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Courageous Souls: Do We Plan Our Life Challenges Before Birth? | 
 enlarge | Author: Robert Schwartz
Publisher: Whispering Winds Press
Category: Book
List Price: $16.95
Buy New: $9.95
You Save: $7.00 (41%)
New (23) Used (13) from $9.95
Avg. Customer Rating:  58 reviews
Sales Rank: 3895
Media: Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 327
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1
Dimensions (in): 8.5 x 5.5 x 1
ISBN: 0977679454
Dewey Decimal Number: 204
EAN: 9780977679454
ASIN: 0977679454
Publication Date: December 16, 2006
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Shipping: International shipping available
Condition: A free PDF sample of the book is available at wwwCourageousSoulscom We ship internationally.
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Product Description
Courageous Souls explores the premise that we are all eternal souls who plan our lives, including our greatest challenges, before we re born for purposes of spiritual growth. The book contains ten true stories of people who planned physical illness, having handicapped children, deafness, blindness, drug addiction, alcoholism, losing a loved one, and severe accidents. Because very different life challenges are often planned for similar reasons, readers who have not faced these specific challenges will nevertheless see themselves - and their motivations as a soul - in these stories. As readers come to realize that they themselves planned their lives, suffering that once seemed purposeless becomes imbued with deep meaning. Wisdom may be acquired in a more conscious manner; feelings of anger, guilt, blame, and victimization are healed and replaced by acceptance, forgiveness, gratitude, and peace.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 53 more reviews...
 "We seek our own melding with the absolute" August 26, 2008
In my life long search for the true meaning of life I have studied and investigated a lot of things. Ultimately I have become convinced that our truth purpose in life is enlightenment and now study and follow the so called non-dual religions of the east. Having found non-dual wisdom I abandoned all my previous spiritual / religious beliefs including the belief in channeled information as well as the new age idea's that we reincarnate to learn specific lessons. So initially I was resistant to revisit the concepts that are presented in this book as they seemingly are in direct conflict with the non-dual wisdom path. How could both be right? One believing that the personal self is an illusion and that there is only one true nature and the other believing that there is a spirit world and that we have individual immortal souls that reincarnate to learn lessons. However it proved well worth my while to put aside my reservations and read this book!
My review will not cover the `life plan' aspects of this book as so many other reviewers have already done that. If that is what you expect then it would be better to read one of the other reviews. If it interests you to read on then you will find a high level critical review of this book based of the highest level of spiritual truth that I know, the non-dual wisdom teachings of the east.
"If you always - and I mean always - take the higher road, the higher frequencies will lift you into more loving actions towards others." ~ Page 285, Courageous Souls. Non-dual wisdom says if you seek your true nature then the Self will begin to pull you in. What I discovered in reading this book was that it is far more inline with non-dual wisdom than I initially suspected. It now seems to me that reincarnation and life lessons are an intermediate stage (that we all go through) which will ultimately lead to the desire to seek enlightenment itself, which is where the non-dual teachings of the east begin. The channeled information in the book states quite clearly that the personality structure is an illusion created for learning; "The personality is the illusion that is required on Earth in this space-time to learn the lessons" ~ Page 222; "You must understand that the personality is a construct" ~ Page 230. Non-dual wisdom says something very similar that the personality is a construct / illusion and that enlightenment is seeing through the construct and knowing ones true Self, which is indescribable impersonal conscious non-duality (oneness).
I am university trained in logic and deductive reasoning and do not simply believe something because it sounds impressive or it is popular. I put everything I come across through rigorous logical analysis and cross checking and only embrace it when it stands up to thorough examination. Just because I have embraced spiritual teachings does not mean that I have thrown out logic and reason. Therefore the unscientific approach of this book grated on me and although I was pleased that the author validated the information by using several different sources for the same person the book is clearly written with no objectivity. I found the writing style too informal and loose for what I consider a serious subject. The author repeatedly inserts his own understanding of the material, his personal beliefs and common new age beliefs which requires some sorting through because of the different sources and levels of understanding mixed together. The reliability of the source of all information is of utmost important to all scientists.
Spiritual truth can only ever completely be trusted when spoken by someone who knows because they have been there experientially. Second hand truth may be true but there is no way to verify that it is not simply nice cozy concepts that we want to believe in because they make us feel better. Lastly I definitely do not trust channeled information, for the same reason, you have a completely unverifiable source of information. You have no idea what level of consciousness that `spirit' who is providing the information has reached, in fact you have no idea if information is even being channeled. A clever psychic or psychologist could simply be reading you and telling you what you expect to hear or giving you some spiritual information that they read in books especially after you have already provided them with a lot of information upfront. I am not saying that the information provided in this book is not true but rather that you can not verify the source of the information and therefore it is automatically less trust worthy. For these reasons the book lost one star. Despite my misgivings I still rated this book at four stars simply because of the inspiring and beneficial affect it had on me. And despite what I have said I have faith that the unverifiable `life plan' information is reasonably reliable because I crossed checked the other channeled information with my non-dual wisdom sources and these sources I have complete faith in since I have been validating them for years.
