Memory Dump #26
Exclusive content from The Reversion for paid subscribers: Every other week—I will share a post (like the one below) that contains a compilation of short form research notes and a broader range of learnings I’ve noted in my memex. My goal is that these weekly digests can be read in three minutes or less.
On the spiritual significance of a morning routine
Here is a strong case for why you should not keep your phone near you when you wake up. We have grown too dependent on using our phones as our alarms. So the first thing we grab when we wake up is our phones.
Then turning off the alarm becomes a 90 minute scrolling session and you've exposed yourself to an entire world of distractions, chaos and demoralizing content, all before you set foot on the floor and do your morning prayers.
St. John of the Ladder writes of this being an attack from a demon called the forefunner:
'There is an evil spirit called the forerunner who assails us as soon as we awake from sleep and defiles our first thought. Devote the first fruits of your day to the Lord, because the whole day will belong to whoever gets the first start. It is worth hearing what an expert told me; "From my morning", he said, "I know the course of the whole day."' —St. John of the Ladder