A Shot of Martini

I look like I had too much coffee. I did.

Talking with my old pal George Noory on Friday.





As a way of prep, for me and for you dear reader, let's recap.  Who is this guy Rich Martini?

Just a filmmaker.  Grew up in Chicago (Northbrook), home of John Hughes, who went to my high school. Came out to California on a coin flip, went to USC film school, where I met my pal Luana Anders, who was a spiritual person, who got me a job working for her pal Robert Towne, one of the greatest writers of all time.

I wrote and or directed 8 theatrical films, most of them you haven't seen, I know you haven't seen them, because no one has.  But they're all children of mine, and I'm proud to say I can sit and watch any of them today, this very moment and be amused, laugh out loud, or get emotional over something I was trying to convey.

"Dialog coach" on "Movers & Shakers"
Walter Matthau and Charles Grodin pointing to
where all the donuts have gone.

I went to work for Charles Grodin in the 90's, helping produce segments for his show, and later, worked for Phillip Noyce on a couple of films, including "Salt."  I also started writing and researching what happened to Amelia Earhart after she disappeared, thanks to a prompt from an old pal from Northbrook, Abbie Adams Yaffe.

That's turned into a 25 year story - continuing to dig so to speak, last year I went to Saipan and uncovered 15 new eyewitnesses.  People who claim their mom or dad, uncle, or they themselves saw the tall aviator dressed in men's clothes on their island before the war began, which resulted in her passing.

But of course, if you've read any of Flipside, or Its A Wonderful Afterlife, you know that she's not dead. She's just not here. 

And how did I come to that conclusion?  Well, I had a visit from my old friend Luana, and from there I began researching the field.  I found the work of Dr. Michael Newton, a psychologist, and his books that detail the 7000 cases he's had over his career. I interviewed him and other therapists trained in his method of deep hypnosis, called "life between life hypnotherapy."  Turns out all the clients said pretty much the same things about the afterlife.  I detailed that journey in the documentary "Flipside" and the book of the same name.

But as I was talking about the research, I spoke to scientists who were on the cutting edge of consciousness research.  And the stories from people under hypnosis seemed remarkably similar to those who've had near death experiences.  

I spoke to a number of scientists about their work and research, and then continued to film people under deep hypnosis, and then found people who'd had both an NDE and a between life session (LBL). I found remarkable similarities in all their accounts.




Dr. Bruce Greyson UVA is in the book, talking about NDEs.

And like the Earhart research, I tried to stay true to a simple concept.  "What did you see? " "What did you feel or experience?" "What did your family or loved ones say?"  And then sought to corroborate their stories by finding whether or not they lived where they said they did, or spoke to their relatives about their experience, or any other evidence that shows people are likely telling the truth.

For example, when I interviewed Dr. Newton I also got the opportunity to interview his wife, and she was able to corroborate much of what he said.  But what was key to her interview was her saying "He allowed me to listen to the tapes."  And when she heard these accounts of the afterlife, so remarkably similar, knowing the backgrounds of who these people were, how there was little or no ability to find these this information in public - she knew her husband was onto something.

Just found this online - 9 Minutes of Dr. Newton talking about his work.


So I've been filming people during these 6 hour sessions. So far I've filmed 25. (Many with Scott De Tamble, lightbetweenlives.com) Most of them I've chosen, because I know they're skeptics, or they're not aware of this research, or have no property to sell. Then I make sure that no one could guess who these subjects are - so I take out the possibility of gaining something from the experience.  I eliminate the problem inherent in hypnosis - a patient wants to cure something, they go to a person who wants to cure them.  

In this case, they're not looking for any cures, and the hypnotherapist has no idea who they are or why they're there (other than a phone conversation that loosely goes over what they might want to explore to maximize the benefits of the session).

And then I transcribe the session, edit them for content, and present them as they were filmed.  So anyone can see the same thing that I've seen. Here's the trailer for the film "Flipside": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xK7vndjaUJg





Last year I asked people to donate whatever they could for the creation of the last book on a gofundme site.  It meant that I was able to finish the book and research and do those things that take time to compile this information.  So THANK YOU for all your support. My family appreciates it!!

It allowed me to present this work in the most unadulterated way that I can, without hype or bravado - because the content of what people say during these sessions is literally mind blowing.

So George and I are going to be talking about how Near Death Experiences closely resemble between life sessions.  How the hallmarks of NDEs which have been studied scientifically under scientific protocol, are remarkably similar to LBLs which have never been studied under scientific protocols.  How the cutting edge ideas of consciousness as told by Dr. Greyson, Neuroscientist Mario Beauregard and Gary Schwartz PhD in the book, can be linked up with what people are saying during a near death experience or while under deep hypnosis.  There you go. We don't die. And "Bob's your uncle."

If George Noory's recognition of this research as something worthy to examine encourages you to examine it, I think that's fantastic.  I've posted at least a dozen book talks, so if you want to hear any of it explored further, for free, check out my youtube page MartiniProds - and subscribe if you care to, as I'm told once I hit 5,000 followers I can get youtube to sponsor a channel.  Wouldn't that be fun?  All Flipside all the time.  The film "Flipside" is available at Gaiam TV (and DVD at Amazon).

Also, I didn't plan to talk about Earhart research, but George asked me to stick around for an extra hour.  Some folks have questioned my sanity about this topic - I've posted excerpts of my interviews with people on Saipan at www.earhartonsaipan.com - where you can see for yourself what these people have said on camera.  And finally, here's three US veterans who spoke to me about what they saw.

At some point, you have to wonder - why are people so skeptical about this information? Is it uncomfortable?  Why?  As I've said - Amelia is not dead. She's just not here.  So if the quest to find out what happened to her and her plane, why not just ask the people who claim they saw her or saw the plane? In this case US MARINES WHO ARE NOT PRONE TO LYING:



Feel free to leave any questions you might have - my email is like the youtube account - martiniprods at the place that owns youtube - gmail.  

Thanks for tuning in.