Speaker Identification

Speaker 1 - Reverend Blake Rubie: Host of The Church of the Soul's Evolution. The raw transcript identifies the speaker as "Reverend Blake Ruby," but the user-confirmed spelling is Reverend Blake Rubie.

Program / Music Cue: Used for opening and closing song fragments, vocalized music, or brief lyrics that appear in the raw transcript but are not treated as spoken conversation.

Program / Music Cue:
[Opening music plays. A brief lyric fragment references remembrance, standing tall, rising again, and bringing the spirit back to life.]

Speaker 1 - Reverend Blake Rubie:
Good afternoon, everyone out there listening. This is Reverend Blake Rubie. Welcome to my show, The Church of the Souls Evolution. How are you doing?

I hope you had a great last week. I'm doing okay. I woke up this morning and did what I usually do. I went to the rubber track to work out. I like to do some sprinting in my workouts. I mostly walk, but I add a little bit of sprinting in between. I've been doing that for many years.

I prefer that over pavement or dirt. They say dirt is good, but I have found that I do not have much traction on a dirt track. Over the years, when I tried to do my workouts on dirt, I would get lightheaded. I used to walk and run, and sometimes I would run one or two miles, because I am a runner from way back.

When I was in the Army, especially when I was in Monterey, California, going through language school from June 1992 to June 1993, I became the captain of the run team for Golf Company. They had Alpha, Bravo, Charlie, Delta, Echo, Foxtrot, Golf, and Hotel Companies, and all of those Army companies were connected with different languages - Russian, Chinese, Persian Farsi, Spanish, French, Italian, and many others.

I really got into running. I was a pretty good runner even before then. I could run two miles in about twelve minutes. I remember leaving Bowling Green State University, where I was in ROTC as the administrative noncommissioned officer. I worked out with cadets for about three years, doing physical training with them. I kept getting my run time down until I finally made it under twelve minutes for two miles. That was a pretty good accomplishment.

When I got to Monterey and checked in with the company, they asked me what my two-mile run time was. I said, "About twelve minutes." They said, "Guess what? You're the new captain for the Golf Company run team."

I would meet with the people who wanted to be part of the team. One of the perks of being on the run team was that you did not have to do the regular company workout or stand in formation afterward. You just had to compete in the monthly Commander's Cup competition, which was a two-mile race. All the other Army companies competed, and the Marines had a company there too. Sometimes the Navy SEALs participated as well.

We worked out five days a week. Sometimes on weekends I would pick a 5K, 10K, or five-mile run in the area, because they had them all the time, and I would go with some of the team members. Otherwise, we met at six in the morning, Monday through Friday. We did all different kinds of workouts. Sometimes we would run down to the Pacific Ocean along the shore. That was about eight miles. We would go down the hill, and it was a huge hill. If you have ever been to Monterey, you know the language school is at the top of an enormous hill. If you can run from the bottom all the way to the top on your own, you are in pretty good shape. We used to do that all the time.

We also did two-mile runs, Army physical training tests, and what they call fartleks, where we would run in formation single file and the person in the back would sprint to the front. We would do that for about two miles. Sometimes we would do a normal run in formation, in cadence. I had a good background in running in cadence.

Five days a week, we would do calisthenics to warm up, and maybe push-ups and sit-ups too. That got me into really good shape. I was in the prime of my life when I was thirty-eight years old. That was 1992. We won the Commander's Cup five times in a twelve-month period and came in second four times. I am very proud of that. The best time we had was eleven minutes and thirty-nine seconds, with two rows of five guys running. One guy would be in front, and I would be on the side, bringing them up or slowing them down. That was intense, competing every month against all the Army companies.

Then, in 1995, I had a kidney transplant procedure. I donated a kidney to save my son's life. Bottom line, he would have died if I had not donated one of my kidneys to him, because he was just a baby at the time. After that, I could not run for quite a while because they cut open my right side. I have about a nine-inch scar there. Right now it looks kind of like a little inner tube when I look at myself in the mirror. I favor that side because the scar is painful.

Nowadays, that surgery is less invasive, but back then they had to open me up, take the kidney out, and give it to my son. Right after the surgery, that area was stiff like a board. It took years for the nerves to grow back in my lower right abdominal area. I did have some disabilities associated with the kidney donation, including GERD, reflux disease, and the painful scar itself, which makes moving more difficult - turning left or right, bending up and down, walking, and running.

