The Martini Shot: Buddhism and the Flipside; Tsong Khapa

Buddhism and the Flipside; Tsong Khapa

Buddhism and the Flipside by Richard Martini

Tsong Khapa

“All praise to the clear lamp insight of Lobsang Drakpa, Je Tsongkhapa!”

For those familiar with Tibetan religious texts, they always begin with a note of praise for the peerless teaching given by the person they’re writing about. In this case, it’s a 14th century monk who is credited with building up a foundation of Buddhism, Tsongkhapa was the devotee of Manjushri who created the lineage that became known as the Dalai Lamas (“Ocean of Wisdom”).

I was reading about his life in the new book by Thupten Jinpa, “Tsongkhapa; Buddha in the Land of Snows” (Shambala, 2019) and had an epiphany while reading it that I wanted to share.

But I have virtually no one to share this with – I’m sure that my Buddhist friends with find it heretical, my Christian friends will find it incomprehensible, my scientist friends... even readers of my books about the afterlife, or the “flipside” will find it a bit beyond my usual meanderings. If you can’t share your epiphany with someone, what’s the point of having one?

I’ll assume that the person who reads this will be inspired to do their own research into the flipside and will likely be the one that it was written for. I have written freelance for trade magazines, Inc.com, Variety, the now defunct Premiere – but this isn’t an article that would or should be found in an airline magazine, or a dentist’s office. No offense to dentists, but we’re going to go deep in a moment. Buckle up as I’m fond of saying.

I’ve also written 8 books on the topic of the flipside, “Flipside: A Tour Guide on How to Navigate the Afterlife” “It’s a Wonderful Afterlife,” “Hacking the Afterlife,” “Backstage Pass to the Flipside,” and “Architecture of the Afterlife.” My journey from filmmaker (I’ve written and/or directed 8 theatrical features) to a pundit on “Coast to Coast” with George Noory, is detailed in the book and documentary “Flipside: A Tourist’s Guide on How to Navigate the Afterlife.”

As an abbreviated preamble, I was living in Manhattan, working for CNBC and the Charles Grodin show in the late 1990’s, when I came across an article about Robert Thurman, the Je Tsongkhapa Professor of Indo-Tibetan Buddhist Studies at Columbia University. I had been

Buddhism and the Flipside by Richard Martini

reading a NY Times magazine article on Robert on the way into Manhattan to work for my friend Charles producing segments for his show, and I was startled to read about Robert’s life and journey. Plus, my nearest and dearest friend Luana Anders had passed away, and had already started to “visit me” from the other side. I wondered if because she was a Buddhist (NSA – SGI “Nam Myoho Renge Kyo”) that somehow her dedication to chanting gave her an “access key” to visit me from the flipside, and had wondered whether studying Buddhism was a way to understand how one obtains that key.

In the NY Times Magazine article, (May 5th 1996, “Robert Thurman doesn’t look Buddhist” https://www.nytimes.com/1996/05/05/magazine/robert-thurman-doesn-t-look-buddhist.html ) there was a mention of his old teacher Geshe Wangyal. Years later, Robert told me the story of visiting the reincarnation of his old teacher, how he had gone to visit him in his new incarnation, a toddler riding around on a tricycle. The young boy rode up to Robert’s foot, stopped and said “Thurman! I was so disappointed in you when you left the monkhood!”

Robert was flabbergasted as he hadn’t told anyone he was coming for a visit, had not told the boy his name but knew he was considered the reincarnation of his old teacher.

Professor Thurman said “even the look on his face reminded me of how my teacher used to look at me.” Robert said he tried to explain to the toddler that “His choice to become a professor was a way for him to pass along the Dharma teachings in a different fashion” seem to mollify the child, who then rode away and went back to doing loop de loops on his three wheeler.

I audited Robert’s philosophy class while working by day for CNBC producing comic segments for the Charles Grodin show.

Once a week, I would schedule a “man on the street” interview in front of the august campus on the upper west side of Manhattan, interview a dozen or so students on their opinions of the day, send the raw footage back to the studio and would traipse off to my college class in advanced Tibetan philosophy. At first, Bob had tried to dissuade me from taking the course by letting me know it was a class for “advanced PhD candidates.” I said I still wanted to take it (I was in a hurry to understand the flipside and Buddhist access to it) and he asked “Well, tell me how familiar are you with Hegel and Kant?” I replied “They play for the 49ers?” He laughed and for some godforsaken reason allowed me to audit his class.

Each session was dense, filled with Robert’s amazing stories, insight, profound dharma and deep philosophical discussions – I felt like I was dodging meteors of diamond vehicles as Robert and his PhD candidates spoke in a language of philosophy I’d never heard, wasn’t aware of, and spent much of my time looking up words like “concomitance” to comprehend. (Literally, “are they speaking English, or is this some form of communication I’m unaware of?”) But I was determined to decipher this language, because you see, my friend on the flipside suggested I do so.

My dear pal Luana Anders had passed away earlier that year, and she started showing up in my dreams. She showed up as a younger version of herself, she had insight and information to pass along to me (what I call “new information”) and being a natural jaded skeptic of a filmmaker, I assumed I must have been inventing these conversations.

Buddhism and the Flipside by Richard Martini

Until she “brought me” into deep space one afternoon – lying on a bed after a shoot, I found myself in a classic “out of body experience” where I felt my body vibrating, and then “shoot into deep space.” Faster than the speed of light, I had the “experience” of traveling through deep space, through a worm hole and into another universe where I then came face to face with pal Luana. I heard her say (telepathically) “You were wondering where I am, here is where I am.”

But at that very moment she gazed upon me, some cranky truck driver used his massive air horn outside my upper west side apt. window. But as I recall, it didn’t wake me; I had the experience of returning suddenly - like being yanked by a giant rubber band, pulling me through that same worm hole back into deep space, and down onto the isle of Manhattan at supersonic speed. It was so fast that I was aware it occurred before the trucker could pull his hand off the horn.

That profound “experience” of visiting someone in the afterlife, someone who had been a Buddhist, made me want to audit Robert Thurman’s class. My theory was, if he was able to converse or meet up with the reincarnation of his former teacher, then he must have insight into the key to the structure of the afterlife, whatever it might be.

I took a number of adventurous trips with Robert, both to India (Ladakh) and Tibet (Kailash). I sat with other students or travelers while he gave meditations in the most unlikely places – the foothills of Ladakh, the top of the Jokhang Palace in Lhasa, at the foot of Mt. Kailash in Tibet.

(Some of those I filmed and posted on YouTube). He’s a master of Buddhism, a spectacular teacher, and a wonderful raconteur.

But this isn’t a story about Robert (or me) really, it’s about the person that Robert spent much of his career studying and learning about, the monk known as Je Tsongkhapa.

Lobsang Drakpa’s story can be found online, his life story was well documented, and I’ve been reading the excellent account of his life and journey authored by the Dalai Lama’s principal translator Thupten Jinpa, who went to Cambridge University and wrote “Tsongkhapa; a Buddha in the Land of Snows” (with a foreword by His Holiness the Dalai Lama.)

Buddhism and the Flipside by Richard Martini

Allow me to note the unusual order of events where here I am 24 years later writing an essay about this book, or something that jumped out at me from this book. My “epiphany.” But before I dive into that apotheosis, I want to relate my own experience with Tsongkhapa.

Professor Thurman with son Dechen atop the Potala Palace (Photo: Author)

I had heard about him from Professor Thurman, and had read some of the books and essays Robert had written about him over the decades. His translation of "The Essence of True Eloquence" (now published as "The Central Philosophy of Tibet") and his superior translation of the “Bardo Thordol” (The Tibetan Book of the Dead) is peerless. I quote often from his audio meditation “The Jewel Tree of Tibet” where he teaches a simple yet priceless gem of meditation of how to dispel anger. Again, the insight and deep philosophical observations Robert makes, often requires me to have a dictionary or a book on Sutra handy to understand what he’s referring to. Not unlike the insight and revelations of Tsongkhapa’s writing which are sometimes fierce, often intense and not for the casual Buddhist fans like myself.

The book by Thupten Jinpa is a month by month revelation of Tsongkhapa’s life and journey – where he was born, what influenced his worldview, and deep insight into his teachers and students he met along the way. He was someone who was ravenous about reading and studying Buddhism in the original texts – (the book reports he traveled with a Tibetan Yak; a Dzo laden with books that followed him wherever he went). He is the founder of the Gelupka tradition in Tibet – the form of Buddhism that brings us the Dalai Lamas.

His influence over Tibetan Buddhism can’t be overstated – from the late 1300’s to his passing in 1419, he was considered to be a living breathing Buddha by those who knew him or who have written about him. Tibet considers him - along with others like Padmasambhava and Milarepa - Buddhas or “enlightened beings.”

I first heard a story about him while sitting atop the Jokhang, listening to Robert give a meditation. I didn’t realize it was the very same building Tsongkhapa had been to many times, the same spot on the roof where we were sitting, where he gave a series of lectures some 600 years earlier.

Buddhism and the Flipside by Richard Martini

Some years after meeting Robert, I was in Dharamsala in line to meet His Holiness the Dalai Lama when a German/Tibetan book dealer asked for my help in carrying a giant book he was bringing as a gift to the Dalai Lama. I asked him what the book was. He said “It was a book written by Tsongkhapa himself, and the pages were gilded in gold.” It was large, maybe two feet by four feet, and I remember it had to weigh about 20 pounds. I was happy to carry it for him – and we stood in line for about an hour together, chatting while I held this sacred book in my arms.

Painting in the Sera Monastery, Lhasa. (Photo: Author)

And then something odd happened.

I was frozen in space, like time stopped. I was not aware of any sound, or any conscious memory – other than when I “came to.” I was now standing alone at the top of the driveway that reaches to the front of the Dalai Lama’s home – the rest of the crowd had walked down to greet his Holiness, and I was holding up the long line of people who had come to see him.

But I wasn’t aware of it. When I came to, I could see the Tibetan book seller standing 100 feet from me, shouting and waving to me to “come along” as his Holiness was waiting.

I don’t know where I went or what happened – but I was outside of time. I hurried down the hill, and presented the book to the man, who gave it to his Holiness. I said to His Holiness what Professor Thurman had told me to say, and the Dalai Lama pressed his forehead against mine and said something that I could not understand. It was likely English – I have no idea. He smiled and looked right into his eyes.

I know I had been told “out of politeness, don’t look into his eyes” but that’s like telling someone to bow in front of English royalty – if you’ve been taught to never bow to anyone, you tend to do the opposite when someone suggests it. So I looked at him, eyeball to eyeball, smiling as he did so. I know someone took a picture, as I was standing next to a Senator’s daughter – Maura Moynihan – (who oddly enough, was the basis for my first feature film “Three For the Road” as I had seen her dancing on a table in a bar in Cambridge Mass, and thought that she

Buddhism and the Flipside by Richard Martini

would make an interesting character for a film). And then – here I was standing next to her, meeting her for the first time, as well as the Dalai Lama.

And like I say, I was “outside of time” when it happened. I noted that later on, when trying to visually recall this experience I could not access it – as if I knew I had stood forehead to forehead with the Dalai Lama but could not access that memory.

As if he had somehow disappeared in front of me.

The next mention of Tsongkhapa was while interviewing a monk who lived in the Dalai Lama’s home. He told me he was one of three monks who spends his days “praying for the long life of the Dalai Lama” on a rotating basis. This was the second time I had run into this monk, and he had stood outside the Dalai Lama’s house, smiled at me as if he was waiting for me – came and sat with me so I could interview him on my digital camera. (He appears in the film “Tibetan Refugee” on Youtube.)

I asked him if “anything unusual” ever happened during his meditations and he said some unusual things had. During one meditation he had seen “a younger version of the Dalai Lama enter the room energetically – it was a much younger version of the Dalai Lama.” He said, he watched as the young Dalai Lama travelled around looking at different thangkas (Tibetan paintings) and then disappeared. Then he said, “And his Holiness has seen Tsongkhapa.”

I asked him if he had seen him as well, and he said “Oh yes.” I asked what he looked like – or how he appeared and he said “Kind of short, but glowing with an orange/golden light around him.” He said that his Holiness had told him that Tsongkhapa had expressed his happiness with the work the Dalai Lama was doing.

Statues being crafted atop the Jokhang Temple, Lhasa (Photo: Author)

This was ten years before I began to do any research into the flipside, and years before I realized I could ask more pointed questions to whomever a person saw during a meditation.

For those keeping score, accounts of the death of Tsongkhapa include his body “glowing with a golden orange light” when he passed away in 1419 in Ganden, Tibet, the monastery he created near Lhasa. (I’ve been to the other two monasteries he had a hand in creating in Lhasa, the Sera

Buddhism and the Flipside by Richard Martini

and Drepung monasteries so I’m aware of what they’re like now. They’re both featured in the film “Journey into Tibet with Robert Thurman” also on YouTube.)

This is a long but necessary preamble to the research I’ve been doing into the flipside; that is – talking to people who are no longer on the planet.

In the latest two books “Architecture of the Afterlife” and “Backstage Pass to the Flipside 3” I include interviews where I ask a medium to allow me to ask questions directly to people no longer on the planet, including avatars. (In the books I include “interviews” with people like Jesus, Padmasambhava, Buddha, Ma Durga and others.)

One might wonder my sanity at this moment, and I’m keen to let them know that “now is the time to jump off this flipside bus.”

If they aren’t aware of how it could possibly be that someone could speak to someone no longer on the planet, I recommend they start with my book “Flipside” – as all 8 books are a step by step process of how to do that. I won’t belabor the point here.

But the reason I’m writing this article is because I discovered the Tsongkhapa did the same.

In the book “Tsongkhapa; A Buddha in the Land of Snows” Thupten Jinpa writes “One of the most intriguing aspects of Tsongkhapa’s life and, for some, perhaps the most controversial was the enduring “presence” of a mysterious teacher whom he ferred to as Guru Manjusri (Jamyang Lama)… in Western works on Buddhism, such a figure is sometimes referred to as a “celestial bodhisattva,” an almost primordial being who predates the Buddha and yet is his disciple.” (Chapt 5 “The Mystery of Guru Manjusri” pg 103). He had a friend, a “mystic” named Umapa, who was considered a “medium” who helped him to access Manjushri and ask him specific questions and get answers to them.

Tsongkhapa reports meeting this “mystic” Umapa, someone who had been seeing “visions of Manjushri” since he was a child, and while they were profound visions, he couldn’t make up his mind if they were “real or not.” (Like many mediums have reported to me as well) So Tsongkhapa tried an experiment, where he asked Umapa to “bring forth the manifestation” so he could ask it some esoteric questions about Buddhist philosophy. And what he reported is that the manifestation answered his questions with insight and clarity. In other words, he heard “new information” from the manifestation – answers to questions he did not know the answer to, that Umapa didn’t know the answer to – yet Manjushri, or this “manifestation of him” did. (Proving it could not be cryptomnesia, or something Umapa had conjured up. New information.)

Which is precisely what I’ve been doing with various mediums for the past five years – including Jennifer Shaffer, a medium who works with law enforcement on missing person cases. In our latest book, Jennifer accesses people I knew who are no longer on the planet (easy for me to verify details) accesses people off the planet who were friends of my friends (a bit more difficult to verify, but it is possible via family members) and lately with people I never met, people I’ve only read about – who come and answer questions that I can forensically verify. Just like Tsongkhapa did with Manjushri.

