Why Would a Soul Choose to Return?
Stephen Paul Chong Explores Reincarnation, Purpose and the Afterlife
The Afterlife, a return from: A journey of reincarnation is out NOW from wherever books are sold.
What if death is not an ending, but an interval between lives?
What if the relationships, difficulties and unexpected turning points we encounter are connected to decisions made before we were born? And if the afterlife is a place of peace, beauty and reunion, why would anybody choose to leave it?
These are the questions at the centre of Stephen Paul Chong’s new book, The Afterlife, a Return From: A Journey of Reincarnation. Presented as a work of spiritual non-fiction, it follows a soul named Athar as he prepares to leave the heavenly realms and begin another human life.
Chong’s account is not primarily concerned with proving the existence of an afterlife through laboratory evidence or documented near-death experiences. Instead, it presents a spiritually received narrative exploring what may happen before reincarnation: the healing, reflection and planning that could precede a soul’s return to Earth. It is an ambitious subject, but the book approaches it through an intimate story of friendship, forgiveness, memory and choice.
A life-changing experience
Chong is an Australian author whose work frequently examines love, grief, personal struggle and the search for meaning. His own spiritual path changed dramatically in 2019 when he fell from a ladder and fractured his neck. The accident became the catalyst for what he describes as a profound spiritual awakening. From that period emerged The Afterlife, a Journey To: Now You Know What Will Happen, the first book to introduce Athar and Chong’s vision of the heavenly realms.
That earlier volume explored locations including the School for Children, the Healing Arena and the Abode of Reunion. It also introduced the fifteen Laws of Heaven and Earth, which Chong believes were revealed through his spiritual experience and writing.
Then the voice fell silent.
For five years, there was no continuation of Athar’s story. On Christmas Eve 2025, however, Chong says that Athar returned. The new material became The Afterlife, a Return From, which the author describes as a transcription of revelations received from a divine source.
“I am merely the flute through which the music has been played,” Chong writes.
Readers do not need to have reached firm conclusions about channelled communication or reincarnation to engage with the ideas. The book invites curiosity rather than demanding agreement. Its value lies partly in the questions it raises about how we live, what we carry from one experience to another and whether human life has a purpose extending beyond the visible world.
Meeting Athar
Athar narrates the book from the heavenly realm. In his previous incarnation, he endured childhood abuse while under the protection of the church. Overwhelmed by anger, shame and suffering, he ended his own life. His story does not conclude with punishment.
In the afterlife described by Chong, Athar enters a process of healing, understanding and spiritual development. The heavenly realms are not depicted as places of judgement, but as environments of reflection and cleansing. Souls gravitate towards the level that corresponds to their spiritual condition, with opportunities to learn, receive help and progress.
One of the most affecting elements of Athar’s journey is his relationship with Isaiah. During a former life, Isaiah was the bishop whose neglect allowed Athar’s abuse to continue. Yet in the afterlife, they become close companions—described as brothers in spirit.
Their reconciliation introduces one of the book’s central ideas: forgiveness does not deny the reality of suffering, but may release a soul from remaining bound to it.
For readers carrying anger towards someone who hurt them, this will be challenging territory. Chong does not suggest that cruelty should be excused or forgotten. His spiritual framework proposes that forgiveness can become an act of liberation, preventing past injuries from governing every future experience.
Why return to Earth?
Athar is surrounded by beauty, music, colour and unconditional love. He has friendships, guidance and a profound sense of belonging. Understandably, he cannot initially grasp why he feels an insistent pull towards another incarnation. Why abandon heaven for the uncertainty of human life?
The answer develops gradually. Reincarnation, as Chong presents it, is not a punishment or an arbitrary cycle. A soul returns because physical life offers particular opportunities for growth, service and experience. Earth may be difficult, but its limitations allow qualities such as courage, compassion, patience and forgiveness to be actively developed.
Athar is not ordered to return. The choice remains his.
This distinction matters because free will runs throughout the book. Spirit guides and highly evolved beings may offer wisdom, but they do not dictate the soul’s decisions. Even when Athar reaches the Council of Return, the process is collaborative. His future is considered with him rather than imposed upon him. The council examines the lessons, relationships and opportunities that could support his development. It considers the physical, emotional and spiritual conditions of his proposed life, along with the family environment into which he may be born.
