Buddhism and the Flipside

Miscellaneous

Thursday

Beyond Words

Each week, Jennifer Shaffer and I have chats with folks on the flipside. That is, people no longer on the planet.  Are we speaking to a floating ghost? Or an echo of a consciousness? Or a pool of consciousness?  Perhaps it's worth looking at the "process" involved.  



Jennifer is a medium who works with law enforcement agencies nationwide on missing person cases. She's used to jaded skeptics asking her questions and having their minds blown by her giving details that turn out later on to be evidence. 

By her "solving" a mystery by seeing the events that took place. She's not always able to do so - sometimes people can't project what happened to them, or she misinterprets the visuals, sounds or senses she is getting.  But when she's correct - she's correct. (Ask Bill Bratton, former NYPD commissioner about her.)

Jennifer and George Noory of Coast to Coast

What's the process?

I had a dream last night where I was speaking to Luana Anders and she said something that made me laugh, but it was a lightning quick thought.  I mean, she passed along something funny to me, I laughed, said "I get it" before she fully formed it - like I was on the same engram or thought path with her. 

And then a second later, after I said "That's funny!" I could not access it. That is me - Richard - the guy on the planet in bed having a dream where I'm talking to Luana, and I realize we're in mid conversation.

But my higher self - the two thirds left behind - got her joke.  And that guy laughed before she could finish saying it. But because the mind of "me" (Richard in bed guy) is not lightning swift, I couldn't hold onto it - because it was in her mind.  

So I tried to ask her - consciously - "What was it you were referencing?" She replied "Access and process."  Meaning - "It's about the process - and how we access our higher selves."

So this post is about process and access. How we access people who are no longer on the planet.  We are connected to them at all times (not aware of it), and since no one disappears or goes to nothingness, we all "return home" - a portion of them is always accessible.  Not a "floating, meandering" portion - but one that is connected to their "higher consciousness" which is aware of all of their lifetimes (as well as ours. Just ask.)

We have filters that block our access to that information, but those filters can be altered or adjusted during a near death event, out of body experience, taking hallucinogens, using meditation or under deep hypnosis.  The filters - the things that prevent us from accessing this information on a daily basis - are firmly in place. (For "filter references" in research, I recommend Dr. Greyson's "Is consciousness produced by the brain?" or Dr. Wambach's "Reliving Past Lives" where she suggests the "hypervigilant" left brain blocks the information received (the brain functioning like a stereo receiver.)

As they are altered when we are asleep.

In dreams. However - we can be open to their being altered while awake. And to do that, just "open one's mind up to the possibility that there is an afterlife" and things will spring forth. In the previous post, I mentioned how a close friend suddenly realized her pal who died ten years ago was "hanging out with her."  She had written me suddenly, saying that "It feels like this guardian or guide is with me now and is showing herself to me. I can feel and hear her."

I wrote: "Ask her who she is."  A few minutes later, she said "Oh my God! It's Sharon!"  I knew Sharon - my pal's close friend in high school - but Sharon is keeping an eye on her since she checked off the planet ten years ago. For ten years she had "no idea" who that person might be, never mentioned it to anyone (except to me once in an email, that someone "makes her feel completely at peace when she shows up.")  Told no one. Claimed who she was to no one.

And then when asked the question "Who are you?" she replied. Gave her a visual of who she is.  That kind of verification will mean nothing to someone who hasn't experienced it.  The super skeptics will remain super skeptics - until they have the same experience. That's how the mind works. Super skeptical until it's no longer useful.

I got a note from someone on Quora who self identified as a skeptic, but wanted to try to self experiment. He wanted to see if he could access someone no longer on the planet; his mother who had died some years ago. 

He followed the method I recommended; imagined her sitting across from him.  He said “I tried the method, spent ten minutes just pretending to see my mother, did a simple meditation of creating her, what she was wearing, holding her hands. He said, then he asked her a simple question he wouldn't know the answer to: “Who greeted you when you crossed over?” 

She replied (aloud, in his head) “Hugh Nessel.”

He had no clue who that was, so he reached out to his sister, the keeper of family histories, and she said “That was mother's maternal grandfather. You never met him because he died before you were born." 

He wrote to tell me that this incident had "shaken him to his core."  He had tried a simple self experiment... and the results surprised him.

Super skeptics will tell us that everything is cryptomnesia, something we heard before, or created with our minds, which are locked in place by the brain, and die with us upon departure.  That he must have heard this name somewhere someplace in his lifetime and that he just forgot it.  

But you see - that doesn't acknowledge the experiential portion. Which is "hearing his mother's voice saying new information that he had not heard before."  He had never heard her say "Hugh Nessel."  (Or had any access to it). And when he did hear her say it, he was startled to "hear her voice" but didn't say "Oh, right, that old duffer."  He was confused because he didn't know who that could be. She said a name completely foreign to him, but in her own voice, which he knew was hers.

