We all express here just beliefs. Some of us came up with them through our own spiritual experiences, others borrowed them form other sources, while others express wishes or rationalizations. Even if one of us knew for sure how things are, how would he/she make the others believe? There's no way.
I believe / know (
) that there is no contract, and no plan, in the way it is discussed in this thread, in the way Michael Newton and others found out through life-between-lives regressions, or in the way most authors and spiritual gurus describe. But we all have our karmic baggage.
A poster asked how this widely purported idea of contract / plan came into being ... the same way it happened with all religions: some individuals had some altered states of consciousness experiences, and they interpreted them through the filters of their beliefs, emotions, intellect. Then others, willingly and unwillingly, distorted those interpretations further, and it is impossible to track the original experience.
The contract / plan idea is in line with other beliefs based on anthropomorphic views of the afterlife, and on an Earth / human centric multiverse. Both are erroneous.
Our spirits incarnate here, on Earth, because they can't (yet) function properly in the non-physical realms. The purpose is to evolve toward being able to function there. Main things to accomplish here: get rid of fear (master emotions), develop intellect, acquire intuition. No plan, no contract, free will.