But I would not discourage anyone from donating a kidney. It is a true gift of life. Dialysis, whether it is peritoneal dialysis or hemodialysis, is very tough to live with. My friend, do not ever think that is an acceptable way to live if you can avoid it.

Speaker 1 - Reverend Blake Rubie:
Both my son and I have learned that drinking the daily recommended amount of water makes a difference. Water is like a miracle liquid, my friend. In my view, it helps keep the body healthier. I cannot prove everything scientifically, but through my research and through what my son has been through, I believe water is important. He received another kidney in 2014 after the kidney I gave him lasted nineteen years. He did not always take good care of himself when he was younger, but he was a boy back then. Boys are tempted to drink soda, eat gummy bears and snacks, and not always eat the healthiest food. That makes a difference in the longevity of a kidney.

Now he is more careful with what he eats and drinks. He is a very intelligent young man, and he is taking good care of himself. Still, there is no guarantee he will not need another kidney. We are praying that the kidney he has now will last for the rest of his life. It is possible. Some people receive transplanted kidneys and keep them until they die.

It took me a while before I started running again. While I was still in the Army, I received physical profiles. First I got one for sit-ups, because I thought that was the source of the pain I was feeling. Later I realized it was the painful scar on my right side. Push-ups were also hard. In 1997, I went to Walter Reed Hospital, saw a doctor, and told him about donating one of my kidneys to my son. He saw the scar on my side, and I received a profile for not having to do sit-ups. About a year later, I went back and received one for push-ups.

It was hard to get back into shape after the kidney transplant. I tried to get back to the running form I had before, but it was impossible. I used to be able to run two miles in twelve minutes. After I started running again, the best I could do was around fourteen or fifteen minutes. I thought, no, this is no good. Someone said, "Why do you put yourself through that? You could go to a doctor and get a profile." I said, "Really?" They said, "Yeah."

It turned out that I had fractured my spine when I was younger from a hyperextension injury. I grew up in Canada, and in winter there is always ice and snow. I remember slipping on ice and also playing football. Sometimes when I was skating, I would skate backward. I used to play hockey in Canada. Once I fell backward and put out my right elbow to break the fall. I heard a snap or crack in my neck and lower back. It fractured my spine and misaligned my fourth and fifth lumbar vertebrae. They call that spondylolysis and spondylolisthesis.

I am not complaining. It is reality. I received profiles for sit-ups and push-ups based on that. Later, I got a profile for running too. I had what they call a P3 profile, where I did not have to do sit-ups or the run. I only had to do a two-and-a-half-mile walk within a certain time. For my age group, it was around thirty-eight to forty minutes. I could do it in about thirty-two, so I just had to walk fast.

I retired in 2004 and kept up my walking over the years. When I moved to San Antonio in 2010, I thought, what if I do a little running, maybe to build up my heart and lungs? It would be good for me. I started to get into pretty good shape again. I could run a mile in around ten minutes, maybe a little less. But running on a dirt track did not work out either. I would get lightheaded at the end of running a mile, maybe because of the lack of traction. Also, you are dodging holes, rocks, and other things. Pavement is unforgiving, especially if you are doing a little running. It is not good for the joints.

So after many years, I settled on the rubber track. My current workout has been refined and tweaked over time. I use good shoes. I like Skechers shoes, especially slip-in models. I have had different versions of their walking and running shoes, including Go Run shoes with memory foam, though those felt a little mushy on the rubber track. The ones I have now feel really good.

In my opinion, it is good to run with shoes where you do not have to tie your laces tightly. I found that when I tie laces too tight over the top of my foot, my right foot later becomes painful on the outside, where a bunion has developed. I think tight laces may interfere with the biomechanics of the human gait. If you wear slip-in shoes and they are snug but comfortable, and you can slide your foot in and out without bending down, those can be ideal for walking, running, and sprinting.

My typical workout is to go to the track and avoid running or walking on the curves. I just use the 100-meter straightaway. I go down, turn around, and come back, taking advantage of the nice soft surface, which is good for the joints. I have found that going around in circles can affect the knees over time because it does not allow proper rotation of the knee. That is my opinion based on my research and experience. I cannot say it is scientifically proven, but I believe running around the curves can cause knee injuries over time, especially if you do it day after day, month after month, year after year.

So I use the straightaway. I do not care what people think. I am trying to do the right thing for myself. I wear training shoes, not spikes. I will walk up and down several times, and then I will sprint, but I start slowly. I have had hamstring and groin injuries from sprinting too fast at the beginning. There is no rule of law that says you must start a sprint quickly. I usually begin by jogging and then sprint from the jog. That is the best way I have found to sprint.

