LIFE ON EARTH IS A SIMULATION GAME: What if the challenges we face were chosen by our soul before the game even started?

There is a way of looking at life that radically changes how we move through hardship.

A way that does not deny pain, apparent injustice, or emotional exhaustion - but that profoundly transforms the meaning of what we call “difficulties,” “bad luck,” or “blows of fate.”

What if life on Earth were not something that happens to us against our will,but an experience we chose?

What if, instead of being a punishment, it were a game - demanding, immersive, sometimes disorienting - that the soul chose to play?

The soul and the material world

In this philosophical view, human existence is neither an absolute beginning nor an ultimate end.

The soul exists in a plane that knows neither urgency, nor fear of lack, nor anxiety about the passing of time - a plane where nothing can truly be lost, where the essence of being is never threatened.

And yet, this soul makes a surprising choice:

to descend into matter.

It accepts a limited body.

A dense world.

Intense emotions.

Complex relationships.

Why leave a peaceful realm for an existence made of uncertainty, loss, effort, and pain?

To learn. To experience. To live what can only be lived within the density of reality.

Earth then becomes a school - or perhaps even more:

an experiential playground.

Life as a simulation game

If we observe our relationship to life, we realize that we often live it as if it were a constant verdict.

As if every mistake were final. As if every fall said something irreversible about our worth.

And yet, in no game, in no simulation, in no learning process does it work that way.

A game is not designed to punish the player. It is designed to help them progress.

Before the game: choosing your character

In modern board games as in many video games, you never begin a game without preparation.

Before the first turn, before the first roll of the dice, you must choose a character.

In cooperative or narrative adventure games like HeroQuest, Descent, or Gloomhaven, each character comes with:

• clear strengths

• specific talents

• but also weaknesses - sometimes very limiting

No character is complete. No character is perfect.

And yet, all are playable. All can reach the end - provided you work with what is given, rather than fight against it.

The invisible parameters of incarnation

In simulation games like The Sims, this principle becomes even clearer.

Before the character’s life even begins, you choose:

• personality traits

• tendencies

• strengths

• limitations

Some options are sliders. Others are simple checkboxes: yes / no.

What if our soul did exactly the same before incarnating?

Like in an invisible menu, it would have selected the broad outlines of the experience:

• a certain sensitivity

• recurring relational themes

• emotional challenges

• areas of fragility

• and sometimes even clearly disadvantageous settings

  
  

Not by mistake.

Not out of cruelty.

But out of a desire to experience something specific.

Strengths and weaknesses: playing with what is given

Once the game has begun, we gradually discover our strengths…

and our weaknesses.

Some are visible very early on.

Others only reveal themselves over time.

There are those who understand quickly but feel deeply.

Those who are strong but not very in tune with themselves.

Those who are brave but impulsive.

Those who are sensitive but disorganized.

And sometimes, a weakness seems almost trivial… until we realize how much it influences the entire game.

For example, ever since I was a child, I’ve had a disastrous relationship with time.

I am almost always late.

Even when it matters.

Even when I deeply care.

It has led to absurd situations - sometimes painful ones.

With hindsight, I sometimes smile imagining the character creation menu, somewhere before this life, with a small box checked almost innocently:

Punctuality:

❌ Yes

✅ No

It is not a condemnation.

It is a game parameter.

And the whole game consists in learning how to play intelligently with that parameter.

Entering the game… and forgetting the rules

Once incarnated, something very particular happens:

forgetting.

We forget that we chose.

We forget the rules.

We forget the starting menu.

We find ourselves immersed in the experience, just like in immersive games….

In Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle, this idea is portrayed in an almost caricatural way. The characters enter the game, suddenly discover their stats - strengths, weaknesses, limitations - and immediately protest.

“This can’t be right!

Why is this my weakness?”

The scene is funny because it is deeply human.

Life does exactly the same thing.

It reveals our limitations along the way, without any instruction manual.

Choosing the mode: easy or difficult

In a game, not everyone chooses the same level of difficulty.

Some prefer a smooth, stable experience, without too many surprises.

Others deliberately activate hard mode.

In life as well, paths differ profoundly.

There are simple, steady lives, without great tragedies or extreme highs.

