What is the basis for this perspective?
It seems to come from experiences during hypnotic regression. But also possibly from some mediums?
Are there reports in any wisdom traditions?
Another perspective would be that major events are the results of karma* - the consequences of actions done previously. The karmic view has a long history and many spiritual teachers have expressed that view (although some with different details).
Robert Schwartz' contemporary work with mediums - trance and clairaudient/clairvoyant - (Your Soul's Plan, Your Soul's Gift) supports that first perspective - although not in the sense of
everything being planned. You can check out interviews with him on Bob Olsen's afterlifetv. On that site, I saw other interviews with mediums where that perspective is upheld (I can't remember coming across one that didn't - but I'm talking about those videos and more contemporary mediums here, not Allan Kardec for example.). It's my impression that the Seth Material (Jane Roberts) upholds it as well, but I may wrong as I haven't gotten to reading those books yet.
If I'm correct, I think that view also reflects psychic Edgar Cayce's views.
I also find it repeatedly, almost routinely, in NDE accounts - including what I consider some of the more in-depth and complex ones (Nanci Danison, Natalie Sudman). Even Betty Eadie's
Embraced by the Light, which I find to be in the minority in mentioning reincarnation but only as a rare phenomenon, supports the view that we choose our major life circumstances and events (our genes, our family, etc. etc.).
The section on Kevin Williams site dealing with "pre-existence" has a lot of NDE material related to this topic:
http://www.near-death.com/experiences/research01.html#a02
I don't think the first perspective, as I understand it basing myself on how it is presented in the material I've just referenced, is completely irreconcilable with the second perspective, that of karma.
But the notion of karma has to be, and is, reworked (often) as something
not automatic, and more as a choice the soul makes to perfect itself (usually towards love, including self-love) by working through lower vibrations, if you will - not "bad actions".
Of course, one can't be certain in these matters, and I could be wrong, but that view as I've expressed it, because I find it so regularly in those different sources, and because, as it is expressed, I find it to be psychologically and spiritually deeper and more plausible, is what I tend to believe is the truer perspective.
EDIT: It's also the view of After-Death Communication researcher Bill Guggenheim - and I don't think you'd have trouble finding ADC's that refer to it. (I may have come across them, but don't remember.)
A while back, Bill Guggenheim had written something he called: "Who Do You Think You Are?'"
This was the start:
1. You are an eternal soul (a Being of Light), who lives primarily in the spirit world. You chose your current lifetime in physical reality aboard Spaceship Earth – as a student enrolled in “The Human Experience” – to achieve spiritual growth in a universe of duality.
2. You carefully selected your gender, race, color, nationality, culture, religion, talent, education, occupation, economic and social status, health, and other personal characteristics. All your choices will provide lessons you will learn – and lessons you will teach others.
3. You picked out your physical body – the “Earth suit” you’re wearing – to function in this space-time dimension. One day it will stop working (it will die), and you will continue to exist.
4. You mutually chose your primary relationships: parents and grandparents; siblings, marital partners, biological and adopted children, and pets (if any); friends and enemies; and many more. Be aware that every person and every experience is your teacher.
Really, I have a hard time thinking of any "psi" source that I've come across (apart from some fairly old Spiritualistic works) that doesn't hold up this perspective.
2nd EDIT: *Sorry north. As I'm re-reading your original post, you're talking about karma in terms of events on our lives that are the results of our actions - I don't find any support at all for that view of karma. (And therefore the Spiritualistic works I referred to earlier may not support it either). I, personally, and with all due respect to anyone who holds dear certain wisdom traditions, view it as a relic that has nothing to support it.
Here's a short video with one of the mediums Robert Schwartz used in his books, Staci Wells, that talks about "karma" in the sense of pre-life challenge planning.