Last shot of the day on a film set, also the last name of the author of this blog. Martin - Latin singular, those soldiers who work for Mars, God of War. A smith. In this lifetime of words, music and film. AKA "The Afterlife Expert" (Coast to Coast AM) If you want to reach me, I can be found on FB, LinkedIn, or Gmail under MartiniProds (my youtube channel)
I was finishing up my film for Gaia "Backstage Pass to the Flipside: Talking to Bill Paxton" when Dr. Medhus reached out to me and asked if there was anyone I wanted her to speak with. I suggested Billy. I asked these same questions to two other mediums (as mentioned in "Backstage Pass") and got the SAME ANSWERS from all three mediums. Further, she nails a number of things in this interview - including that I met Bill in a pub in London when he was working on Aliens. No one knows that story but me and Bill. Welcome to the flipside. Enjoy.
For those who got a chance to see the Oscar wining film "Free Solo" on National Geographic channel, they got a glimpse into the inner workings of the mind of the most amazing climber ever put on film. Directed by Jimmy Chin, Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi, it's in theaters now as well as the safety of the National Geographic Channel in your own home.
There was a key moment in the film, when Alex agreed to have his brain MRI'd. The doctor looking at the inner workings of his brain, said "Your amygdala isn't functioning normally." Alex made a comment like "I guess my brain's different."
Typical amygdala - Wikimedia
Which came first, the chicken or the egg? Some can argue that the evidence of why Alex appears to be unafraid of heights, is because the "flight or fight" mechanism in his brain is malfunctioning. It's the catchall phrase that people use when talking about the amygdala - a peanut sized part of the brain that regulates serotonin. I'm not a doctor, but I've studied a little bit about the amygdala because it appears in an epic study on meditation, something I am familiar with.
Using MRI to study meditation
Richie Davidson
Part of his study with a monk trained in meditation.
Richard Davidson at the University of Wisconsin did a study with MRI of brains of people who were expert at meditation, where he showed that a "single session of meditation can change the shape of the amygdala." I attended a lecture he gave at UCLA where he talked about this research to a room full of psychiatrists, eager to find an alternate to the customary methodology of prescribing SSRI drugs to children who are depressed. I attended the lecture because I know that Davidson is part of the Dalai Lama's mind science program, and was curious what his research might show about meditation. But after the lecture where he demonstrated that his study showed that "mediation can cure or alleviate symptoms of depression," hand after hand went up. The psychiatrists in the SRO room were concerned because parents were insisting, asking for help with depressed children, or with children who were acting out - and the only medicine they had in their arsenal was medicine that would "inhibit serotonin release." (SSRI drugs like Prozac, Zoloft, etc). (The "misfiring" of serotonin is frequently cited in everything from autism to not being able to sleep properly) As it turns out, there had been no definite studies done with teens and these SSRI drugs, and the side effects (one pediatrician told me that it was as high as 15%) could be severe; ideations of suicide or violence. Here is a warning from the National Institute of Health: "The documented efficacy and long-term benefit of antidepressants in patients with recurrent forms of severe anxiety or depressive disorders support their use in those individuals with these disorders, who experience suicidal thoughts or behavior. In general, it is assumed that antidepressants are beneficial for all symptoms of depression, including suicidality. However, some evidence suggests that Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitors [SSRIs] may cause worsening of suicidal ideas in vulnerable patients. Systematic reviews and pooled analysis of experimental, observational, and epidemiological studies have investigated the use of SSRIs and their association with suicidality. Taking account of the methodological limitations of these studies, the current evidence fails to provide a clear relationship between their use and risk of suicidality in adults. However, in children and adolescents, there appears to be a bit of increased risk of suicidal ideations and attempts, but not of completed suicides." https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3353604/ (And further, if one wants to make the case that every mass shooting since Columbine has had an SSRI or "antidepressant" component - that case can be made. Many of the shooters had been under psychiatric care, or had a history of Serotonin Release inhibitor use). Michael Moore weighs in on the topic:
It's not my opinion, theory or belief that is the case - it's just in the public records when there has been an autopsy done on the shooter or shooters, or there is a known record of that kind of medical prescription. Be that as it may, this isn't a post about SSRI abuse, or the medical community prescribing something that hasn't been fully studied - it's about the part of the brain that for some reason, wasn't "functioning normally" in the brain of Alex Honnold, the man who is the first to free solo "El Cap" in Yosemite.
