How do we as eternal beings come into existence? I believe we are given the gift of eternal life, with individuality (although we are all basically one as we are infinite expressions of God) and free will, but I wonder if we had a celebration of birth from God in the spiritual world and then later at some point when we were ready, we volunteered to incarnate on this planet, which is basically a school? Do we have soul contracts to fullfill certain missions or goals while we are here? Do some souls return again and again until they have accomplished their intended tasks while others come only once or twice? Do we incarnate on other planets at other times? Is there a Karmic law that requires reincarnation to balance out bad Karma accumulated in past life times? For example, could a child viciously murdered in this lifetime be a soul who himself, viciously murdered a child in a past life and in order to balance the negative Karma, agreed via soul-contract, to face a similar fate?