid.

And if they continue to feel that way,

then the life plan is amended

so that they're comfortable with it.

So no one is forced to do anything

that they don't agree to.

If you don't agree to the life plan,

then it gets changed

such that it is agreeable to you.

- In order for me to be here on this planet,

I would have to be aware of my grandparents

sort of meeting.

I would have to have some insight on some

linear time at some point?

I guess I'm trying to understand this time thing again.

- Yeah, I think it's very hard to wrap a physical,

third dimensional brain around the concept of no time.

- Right.

- Because, you know, everything that the brain

is pulling in is coming in through the five senses,

which are set up to perceive linear time.

So I go back again to that analogy

of the soul listening to a CD,

where a song is like a lifetime.

And the soul is able to hear all the songs on the CD

at the same point in time.

But we can't do that because of the limitations of the brain

and the five senses.

So I've come to the conclusion

that I'm not fully going to understand

this discrepancy in the concept of time

until I get back to to other side.

And then I'll understand it much better when I'm there.

Then I'll reincarnate,

and once again, I'll be confused by it.

I think that's just the nature of the experience.

(soft music)

- If there's a blueprint or a plan

and then there's this free will,

so there must be like this basic idea

of what we're supposed to be doing--

- What-- - And then

there's this opportunity.

- You're gan be my friend,

or that you're gonna be my mother,

or that I'm gonna be someone's parent.

Those cannot be changed.

I mean even terminations or miscarriages,

those were planned.

I mean literally,

there is free will.

But with those significant,

who I'm going to come in with,

who I'm going to grow with,

no, there is not, there does not seem to be

a lot of free will with that whatsoever at all.

Even with adoptions,

my mother would give birth to me,

and she knew that she wouldn't be able

to have me or keep me.

She would put me up,

the person that would adopt me

would even be included in that pre-birth plan.

So those relationships, I feel,

are definitely, absolutely written into the pre-birth plan.

The events that we do in life, our purpose,

we can stray off of that.

There is free will in that.

And again, it's not dictated down to the second.

If I wanna turn left,

and I'm being told to turn right,

nothing significant is going to happen.

- I think that part of the free will,

that aspect will allow us to,

to really make the choice on our own,

to really learn.

- And where we mess up here,

where we feel that, again, because it's not,

messing up is a strong word.

If I could've done better,

or felt that treated someone unkindly,

I get the chance and the opportunity

to come back and make that right.

So absolutely there is a free will caveat to this

because when I've made the agreement

to come and do something,

I've made the agreement with the understanding

I'm going to be kind, and lovely,

and wonderful, and charming,

and patient all day every day.

And of course, I'll support you.

That doesn't happen in real life.

When we get down here,

we have other extraneous circumstances happening.

I have a bad day at work.

- Sure.

- I get fired from my job.

I burned down, you know, little--

- Fly off the handle.

- Exactly.

So if those things pile up,

perhaps I come back, oh wow,

I really could've been more patient with my children.

I'd like to come back and try that again.

They of course would support me

because they would have an understanding again,

this is temporary.

We go back.

This is, this is a never ending cycle.

- I would think the flow chart

would kind of keep guiding us back to

experiences that would facilitate that type of learning.

- It does.

But those sorts of experiences,

which ones you call to yourself,

which ones actualize, depend upon your free will choices.

So let me give you a hypothetical story

to illustrate the intersection between free will

and pre-birth planning.

Let's say that there's a soul,

and I'll arbitrarily call this soul Sally.

Sally has had a number of past lives in which

she planned to learn and do certain things

in those incarnations.

But then when she got here,

she had a tendency to defer to the wishes of others.

Not an uncommon thing to do.

In other words, she let other people tell her

how to live those lives.

When Sally has a life review at the end of those lifetimes,

she sees that she has this tendency

to defer to the wishes of others,

and so she plans in the next incarnation

to bring it back into body energetically,

not for the purpose of expressing it,

but rather for the purpose of healing it.

- So we get another assignment.

- [Robert] Another assignment.

- [Craig] Another assignment.

- Now let's say there's another soul in Sally's soul group.

I'll just call him George.

George just had a number of past lives

in which he had the opposite tendency.

He had a tendency to dominate others

and use power inappropriately.

When he has his life review, he sees this,

and he resolves to carry that tendency back into body,

again not to express it,

but rather to heal it.

Now because they're in the same soul group,

Sally knows about George's pre-birth plan.

So she goes to him before either one is incarnated,

and she says something like

hey George, I'm bringing back into body

the tendency to defer to the wishes of others

for the purpose of healing it.

I see that you're taking back into body

the tendency to dominate others,

also for the purpose of healing it.

Why don't you and I make a pre-birth plan

that we'll marry, say at the age of 30.

And although we know this is likely

to be a turbulent marriage,

our hope is that I'll learn to stand up for myself,

and you'll learn to respect the wishes of others.

