Do we really chose our lives before we are born?

[Mystik]

I know a guy who says that we chose our lives before we are born. He says in your past life you make a choice or enter a kind of contract to determine what your next life will be. However, he says that we forget what it is when we are born but he says it's already been determined. He referred to a book called "souls journey." He is using this book as a reference for his beliefs.

So anyway, I asked him to explain my cousin who could not walk or talk(because he had CP)and died at the age of 44. He said he must have done something in a previous life where he had to accept a life that was not "normal" in the next life. I am very skeptical of all this to be honest with you. He admits that we don't remember making these decisions yet he insists that we chose it. I said how can we make decisions if a baby can't make a decision and before you are born you are younger than a baby. He said that it is your soul and your soul is transfered through your genetics and dna or something like that. So this would mean that your previous self knew who your parents were going to be. If your previous self was alive it would have been the result of different parents so then how could you transfer from one set of parents to the genetics of two completely separate parents. Please help me to understand this. Just wondering also, if anyone really believes in this. I don't believe in free will 100 percent but I don't believe in determinism 100 percent either. However, this whole idea sounds like the ultimate form of predeterminism. I can't just say out of the blue that I want to do something that I have never done before like paint or ride a motorcycle or whatever? And if I did do these things it would mean that I already made that decision before I was born. Right?