Buddhism and the Flipside by Richard Martini

In 1392 these two monks, Tsongkhapa and Umapa traveled together to Lhasa, meditated inside the Jokhang temple in front of the statue of Buddha (created in his lifetime), and basically spent time channeling Manjushri for insight and clarity about esoteric texts. Tsongkhapa asks Manjushri “If there was a better teacher in understanding emptiness than Rendawa” (who taught the topic) and Manjushri answers “There is no one better, however, even he wouldn’t be able to engender full understanding in you. The best would be for Umapa to be our medium so that I can continue to guide you.” (Another example of “new information” that can’t be cryptomnesia or something Umapa could have known or offered.)

Essentially he says “I could explain it to you (and later he does) but at this moment you won’t get it. In time you will.”

He also told him to focus on a specific teaching of Nagarjuna’s writings regarding emptiness” that would “plant the seed” for his later understanding of the complex text. (Pages 105-115)

It was through this method that Tsongkhapa asked for “new information” about his own previous lifetimes, and Manjushri told him the story of how in a previous lifetime he had been a boy who given a crystal rosary (mala beads) to the Buddha, and how the Buddha predicted “he would one

day be a great teacher.” It’s possible that Tsongkhapa had heard that story in the past, or the Umapa knew it – but neither at the time were trying to create some scenario about a previous lifetime. Instead, Manjushri offered those unique details (after Tsongkhapa died and his legend grew, people used this story as part of the canon of his Buddhahood.)

I won’t get into the teachings that Manjushri passed along – they’re precise and would only be understood by someone familiar with that form of expression. (pg. 113).

For the rest of his life, after parting with the medium and friend Umapa, Tsongkhapa was able to carry on his conversations with Manjushri (and other teachers) and it gave him insight into the nature of reality and assisted him in his writings, which have since become legendary.

But the reason I’m writing about it is this: if one is to believe what people say from the flipside, whether they report a detail in the year 250 or in the year 2015, they should match in terms of content.

Time apparently means little to folks off the planet and outside our timeline – I’ve heard consistently that “25 years on earth feels like ten minutes over on the flipside.”

Further, having filmed people talking to folks on the flipside, from people under hypnosis, to people not under hypnosis, to mediums who are accessing the other side, and getting the same relative answers from folks over on the flipside – logic tells us that if something was true in 1398, it would still be true in 2020.

Time should have no effect on the insight or logic presented.

If Tsongkhapa was speaking to “Manjushri” then what Manjushri had to say would be accurate today as it was back then.

The construct, based on my research, goes like this – once a person is off the planet they no longer are governed by space or time. Once they return to the flipside (which they call “home” instead of the afterlife, or heaven) they are outside of time. If we want to access someone who

Buddhism and the Flipside by Richard Martini

once existed, we can ask them to come forward from the time period they existed and see them as people saw them then (even if they’ve already reincarnated elsewhere).

The answers they give us are based on “all their lifetimes.” (Not on omniscience as some channelers often claim – a channeled person is just a person after all, even if they’ve had 1500 lifetimes – while they are aware of a lot more than most people, they are only aware of their own experiences.) What I look for in this research is someone on the flipside saying “I don’t know the answer to that. However, I do know something who might, or should.” And then we are off and running.

The other part of the construct is that in order to communicate with us, they have to “slow down their frequency” to be able to do so, as well as try to gauge how much information we might have in terms of our questions and whether or not we can understand, or are prepared for the answer.

It’s not that we are not “worthy” of hearing the answers, it’s whether or not the answer will be unintelligible. (So asking an impertinent question to someone who is busy saving worlds might be akin to a child in a sandbox asking “why is the sky blue” while an adult is trying to juggle three children simultaneously. The answer will fit the questioner.)

Statue of Guru Rinpoche (Padmasambhava) in Samye Monastery, Tibet (Photo: Author)

In “Architecture of the Afterlife” there are numerous people I interviewed who would be considered “deities” or “avatars” in different eras.

People who say they normally incarnate on other planets. People who say they’ve never incarnated on Earth because they have no desire to. They are people who “no longer incarnate” – people who have opted, or offered, or chosen to be part of a person’s spiritual evolvement (on their “council”), people who are wise beyond wisdom – that is, they have access to all of their lifetimes, and many of them may have taken place in other universes, they are people who by and large have access to much more information than we do.

Buddhism and the Flipside by Richard Martini

Further, when I ask direct questions to these individuals, sometimes they initially reply “I can’t answer that question because you won’t understand it.” (I’m often unclear whether they’re referring to the person asking the question (me) or the person “hearing the answer” - whoever it is that I’m helping to access the flipside.)

But often, on instinct, I will offer some kind of an answer, like “Are you saying that we wouldn’t be aware of the answer to this question because we’d have to take in consideration all of their lifetimes to understand it?” And the person I’m interviewing often says “Yes!” Or “Yes, yes, yes!” And “They are telling me that they are surprised that you know that much about the answer to the question.”

These kinds of answers point to some conclusions: people on the flipside are not omniscient. Even “gods or goddesses” avatars or intellectuals are not aware of everything. Otherwise, they’d already know what I was going to ask and would have the answer ready before I asked it. Or, they would not act or pretend to be “surprised” by my asking my sometimes inane questions. Obviously everyone has a certain amount of “what’s in front of them” as part of their experience, which includes but is not limited to being on the flipside.

Then we have another conundrum and that has to do with the dharma.

Tibetan Buddhism teaches that in the afterlife, there is no “finite self.”

And yet, we are accessing people who existed eons ago (in Manjushri’s case, it may have been millions of years ago, and in other realms or universes) and “he” is coming forward and presenting himself in a visual form so that the person asking him questions can access those answers. (As noted below Manjushri is more than happy to give elliptical answers to questions.)

If the afterlife was something amorphous, or was a wisp of smoke, we shouldn’t be able to communicate with anyone specifically.

And yet, here is Tsongkhapa asking specific detailed questions about the Buddhist scripture to someone who should know the answers – and who demonstrates that he does know the answers, so much so that he tells his friend Umapa “I’m convinced that you are actually communicating with Manjushri.”

If that’s the case, then we should be able to speak with Tsongkhapa as well, shouldn’t we?

Because he exists outside of time – as Manjushri did – and even though he may have honored the Bodhisattva vow to “continue to incarnate until all sentient beings are liberated” – even though he may be currently on this planet or some other planet in some other universe, some portion of his conscious energy is always “back home” and therefore is accessible to us.

Same goes for anyone who has ever trod the planet.

But as Tsongkhapa argues, demonstrates, it includes people who’ve never incarnated on the planet, as Manjushri is not claimed to be a reincarnation of anyone. In fact, the Brahmin story about him claims that he comes from “another universe” that the name of that “other world” in “Vimal.” So in essence, he would be a “Vimalese” or an “alien from Vimal.”

Buddhism and the Flipside by Richard Martini

But beyond that we don’t have to be an avatar or a pandit to ask him these simple questions. “Manjushri, can I ask you where you originated? Was it in this universe? Can you describe what your existence is like in that other realm? And why are you helping humans out? Are you familiar with those people who claim to have seen you in their lifetime? Did you know them from some other lifetime, and if so when or where?” Etc.

This method shouldn’t work.

But it does. I’ve found that one can ask different mediums to access the same person on the flipside – and by asking the medium to ask the same questions, get the exact same answers from that person no longer on the planet. And each medium gives more insight based on their experience. “He’s showing me this thing, to represent how he felt about your question.” And then the specific questions get specific answers.

Like asking Manjushri to help interpret texts written by the Indian Sage Nagarjuna who lived in the 2nd century, 1200 years before Tsongkhapa, who is referring to a teaching from 500 BCE from the Buddha himself. But the appearance of Manjushri on a constant basis allows Tsongkhapa to trust his instincts to ask specific questions about specific passages and getting specific answers.

It’s no different than what I’ve been doing in “Backstage Pass to the Flipside: Talking to the Afterlife with Jennifer Shaffer” Books one, two and three. We ask people no longer on the planet specific questions about the nature of reality, about how consciousness works, or about what their experience on the flipside is like.

And the answers are consistent and reproducible.

The heretical part of what I’m suggesting is this; despite the work done by Tibetan philosophers into the nature of existence over thousands of years about emptiness and dependent origination – also the work done by Buddha in that area, it is incomplete if we don’t add in the concept of consciousness existing fully on the flipside.

What the research shows is that the construct is the opposite of what we imagine – “back home” we are fully conscious, have access to all of our lifetimes. When we choose to come to the planet to live on the earth, we do so with a team of individuals, who assist and help – and who greet us upon our return.

We choose to incarnate, we bring about a third of our conscious energy to a lifetime, and two thirds is always “back home.”

That we are “fully conscious” prior to incarnation, “semiconscious” while here – and fully conscious when we return home. We can access why we chose our lifetime, or why we agreed to participate in our lifetime. (Some report being reluctant at first, then get here to regret their decisions even if it was to benefit a soul mate or loved one.)

And while the idea of “inherent emptiness” appears to be accurate – everything is atoms agreeing to hold space together – that everything is a construct (like the film “The Matrix”) – it leaves out the compassionate part, which is that everything that is holding space is doing so out of an agreed upon compassionate construct for lack of a better word. People come here to teach and learn lessons in unconditional love.

Buddhism and the Flipside by Richard Martini

Further that emptiness appears to refer to “dark matter” which I’ve learned in the flipside research is related to energy that “once occupied a space dependent upon time.”

Meaning that dark matter still exists in the space it once occupied albeit outside of time. And by seeing that everything is both form and non-form – that form is agreeing to hold space together, and non-form is the echo or shadow of that form that once held the space, allows us to gain insight into the nature of reality.

But there’s this third paradigm aside from the “wave versus particle” discussion.

That is that while we are incarnated, we live in a world of particles because everything is both particle and wave – once we are outside of the earth realm, we are still particle and wave but our experiences is more about waves than particles.

And the third aspect?

It’s the idea that we have conscious pools of energy of our own. Not finite in the classic sense, always learning, always changing always becoming something else. But still it is a pool of energy that is ours that retains all of our lifetimes, all of our memories. We have no access to is while we are on the planet (unless we’ve had a near death event, take hallucinogens, are under deep hypnosis, in deep meditation or some other consciousness altering event) – but once we are home we are aware of all of those lifetimes, all of those pathways and journeys.

And further if someone on the planet wants to reach out to us – although they have to do is focus on the energy of who we were – the frequency we existed at, and “call upon us.” We have free will to ignore that call, to put it on mute, or to decide that answering the call will disrupt this person’s path or journey by doing so.

But in other cases, we can “show up when called” as Manjushri did many times when called upon by Tsongkhapa.

According to Thubten Jinpa’s book, “Tsongkhapa’s teacher (as a youth) made the invocation of Manjushri a special focus for his protégé – with the young boy reciting Manjushri’s mantra around a hundred million times in a meditation hut at the Jakhyung monastery… (later in life) Tsongkhapa never slacked his daily Manjushri practice.” (pg 105)

Inside the Jokhang Temple Lhasa (Author’s photo)

Buddhism and the Flipside by Richard Martini

I would offer, that if you ask for help from someone a 100 million times – if they still exist the odds are they’re going to show up to help. (“Really Lobsang? 100 million times? What the heck do you want to ask me anyway?”)

After Tsongkhapa met Umapa, and realized that he could access the deity directly - “Seeing the opportunity, Tsongkhapa asked Manjushri questions about.. the view of emptiness, differences between sutra and tantra, key points of the “path of the highest yoga tantra,” the sequence of the “five stages,” the significance of their number being five and so on…”

Tsongkhapa asked Manjushri “Whether the view of emptiness espoused by Candrakirti or Bhaviveka was more accurate.”

To his surprise, Manjushri replied “It is neither.” (New information) “It is inappropriate to be partial either to emptiness or to appearance. In particular you need to take the appearance aspect seriously.” (Page 109) Kind of startling to hear a teacher on the flipside knock a centuries old tradition of “not taking appearances seriously.”

At one point, Manjushri answers a question and Tsongkhapa replies “I do not comprehend what you are saying” (again, new information) and the deity responds with an answer that suggests he’ll learn it in the future - to allow that what he’s hearing is a “seed for truth to be learned later on.” (pg110) Further, the deity began to appear to both Umapa and Tsongkhapa in different meditiation rooms, where they see him at the same time – at one point Tsongkhapa speaking to Umapa, who tells him that Manushri told him earlier that “Tsongkhapa had seen him as well.” (Again, new information).

Let’s take a moment to consider who Manjushri is – he shows up in the teachings of Buddha; specifically in the Lotus Sutra.” His name means “beautiful light” among other things.

“In Buddhist texts Manjushri is first referred to in early Mahayana texts, such as Prajna paramita (enlightenment) sutras. The Lotus Sutra reveals Manjushri has his own Pure Land called “Vimala,” a universe very far (away).”

(Again – when interviewing people on the flipside, if they say “well, I normally incarnate in another universe, or on another planet, and we call it this” – I tend to let them speak whatever their reality is and work on verifying it later. If more than one person comes from Vimala to visit us, it would be something we could ask the both of them about.)

“He also figures in the Vimalakīrti Nirdeśa Sūtra in a debate with Vimalakīrti … according to scriptures, many eons ago Manjushri was a king in a Buddha field called Vimala; he developed a deep compassion to all beings… when he got enlightened, he made vows to follow the path of Bodhisattva until all beings will be released from sufferings.” (Buddhism.Redzambala.com).

Buddhism and the Flipside by Richard Martini

Statue of Buddha inside the Jokhang Temple, Lhasa (Photo: Author)

In this research, people have an easier time accessing the flipside if they are adept at meditation, so Tsongkhapa was a lifelong meditator.

People reported that sometimes he would “zone out” in the midst of a talk, and later people would ask “where did you go?” and he would say “I needed to clarify something that required my focus to be elsewhere.”

However, one of the requirements, as I’ve been told about this research, is for the person asking the questions to “allow for” the possibility of hearing an answer. For those who are convinced life ends, that there is no possible way to access someone who is no longer on the planet, they will have an impossible time trying to bridge that gap.

Put it this way, people on the flipside know they still exist, and their experience with humans on the planet is pretty much universally the idea that they don’t or can’t still exist – so the idea of taking time to try to walk someone “out of the sandbox and into the swing set” might be problematic unless the person asking the questions is aware that they might be able to get an answer. “Can we walk over to the swing set for a moment and you can demonstrate how I can fly?”

The reason I’m writing about this esoteric philosophical point is twofold. I’m not a philosopher, I’m a filmmaker. Generally I film things or people and in the case of the flipside research, I transcribe those filmed sessions and put them into print. In this case, a long and detailed chapter about Tsongkhapa would be one of those chapters that anyone would pass over because he lived in the 14th century.

Buddhism and the Flipside by Richard Martini

But allow me to state unequivocally, most of us lived in the 14th century too – not all of us – but many of us, and it may jog a memory or two to discuss previous lifetimes. I’m aware of a lifetime that I had in this time period where I was someone writing books in Latin on the other side of the planet, in Florence, a detail covered extensively in “Architecture of the Afterlife.”

A detail that is missing from these accounts is something I find consistently in the flipside research.

It’s repeated so often that I consider it without thinking about it – if I’m hearing from or accessing someone on the other side, it’s a question I ask with regularity. “So, what does “unconditional love” mean to you?” For most people they instantly understand the concept, even thought it’s not in the zeitgeist of our journey here. It’s not in books, films or generally not found on pulpits. People talk about “love” but when it comes to their enemies, or perceived enemies, they drop the concept.

