Awake the Future

by Steven Lalevich

  I honestly don’t know if I’m doing this the right way or saying the right words. I guess you never know for certain the right thing to say or do in any particular moment. Sometimes the only thing that is clear is that you have to say or do something. I tend to be a perfectionist and want everything I do to be done without flaw. It often results in me not doing things and not taking risks. I have to overcome that fear, and release this podcast, knowing that it won’t be perfect but that it is the right thing to do.

  Anyway, despite being an introvert and a perfectionist, I think I’m pretty normal, at least until I received that letter. I don’t think normal is a word I can use anymore, crazy or not.

  I don’t think you would have to be a crazy person to concede that humanity might be on course toward self-destruction. We’ve had some ugly moments in recent history, and it seems like things are changing at an accelerating pace. Technologies like the internet and the smartphone allow us to communicate with each other in profound ways, all the while making us less connected. Maybe we are more connected on a superficial level, but true connection at a deeper level is harder to come by. That lack of connection may be part of the reason why in recent years we’re seeing escalating rates of depression and suicide. We seem to be losing a vital part of our humanity, which may very well lead us toward a world like Edgar’s.

  I can see how even now people are resigning their free will out of fear of standing up for what they believe in. I’m certainly not innocent in that regard. So many of us are just going through the motions in life. We work jobs we don’t really like and spend our free time mindlessly watching TV or surfing the internet. If the most important decision we have to make each day is what to watch on television, there isn’t much opportunity for improving ourselves and making the world a better place. Maybe there is a part of us that wants the future that Edgar describes. Maybe we’re not too far from that reality.

  I can see the appeal of living in Edgar’s world. On the surface, having all your decisions made for you and not having to take responsibility for anything seems kind of nice. It’s kind of like the appeal of relaxing on a tropical beach while on vacation. It sounds nice in the short term, but can you imagine doing that every single day of your life? There comes a point when you want your life to be productive—to have a purpose and meaning. Without responsibility for something, what’s the point? There might be less pain and suffering, but there’s also less reward. You aren’t striving toward anything, and there’s nothing to push you forward. It is the kind of existence that could drive a person mad, unless, of course, you never knew any better.

  Maybe if that part of your consciousness never developed, as Edgar described, maybe you’d just be a docile victim of such a society. I’m afraid there are already too many of us living a mindless existence like that. But it’s not because we don’t know any better. We know we could do more with our lives, but we choose not to. Why? I for one can’t figure it out, but maybe that’s what Edgar’s future letters will help us uncover.

  It’s hard for me to fathom what I will be sharing from future letters that could possibly set humanity back on course, but I’m eager to find out. Let’s just hope it doesn’t involve human sacrifice or anything crazy like that. Seriously, if it does involve human sacrifice, I promise I’ll end the podcast and check myself into a mental hospital. I’m pretty certain, though, that the path toward an age of enlightenment won’t require anything like that. What it does require, well, your guess is as good as mine.

  By the way, I assumed this letter writing thing would work both ways, so a couple days after I received his letter, I wrote Edgar the following letter for him to find when he returns to write in my journal:

  Dear Edgar,

  The idea of communicating with my future consciousness in a future life is difficult to grasp. Of course I will follow through with sharing the information you write to me in the letters. It just seems unfathomable that I could have such an impact on the course of humanity. I’ll have to take your word for it and trust you. I don’t think there is any other option.

  Sincerely,

  Adam

  I’m recording this episode on August 31, 2018. I don’t know when, or if, I’ll receive another letter from Edgar, but I’ll be checking my journal every morning until I do. I’ve set up security cameras in my kitchen and living room to record the writing of another letter. I need to rule out the possibility that someone is playing an elaborate hoax on me, so I’ve decided to wait to release this episode until I have confirmation that it is actually my own body writing the letters.

  If you’re hearing this, you can assume I’ve confirmed as much. I’ll leave it to you to decide if you think I’m crazy or if this is real. Perhaps it would be best if I am crazy. That would mean that humanity might not be on a fast track toward self-destruction. However, I must operate on the assumption that this is real and follow through with the responsibility of sharing these letters. There’s simply too much at stake, and I’d rather risk public humiliation than risk being the cause of the destruction of humanity. I just hope that, like Edgar said, I have the courage to follow through with the task.

  I suppose there are many different possibilities for how things will unfold. I’ve been thinking about how, although I would like to get this podcast out to as many people as possible, there could be just one person who really needs to hear it. Maybe that one person is you. Maybe by listening to this podcast, you change the world, or maybe this podcast will help you set into motion a chain of events throughout the world that you won’t even realize.

  It’s also possible that I’ll release this podcast and no one listens. Then maybe, many years from now, when things have gotten bad enough, somebody listens, and at that point, the podcast goes viral and change really does occur.

