Flipside in the News... Ed Sheeran Et Al

Just wanted to weigh in on some recent news stories that point to the research in "Flipside" and "It's A Wonderful Afterlife."
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Let's start with the Brit Awards.  While winning his award, the amazing singer and musician Ed Sheeran said:

"Since I was a little kid I dreamed of people all over the world singing my songs and although I've got a long way to go, this shows that I'm stepping in the right direction." Ed Sheeran

Ed Sheeran, photo: Daily Mail UK

I've asked a number of people "their first conscious thought they'd be doing what they're doing" and often hear of recurring dreams, visions, or "always knew" as if the future lies somewhere under the surface of our reality. 

Not that we're destined, as free will reportedly dictates our path (to accomplish or screw up), but the dreams or visions appear to have little or nothing to do with nature or nurture. Genetics or environment seem to only support the outcome, but its the consciousness of knowing your path that puts one in the "right" direction. (Sheeran quote is buried after Madge's tumble)

I've come across many accounts of people who had profound dreams, recurring dreams or visions of what or who they were to become.  It was also in their behavior in the school yard.  

I asked one FBI agent when she first became conscious of what she might want to do in her life.  She said in preschool, because "I started keeping lists on what people did in school every day. What they wore, what they ate."  (As quoted in "It's a Wonderful Afterlife")

Was she seeing into the future?  Or seeing the path that she'd already chosen for her to be on?  Does it matter?  It does if you're a parent or guardian, and your child says something silly like "When I grow up I'm going to sing music to millions of people."  The answer is, "Cool! Let me get a camera and I want you to say that on camera, because in 20 years, it will be very valuable."

Just like Dave Schultz (the Olympic wrestler, whose story is told in "Foxcatcher") told his father when he was 5 that he "wasn't going to be here very long," but that he had come here to "teach a lesson in love."  (A conversation the father didn't remember until he said it at the eulogy.)  That's a hard pill to swallow - but when you consider the growing mountain of evidence that shows that we don't die - that we are here on stage temporarily, and that those we love have not disappeared, or gone into oblivion, it can be a source of comfort to those who would like to know there is data that backs that up.

Dave Schultz told his dad he wouldn't be here long.

Then, I found this clip, on the anniversary of George Harrison choosing to be on the planet (his birthday), an old friend of mine posted this link to his speaking about death. George says in the clip:

"What happens when you die? That, to me, is the only thing that's of any importance. The rest is just secondary." "If you want to know anything in this life, you just need to knock on the door. Which I found through meditation. It's all within." (At the end a live version of "All Things Must Pass.")  

"What happens when we die, is the most important thing for us to know while we are on the planet."  

Why is that?

Because the answer will inform how you live your life, how you relate to people, how you relate to fear, to stress, to other people behaving badly.  

And finally, a "Near Death Story" with a different outcome:

In the Independent Newspaper in the UK, there's this story about a fellow who "died twice" and both times didn't see or experience anything (consciously) and they use it to report that "nothing happens after we die." No light, no tunnel. Nada. Zip.

Tunnel? Doorway? Different planes of existence? Pixels on a page?  All of the above.

Au contraire.

One person had that experience - an unconscious one - but thousands have had the opposite experience.

We all have different dreams, different experiences of being awake, widely divergent concepts of what being alive is. Or consciousness is. This fella experienced being dead and nothing came to mind. No tunnel of light. Just blankness. 

Never mind thousands have the opposite experience; scientists like Dr. Bruce Greyson at UVA studying cases for decades, Dr. Sam Parnia's published results of the extensive 7 year Aware Study showing consciousness existing outside of dead people, or the 100 cases Mario Beauregard PhD cites in his neuroscience research where people had no blood to the brain for minutes, and yet saw, heard new information from their "out of body" perspective. 

I got pals all over the planet.  These fellas are in Kashmir. Made me a rug.

Some people are actually convinced nothing happens after we die. Sorry to say, it's just not in the data.

Finally, if you want proof of the afterlife, I suggest you watch this clip.  In it, author David Bennett ("Voyage of Purpose") recounts his near death experience where he saw into the future and saw that he would be diagnosed with cancer that would only give him months to live, and then survive it (knowing he would survive it, because he'd already seen that he would). His case has been examined by science: Dr. Greyson at UVA.  I'll let him describe his experience in his own words:



My two cents.

"Flipside" and "It's A Wonderful Afterlife."
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The Flipside of the Oscars

"I'd like to thank the members of the Academy... and everyone who ever left a message on my phone machine....." Congratulations to all the winners at the Oscars!