It came during a session I was filming for the book “It’s a Wonderful Afterlife.” A skeptic had brought few questions to ask anyone on the other side because she didn’t believe she’d get anywhere. I cajoled her into a few and one of them was “what or who is god?” The answer came when she ran into one of her guides on the other side – and the hypnotherapist asked him the question. He said “God is beyond the capacity of the human brain to comprehend; it’s not physically possible. However, you can experience god by opening your heart to everyone and all things.”

Within that answer I think one can find the key to what Manjushri was talking about, the essence of Nagarjuna’s concept of emptiness, as well as what nirvana is or might be in terms of “becoming a Buddha.”

That is to observe that the human brain is conceptually too limited to conceive of these topics (other than by inference) but that doesn’t matter, because an experience supersedes a concept. By experiencing something we come to “know it.” And if we are going to come to know or experience “god” or what that concept means, not in terms of a person, object or thing, but a mode of existence, or a medium of consciousness – we can do so by “opening our hearts to everyone and all things.”

To “open your heart” is to suggest compassion. That is – opening one’s heart to someone else is the definition of both love and compassion. But by opening one’s heart to everyone – and to all things is a way of expressing something ineffable. That by opening our heart to the universe, to

allowing things to be form and not form, allowing things to exist and not exist, allowing us to be aware and unaware – allowing us to see energy and be aware that the energy we one saw still exists – by being aware that dark matter is both particle and wave of something that once occupied a space – that we will once be objects that once occupied a space – but we don’t die, just the way the energy of the object doesn’t die – it’s always there, outside of time.

By opening ourselves up to being aware that those who have gone before us still exist, outside of time, that they’re fully conscious and can answer our questions, that everything in existence is bonded or banded together by the same consciousness – that everything that has come into existence has come here for a reason, and left for a reason – and that it still exists outside of time,

Buddhism and the Flipside by Richard Martini

and is accessible to our conscious efforts to communicate or learn from it or them… by doing so we come to a new understanding.

Guru Rinpoche inside the Jokhang Temple Lhasa. (Photo: Author)

(“Scholars have identified Mañjuśrī as the oldest and most significant bodhisattva in Mahāyāna literature. Mañjuśrī is first referred to in early Mahāyāna sūtras such as the Prajñāpāramitā sūtras and through this association, very early in the tradition he came to symbolize the embodiment of prajñā (transcendent wisdom). The Lotus Sutra assigns him a pure land called Vimala, which according to the Avatamsaka Sutra is located in the East. His pure land is predicted to be one of the two best pure lands in all of existence in all the past, present, and future. When he attains buddhahood his name will be Universal Sight. In the Lotus Sūtra, Mañjuśrī also leads the Nagaraja's daughter to enlightenment. He also figures in the Vimalakīrti Sūtra in a debate with Vimalakīrti where he is presented as an Arhat who represents the wisdom of the Hīnayāna.”) (Wikipedia)

For those curious, here’s a dialog between the young Manjushri and the Buddha in one of his Sutras: (From “Buddhism.org – “The Sutra of Maha-Prajña-Paramita Pronounced by Mañjusri Bodhisattva” Translated from Sanskrit into Chinese in the Southern Liang Dynasty by The Tripika Master Mandra from Funan.)

The Buddha asked Mañjuśrī, "Is it not victorious to acquire the Buddha Dharma?"

Mañjuśrī replied, "I do not see any victorious appearance in dharmas. It can be verified, as in the self-realization of the Tathāgata, (another word for Buddha) that all dharmas are empty."

The Buddha agreed with Mañjuśrī, "Indeed! Indeed! In the perfect enlightenment of the Tathāgata, He has attained self-realization of emptiness."

Mañjuśrī rejoined to the Buddha, "World-Honored One, in the dharma of emptiness, is there victory that can be captured?"

The Buddha said, "Very good! Very good! Mañjuśrī, what you say is the true Dharma!"... The Buddha asked Mañjuśrī, "Do you not contemplate the Buddha Dharma?"

Buddhism and the Flipside by Richard Martini

Mañjuśrī replied, "No, World-Honored One, in my contemplation, I do not see the Buddha Dharma. Nor do I differentiate dharmas into ordinary beings, voice-hearers, and Pratyekabuddhas. This way is called the unsurpassed Buddha Dharma. Moreover, while one cultivates prajñā-pāramitā, (“perfection (understanding) of wisdom”) seeing neither the appearances of ordinary beings nor the appearances of the Buddha Dharma, nor the definite appearances of dharmas, is called cultivation of prajñā-pāramitā.

Furthermore, while cultivating prajñā-pāramitā, one does not see the desire realm, the form realm, the formless realm, or the nirvāṇa realm. Why? Not seeing dharmas with the appearance of extinction is cultivation of prajñā-pāramitā. Buddha Dharma to grasp nor the dharma of ordinary beings to abandon is cultivation of prajñā-pāramitā. Moreover, while one cultivates prajñā-pāramitā, seeing neither the dharma of ordinary beings to terminate nor the Buddha Dharma to realize, yet still coming to its realization, is cultivation of prajñā-pāramitā."

The Buddha praised Mañjuśrī, "Very good! Very good! You can describe so well the appearances of the profound prajñā-pāramitā, which is the Dharma Seal that Bodhisattva Mahāsattvas are learning. Even voice-hearers, Pratyekabuddhas, those who are still learning, and those who have nothing more to learn should also train without abandoning this Dharma Seal, so as to achieve their bodhi fruit."

The Buddha told Mañjuśrī, "If those who have heard this Dharma are not shocked or terrified, they have already planted their roots of goodness under thousands of Buddhas. They have long planted their roots of virtue even under billions of koṭis of Buddhas. Then they are able not to be shocked or terrified by this profound prajñā-pāramitā."

*****

So there we have it. It took me 24 years after meeting Robert Thurman to find a reference to something that I’ve been filming for the past ten years. People conversing with teachers on the flipside to gain insight from them. Coincidence? Or well planned in advance?

And then we may allow that there is no coincidence that you, dear reader, have stumbled upon this page, stumbled upon this essay, that your higher self may have sent you to observe it, to contemplate it, to tuck it away for future reference – a seed that may sprout later, perhaps in another lifetime – but to allow that we are all here for a reason, we all choose to come here, we all don’t disappear, we continue on as before, and that those who were before us are still accessible to us.

As proof of concept, here is an interview from the book “Backstage Pass to the Flipside 3: Talking to the afterlife with Jennifer Shaffer book 3.” The chapter is called “The 13th Dalai Lama.” (Homina Publishing. All rights reserved, copyright Richard Martini 2020).

Another of my experiments. In this instance, I am aware that a person brings “about a third of their conscious energy to a lifetime.” That was consistent in all of Michael Newton’s cases, and is consistent in the over 50 deep hypnosis cases I’ve filmed. I’ve also found it to be accurate in terms of the work Jennifer and I are doing – someone will claim to be “greeting on the other side” by someone who is still on the planet, still “among the living.” For someone not familiar

Buddhism and the Flipside by Richard Martini

with the process, that would instantly eliminate the answer – they tend to block it because they aren’t aware of the possibility.

In the book “It’s a Wonderful Afterlife” I interviewed author David Bennett (“Voyage of Purpose”) where he reported during his near death event seeing a particular friend “in his soul group” during his accident (where he drowned for 12 minutes). A science officer aboard a ship, he was later tested and retested by scientists at UVA studying near death experiences. But the detail that I focused on was that he “saw his friend in his soul group (class of friends) on the flipside when this guy was still alive. However, as David reported, “he was translucent, like the outline of him was there – not all of him was.”

Then later in life, David did a between life hypnosis session with a Newton Institute trained hypnotherapist and David told me in our interview, that he saw his friend again, only by this time he had died, so when he saw him in his “soul group” he was “fully there.” In other words, not translucent, but fully in spirit form.

I’ve heard this often in the research – our loved ones may greet us on the other side (sometimes during a near death event) and we may be startled to see them. Sometimes they’re individuals who actually have passed away (according to the research done by Dr. Greyson at UVA). But as we’ve reported in some of the cases in this book, someone might see or “run into’ someone who is still on the planet.

Based on this consistent reporting, I thought it would be novel to attempt to speak to someone who is clearly on the planet, but access them in a particular time frame (the 13th Dalai Lama instead of the 14th, who is here.) I’m familiar with the lineage of the Dalai Lamas, have been to Tibet and visited a number of them (stupas) as well as have read the book “the 14 Dalai Lamas” which goes into detail about each of their lifetimes.

The 13th Dalai Lama (Photo: Charles Bell)

I’m familiar with the life and journey of the 13th Dalai Lama, when I was researching a screenplay “Younghusband” – I was focusing on the story of how the 13th had to deal with the British invasion of 1906 and how they responded to it. (Over 3000 unarmed Tibetans were mowed down by British Maxim guns in the plain of Gyantse, which I visited). But I was also

Buddhism and the Flipside by Richard Martini

familiar with the unusual relationship between the 13th Dalai Lama and Charles Bell, a British officer who was stationed in Darjeeling when the 13th Dalai Lama had to flee India during the Chinese invasion of that same time period. The Dalai Lama fled Tibet for the first time, ever (later repeating that flight in 1959)/

He got to Darjeeling where he was hosted by this young British officer Bell. The 13th had avoided the British when they invaded in 1906, so he was surprised at the generous and genteel nature of this young fellow. They became best friends, and the Dalai Lama invited Bell to live in Lhasa – the first Brit to do so, and he lived there for decades and wrote about it extensively in his books. They’re a fascinating insight into a world gone by.

But based on my previous knowledge of this World Leader, I thought it might be a novel idea to see if we could access him in our little restaurant in Manhattan Beach.

My questions are in italics, and Jennifer Shaffer’s replies are in bold. (Jennifer is a medium who works with law enforcement agencies nationwide to assist in missing person cases and can be found at JenniferShaffer.com. “Class” refers to the group we meet with each week that are “on the flipside” waiting to converse with us, overseen by my friend Luana Anders.)

“Interview with the 13th Dalai Lama”

Rich: Hi class. I asked some folks to swing by, but who do you want us to talk to? Jennifer: I got the Dalai Lama, but I know he’s still alive.

(Note: She is referring to an image that she is seeing; often the image is “sent” by the person we’re about to speak with. In these interviews, it takes anywhere from 1-3 tries to “figure out” who it is we’re going to speak with. This was an example of “the first try.”)

Don’t judge it. Specifically let’s talk to this Lama. Can you bring him forward? He showed me the current one but it’s a different one.

(Ding!) Can you see him?

He has darker skin.

Does he have any facial hair?

He has something twisted..

(Ding!) Yes... his moustache. I asked him to come today. I gave Luana a list people, and this is definitely the most obscure and different person we could invite. Can we talk to you directly? Let’s allow that I know who you are. Jennifer does not.

Were you with him in Tibet?

Not physically. Perhaps spirit wise. I visited his tomb, but no, I’ve never met this fellow. Let’s be precise... You’re the Lama prior to the current one?

Buddhism and the Flipside by Richard Martini

“Correct.”

Who was there to greet you when you crossed over?

He’s showing me many people. They are all chanting. Wearing robes. Anyone in that group wearing yellow hats?

Two.

If they could come forward, could you introduce them to Jennifer?

It was his two predecessors. One of them was a teacher, and one was like a brother.

Was unusual for you to greet them as you crossed over? Was it different than what you had imagined?

It was much better – he was present for that process and he was aware of what was happening.

(Note: Buddhism doesn’t consider people being fully conscious in the afterlife, it’s thought that between lives, we’re like “wisps of smoke” that move from one lifetime to the next. People in general are aware that Tibetans claim that the 14th Dalai Lama (Tenzin Gyatso whom I’ve met a few times) is the reincarnation of the 13th Dalai Lama.

But I’m aware that based on the research, we only bring a portion of our conscious energy to a lifetime. So indeed, while the 13th may have returned as the 14th, a portion of who he was “back then” is accessible and we can have a conversation with him. She described him precisely, darker skin with a twirly moustache. I’ve read some of Charles Bell’s biographies of him – Bell being a British officer who lived in Lhasa for over a decade.)

Rich: You had an English friend... Charles Bell. Do you know who I’m speaking about? During your lifetime you made friends with this fellow.

Jennifer: Was he a writer?

Yes,(Ding!) Bell wrote a number of books about living in Lhasa, and about your life. So is it accurate for me to argue that a portion of your conscious energy is in Tenzin Gyatso, the 14th Dalai Lama?

He says “He has access to all the way back. He’s saying that the 14th Dalai Lama has this access... all the way back to the 1st and beyond.” (Jennifer aside:) I don’t know what that means.

It’s okay, I do. But I’d like you to clarify this please, how a certain part of your conscious energy came to your next life as the current Dalai Lama?

He showed me ocean waves; how the ocean and the waves are that same person, but all the energy and all the knowledge goes back.

Buddhism and the Flipside by Richard Martini

So you have access to everything? All of those memories?

He says, “Even more when you’re aware.”

(Note: I think he’s referring to the idea that when you’re aware of all your lifetimes, either through meditation or some other access, you are both the memory and the action at the same time.)

What percentage of your conscious energy is in this one?

He just laughed and walked away.

Why?

He came back. He said “All right. All of it.”

You’re saying that the 14th has access to the memories of all of them – but my question is about the percentage of that conscious energy that came to his lifetime. For example, the current Dalai Lama is not aware of this conversation we are currently having, so the 14th isn’t completely aware – so that means he has less a percentage of awareness than you currently have because you are aware of it.

He said, “Part of him is aware of it.”

(Note: We reportedly bring a smaller percentage of our conscious energy, but his point is that when someone has full access to it, it doesn’t matter what that percentage might be because it is “all of it.” But I’m debating him in the spirit of deeper comprehension.)

Aware of this conversation? Okay. Some part of the conscious energy of the Dalai Lama is aware of this conversation. That makes sense. By the way is the class impressed we have the 13th Dalai Lama visiting us?

They said “Yes, it’s like having Jesus stop by.”

Well, yes, we’ve chatted with him too; even had a conversation with Buddha... By the way, your Holiness the 13th, have you spoken to the Buddha Siddhartha since you’re return?

He said, “Yes.”

What did you learn from him once you were on the other side?

He’s laughing. He says “To just stay away.”

From what?

He says, “From earth!” – (meaning to not reincarnate again) He’s laughing... He’s saying “By allowing them to get into it again, and to call up to them (him and other lamas) to come back.”

Buddhism and the Flipside by Richard Martini

The 13th Dalai Lama (Photo: Charles Bell)

What do you think about the current situation in Tibet?

He said, “Sad, very sad.”

A lot of people have been setting themselves on fire.

He’s saying “It is wrong.”

You’re recommendation is to not set yourself on fire in protest?

He says, “Never. Treat your body like a temple...” He’s showing me he understand, “They can’t take it anymore because their insides are burning; there is no difference.”

Let me ask you, is there a date you can give us in the future when this will be resolved: where China will no longer control Tibet?

It feels like 2200... like 170 years from now.

Sorry to hear that. Are you familiar with Robert Thurman?

That’s what came to mind when you said Charles Bell.

This person we’re calling the 13th thought of Thurman?

Yes, I don’t know his name. He says there needs to be another movie about Tibet... there needs to be... I know you’re talking about Robert the father of Uma Thurman. But he’s talking about making more movies, is expressing that there is something with accountability that is not being spoken of...

