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 writing. 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 with 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.
The light of the day must also be balanced by the darkness of night. After the sun sets, it is important to avoid exposure to artificial sources of light, especially blue wavelengths of light, so that the mind can synchronize with the natural rhythm of the sun. Exposure to artificial light after the sun sets will impair your ability to reap the full benefit of sun exposure during the day. You must balance the light and the dark. Remember that. It is important.
With regular practice, the fire ritual will alter the mind’s perspective. The energy of the sun lights up the soul so that it can see its full potential. Without the sun’s energy, we live in the shadows, and the shadows prevent us from seeing what is possible. But with the illumination of the sun, we can see what is possible within ourselves and within others. When we see these possibilities shining at their brightest, we can transform this energy from the sun into action as the sun powers us to carry out our life’s purpose.
The fire ritual is to spend every morning in the sun and every evening in darkness. Balance the light and the dark in your life. Balance the light and the dark in your mind.
I must tell you one more thing about the rituals. Sharing them with your world is not your only objective. You must also share them with a specific person in your life—a person whom you have yet to meet. She will be the key to unlocking a major piece of the transformation of humanity. Without her practicing the rituals, the likelihood of our success decreases exponentially. You must bring the rituals into her life, in addition to the lives of countless others around the world.
I’ll write again soon with the second ritual. It is now time for you to share these first two letters, and the first ritual, with the world. I have faith in your ability to carry out this task, and I look forward to listening to your podcast when I return to the future. I’m sure you’ll do a great job.
Yours,
Edgar
I felt very guilty the first time I read that letter. I didn’t realize that, by not releasing the first episode sooner, it would have such an impact on the future that Edgar returned to. It solidified in my mind the true impact of our mission. We have the potential to do great good, but also the potential to mess it up. I messed up, but I think we still have time to get back on track.
It’s encouraging to hear Edgar say that I already have some knowledge about the rituals, and that’s certainly true regarding the first one. Spending more time in the sun is something I would recommend to my patients if I wasn’t so afraid of defying the status quo. There’s a lot of research on its health benefits, including vitamin D production and circadian rhythm entrainment. Now we can add to that list its effects on powering the deepest levels of human consciousness.
It makes a lot of sense that one of the rituals would involve light. Edgar described encountering beings of light in his time between lives, and you often hear of people who have had near death experiences seeing some sort of bright light. So it’s no surprise that an experience of light in our daily lives would impact us on such a deep level.
The fire ritual seems to be about reconnecting us with something that humans have done throughout history, but we’ve abandoned in modern times. I also think about how ancient civilizations worshipped the sun and sun gods in their religions. I think it’s foolish to dismiss ancient knowledge and assume we know more than they did. In this case, it’s clear that we have gotten off track by not respecting sunlight for its essential power. Not only that, we now live in a world where sunlight is considered a danger to our health.
Somewhere along the way, we’ve gone completely bonkos to think that the sun is killing us, when it’s actually going to help save us from our own destruction. Sunscreen and sunglasses are leading us down the wrong path, but drug companies can’t profit off sunlight, so research on the benefits of something that is free doesn’t get much funding.
I also have to wonder if the government or other powerful organizations have an ulterior motive in telling people to avoid sunlight. Could they have knowledge of the ability of sunlight to promote higher consciousness? If someone wanted to keep a population under control, it would make sense to suppress consciousness and free thinking. Could it be that some very bad people at the top know the truth and are intentionally recommending things that suppress our ability to think for ourselves and express our consciousness to its fullest extent?
I’ll set that thought aside, as its implications are too much to think about right now, but at the very least our public health authorities need to get their act together. Guess what has happened since we’ve been warning people that sunlight causes skin cancer? The rates of skin cancer continue to climb despite the fact that we’re spending less time outdoors than we ever have in human history.
Think about it. It’s not even close. We evolved outdoors without clothes on. Now, we wake up, put clothes on to cover our body, go to work, spend all day indoors when the sun is out, and then leave the office as the sun is setting. How is the sun harming us if we’re never outside? It seems to me that a poorly developed consciousness may fail to realize these facts. If our consciousness is the key to seeing patterns and connections in our reality, then this bad advice about sunlight is perpetuating our inability to realize how bad that advice really is. It’s not less sunlight that we need, but more of it. Anyone who tries to convince you otherwise might just need a good dose of sunlight to get their mind working right.
I’ve looked further into the research on the health effects of sun exposure, and it’s pretty clear that if sunlight were a marketable drug, the makers of it would be billionaires. The research shows that greater sun exposure is associated with lower risk of heart disease, the leading cause of death in the world. It is also associated with lower risk of many types of cancer, including colon, breast, and prostate cancer, as well as melanoma, the deadliest form of skin cancer. While greater frequency of sunburn is associated with increased melanoma risk, greater non-burning sun exposure is associated with lower risk. Greater sun exposure is also linked to a lower risk of death from all causes. Sunlight lowers blood pressure, it improves mood, it promotes vitamin D production. So many of us are vitamin D deficient these days, and it’s not because of a dietary deficiency. Food is not your main source of vitamin D, sunlight is.
Sunlight also helps to prevent myopia, or nearsightedness. I find this ironic since we have collectively developed a kind of myopia regarding sun exposure. We are failing to see that sunlight is good for us even with abundant research evidence to support that fact. Now, I’m not advocating for getting a sunburn, but getting some sensible sun exposure has plenty of health benefits, not to mention what Edgar said about its ultimate benefit in fueling consciousness.