And George says this is a great idea, let's do it.

So that's their plan.

Now let's say that when Sally is in body,

and 25 years old,

she gets a job with an employer

who treats her with a profound lack of kindness.

And let's say she marshals her internal resources

and she takes a stand.

She says stop.

If you want me to continue working here,

you must treat me with respect and kindness.

In the moment she takes a stand like that,

there's a tremendous increase in her vibration.

If she can sustain the heightened vibration

until she's 30, now one of two things will happen.

Either she and George never meet,

because by virtue of the Law of Attraction,

her vibration is here.

His is here.

They go right by each other.

Or if they do meet,

nothing comes of it.

Again, their vibrations are so dissimilar,

there's no attraction.

They have one date and then that's it.

So in this hypothetical,

Sally has used her free will

to learn the plan lesson,

which in turn obviates the need for the plan challenge,

the difficult marriage.

So it simply never happens.

Now you might say well what about George.

Doesn't he still have to learn his lesson.

Yes, he does.

And he will magnetize to himself other experiences

that will give him the opportunity to do that.

So you see, there's this intersection between free will

and pre-birth planning.

- So sometimes we choose these people,

but we never actually have contact with them?

- Well it depends on your free will decisions

and their free will decisions.

And that's why you have, again,

the quote unquote back up plans.

So for example, in the death of a loved one chapter

in "Your Soul's Plan",

a person who is the focus of that story there

is a woman who lost her only child

to a seemingly accidental drug overdose.

And then also lost her fiance

in a diving accident only 24 hours

after they got engaged.

And in working with the mediums,

we talked with her son

and we talked with the finance.

And I remember when we were talking to her former fiance,

we said what would have happened

if for some reason the diving accident

never took place.

And he said well, I had other backup plans

that would've led to my death

at more or less the same point in linear time.

One of the other options was a motorcycle accident.

And I don't recall specifically

what the others were,

but there were these backups in place

so that what was planned would happen

at more or less this point in linear time.

- Does any of your clients ever recall

their pre-birth plan discussions?

- Actually, quite a few have recalled that.

And here's where it gets really interesting.

I deal with a lot of parents that've lost children.

I would say about half of those have had

a closeness or a connection with their child

that is in spirit

that was very different from their other children.

I know that for myself as well too.

- Really?

- I felt slightly different

with my daughter that's in spirit.

I felt very protective of her.

I felt there was a fragility to her.

And it's really not very uncommon

for a parent to just have a feeling

that they can't explain,

and oftentimes they're very uncomfortable

talking about that.

They don't want to acknowledge that.

They don't want to talk about that

until the child is in spirit.

They just knew, or this child had an older soul,

or seemed a little bit wiser and different.

They just felt something

they wouldn't have that soul with them forever.

They simply had a (mumbles).

So yeah, I think it absolutely does slip through.

When we, we sometimes have a feeling

that the relationship won't last that long,

or we'll know that we might not get to see a parent

or a grandparent again.

There is a memory that does slip in.

(soft music)

- The ability to feel

what another is going through

can be difficult to understand

if I myself have not gone through what they've gone through.

(soft music)

We have all these things

like unconditional love, but empathy?

Why is empathy such a big focus for us?

- I think there are a couple of reasons.

One is that the soul by nature is expansive,

meaning it wants to experience everything

and it wants to understand everything.

Well when you have true empathy for another being,

you understand why they feel the way they feel.

It's a form of enhanced understanding,

and that really is something that the soul is seeking

through the evolutionary process.

I think the other thing happening with empathy

is that when you truly empathize

with somebody else,

you can be of tremendous service to them.

Again, because you understand

what's happening with them and why.

Service to others, as I mentioned,

is something that I have seen in literally

every pre-birth plan I've ever looked at.

If you really wanna be a powerful

and effective service to others,

if you can truly empathize with them,

that greatly enhances your ability to be of service.

- And I think that that's the big purpose

for the life review.

- Exactly, yeah.

- Because you get the drivers seat

to see what that person felt,

and all the ripple effects

of the things that you caused,

you get to experience what they felt.

So the life review is very empathetic.

- That's exactly right.

Yeah, in the life review, as I understand it,

you are shown the important scenes

from your previous incarnation.

But when you view these scenes,

you see not just what happened,

but you immerse yourself in the others who are there,

and you feel what they felt

when you did whatever it was you did.

And that's all about empathy.

- So maybe a soul that wants to learn about compassion,

maybe incarnate into let's say a dysfunctional--

- Could be a dysfunctional family,

or someone that has a disability,

a physical or mental disability.

And they would really depend and rely

on having others that are compassionate around them.

Or perhaps they might be a caretaker of someone

that has a physical, mental, or emotional issue

and see how others treat you know,

the person that they're in

the relationship with without compassion.

So it really forces us in these difficult

or dysfunctional relationships

to have compassion be our forefront.

