What if I choose to be poor?

Q1 - Jambo Mike, before our present incarnation, we made decisions/choices about what we wanted to experience in the life we were about to undertake, such as parents, geographical location of birth, upbringing, wealth status, type of body, health conditions, permissions to other souls who wanted to help us with our experiences etc etc to make up a frame work/blueprint for this life. The question is, what if for instance, one of those choices was to be and remain poor in monetary terms, for us to experience lack, being poor, because that is what we chose to experience.  Now those choices we made, and there may be many more, we cannot remember!!,   If then we now choose to be wealthy in monetary terms and follow the “Thoughts become things” to the letter, will the universe be guided by the choices in the framework/blueprint, or our new thoughts we have in the “now”.

 Q2 – The recent events of the Asia Tsunami have led me to ask the question – If thoughts become things, “Good and Bad” as we view them, how can the universe explain the event?  Did all those souls choose this to happen before their incarnation, or on mass in the “ now," did they have their dream books out, visualising, thanking the universe in advance, acting out the event as if it were a given?  Forgive my sarcasm, but I cant work this one out.

Thanks Mike, take care.

A1 - Apart from genetic choices, no such "life time" choices are ever made. These would negate "thoughts becoming things" if they had to be honored in spite of new thoughts to the contrary. Of course we do choose to be born into certain times, or families, where certain likelihoods exists, in terms of lessons and experiences, but once we're "here" new decisions and choices are made, and remade, every instant of every day. We are not at the mercy of prior decisions - remembered or not. And be careful not to draw conclusions about your future based upon what your physical senses have shown you of the past. Being born into poverty, or even experiencing it for decades of your life, would NEVER mean you are supposed to be poor even one more day. If anything, such a past would simply mean you've chosen to be poor so far, either intentionally or accidentally. If were born into poverty, and you wanted to become wealthy, wouldn't it be safer (and more fun) to "assume"  that you chose such poverty for starters, for the sheer challenge of rising above it and amassing your own fortune.

Of course, (someone will be thinking this next) if one chose to be born into an impoverished nation in our present world, like any such decision, it would be done for many good reasons to the decision maker (see the tsunami answer that is above this question on the Ask Mike index for some ideas), but it's extremely unlikely that learning to amass personal abundance would be one of them (although, yes, it could possibly become one). An analogy to this twist might be like wondering what would happen to an enthusiastic math major, who has planned their major out thoroughly, possessing a love for mathematics, who suddenly wanted to drop everything to study World History. It's an extremely unlikely scenario, not that it couldn't happen, but why would they do that when, after all, they can always study World History after they finish their math curriculum?

A2 - For the Tsunami, every single soul affected by what happened, whether they were washed away, narrowly escaped, or just watched it on CNN in the comfort of their home, was involved and chose their vantage point. They did not choose their role before they were born, however they obviously chose to be born into a world were such things could happen, as we all have. It isn’t necessary to “visualize” an event with a scrap book for it to happen. Also, just because something seemingly undesirable happens, doesn’t mean it was in fact undesirable. As you suggested, this was a mass event, caused by mass thoughts, cumulative thoughts that expressed in an agreed upon NOW. Of course, the rationale mind will ask “Why would anyone take part in such a horrific creation?” But that question is laced with presumptions and assumptions about life, death and suffering that can only be dispelled with a deeper understanding of reality than the physical senses can offer. (See the much more comprehensive tsunami answer in the Ask Mike section for that.)

I realize these kind of answers may raise even more questions; however I will say that ALL such questions are easily answerable, and are, in fact, extremely logical in general terms, however one could never answer to the private individual reasons and rationale of other people’s lives. For instance, while I can understand/speculate as to why a soul might choose to incarnate into poverty in the Western world (to be with certain loved ones, for the challenge of rising out of it, to heighten their focus on other issues, etc.), I could only hypothetically tell you what their actual private motivations were. Same for the Tsunami.