Hi Chris,
It does take quite a bit of background knowledge about the soul, God, and the material and spiritual worlds to be able to understand the situation fully, but I presume you know this already – since you’ve asked the question.
Usually there are 2 things that decide where one goes – karma and desire. Since in the spiritual world we didn’t have any karma, it has to be our own desire for selfish enjoyment that brought us here. It is our desire to ‘be god’ that paves the way for us to be in this world where we are all trying to control everything, be the centre of all activities and ‘be god’ in our own way.
I hope this makes sense. Thanks for asking!