- So it sounds like,

forgive me if I'm saying it wrong,

you appreciate what happened to you.

- I so appreciate it.

I so appreciate what happened to me.

And I so appreciate that my body is still

walking,

walking with it,

walking this story,

'cause it doesn't stop me.

You know, people's stories,

when it stops them from doing something in life,

then we have a little bit of we have to get back to center.

We have to find that balance again,

that inner strength,

that inner knowing.

But I carry my story

very powerfully, I feel, with confidence.

- You even changed your name.

- That name was given to me actually.

I probably would not,

I might, my ego part

probably would not have given me the name of CuteHands,

I can tell you that probably in truth

because my hands at that time

were not so cute.

You know, they were really,

they were really deformed looking.

And so a little six year old,

a little six year old at a pow-wow, Edge Water Park

in Cleveland, Ohio

wanted me to put this necklace on her.

She came up to my tent

because I was selling things there

for my foundation I had started.

And she wanted me to put this necklace on her,

and I knew a name was coming to me.

I could actually feel it in my spirit.

Now mind you, I'm still in a wheelchair

and I kept feeling oh maybe it'll be something like

you know, Rebecca Running Bear.

I'm like no, you're in a wheelchair.

How's it gonna be a Running Bear?

- Soaring Eagle.

- Yeah, Soaring Eagle. - You can't fly.

- Right.

(laughs)

And it was so before and so authentic

and that's how I knew,

again, that whole feeling came over my body again, that rush

because it was truth.

And she came up to my tent,

asked me to put this necklace on her,

and I couldn't work those little clasps.

I don't think anybody could work those clasps

for those necklaces.

- Yeah.

- And I said you know, I can't put this on you sweetie.

I said my hands aren't well right now.

And she was a little Russian girl.

And she said let me see your hands.

And she takes my hands and she says,

but you do all these beautiful work.

And I said yes I do.

And she goes, well I don't think your hands are sick.

And I would call you Rebecca CuteHands.

(soft music)

- So are we seeing in a deja vu,

are we seeing a glimpse of our, our plan?

- I think that can be what it is.

The traditional understanding of deja vu

is you go to a place that you've never been to before

in your current lifetime,

and somehow it feels very familiar.

And then people will say

oh, I must have been there in a past life.

And I think that can be the case,

and often is the case.

That's why it feels familiar.

But it can also be what you're referring to.

It could be in your pre-birth planning session,

you were shown a scene of something

that was likely to happen,

or some place that you were very likely to go to

and so when it feels familiar to you,

it's because you saw it in a pre-birth planning session.

- Do you think that

deja vu is a little bit of a glimpse

of the pre-birth planning?

- I absolutely do.

I think when we have those deja vu moments,

when something feels very familiar,

we're just, the veil is thinning perhaps a little bit

and we're just getting to see a glimpse

of oh, I knew about this.

This is something that feels very familiar.

I've agreed to this.

So it absolutely can be on something on a micro level

or macro level as well too.

- I guess that it's pretty safe

for me to ask you the question,

you believe there are no victims.

- I do believe that.

There are two reasons I say that.

One is that a lot of the experiences

that we as a society look at

as victimizing are planned before they're born.

That doesn't mean that every bad thing

that happens is planned.

I don't believe that.

But even when something quote unquote bad happens

that was not planned,

the only way it can occur is if your vibration,

your frequency allows it to come into your experience.

So certainly people are not consciously

seeking out painful experiences,

at least not most of the time.

But their frequency, their vibration allows it

to come into their experience,

allows it to manifest.

Now saying that is not the same thing

as blaming people and saying you're at fault

for your own suffering.

You're at fault for the quote unquote bad things

that happen in your life.

There's no fault in the picture

as far as I'm concerned.

It's just a description

of how the physical universe operates.

Everything is based on energy, frequency,

vibration, Law of Attraction,

and again it can't come to your experience

unless your frequency allows it to.

- So I would think it's pretty safe to say

that you believe there's no victims.

- I do not believe in victimhood,

even might what appear to be a victim,

let's say a victim of a crime,

a victim of abuse.

I believe that we choose that experience.

I believe that we come in,

and I absolutely do not believe

that there is anything that's victim.

- So let's just say somebody gets killed

by a gun, or somebody like that.

Do you think that

it wasn't exactly in the plan?

- I think it absolutely was the plan for that to happen.

I think there was an agreement.

Listen, I do not condone murder.

- No.

- I don't condone any of these things,

but I will say this,

I've made the agreement

to come in and give you the opportunity to do better,

to not make that decision.

Let's say you go ahead and complete it.

That was in the pre-birth plan as well.

That was an agreement.

And I have an understanding of what your life would be like

after that event, which you might suffer.

And that's it.

I mean if we stop seeing ourselves as victims,

we can allow forgiveness and compassion to come in.

And forgiveness does not mean it's okay what you've done.

I'm not saying the jails should be emptied.

