Great questions although I'm past questions because there are some things especially in the Infinite Self that really cannot be described adequately with words. I hope my response will help.

This is an OPTIONAL first-hand creative experience that is meant to be joyful. The first hand experience is the difference. Further, while all possible states exist in the Infinite You which is formless potential, not all need to be expressed or experienced first-hand unless you actually prefer for whatever reasons you may have. Despite certain orthodox views the only compulsion that exists in the Infinite is that of our own, chosen desires.

Again, there's no "important", "grand", or "serious" difference in the experience. It is the experience itself that's the difference. This tendency towards creating contexts (: and they are created :) of "divine plans of grandeur", "glory" etc. is a really a little bit of social baggage and our desperate insistence on some pattern which is not mandatory in the Infinite scheme of things. However, our Infinite State really is benevolent, self-sufficient, full of power and grace; and when we exit this game we do experience the profoundly positive nature of that shift i.e. we dream or create an illusion where the true Self is in the background and then we get back to it, that's quite an experience and we can glimpse it in deeply meditative states or in dreams.

Also, do you really think Infinite potential could play itself out in a time-space reality? I'd say it would take Infinite time and space to do that i.e. it will go on forever. In principle though, when we choose to pass on, we do get back to our true state and then we can always contemplate whether we'd like to chill out in the Infinite or play another game either on earth or elsewhere. The future experience that you choose (: it does not select itself - you as consciousness creator must enter into it and animate it :) can be influenced by your previous experience if you've been particularly focused on some aspect of it, but you could also pick any thing else. The only compulsion comes from our own preferences. Suicide is perfectly okay although I'd suggest learning about reality creation first before taking this step because I think suicides arising out of pain or frustration are unnecessary but it is also an experience, and you don't have to come back to learn any "lesson" because there are no lessons to learn (: remember you are Infinite, there is nothing you don't know but there are new experiences you could have if you like :) but we do need to be Self aware or at least connected to our true nature well enough to have a pleasant experience. Infinite You knows all there is to know and just comes for a joyful creative experience that is left to your discretion during this experience.

As for Karma, retribution, justice. It is EVER PRESENT in our dream world (: no relevance in the true state :) since our circumstances always reflect our inner state which we have complete control over through the choice of our focus. Further, there aren't particularly fixed themes although we do set some starting points to our experience and after that we can create what we like assuming we're Self aware.

One incarnates, one does not re-incarnate -- at least, this was the initial intention.

Each incarnation has a unique 'starting point' coordinate. But each incarnation, unto itself and as it unfolds, creates an infinite array of parallel realities, stemming from that coordinate. There would be nothing to learn by going back (re-incarnating) to that 'starting point' coordinate, as all the possible parallel realities of that incarnation have already 'played out' and have been experienced by the Higher Self or Oversoul.

But how does experiencing one baseline reality factor in with the Soul's life review when we consider that in my other parallel realities, I have committed suicide, and upon returning to Source my soul would most likely incarnate again asap to learn that particular lesson, whereas in my other parallels I am experiencing bliss? Are future lifetimes also chosen based on specific experiences in one parallel?

What is termed 'Soul' is a memory complex (or data base), that houses a fractalised form of our Eternal Spirit Essence in an indivuated expression, and from this records experiences, thoughts, emotions, etc. -- all data. Upon creation of a Soul in this particular Universal Construct, to experience All There Is in this particular Universal Construct, the Soul (memory complex), in a sense, fragments and scatters all aspects of itself. Through this process our fractilised Souls are descending and ascending concurrently. More accurately, our fractilised Souls are shifting from one vibrational frequency coordinate to another, yet existing on many planes concurrently (there is no 'higher' or 'lower', save for the astral realm, which is lower in the fact that it is an overlay). Through this process our Souls are experiencing All There Is in this particular Universal Construct. For those Souls who have experienced All There Is to the point of maximum compression, the process of integration, healing, and transmutation is the next stage. And what a burst this will be! All energy used and stolen will be returned, and balance will be restored. But this has absolutely nothing to do with ascension in the way the New Age religions promote such.

'Baseline reality'? There is no such thing. All realities of the Oversoul are unconditionally equal, even though we experience them individually.

'Life review'? Unless one subscribes to the idea that there should be such a thing, and that one can 'do better' in the next incarnation by having one's memory erased and chucked back into the incarnational recycling Machine, nothing will be learned. Review your life whilst in the midst of it. Face it, acknowledge it, and come to terms with it via unconditional love, compassion, and forgiveness (for oneself and others). There is nothing to pay back. Pay back is a trick of the astrals. They feed off our empathy and guilt and use it against us. Let go of all emotional attachments and contracts, for emotional attachments and contracts will only anchor you and keep you in an Ouroborus reincarnational cycle of payback.

'Returning to Source'? We have never left Source. We are an extension of Source. Through factilsation and fragmentation we grow, learn, and re-evolve; but we are always connected. In a nutshell, we learn to manipulate energy (create) by way of limitation and disconnection (Free Will). We have become trapped in the Machine -- the Computation Matrix -- via guilt and the belief in karma and payback.

You have heard the expression 'Ghost in the Machine?' That is us -- the Users. But there are entities that are using us, too -- those in the astral. They did not respond and volunteer to the call for compression and eventual decompression (rebirth, re-balance), and as such, they wish us to stay within their realm of duality -- that of the mind, rather than that of the Spirit. And they coerce us and entrap us back into the Game by using our guilt, empathy, and conscious unawareness against us. Doing so gives them great pleasure.

As Universal Creators (logos), experiencing maximum compression of everything we are, integration of all we are, have been, and will be, and transmuting all parasitic attachments that are not of the frequency of our core centre of Sovereign being, is the next stage of our journey. But we can only break through this computation matrix through conscious awareness of the computation matrix and how it works. And when we know how it works, we will see the trap. Conscious awareness, forgiveness, unconditional love, empathy, and contractual revocations are the tools with which we will dismantle this computation matrix and emerge from it. But most salient of all is to remain in one's core 'heart' centre. Choosing which matrix one prefers will only reinforce that side of the matrices, creating another entrapment that will further divide one's Spirit.