With the Chinese government and what they’re doing to Tibetans in Tibet? He says, “Yes.”

Accountability with what the Chinese are doing in Tibet?

Buddhism and the Flipside by Richard Martini

He says, “Yes” and just showed me it’s like North Korea and Kim Jong Il. Let me clarify, I’ve made a couple of films with Robert Thurman, documentaries. He says, “Yes,” and he’s saying “One was very peaceful.”

One that I made about refugees in Dharamsala (“Tibetan Refugee”) and one about Robert Thurman in Tibet “Journey into Tibet with Robert Thurman.”

“It was very beautiful,” he said. “He loved the images.”

Thank you – but Robert can’t politicize his work about Tibet in order to be able to travel there again. But do you have a specific request? Something I should say to Robert that comes from you?

“Tell Robert not to wait.” Something with a signature and a scroll?

Are you telling him he should write something?

He says, “No, something he should translate.”

He is a translator.

I didn’t know that.. I’m seeing this language... looks Sanskrit.

Are you talking about the Notovitch document?

He said, “Yes!” He just tapped his nose.

(Note: It’s something discussed in “Hacking the Afterlife” in detail. For Jennifer to reference this is unusual, and again, I try not to judge it. But he’s referring to the document that the explorer Notovitch claimed to find in Hemis (a Tibetan monastery in Ladakh) where he claimed his Nepalese guide translated a Tibetan book for him – the “life of St. Issa.” It’s controversial because it claims an alternative story about the life of Jesus, including him studying with various esoteric religious sects along the silk route. I go into detail in it in “Hacking” but for him to mention that Robert Thurman has access to a copy of it (somewhere) and wants him to translate it is a bit odd. I spoke to Robert about it and he’s not aware of any ancient document that he’s aware of that might resemble the Kanjur of Hemis.)

Okay. Where can I find it?

I saw it up high somewhere.

In Tibet? In India?

He’s showing me a picture of a monastery. On the backside of a hill.

Is it in Ladakh?

He says, “Yes.” (To the 13th) Show me again please. (To me) If you look at a map of India... I’m being drawn to this top corner...

Buddhism and the Flipside by Richard Martini

Where Leh is?

He says, “It’s in Leh.” I see Jesus walking with it.

Okay, well that’s what the document is about. Jesus is walking with it? The 13th wants Thurman to translate it?

He says, “Yes. It’s in really really old Tibetan language.”

How many copies exist?

“Three.” He says “There’s three.” One is in the U.S.

Is Robert aware of it?

It feels like he is – but doesn’t realize it. It’s in something that’s like a museum. What’s the document called? Will he be able to recognize it by the title?

I don’t know. But whenever they show me Jesus and Buddha they show them like this – together – (makes a together gesture.)

I get what they’re saying.

I don’t.

So Jesus - what’s up? Can he come forward? We’ve chatted with him before. Are you down with this? This idea of translating your document because this will help people in some fashion? Is that what you’re saying?

He says “It will make them see through things, it’s really interesting, not necessarily help them but help their awareness go – vrrom – like seeing through everything; like breaking all the borders and boundaries...”

So Robert’s translation of the Kanjur of Hemis – if that’s what it’s called, and within that this story about Issa living in Hemis, you’re saying that would be a profound thing?

He says, “It would be every great thing.”

Okay, listen let’s thank the 13th for showing up... Very kind of you. Taishe delek. *****

A bit hard to unpack this session, except to say that I’m an equal opportunity heretic. I’ve had people say “Oh yeah, right – like Robin Williams or Prince would stop by to talk to you. Please.” I’ve had people say “are you insane? You’re claiming that

Jesus/Buddha/TsongKhapa/the13thDalaiLama stopped by for a chat?”

No – I’m not claiming anything. I’m just reporting. When they say the same things consistently – I report that. It’s up to everyone else to claim they don’t exist, they can’t communicate with us,

Buddhism and the Flipside by Richard Martini

that the dead are dead, and to leave them alone. I had one person claim I was stealing people’s grief... well, far be it from me to steal anyone’s grief.

I can only point out that claiming their loved ones still exist shouldn’t be a problem -- unless they don’t want them to still exist, don’t want them to “be hanging around” for whatever reason. They mourned them, they’re done mourning and they’ve moved on.

As Jennifer’s father put it so eloquently; when you can move grief to nostalgia, the healing process begins. I’m just dealing with nostalgia – both sad and happy memories – and pointing out that there’s no set time period to move grief to nostalgia.

If you’re like me and don’t believe in death at all – that the actual role of playing death has been upended, circumvented, that Death himself has been fired... then claiming that I am not giving people the proper amount of time for grieving may be accurate. They can always read these books later on down the road.

But think of all the laughs they’ll have missed.

The Potala Palace from atop the Jokhang Temple, Lhasa Tibet (Photo: Author)

Interview with Guru Rinpoche

In this instance, I’m interviewing a young filmmaker. Hideto Edward Uno. (He is of Asian descent but was not raised Buddhist). He had a revelation one day while looking at poster of the “Rainbow Body” of “Guru Rinpoche,” the pandit Padmasambhava as he was known in India and

Buddhism and the Flipside by Richard Martini

Tibet. Guru Rinpoche is credited with the flourishing of Buddhism in Tibet in the 8th century when he was invited to preach and live in Tibet by the King Trisong Detsen.

I saw this young filmmakers film “Guru Rinpoche” and asked if he wanted to conduct an interview without hypnosis – we far and fast in this interview, and this is an excerpt from the book. This is my first time encountering “Uno” and it’s over Skype.

After some introductions, I ask if he can access the person known as “Guru Rinpoche” (Padmasambhava.) My questions to him are in italics, Uno’s replies are in bold.

Rich: Can we ask (Buddha’s) devotee Guru Rinpoche to appear without traditional garb? Something comfortable or however he wants to appear.

Uno: Right now it’s really extravagant looking. It’s almost like light is coming off of him... (Uno laughs). He has robes .. they are golden, like with lights and stuff.

Is he wearing a hat?

Yes, the lotus hat. He says, “He could wear normal clothes too.”

Guru Rinpoche in a “lotus hat.”

Would you mind?

Okay, now he’s wearing a brown fleece – and some shorts. (Uno laughs.) Dark blue shorts. Wow does he appear?

He’s about 6 feet tall. He’s got a beard and moustache.

Thank you for showing up – are you familiar with my work?

“Yes, I am.”

Buddhism and the Flipside by Richard Martini

(Note: I often ask “avatars” to “change into clothing that makes it “less intimidating” to ask them questions. I ask the same questions to everyone to see what they might say. (“Do you know my work?”) In this case, Uno has not read any of my books, this is our first meeting.)

What were you doing when we interrupted you?

He said, “I was just meditating, contemplating.”

How many consorts did you have in life?

He says, “I had four.”

Are you still hanging out with them?

He says, “And yes I do in some capacity, definitely.”

You were famous for creating... for bringing Buddhism for Tibet, and also given the credit for tantric sex, what’s your opinion about that?

“And they screwed it all up” he said.

(Laughs) Okay, I want to ask you questions both Uno and I have been to the places where you were in Tibet. What was that like for you?

He said, “It was a wild place, because the people were much less civilized than they are now.”

(Note: In my interview with him in “Backstage Pass to the Flipside” he said the same thing about the wildness of the people and terrain.)

In terms of you taming local deities, how’d you do that?

He says, “I would use my magic so to speak to tame the local spirits and major spirits.”

When you say magic are you talking about the kind of esoteric yogas of consciousness, like “The Six Yogas of Naropa?”

A depiction of the various esoteric yogas of Naropa. (Photo: Wikimedia)

He said, “Yes and much more than that.”

Buddhism and the Flipside by Richard Martini

Where did you learn them?

He said, “I learned it in India, and also in what would be now more Pakistan.” Are they correct who they say who your teachers were? Did you study at Nalanda?

He says, “Not in the normal sense, not in the physical sense, my teachers were the same. I learned most of this on a spiritual level already.”

(Note: There are records kept by Tibetan lamas, who passed what information down from what teacher. The Six Yogas of Naropa where esoteric exercises of the mind, which Guru Rinpoche taught, which were date back to Buddha. They were passed along orally (known as “secret” in

early translations) but deal with shifting consciousness to create heat (“tummo”) as well as being able to shift consciousness outside of the body.)

So when you were in meditation, you were in a state of open access to information from the other side?

He said, “Yes. I used magic in the sense of alchemy and shamanism, you could say.”

How were you able to manipulate stone? What’s the process for actually getting your hand or foot to melt rock into its shape?

He says, “It’s actually pretty simple; you just have to reach a certain level of awareness and knowledge of emptiness and that’s really about it.”

How do you try to manipulate the rock or does the rock participate in your manipulation of it? The energy that exists within the stone?

He said, “Yes, that’s what I’m saying. It’s not really “doing something” as much as it’s your state of being and awareness... and then it happens.

Is that related to your ability to create the rainbow body or form?

“Yes, and if you can attain such things that will happen naturally” he said. You’re credited with having a rainbow body death; can you walk us through he process?

He says, “To attain a rainbow body it’s about your awareness of emptiness as well as your compassion and love that you have within yourself and have for all others as they are you... and then it will happen.”

In Uno’s documentary, he reports there are quite a few people who have had rainbow body deaths.

He says, “Yes, well we are (all) light and so the body starts to dissolve in the matter sense and then becomes light and then you physically see it shrinking, if that answers your question.”

Thank you!

Buddhism and the Flipside by Richard Martini

*****

Again, I had never met this young filmmaker, and had no idea what we would discuss. I had seen his film, and based upon my conversations through Jennifer Shaffer (and other mediums) I was aware that I could ask direct questions to someone no longer on the planet. There’s no hypnosis involved, I’m just asking simple questions and seeing what the person says. One would assume that this filmmaker would know everything about Buddhism or my work to answer these questions – again, he was raised Christian, had never read any of my books – since his trip to India and Tibet to visit some of the sights of Guru Rinpoche he has been studying Buddhism, but to what extent, I don’t know.

The following is an interview that I conducted via Jennifer Shaffer in her office in Manhattan Beach. She was raised Mormon, and is not aware of Buddhist philosophy. However, that doesn’t prevent her from reporting whatever she is hearing or seeing without judging either.

Statue of Shakyamuni Buddha reported made during his lifetime. In the Jokhang Temple in Lhasa Tibet (Photo: Author)

Interview with Shakyamuni Buddha

From “Backstage Pass to the Flipside” book two “Jesus and Buddha Walk Into a Bar.”

It’s one of our usual sessions where I interview medium/intuitive Jennifer Shaffer about whatever pops into my head. In this instance, both Jesus and Buddha had been mentioned earlier in our conversation. She was accessing or friend Luana Anders on the flipside, and she had given Jennifer an image of “walking hand in hand with both Jesus and Buddha. Jesus is the topic for another longer article (and must of my interviews with people talking about or to him are in “Hacking the Afterlife”). In this case, my questions are in italics, Jennifer’s answers are in bold.

Rich: You mentioned the Buddha (earlier). Can you give Jennifer an image of how he looks over there? Or how does he present himself over there?

Jennifer: As a bird. I see a white dove.

Buddhism and the Flipside by Richard Martini

Okay, as a dove; that can represent consciousness. The whole “holy trinity” thing; father, son, holy spirit as a white dove thing... that represents consciousness... is that accurate?

He said “Yes.”

So can we talk to this bird of consciousness?

He showed up as an owl.

Fine. Stand next to Jennifer, I’m going to ask you some questions.

He showed me numbers. Like in scriptures... Sanskrit.

Okay, for the purpose of our conversation, Sid... can I call you Sid, short for Siddhartha? He says, “Okay.” They all think it’s funny; they’re laughing.

Can you focus on your lifetime here as Siddhartha? Put that in your mind? Why are you emanating as an owl?

He says, “Wisdom. A symbol of wisdom.”

Let’s talk about that – your experience under the bodhi tree when you saw people on the flipside, you passed that information on, you eventually shared it with the planet.

He says, “Yes.” He showed me an energy force field that went boom.

True, like a shock wave that affected the planet. However, you argued that there is no self, that who we are as people is not finite, because it’s always changing. Did you find anything contrary to that when he checked off the planet?

He says, “It’s interpretation; yes.”

But that’s a key point – people consider you...

He says, “A guru...”

Beyond guru. An enlightened person... who is infallible.

He’s showing me a bicycle wheel going around... and how the spokes sometimes break off, sometimes they’re wrong or they don’t function properly, but the wheel continues around.

Okay, that’s a good example for Buddhists. The wheel. Things can be wrong or inaccurate in the dogma, but it keeps on turning.

He says, “It’s a bad thing, because it limited the message.”

Watered down the message?

He says, “Fine, Rich, watered down the message.”

(Note: Nothing quite like being chastised by an avatar.)

Buddhism and the Flipside by Richard Martini

Do you mind us interviewing you? Talking to you?

He says, “More than happy to show up.” He’s showing me Robert Thurman. “He did a number on you mentally.” I don’t know what that means.

Professor Thurman opened up my eyes to your sutras, your teachings.

He says, “Yet it made you more confused.”

(Note: As noted, Robert Thurman allowed me to audit his class which led to our trips to India and Tibet together. He’s easily the most learned scholar in Tibetan philosophy I’ve ever met, and contributed a chapter “The Death of Death” to “It’s a Wonderful Afterlife.” If you ever get the chance to hear him speak in public, do so. In this instance, I don’t think it’s a criticism of Robert, but of my ability to understand him.)

(Disagreeing) Actually, my class gave me the tools to figure out what you were saying to your followers.

Jennifer: I’m sorry; it’s my interpretation (of what he’s saying)... He’s showing me you were awakened, but after that, you saw a lot of things that were contrary to what you had learned, and you were confused by seeing the truth. (He’s saying) “It freaked you out.”

Yes, that’s correct.

(Note: Once I fell into the research, I realized Buddhism’s description of the afterlife wasn’t the same as I was hearing from folks under deep hypnosis. (I.e., we are “conscious” back home and not wisps of smoke or “clear light.”) It made me think perhaps Buddha’s “between life” experience of visiting the flipside (during his three days in equipoise under the bodhi tree) may have been misinterpreted. He said he feared that might be the case, as he didn’t talk about it for two weeks thinking “no one would understand what he was talking about.” But ultimately he decided to share what he’d learned, and people have expounded upon it for centuries.)

Jennifer: He’s showing me that he was imparting metaphor, like showing us the owl - everything he tried to relay was more in symbols or metaphor. That’s why he showed me an owl.

Rich: Because it’s not just one thing in terms of understanding, it’s like the five hundred things? Jennifer: He says, “Five hundred thousand things.”

So you tailored your message to your audience?

He says, “Yes. To different countries, to different audiences.”

I have a question for you... since being here, have you reincarnated?

He says, “Parts of him has, many times, in many different... lives.”

Buddhism and the Flipside by Richard Martini

(Note: That’s an observation made in Robert Thurman’s “Essential Tibetan Buddhism (Wisdom Publications) where Buddha “tailored” his teachings to whomever was in his audience. In terms of his “reincarnation” – it’s something that’s in the dogma of Buddhism, that Buddha had gone “beyond” the wheel of incarnation, and no longer had to “suffer” in this fashion. I ask the question in this way, because all of the research claims that we “choose our lifetimes” to learn or teach lessons in compassion or love.