I'm not a bleeding heart in that manner.

I think there needs to be punishment if there is a crime.

But as far as me being a victim,

I'm just giving you,

I'm here in this place to give you the opportunity

to choose differently.

If you don't make that decision,

that's okay as well too.

I know what you're life would be like

after making, doing that, making that choice.

(soft music)

- Why would we enter this earth

with this self-induced amnesia?

What's the purpose of the amnesia?

I mean I know it sounds like a pretty obvious question.

- I think there are a couple of reasons for the amnesia.

One is that

it's sort of like the difference between open book test

and a closed book test in school.

If you know that the test is going to be open book,

you may not study as hard

because you figure you'll look up

the answers during the test,

and so you don't learn as much.

By having this self-induced amnesia,

not remembering the pre-birth plan,

it effectively turns life into a closed book test.

So you just end up learning more.

I think also,

a lot of the growth and learning on the earth plane

comes through the experience of intense emotions,

and how you work with them, or don't work with them.

And by remembering the pre-birth plan,

if you had full memory of it

and full memory of life on the other side,

you would be acutely aware of the fact

that life on earth is nothing more

than a play on a stage.

And if you had that awareness,

that would de-intensify the emotions you felt

and so you wouldn't learn as much.

- Yeah.

It's a brave idea

to get into this life

with a big life suffering scenario.

- Well, I don't know if you know this,

but my first book, "Your Soul's Plan",

before it was picked up by a publisher

and titled "Your Soul's Plan",

it was called "Courageous Souls".

And the reason I chose that title

is what you just said,

because it takes tremendous courage

to plan a life on earth,

come into body and then execute that plan.

- When they experience a traumatic experience,

or something like that,

it's really very trivial you said, and kind of quick?

- There's an understanding

before we come in, when we're doing our pre-birth,

yes, let's say I'll go through a broken leg.

Let's say I'll go through a car accident.

Let's say I'll go through the loss of a child,

or a loss of a parent,

or the loss of a spouse.

And my understanding, because I've done this

several times before,

I'll have these experiences.

I'll learn.

I'll feel the pain.

I'll grow from this.

This is the lessons that I'll take away,

and then I come into the physical and I experience these,

I don't wanna go difficulties,

but these lessons-- - Sure, sure.

- That I'll learn from all of this.

And I remember somewhere deep inside of me

that yes, I believe that my loved one is okay.

I believe that my leg is going to heal.

I know I'm going to survive this car accident.

That's what our soul takes away from these experiences.

Now, where that can go a little bit wonky,

and here's where free will does come into play.

I can take these same experiences

and I can decide all right, I'm not gonna have that memory

that my loved one is okay.

I am going to deal with pain in my leg

for the rest of my life.

My life is going to be difficult.

And we can spiral into victim mode.

We aren't a victim,

but we don't listen to our soul.

We don't listen to our higher self

that this was a learning experience.

We choose to see life as being painful,

or us being punished.

- I think that the guides

have an expanded perspective,

the aerial view, so to speak,

compared to the viewpoint that we have while we're here.

You know, when you're immersed in suffering,

especially if it goes on for any length of time,

it can be extraordinarily painful.

And it seems as though it's never going to end.

So it's only natural people would focus on it,

and what they can do to alleviate the pain.

But the guides understand that this is very temporary.

Again, no one is permanently harmed

by anything that happens here.

And yet the growth, the wisdom, the learning

become part of this soul for all eternity.

So they have that expanded aerial viewpoint,

and that allows them

not to focus on it, or not to see it as

a cataclysmic thing.

- Right.

- The way it might to us.

- I'm trying to wrap my head around

this misconception of karma.

And it still seems like it's important

the balancing of karma.

So let's just say I was a,

I'm a rude person.

- [Isablla] Right.

- And I might have had another previous incarnation,

I might have been treated very rudely.

So I can understand--

- [Isabella] Correct.

- The dynamics.

- Both sides of the coin.

You want to experience being the person

that does the act, and a person that receives act.

We seem to need to have both of those experiences.

I believe from what I've been shown

and taught from my guides

is that we want to experience a duality of everything.

We want to have all of the knowledge

that those ascended masters have.

We want to have all this experience.

Someone like Jesus, or Buddha,

they came in with complete compassion and understanding

that we're all perfect.

There really is nothing that we can do wrong.

They had had, I believe, all of these experiences

and could see each and every one of us

through the lens of love and compassion.

The karma is the negative connotation with karma

is there's judgment.

We don't have judgment.

There is no judgment on the other side.

It doesn't exist.

We do however view how we made everyone around us feel.

And if I've offended, or hurt, or been rude to you,

I would certainly want to go back and fix that.

- If when you see your rudeness in the life review,

you feel incomplete with the experience,

then that feeling of incompletion is the karma.

- Ah, okay.

- But if you feel complete,

if you feel no need to do that,

then as I understand it,

there is no karma there.

