Santa Barbara book talk "Hacking the Afterlife"

Talking "Hacking the Afterlife" on March 8th, at the SB IANDS - International Association for Near Death Studies

The venue: Unity of Santa Barbara
227 E. Arrellaga Street
Santa Barbara 93101

Time: 6:00pm - 6:45pm Small Group Mtgs
7:00pm - 9:00pm Main Meeting
If you're in the hood, stop on by!

Good Grief and Gwyneth Paltrow

There's no amount of solace that we as humans can have towards someone who's lost a friend, a lover, a family member, a child, a co-worker, someone that we love who is no longer on the planet.

From "The OA" - being consoled on the flipside by a "ghost"

This past weekend, a young girl died in our home town, and the memorial for her was standing room only. She was remembered as someone who was a light in people's lives. Stories were told about some unusual "Flipside" like events prior to her passing... she had a bad cold, and called her brother to tell him he had to drive home to see her.  He thought it was odd that she would call him to do so, as no one thought it more than a cold.  

But it turned out to be more than a cold, and she was no longer on the planet after a sudden turn for the worse.  Almost as if she "knew" she was no longer going to be on the planet, and insisted that he come home so she could say "goodbye."

Memorial for my pal Paul Tracey at his gravesite
in 2004. He's come to visit me a few times, including
during a trip to Tibet (as recounted in Flipside).

I've heard and gathered a number of reports of people who appear to "know" in some fashion that they're about to check off the planet.  My brother's close friend called him one night to tell him how much he loved him, and how much he had influenced his life.  Then the next day, playing in a softball game, he suddenly had a heart attack and died.  At the funeral, his widow remarked on the phone conversation she had overheard between my brother and his friend.

"I've never heard him talk like that to anyone."  My brother had not either, and they spent over an hour on the phone talking about their path and journey together, and all the fun and comic moments they had, and all the things they shared as close friends.  It was "like he was saying goodbye."

Well, not goodbye.  But "See you later, alligator."

Actress Luana Anders who has been to visit me
often, those visits are the genesis of the Flipside research

People contact me from all walks of life about helping a friend, or relative who has experienced a sudden tragic event.  They've lost their mom, close relative or a best friend, and are having a hard time trying to "get past it."

I got a call like this the other day from a brother of a good friend back East.  His mom had passed away, and he had the good fortune to be able to hang out with her the last years of her life.  He told me how he had gone over to see her just about every day to have lunch with her, and how devastated he was when she passed. But he had a profound dream about her, and wanted to know if I could explain it, or what it might mean.

Dreams are like reflections in glass.

He began by saying he "didn't believe" in anything beyond what we experience on the planet, and that it was hard for him to repeat the story. But he said the dream "was so real that I know it wasn't a dream."

He said he was at an event with tables and large ceilings. He later said he recognized the venue, it was a place they had been to large scale events over the years with his family.  He said he suddenly heard his mom call out to him by name.  

He said he went over to her table, and she looked happy, and vibrant.  He said he suddenly felt a ball of light come through him, a light that made him feel completely happy, accompanied by an overwhelming "feeling of love."  

I asked him if the words "unconditional love" would apply to that sensation.  He said they would.

What I didn't tell him, is that his brother and I spoke just after she passed away, and I asked him if he had any visitations from her. He said flat out "no" as if that wasn't a possibility.  But he did say that he "had a dream about her."

And it was the same kind of experience after their mom passed. My friend is an award winning reporter, from a famous newspaper, and in his dream (after she passed) he found himself in her old room, and went over to her chair and hugged her. And he said that during the hug, he felt like an electrical charge - but accompanied by an incredible experience of unconditional love. 

As I pointed out to both brothers, the reports from the Flipside - either from people under deep hypnosis or from people who've had near death experiences - report this specific feeling; an experience of unconditional love.  People sometimes feel it during a near death experience, sometimes when describing a feeling of traveling "through space when they are met by a light" and the "experience just beyond the light" or "being inside of the light" is one that they repeatedly use the words "unconditional love."

Which I find kind of funny. Because what's "conditional love?"  It's pretty much how we exist on the planet. "I'll love you if you love me" or "I only love people who are my skin color, from my background, are my height, weight, same color eyes, have the same heritage, blood type or shoe size."