If that’s accurate, then the same would go for an avatar. “Jesus” was asked the same question during a session between Dr. Elisa Medhus, her son Erik and medium Jamie Butler. (It’s a session where you can HEAR voices respond on the audio – Dr. Medhus didn’t hear it, initially, but I pointed it out to her.)

In this session, “Jesus” said he’s reincarnated since being here on the planet and reported a lifetime in Florida in 1964 where he was born as a child without use of his limbs, confined to ICU. Dr. Medhus knew the name of the affliction (Osteogenesis Imperfecta) and he claimed he had done so to help the parents and medical staff to “learn lessons in unconditional love.”

Buddhism teaches, generally, that once Buddha was “enlightened” he no longer had to be part of the “Wheel of Life” – the idea that we are forced to reincarnate in different life forms until we achieve perfection. This isn’t in the research, by the way – as noted, people claim that we all choose our next lifetime albeit with the help and guidance of our loved ones.

The dialectical question I’m asking – and apologies to Buddhists everywhere who may find this heretical - was given to me by Robert Thurman while we were on Mt. Kailash. Bob said the best debate question was to consider “If Buddha considered himself a Bodhisattva.”)

Rich: The argument goes like this; and I heard it from Bob Thurman when we were in Tibet: “If you’re a bodhisattva, part of the “Bodhisattva vow” is to continually reincarnate until the planet is liberated. So why haven’t you incarnated fully as yourself to do that?”

Jennifer: He says, “People aren’t ready for that to happen or to have someone like Jesus return...” Just not ready for a “second coming.”

Perhaps this research is a version of the second coming. By investigating what really happened way back when – by retelling the story of who you were or who Jesus was or is – it allows both of you to “return” in a form that is part of intellectual curiosity. Question to either one of you - why don’t you guys flip a coin and let the winner – or loser – return?

They’re laughing.

So let’s ask them our question of the day, “What do you regret?” So Sid? What do you regret? He says, “He regrets not getting along with his father.”

Buddhism and the Flipside by Richard Martini

(Note: Jennifer is not a Buddhist, nor knows the story behind Siddhartha’s life and journey. But in a nutshell he was born into wealth, his father shielded him from any kind of pain and misery, banishing lepers and sick or old people from their city state. And one day, it’s reported that Siddhartha traveled outside the city gates and saw people suffering who were sick, old or dying. And he set off to figure out why that was.

“Why were people suffering?” he asked. He left his father in the lurch, not reuniting with him for years, until he was a preacher followed by thousands. That’s the basic story of his journey.

While he was under the Bodhi tree for three days, he came to the realization of why we suffer as human beings, and reported it in his thousands of teachings or sutras, about the nature of reality. I fully realize how “heretical” these questions are to some – but I try be an equal opportunity heretic – I ask the same questions to everyone, of any avatar we run across in our investigation. As I say – if it offends the dear reader, I apologize. But the undiscovered gem in here, there’s no way that Jennifer would know about Siddhartha’s relationship with his father, and how even though it was later reconciled, he’s saying here that it “wasn’t quite.” The only regret he expressed was “Not getting along with his father.” That’s accurate, at the same time mind bending.)

Rich: I know you reunited with your father later in life. What do you miss about being on the planet?

Jennifer: “Being a kid.”

******

“Interview with Tara”

In this interview, I thought of the unusual construct of “interviewing Tara.” As a person, she’s considered the “Mother Mary” of Tibetan Buddhism. She represents a number of different aspects of compassion, including the “Green Tara” who is tasked with helping heal people. In terms of the “color green” on the flipside, I’ve often run into people who “seemed to be the color green.”

In “Flipside” I reported the experience of visiting Luana, our guide on the Flipside, in her “healing class.” I saw the teacher in this initial vision – I saw myself appearing – right out of a Star Trek transporter like effect – in a classroom. I was standing on the upper regions of the auditorium, a theater like construct – and standing not far from my friend Luana, who appeared “shocked to see me.”

Buddhism and the Flipside by Richard Martini

The hypnotherapist Jimmy Quast said “Where are you?” I said “I have appeared in this classroom, this giant auditorium and my friend Luana is in the back row. She looks about 20 years old, way before I met her, she’s got bright blonde hair and a pony tail, and she’s looking at me, like “what the fuck are you doing here?”

And when I’m speaking to you now, everyone in class stopped speaking – the teacher stopped speaking and looked at me. I can see him down below, he’s about 8 feet tall, and... I get the feeling I’m not supposed to be talking aloud.”

In my mind’s eye, everyone in the class was looking at me. I felt this odd pang of “Oh no! What have I done?” But because I was aware that “for some reason” I had appeared like an apparition in the class, I felt the need to report what I was experiencing. So I continued talking. I said “This

classroom appears to be a class in the healing light of the universe. So when a person, a doctor, healer on earth is performing a task, these students help them to access the healing light of the universe.”

And one of the student in this etheric classroom, looked at me with disdain and said “You don’t know what the hell you’re talking about.” Which was really odd – being challenged, and feeling out of place at the same time. I said to the hypnotherapist (Jimmy Quast of Easton MD hypnosis). “I get the feeling I’m not supposed to be talking about loud. But I’ve come a long way to get here, so I might as well continue.” I said “I’m being chastised by one of the students, and let me say that this class isn’t a class in “how to heal someone” but a class in “calling upon the healing light of the universe.” Not every doctor signs up for a lifetime to heal everyone, and people who are patients might want or need to experience the illness fully, so they won’t be cured in the process either.”

At that moment, the cranky student nodded, said “Okay, you do know what you’re talking about.”

Then two years later, I did another deep hypnosis session, this time with a different hypnotherapist, Scott De Tamble of Claremont CA (lightbetweenlives.com) to see if I would have any of the same memories, or different ones. And as he began to count me down, he went two numbers in, and I said “Scott, I’m already there. It’s like the gate was left open and I just walked through it. I’m back in the classroom with Luana. Only it’s as if a few seconds have gone by. She’s walked me down the auditorium to the front of the classroom, and she’s speaking directly to this 8 foot tall teacher who is radiating the color green. He’s a healing master, he’s someone who teaches them how to heal people... and Luana is apologizing profusely for my intrusion before. She’s saying “This is a friend of mine, and he’s doing this project back on Earth...” The teacher, who wasn’t angry or upset, had a neutral look on his face, turned to me and said “What are your questions?”

Thankfully I had the presence of mind to launch into them (and that’s in the latter part of “Flipside,” or may be in the next book “It’s a Wonderful Afterlife.”)

Buddhism and the Flipside by Richard Martini

So I’m aware, and have heard it in the past, that those who have experience in the “healing arts” may at some point in a conversation generate a green color. Green Tara is someone who is known for her help with people who are ill. The night before this session, my wife Sherry had a dream about Tara, so I invited “her” to the session. My comments are in italics, Jennifer’s replies are in bold.

Rich: Did you have a shift in tone there?

Jennifer (Nods, holding her ear.) It hurt.

I asked someone else to come forward.

Warn me next time, would you?

Sorry. My wife Sherry had a vision of someone last night – she was meditating on healing our son who has a bad cough and she said she meditated this person into the room.

Was it a deity? One of the Gods for Tibetans?

(Ding!) Yes. She was emanating a color.

Blue?

Green.

Sorry – I can see that color now and it felt like a Tibetan deity.

Luana can we interview this Tibetan deity briefly?

(Jennifer aside) It’s also somebody that I’ve seen – only she was blue, clothed (in a cloak) with all the (multiple) arms.

Is this the same person or a version of that person?

It’s the same (being). Same energy, yeah.

(Note: When interviewing her father a year earlier, after his passing, he told us he was taking a class in “Physics of the Universe” beyond quantum physics, and took us to a classroom in deep space, an advanced class in astrophysics. He warned his daughter Jennifer not to be “thrown” by the physical manifestation of his teacher. When his teacher appeared, she was radiating a blue light and had multiple arms. Since then we’ve spoken to her on a few occasions.)

Can I ask some questions? How did Sherry manifest you?

She says, “She thought of the highest level of healing.”

When Sherry described you, I said “Oh, you talked to Tara?” Sherry said “No, not Tara.” But is that a name to refer to you as?

Buddhism and the Flipside by Richard Martini

She says, “It’s like using the word “God.”

Sherry saw her specifically as someone with wings – show Jennifer how you appeared.

Feels like an avatar from the Avatar movie – glowing skin, iridescent. Radiance. Unique eyes.

Almond shaped eyes?

Yeah, dark in color.

Sherry saw this avatar do something – can you show Jennifer what it is you did? She said, “She put colors into his forehead. Like a bright, yellowish tint.” (Ding!) That’s correct. She saw it as a jewel.

That’s what I’m seeing – how it’s being pushed in – not what is being pushed in. Sherry saw it as an emerald being put into his forehead.

They showed me an association… like a heating pad, cooling down the brain. Like using its heat to break (the fever) it down.

Was that for heat or for healing?

She says, “Healing. It’s energy that came from Sherry.”

That healing energy was then manifested as an emerald and pushed into his forehead? She says, “They were helping Sherry at the same time.”

Once the healing light enters, then what happens?

She says, “It breaks up and goes into the whole body, disperses or injecting energy to where there is hurt – where his cough is..” I can see it in his chest. “He slept for a long time after it.”

He did. But is the energy like water?

She says, “Yes, like raindrops sprinkled inside his body.”

(Note: When our daughter was 4 she talked about remembering being a doctor in Tibet in a previous lifetime. I asked her how the medicine she brought worked, or how she helped people – she said she would “Turn on the tap of healing light” and then “Sprinkle the drops around the home and the person’s body.” She described how she “sprinkled” energetic healing light like water, and the energy “was like seeds” that would then heal the person. The sentence “like raindrops sprinkled inside his body” reminded me of that conversation.)

Does this make people better?

Buddhism and the Flipside by Richard Martini

She says, “Yes.” They said “Sherry was the fertilizer – the catalyst. But a lot don’t believe it is possible – so belief is important for the outcome. She was the catalyst in that … knew it existed on a consciousness level.”

She said that she didn’t know if it happened or was a dream.

She’s saying “It did happen, absolutely – that’s why her hands got so warm.” Tara, are you associated with Sherry, Luana or just the whole process?

She says, “It’s like seeing the Archangel Michael for someone else; (the manifestation is) available to everyone, it’s associated to everyone that believes he or she exists.”

Shall I put this at the end of the Architecture book or Backstage Pass?

She says, “Both. Like you have to know the power of prayer, that prayer works. But you can mix it up with visualizing it going in.”

(Note: I think it’s only in “Architecture” but now it’s in public.)

To paraphrase, one could think of Jesus or Tara, or their mother, or a famous scientist and get the same results?

She says, “Yes; all the same feeling of light energies.”

Will you meet us all on the flipside, Tara?

She says, “No, here. Whenever you bring these concepts to light, the more it vibrates up and we feel it.”

Will there be more people seeing you as a result of this research or is this something that’s been going on for eons?

She says “She’s been doing it for gazillions of years.”

Are we helping to open this up to people by doing this research?

She says, “Yes, with your words, printing it – like Sanskrit – different texts have it (the same information).”

I was in a Nepalese restaurant today, I saw a poster of green Tara – and spoke to the woman who owned the restaurant, whose name is Tara. It turns out we met on a bus in 1996 in Brooklyn, on a Tibetan holiday, where we shared a ride to a monastery in Woodstock.

(Jennifer laughs, aside) Of course you did.

Okay guys. Thanks Tara. Thanks Luana.

****

“Interview with a Fairy named Tara”

Buddhism and the Flipside by Richard Martini

This is an interview with someone who has not read any of my books, is not aware of councils, or any of this research. However, during a session where she was able to access a friend who had died and came to visit her from the flipside, I asked to access her guide. It’s likely a coincidence her name is “Tara” but in editing the above session, I noticed that my wife Sherry had seen Tara with “wings.” And in this instance, this Tara also has wings. It’s just a short excerpt from a longer chapter in “Architecture of the Afterlife.” My questions are in italics, my friend “Sean” (not her real name) are in bold.

Rich: Okay, I’m interested in talking to your guide. Can you bring your guide forward? Is that a male, female neither or both?

Sean: It’s a spirit. It’s just like a light. Quite close. It’s white – like Tinkerbell. Small (she gestures with one hand).

I’d like your guide to manifest as a human so we can talk to you – what do you see? My guide says “no.” (She can’t or won’t)

I’m asking your guide directly to manifest as someone we can chat with.

(Hesitates) She’s a fairy.

Okay don’t judge it. How big?

(Shows her hand.)

About the size of your hand?

Yes.

What’s this guide’s name?

She says, “Tara.”

Describe her. How many wings does she have?

She has four. They’re like a fly’s wings; quite strong.

What color are they?

They are clear – translucent. She’s a woman. About 4 inches high, she has brown hair, light blue eyes; she’s very sweet. (Wearing) Like a fairy outfit... it’s green blue...

Like Tinkerbell?

“Yes.”

Buddhism and the Flipside by Richard Martini

Tara. Can I ask you direct questions and you’ll put the answers in her mind? She says, “Yes.”

Have you ever incarnated on our planet?

She says, “No.”

In the place you come from does everyone look like you?

She says, “Yes there’s a lot.”

Tara, I spoke to someone recently who resembled someone like you. Are you aware of this? “Yes. I am.”

(Note: There’s no way that this person would know this detail, as I hadn’t told anyone. I’d met a member of a council that was “small” about four inches high, and also looked like a “fairy.” I asked her the same questions I’m about to ask Tara. She said roughly the same things.)

Tara are you aware of me?

She says, “Yes.”

What’s your opinion of what I’m doing?

She said, “Good work.”

Next question can you walk our friend in to visit her council?

Into my what?

She knows what I’m talking about.

She says “Yes.”

Funny; Tara knows your council but you don’t – do you know what I’m talking about Sean? No, I don’t.

(Note: We then went in to visit with my friend’s council, and Tara was our guide throughout – again, not that this is the same Tara as reported earlier. “Wings” in discussions I’ve had in the past, are almost always referred to as “metaphor” – in terms of speed and the ability to “move at the speed of thought.” But in this case, she showed Sean four wings, so that detail was something new.)

************

“INTERVIEW WITH MA DURGA”

Buddhism and the Flipside by Richard Martini

In this session, the “8 armed woman” that we met through Jennifer’s father, who was teaching his class in astrophysics on the flipside, appeared suddenly when I asked a question about how earthquakes affect bees.

Rich: Who wants to talk to us? We had an earthquake last week and bees are acting weird – who wants to talk to us about this? Luana you want to bring us a Queen Bee?

Jennifer: It’s almost like she’s bringing someone in whom we’ve met before. I saw a vision I’ve seen before of someone with all these arms.

I remember her.

(Jennifer aside) I don’t.

She was your father’s teacher in a class we went to visit in deep space. Is that correct? I forget her name.

She says, “Yes!”

(Note: In a previous session, when Jennifer first began to access her father on the flipside, I asked him what he was doing and he said “attending class.” We asked him to “take us there” and he described a giant auditorium in deep space, where this 8 armed teacher was teaching the class advanced astrophysics. I interviewed the teacher briefly. (From “Backstage Pass to the Flipside” books one and two, Homina Publishing)

Does she have a name?

It sounds like Zander but spelled with an X.

Thank you for showing up... shall we call you Madame X?

“Yes.”

Describe her to me; what do you see?

She’s really tall she has this huge cloak, this wrap that covers everything, like what a king would wear. Only it’s green and velvet and beautiful.