- I would say that you firmly believe

that karma is not a form of punishment.

- Definitely, yeah.

- And it's been portrayed as karma

as well, you better be,

you're gonna get punished for that.

And I think that's part of our religious paradigms

that we've believed in.

- It does look like a punishment

from the purely human perspective.

It's natural that people would feel that way,

and I don't think there's necessarily anything

wrong with feeling that way.

But more enlightened or expanded perspective

would be that you felt incomplete

with a past experience,

and you wanted something to balance it

so that you would be complete with the experience.

- What would be the learning process

of being someone that's kind of naive,

and someone that's uber intelligent?

- Well I can certainly speak for the first one.

For myself, I think that I, being very naive,

or not having an educational background

that is extensive,

for myself, that gives me a lot of time and energy

to focus on emotions and feelings,

and really having that empathy

and connection with others.

For those that are really smart,

perhaps they are more left brained,

and they think very academically.

And they can bring in huge changes

and make great advances,

and that would be the reason

that they would choose those specific traits.

- It could be any number of purposes.

A lot of the purpose

for something like that,

and the other things that we're talking about

has to do with cultivating qualities

that I call divine virtues.

Qualities that are important to the soul.

As you grow in those qualities,

your growth is your service to the world.

Service can be overt in the sense

that you take a volunteer position somewhere,

but for most people,

your form of service is raising your vibration,

which means growing in certain qualities or divine virtue.

So which virtues could somebody grow in

as a result of having low or high intelligence?

Empathy.

Low intelligence could be an incredible opportunity

to cultivate patience.

Either one could be a great opportunity

to cultivate self-love.

There are just a few,

and there's probably many more.

- What about someone who was extremely poor,

or someone that's extremely wealthy?

I'm trying to figure out what would be the,

what would be the learning would be from those?

- Well, certainly someone who might struggle financially,

or have these difficulties,

or feel as if they have those difficulties,

they might need to learn to rely on family more,

or themselves, or their relationships

might be something that they need

to focus on more than money,

whereas someone who had a tremendous amount of wealth

in their life, they might be dealing with greed,

or they might be dealing with a sense of lacking--

- Or charity.

- Or charity.

And they might not have as many relationships.

So that might be an area they struggle a little bit with.

- Right.

Or even valid relationships.

- Valid relationships, and certainly wondering

are you with me because of me,

or with me because of what I can give to you.

There is a big dichotomy in both of these,

but they each bring very large gifts to our life.

- Well in my second book, "Your Soul's Gift",

there is an entire chapter

about someone who plans to experience poverty.

And he plans to be born into a family in Nicaragua,

which will not have any financial resources.

His motivation, primary motivation,

was actually quite simple.

The members of his soul group,

who he wanted to reincarnate with,

had already planned this lifetime in Nicaragua

for purposes of their own.

The plan was already in place.

So if he wanted to be with them, which he did,

then he had to go along with this

and accept the impoverishment

that was going to be a part of it.

It was really nothing much more complicated than that.

But having said that,

you could learn a lot,

again, you could cultivate many of the virtues

as a result of poverty or extreme wealth.

Again, empathy,

compassion for those who are less fortunate--

- Oh yeah, compassion.

- Compassion for those who are more fortunate.

(soft music)

- And physical disabilities.

- Physical disabilities

often are about the people who are helping

the person who's disabled.

So the disabled person is there

in a role of service

giving others the opportunity to be patient,

empathetic, compassion, compassionate,

unconditionally loving, so forth.

- Right, the caregiver of patient.

So addictions, like drugs, alcohol,

I think I had heard you say

it's one of the more braver ones.

- I think it is

because it often involved tremendous suffering.

The story in my first book,

"Your Soul's Plan", about drug addiction

is about a soul who plans

prior to birth to have a heroine addiction

mainly because he had a number of past lives

in which he was able to create

what you could call magical experiences for himself.

And the experience of having the heroine addiction

recreated a magical feeling,

or a magical quality for him.

He wanted to have that experience.

But he knew it was going to be tremendously difficult,

that he would need a lot of support,

and so the first person he goes to

in the pre-birth planning session

is the soul who eventually became his mother.

And he says to her, basically

would you be a soul who shepherds me

and loves me unconditionally

through this very difficult experience?

What we find out is that his future mother

was actually done with incarnating on earth.

She had done, finished everything she came here to do,

was ready to go on to something else.

- She took one for the team.

- You could put it that way.

She loved him so much,

they'd been together many times before.

She said yes, I'll come back

even though I don't have to,

and I'll be your mother,

and I'll shepherd you through this.

- Pre-birth planned exit points.

Do you think that if we pass that exit point, another--

- One would be immediate.

It would be absolutely immediate.

I've spoken to many people in spirit

that that time, when they transition fully

is absolutely the time that they were supposed to go.

The manner, the time,

I speak with a lot of people

that have died of addiction,

or transition from addiction.

