New at the Beaty Beat: I read Elizabeth Gilbert’s new memoir, “All the Way to the River,” and was surprised that the publisher let Gilbert include many things, including the concept of Earth School.

Gilbert teaches that humans are spiritual entities who chose to be born and take on bodies to experience whatever Earth life brings us — including pain and suffering and even abuse — so that our souls can reach their apex. Everything that happens in our lives, we chose in advance, to spur our “highest growth, evolution, and ultimate liberation.”

Gilbert envisions that before we all came to Earth, some of us volunteered to hurt and abuse others, because it would contribute to their spiritual growth. She calls this “generous” and “the miracle.”

I explain in the piece why this is damaging and goopy, even by woo-woo standards.