But his sister set him straight. 

Someone he never met, who died before he was born, whose name would not be common knowledge. (This is just one of dozens of examples I can recount.)

Harry Dean and his pal Bill

Harry Dean Stanton showed up in a conversation with Jennifer Shaffer a week before his memorial service. He gave me three messages to give his close friends at the service.  Details about issues relating to their health that they had not told anyone, was not common knowledge. I went up to each of them and told them at the memorial service. They were flabbergasted.

I asked Harry what he wanted me to say at his Memorial - he said "Tell people to believe in the afterlife."  I laughed. "Harry, you were a famous atheist. None of your friends is going to believe I spoke to you."  He said "Then tell them to believe in the possibility of an afterlife so then they won't waste another minute of their life arguing about it like I did."  Sage words.

Finally,  someone on Quora asked me the same question today - "How do we know we are connected to our higher selves, so I can, for example, figure out the right trade to make? How do you differentiate between your own inner voice and the voice of your guide(s) or loved ones who are trying to communicate. How do I know whom to thank for the all the stock tips and subsequently, whom do I fault for not taking them ;) ?"

I replied: 

"You mean Lottery numbers? Well, I always ask. They always laugh. I recommend adding intent. Who am I here to help or heal? Who am I here (in this lifetime) to make their lives happy or comfortable? Focus on the intent of the trade. Not on the self profit. But on who it will benefit. And I’m not referring to trades that are related to “good causes” (though of course that’s related) I’m referring to choices that relate to “why we are on the planet.” 

I included a link from my film "Limit Up" which although cowritten with Luana Anders, was about how God (played by Ray Charles) was trying to manipulate the soybean market at the Chicago Board of Trade to end world hunger. (His assistant angel played by Danitra Vance.)  I sent him a link to the film which is below.

But I included this in the reply:

The best detail I’ve heard came from a conversation with Michael Newton via Jennifer Shaffer during one or our chats with him on the flipside. (Showed up, offered insight, not by request, but just because he can). I asked him for a simple 1, 2, 3 for communication. He said “Say their name, ask your questions.” I asked “do you say the name aloud or in your head?” He said “Doesn’t matter.” I asked “So how can you tell when your actually making a connection rather than wishful thinking?” He said “When they answer the question before you can ask it.” I said “Is there a 3rd thing?” He said, “No, only two.”...

(Just like the Luana conversation from last night referenced above. She was telling me something and I got it before she said it aloud. But my "lesser" conscious self didn't "hear it" - but my "higher self" got the image and joke intended before she even finished the sentence. Hence this post about "access" and "process.")

Say their name. Ask your questions. If one is trying to access their higher self, I recommend just asking their guide. (If they don’t know who that is, learn who that is). The guide has access to one’s life plan - and can answer pretty much any question one might have. But don’t be surprised if when one is about to “Make a trade” and they ask their guide for advice and they say “And what do you plan to do with the money that you get from that successful trade?” If it isn’t part of one’s life plan, or path - perhaps avoid it."

His reply:

"The reason for my question, if I may. So, I’m standing in my kitchen, making myself a munchie snack. You know, high on life. As I have a moment of creative genius. I top my warm raspberry crumb coffee cake that is sitting on top of vanilla ice cream bar separated by a thin layer of Belgian chocolate with a double espresso. and Viola. I’m a legend in my own mind.

Before ever taking a bite I said to myself, “Oh, man. Grandpa would LOVE this!”…and before I finished the sentence I heard his voice in my head, loud and clear say the word “Vkustnyatsina”, or scrumptious in Russian. I freaked for a second. I know I heard his voice. I read all your stuff. I knew it was possible but…I know it was unmistakably his voice. But is it him, or is there an intermediary that is showing me that image and sound, as a means of establishing communications, as my guide? How would I know the difference. Is this my higher self sending me an image of him because I miss him?"

My reply:

"Wow. That gave me a chill... THAT’S EXACTLY IT. We have a hard time training ourselves not to judge events that occur. And that, my friend, was one of them. Vkustnyatsina! I love it. Scrumptious!!! Only you would know his voice. He’s been trying to talk to you for a long time. Finally! You listened! Very cool. Spasibo

To which he replied:

"Thank you for the validation. I’m beyond words right now."

Beyond words.

It's a good place to be.

And now - in its 30th year, I bring you the epic film of "Limit Up" starring Ray Charles as God, Danitra Vance as his assistant, Nancy Allen as the soybean trader, Brad Hall as her BFF, Dean Stockwell as her boss. Luana Anders is in a scene asking me about soybeans. Enjoy something that is Beyond Words.


Wednesday

Filters to the Flipside and a chilling moment

Just a random observation here - about filters to being aware of the flipside.

