The Being From the Future and the Illusion of Choice

By Leila Briggs

It was during a healing session with a client—not an unusual backdrop for a quantum leap in awareness. But why does reality rarely asks for our permission before bending?

As I stilled my hands above the client’s right shoulder, something in the room shifted. Not the temperature or the light, but the subtle energy. It felt as if the healing room had suddenly tuned to a different channel.

That’s when I noticed him. Or rather, them—a tall, androgynous being standing just at the edge of perception. Not intrusive, not dramatic. Just present. Observing. Radiating a calm that felt both foreign and intimately familiar. There was a sense of a light blue aura or color around this being.

I don’t know if he—again, them—had ever walked the Earth in flesh, but if they hadn’t, they at least understood humanity. Deeply. In a way, there was even something human in their presence. Something that read like: I’ve been where you are, and I remember what it feels like to forget. (Hopefully, wherever they travelled from, it was a location with better coffee that didn’t cost half a paycheck.)

And then, without words, the conversation began.

“Before You Tell Me to Leave, Let’s Talk About the Illusion of Choices.”

That’s how they opened—not with a warm greeting or an offer of interdimensional tea (clearly not Irish), but with a statement that felt like a punch to the soul. And they were right—I was considering kicking them out.

“When you are unaware, you believe you have choices,” they said, “but your choices are shaped by things you don’t see. As you grow in awareness, you come to know this as a truth.”

Trauma. Beliefs. Bodily limitations. Social conditioning. The subtle expectations of people who love you—or claim to. That weird advice your dance teacher gave you in 2009. All of it. These invisible forces, gently—or sometimes not so gently—nudging you down paths you believe you’ve chosen freely.

It stung. But also... it wasn’t exactly new news.

They continued, “Humans like to call it ‘free will,’ but most people are just reacting. Avoiding past pain or chasing someone else’s definition of joy.”

I nodded, trying to come off unbothered, even though internally I was reviewing every decision I’d ever made like it was a cosmic audit. Who does this being think they are?

The “Trap” of Spiritual Growth

“But wait,” I asked mentally, “isn’t that the whole point of healing and awareness? I’m more interested in what comes after you’ve moved beyond all the programming. No one talks about that.”

“When you begin to awaken,” they said, “you start to see the web. You see the strings that pull at you—your trauma, your beliefs, your lineage, your cultural narrative. And you begin to cut the ones you can. One by one. It feels like freedom.”

I nodded. This was of course sounding familiar—years of healing and shadow work, journaling like a caffeinated madwoman, burning herbs and candles until the house smelled like a spiritual temple...

“But here’s the twist,” they continued. “As your awareness expands, you stop reacting. You stop chasing. You begin to see through the illusion of options you once clung to. And suddenly, the world feels… emptier. Like a blank page you’re afraid to write on.”

There it was—the paradox I hadn’t been able to name. The more conscious I became, the less compelled I felt to do anything. To chase anything. The paths I once thought were destiny started to feel like distractions. And yet, I wasn’t sure if that clarity was liberation or just a more refined illusion.

The Illusion in Both Worlds

“So,” I asked, “whether we’re asleep or awake, we’re still inside some kind of illusion?”

“Yes,” they replied, with the calm confidence of someone who had seen this play out across thousands of lifetimes. “But the illusion evolves. In the unconscious state, you believe you have choices—but those choices are heavily scripted by your wounds and the world. In the conscious state, you see the script. You see the illusion of choice. But that seeing can become its own prison.”

It was humbling—and also a little rude. If I’m being honest, I was leaning toward kicking them out again. Apparently, I had just leveled up into a more subtle layer of cosmic trickery.

“You’re not trapped,” they said gently, as if reading my thoughts. “You’re just finally aware of how small the cage was. But don’t confuse that awareness with limitation. The cage was never locked.”

So… What Now?

They didn’t give me a map. Or a mission.

What they gave me was worse—and better: ambiguity.

“Stop trying to escape the evolved illusion,” they said. “Learn to dance with it. In the evolved illusion, you have also evolved."Now you exist with the awareness of limited choices, but with that comes unlimited possibilities."

"When humans are unconscious, they believe they are able to manifest. In truth, they can only resonate and attract. When humans evolve into the truth of choices (or what is also perceived as limitation of choices), they no longer resonate and attract; but can now manifest. The trick is knowing you yourself have evolved, and the illusion has evolved in kind. The limitation which was real is now part of the illusion. So dance with it.”

I wanted to protest. Demand more details. Ask better questions. But there was only silence—and an odd, radiant peace between the two of us… well, three of us. My client was still resting peacefully on the massage table.

Just as I mustered the energy to ask, “how do I know? How do I become aware of my evolution and know for sure?”—they were gone.

No dramatic exit, no flash of light. Just me, the quiet hum of the room, and a client unaware that someone from another timeline had just restructured my spiritual worldview… again.

Just another Tuesday afternoon for Leila, I guess.

The Invitation

If you’ve ever felt the tension of too many choices—or the ache of feeling like you have none—maybe you’re brushing up against the same paradox.

Maybe awareness doesn’t give us more options. Maybe it strips away the ones that were never real to begin with.

And maybe, just maybe, freedom isn’t in having endless paths to walk…

…but in knowing that you don’t have to walk any of them to be whole.

Let me know in the comments below if you have danced with your own illusion lately.

As always, take my conversations with other beings and my dreams with a grain of salt. While they are real and meaningful to me—that doesn’t mean they have to be the same for you.

Adapted from a journal entry on April 12, 2024.

Image is from Stockcake.com