And they talk about oh, I could come back into my body

last time this happened.

They've had several overdoses,

and were able to get back in.

They said this time I couldn't.

This time was my exit.

So I do think there are a few exits

that are written in,

but when it does occur,

it's absolutely because it was supposed to.

- Well do you think it's possible

that we could skip the exit point,

and then actually a couple weeks later,

some other situation?

- Yes, yes.

But that just means that the exit point

that was presented to us

was one that we did not choose.

I have been shown from my guides,

there's usually four to five exit point

soul that one might have in their life.

If things do get too overwhelming,

if I am too sick and don't feel like I can make it,

if I am grieving and it's too painful,

or perhaps my soul remembers

that this was an opportunity to happen,

perhaps I was a crime, there was a crime committed,

a car accident, something,

I made those agreements

that there are a few exit points throughout my life

that I could possibly take.

- Okay, so a criminal.

- I think a criminal is a great opportunity

for learning through opposites,

or a high contrast life plan.

You would have the opportunity

from going from service to self,

potentially to service to others

depending upon your free will choices.

So as the criminal, you start off in a mode

where it's completely service to self,

completely self interest.

And then through whatever pain and suffering

that experience engenders for the criminal,

hopefully it opens them up,

breaks their heart open so to speak,

and then they see, oh yes,

there's much more to life than just what I want,

just what I need.

How can I use this service,

this experience to be of service to others?

- They might plan to be a criminal

because someone was a criminal to them,

or they might want to experience the judicial system,

or they might find that you know,

here's my criminal act.

There are people in prison or the jail system

that I get my soul can help,

that I could not have had this experience any other way.

If I've done something wrong

in one physical incarnation,

chances are very good

that I'm gonna wanna come back

and have that balance of that experience.

- Why would we purposely plan trauma for ourselves?

- Oh that's a great question.

I think most of us plan trauma for ourselves

to have that experience and know what it feels like,

so we can have that compassion and understanding

not only for ourself,

but for the perpetrator.

That's the ultimate goal is to have an understanding.

I've had many clients that have had trauma in their life

and I work with them until we get to a point

where we can have compassion

for that offender.

It doesn't mean that we,

it doesn't mean that we excuse the act ever.

But we see the pain and the trauma in their life,

and we really get to a point

where we're going to end that.

That's the goal.

I'll experience this,

but I won't have it carry on to any future generations.

I won't continue that victimhood.

You'll remember a number of years ago,

there was a huge tsunami that hit south east Asia.

- Right.

- There were about 100,000 people who died in that.

So I've asked about that.

And what I was told in the channeling sessions

was that those 100,000 or so souls

wanted before they were born

for the earth to be at a particular vibration

by a certain point in linear time.

And they all agreed that if it looks like the earth

is not going to get there

by that point in linear time,

they we agree to give our lives

in this large scale natural disaster

because we know the result of that

will be a worldwide outpouring of love and compassion

that will elevate the frequency of the whole planet.

Well that's exactly what happened.

You had all the governments of the world

temporarily put aside their differences

to funnel aid into southeast Asia.

That outpouring of love and compassion

raised the vibration of the whole planet.

So they accomplished exactly what they wanted to do.

- Do you think that we would

purposely plan a life with cancer?

- I do think that some people

would choose to have a life with cancer.

I do think that there are many reasons

why we get cancer.

Not dealing with our emotions while we're here,

suffering with grief,

not wanting to be here, finding fear.

Fear seems to be really a large attachment to cancer.

Not being happy with our life.

But if we have it,

it's because it's been a plan for us to come in.

If I would've had cancer 50 years ago,

even 40 years ago, my life expectancy,

and what you could do for me

would be very, very different.

Now, perhaps the reason why I chose to have cancer

was to allow medicine to advance,

to allow my family to come closer,

to have an experience of bonding with me,

perhaps to have a health care worker

learn something of me.

It's really, everything is altruistic

and to help others.

- So you know, the average pre-birth plan

is one in which you bring in body

a certain level of consciousness.

And for a number of years,

you make incremental gains in consciousness.

So if we're drawing a graph of your level of consciousness,

it's going up at a small slope.

And then, very often,

the plan calls for a spike in the level of consciousness.

The point at which the level of consciousness spikes

is a pre-planned inflection point.

It's most likely a life challenge

the person planned before they were born

in the hope that their level of consciousness

would spike like that.

It could be almost anything,

but given humanity's current state of evolution,

certain experiences are chosen

much more frequently than others

as inflection points.

One of the most commonly chosen

is the death of a loved one.

If it's not the death of a loved one,

very often, it's an illness.

And if it's an illness, very often it's cancer.

And then if it's not an illness,

very often it's an accident,

which I put in quotes because it isn't really an accident.

Those three things are chosen much more often than others

as the pre-planned inflection points.

- What about this, this current,

you know, United States obsession with materialism?

- Right.