Robert Thurman (left) leading a meditation under the north face of Mt. Kailash in Western Tibet
If you've seen the film, it's thrilling, dizzying, almost disturbing to see him defy gravity and reach the top. His casual comments of his success - not screaming, hopping up and down, but of sitting down and smiling profusely - point to someone who has his amygdala "not abnormal" but functioning perfectly well. In the voice over, he talks about "controlling his fear" by "expanding his horizon" - by expanding what it is that he is doing in his mind with regard to each step of the journey. It's as if he's "meditating on what he should be doing" and "visualizing what can be done." Further, he had done the trip "40 or 50 times" the year prior, so he was very familiar with the journey. He was able to previsualize each step. However, there are not many human beings that could make that trip, as is noted throughout the film. He has an amazing ability to either compartmentalize fear, or as the MRI shows - to not have it both him at all.
El Capitan in Yosemite (wiki)
Was it his determination to succeed that caused the amygdala to work differently in such adverse conditions? Or was he born that way? Well, in Davidson's epic study, he showed that anyone can change their amygdala by being mindful. In fact, the idea of "mindfulness" comes directly from his study, because the word "meditation" is often associated with religious practices, or worse - yoga - meaning a person would have to do "some form of exercise in order to accomplish a task." Which is why the word meditation was changed to something more precise about what was going on. Mind. Full. Ness.
Palden Gyatso was able to endure thirty years of torture at the hands of the Chinese authorities through meditation.
After his lecture, I asked Richard Davidson what specific meditation he used to achieve the results. I figured since there are so many different meditations that are possible, the specific meditation might hold a clue as to why he achieved those results. He told me; "Tonglen;" but a "non-specific version," using the idea of "healing of the Earth as an object" instead of a person to not skew the scientific results.
As close as I'll get to climbing a mountain in Tibet
I happen to know what "Tonglen" is and how it's used. And indeed, it does hold a clue - not only to why Alex Honnold can climb a mountain without fear, but as to how we can help cure or alleviate depression without the use of drugs.
Tonglen means "give and take" in Tibetan. It refers to the practice itself, where the person meditating imagines someone (or in this case, the non specific Earth) that is ill and needs healing. The meditator pictures their loved one (or object) in front of them, then imagines the problem that needs repair (or illness) as a "color or smoke." It doesn't matter which color they choose to represent "illness" or "trauma" - they imagine it on the person or object they're trying to heal. It's up to the person doing the imagining to determine what color or smoke they see. Then as they breathe in, the imagine "pulling that illness" out of the person or object, pulling that color or smoke into themselves.
It may sound counterintuitive - pulling an illness out of someone and imagine pulling it into yourself - but as the illness arrives, you're supposed to imagine a healing light ("the healing light of the universe") blasting that illness and transforming it into a healed light - and the color or smoke changes. So for example, if you're imagining someone's broken rib, you might imagine a color for that injury - perhaps red, or red smoke. As you picture your friend, you imagine "pulling that color out of them" as you breathe in - the color finds its way into your own rib, but as it arrives, you turn on a "klieg light of healing energy" - and turn that color into a healed energy and then breathe it back into the loved one. Or in this case the Earth.
Richard Davidson and HHDL
As you breathe in, you pull the color out of the loved one, as you breathe out, you breathe healed light back into them. Perhaps you "take the red" and "give back gold" into your loved one.