For those not familiar with the idea that there are filters on the brain that prevent us from accessing our "higher selves" (or the two thirds of our conscious energy that remains "home" while here), or that there are some kind of "filters" that prevent us from accessing that information, I can suggest a couple of sources:

1. Dr. Bruce Greyson's talk "Is Consciousness produced by the brain?"

2. General discussion of brain filters in Dr. Helen Wambach's "Reliving Past Lives." (1978 Bantam)

Here's yours truly reading from the chapter "Home" in one of my books:



In the former, Dr. Greyson mentions how dementia patients have "filters that appear to die" when the brain atrophies.  He cites the 70% of hospice care workers who report prior to passing, their patients have spontaneously memory recall. "As if the filters were dying along with the brain." 



There's an interview with Dr. Greyson in the book "It's a Wonderful Afterlife."

In reports of children up to the age of 8 who can "see" relatives, or recall previous lifetimes, it coincides with the year that the skull hardens, so it may be a reception issue.  Meaning the thicker the skull the worse the reception.  Interesting to note, I happened to be reading the autopsy of Beethoven this morning (weird, I know) and they noted he had an "unusually thick skull."  Yet he reported during his lifetime of "channeling" or being connected to the "spheres of the universe" where music inspired him.  So maybe it's not a thickness of skull issue - but something else.

In Dr. Wambach's book, she notes that the right brain/left brain paradigm appears to be that the right brain is getting information unfettered, and the left brain parses it, puts it into the proper channels and filters out anything that is not conducive to the survival of the human animal.  (Reversed in people who are left handed).  But her idea is repeated by Greyson - that there are "filters" that somehow parse the information that the brain receives.

Pioneer SX-3900 | Classic Receivers

Inside a Pioneer Stereo circa 1970. Limiters and filters parse sound waves.

The brain appears to function like a receiver.  One can point to a television receiver, but having sold stereo equipment in the 1970's, I can point to the limiters and filters in the receivers that unpack the radio waves to turn them into music.   How modern science points to the speaker and says "The speaker is creating the music" when that's not the case at all.

Pioneer RG-1 Dynamic Processor Vintage 1970s Hi-Fi Home Stereo image 0

I used to sell these at Systems Warehouse in SF circa 1978.

But I'm noting that the filters seem to be adjusting. Either on their own - perhaps as a result of environmental factors (more wifi?) or physical reasons (more access to information about how things work on the flipside?) or perhaps because "it's time."

I've heard that often.

It's time.

Meaning, "time's up" or "it's time for people to shift consciousness."



Yesterday I got a text from an old friend who had told me somewhere along the line that she "felt" a presence guiding her. She said this presence often appeared while she was driving, and that it gave her immense calm and peacefulness. Yesterday, she texted me and said "I know this sounds crazy, but she's here. She's in my backyard by the pool. I can hear her clearly and I'm afraid she's going to disappear."

I pointed out that she's likely a guide or a friend on the flipside - she wasn't going anywhere, she had nothing to fear and knowledge to gain. I said "Ask her who she is. Ask her for a name."

When she did that she reported this person "zooming up" to her face and being inches away - and smiling.  She said that should have freaked her out - but it didn't because of the overwhelming calm.  I repeated the question - "Ask her for a name so we can refer to her."  She replied "Let's call her Peace and Calm."  I said "Okay,  Miss P and C, can you show our friend here if she knows you from somewhere?"

There was a pause (you know the pause sign when texting, or IM'ing... three dots moving back and forth.. signifying thinking...) and she suddenly said "Oh my god! It's "so and so!"

You just never know who is watching over you.

So and so is/was a close friend who died 10 years ago.  I knew her in high school as well, and it was a chilling moment - the cool kind of chill, as in "that gave me a huge chill." People often report "the shivers" or a "massive chill" when things come through from the flipside.  Like a "ringing bell" of verification.



  

I've filmed Jennifer Shaffer suddenly rubbing her arms or throwing on a wrap - "I'm getting massive chills here."  It means "You're on the right path."

Then this morning, someone I communicate with but haven't met wrote to me, and said he was part of a PTSD experiment, where he's going to be treated with a hallucinogen to help with his severe PTSD. When we first began to converse, he reported all kinds of trauma, but that meditation had helped him immensely.  We talked about the research from Richard Davidson at the University of Wisconsin that shows meditation can "cure or alleviate symptoms of depression."  We've talked about how that works, and why that works.

Soldiers often suffer from PTSD. I've met a few. Meditation helps.

Today he said the nurse was prepping him for the "adventure" and she said "People come here knowing what it is they're going to go through. We all have a council that helps advise us on these choices. So you may gain access to that council."

He was startled as it was something he'd read in my books - but of course it is mentioned in other books (including Michael Newton's work, "Journey of Souls"  and Robert Schwartz "Soul's Plan.")  But here was a medical technician giving a patient some ground rules about the trip they're about to take.  Something that is indeed moving into the zeitgeist.



