Public talk in Santa Monica

Finally!  I get to talk about my book in my hometown by the bay; Santa Monica.

UPDATE: "Flipside" book talk and general merriment Friday the 25th of January, 7 pm, there will be chili served!  First Presybeterian is an amazing venue, amazing church to have a public talk, very progressive, compassionate folks. Books & DVDs available for purchase. Come see why this book went to #1 on Amazon (kindle in its genre, 9-21). If you have questions about what thousands have said under deep hypnosis about the afterlife, are just curious, or furious, come on down and take the red pill. Book hits Barnes & Noble in Print on 2-28. http://fpcsantamonica.org/directions_parking.html

It's Friday January 25th at First Pres Church at 7 pm.

This is not for the faint of heart.

I'm a huge fan of Rev. Wood, who oversees one of the oldest flocks in California - not that the people are old, but the church is.  Nestled on 2nd street between Arizona and Wilshire, our kids had the unique experience of going to the pre-school here - one of the best reviewed in .. well, it's a good school.

The wonderful Dr. Mary Hartzell runs the program.  She's an amazing child psychologist and author.  I will be telling a funny story during the talk which I'll repeat here.

While I was filming "Flipside" or at least starting my research into it, I had been reading Carol Bowman's "Children's Past Lives."  Carol is someone who studied with Ian Stevenson at the University of Virginia, and has become a Michael Newton trained hypnotherapist.  She's the author of a number of books, and is frequently seen on shows about past life regressions. Carol and Jim Tucker (who is carrying on Ian Stevenson's work at UVA in reincarnation from a scientific perspective) both assisted the child who was featured on ABC who clearly remembered a previous life as a WWII pilot.  The father has written a book - he was a skeptic, but with the help of Tucker and Carol, they were able to research and find out the accuracy of what his child had reported.

A couple of First Pres students related to me

While reading Bowman's book, I attended one of the public meetings Dr. Hartzell gives at the school where parents can candidly talk about their toddler's issues; not wanting to go to bed at night, or other behavioral issues that drive parents to distraction.

One of the women raised her hand and said "My son claims that he died in Africa.  He's been repeating this story for awhile now.  What do I tell him?"

Dr. Hartzell smiled and said "Well, most likely he was watching a television show about Africa."  The woman said that couldn't be the case as they monitor what he watches, and there'd been no show that was anywhere near what he was describing.  I raised my hand and said "Well.. actually.. there's quite a bit of evidence of children remembering past lives.  Carol Bowman and others have reported them recently.  The children seem to be able to remember events up to around the age of seven."

Dr. Hartzell smiled and said with a wave of her hand, "Oh Richard, you're just making that up for another screenplay."

On the set of my film "My Bollywood Bride"

Well, not really.  Again, as I'm fond of saying (to anyone who will listen) I'm not making this information up. It's not a philosophy, or based on anyone's belief system.  It's based on what people report - eyewitnesses if you will - say about their journey into what can only be described as the Afterlife.  And they're remarkably uniform - despite age differences, cultural differences - it doesn't matter what gender, what religion or what background they are.  THEY ALL SAY THE SAME BASIC THINGS ABOUT THE AFTERLIFE.

I began this project, wanting to make a documentary about the Afterlife from a spiritual perspective, with a number of points of view.  When I came across Michael Newton's work ("Journey of Souls") I realized that if what he was saying was true, it was revolutionary.  I set about to either disprove or prove what he claimed; that 7000 of his clients said the same things about the afterlife during a deep hypnosis session, before he'd published his first book.  So I chose 15 different subjects and filmed them under deep hypnosis.  And remarkably; the confirmed his research.  There are interviews with a number of hypnotherapists who practice his technique - who are now in many countries around the world.  (You can find a Michael Newton trained therapist near you at NewtonInstitute.Org).  This is not past life regression - this is way beyond that, where a person gets to see why they chose their previous lives, why they chose this life and what the two have in common.  Pretty profound.

The church is one of those wonderful places that opens its doors to all kinds of points of view.  (I saw the Buddha's relics here not too long ago).  But I will likely touch upon how this research, while appearing to be contrary to Church Dogma, actually underlines, heightens and allows a deeper interpretation of spirituality, no matter what your belief is.

So if you want to take the red pill, have your mind altered just slightly, and perhaps have some laughs along the way, come on down to First Pres Church in Santa Monica.  Depending how many folks show, we'll probably be in the Renaissance room where there's a grand piano which I will most likely play at some point.  Just to get us all in the mood.

Old pic, but it will do.