In one case, I know of someone who tried this with someone who had pneumonia - they got a call from their friend who was deathly ill, and was asking for help. First he called a doctor who agreed to go to this person's home, and then as a test of their ability, imagined trying to heal the loved one using Tonglen. First, the person saw the wife's chest as a fireplace with coals inside of it, burning red. And as he breathed in, he saw the coals get brighter, with flames - but then as he breathed out, he imagined his breath was a cool ice filled mist, that damped the coals. Eventually the imaginary cool mist turned to snow, and he said that he pictured snow falling on the red coals in his wife's chest - until the fire went out. A few moments later, prior to the doctor's arrival, he called his wife, and she said "I don't know what just happened, but my fever broke. My pneumonia just seemed to end. I feel better now." The doctor arrived moments after that and gave her a dose of antibiotics. It's not as if the meditation saved this person's life where antibiotics did the trick, but it's an anecdotal story of someone claiming to "feel the physical effects" of the tonglen meditation. There is no scientific proof (that I'm aware of) that demonstrates that prayer or meditation can cure or help the object of the prayer or meditation (there is plenty of anecdotal tales) but there is medical evidence that proves the person doing the prayer or meditation can "cure or alleviate symptoms of depression" in themselves. Literally "doing unto others" selflessly has a physical healing effect on the person doing the selfless act.
When they imagine themselves healing someone else - doing something selflessly, indeed, they heal themselves. They alter the amgydala in such a way that it now is able to regulate serotonin normally, or better - or whatever term they use to describe the normal function of the amygdala. Which indeed, may very well by the way that Alex Honnold's amygdala works - just fine, thank you very much. His amygdala may be what we all might aspire to - to be able to experience life without fear on a daily basis. For further information, Richard Davidson's website is here:https://centerhealthyminds.org/about/founder-richard-davidson Pema Chodron has a book and technique on teaching Tonglen which can be found here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QwqlurCvXuM and for further adventures into the flipside, my film can be found here: https://www.amazon.com/gp/video/detail/B0081U6K1Y - highly recommend watching Free Solo as it's a monumental achievement in film and in sport: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt7775622/
It's always a treat to be invited onto Coast to Coast radio. This interview was after Harry Dean Stanton passed away, and Jennifer Shaffer and I had a chat with him about his arrival on the flipside. Harry Dean was famous for being a skeptic and atheist - but he has some funny things to say about his arrival over "there." Here's the book "Backstage Pass to the Flipside: Talking to the Afterlife with Jennifer Shaffer"
Jennifer Shaffer, medium extraordinaire
And as an addendum to this post: For "Chris C", who wrote the following to me on "The Book of Faces:" "So when will you tell me about Art Bell in afterlife, it was a request made on Coast to Coast with George Noory"
Indeed, I remember one of the callers asked a question about Art Bell - I didn't know Art, but he did reach out to me about appearing on his radio show after hearing me on "Coast to Coast" (a show he created) which I did with his Heather Wade (and posted below). But to this fellow on the Book of Faces I replied:
"Honestly bro i dont have any questions for art bell. If you do you can ask him. Just say his name. Ask your questions. When you hear an answer before you can form the question you'll know you've made a connection."
(I'm not ducking the question. I get asked all the time; "why don't you talk to so and so?" I also offer that "so and so" is welcome to come to one of the times that I'm filming a medium speaking - (including my weekly chats with JenniferShaffer.com) - but I really don't have much to ask Art - "Why did you get involved in this kind of research?" "Who was there to greet you when you crossed over?" I didn't know him - so I couldn't verify any of his answers. The answer that I gave Chris came directly from someone on the other side as a "method of how anyone can speak to us over here.")
To which Chris replied:
"You led us to believe you could talk to the dearly departed, I will bring this up on Coast to Coast during open lines, I am sadly sorry you sound like a fake, I thought maybe you were real."
Ok. Chris C - since you weren't listening;I don't speak to the afterlife; I film people who do. As per one of those conversations, we can all communicate with the afterlife - not just mediums. Art Bell is waiting for you to reach out to him. Tell him I said hi. (Not knocking Art, he reached out to me to be on his show before he died - but find it ironic my reluctance to talk to him would piss off one of his fans.)
