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.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #2861 in Books
• Published on: 2006-12-16
• Released on: 2006-12-16
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 327 pages

Review
Courageous Souls is highly recommended to anyone trying to understand the suffering, tragedy or loss that has caused them to question life, death and/or God. And who among us is not inflicted by such challenges and questions in our lifetime? In my eight years researching life after death, spirituality and life purpose, I have discovered no better explanation of why human challenges exist than what is so eloquently written in Robert Schwartz's book. --Bob Olson, OfSpirit.com Editor

Robert Schwartz is an eloquent spokesman for his explorations in the realm few of us have even considered, much less explored fully: the concept of pre-birth planning as a convention of souls who make decisions about incarnation - place, time, circumstances, and challenges - that will heighten the overall improvement of not only their repeated growth in the process of rebirth but also the gift to the betterment of mankind. Schwartz' manner of writing is so tender and so lacking in preaching that he gradually draws the reader into his realm of thinking in a way that allows us to suspend any doubt or prejudice we may have about spirituality or after life or universal karma. He uses conversations with people who share their experiences of living with such 'handicaps' as physical illness, parenting handicapped children, deafness and blindness, drug addiction and alcoholism, accidents, death of a loved one and alters the word 'handicapped' to 'challenges'; 'Challenges are mirrors that reflect to us our feelings about ourselves. In that sense, they are gifts. Wisdom allows us to recognize them as such.' In addition to discussing the above challenges with particular people who have them, Schwartz introduces us to mediums and channelers who channel the souls of the people we meet, allowing Schwartz to relay to us the conversations between the spiritual world and the physical world. In this very quiet manner Schwartz offers an explanation as to why 'untoward events' happen: his conversations with the various people he shares (for instance the autistic child or the parent of that child) allow us to consider that these choices are made in the spirit world prior to our birth and that these challenges offer the opportunity to separate the physical self-centered being from the choice to make the situations examples of growth, and of revealing love to those around us. Schwartz takes no credit for the information he presents in this book. His drive is to open doors to us the readers to consider his findings and philosophy as a means to learning more about how life and the spiritual world are enmeshed. 'I have learned from the wise nonphysical beings with whom I have spoken...Through them I now understand the immense power of this most elemental truth: that we are not our bodies...If you also know that you planned your disability, that it indeed has a deep significance, then your life may become a quest to uncover that meaning. Suffering is lightened, emptiness replaced with purpose.' Writers such as Robert Schwartz challenge our inside the box thinking, encouraging us to suspend prejudice and the state of being uninformed to enter the arena of growing spiritually. The beauty of this enormously moving book lies in the simplicity of the style Schwartz has chosen to communicate. This is not a sensationalized series of speaking with the 'great dramatic seance'; this is instead a welcome to another way of viewing our lives - this one and the ones that have been and will be. --Grady Harp, Amazon Top 10 Reviewer

The serene cover of Courageous Souls belies the punch with which Robert Schwartz communicates the results of his research into pre-birth planning. Working with four experienced channelers, he asked 10 people, each facing different challenges . . . to delve into the reasons why they agreed, before birth, to put themselves in such difficult situations. Each entry begins with an interview in which the person's story is told from his or her point-of-view. Information via a medium is used to provide insight and sometimes actual pre-birth conversations about the goals or life lessons desired, contributing past-life factors, and the people who contracted to play major roles in the person's present incarnation. Moving us away from the idea of karma as punishment, Schwartz introduces the idea of learning through contrast, for instance, a soul wishing to fully experience her or his compassionate side might choose to be born into a family that lacks compassion. In addition to the considerable wisdom provided from the spirit side, Schwartz writes a summary at the end of each chapter in which he adds some of his own insight garnered during years of metaphysical study. Overall, it is one of the best books of this kind I have come across. --Anna Jedrziewski, New Age Retailer Magazine

Shirley Roe, Allbooks Review, January 2007
"... a must read . . . If you are a soul seeker, this book will resonate Truth deep within your hidden memories."

From the Back Cover

"The more we know about the meaning of life, the better we understand the important choices we must make. Robert Schwartz has done an excellent job of presenting the possible explanations of what we are doing here and why we are here. I highly recommend this book." -Dannion Brinkley, author of Saved by the Light, and The Secrets of the Light

Would you like to understand the deeper meaning of your greatest challenges?

So often, when something "bad" happens, it may appear to be meaningless suffering. But what if your most difficult experiences are actually rich with hidden purpose - purpose that you yourself planned before you were born? Could it be that you chose your life's circumstances, relationships, and events?

Within these pages are stories of ten individuals who - like you - planned before birth to experience great challenges. Working with four gifted mediums and channels, author Robert Schwartz discovers what they chose - and why. He presents actual pre-birth planning sessions in which souls discuss their hopes for their upcoming lifetimes. In so doing he opens a window to the other side where we, as eternal beings, design both our trials and our potential triumphs.

Through these remarkable stories of pre-birth planning you can:

*Understand how you as a soul create your life blueprint

*Consciously use your challenges to foster spiritual growth

*Understand that the people in your life, including your parents and children, are there at your request, motivated by their love for you to play roles that you scripted

*Deepen your appreciation of and gratitude for life as a soul-expanding, evolutionary process

Customer Reviews

Powerful
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!
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
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.