Originally Posted by Wandering_Star

There are a lot of reasons why a soul might choose a life like your cousin's (or my brother's for that matter; he was born nearly deaf and with mental handicaps).

Punishment is not one of them. Punishment is a fear-based, human concept; it has nothing to do with the soul. If your acquaintance is reading the book I think he is (Michael Newton's Journey of Souls), then either his reading comprehension stinks or he's projecting his own ideas onto what he's read, or both. And it is arrogant for him to make a definitive statement about another person's soul purpose--he doesn't know why anyone else is here. He can't possibly know. He might be able to understand his own purpose, in a limited way, but that's it.

You can give people good information, and they'll still get it wrong. That's the story of every spiritual or religious movement, ever. But I digress...

That said, a soul may willingly choose a difficult life path like your cousin's for karmic reasons--and karma is not punishment. Perhaps there was something he did in another life, or maybe there has been a pattern of certain behaviors across many lives, and that has created an imbalance that hinders the soul's further growth until it is addressed. So a life path chosen for karmic reasons is chosen in order to restore balance--and it is chosen willingly, because the soul understands the need for it. It is not a punishment inflicted upon them.

Souls will also choose a life path in order to serve other souls in their own growth. We all do that for each other in each lifetime, but sometimes a soul agrees to live a short or difficult life here primarily so other souls can learn lessons and balance their own karma. They're doing their fellow souls a favor--though it may not seem like one once everyone is here, in meatsuits, with no memory of the agreement.

And sometimes a soul just wants an extreme challenge for the sake of having that intense growth experience, and there are other souls who would benefit by being part of that, so off they go.

I don't know why the soul who chose to come here and be my brother agreed to live that life. I can, however, look at the impact he has had on so many people, and how we've all had to change and become better, more humane, more compassionate people because of him. And if that's what he came here to help us learn, he's done a damned fine job of it.