And because I didn't answer your question the way that you preferred ("Wait, hold on, yes, let me get on my headphone and speak to Art on your behalf") you are promising to go to "go on Coast to Coast" and tell everyone what a fake I am.
Too late. I'm way ahead of you bro.
Again. I'm not claiming to "talk to the dead." I've been filming people for ten years "talking to the dead" "talking about the dead" "talking about how the dead are not dead" "talking about how we don't die." So in that vein, "Hey Art Bell, do me a favor and "ping" this fellow so he can know that you still exist, so he can ask you questions - because as we both know, no one dies, no one is gone, everyone we've ever known or loved is accessible if we take the time to ASK THE QUESTIONS."
(Of course Art is welcome to join our chats, just not going to seek him out without a booker paving the way. I'm sure he's a busy man even on the flipside, answering all of the questions everyone has for him.)
So here's the interview I did for Art Bell's show with Heather Wade (his hand picked replacement). Heather reached out to me on his behalf years earlier, but it took a couple of years before they had me on his show, and sadly, Art passed a few months after this aired. But Heather goes to a place pretty unusual during this interview - visits some things that are pretty unusual - so it's a fun listen either way. I know he enjoyed hearing it.
By Howard Hughes.Discovered by Player FM and our community — copyright is owned by the publisher, not Player FM, and audio streamed directly from their servers.
First time on the podcast for Rich Martini - afterlife researcher in California...
With regard to this NBC report on Dr. Jim Tucker's work at UVA on reincarnation: Dr. Tucker and Carol Bowman have been working diligently on reincarnation topics since they were students of Ian Stevenson at the University of Virginia. I posted a link to this report, and some wag on the book of faces suggested that any discussion of reincarnation was "Magical thinking." To which I replied: "Ian Stevenson spent 30 years at UVA doing peer reviewed studies in reincarnation. Dr. Jim Tucker has continued his work at UVA, along with Carol Bowman have presented dozens of verifiable cases of reincarnation. Dr. Greyson (UVA)'s talk "Is Consciousness Produced by the Brain?" (YouTube) cites the medical evidence showing that it's not.
Ed Kelly PhD's "Irreducible Mind" shows that what we believe to be logic regarding consciousness is inaccurate. Magical thinking appears to be a prerequisite to addressing the nature of existence. I've filmed 50 cases of people recalling previous lifetimes, examined thousands from Dr. Helen Wambach and Michael Newton. People consistently say the same things about the process of incarnation. It's not a theory, belief or opinion we've all had previous journeys here: just reporting what is consistently claimed. The belief that life ends with the chrysalis stage is the part that is magical. The point being; if we choose to return, doesn't it make sense to have fresh air, earth and water for our return? The magical thinking is believing that life ends when it can be demonstrated that it does not. To which the wag replied: "Are these verifiable cases?" Indeed they are verifiable cases. I recommend doing a little research on the topic. Ian Stevenson. Dr. Jim Tucker. UVA. Iands.org The question is why did you choose to come back? Who are you here to teach? What are you here to learn? If this concept is beyond one's scope at the moment, it will eventually be addressed. Or not. It's your/our choice. Not everyone signs up to learn how the play ends. That's fine. Just enjoy the show. I respect your opinion that life ends. It's just not in the research." Another face of the book wrote: Sorry. Dead is dead. My reply: "Indeed. I've heard the same argument from caterpillars looking at a chysalis. First we have to define dead. If we look it up, we find that "lack of oxygen to the brain" is considered medically dead. If you look at the cases - and I do mean LOOK at the cases, you'll find in Dr. Sam Parnia's work that there are many cases of people who died (no oxygen to the brain) and returned to talk about it. If you examine Mario Beauregard's "Brain Wars" you'll find clinical cases of death and consciousness continuing to exist - or examine the thousands of cases at the International Association for Near Death Studies (iands.org) where people were dead dead dead but yet - not dead. David Bennett's experience; a navy scientist drowned for 12 minutes - twelve minutes under water, no oxygen - he saw and experienced many things that he reports in his book "Voyage of Purpose" - I've interviewed him and others who've had near death events. Dead... but not dead. And the truth is, you'll continue to consider this to be fact until you meet someone who has had the experience or experience it yourself. Dead, but not dead. I'm sorry if that's what you think happens - that's what you believe happens - but all I can tell you is that's not what the research shows happens. And by research I'm talking about