Before receiving Edgar’s letter, I often spent time outside during the day, but now I’m even more intentional about it. I now religiously spend at least 15 minutes each morning on my patio watching the sun rise. I don’t know if religiously is the best term to use here, but perhaps that’s the best way to describe a ritual involving the sun. Even on a cloudy day, the morning daylight is still powerful, and I make sure I see it, rain or shine.
I've found that my mental state during the day, as well as my sleep at night, are categorically better when I routinely take the time to watch the sun rise. It’s nice to know that my consciousness is also evolving as I do this. I’ve also found, and there is research to support this, that exposing my skin to the sunlight in the morning allows me to withstand more sun exposure throughout the day. It’s the infrared light of the morning sun that conditions the skin to better tolerate the higher levels of ultraviolet light present during the middle of the day. Likewise, the infrared light in the late afternoon helps repair the skin from any oxidative damage incurred throughout the day.
Another way the body recovers from any oxidative effects from the sun is through the release of melatonin at night. Melatonin is not only a hormone that helps us sleep, it is also one of the body’s most powerful antioxidants.
I think it’s pretty cool how the human body is interconnected with the rhythm of the sun. The morning sunlight primes our body to withstand the intensity of the midday sun, while both the late afternoon sunlight and darkness at night help our body recover from a day of sun exposure. This rhythm helps us achieve balance. It’s not just what you do, but when you do it. As Edgar said, we need to adhere as closely as possible to the natural rhythm of the sun.
An important part of that process is avoiding artificial light at night. You aren’t going to get the full benefit of nighttime melatonin if you’re exposed to artificial light sources, as exposing the eyes to artificial light suppresses melatonin levels. Exposure to artificial light at night not only disrupts sleep, it is also associated with increased risk of obesity, diabetes, and cancer. It’s primarily the blue wavelengths of light that have this detrimental effect, so if you’re going to use artificial light sources after the sun sets, you can at least make sure to avoid exposure to blue light.
In my own life, I’ve been wearing blue light blocking glasses after the sun sets to avoid exposing my eyes to blue light. I do this in addition to using blue light reduction features on my phone and computer, as well as using light bulbs that are more orange or red in color. I’m still a bit cautious about even doing these things, as I suspect just darkness, or at most candlelight, would be the best option after the sun sets. In any case, following the natural cycle of the sun—spending time outdoors in the morning and throughout the day, and avoiding blue light at night—has made a huge difference in how I feel. I can’t imagine living my life any other way now.
I’ve set up a website at awakethefuture.com, where I’ve posted links to additional resources related to the fire ritual. These include books, research articles, and useful tools, such as the blue light blocking glasses I wear after the sun sets. Just go to awakethefuture.com/fire to check those out.
Now, I have to talk a little about the most cryptic part of Edgar’s letter, where he mentioned sharing the rituals with someone whom I’ve yet to meet. I have no idea who Edgar is talking about, but I suppose I’ll find out soon enough. It sounds like she is someone who has the potential to do great things in the world. I look forward to meeting her, whoever she is.
As critical as it might be for me to share the rituals with her, it is still important for all of us to bring the rituals into our own daily lives. We must take responsibility to do our part to make the world a better place. The fire ritual is a perfect example of how improving the world starts with improving yourself. This ritual isn’t about trying to get others to do things; rather, it is an inward process of improving one’s own consciousness. It makes sense that if we each work on achieving a higher level of consciousness within ourselves, then we can ultimately change the fate of the entire world. It starts with the individual. It starts with you.
By the way, I decided to write Edgar another letter in my journal. I assume I could just talk to him through the podcast, seeing as he will likely listen to it in the future, but I wanted to make sure that he got my message. Here’s what I wrote:
Edgar,
I’m sorry I didn’t release the first episode sooner. As you know, this isn’t easy for me to do. Despite my hesitation, I’m fully committed to this mission. I want you to know that. I know that you are sacrificing a lot to do this, and I want you to know that I am willing to do the same.
Sincerely,
Adam
I sat down last night and thought about how much has changed. A few weeks ago, I was living a comfortable and predictable life. I was satisfied with my career as a nutritionist. I had a girlfriend who I loved and could see myself marrying someday. Everything was good. Not the kind of life you just toss out and start over, but that’s exactly what I’ve done. I’ve sacrificed it all, and it scares me. I believe I’m making the right choice, the only choice, but there’s a chance I’m wrong. That little bit of doubt is hard to deal with when you’ve put your whole life on the line. I just have to move forward and have faith in my decision. I’m on a new path now, and I have to make the best of what lies ahead. I can’t look back.
I mentioned in the previous episode that I don’t think I’m the best person to promote a podcast and get a ton of people to listen. I don’t have social media accounts to use for promotion. I don’t have money for advertising. I don’t even have anyone close to me who believes in what I’m doing who can support me by word of mouth. I’m probably not going to do much more than release these episodes and hope for the best. I just have to have blind faith that someone, somewhere, sometime, will listen. I hate to put any burden on you, whoever you are who happens to be listening right now, but anything you can do to share this message might just help save the world.
I think that’s all for now. I’ll release another episode after I receive another letter from Edgar. In the meantime, develop a morning ritual that includes time outside in the sunlight. Unlock your consciousness by bathing in the light during the day, and respect the sun’s cycle by avoiding artificial light at night. And please share this message. Talk to you soon.