  There are too many possibilities for me to predict right now. I just know that it’s my responsibility to record this and put it out there. If you’re listening to this, I hope you’ll fulfill your part of the plan. Maybe that is to strengthen your own consciousness through practicing the rituals, which might have a great effect on not only you but also the lives of those around you. Or perhaps you are meant to share this podcast with others, so they, too, can learn how to improve their own consciousness and affect those around them.

  The more I think about it, the more I truly believe we all have infinite power to change the world. We rarely realize just how powerful we are. I think this is part of the underlying problem that we are trying to solve—people not seizing the power within themselves to change the world. We can’t become complacent and think that changing the world is someone else’s job. We can’t just rely on the government or people with more money or power, nor can we wait for the grand acts of heroes and martyrs. We all, through our daily existence, are changing the world all the time, whether we like it or not. Every action we take has a ripple effect, leading to profound consequences into the future. I can’t know what ripple effect I will cause with this podcast, but I know it is my responsibility to put it out there.

  That’s all for now. Please tune in to the next episode and please share this podcast. Even if you think I’m crazy, please share it. I want to get this message out to as many people as possible so they can decide what to make of it themselves. The fate of the world may depend on it.

  EpisodE 2:

  THE FIRE RITUAL

  SEptember 8, 2018

  As I record this on Saturday, September 8th, I have not yet released the first episode. I had been waiting until I received a second letter from Edgar to confirm, at least to some extent, that I’m not going crazy. Well, last Sunday night, it happened. With the security cameras I set up, I captured a video of myself coming downstairs to write in my journal. It looked completely normal, like I was awake. I walked into the living room, picked up my journal from the coffee table, sat down on the couch, and began writing. No one would suspect that it was in fact, Edgar, my consciousness from my next life, who was doing the w
riting. I don’t think they would suspect it was the actions of a lunatic either.

  But that hasn’t stopped others from thinking as much of me. Last weekend, before I received the second letter, I told my girlfriend, Emily, about the correspondence and the podcast. I handed her my journal so she could read Edgar’s first letter.

  After reading it, Emily looked up at me and said, “Is this some kind of story you’re writing?”

  “No, it’s real,” I said. “At least as far as I can tell. I still don’t know what to make of the whole thing.”

  Emily’s face grew more puzzled. “Huh? How can this be real? Are you saying you think you got a letter from the future? You’re joking, right?”

  “No, I’m serious,” I told her. “I’ve decided to start a podcast to share the letters with the world.”

  Emily couldn’t believe any of what I was saying, but I tried to convince her it was true. The more I made my case, the more upset she became.

  “You can’t start a podcast and say you’ve gotten letters from the future,” she said. “You’re going to embarrass yourself. You’re going to embarrass me.”

  My family’s response was similar. They implored me to release the podcast anonymously, if at all, or to use a pseudonym to protect my identity. I can see where they’re coming from, but how can I expect you, the listener, to believe what I’m saying if I’m not willing to even put my own name behind it? I don’t think I can achieve the monumental objective at hand without being willing to put myself at risk.

  Not only do I risk my personal relationships by releasing this podcast, my professional life is also in jeopardy. Recognizing that if this proves at all successful in reaching a large audience, there’s a good chance I’ll be put under the media spotlight, so I felt an obligation to warn my employer about that potential. My job at the hospital has no restrictions that prevent me from releasing a personal podcast in my free time; however, I was warned that any actions I take off the clock that cast the company in a bad light could result in disciplinary action, including termination.

  Basically, by releasing this, I’m putting everything on the line. I had my reservations about proceeding after the first letter, but the second letter and the accompanying video confirm that I must proceed. Despite all the potential costs, I don’t see any other option.

  This is not an easy thing to come to terms with, but I must say it is incredible to have such a sense of purpose in my life. I know what I must do, and I’m willing to risk everything to do it. I’ve never felt that way about anything before.

  So, having made the decision to move forward, I wanted to let the people in my life listen to the first episode before it goes live. I sent it to my girlfriend, my family, and my boss. The feedback has not been encouraging.

  While my family is behind me in whatever decision I make, I can tell they are trepidatious about the whole thing. In my conversations with them, it seems like they are still trying to feel me out to determine if, in fact, I have lost my mind. Questions like, “How are you doing?” and, “How are you feeling?” seem to have a different meaning than they used to. I think they’re trying to protect me from myself, rather than recognizing that I’m willing to move forward with a plan that helps others despite myself. I suppose such self-sacrifice is crazy in some people’s eyes.

  Things are worse on the girlfriend and job fronts. Emily basically gave me an ultimatum after she heard the first episode—if I released it, we were over. I’ve spent so much of our relationship trying to make her happy and sacrificing my own needs for hers. She’s a great person, but in this instance, I had to adjust my priorities. I couldn’t sacrifice what I believe in for her benefit, not when there’s so much at stake. Ultimately, I couldn’t be with someone who didn’t support me wholeheartedly. I think our relationship was successful over the past year because our goals in life were complimentary. When I succeeded, she benefited and vice versa. But in this case, it was clear that she would have to make a sacrifice to support my efforts with the podcast, and that’s when the truth of our relationship revealed itself. I don’t blame her, and I suspect many relationships wouldn’t survive a situation like this.