thousands of cases where people claim that's "not what happens." "I was startled because I could see my body, and everyone saw that I was dead... but I was not dead." I've been filming people under deep hypnosis for ten years talking about these events - skeptics, scientists, atheists, agents, producers, attorneys - it doesn't matter. Once they witness a death of their own (from a previous lifetime in these cases, not NDEs) they say the same things the NDE people say. "I realized I WAS NOT DEAD." When asked "Where do you got after that?" they consistently say "I went home." Not heaven. Not purgatory. Not hell. "Home." It's what people consistently say. If we took the time to look at what they say, we'd see they don't claim any religion is accurate. None. Zero. Not a single solitary one. They do say "all roads lead to home" and that "it doesn't matter what one believes while they're here, they all experience the same things when they are not."I'm sorry if this upsets the paradigm of the simple sentence: "Sorry, but when you're dead you're dead." It's just... not... in... the... research. Sorry."
What's the magical thinking we're talking about here? Are we looking at data that is in front of us and choosing to ignore it? That's fine, that's allowed - but that is belief, that is opinion, or that is following what isn't in the research. What is magical thinking? Magical thinking is how Einstein discovered that he was able to see "the speed of light" in his mind, prior to putting it on the page, it allowed Nikola Tesla to construct complete mechanical objects in his mind without putting them on paper and "seeing them work" - it's the same magical thinking that Beethoven described when he "went into the ethers" to find the source of his inspiration. "Beyond the spheres."
I understand the complaint is that magic is not real, that there is logic to every "trick of the mind" - but that does not negate the fact that thousands of people have said the same things under deep hypnosis about the journey, that what they say is consistent and reproducible. In the 45 sessions I've filmed, and the 5 I've filmed myself experience, I can tell you that when you "see something" that is in your mind's eye and learn "new information from people no longer on the planet" - you do feel as if you're experiencing something "magical."
What's wrong with magical thinking? It is the source of every poem ever written, every movie ever scripted, every novel, play or story that has been ever crafted. Because we are hard-wired to create stories - even if we are creating stories that are echoes of our previous lifetimes, or our between lifetime experiences. What people claim about reincarnation under deep hypnosis dovetails with what people who remember their previous incarnations have to say on the topic. We tend to think we can't ask people questions about their journey, that somehow our asking the questions interferes with their memory of it - but when you have thousands of people say the exact same things about a journey, and it's CONTRARY to every known religious definition of reincarnation, then it begs the question; "How could all these people be saying the contrary thing to what people claim reincarnation is, or how could they all be understanding something that science does not understand?" Then we have proof of concept to point to. This past weekend I was invited by my pal Jennifer Shaffer (jennifershaffer.com) to participate in a "proof of concept" event in Manhattan Beach. She had gathered together about 25 people who expressed an interest in mediumship. Jennifer has an extensive background in helping people in missing person cases. She's helped with some high and low profile cases. She reports what she sees, experiences, hears, senses as part of her pro bono work for families who have suffered these kinds of traumas, but one day she thought "wouldn't it be great if I could get together a group of like minded people and see what kind of details we can all come up with?" For those familiar with the history of this kind of research with the government, ("Men Who Stare At Goats") there was some formal training in the 70's with regard to "remote viewing." Using mediums or psychics to try to pry into Soviet secrets. Like any government project, the military was trying to use science to further the ability to "see" into what the Soviets were up to (as the Soviets had their own programs in the same field.)
The remote viewing program was abandoned, some papers were written; most point to the results being "slightly better" than flipping a coin, but still - a better percentage of "guessing" or seeing people objects and things that they were asked to look for. Unfortunately what they were tasked to find were coordinates where Soviet agents would be vacationing in their dacha - and like many projects aimed at using people to assist in govt secrets, didn't exactly pay off. But in this case, Jennifer has already been tasked with helping to solve crimes, or find people - and she brought together a group of like minded folks, to see what the results would be.