In my film classes, on the first day I require the students to write their Oscar speech and then deliver it.  It's a very different kettle of fish that you thank when you're starting then when you're ending... except in some cases.  As J.K. Simmons eloquently put it, mom and pop always deserve our thanks.

But from a Flipside perspective, reaching this perceived pinnacle is a bit like crossing over into the afterlife - who is going to greet us in our own ceremony? Will it be a resounding echo of crickets? Or will thousands applaud us for our hard work and "job well done"?  

Well... according to the research in "Flipside" and "It's a Wonderful Afterlife" there's loved ones and friends and family... and a host of others that we've influenced who greet us to applaud our performance on this stage. 

Let's examine the recent Academy awards from the Flipside view of things.  That would be the observation of what was said during the Oscars from a spiritual point of view, or the rare evidence that what happened during the Oscars wasn't just about glitz and pomp.  Beneath the fancy frocks, some profound spiritual lessons were revealed.

Another era. My grandparents meeting the King of England in 1933.

Begin with revelation of the producer/mom Dana Perry who made a film about the suicide of her son.  She said "We should speak about suicide."  (Forgetting for a moment Neil Patrick Harris' "takes balls to wear that dress" comment. It took "balls" for NPH to come out of the closet, and to do this show.)  Then just a few moments later, a young man gets up for winning the script award for ''The Imitation Game" and talks about suicide.  His own. Graham Moore shared with billions how he had tried it because he didn't fit in.  Because he felt "weird." And he said "to all you who feel weird look where I am today."  He said it's okay to feel weird.  It's what makes us human.

Coincidence?  

What are the odds that a woman would say moments prior while accepting the Oscar that "we should talk about suicide" and a few seconds later a man stands up and does EXACTLY THAT?

Doors of perception, or gateway between realms?

Then take the song for "Selma."  The set of the Pettis bridge, that iconic bridge that became a focal point for the Dr. Martin Luther King's journey in this lifetime.  It was the bridge you cross to get to vote.  People were gassed and beaten to stop them from crossing the bridge.  Dr. King led the march - and it finally took the national guard to ensure their trip across that bridge.

And then the artist known as Common actually used the metaphor of the bridge to show that it's a bridge that connects us all.  That the bridge from ignorance to enlightenment exists.  That the song that has inspired many people comes from the same source.  The actor who played Dr. King (David Oyelowo) had tears streaming down his face.  He channeled Dr. King in his performance.  It's pretty unusual for a fellow from England to so accurately find a voice and gestures of someone so foreign to his background.. and yet, he was clearly channeling Dr. King in his performance. Certainly Dr. King enjoyed that performance last night as well.

And John Legend and Common were clearly channeling Dr. King, or the energy behind Dr. King's message of nonviolence change in their song.  And in their speech.  The reason it resonates is that it is spiritual.  It is of the spirit. 

Isaac Newton "The great ocean of truth lay all undiscovered before me."
photo from "It's a Wonderful Afterlife"

Then the lessons of playing roles of people with issues or problems in our society.  "The Imitation Game" deals with the powerful story of a man who signed up for a lifetime where he could not only solve the enigma code, but also a lifetime where he could demonstrate that being gay should never have been a crime.  I would venture to say that he SUCCEEDED IN HIS ENDEAVOR.

This Einstein quote is often heard from people under deep hypnosis
or who have experienced a near death experience

We have the story of a man who signed up to live a life in a wheelchair, using only his mind to wrestle with the most complex problems of the universe.  I would argue that he chose that lifetime because if he had lived his life normally, he never would have gone as far or gotten as deep as he has.  That the lifetime that Stephen Hawking chose, is dramatically proven that he SUCCEEDED IN HIS ENDEAVOR. (And would argue that he can find the theory of everything in examining how it came to be that he chose a lifetime like his own.)

And the actors who played these roles - Eddie Redmayne and Benny Cumberbatch - are doing exactly the SAME THING that these souls are doing - signing up to play a role, one that is difficult, one that represents deeper truths, deeper spiritual lessons - and they got awards for them at the Oscars.  Because that's what we do when our fellow beings choose difficult lifetimes - when we greet them in the afterlife we APPLAUD THEM just as these people were applauded last night.

As noted in "It's a Wonderful Afterlife," the film FOXCATCHER also has a powerful Flipside element to it.  When the father of slain Olympian Dave Schultz gave his eulogy, he remembered when Dave was a little boy, he'd taken him outside to "tell him a secret."  His father recounted that Dave said "Dad, I spoke to a council about coming here to teach a lesson in love. But I won't be here very long."  He had forgotten that conversation until the tragic events around the death of his son.  However, the powerful story is REPEATED OFTEN in cases cited in both "Flipside" and "It's a Wonderful Afterlife."  

