Is your life mapped out from birth/conception or can you make your reality whatever you want it to be?

Question

It is a widely held belief that fate/destiny is the consequence of your actions or karma.

E.g. If it is not your time to die it is not your time to die (think of people who survive lightning strikes and major car crashes with nothing more than a scratch)

The question I have is that while I want to believe I can make my own reality and have certain experiences and people in my life of my choosing, are certain milestones/events mapped out for you prior to your emergence in this physical world. Many people speak of a ‘knowing’ or ‘calling’ in life way before they ever knew what it even meant.

Answer 1

I think that whilst we can control much of our lives, there are some areas that are already mapped out. To go further still, I believe in reincarnation and at the risk of public ridicule, I believe we chose when we want to come and who to.
I feel that in each life, we come to learn lessons to grow and become more spiritual.
Have you read the book, The Celestine Prophecies, even though its fictional, it makes you think about things.

Answer 2

What an interesting question!

Personally, I believe that people do have callings…should they choose to accept them. It is true that majority of people live their lives functioning firmly within their own little comfort zones and wind up settling for much less than what they really want or a capable of. Basically; most people don’t realise their dreams and never reach their greatest potential, however… some do.

Think of people such as; Nelson Mandela, Albert Einstein, Martin Luther King Jr., Mother Teresa or Oprah Winfrey. All these people chose to embrace their passions and pursue their dreams, in order to perhaps, fulfill their destinies. Despite society rejecting them and regardless of the struggles and hardships that stood in their ways; all these people in their own right sparked revolutions and by doing so, managed to change the world.

Now, we know that not everybody is going to change the world or be acknowledged as a public figure, however, we all have the potential to be the best that we can be and we all have the power to change or touch the lives of those around us.

I believe that life presents each and every one of us with great opportunities. It is up to us, however, to take a hold of them and make them work. You cannot expect great things to simply fall into your lap, without first making an effort and a conscious decision to pursue whatever it is that drives you. You cannot expect someone to help you, without first helping yourself.

It is up to us how long it will take to realise our own potential. We are offered more than one opportunity in life, so that eventually, we should get to where we are meant to be (I guess that would be the fate part). Like I said before though – you reap what you sew. If you don’t plant the seeds and water the garden, how can you expect anything to grow?

I guess it really all comes down to believing. Choosing to believe in fate and destiny or choosing to believe solely in your own abilities. Either way, action is required on your part and regardless of what you choose to call it – You will most likely end up at the same place anyway.

Answer 3

Oh my, where to begin to explain this....I can't speak for everyone, just my own personal journey... It started with pain & agony. In a violent alcoholic home. Actually, it probably started a couple of generations before me....but that's not terribly relevant at the moment. It's nice to forget horrible, horrible things. To be at peace for a little while, even if it's fake. Add into that never truly fitting in anywhere....wrong race, wrong language, wrong vocabulary...wrong economic group.... Then you find these wonderful accepting people....who you have one thing in common with - drugs & the need to cope with great pain & by this point anxiety.....yeah, you say there is real help for these things, kids don't always know that....especially the kids of paranoid people who have beaten into you the family's secrets stay private. By the time you are an adult the drug culture is so ingrained into WHO you are, your identity & all your acceptance, etc comes from other people with addictions.... Any how....you wake up one day & realize you cannot function without your crutch...you've crippled yourself. I am happy for you that you don't understand. It's not been a fun trip for the most part, but mostly painful.....

Answer 4

Sylvia Brown said that our lives are mapped out before we are born, but the map is just a "blueprint", so since we have free will, we can choose to take a different route, and not follow that blueprint, so maybe, if one version said you were going to die at 15 yrs. old, maybe somewhere around 10 yrs old, you took a different path and changed your circumstances, so, now you won't die.

I don't know if I totally believe this or not, but it was in one of her books, and it sounded interesting. lol

Answer 5

I read an amazing book, it suggested that before you are " born" you choose the path your life will take. You are given a choice...it's sort of like you get to pick from a big pile of which life you want. I think it's nice to believe this because you think to yourself..ok I picked life...now I need to find out why...gotta be something good right?

Answer 6

I believe that everything happens for a reason. I think many of us have been here before and have only been sent back this time because we need to learn a few more things that we got wrong before.
If you mess up the lessons I think you have to keep coming back until you finally get it right. I guess it is a bit like a computer game.
I do not believe the bible at all. Noah's Ark?! PLEASE!!

Answer 7

I'd say that it never 'your time to die' or anything, and that your choices can lead to your death or something fabulous happening. It is all up to yourself, nobody makes you choose to do one thing over an other so that something will happen to you when it's 'supposed to' or anything. We have free will, we control our own lives.
As for being struck by lightening or being in a car crash and surviving, it would just be the way it happened that prevented you from dying, not because you weren't supposed to die. Like say you were in a car crash and you only got cut by a bit of glass, whereas your friend who was in the car got a huge bit of another car that flew threw the windscreen embedded in their skull it was just because of the way you were sitting and the way the thing flew through the air. I doubt it's because the other person was supposed to die at that moment.

Answer 8

we believe that there has already been a blueprint, so to speak mapped out for your life, and that you actually have helped create this in another lifetime.............that said....freedom of choice is a gift that was given to you by father god/mother goddess/universal oneness, and you are free to make any choices that you feel would benefit your life, on this earth, at this time, thus stepping out of, and away from your intended blueprint, ...it's not written in stone, just a "possibility." your life is ultimately up to you, the way you choose to live it, it's full of possibilities and paths for you to choose from.

Answer 9

All life is pre ordained from the time of your birth to the time of your death but the space between those to points is not for the choices you make in life can give you a better living or a worse living it will never change the out come of the pre determined date of your death you were given for that itself is written in stone

Answer 10

That's the big question, isn't it.

If God knows what will happen to me, I have so say in whatever i do.

If I can change destiny (and folklore say that is not the case), haven't I contrevened God's plan?