The results, from my chair in the room, were astounding. Strangers that have no formal training in mediumship, aren't professional mediums but were people who have spiritual backgrounds, came together to see what they could come up with. And they came up with consistent results. Jennifer presented three case studies - in one instance, a criminal already in prison for what he'd done, in the second case, a person who is currently missing, and in the third, a child who had died under mysterious circumstances. In each case, the four groups came up with the exact same information - age range, looks, what the person liked to do, what their background was. In the case of the missing person, they had detailed maps, detailed sounds or visuals that were in line with what law enforcement had already discovered (yet had not been revealed) in the case of the person who had died, one of their parents stood in front of the group and detailed the many details of what these people had already know. Names, dates, places... all right on the money.
The program is called "Impartial Witness" and as outlined, some people from silicon valley have assisted in coming up with how to use AI to help in these cases, there are former government officials involved from a variety of law enforcement backgrounds, and then, there's these anonymous people who will be assisting in helping to find, discover, learn or solve any number of issues. Almost like having a live think tank on the flipside.
I can imagine all of the possible applications - from corporations looking to solve a mystery (an airliner that has disappeared for example) to discovering why their corporate secrets are being stolen, and how, to parents who are in need of their help, or siblings trying to find their long lost parent. But at the moment, this group is assisting law enforcement on "cold cases" as well as missing person cases. Of course it can't or doesn't always work. My research into this arena points out that "not everyone wants to be cured" (i.e., they signed up to learn from this lifetime and it's not up to anyone to solve the problem before they experience it) "some people learn more from a tragedy than it being solved" (i.e., "You can learn more from one day of tragedy on planet Earth than you can from 500 years on some boring planet" (that's a direct quote in "Flipside") - so there may be any number of reasons why something isn't solved or understood, even on a group level.
But for those who are looking for an edge, a leg up, a way to help solve real time problems, this is an excellent tool in the algorithmic bag. If you have endless amounts of money to throw at an issue, and will leave no stone unturned to find the solution, it's certainly an excellent way to help law enforcement that is open to working with them (and in those applications yet to be discovered.) Yes, it could be reminiscent of Phillip K. Dick's crime solving fantasy "Minority Report" which shows the problems occur when someone in a position of authority abuses the system - however, the people involved have thought out how to make sure there's no security issues that can't be addressed. The people who report are anonymized, vetted by Jennifer so that people with the right intent are involved, as well as ensuring that the law enforcement is not being asked questions, but are observing what the results are through multiple filters. But I saw that this kind of think tank could also be tasked to help save the planet.
There's no reason this kind of application can't be tasked to helping the environment "What are the best ways to explore how we can change salt water to fresh water for pennies?" or "How can we solve the problem of fossil fuel energy issues?" Whatever answers that come forth - it won't matter whether it comes from someone's subconscious, from a scientist no longer on the planet, or a group of people exploring the answers from the flipside - the solution will have the same result; helping humanity. There is no question that cannot be asked to the flipside, it's just a matter of understanding and translating what those answers might be. Stay tuned.
When I was at Boston University, I was part of a program called DGE. It was known as the "Division of General Education" but was considered a prelaw program, that was taught by some of the brightest at the University. Classroom size was small compared to rest of the 26K students, and each student signed up for a two year program. Julian Baird was the professor who taught Humanities. As I've mentioned here before, I was a huge fan of Julian's; he had a profound effect on my world view. He passed away not too long ago, but I was able to spend some time with him and my camera. I got a chance to speak to the maestro before he checked off the planet. For those who are fans of "Backstage Pass to the Flipside" - he gets his own chapter. And here's a link to Part One of his two part story. I mention Julian and DGA because it had three basic disciplines for four semesters; Humanities, Social Studies, and Science. So freshman year we began with the Greek's story - how they viewed the arts, how they viewed society and how they influenced science.