It's not a common phrase. We don't hear it in church "God is unconditional love." "Love your neighbor unconditionally as yourself."  It's not part of our advertising, or media, or arts (I did write and direct the film "You Can't Hurry Love" perhaps I should have called it "You Can't Hurry Unconditional Love.")

But what's consistently reported by people who are able to examine these events - and I've heard them from people under deep hypnosis, from people who've had near death experiences, from people who are fully conscious who are having coffee and telling me about their experience - when I say "Stop. Hold onto that memory for a second. What did you feel like when you went into that light/or embraced your mom/or saw people who no longer exist on the planet? What words would you use to describe that feeling?"

They often say; "UNCONDITIONAL LOVE."

"What does that mean to you?"  "It's a feeling beyond bliss, beyond anything, of being completely and utterly connected, of being loved unconditionally, of having no fear and total happiness...."

You get the idea.

So when we go home, we experience unconditional love.  Okay.  Got it.

Do our loved ones still exist after they pass away?

Well, yeah. Why wouldn't they?

Unless they don't want to visit you. Mom and dad.

I kid. If you've read my books "Flipside" "It's a Wonderful Afterlife" or "Hacking the Afterlife" you'll find quite a bit of first person eyewitness accounts of people who have visited, or had visitations from people no longer on the planet. Not one or two - but thousands. I've filmed 35 people under deep hypnosis talking about these events, and have interviewed a number of scientists talking about consciousness research.

Our kids went to the same preschool. Oh boy.

Recently, Gwyneth Paltrow is in the news because she endorsed this book of this fellow who claims that he's an intuitive who talks to people on the Flipside about healing.  I have not read his book,  I have seen the article complaining about it in the Independent by Ms. Hosie, and I comment on it here, because, well, it's worth talking about.

Why complain about GP endorsing a book from a NY Times bestselling author? What's the point? That he shouldn't heal people with his books? That she shouldn't point out people who claim to heal people from the Flipside? That we should ignore what people say about the Flipside, even if it can be verified, it can be forensically proven, or it's a source of new information?  Hard to pin down what's the beef here.

What's the beef?

But it brings up the question:

Can doctors heal us from information from the Flipside?

In the Independent article they complain that she's advocating this fellow's book who claims that he's getting medical advice from "ghosts."  Okay. That's worth noting. Yes, you generally don't want to get medical advice from ghosts unless you've seen their degree. I'm not kidding.  We tend to think of ghosts, or people "channeling the other side" as omniscient, or sacrosanct, or "absolutely correct."  That's not in the research at all. (Wiser, smarter, have access to more lifetimes than we do, but not omniscient.)

What we find is that "talking to ghosts" can be a verifiable event, but that doesn't mean the ghost is any brighter, smarter, more adept than when they were previously on the planet. (Gee. What if you're accessing a doctor who is still dispensing bad advice?) That being said, there are some "ghosts" that do have experience over here as doctors, or as healers, and getting advice from them is worth examining or exploring.  After all, if they still exist, and can help, why not ask them questions?

Anita Moorjani was dying of cancer. And while she had a near death experience she "understood the cause of her illness" and started to heal herself, so by the time she got back into her body the healing process had begun. This happened under clinical conditions.  But she's a doctor who accessed her "higher self" to affect a cure. (Is your higher self like talking to a ghost? Well, if you understand the concept of the "ghost in the machine" then, as a matter of argument, yes, you are.)

One of the most famous people to give and get medical advice from "ghosts" was Edgar Cayce. 

Edgar makes an appearance
in "Hacking the Afterlife'

 While under a trance, Edgar would access information that was not only accurate, but could cure people of illnesses. He was immensely famous for this ability - and many poets, Presidents and scientists went to visit him.  But was Edgar 100% accurate?  Of course not. 

Why? Short answer (based on the research) is because we have free will. 

People don't sign up for a lifetime to NOT experience life - they do so to learn and teach and explore.  Not everyone signs up to be ill, it's a consequence of being human - and while everyone appears to want to be cured of their illness, the only way to really know what that's about is to speak to their higher selves. "So why did you choose this lifetime where you'd have this illness? And what's the best way to cure yourself, if that's what you're trying to do?"

In the reports, people claim that they experienced an illness so that the could "become better doctors in a next lifetime."  People claim that the illness was a way of teaching lessons in love and compassion to those around them.  