Does she have hair?

Yeah but it’s all up – in a weird upwards do... (Jennifer gestures above her head.) It’s colored like a prism when light shines on it, it has different colors.

How about her eyes?

She only has one eye I think...

What about her arms?

Buddhism and the Flipside by Richard Martini

She has them, but then she has lots of other arms back there.

Eight?

She says, “Yes.”

You’re a teacher of astrophysics correct?

She says, “Yes.” Hold on. It’s almost like she’s a Hindu goddess.

(I looked her up; searched for “8 armed Hindu Goddess”) The reference I got is Durga – who is the mother of Ganesh! She’s the only 8 armed Hindu deity I can find.

I’m getting that. “She’s related to Ganesh.”

Ganesh was part elephant and part human (his mother had 8 arms). But let’s ask her; each arm represents insight or knowledge?

She says, “Wisdom, Yes. And the number 8 is equal to infinity... “

Right; the symbol for infinity is the number 8 on its side. Each arm...

She said, “Represents something symbolic.”

So you manifested in this way so people who are Hindu would know who you are?

She would show herself to them – she’s showing me a certain way with her back turned towards me – when I’m looking down I see all these lights (students in class depicted as lights).

Do those lights represent students in your class?

Yes; including my dad.

You were brought in by Luana to talk to us about bees on earth?

She showed me the bees getting so hot – it’s not a temperature thing but a frequency thing... I was shown like their so much static they can’t stay here.

(Note: Although smart meters are reportedly less harmful than cell phone towers, farmers and beekeepers have posted videos online claiming the meters killed nearby trees or bees. http://www.ncsl.org/research/energy/regulating-and-encouraging-smart-grid-technologies.aspx This came to mind as I wrote this sentence.)

Do earthquakes disrupt the bees’ frequency?

She said, “Yes. Like when a car goes down and releases a lot of energy, “It’s like their spirits are evaporating in their bodies.”

People have observed them going in circles after quakes – they’ve lost their way? “They were already gone,” it feels like.

Buddhism and the Flipside by Richard Martini

So the quake destroyed their ability to move?

She says, “Yes. They couldn’t acclimate. Some (solar) flares interrupt human behavior.” Do you mean solar flares?

She’s saying “Yes, that what causes it. Climate change is causing the epicenter of the earth to get super hot.”

Well something else to worry about. Earlier we were talking about the work of Charles Darwin.

I was expressing something I learned from a session with Darwin’s great great great great granddaughter. As we were talking he came through and gave me information that only her family knows... It had to do with a child that was illegitimate, that was African that was sick, that passed away.

He told us that his wife wrote much of the book “Origin of the Species.” He said, “His original intent was to write about how do we know what we are?” He was going to call it “Origin of the Spirit. ” It was supposed to be about the origins of spirit, how we evolved, as he was talking he showed me his relative I was speaking to and them as himself... as if a pile of sand was going into her and then coming back out.

He was showing me that “We’re the same DNA, we’re the same cluster.” He said “You don’t know where you are.” I replied, “Yes, I do, I’m at the Rose Cafe in Venice California.” And he said “No, you don’t really know where you are.”

And all of a sudden, it was like going into the vortex. It’s happened to me twice before, once in Sedona, and the other in Peru, when everything becomes quiet, and all of a sudden I saw all the other dimensions going along at the same time.

And he said “You think you’re here; but you’re not.” He asked “Do you ever see yourself in your dream state?” And I saw myself as a chubby little Swedish boy. It was like the rug was pulled out from under me.

He said “Why do you think you can’t go into past, present and future? (It’s) because you’re not really here, you’re a blip on the screen, a place on the sand...” He reiterated the title was supposed to be “Origins of Spirit.”

Okay, let’s get back to Madame X, the eight armed teacher.

(Jennifer aside) Do you know where we left off?

You explained to us why the bees are dying off.

She says, “It’s like humans having cancer; bees don’t get cancer but they can’t sustain staying in their body – people think that cancer is a form of combustion in your body...”

So instead of bees getting cancer they’re dying? By this disruption of equilibrium?

Buddhism and the Flipside by Richard Martini

She’s telling me “It goes back to the sun flares; some flares affect us because they’re massive, it takes quakes to affect bees.”

So what do you want to talk to us about?

“The epicenter” she said.

The planet is getting hot? The core is getting hot?

It’s like lava...showing me something with lava.

(Note: There’s predictions flying around about Yellowstone being on the top of a volcano that will eventually erupt. Also, I’ve heard the theory that solar flares precipitate earthquakes on Earth.)

Whenever I go to the epicenter, I get shown myself in the core. I’m trying to understand what they’re saying. From what I understand, this is my interpretation, “It’s that our core is not being grounded, everything is frenetically off balance, when you’re that small, like a bee it can’t survive that disruption. For them the only option is to say “I’m out of here.””

They’re showing me a memory of my past life where I couldn’t save the children I was supposed to help... (Jennifer asks:) what does this have to do in this dimension now? I’m hearing “We have to be kinder to our planet. Which we know if we aren’t kinder to our planet, the planet feels that we aren’t acclimating and puts it out there. They are showing me a bunch of things, people rising up, people already feel like they’re out of sorts, that’s why they’re leaving, like we’re the most dense dimension we’re in…”

Are you saying that the collapse of the bee colonies, for whatever reason, is related to humans committing suicide?

She says, “It’s related to our atmosphere; we can counterbalance it by having more trees. The oxygen from the trees make everything more grounded.”

Well, trees retain carbon – they release oxygen. We’ve heard this; if you plant a trillion trees you can save the planet.

(Jennifer aside) I don’t know any of this on a scientific level.

I had a conversation with a tree the other day and he said “Be kind.”

And that’s what they’re saying now; “Be kind.”

What do you want to tell your followers in India?

She said, “Stop smoking.” I saw a whole group of people smoking.

That may be related to pollution.

She says, “They stopped believing, something about them “not believing.”” I’m being shown that a lot of people in India do what they’re supposed to do because they’re

Buddhism and the Flipside by Richard Martini

supposed to do it, but there’s not the creative energy you get when you have faith in something.”

Well faith in something, or blind belief can causes wars; you’re saying that people in India are no longer connected to spirit?

She says, “Yes.”

Thank you.

***************

Here we are, back with the filmmaker Hideto Uno, in the midst of his session. In this instance, we speak directly to Shakyamuni Buddha.

Statues of Buddha atop the Jokhang Temple in Lhasa, Tibet (Photo: Author)

“Interview with Shakyamuni Buddha”

(Note: Uno is struggling with my suggestion he keep his eyes open)

Uno: Am I allowed to close my eyes?

Let’s ask him... is Shakyamuni the right term for our friend here?

“Yeah.” He says “You could say Buddha.”

How is our friend Uno doing?

(Uno aside) Do you want me to just talk?

Yeah whatever comes to mind.

It will be easier if I just talk directly... Your question “How is he doing? Uno is doing very well.”

Buddhism and the Flipside by Richard Martini

Could I ask a personal question? Are you familiar with the work I’m doing? Buddha says “Yes of course.”

Do you recall our conversation before with my friend Jennifer?

“Yes, you were talking about... something to do with your work.”

(Note: As egotistical as this question sounds, it’s for reference. I have conducted an “interview” with Siddhartha (Shakyamuni Buddha) when he showed up in a conversation in the book “Backstage Pass to the Flipside: Talking to the Afterlife with Jennifer Shaffer.” “No” would tell me what questions I might continue to ask. “Yes” doesn’t mean “I remember talking to you” but includes “Yeah, well I am the Buddha, so pretty much am aware of everything, including you.”)

(The statue of Shakyamuni Buddha in the Jokhang Temple in Lhasa, Tibet. (ibid) It’s reported this statue was crafted during Buddha’s lifetime.)

Yes, that’s correct. I asked you some questions about your passing, your “Paranirvana” and how your nephew Ananda apologized for serving you your last meal?

“Yes.”

Ananda served you tainted meat, you got sick from it. Before you died, Ananda is quoted as saying “Oh no, I will go down in history as the man who served the buddha a poisoned dinner!”

(Uno laughs.) “Yes, I said, “That’s okay because that is also a blessing.”

(Laughter) That’s reportedly what you said; like “the bad news is you served this meal, the good news is, you will be famous.”

“Yes, but that’s just the ego, that’s fine, that’s how it goes, as you know.”

(Note: I heard this story from Robert Thurman in his class at Columbia University, and I recalled the notion of “Oh no! I’ve killed the Buddha!” and his reply, “But you’ll go down in history as the one who served his last meal.” It could be made up – but he could have disputed the story (and sometimes people do.) In this case, I’m allowing the odd construct that I’m actually speaking to the Buddha, because I’ve done so with Jennifer Shaffer in the past. Not trying to be

Buddhism and the Flipside by Richard Martini

disrespectful, but instead of focusing on “trying to prove it actually is him,” I focus on whatever question pops into my mind.)

In terms of reincarnation, we discussed the Bodhisattva vow, and in terms of reincarnating, you said something along the lines of “your energy has reincarnated partially or emanated in various forms” – like portions of your conscious energy. Is that accurate?

(Uno asking) “Emanations?”

I mean reincarnations without limiting the concept. That some portion of your conscious energy may be on the planet at any given time?

“Yes. That is possible, because it is not a thing but can be broken up into many things.”

(Note: Like how a hologram retains all of the information even when broken into pieces; even the smallest piece retains the same data. So if a portion of an individual incarnates, it still would retain all the elements of that individual.)

**********

In this interview, we ask both Jesus and Guru Rinpoche about the “rainbow light” yoga, and whether it was responsible for the shroud of Turin.

This is an excerpt from an interview with Jesus, Guru Rinpoche, Luana Anders and Medium Jennifer Shaffer (“Backstage Pass to the Flipside 3”). My questions are in italics, Jennifer’s answers are in bold.

“INTERVIEW WITH JESUS AND GURU RINPOCHE”

Rich: Jesus, if I may; how did you create the light that’s in the shroud of Turin? Was that through meditation, how did you create that?

(Jennifer) The what?

The image that’s on the shroud. Science tells us that light on the shroud could only have been made from something or someone with an inner light source. Were you using the inner light meditation yoga, or a rainbow body yoga? Or was it something else?

He showed me two.. as if you need to cut out the “imprint” of the person and make it the negative – I asked “Is that dark matter?” and he said “Yes” and showed me the illumination that comes from that, everything that comes into that space. “By coming into existence, an object creates a barrier; if you’re standing there in existence, it’s a barrier from what wasn’t once there, but if you go inwards and meditate on this, when you’re connecting, light years of stars and reflection come in and the dark matter of that space fills it up... and that creates that image.”

Buddhism and the Flipside by Richard Martini

(Note: This is an explanation of “how the shroud was created” “how rainbow yoga is achieved” and “what is dark energy?” in one answer. We’ve heard in other sessions “dark matter” is both the “memory of the object that once occupied that space” as well as it’s current energy form, whatever that is. We’ve heard that rainbow body meditation is a yoga that allows one to “become light” and she’s saying “that’s why the negative image is on the shroud.”)

The shroud. Wikipedia.

That energy that created the image is like nuclear fission?

He showed me a transference. You know how Star Wars when they “achieve light speed” all the stars are passing by light melted light? I saw them all coming in.. into the dark matter.

Is there anyone on the planet who can do that kind of yoga?

There’s a guy who did – he popped into my mind. His name is.. Yoga... something. Yogananda?

Yes. Him.

Luana, who do you want to invite to help us with this conversation? Jesus, Guru Rinpoche...

They’re all here. They’re all radiating in a similar frequency. It’s all the spiritual leaders in front of me, out of the 7 dimensions we have complete access to that one now. Wow. Luana is like the medium for all the dimensions. She has a little bit of everything. Yogananda is here.

Well, we chatted with him briefly once before, but I was wondering if we could speak to Guru Rinpoche, known as Padmasambhava, I’d like to ask him some questions.

Luana had to go to Yogananda to get to him. He’s here.

Can I ask you some questions?

You did last night apparently.

Buddhism and the Flipside by Richard Martini

Yogananda (Wikipedia)

Can you manifest for Jennifer?

He showed me a cricket. (Being corrected) He’s saying “A grasshopper!” I’m sorry. I don’t know what it means but they’re making fun of it.

Like the old Kung Fu tv show? “Yes, grasshopper.”

I’m seeing David Carradine; funny I didn’t know his name.

We’ll speak with him later (we do) Padmasambhava, I was in a cave in western Tibet.. Funny, he showed me you in your car.

Correct, yes, I drove nine days across Tibet to get to your cave. I was in a cave where we found your footprint left in a stone.

Yes; that’s all that was left.

How’d you do that?

Lots of movement (she moves her hand back and forth, like vibrations.) He says “Yeah, exactly as I described it before.”

What came to mind?

“Forces of dark matter, bringing it through and pushing it out. You’re manifesting it, bringing it from elsewhere and manifesting it. That’s the rainbow – extracting energy – to me, its manifesting. Like chanting, pulling it in, chanting pulling it in – focusing that energy like a a mandala. A figure 8 thing of bringing it in.”

That’s a Tibetan symbol as well, infinity, and pulling energy in and putting into a flow. “The more you can do that the more you can put it out.”

The purpose of that pulling and putting into flow?

“To strengthen.”

Buddhism and the Flipside by Richard Martini

Let me ask Jesus, so the shroud of Turin is a physical manifestation of a rainbow body yoga? “Yes.”

(Note: He could have said “No.” I’ve heard people say “no” about a lot of things. This “yes” is a confirmation of what others have said. But it’s nice to hear it from the source.)

Did you learn tummo?

It came to him.

Did you learn that in Hemis?

I got this visual of the movie Kundun about the reincarnation of Dalai Lama.

Martin Scorsese with His Holiness the Dalai Lama. Wikimedia)

(Note: An apt way to put an image in someone’s mind of “esoteric Tibetan trantric yoga” like the kind taught by Padmasambhava that he claimed to have gotten from the Buddha himself.)

In terms of incarnation, correct me if I’m wrong by saying “we come here to play in the mud.” “Some like it more than others.”

But it’s okay to just come down and play in the mud?

“Absolutely.”

So what does Yogananda want to say?

He showed me (Jennifer) meeting one of his grandchildren during a podcast.

In your autobiography, you talked about seeing the physical manifestation of one of your teachers?

“Yes. He is showing me that too.”

So who was there to greet you when you crossed over?

“Jesus. It was the same energy; he expected it.”

Let’s move over to Padmasambhava (Guru Rinpoche). You were never a monk.

Buddhism and the Flipside by Richard Martini

Guru Rinpoche’s statue in Hemis, Ladakh

Jennifer laughs.

What did you put in her mind that made Jennifer laugh?

I’m getting he was a party animal, he said “I couldn’t be a monk.” He’s showing me Sting as an example.

Ha. That’s funny. Tantric sex practitioner. So you had a consort Padma? He says he had a few.

What was it like when you went to Tibet?

He said “Scary. Wild. Difficult.”

They practiced the Bon religion with their scary deities. It’s been said that he conquered them with Buddhism.

“They weren’t ready to hear it.”

People have said you left texts or books behind.

“Yes. Hidden in the Himalayas.”

When are we going to find these texts?

I’m getting “2022.”

Have you incarnated since then?

He showed me tons of people. He says “It’s not about reincarnation.” He hit a level he doesn’t have to (reincarnate) anymore. He says “It’s not about me reincarnating, it’s about people drawing on that energy; people being here and using a telephone (so to speak) and drawing on that energy.” (Jennifer aside) Like what we’re doing in class.