But what DGE's program alluded to - is that throughout human history, movements can be charted in terms of their influence on society. So when the Greeks were discovering democracy, the politics of the day was exploring what that meant, the science of the day was exploring how the planet worked, and the arts - plays, sculpture, mosaics - were mirroring each other's advancements.
The same is true for the Renaissance - the invention of the public library by the Medici family changed the dynamic of what people could read or study. They started reading Plato and Socrates, and learning about how the world viewed itself prior to the Christian Church taking hold of information - and science had its own resurgence in people like Galileo (until the Church showed him the tools of torture).
But the Renaissance affected societies in how they treated their individuals (in the Florentine Senate, they had a voting system where each Senator would offer a white or black marble (yes or no vote) and at the end of the voting, they'd discover whether a law had passed or not.) (One of their lesser known laws was putting yellow stars on the Jewish money lenders in a particular part of the city - ostensibly a required "permit" - but we all know how that turned out.)
Simonetta Vespucci
Most aren't aware that the Pope's reaction to all of this liberalism was to send an assassin to Florence to kill both Medici brothers who were ruling the city - they successfully killed one (Giuliano, the popular athlete who appears in "Primavera") but only succeeded in wounding Lorenzo, who not only outlived the Pope, but appointed his son, and his brother's bastard son as Popes (Leo X the "humanist Pope" and Clement VII - both hired Michelangelo, who had lived in their home with them in Florence).
Lorenzo De Medici survived the Pope's attempted assassination.
One hundred years ago, artists and scientists took a new tack - perhaps based upon the invention of the camera, perhaps because history books had come into fashion. But writers began to deconstruct words, and looked at the art of writing in a new fashion (James Joyce is considered the pillar of this style of exploration.) Musicians began to deconstruct music - the time signatures, scores, eventually became atonal, painters began to deconstruct space on a canvas; out of it came the Impressionists, the Cubists, the Dadaists, etc. In like form, people started exploring the mind (William James psychologist, Freud and Jung via hypnosis), the microscope and the origin of illness came into focus, and on a sociological level, upheavel was the coin of the realm; 17 world leaders were assassinated around the turn of the century. The new was overturning the old in all areas and in a grand sense deconstructing what had been handed to them. So what's going on now? Computers and the internet have caused the most recent trends on the planet. We have apps influencing how we behave with others (who uses a telephone any more? People prefer to text than speak, communication is changing on all levels.) In terms of music we have electronic or digital film scores (like Hans Zimmer deconstructing "La Vie En Rose" for the score of Inception) that use digital expression in a new way, people's ability to use libraries online have made information easily accessible, governments and all manner of sociological issues are based on algorithmic data that dictates how the government relate to humanity, writing has become something that combines multiple expressions of reality - from links to other articles, to podcasts where people speak about their experience and anyone can create or listen in. The democratization of expression is making it so anyone can create anything anywhere at any time. There is no one telling them what they can or can't sell, think, write or create. They can use the internet to meet their audience directly, and whether they charge money for that access, or just do it for the betterment of the planet (open source patents like Tesla) people are altering how they share intelligence.
Picasso and his pal the musician who shot himself over
the beauty next to him. Picasso took care of her financially
for years "in memory of my best friend who died
for her beauty."
