Teacher on the Road - The Five Phases of Death

My book "Teacher on the Road: The Five Phases of Death" (738 pages, 396,538 words, 222 photos, 42 maps, and 26 illustrations) is a breath-taking travel memoir with a substantial dash of thought-provoking mindfulness and consciousness, as much as it is a profound, personal, and collective introspective quest into the realms of Spirit and Science. This piece of work represents the result of my passion (and my genuine dedication to it) for sharing with my fellow human beings around the globe, through a lifetime of learning and teaching (in many different disciplines), as well as through nearly 8 years of continuous, epic, free-spirited travel adventures and more than 2,000 hours of writing (just for this book alone). This book tells the story of the first section of my moneyless quest around the world overland, when I went from France to Nepal (September 2012–June 2014). Eventually, 10 years later, this journey took me all the way to the bottom tip of South America until I decided to come back to Mexico (in August 2020) in order to not only finalise this first book that I am now sharing with you but also to embrace a brand-new cycle of my existence.

Back in 2012, after I had extensively and efficiently worked in the education industry for more than 10 years, I spontaneously decided to leave my old routine behind (mainly my job as a professional basketball coach and an English teacher, a four-year relationship, and most of my material possessions) and indulge in a new adventure that would change my existence far beyond what I could ever predict or expect (geographically, culturally, socially, emotionally, and spiritually). My idea was to travel around the entire globe, exclusively overland and overseas, without using any money at all (except for the inevitable border crossings and visa fees on the way). I chose to name this project "Teacher on the Road", not only because I personally had already been teaching for more than 10 years until I started hitting the road towards some unknown Eastern horizons, but also and especially because, in the meantime, I have learnt that we are all teachers and guides to one another on the Path of Life. After all, the things we learn from and share with each other in this lifetime are endless (and limitless), especially while travelling, and we do not need an "official" label to do so (or to do anything, for that matter).

Also, I have chosen the name "The Five Phases of Death" because, in the realms of psychology (according to the Kübler-Ross model), it has been proven that, when people face the relentless truth of their imminent death (for instance, upon getting the news of an incurable disease), they inevitably undergo five stages of intense emotional condition: Denial, Anger, Negotiation (or Bargaining), Depression and Acceptance. I did not have the foggiest idea of what was going to happen in my little, spontaneous adventure at the time, and I was very happy with that. I just knew that, despite all the amazing "success" I had had in all my varied endeavours until then (see the "author's background" section), the concept of "success" is actually very relative, and I was simply no longer resonating with the world I was living in. I needed to take responsibility and change something for the better, as radical as this may be, in order to reconnect with my essence. As I started hitting the road in September 2012, I quickly figured out that my voyage would be an inescapable allegory of the five phases of death, and my ultimate goal would be to find a Way to reach a state of full acceptance (the final phase) of all events as they were to unfold before my feet and to contemplate and observe the flow of how my ego would react and adapt in the meantime. After all, we are all the guinea pigs of our very own life experiment. In fact, as I considerably explain in my book, I believe that we all go through the process of these five cycles of (what I call) personal "liberation" at some point, especially from the moment we set the intention to change an old, unsatisfying routine until we are eventually ready to shed our old skin and be reborn. And yet, this does not mean that these phases will always relate to clearly defined, subsequent periods of "time" in our lives, but rather that they are intimately connected with certain ground-shaking events and encounters that are bound to reshape our sense of Self as part of a collective.

There were many factors, of course, that led me to this rather unconventional and ambitious endeavour. Overall, I wanted to radically change my life and prove to myself (and others in the process) that everything is possible as long as our intention is pure. So, I closed my bank account, set aside my last 400 Euros for the border crossings along the way, and set off with nothing more than my most essential possession on my back, a direction in mind, and an indescribable longing in my heart for something "else". Little did I know that, by going so far out of my comfort zone, magic and synchronicity would quickly fill the elemental space that familiarity and predictability had once occupied in my life.

It was merely the beginning of my very own quest for ultimate Freedom; a voyage during which I would go through a myriad of different cycles (which, as I explain in the book and refer to in its title, I have found to be inherent to life and, more precisely, to its inherently inevitable process of Personal Liberation), exploring deeper layers of consciousness of the body, mind, and spirit, and all facets of human interconnectedness on the less-travelled paths of Spirit and Science. It might sound intricate or eccentric, but really, this is what we have all come here to do on this physical plane, whether we are aware of it or not.

What is more, this book is based on my travel diaries, which have been my most trusted companions through this adventure, and as such, it shares all the epic adventures and encounters (and many photos I took, as well as maps showing my route) that shaped the first two years of this journey, in which I went from France to Nepal, overland and without money. I also talk about many thought-provoking and controversial modern issues and ideas, such as "sustainable energy," "quantum physics," "the educational system," "the economic system," "the religious system," and "reincarnation," as well as the relativity of the ideas of time and space, the world of holistic, natural medicinal, and/or psychedelic substances, and many others, to show not only 20 years of thorough critical and independent research but also the inner workings of my own mind.

It is important to acknowledge that my quest around the world overland turned out to be much longer than I ever anticipated, as I ever-increasingly embraced the Road towards new horizons (both literally and figuratively), and it has taken me all the way from Western Europe to Japan and then from Alaska to the bottom tip of South America. Consequently, I have decided to write four books about my epic adventures, for it would have been simply impossible to convey all the different aspects of my journey (the philosophical and the eventful, the emotional and the experimental) in only one book, especially since my intention was always to do so as authentically as possible. Nevertheless, even if I would like to be able to write four books in total (for which I obviously have most of the material and content already, i.e., my diaries and notes, spanning the journey from 2014–2020), my dedication towards the continuation of the writing process will heavily depend on my financial sustainability, which in turn relates to how the publishing of this first book evolves.

In conclusion, beyond the geographical aspect of my voyage and all the facts related to my adventures, this book depicts all the intense lessons that I had to learn in the meantime and my emotional and spiritual development that ensued through the process. Consequently, this book is as much a captivating travel diary as it is a complete study book on societal, philosophical, and metaphysical exploration, written from my own modest research and point-of-view, of course, but nonetheless through the unique lens of my varied and adventurous experience. All in all, this is a book about embracing the essence of being human, about living with heart and soul, by exploring both the Science and the Spirit that shape our existence—two approaches that I have found not only to be compatible but also utterly complementary. As for the continuation of my adventures, both geographical and literary, I believe that once we set things in motion, whatever they may be, with the very best of intentions, the World has its (often surprising) ways of showing us where we are supposed to be heading next.