When you sprint from a jog, you do not overemphasize pushing off with one leg. Most people have one leg that is stronger, and maybe even longer, than the other. I start with about ten meters nice and easy, then pick up the pace like an acceleration run until I reach full speed, and I keep that up for maybe twenty meters. That is good for the heart and lungs. Sometimes I do a 100-meter run, starting slow and going all the way down.

Speaker 1 - Reverend Blake Rubie:
I breathe through my nose because it warms the air going into the lungs. Watch Olympic sprinters. Many of them breathe through the nose. When you stop, open your mouth and breathe in until you are back to normal. It is a combination of breathing through the mouth and the nose. I would say about seventy-five percent through the nose and twenty-five percent through the mouth, depending on what you need. If you feel you need extra oxygen, breathe through your mouth. That is easier. But for the most part, I have learned that when you are sprinting or running and trying to maintain proper form, breathing through the nose helps with the synchronization of the feet and arms better than breathing through the mouth.

Believe me, my friends, I have done a lot of research and experimentation on this for years and years. You do not have to believe me. You can say, "Well, that is your opinion," and you can believe something else. But it works for me. I have learned from other people too. There was a man named Jeff Galloway, who recently passed away. He created the run-walk-run method, where people who want to run a marathon run for a while, walk for a while, then run again. He did something like 250 marathons, and it worked for him. The evidence is there for some people if they want to follow it.

I followed him, but then I started doing my own thing and experimenting. I always need more details about certain subjects. Sometimes there is nowhere to get them, so you have to find them yourself, look on the internet, and ask people for advice.

Anyway, that is what I did this morning. I did my usual workout. Then I came back home, did a little thinking, and did my singing workout. I warm up with a cappella singing, then sing with my music. I have a system with speakers, an amplifier, a mixer, and a wireless microphone. I know more than 150 songs that I have memorized and practice all the time. That keeps my chops up, so to speak.

I have a solo at church tomorrow, so I have been practicing that. I like to have a solo every once in a while because it is good for personal growth. You have to push yourself beyond your comfort zone. There may be about a hundred people there. It can be nerve-racking, but it also builds confidence. My singing helps with Toastmasters, and Toastmasters helps my singing. They are interconnected.

I went to a Toastmasters meeting later in the day. I gave about a twelve-minute speech. We were there for about two hours, socializing. The meeting was at a place called Cheers, where people drink. I had a root beer. I do not usually drink a lot of sugary beverages, but this was made by the people there. They make their own beer. It is called the Alamo Beer Company. My wife had a beer, and I think everyone else had a drink, but I did not. I have not had alcohol since Labor Day weekend in 1988, and I do not miss it.

The same thing is true with food. I am a vegan. I have been a vegan since 1999, partly because I donated one of my kidneys and wanted to help ensure my longevity. Right after the kidney transplant, I was assigned to Army Personnel Command in Alexandria, Virginia. Because of the painful scar on my side, or maybe because of the tea I was drinking - who knows - I found that I was getting constipated a lot, and that was concerning to me.

I did some research and read a book by the psychic medium James Van Praagh. He said that eating a lot of red meat can affect your vibratory system and vibrational level as a spirit in a human body. You are part spirit, right? The spirit is in your body. According to that perspective, too much red meat can lower your vibratory level because it takes a long time to process and digest. People can digest it, and it is a source of protein, but could we eat more intelligently and more healthfully? Yes.

So first I became a vegetarian, and a few months later I became a vegan. I missed eating some meat when I would see my wife eating meals that looked delicious. But I am also committed. I am disciplined. The Army taught me discipline. I am about 99.9 percent vegan, though I may eat some food that has a little dairy or egg in it. I found that by becoming vegan, with all that extra fiber, I became more regular and hardly ever get constipated, which is a good thing.

I am trying to be real here. On my radio show, I like to talk about everything. Anything goes. This lifetime is really a quest to determine what is right and wrong, and what works and what does not work. We have a lot of time here to experiment and determine that. Usually it is a slow process. You might do something one day and wait until the next day, or longer, to see if it works. If it starts to work and then does not, you go back to the drawing board.

Becoming vegan was one of the best things I have done in my life. I am aware of the ethical concerns about animals, but I try not to judge my fellow human beings. I acknowledge that each and every one of you listening to me right now is a co-creator god in the making.