Doesn't mean that the old ways aren't clinging on for dear life - the idea of combatting climate change, or trying to parse human behavior into some kind of myopic box that relates to hundreds of years ago - is all part of the mix. As noted, the Pope's reaction to the liberalness of the Florentines was to "excommunicate the entire city" in a fatwa ("the Dissentio") and it was Lorenzo De Medici who used the newly lifted printing press to disseminate his version of events ("The Pazzi Conspiracy" written by Lorenzo's pal and poet Poliziano) which had a direct reaction from Martin Luther who read and reacted to what the Church was up to. It was one of the first cases where the flipside of the story got out at the same time as the powers that be put out their story. The Vatican distributed only 11 handwritten copies in Latin (I've examined two of them, one at Yale, the other in Claremont) but Lorenzo's version of events was sent to every capital city in the world. "The Pazzi Conspiracy" was a revelation in its day, as it had a complete confession of the assassin, and detailed the events that led to the Pope signing his "pardon" that was supposed to save him from the executioner's ax. (Hint: It did not.) One of the first examples of "social media" influencing world events (Obviously, Lorenzo didn't get Papal permission to changing the course of history - Lorenzo published the account using a purloined German printing press (the Italians were claiming they had their own); the Vatican's reaction (The City of Florentine executed the entire Pazzi family which included an archbishop) was to excommunicate the entire city and send an army to burn "the den of iniquity" to the ground. Lucky for us, thwarted by Lorenzo.)
Taj Martini
So we're going through another one of those phases. The same kind of rebirth that occurred in Athens (democratization of humanity, rather than just males), the Renaissance where artists, writers, poets and scientists began to study the human element of their work; the tearing apart of art and science and history that began 100 years ago has culminated into what we're experiencing now. People can express themselves in ways never thought imaginable - whether it's the virtual reality experience of being an immigrant led over the wall by coyotes in Mexico ("Carne Y Arena" by Inarittu) or it's the virtual Westworld of Red Dead Redemption 2, or it's the gender smashing, mind bending reality that we all choose our avatars in life, the way we choose avatars in "Jumanji." Will there be blowback? If history is a guide; indeed, there will be. Will it cause stress and difficulties? Again, history offers that all of these revolutions in the consciousness of the planet has its own particular changes that occur. Will the effects of this era have on the planet 100, 500 years from now? Well, if we're smart enough to reverse the devastation we've caused, it's possible that we ourselves will choose to come back and participate in the rebuilding of whatever happens now.
But I digress. What does this have to do with Socrates and hemlock? The other day I was filming an interview with someone on the flipside, and that person "on the other side" (courtesy of Jennifer Shaffer) said "It's not like what happened to Socrates." And I said, "Hang on a second, let me ask a question about that. Can we speak to Socrates? Is he available?" Jennifer paused for a few seconds, and said "He's here." I said "So what was that comment about Socrates? Everyone tells your story as recounted by Plato - that you were this great orator, and that when you were forced to make the choice, chose to drink hemlock, chose to commit suicide rather than succumb to the prevailing powers that be. The story has been passed along for centuries, and has cemented your reputation as a powerful voice of resistance."
Giordano Bruno, burned at the
stake for recalling his out of body experience
where he saw the earth went around the sun.
He said "Plato made it up." I asked "Why?" He replied "Why do you think? The powers that be didn't like me, thought I was a pain in the ass, so they had me poisoned. Plato invented all that because it made a better story." I thought that was pretty provacative for a number of reasons. Who knew that Socrates would be available? (Why not? We are "outside of time" when we're off the planet, and I've often heard in my 45 cases that I've filmed, or the thousands that I've examined, that 25 years or 2500 years feels like "not that long ago.") Who knew that Socrates thought Plato was an errant student? (It's possible. We heard none other than G. Washington refer to Jefferson as "that %^shole"). We think history is in stone, when it's never in stone - nothing is stone, even stone - which shifts, adjust, gets worn down and turns into... pebbles. Or sand.
Magnified sand. BBC foto.
People and events that occurred "back then" aren't felt that way on the flipside, and further, since people don't reincarnate fully (they only send back about 30% of their energy, according to these reports) then asking to speak to an individual "if it's possible" - is a matter of connecting with their "higher self" or the portion left behind.
Flipside Painting by Bosch
We've had some people not come forward - for whatever reason "they aren't available right now." I try not to judge why that is, and move on to the person who is available. Just found that somewhat amusing to hear that the Hemlock story was in a writer's imagination - a good story to be sure, but according to our pal Socrates; "never happened." So let's hope that we keep better records of what's happening in our era now, so that 500 years from now, or 2500 years, or even 5000 years, we can "go to the tape" and examine what really happened during this era.
