Does everyone get to choose their next life, or only some of us? Tami Simon puts her own working hypothesis to Christopher Bache: that choice might depend on the strength of our habit patterns, and that having a real say is a relatively evolved position to reach. He thinks she is onto something, and reaches for an educator's metaphor. In first grade nobody asks what you would like to study. Here is your curriculum, here are your books. By high school you choose some of your courses, and at university you have radical freedom to define your own trajectory. Souls, he suggests, work in much the same way. Younger souls need more guidance and do well to follow where their guardians point them. Some people are so locked into rigid patterns that even in the afterlife it is difficult for choice to enter and loosen them. But as experience accumulates, freedom expands. We become more self-directed, we understand more, and we are trusted with more, including, necessarily, the freedom to choose badly. There would be no choice at all without it. Then Tami raises a belief many people carry anxiously: that the thoughts we have as we die shape what comes next. Bache takes it seriously without overstating it. Stevenson's cases do show an imprint, he notes, since around 60% of those children had died young and most of the rest died with an acute sense of unfinished business or of being wrenched suddenly from life. But those are the exceptions to the larger pattern, not the rule. And here he offers something genuinely consoling. Consider someone dying of cancer, heavily sedated by pain medication in their final hours. Does that condemn them to a next life shaped by addiction? He does not believe it works that way at all. The Divine, the absolute consciousness behind and within all of this, is far more compassionate and understanding than we give it credit for. What happens instead, as he describes it, is that we are brought in and debriefed, we enter a period of deeper communication with our guardians, and we go on learning, because learning was never confined to Earth. Only then do we make choices about returning. The more programmed we are, the tighter the old pattern holds. The more evolved, the looser its grip. Want to go deeper with Christopher Bache? Join Sounds True One for more teachings like this. Get your first month FREE at https://bit.ly/4ctecMn Subscribe to Sounds True's YouTube Channel ► https://bit.ly/SubscribeSTYT Sounds True is a mission-driven learning and media company, and a recognized leader in wellbeing, personal growth, and spiritual transformation. Partnering with the world’s foremost wisdom teachers and best-selling authors, the company reaches millions worldwide with its unique programs, digital learning experiences, and worldwide events. The company also features a variety of original series, weekly shows, and live online experiences on Sounds True One, its global platform and community with members across more than 125 countries. Sounds True is a Public Benefit Corporation and also the home of the Sounds True Foundation. Connect with us: ▪️Facebook: http://bit.ly/2XFIIeE ▪️Instagram: http://bit.ly/2UlEoiH ▪️Website: http://bit.ly/2tOl02d