Just to clarify – you don’t feel like you... (before I can finish)

He’s saying “It’s true.”

Buddhism and the Flipside by Richard Martini

...you’ve reached a level where you don’t need to reincarnate anymore? Are you a teacher? Do you serve on councils?

“Yes; an infinite amount.”

Mostly – Asian councils?

(Jennifer laughs) “That’s racist!” he says.

(I laugh.) I was testing you. I meant on councils of people who were aware of you in your lifetime?

“There is no color or race over there; he’s always been a part of it.”

What quality of spiritual evolvement do you represent on councils? Do you represent the same thing on different councils?

Without there being a hierarchy, I got “The same energy as Jesus, same energy as Vishnu.” He showed me that blue guy.

Lord Vishnu – that blue guy. (Kamal Kapoor)

Like a deity kind of feeling?

It’s almost better to be like that with all the arms versus worshiping someone that was in physical form – it’s one and the same.

If there was a quality you represent would it be “sacredness?”

“Yes. Compassion and love. That’s what they (all) represent.

Sacredness not so much aspiring to be sacred – but compassion?

Yes. (Jennifer aside) I would love those guys, Luana to tell you directly ... they leave that up to Luana and that crew to express. And how they express where you need to be, or go – like, “You need to go here to eat breakfast with this person - it’s like a different microchip. I see all these things like lights that are making coincidences happen.

So they don’t physically participate but interact with people that do?

Buddhism and the Flipside by Richard Martini

They participate when people are in pain and grieving and show them how to find compassion and love within yourself.

So Jesus – you too? Do you serve on many councils?

He’s like the medium for all of them... even though people don’t understand it. You’re saying that you have to participate with all of the living who need to access you? Not really, no, because not everyone believes in it...

(Note: I’m trying to clarify here. Do people who don’t believe in you see your, or is it just those who believe in you?)

But if Yogananda saw you when he crossed over...

He knew that he did well, that his life was filled with compassion. So he was not surprised (to see me).

My question is about people who lived prior to you – the manifestation of compassion we know as Jesus has been on the planet for 2000 years, there have been cultures on the planet for at least 60,000 years (in Australia) So who would be someone they ran into prior to knowing who he would be?

He showed me Thor. “Someone like him.”

Or Zeus or whatever god or goddess they were praying to?

Yes. It goes back to the blue guy with all the arms.

Vishnu?

(Note: Vishnu is “the preserver” in the Hindu triad that includes Brahma and Shiva – he is one of the five deities, usually depicted as dark blue with four arms. The color blue represents his “infinite force.” Krishna is also blue but has two arms.)

Vishnu - Wikipedia

(Jennifer aside) I did not know that.

Vishnu can you step in and introduce yourself to Jennifer?

Buddhism and the Flipside by Richard Martini

They’re showing me the same energy as Vishnu. Years ago, I had a vision of someone like this – a warrior person. I don’t know what Vishnu is known for.

He’s not the creator creator, but the warrior creator...

I am seeing the feet of a warrior, the straps of the warrior like Apollo or somebody. Let’s ask him. Who are you?

He’s saying that vision was also him. He was showing up in another form for me. What’s your story Vee? What do you represent?

Bravery and confidence. Feeling brave and knowing everything is going to work out. How much longer have you been in existence than Jesus?

I just saw the “Big Bang.” He’s showing me “Since the beginning of the combustion... in the minds at least.”

In the minds. So people knew you before you were human?

“They charted it, yes.”

Once they became human.

I’m getting that he knew you before.

Well, during one of my past life memories, I saw myself as a Brahmin priest living and working in Kerala.

You knew each other then, I’m getting... in Kerala.

So this memory was accurate; was I this Hindu Holy Man?

“Yes,” and you transcribed a lot of things I’m being shown. I saw you in a white toga with wings on your head. I saw wings with a forehead band.

Like Mercury or Hermes?

“Yes!”

(Note: I have no idea why these two names popped into my head; “Mercury was the Roman god of messengers, trickery. Hermes was the “messenger of the gods,” also the “divine trickster.” Described as “moving freely between the mortal and divine, conductor of souls into the afterlife.” Welcome to the club. (Wikipedia.)

The message they want to tell you – the message from this conversation is for us to be brave. To be fearless.

*****

Buddhism and the Flipside by Richard Martini

Nothing quite like getting messages from the flipside to be brave and fearless. Worth repeating.

Meditating under Mt. Kailash in Western Tibet

Unusual topic, unusual answers. Because I’m not a scholar, I am not asking for the finger points in Buddhist theology. But I am asking for information based on what I know, have read or am familiar with. These are filmed sessions; these are edited transcripts from those sessions.

This is all a preamble to the link below, where during a live on air podcast, I ask questions to both Manjushri and Tsongkhapa – just to see if what they have to say, or if what they say differentiates from what these others have said. The medium, Jennifer Shaffer isn’t a Buddhist, but she does accurately describe whatever she sees.

In this interview, I ask Tsongkhapa how accurate his learning was compared to the flipside (he said “very close”) asked him if “emptiness” could be expressed in quantum physics by examining what “dark energy” is (the retained memory of the energy that once occupied that space), asked when he started seeing Manjushri, when his guide Umapa started visiting with Manjushri, asked Manjushri if it was accurate that he was “from another realm” (he said he was.) The last part of the interview is a continuing conversation we’ve had with the person known as “The Alpha and the Omega.” We’ve heard often that his frequency is similar to other avatars of different ages. My comments are in italics, her replies in bold.

(https://youtu.be/xDjwsNP4fxY for the original video “Hacking The Afterlife Podcast #4 from “HackingTheAfterlife.com” or “MartiniZone.com” for the video links.)

INTERVIEW WITH TSONG KHAPA AND MANJUSHRI

My comments are in italics, Jennifer’s replies are in bold.

Rich: Hi Jennifer.

Jennifer: Hi everyone!

Buddhism and the Flipside by Richard Martini

You’re in your office by yourself, and I’m in front of a photo of Mt. Kailash, I’m wearing my Alcatraz baseball cap in honor of being in quarantine, and a golden scarf in honor of who I’ve invited today. (We discuss our latest collaboration “Backstage Pass to the Flipside 3”) I just went through it; I’ve never had this experience before of looking at something I wrote without worrying about mistakes. This book is really something.

Jennifer: It’s our best one yet.

I predict it will be read 100 years from now – but that’s because we’ll be haunting them – “Don’t you think it’s time to read “Backstage Pass to the Flipside 3?” So let’s jump in; you’ve had some unusual cases this week, helping people with missing person cases.

(Note: Jennifer and I did a session about a missing friend, I shared the results with the friend’s family, and they reached out to Jennifer for some assistance.)

It comes in spurts, it feels like; (quiet) and then boom everyone has one.

The reason we talk about this stuff, the reason we’re doing this podcast, is we’re trying to show people how to hack the afterlife; that you don’t need someone else to help you access your loved ones on the flipside.

That’s right.

Along those lines I thought we’d talk to two different characters. This may be obscure, I was reading about Tsong Khapa, an enlightened Tibetan monk. The book is “Buddha in the Land of Snows” written by Thupten Jinpa. As I was reading it, I saw this flipside reference, and I thought – wow! If this is accurate, Tsong Khapa started channeling or talking to the flipside, with a particular Tibetan deity. I realized he was doing basically the same thing we’re doing. Which is assuming that people are accessible on the flipside and you can ask direct questions.

Before, we’ve chatted with Guru Rinpoche, and we spoke to the 13th Dalai Lama – talking to the Dalai Lama’s higher self, the part that hasn’t incarnated is always back home. In that construct, the 13th is accessible but then so would be the 12th, 11th, etc – because we’re accessing a memory

from a slice of time. But today I wanted to ask Luana – our guide on the flipside – if today a good day to talk to Tsong Khapa?

I got a black and white photo of Tibetan monks. Which reminded me of something we saw a black and white photo of a fellow with long hair – braids.

Oh, you mean Sitting Bull? Wow, that’s wild, indeed, he appears in the book in the chapter “Sitting Shiva with Sitting Bull” Have you shown up today because you’re curious about this process and are new to our class?

He says, “Yeah.”

You’re most welcome. So Luana I’m going to ask you if we should talk to Tsong Khapa. She said “I went out and got him, why wouldn’t you talk to him?”

Buddhism and the Flipside by Richard Martini

Touche’. Well, I want to ask Sitting Bull to allow Tsong Khapa to sit down – let’s see what he says.

(Note: There’s a belief that some of the Native American tribes came from Mongolia – when the Dalai Lama first met an Apache, he said “I feel like I’m looking in a mirror.” There was a DNA study that was done that showed there’s a direct link between the Apache and peoples of the Mongolian steppes. Further, the Apache had some of the same religious traditions, including some ceremonial garb as well as the use of the swastika as a symbol of eternity. Perhaps this is why Sitting Bull stopped by, as he would be related to this person if the above is accurate.)

What’s his name again?

Think of “Song Capra” without the R. Tsong Khapa, welcome. If I may ask; did you start speaking directly to Manjushri before or after you met your friend Umapa?

He said, “He was really young when he started talking to him.”

I’m sorry, are you referring to the experience that Umapa had where he said he had a vision of Manjushri when he was a child, or are you referring to yourself?

He showed me being a child.

When did you first encounter Manjushri – as a child or older?

He’s saying “As a little kid hearing stories, at first.” Then I got 9... so it’s 9 or 19...

Well, that would be accurate. When he was a child in the monastery, his teacher gave him a mantra of Manjushri which he said many times every day for the rest of his life. I want to clarify that this is you and to ask questions about your journey.

Manjushri from RedZambala.com

(Note: The mantra is “Om ah ra pa tsa na dhi.”)

He said it was all.. (Jennifer waves her arm in a circle).

Buddhism and the Flipside by Richard Martini

Well, here is what I want to ask you first. Who greeted you when you crossed over to the flipside?

I’m seeing... oh, many monks that died – was there are war of some kind where a lot of monks died?

Well, to unpack this, there were a lot of monks that followed him, as well as a lot of teachers who were monks that came before him that he focused on. So that would make sense, that he was greeted by a lot of monks. I’m going to ask about some whose names Jennifer doesn’t know but Tsong Khapa would as a proof of concept. For example, we did an interview with Kobe Bryant in Italian – I asked the questions in Italian and Jennifer answered what he was showing her, and they were correct. Using a language she doesn’t speak, but he did.

In this case, I’m going to ask Tsong Khapa, when you were working on the finer points of the concept of “emptiness,” you focused on someone named Nagarjuna and others to clarify the finger points. Were those teachings accurate when you got to the flipside, when you got home, was that accurate your definition of emptiness or was it different than you had imagined?

He says “(It was) a little bit different.”

How so? Was it inaccurate, almost accurate?

He says “Close, it was very close.”

Tsong Khapa, you’re probably not aware of our conversations with Luana before on this topic, we’ve talked to former physics professors on the flipside about dark matter and dark energy.

That’s what he was showing me. When you were talking about it, he kept on showing me energy of emptiness, but yeah.

Jennifer has pointed out a visual, that in her line of work when she sees entities or people no longer on the planet, she sees an etheric emanation of them, rather than a whole complete person. We’ve talked to people on flipside about this, that this energy is related to dark energy or dark matter – “dark” meaning “unknown.”

He says, “Yes, unknown energy that occupies the space.”

This is a profoundly Buddhist concept you’re referring to, but the energy that used to occupy the space before the object or form left. This vision of emptiness relates to the energy of the object that used to occupy that space?

He says “Correct.” (Jennifer taps her nose to signify “right.”)

So for example, if we’re talking about table, and it’s gone, or no longer in its space, the energy of the table still exists, in that space outside of time, etherically, or some energy from it exists - as it once existed before. Does the energy of its form in time still exists in that space?

He says “Yes.”

Buddhism and the Flipside by Richard Martini

Further, that the atoms of an object or form, are all agreeing to participate, so that contributes to the idea of there being space between them. Is that correct?

This is interesting. He says, “It also gets destroyed, (but) mind you, energy doesn’t get destroyed.”

It is transformed?

Oh, I know this is... hold on. Show me again? He says, “If where it came from was destroyed..” – I was shown trees being cut down... it makes so much sense – we’re destroying the planet, making those energies go away.

(Note: This has come up before as a response to a question about dark energy (and I know that Jennifer isn’t aware of it. But the idea of a forest being cut down, the energy of that forest still exists in some form, even though the trees no longer occupy that space. Since their existence is also related to space and time, the absence of an object means that some part of its energy still exists. That is why the universe is filled with “dark matter” that we can’t measure. Because it’s matter or energy that exists in holographic form, outside of time, and observable space. Like a shadow or echo of an object existing outside of time.)

If we can unpack this – as you’ve mentioned this before, he’s also showing you that the trees once existed there, and they still exist there energetically. We’ve heard that we need to plant more trees to save the planet, we’ve heard that consistently.

He says, “Yes.”

(Note: In numerous interviews, with mediums, without mediums, with people under hypnosis, without hypnosis, they keep repeating the message (via “trees” or “higher beings) that humans need to “plant a trillion trees.” We began to hear from various sources prior to the current movement to do so.)

Let me ask another esoteric questions Tsong Khapa, which is at some point you were conversing with Manjushri who is known as a Buddha of wisdom. I wonder if you can bring him forward, can he come here to speak with us?

He’s here. He showed me himself in a way that I would understand, like as a form of the Hindu gods or goddesses... like Krishna as a Buddha of wisdom – but you’re referring to the real Buddha, correct?

Actually no, I’m talking about somebody else, someone else. We talked to the “real Buddha” in “Backstage Pass to the Flipside 3.” Shakyamuni Buddha, also known as Siddhartha.

(Jennifer aside) Siddhartha? Okay.

I was just looking at that chapter last night and it was unusual, because I had asked if he regretted anything about his life, and you answered “He’s telling me he regrets not repairing the relationship with his father.” People who have studied Buddhism will know what that means.

Buddhism and the Flipside by Richard Martini

(Jennifer aside) Oh, I don’t know anything about him.

People who don’t know what that means will not get it, so it’s okay. But in terms of Manjushri, who is considered to be another Buddha, let’s just call him that – I want to ask him some specific questions, can you bring him forward Tsong Khapa?

“Yes.” He’s here.

When you say that, what do you see visually?

I got weather, like a storm happening, I mean I know it’s raining outside, but I got him being as a light coming through the clouds, a light that can go through anything.

I’d like to ask Manjushri some questions, Luana is this okay?

(Listens) She says “Yes.”

(Note: “In Sanskrit mañju means: "beautiful, pleasant, sweet"; śrī means "light, radiance, royalty." Often depicted with a sword for cutting through ignorance in the right hand, the book or scroll in his left. The book is the “Perfection of Wisdom” sutra (cited above).” VisibleMantra.org.)

Rich: Manjushri, did you exist on the planet, have you ever incarnated on the planet?

Jennifer: I feel like he might have, but died when he was like 5. Like there was some element of his possibly living here, but then he’s showing me lots of different people.

Do you mean avatars with names you don’t know – or do they look like regular folks?

No, hold on a second. He’s showing me something else; not a physical person. (After a pause) He’s showing me “He’s in the hearts of many people.”

Ah, okay, he is known as a heart Buddha type person – connecting to him through the heart?

