The Spirits' Book

Allan Kardec

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259. If the spirit can choose the kind of trials that it will experience, does this imply that we have anticipated and chosen our trials and tribulations on Earth?
“Not all of them, because you have not chosen and foreseen everything that will happen to you in this life and its details. You have chosen the type of trial that you will endure. The details of this trial are a consequence of the general situation that you chose, and are often the result of your own actions. For example, if a spirit chose to be born among criminals, it knew what kind of temptations it was going to have to face, but not each individual action. Those actions are the effect of its volition or free will.
A spirit knows that, in choosing such a road, it will experience a specifc struggle. It knows the nature of the problems that it will encounter, but does not know how they will present themselves. The details of events are the product of circumstances and the force of things; the spirit anticipates only the leading events of a new life and the determining effects on its destiny. If you turn down a road or path full of potholes, you know that you must proceed very carefully because you run a risk of falling. You do not know exactly where you may fall, and if you are prudent, you might not fall at all. If a tile falls on your head while you are walking down the street, you should not think that ‘it was meant to be,’ as is commonly said.”

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