People under deep hypnosis often claim that we have a "council of elders" who advise us on our mission BEFORE we come to the planet, and advise us on our SUCCESS after we've left it. Dave Schultz succeeded in his endeavor, and Mark Ruffalo succeeded in bringing him back to life - or more precisely, Dave still exists, but Mark brought his memory back onto our stage with great eloquence.

I've filmed 25 individual cases, and examined MANY MORE cited in the works of Michael Newton, Dr. Helen Wambach and others, including in near death accounts about the journey we take on the planet. So I'm merely reporting what's been said during an NDE or a between life hypnotherapy session.

According to these cases, sometimes we COME HERE KNOWING what our mission is going to be, but for some reason, the memory of it is blocked, or hard to access while we are here.  But THERE IS A MISSION, and often we do accomplish it (with the help and guidance from above.)

Papparazzi in our alley, looking for celebrity.

CITIZENFOUR is a film about a fellow who made a difficult choice in this life - to go into data collection, and then seeing what he'd seen - to reveal it to the world at great risk to his life and family.  

The soldier Chelsea Manning did the same kind of revelation - and she credited looking at the planet Earth from outer space - the "PALE BLUE DOT" of Carl Sagan fame's photo - (as cited in Alex Gibney's film "We Steal Secrets") where she observed that everyone on Earth is the same, and doesn't deserve to be tortured or killed without reason.  And decided to speak up about it (and took the consequences).  This effect on humans is cited in the film "The Overview Effect." It's about how astronauts return from space with a different perspective of the planet.  In like form, Snowden sees the planet from this bigger perspective - not us versus them, but us versus us.  Watch the film yourself, but warning: you may no longer see the planet the same.



OVERVIEW from Planetary Collective on Vimeo.

Who are we if we use information that's private against fellow human beings?  Crime prevention is one thing, but as he notes in Post Oscar REDDIT SESSION with Glenn Greenwald and Laura Poitras, the act of giving up our privacy is about losing our inalienable rights... you know, those rights that someone long ago cited as a reason to start a new country.

Still - who among us could give up their lives for what they believe in?  Certainly one day he will have the applause and accolades he deserves - whether it be future generations, or directly from his soul group. 

Luana Anders starred in "Board and Care" an oscar winning film. Producer Sarah Pillsbury neglected to thank her. I don't think Luana cared.  But Jack Nicholson mentioned her in his Oscar speech for "As Good As It Gets." She's the inspiration for "Flipside" after visiting the author after her passing in 1996.

The same goes for BIRDMAN, a film about ego, and the variations of what it does to control our lives, to drive us down avenues we wouldn't normally go... the film is variations on that theme - what lengths will we go for love? what lengths will we go for ego? are there metaphors that follow us around in our lifetime? that going on stage is a bit like jumping off the edge of a building? that allowing creativity to soar off the edge of a cliff, not knowing where we will land is worth praising?  that the good that we do reverberates through all those who experience it?  

The film examines the "darkside" of EGO, but it's also a film about courage and daring - and when all is lost to actually allow our inner voice to champion who we really are .. even if it means pulling a gun on stage - after all, we're just actors upon the stage, and there is nothing that can happen to us that we can't examine later with the help of our friends and soul group...

 And I would argue that by forcing us into streets we normally wouldn't traverse, the ego does a yeoman's job of getting us to live lives that are beyond what he might have imagined them to be, and that we are all SUCCEEDING IN THAT ENDEAVOR.  Hence we are all Oscar winners when we get to our final bow.

Author with Charles Grodin, who wrote the forward
to "It's a Wonderful Afterlife"

After all that's why you've been drawn to this page, this blog, this research. Because you know on some level, that we really don't die.  That we really are here to celebrate life in all its forms.  So please, take a bow for the path and journey you've chosen.

And as Mike Myers would say: "End scene."

Richard Martini is a writer/director of 8 theatrical features you've never heard of and some obscure documentaries, including "Flipside: My Journey into the Afterlife." He's also the author of "Flipside: A Tourist's Guide on How to Navigate the Afterlife," and it's follow up "It's a Wonderful Afterlife: Further Adventures into the Flipside" both went to #1 on Amazon in its genre in Kindle after his appearances on "Coast to Coast" with George Noory. He also wrote freelance for Variety, Premiere and Inc.com.