  On the job front, I was told that releasing this podcast, should it become successful, would likely lead to my termination. If no one listens to it, there’s a chance it could go under the radar, but I don’t intend for that to happen. I’ll keep working at the hospital as long as I can and try to build up my savings for when I might need it.

  I’m telling you all this, not for your sympathy, but to let you know how much I have sacrificed to bring this message to you. I hope that by telling you this, it will speak to the importance of the message and maybe inspire you to practice the five rituals and share them with others.

  To sum things up, I am moving forward with this podcast without the backing of many of those who have supported me in the past. I now instead have the support of Edgar, and hopefully many of you who see the truth in this message. I do believe that together we can bring about a better world, and I hope to be able to share that achievement with you.

  So, with that being said, I’ll now read to you the second letter I received from Edgar, in which he tells us about the first ritual:

  Dear Adam,

  I was disappointed to see that the world to which I returned after writing my first letter was no better than the world from which I left. In fact, in some ways it was worse. I could sense a growing uneasiness and feeling of desperation among the world’s population. People seemed to finally recognize the futility of their chosen existence and longed for it all to end. It was as though the world itself had become suicidal. I sensed that we were approaching the point of no return, where human consciousness, as we both know it, might be lost forever.

  I searched the archives of the internet for your sharing of my first letter with your world. In this version of my world, that would be the only letter you share since this branch of time doesn’t include any subsequent letters. However, I could find no record of you sharing the letter. I then came to the conclusion that you must have kept the letter to yourself, which was why the world was no better, and perhaps a bit worse.

  Although I am disappointed by your reticence, I now see in your journal where you have drafted the beginnings of a podcast you plan to release after receiving a second letter, this letter. I believe that despite the delay in sharing the first letter, we still have every opportunity to set the world back toward a path of higher consciousness. But you must not delay any further. The five rituals, the first of which I will give to you in this letter, must be shared with the world one at a time; those were the specific instructions I received in the realm between lives. We must keep to the plan.

  As I described in my first letter, the five rituals hold the power to bring about the full potential of human consciousness. The rituals benefit the individual practicing them, and when practiced on a global scale, they will unlock a higher level of consciousness for all humanity. For the rituals to be effective, they must be practiced on a daily basis. Make these rituals the foundation of your daily routine. Through daily practice, you will begin to see a transformation in your mind and in your heart, and you will see new patterns begin to emerge in your life. What was once important will seem trivial, and a newfound sense of purpose will come to the fore. When you trust in this heightened sense of instinct and intuition, and follow the path the rituals lay out for you, you will find yourself living the life you were meant to lead.

  When I visited the realm between lives, I participated in the review of the original version of your life, the version in which you never received these letters. Even without receiving the letters, you still found ways to discover and integrate certain aspects of the five rituals into your life. Your familiarity with the rituals is part of the reason why you and I were chosen for this mission. I know that you already have knowledge of how certain aspects of the rituals can impact physical health, but through these letters, I will share wi
th you how the rituals can transform consciousness.

  The first of the five rituals is the fire ritual. The fire that burns brightest is the sun. The sun is the source of energy for the earth and for consciousness. Plants use the sun’s energy to grow, animals eat the plants, and humans eat both the plants and animals. In this way, we all eat sunlight and rely on it to sustain us. However, this is only one way in which the sun provides us energy.

  Human beings also need direct sunlight, much like plants do. Our bodies and our minds use the powerful energy of the sun to fuel deeper processes within. It is our minds that needs sunlight the most. Sunlight activates the full potential of the mind to see beyond the surface layers of reality. Sunlight casts the mind out of the shadows and into the light.

  After we spend each night sleeping in darkness, our minds crave the morning sunlight. We cannot awaken the true nature of our consciousness without it. Few people spend enough time outside in the morning to awaken their minds with the sun, and as a result, they go through their days with the full potential of their minds stuck asleep. It is vital that you spend time outside in the sunlight throughout the day, especially during the first hours after sunrise.

  While the skin can absorb a great deal of energy from the sun, the primary channel for illuminating the mind is through the eyes. The eyes connect with the soul. It is important to not have anything covering the eyes in order to allow the sun’s energy to enter the body in full and in balance. Glasses and contact lenses block frequencies of light, and the body requires all frequencies in balance to fully activate the mind.

  When practicing the fire ritual, it is neither necessary nor beneficial to look directly at the sun. The powerful energy of the sun may damage the eyes if viewed directly. Instead, watch the sun rise by looking toward the eastern sky near the sun. Also spend time outside throughout the day with the eyes and skin exposed. There is no minimum or maximum duration of exposure. Everyone’s needs and potential benefits are different. Listen to your own body and mind, and give yourself what you require. The energy from the sun is free. Take what you need.