Some further extracts; "Do not consider reuniting, for that betokens a separation. There is never any separation. What the personality feels after death, when it feels as one with God, is simply the brushing away of cobwebs that obscure its view" ~ Page 223. Non-dual wisdom says that the world appears as duality but in reality is non-dual. In other words there is no separation only a oneness, this applies to physical object as well as consciousness. Further it says that we can not see reality because our view is obscured. "we create the illusion in which we appear to be separate from one another and All That Is" ~ Page 203. "The realization and recognition that one is responsible for creating one's own sense of happiness and well-being" ~ Page 143. This is also a teaching from a high consciousness level and indeed similar to non-dual wisdom which states that we project all meaning out onto the world. All emotion states stem from our mental positioning towards objects. Therefore if we give up our constant mental positioning we can experience peace. "What other activities are you engaged in? We, too, server as guides and mention for others, and we seek our own melding with the absolute"; a question that is asked of channeled spirit ~ Page 74. This is saying that there are other beings in other realms also seeking enlightenment in their own way and this agrees with the non-dual teachings that say we are seeking enlightenment.
I have given some examples from the book that I have been able to verify with my non-dual wisdom sources. Some other concepts that are mentioned in the book that also correlate with non-dual wisdom are impermanence, non-judgment, compassion and love. One of my non-dual western master teachers often says how judgment is reserved for God alone and that we think is just a beggar on the street may actually be an enlightened master. This book really helped me embrace this teaching. I have found faith in what else is offered about life lessons and despite my continued weariness and tendency to distrust channeled information I have found this book of great interest and usefulness. It certainly helped me become less judgmental, more accepting, inspired greater hope and meaning, and resolved a long conflict I had between my past new age beliefs and current faith in non-dual wisdom. In essence both teachings are true and compatible but vary in approach and target audience. I highly recommend this book to those of you who embrace new age and also to those who study non-dual wisdom (as an interesting and useful adjunct to your primary teachings). I end with one more validation with the non-dual wisdom teachings.
"The hermit who sits alone on a mountaintop radiating a vibration of peace does more to bring harmony to the world than the angry peace marcher." ~ Page 270
Gave me new insights! August 22, 2008
Since the sketical part of me never really stands down, I loved that the author used a back-up channeler for every example. One channeler for initial information, and a second, independent one to give her own insights. Although I certainly can't claim that every reader will have this experience, I did find peace through understanding about a life-long hurt. There was no answer to the question I (thought) I was looking for, but then came an enormous, clear understanding of a question I didn't know to ask! And the writer's style is thoroughly enjoyable.
Linda Senn, author of The Many Faces of Journaling: Topics &: Techniques for Personal Journal Writing
Powerful July 6, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
If there is ever one word to describe this book, its powerful. What a concept...that suffering is never meaningless, but a vehicle of purposeful intent and that we, as eternal souls, planned to use certain challenges to foster growth not only for our own souls but for the sake of our soul group and the universe at large. Putting it into a context like this, suffering has a whole different meaning.
According to the book, those around us also plan our lives intertwined with ours and all decisions are made out of love, no exception. I now think about my own challenges and those who have played a key role in my own personal growth and look upon them with gratitude and not judgment, including the "villains" in my story, because they fostered the most growth out of me. I am only now beginning to see the perfection of life. Aside from clarity, this book will bring healing and infinite comfort to those going through extreme suffering in their lives by learning there are no victims in this world.
Part of me picked up this book to find comfort for my own inner wounds. I cried when I read the words "Only the courageous plan fear" for I knew, that was what I intended to heal and have been working on it for years, having them dissipate one by one.
It has been a long time since I closed a book and felt warm, comforted and knowledgeable. The author takes you by the hand and guides you through this information with compassion, grace and great wisdom. I just cannot fully express how wonderful this book is. It is absolute perfection and if I could, I'd give it more stars. If there is ever a book I'd recommend, it would be this one!
So interesting! June 26, 2008
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
I absolutely love this book! I knew that we had pre-planned our lives before reading it, but it explains it so well with people's stories to show you examples. I really hope I can get my friend to read it as I think it will help her to understand the reasons for some of her challenges in her childhood and now. EXCELLENT BOOK!
The Big Picture June 18, 2008
5 out of 5 found this review helpful
Everything always makes sense when you can see the big picture. This book provides a glimpse into why events we perceive as "bad" happen, through a varied collection of individual cases.
Our lives in this "reality" are just learning experiences, to expand our awareness of ourselves, we agreed to before we arrived on the planet.
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