- I'm still trying to wrap my head around a purpose behind

such an obsession with materialism.

- There does seem to be a lot of greed,

that that is now coming back into fashion.

I think it's just a feeling of not being worthy of the self,

not understanding that you are good enough as you are,

and really, that stems from fear as well too.

Lack and fear are the same thing.

Exactly how many pairs of shoes do we need?

Don't ask me really that question because I,

but when we have a tremendous amount,

it does become gluttony.

And at that point, we might need to experience that,

but we also might need to experience having that

coming to the realization that we don't need this much

and then giving it away.

That seems to be a reason why someone

might deal with greed as well too.

- Sometimes I wonder if materialism,

you know, acquiring as many personal items

stems back to 50 years ago when--

- There was none.

Like the Depression.

I think that is in such our cellular DNA,

it's passed, it's stories passed down,

maybe a grandparent, a great grandparent--

- Sure.

- Coming in-- - Lack of food.

- [Isabella] Lack, lack--

- Lack of car.

You gotta walk to your job.

- It's really needing to be so prepared,

I think because we take on so much.

Souls are taking on more now than ever before--

- Really?

- In a time of creation,

ever, ever, ever before.

So really, the greed is not that surprising.

We just feel that we need to buffet ourself

with these physical items

because other things in our life

can be so very difficult.

And if I have a comfortable, beautiful home,

maybe I don't need a quarter of that,

but I have that.

If I have many cars, or many items,

it seems to protect me a little bit.

It seems to just kind of balance it.

- It's a little more comforting.

- It is comforting

when we've taken on so much,

or taken on so much in this lifetime.

And again, look back into all of creation.

When have we ever seen such amounts of people

that are dealing with so many issues?

- I think the focus on materialism comes from the amnesia.

So material things

are only going to be disproportionately important

if you're in a state of amnesia.

If you don't remember your true nature

as an eternal being,

and infinite being,

a being of unconditional love.

If all of your self identity

is determined by your body, your thoughts,

your feelings, and the things you have,

then the things you have become tremendously important.

So I think it's a natural result

of the amnesia that most people bring into body with them.

- What paths would we all choose, you know?

I think about that often,

like would you choose the easiest path?

Would you choose the path

that was already laid out before you?

Would you use the path

that you see no obstructions in your way?

- Sure.

- Or would you make it an adventure

to where you would have to learn,

and grow, and evolve

to where like this one isn't as worn.

We don't know what lies there.

And I want to say fortunately and unfortunately sometimes,

my spirit would choose the path

that not everybody walked down.

And call me silly, call me stupid,

but it just would, it felt like

I would receive more teaching

by going down the path that wasn't all ready--

- Comfortable. - Traveled on.

(soft music)

- Okay, so,

a person that's been violated.

- There are actually two chapters

in "You Soul's Gift" on this subject.

One is about incest.

The other is about rape.

- Yeah.

- There are all kinds of things that a soul could learn.

The main thing there being forgiveness, of course.

It's a phenomenal opportunity

to cultivate forgiveness.

And every time a person forgives,

no matter how big or small it might be,

that elevates the frequency of that person's soul.

So it's an experience that many, many people

plan to have, or have the opportunity for

when they come into body.

An interesting side note,

in the story about rape in "Your Soul's Gift",

the woman who experiences the rape,

her name is Beverly.

She's abducted by the rapist from a parking lot.

And he takes her back to his home.

That's where the rape takes place.

And then they're in bed together.

He falls asleep

and while he's sleeping,

she starts to tiptoe out of the bed

and make her escape.

Well as she's getting to the door,

and just about to be free,

she turns back around, walks back to him,

gives I'm a kiss on the cheek while he's sleeping

and then she leaves.

And we talked about this at length

in the research for that chapter.

And the conclusion we came to

is that the rapist is a soul

that she's had many past lives with.

They're probably in the same soul group.

And there's a lot of, actually a lot of love between them

from the past lives in which they've been together.

So this was a role that she scripted

that he was playing in service to her,

as hard as that may be to wrap one's mind around.

- So in a metaphor, she was thanking him.

- She was thanking him.

- Did you straight out ask her

why did she turn around and give the kiss?

Or was this?

- No, I did ask her.

And I don't recall exactly how she phrased the answer.

But my sense was that initially

when we started talking about it,

she was sort of fuzzy as to why she had done this.

And then as we processed it together,

it made sense to her

that this was probably a member of her soul group.

And there was already a lot of love between them

from past lives.

- I have had clients before

that have lost children to violence.

And when the child came through,

they informed me very, very clearly

that they had agreed to this act.

They had come in to have that experience,

said that that person could choose to do better,

or would've chosen.

No judgment that the person didn't do better.

And that they had agreed to that.

And it was really an understanding,

they'll get it next time.

They were actually cheering on,

I don't know if you wanna,

but like that's true.

They were really cheering on

and had nothing but compassion

for their violator.