What I mean by that is that you, my friends, are alive right now. Even though we might not fully realize it, we have the potential to die within a second. If there were multiple earthquakes or a bomb nearby, we could die instantly. We do not talk about those things because we do not want to think about them, but in some places of the world, that kind of thing is happening. In Gaza, Ukraine, and other countries around the world, people are dying through violence. Each day, about 150,000 people around the world die, and about that many babies are born each day too.

So it is up to us to try to be the best version of ourselves possible. Becoming vegan was difficult at first, but I learned to navigate my way through it. Right after I became vegan, I moved to Caracas, Venezuela. Down there, they did not have vegetarian food like tofu, textured vegetable protein, seitan, veggie burgers, or veggie hot dogs. Many people lived below the poverty line. When I was there, inflation was high and the currency devalued. But the people stayed positive. They always had a smile on their faces and would say, "I am okay, thanks to God." Beautiful people in Venezuela. But they were suffering because they did not have a lot of money.

As a new vegan in Venezuela in 2001, I had to buy beans - garbanzo beans, pinto beans, and other kinds - and cook them with rice and vegetables. That was my meal. When I would go out with people from work, I might have spaghetti with marinara sauce, or pizza with no cheese, just marinara sauce and vegetables. I made it work. And here I am today. I will be seventy-two tomorrow. Tomorrow is my birthday.

I do not know what my long-term prognosis is or how much longer I will survive. I definitely have more years behind me than I do in front of me. But so far, so good. I have pretty good health. I get my blood work checked regularly, and so far, so good. I have had a sore on my right arm where the dog bit me while playing around. It was not serious, just a little nick from a tooth, but it has taken a long time to heal. I recently had a biopsy and am trying to find out the results. It looks infected, but it appears to be getting better.

Speaker 1 - Reverend Blake Rubie:
Before my radio show, I sang several songs. Some of my favorites are by the Eagles, including "Peaceful Easy Feeling," "Tequila Sunrise," "Take It to the Limit," "Take It Easy," "Seven Bridges Road," "Desperado," "The Best of My Love," and "Lyin' Eyes." I also sang "The Letter" by the Box Tops. That is one of my newer songs.

Program / Music Cue:
[Reverend Rubie briefly demonstrates or references portions of several well-known songs. Extended lyric excerpts are omitted and summarized for publication clarity.]

Speaker 1 - Reverend Blake Rubie:
Another one is "Jesus Is Just All Right," which I do in the style of the Doobie Brothers. I also sing "Ventura Highway" by America, Neil Young's "Old Man," "Midnight Rider" by the Allman Brothers, John Denver's "Annie's Song," "Ramblin' Man" by the Allman Brothers, "Fire on the Mountain" by the Marshall Tucker Band, "Wicked Game" by Chris Isaak, "Dear Mr. Fantasy" by Traffic, "One of These Nights," "Fire and Rain" by James Taylor, "The Boys of Summer" by Don Henley, "Eyes Without a Face" by Billy Idol, "Broken Wings" by Mr. Mister, "Listen to the Music" by the Doobie Brothers, "These Eyes" by The Guess Who, "Love Me Do" by the Beatles, John Denver's "Take Me Home, Country Roads," and Gordon Lightfoot's "The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald" and "If You Could Read My Mind."

Those are just some of the songs I know, my friends. I am really blessed to be able to remember all those songs. Back here in my little man cave, with my speakers in my enclosed patio, I try not to bother my neighbors too much. I keep the volume down, but I know they can hear me sing. I am grateful they do not complain. I may sing for an hour each day.

The skill that I developed while singing helped me when I used to sing for the Wounded Warriors at Fort Sam Houston once a month from 2013 to 2020, just before the pandemic began. When people were no longer allowed to go places, that stopped. Singing for them was one of the best things I have done in my life. I used my singing skills to offer great praise to the Creator of the universe for the miracle of creation and the beauty of the universe.

Have you ever seen some of the images from the James Webb Space Telescope or the Hubble Space Telescope? There are beautiful nebulae out there, and millions of stars. I have said this before: we are spirits in the material world through a process of reincarnation. Yes, we are alive, and when we die, hallelujah, by and by, we will transition to the afterlife as pure spirits. Right now, we are human bodies with spirits inside. I tell you the truth, my friends. That is no lie.