In the research, I often hear something akin to "By talking about this stuff, it affects everyone. It affects the people who hear you talking about it, but it also affects people on the other side, because they become aware of how to communicate with their loved ones back here."  The point being, these advances in human consciousness move in increments - but we should be aware of when things are shifting.  It really won't be an immediate shift, but it appears it will be subtle.

A shift in consciousness, or a cosmic event that 
happened billions of years ago, and we're hurtling through 
that shockwave. Either way the result is the same.

I can only point to the first time I did a deep hypnosis session. Michael Newton suggested it, Paul Aurand, then head of the Newton Institute chose the hypnotherapist, Jimmy Quast of Easton Hypnosis, who happens to do the accreditation for the Institute. I designed some questions for my journey that I thought would prove or disprove whatever was experienced - a vain attempt to prove that what happened did not happen.. Unfortunately that wasn't the case.

Since then I've filmed 100 people, half with the help of hypnotherapists where they ask  the questions, and half with me just asking the questions to people not under hypnosis ("Architecture of the Afterlife"). The results are the same.



But I can't help but observe how many more people have written to me on Quora saying "I had this dream last night where I learned new information from someone" - could be a relative, loved one, could be a guide, could be someone they didn't think they knew but somehow did.  The information they're sharing is experiential - it's not theoretical, or based on religious beliefs, or scientific disbeliefs. They're having these visceral experiences of "talking to" "getting answers from" "relating to" people they didn't realize they could speak to or get answers from. 


It brings to mind the answer I filmed for a session of deep hypnosis in the book "It's a Wonderful Afterlife."

A skeptic came in to do a session. A female film executive, worked on multibillion dollar projects.  She didn't believe she could be hypnotized, or that there was an afterlife, or that she could speak to a guide. She said she did the session purely because her doctor said that "hypnosis can help you to relax."  Something she wanted to do.

But I insisted she write down a few questions for the hypnotherapist (Scott at Lightbetweenlives.com) so one of her questions was "What's the significance of the shift, or a shift in consciousness? Is it important?"

I gave her the question - and she thought it appropriate because she thought of that as "new age nonsense."  

In a few moments of her session she was reliving a lifetime in the 1820s, with details I later verified.  And then at some point she gained access to her guide, or to an older gent in a library. (Oddly enough, this same fellow showed up five years later in a different session with someone not under hypnosis - and he recalled the conversation I'd overheard five years earlier.)

But in answer to the question, this older gent said "You humans think by naming things you'll get a better handle on them.  A shift in consciousness, in terms of the cosmos, is no big deal."  (When he said that, I thought - "you mean like Saturn running into Jupiter would be?")  But again - I'm across the room behind a camera. Not asking questions.

And he said "If you want to understand a shift in consciousness, imagine yourself a tiny crab walking on the ocean floor, who stops, opens its eyes and says "Hey! I'm in an ocean!"

That metaphor made me think of how oxygen functions like water - we are in the ocean of oxygen, we don't see it as water, but if we did, we might stop polluting it, or cutting down, burning the trees that give us the oxygen to breathe.  That the very thing that keeps us alive in this water, is the thing we are destroying. 

Further, I've heard it from various sources (trees) who say "If you want climate change fixed, plant a trillion trees. By doing so it will lower the temperature because oxygen will cool the atmosphere by lessening the carbon." Not a concept I was familiar with when I first heard it, but am now.

(By the way, my pal Nick Milo just turned me onto this search engine - "Ecosia" - for very 45 searches they plant a tree.  On their way to a billion... but we need a trillion. However, easy way to contribute to greening the planet. They have a Chrome extension as well.) 

But if you want to understand a shift in consciousness, picture that baby crab walking on the ocean floor, stopping, looking around and saying "Hey. I'm in an ocean!"


It's what I felt when I walked out of the session with Jimmy Quast. 

Basically in four hours I had proven beyond a shadow of my own doubt that I could recall previous lifetimes, speak to and communicate with loved ones no longer on the planet, further to speak with wise council members who gave me sage advice.  

I asked them "If there was one thing I could pass along to the planet, what would it be?" (Not knowing that I would be writing books, making films on the topic, but here it is.) "Just let go."  

In that moment I realized they were saying "let go of anger, of fear, of all of it. Hold onto the one thing that is universal - unconditional love - and let the rest go."  And when I walked out of that hotel in Schaumburg Illinois where the Newton conference was taking place, I literally felt as if the earth has shifted on its axis.

        A shift is a shift is a shift.

As if everything I thought I knew was inaccurate.  But not so inaccurate that the planet would fly off into the sun - but off its axis enough that I had to start from scratch to understand what it all meant.  And that moment gave me a massive chill.

My two cents.