The result is not presented as an inflexible script. It is closer to a spiritual blueprint: a set of intentions and possibilities that Athar must attempt to recognise once he is living as a human being.
The problem of forgetting
This leads to one of the most relatable questions in any discussion of reincarnation. If souls possess knowledge before birth, why do we not remember it? Would life not be easier if we could recall previous mistakes, recognise important relationships and understand our purpose from childhood?
In Chong’s account, forgetting is part of the experience. Human beings are not expected to follow a detailed set of remembered instructions. They must encounter uncertainty, temptation and choice without possessing all the answers in advance.
The soul’s knowledge is not entirely erased, however. It survives beneath conscious memory as intuition, natural ability, inexplicable recognition or a persistent attraction towards a particular path. A person might feel drawn to healing, teaching, art or service without knowing precisely why. Another may meet somebody and experience an immediate sense of familiarity that seems disproportionate to the length of the acquaintance. Whether these moments are interpreted as evidence of reincarnation, psychological instinct or coincidence will depend upon the reader. Chong asks us to consider whether some of them might be traces of decisions and relationships formed before birth.
Karma without condemnation
The book also addresses karma, although not as a simplistic system of reward and punishment.
Karmic patterns arise when lessons remain unresolved or when harmful actions continue to affect the soul’s development. People may repeat similar mistakes across different lives because physical desires, fear, pride and selfishness can obscure the wisdom they acquired in spirit.
The concept offers an unusual way of looking at recurring patterns. Why do some people repeatedly enter similar relationships? Why do certain fears appear to have no identifiable origin? Why can a lesson seem obvious in hindsight but almost impossible to recognise while we are living through it?
Chong’s spiritual explanation is that consciousness develops through repeated experience. Growth is possible, but it cannot be forced. Each person retains the freedom to ignore an opportunity, repeat an old behaviour or choose differently. This does not mean every tragedy should be attributed to a pre-birth decision. Nor should spiritual ideas be used to blame people for their suffering. The more useful emphasis in Chong’s work is on what a person chooses to do now: whether pain is repeated, transformed or used to deepen compassion.
Comfort for the bereaved
Although The Afterlife, a Return From concentrates on reincarnation, it also speaks directly to the fear of death and the pain of bereavement. Its afterlife is filled with continuing relationships. Love is not erased when the body dies, and souls are not separated forever. They meet again, sometimes in different roles, continuing connections that stretch across several incarnations.
For someone grieving, this possibility can be deeply consoling. It suggests that death changes the form of a relationship without destroying its substance. The people we love may remain connected to us even when we can no longer see or hear them in familiar ways.
The book is particularly compassionate in its treatment of a soul who has died by suicide. Athar is not condemned or abandoned. His suffering is understood, and healing remains available to him. That message may provide comfort to people living with painful questions after losing someone in such circumstances.
Bringing the afterlife into everyday life
Athar’s journey eventually brings him before the Council of Return, where he accepts a future purpose centred on teaching and healing. His gifts will accompany him, but he must still find and develop them during his earthly life.
The closing movement of the book returns the grandest metaphysical questions to an ordinary, human moment: the cry of a newborn child. This is where Chong’s account becomes most relevant to life now. Reincarnation is not presented merely as an intriguing theory about who we might once have been. Its real importance lies in how we treat people, respond to hardship and use the time available to us.
If life has been entered deliberately, then even an apparently ordinary existence may contain meaning. Relationships become opportunities for recognition and growth. Talents become responsibilities. Forgiveness becomes freedom, gratitude becomes a practice, and love becomes something more substantial than a temporary emotion.
Readers may finish the book convinced, sceptical or suspended somewhere between the two. What The Afterlife, a Return From offers is a detailed spiritual vision through which to reconsider death, reincarnation and the purpose of being alive. Perhaps the most important question is not whether we can remember the plan we made before birth. It is whether the lives we are leading feel faithful to the deepest part of ourselves.
The Afterlife, a Return From: A Journey of Reincarnation by Stephen Paul Chong is a spiritually focused exploration of life after death, soul planning, karma, forgiveness and the continuing power of love.
BOOK LINK: https://amzn.to/4ySEGRG