I cite a case in Flipside where one fellow claims he chose the life of a baby in a previous lifetime (in 1964, in Miami Fl) he lived 4 years in an incubator, experiencing a debilitating illness that kept him in the ICU his entire life.  

When asked if that was a "difficult choice" he said "Not really. From my perspective I was loved, and experienced love.  That lifetime was to teach others around me about love."

Good grief!

I'm not here to debate whether Goop is a fabulous website, or where Gwyneth Paltrow's intentions lie in promoting books about healing. (Our kids went to the same preschool, and we share a good pal in Dr. Habib Sadeghi) 

I don't know who the Medical Medium claims to be channeling, or accessing, or his methodology for doing so.  That's not really my point. Yes. There are charlatans out there doing this kind of work. But that doesn't mean that what everyone is bringing back from the Flipside is inaccurate.  

It does mean that we need to check into the methodology (the degree hanging on the wall) of how the information was accessed and why. And the best, most accurate way to access that information is to do it yourself.

How to do it yourself?  

Well, there are two methods I recommend. One is via a hypnotherapy session with a Michael Newton trained hypnotherapist (there is a searchable database at the Newton Institute website). I work often with Scott De Tamble here in LA, he's a virtuoso at what he does. You want to know why you chose this lifetime? He can guide you to the answer.

The other method is via talking to a medium yourself. I work with Jennifer Shaffer here in LA, who works pro bono with law enforcement on missing person cases.  You want to speak to a loved one no longer on the planet? She can guide you to them.

What I recommend, if you're going to go down this path - is do your research, bring questions that you don't know the answer to, or could not know the answer to, and ask specifics about the individual you're seeking to speak with. It's not often, but sometimes the door is slammed shut for some reason, and it may be to not "alter your path" by accessing this information. But even in those cases, I've seen Scott De Tamble use the Socratic method ("So why did you bring this person to this session if you don't want them to access this information?") to pry open doors that normally seem closed.  

All I can say for a fact, is that in the 35 sessions I've filmed, the 5 I've done myself, and the many hours I've filmed Jennifer doing her thing, I've gotten accurate, verifiable information from the Flipside that I could not have had access to.  

The three Flipsideers (Jennifer and Scott)

All I can report is what I've seen or experienced, and that is that indeed - people who are no longer on the planet report that they are still learning, teaching and going to classrooms over there on the Flipside, and that they continue to help heal, and help doctors here who need to help their patients.

That there's no one cure for every illness, but that if the person is able to examine their path and journey, they can find the source of their illness, whether it's genetic, sociological, psychosomatic, or otherwise... and the reality is that since there is no death, even if an illness doesn't appear to be survivable - it is survivable, because no one dies.  

We merely exit the stage.

If you're stopping by this blog for the first time, I sincerely know how odd and controversial that statement is.  But if you care to go down the rabbit hole with me, check out my books - or book talks on youtube - or look into other reports on the same topic.





For those interested in the science of consciousness, I recommend the books done by the scientists at UVA ("Irreducible Mind" "Beyond Physicalism" "Return to Life" etc.) "Biocentrism" by biologist Robert Lanza, "Brain Wars" by neuroscientist Mario Beauregard, "The GOD Experiments" by Gary Schwartz PhD, or Carol Bowman's "Children's Past lives."

For those interested in the Flipside, I recommend Michael Newton's "Journey of Souls" as a jumping off place, Erik Medhus "My life after death" Galen Stoller's "My Life after Life" and Annie Kagan's "The Afterlife of Billy Fingers."  

These are all first hand accounts of what it's like on the flipside, and Dr. Newton's book is what spawned my documentary "Flipside."

In audible, ebook, paperback, etc.
Links on the side of the page.

So, again, I'm not mitigating grief.  God knows we all go through it. But having some perspective is good, having a sense that "they aren't suffering anymore because they've gone home" is good to hear or know.  It's not worth arguing about - because after all, not everyone is supposed to see the curtain pulled back, not everyone is supposed to see the Wizard of Oz, and it's not my job to pull that curtain back for everyone.  

But for those folks who feel the need to reach out and share their stories, that's why I'm doing this research. (And Gwyneth, if you or your peeps are curious about this research, just ask Habib-ola.)