When we die and become pure spirits, we pop out of our bodies. You look down and see your body wherever it is - hopefully on a hospital room table, not in a car accident or something bad like that. You look at your body like a worn-out piece of clothing that served you well. Most people say they do not feel much attachment to it. You might come in for a closer look with the eyes of the spirit and see in different directions. It is hard to describe. But you will see that these bodies are fearfully and wonderfully made.

We are created in our mother's wombs, fearfully and wonderfully made. After about twenty-two days, the heart starts beating. All the bones, tissue, cells, and eyes form. We breathe in our mother's womb for nine months in that liquid environment. Is that not amazing? Then we are born.

I will buy you dinner if you can remember when you were born. I am just kidding. We cannot remember, can we? Our brains and eyes were functional, so we should be able to remember, right? We are not dummies. We are human beings. We are very intelligent beings. The problem is that we are affected by all the things that are part of life here - media, television, radio, signals everywhere, and trying to survive. Some of us are raising children, working jobs, and making money.

When you pop out of the body, you are going to feel freedom, happiness, and joy - the joy of being who you really are. This body is not who you really are. This is a kind of meat puppet, so to speak. While you are in it, enjoy it, because you have an expiration date. Push it to the end as long as you can, because every day here on Earth is an opportunity for growth and spiritual development.

That is why we are here, believe it or not. That is why you were born: to increase your light and grow your light as a spirit. You shine with a certain intensity of light when you are born, and when you die, hopefully in the time between, you have increased the intensity of your soul's light. As a spirit, your brain is the soul. Here you have a physical brain, the gray matter, but your spirit has the soul, which is like a brain. That soul shines with light. It is like a flame in a lantern. You can turn it up so it grows brighter and brighter. That is what happens when you develop yourself socially and evolve on planet Earth.

The Creator of the universe works through forces of creation. The first force created the suns, planets, and moons. The second force created plant and animal life. The third force created sentient life - humanoid beings, thousands and thousands of different beings with different colors, skin, eyes, heights, shapes, sizes, and levels of evolution. The fourth force took a spark of the Creator's light and put it into every soul. That is what lights up your soul. Without that spark from the Creator, you would not exist.

When you pop out of your body, you are going to be shining with light. When you get to the throne room with the Mother and Father God, our co-creators of our solar system, you will see their light is so bright that it will wash over you with brilliance. It will be like a hurricane-force wind of glory and brilliance. You will not be able to withstand it unless you are sufficiently developed spiritually and evolved. That is why it behooves us, my friends, to develop ourselves spiritually.

How can you do that? By praying for your fellow human beings. Prayer is what is going to save the world, my friends. Do not forget that. I have said this before in a previous show. I received this secondhand from someone who met the Creator, or maybe the Father God. The Father God said, "Man will prey on man until man learns to pray for man." P-R-E-Y versus P-R-A-Y. In other words, if we pray enough, if we pray together, and if more people pray, then those prayer words rise up, and we can defeat war and killing and finally have some peace on this planet.

What do you say, my friends? Would you like to leave this Earth as a spirit and find out you did not develop yourself spiritually enough, then have to return to this planet for another lifetime of war and killing? Or go to another planet in the universe that is also a category-one world, one of the lowest evolved planets, where there is a lot of war, killing, and fighting, and where people are learning basic social values? Or do you want to graduate with honors to a planet of a higher category of evolution, where people love each other and adore each other simply because they are alive and recognize the light inside them?

That spark of divinity is in them. They know they are alive and worthy of respect, dignity, and love. Some of those superior extraterrestrial civilizations are like brothers and sisters to each other. They love each other so much. Then they look at us here on planet Earth, killing each other by the thousands, and they think, "Why do we want to make contact with a race like that? They are still violent. They are like barbarians." And it is true. On our planet, we have had conquerors like Alexander the Great, Napoleon, and Hitler - barbarians killing millions of people. Six million Jews were killed in the war, many shot by machine guns at concentration camps and buried in ditches. Such disrespectful things to the Creator.

Each life should be valued, my friends. It is sacred. The light we have inside us is sacred.

Speaker 1 - Reverend Blake Rubie:
Mother and Father God, Creator of the universe, you are able. You can do anything. You are omnipotent and omniscient. Please help us here on planet Earth. Let us rise above war and killing. Let us learn to pray for each other and have peace, and to love each other, like Jesus taught 2,000 years ago. Even though much time has passed since then, I think we are making progress, but we need your help. Please help us. Bless us all, each and every one of us, for we are all your children. Help us in any way we need, if it be your will. In Jesus' name, or just plain amen.

Bye-bye, everybody. Talk to you next week. Bye-bye.