If we come in and have that experience,

I believer so truly that we've done that

completely for the other person's benefit,

for their growth, for their soul--

- So it sounds like we know this perpetrator?

- We absolutely do know.

Even if we don't--

- Maybe not in this life, yeah.

- We've made the agreement pre-birth

to have that experience.

The opportunity for that experience exists.

- Wow.

- Our hope is that it doesn't come to fruition,

but if it does, we've agreed to that.

- That's gonna be difficult

for people to wrap their head around.

- I think so.

- [Craig] Yeah.

- But it's-- - It's true.

- It is true.

(soft music)

- What's your advice on someone that's going through

a particular amount of suffering right now?

- My advice would be to ask yourself the valid question.

Ask yourself if I planned this experience before I was born,

why might I have done that.

'Cause when you ask that question,

when you phrase it in that particular way,

it doesn't require you

to actually believe in pre-birth planning,

and yet it takes you right away

into an exploration of deeper meaning and deeper purpose.

And once you understand the deeper meaning

or deeper purpose,

even if you don't believe you've planned it

before you were born,

that in and of itself alleviates a lot of the suffering.

A lot of suffering comes from

not just an unpleasant experience,

but the fact that people don't see any deeper meaning

or purpose to the experience. - Right.

- Once you get to the deeper meaning and purpose,

a lot of the suffering is alleviated.

And then you can learn those lessons

in a much more conscious manner.

- Well, I think if someone in particular

is going through a lot of suffering,

I think we're coming back to trust again.

If you can trust your soul,

knows what it's doing.

There's gotta be a reason for it.

- And it's more than just trust of the soul.

It's trust of the universe,

which would include your guides, angels--

- All the parties involved, yeah.

- Divinity.

Trust that the universe is a loving place.

Trust that you are loved by the universe.

Trust that you are adored by the universe.

Trust that there is purpose in everything that's happening.

- Your soul has chosen to go through this.

It will absolutely end.

There are lessons that you can learn from this.

This was for your soul's growth.

This was for the help and growth

of those souls around you that you love,

perhaps those that you don't even know yet.

You will come out of it.

You will learn.

And you absolutely will be stronger because of this.

There is nothing that's too overwhelming

that we can't make it through.

- And I actually admire them

because they're so brave.

- It does take a lot of bravery

to continue to be here,

to continue to get up every morning

when we don't feel like it,

when we are grieving, hurting or are in pain.

It's very difficult to go and just keep going.

I ask that you continue to do that.

It does get better.

(soft music)

- [Craig] The value of the pre-birth plan

became important to me

when I began to consider my life review.

- My understanding of what is happening in the life review

is that you are doing it with your guides right there,

and they are providing you

with unconditional love and support,

which you will need when you see some of the decisions

that you now wish you had not made,

particularly those in which you've hurt other beings.

And the viewing of the life review,

as I understand it,

is not generally in a chronological order from childhood

up until senior adult.

It's done in terms of theme and vibration.

In other words,

let's say that you were working on compassion.

So you would be shown a number of scenes

in which you were highly compassionate

on down to totally lacking in compassion.

That would be the lowest vibrational scene.

And you're shown them in order of vibration.

So you might start with the lowest vibration

where there was no compassion and work your way up,

or do it the other way.

But you're seeing these scenes

that are along the theme of compassion

to show you how you grew or did not grow in compassion

when you were there.

And then you can make a decision,

in my next incarnation,

I would like to continue working on compassion

because I didn't cultivate it as much as I'd hoped,

or I did a great job in that lifetime.

I really came to a place of tremendous compassion.

I feel complete with that lesson.

I wanna go on to something else now.

- We will experience not only our own life review,

but we will experience the way

that we have made everyone feel.

We have to experience their emotions through our eyes.

If I've done something good to you,

I get to experience that in spirit.

If I've hurt you, I get to experience

not only how that's affected you,

but how it's affected the down trickle of that,

like how it's affected the way

that you might treat your partner, your friends.

I maybe created fear in your life.

I have to experience that,

and that can be very uncomfortable.

So I will usually come back in

and agree to have that experience done to me.

- It's really difficult for people

to wrap their head around it.

And I think there's timing.

- It took this time

for there to be enough receptive spiritual people

to be open to hearing this message.

And in 83, I was reading in 83.

I was talking to people.

And I didn't have anybody

that I could talk to a pre-birth plan about.

Nobody was, nobody could even,

is my loved one okay.

That's as far as they could get.

- That makes sense.

- As far as they could expand.

- [Craig] I'm glad you said that.

- They couldn't do anything else.

So it's no wonder that in 83 it stopped.

It wasn't the time.

(soft music)

- [Craig] I can understand how the idea

of a pre-birth plan could rattle some cages out there.

But from my own experience,

out of all the virtues that I've been working on,

the pre-birth plan

actually helps me in mastering them.

(soft music)

(dramatic music)