And then there are dense, intense lives, full of twists, ruptures, losses, and rebuilding.

These are not mistakes in the game.

They are choices of experience.

Challenges as unavoidable squares

In all board games, certain squares are unavoidable.

You may delay them at times.

But sooner or later, you have to pass through them.

Life works in exactly the same way.

Challenges are not curses.

They are level passages.

Some are simple.

Others demand everything:

courage, patience, clarity, inner calm, emotional intelligence.

And when a challenge appears, another stance becomes possible:

“I am on a difficult square.

It is part of the board.

My task is not to deny it, but to move through it.”

Failing a challenge is not losing the game

In a game, failing at something never means that everything is over.

After all, life is nothing but a simulation game.

A board game.

A video game.

You lose points.

Time.Sometimes a life.

But the game goes on.

And yet, life is often lived as if every mistake were final.

As if one bad decision erased everything else.

As if you had “ruined your life” forever.

This way of seeing things may be one of the greatest sources of human suffering.

Within a game logic, there is no moral failure.

There are only attempts, adjustments, levels to replay.

Grand Theft Auto: when everything seems lost… but isn’t

In Grand Theft Auto V, there are moments of pure panic.

You make a mistake.

Then another.

Then another.

The police arrive.

Then more police.

The stars begin to stack up.

One star.

Two.

Three.

Four.

Five.

At this point, the whole game seems to say:

“You’re done. You’re finished.”

And yet…

If you hold on.

If you hide.

If you slow down.

If you wait without panicking.

The stars sometimes begin to fade.

The game goes on.

You weren’t “WASTED” - that harsh word that appears on the screen and means you’re done.

You survived the chaos.

You made it through the critical zone.

Life, in many ways, feels just like that.

When life feels like a constant escape

There are moments when everything - absolutely everything - seems to be closing in.

Financial problems.

Debt.Conflicts.

A divorce.

Fragile health.

Inside, a terrifying thought can arise:

“There’s no way out.”

It is often at this exact moment that some people give up.

Out of exhaustion.

Out of despair.

Out of a lack of perspective.

And yet, within the logic of the game, this moment is not the end.

It is the peak of difficulty.

As long as you are breathing.

As long as you hold on.

As long as you keep moving forward, even slowly…

The game is not over.

Never give up: a fundamental rule of the game

You are not asked to be perfect.

You are not asked to succeed in everything you undertake.

You are not even asked to understand right away.

But there is one essential rule, often implicit, always decisive:

Never leave the game before the end.

To go through a challenge is not to avoid it.

It is not to overcome it brilliantly.

It is :

• to remain aware

• to observe what is unfolding

• to learn something about yourself

• and to keep going despite fear, shame, or fatigue

Even when everything seems lost.

Even when the stars are at their maximum.

Reincarnation: back to the starting square… without drama

In a board game, when a level is not completed, you start again.

Not to be punished.

Not to be humiliated.

Simply because the lesson has not yet been integrated.

Seen this way, reincarnation ceases to be a troubling belief.

It becomes a logic of learning.

If a challenge has not been consciously lived through,

if a pattern keeps repeating without being understood,

then the game begins again.

Same board.Same theme.

Another attempt.

For the soul, earthly life is the blink of an eye

What feels endless here - years of pain, doubt, inner struggle - is, for the soul, a blink of an eye.

A fraction of a second within an infinite existence.

There is nothing stressful for the soul.

Nothing urgent.

Nothing irreversible.

Anxiety belongs to the human experience, not to essence.

This does not diminish suffering.

But it places it within a wider frame.

The purpose of the game is not perfection

The goal is not to have a flawless life.

Nor an exemplary path.

Nor a linear journey.

The goal is to:

• move through

• understand

• integrate

• and transform

Each challenge faced with awareness is a level completed.Each moment of clarity prevents the same mission from being replayed endlessly.

One last thing to remember

If life is a game, then:

• no mistake is final

• no fall tells the whole truth

• no moment of despair is a condemnation

As long as the game is still in progress,

as long as the character is still standing,

there is a possibility of movement.

Sometimes, simply continuing forward despite everything - without certainty, without guarantees, without immediate victory - is already succeeding in the challenge.

And perhaps, in the end,

this is the true meaning of the human experience.