That’s what he’s showing me; that he’s in the hearts of many people. I asked him “Did you reincarnate?” And he’s like “No, I’m in many people.”

My question; have you ever incarnated in another realm?

He showed me vanishing – like vanishing from a cave.

(Note: I’m asking if he’s existed in another realm, instead of “this one.” “Vanishing from a cave” could mean that was the transport he used to get to the other realm.)

Have you ever incarnated as a being or a light being – do you come from another realm initially?

He says, “Yes.”

And are there other people in your realm?

Buddhism and the Flipside by Richard Martini

He said yes, and showed me “someone like Jesus.”

Okay, other beings that represent compassion or unconditional love? So your realm is not of this realm?

He says, “It’s within the realm, but yes. It’s somewhere else.”

People said this about him thousands of years ago, that he’s from another realm, or Buddha verse. Here’s a question I think he would know the answer to, those sutras, the teachings of the Buddha, where you are quoted – did those teachings happen on the planet? Or were they in the afterlife, via some kind of conversation with councils, guides or teachers?

He’s saying “Both.”

(Note: Interesting answer. Saying that the dialectical philosophical conversations that serve as the heart of Buddhism occurred both on Earth, as reported in the Sutras where Buddha addressed thousands of followers, but also occurred with folks on the flipside who participated in these teachings. Unusual to say the least.)

Well, people have reported them as if they happened here on earth, but I’m asking about the initial conversations with Buddha and his disciples. Did they take place on an earthy plane or another plane? They could be simultaneous I imagine.

He showed me them taking place here, but their spirits rising up (during the conversations). He showed me the visual of 11:11 - you know how you meet in between? He’s showing how “The consciousness jumps out of the body to meet him.”

To clarify – what Jennifer is referring to is something we learned from our guide on the flipside Luana (Anders), that the significance behind the eleven eleven events so many have reported (11:11) is that folks on the other side have to lower their frequency or energy in order to communicate with us, and we have to raise our level or frequency, through meditation, an out of body experience, deep hypnosis – or being a medium like Jennifer – in order to “meet at the decimals” which is a phrase we heard from Luana.

She reports that she helps people to slow their energy down over there – we raise ours to a point to where we can communicate. I think that what he’s saying is that these conversations they had with Buddha about the nature of reality was both on this level and also “over there.” Okay, quick question – because we can – back to Tsong Khapa; how about your incarnations? Were you the monk known as Atisha. A simple yes or no will do. Or a combo?

He told me, “He skipped that person.”

Okay, that’s good to know. Wait a second. Was it Gampopo? Was that the guy? He says, “Yeah.”

Weird. The name just popped into my head. I can tell you that’s a very esoteric name, but literally it just popped into my head.

Buddhism and the Flipside by Richard Martini

(Note: Gampopo is the name of the Tibetan monk who founded the Kagyu monastic school in Tibet, another important lineage of Buddhist theology. In these interviews, sometimes questions form in my mind that I have no conscious awareness of where they come from, and sometimes Jennifer says “They’re laughing because you think you are generating these questions.”)

Thank you! Alright Tsong Khapa, I’d like to ask you about the current Dalai Lama, the 14th. I once interviewed a monk in his home and he said that he’s seen you in his home. Is that accurate?

“Absolutely” he said.

(Note: When I was filming “Tibetan Refugee” (free documentary on YouTube) in Dharamsala, a Nechung monk began following me as if he needed to speak with me. I interviewed him, and he’s one of three monks who pray for the long life of the Dalai Lama on a 24/7 basis. I asked him some questions about “seeing ghosts” – a topic I’ve always been interested in. Also while writing this, I’m reminded that during that trip I was electrocuted by a lamp – I put a wet hand on a lamp to turn it off, and the electricity came through the lamp and froze my arm in place. It was slow moving; I could feel the electrical surge running up my arm which was frozen to the pole of the lamp and I couldn’t remove it. I had the presence of mind to swing my other free hand around and knock the lamp over entirely and I woke up later on the floor of the hotel in Dharamsala. I’m aware the monk, author Thomas Merton died in such a fashion. For some reason when writing this paragraph, that moment came to mind.)

Tsong Khapa, please tell us how do you feel like the Dalai Lama is doing?

(Jennifer aside) It’s interesting, I asked him, “He, needs all the help he can get, right?” And And he said “No.” He says “He needs more people to chant mantras, to be immersed in that... he doesn’t need (any) help.”

Thank you – we’ve heard that often in this research. That people should learn how to meditate in general, and those who know how to chant aloud should do so as well. Is that what people need to do in order to connect with their higher selves, in order to connect to you?

He said “To (connect to) the planet.”

Okay, thank you. Any question or comment you want to make for us Tsong Khapa? (After a pause) He says, “I feel that you reach an audience that hears it now.” Thank you.

He says, “More so than when I was here.”

How about Manjushri? Is there anything you want to say?

(Jennifer aside) Hmm. (She laughs) I’ve never seen that before. He says, “They’re loving how clean everything on the earth is (due to the quarantine) – how clear... they showed me traveling through smog or crap, normally.”

Buddhism and the Flipside by Richard Martini

Manjushri would you show her the things that you normally carry when they paint you or have pictures of you?

I was getting like a grain – or a seed. It has something to do with wisdom. I felt like he’s carrying a scroll...–

(Ding!) That’s correct, he does have a Tibetan scroll (a sutra) in one hand... something that’s long in the other?

A long prayer flag? Or like a cane?

Something like that; it’s a sword.

(The video freezes.)

(Jennifer aside) Your 5G phone ruined it. Say again?

They often paint him holding up a sword which cuts through ignorance and the other is a book or the sutra on a scroll.

I saw something that is dark but I couldn’t see it clearly. I felt like it had to do with wisdom.

That’s correct – he represents wisdom, and he’s often depicted that way. This has been a very esoteric interview; I was reading a book about this fellow, and I’ve been to the temple in Lhasa where he spent much of his time – where he had his first vision of Manjushri – and come to find, like us, he was asking questions to the flipside via a medium (Umapa) and later had his own direct conversations with Manjushri and others on the flipside.

Doing the same kind of conversational questioning we do – like he would ask through his friend Umapa, “What does this complex point in the text mean; is it this or that? Manjushri would answer (through Umapa) “It’s neither.” I realized “Wow! He’s doing something similar to what we’re doing!”

He says, “Yes, and (the) people are listening more.”

From your lips to God’s ear. Thank you Tsong Khapa and Manjushri! Most appreciated! *****

Pretty unusual. Live recorded on the air, it was transcribed into the above.

After the session, I looked to see who “Gampopo” was. He was “Milarepa's most important student, integrated Atiśa's Kadam teachings and Tilopa's Mahamudra teaching to establish the Kagyü lineage, one of the major monastic orders in Tibet.” (Which are, from memory, Nyingma, Sakya, Kagyu, Gelupka (from Tsong Khapa).

Gampopo was a student of the Tibetan teacher (enlightened sage) Milarepa, Gampopa wrote “The Jewel Ornament Of Liberation,” and many others texts. In terms of Tibetan lineage, he

Buddhism and the Flipside by Richard Martini

“branches from Tilopa (988-1069), the Indian yogi who experienced the original transmission of the Mahamudra and brought it to Tibet, Naropa (1016–1100), who perfected the methods of accelerated enlightenment described in his Six Yogas of Naropa, Marpa (1012–1097), the first Tibetan in the lineage, who translated the Vajrayana and Mahamudra texts into Old Tibetan, Milarepa (1052–1135), his student, the poet and master who overcame Marpa's reluctance to teach but nonetheless attained enlightenment in a single lifetime.” If this is accurate, that would credit Tsong Khapa (or his conscious energy) with creating two of the most famous schools of Tibetan Buddhism.

According to the research done with people under deep hypnosis (Dr. Helen Wambach’s 2000 clinical cases and the thousands from Michael Newton and the Newton Institute) people claim that we bring “about a third” of our conscious energy to a lifetime. So that other “two thirds” that is “always home” is an amalgamation, a mix of all of our lifetimes. When people choose to incarnate (and that’s the correct term, as people claim to be able to “refuse” or “turn down” a lifetime they don’t feel prepared for) they bring a portion of that mix. So when we discuss the “reincarnation of Gampopo” we’re allowing that Gampopo, Tsong Khapa, etc have had many lifetimes, and the overall conscious energy (a portion of the amalgamation of all those lifetimes) is what arrives on the planet. A portion of the overall conscious energy of a particular person.

This concept does not appear in Buddhist theology, nor does it appear in any religious ideology I’m aware of.

I have filmed over 50 people under deep hypnosis saying the same things, which led me to examine the thousands of other cases from Wambach and Newton to see if their accounts differed (they did not). Then I’ve done six of these deep hypnosis sessions, and have recalled, remembered, and done forensic research into lifetimes as a Tibetan monk who lived outside of Lhasa and ran a library in the 16th century, a Roman Catholic Bishop who lived in Florence in the 15th century, who was made a saint, other lifetimes including a Brahmin priest (as reported in Flipside, and the descriptions of the kinds of paint used on his face was accurate, as well as I’ve been to the location he lived in Kerala) recalled a number of other lifetimes behind the cloth, not behind the cloth. Then I’ve compared all of those accounts with the nearly 50 that I’ve filmed for the book Architecture of the Afterlife; finding the accounts are the same without hypnosis.

In light of this article, and to give people a firsthand glimpse of Tibet as referenced in the above, I have posted a new version of my film “Journey Into Tibet with Robert Thurman.” As noted, I was shooting second unit in the heart of Mumbai when I got an email from Robert saying “If you can be in Katmandu next week, you can film our journey around Tibet and Mt. Kailash.”

I told the producers, cast and crew that I had to leave sooner than planned. I had filmed two weeks of 2nd unit for a script that I had written and was going to direct, but something ... not quite sure what it was, kept me from saying that I would direct the film. Ultimately, it was decided a local filmmaker would direct the film, and I helped rewrite the script and craft the overall film, based on an event that happened to me.

Buddhism and the Flipside by Richard Martini

When I was in Ladakh with Professor Thurman in 1996, I was staying in a yurt in the Himalayas, when I suddenly recall the name of a film student I knew when I was at USC; Manjulla Nanavati. She was from Mumbai, and we had become pen pals after meeting in a screenwriting class. I had made a reservation to leave via Mumbai, so I stopped to have dinner with some film executives from Columbia Motion Pictures. (Mr. Vijay Singh and others).

We had dinner together and one of his crew said “So what made you want to come to Mumbai?” I said “Well, I met a beautiful young girl when I was at USC film school, and she was from here, so I always was curious about it.” He asked her name. I said “Well, it was Manjulla Nanavati before she married, and I have no idea what it is now.” Mr. Singh said “Rich, there are billion people in India. You know how many have that name?”

But someone else at the table said “I know a guy who went to USC and his sister is named Manjulla. He picked up his cell and called his wife. A few minutes later he handed me the phone, and on the other end was Manjulla herself. She said “Richie! What are you doing in

Mumbai?” I had the presence of mind to say “I promised I’d come visit you one day, it took me awhile to get here and only minutes to find you.”

We spend some time together; she had married Ronnie Screwvalla, who became a prolific film producer in India. When I came back to direct second unit, he had me give a lecture to his staff on how to adapt a pilot to series, and Manjulla and I reconnected. I wrote the film “My Bollywood Bride” based on the experience; a young man meets and Indian actress in L.A, she says “If it’s fate for us to be together, we’ll find each other again.” He travels all the way to India, and while searching for her, runs into her photo on a billboard; she’s a famous Bollywood star. They connect, fall in love – and live happily ever after.

Suffice to say – I’m still friends with her, I helped their daughter get into USC film school some years later, and the circle closes once again.

But after filming “My Bollywood Bride” (release inexplicably as “Faraway Bride”) I flew to Katmandu, met up with Robert Thurman and a group of about 25 tourists who had joined him for his trek across Tibet.

We flew from Katmandu to Lhasa, something that is no longer possible, and at the time, we spent a number of hours on the tarmac figuring out how it was possible we had done so without going to Chengdu first. As we sat on the tarmac, I was aware of this odd feeling that I was “returning home.”

I’ve had the feeling twice before – once when landed in Rome for the first time (going to college for my junior year abroad at Loyola Rome) and once later in Mumbai, the first time after meeting up with Thurman in Ladakh, to arrive to meet the Columbia film execs. As we landed, I had the

feeling of “returning home.” It wasn’t until some years later, while doing a deep hypnosis session with Scott De Tamble, did I recount a lifetime as a Brahmin – living in Kerala in another century, married, and taking care of the Hindu temple I was in charge of.

Buddhism and the Flipside by Richard Martini

Since that memory, every time I see or hear something I’ve filmed in Kerala comes to me like a different memory, a memory of a lifetime once lived.

But recently, I wanted to make my film “Journey into Tibet with Robert Thurman” available for free to anyone who might want to view it. It’s located at MartiniZone.com, and is listed under that title. Looking at it again, I realize how many things in my life come directly from that experience.

Watching the film, I realize that we visited the Jokhang to see the statue of Buddha that Tsong Khapa used to visit often, Robert Thurman led a meditation atop the roof of the Jokhang in the same place where Tsong Khapa has his “first vision of Manjushri.” We visited Samye monastery, where Guru Rinpoche was first invited by the King to teach Buddhism to Tibet. In the film, I surreptitiously filmed the bedroom of the Dalai Lama as he left it – with a painting of Tsong Khapa over his bed. We visited the Sera, Drepung and Nechung Monastery – all built by followers of Tsong Khapa.

Then on our trek across Tibet, we stopped in Shigatse and visited the home of the Panchen Lama, and eventually made our way to Kailash to do a “kora” or trip around the sacred mountain. It’s on the mountain where Robert Thurman gives a series of lectures and does a “fire puja” to protect our merry band of travelers. I can report it was successful, as the group behind us lost two travelers to hypothermia after a freak snowstorm that took their lives.

Also we visit the cave of Milarepa, the Tibetan considered a Buddha, who as noted above was the teacher of Gampopo (who in this account is reborn as Tsong Khapa, the founder of the Dalai Lama’s sect.) Important to note, there is not report in any source that I could find of Tsong Khapa claiming to be the reincarnation of Gampopo, there is the suggestion that he was the reincarnation of Atisha. But in this account, he “says” that he was not Atisha, but concurred when I mentioned the name Gampopo. Most people would dismiss such accounts – however, I can report that in the five years that I’ve worked with Jennifer the medium, knowing that she has solved missing person cases at the behest of former NYPD commissioner Bill Bratton, knowing that she has given me countless verifiable details from people on the flipside, knowing that what she says to me is accurate at least in terms of her reporting “what she’s seeing.” It’s entirely possible for me to misinterpret what she’s seeing, or for her to give a reference that doesn’t comport with the historical record, but for some reason known only to those on the flipside who’ve given it, they had shown her that image.

So in terms of the efficacy of Ms. Shaffer, I can cite a number of instances where she told me something from someone on the flipside who was no longer on the planet, I took their comments verbatim to friends of theirs who were flabbergasted to hear their friend reporting medical conditions that they’ve not revealed to anyone. As Harry Dean Stanton said in this case, “Tell people to believe in the afterlife.” I laughed and said “Harry, you were a famous atheist, all of your friends are skeptics. No one at your memorial will believe I spoke to you.”

He said “Then tell them to believe in the possibility of an afterlife, then they won’t waste a minute of their lives arguing about it like I did.”

Buddhism and the Flipside by Richard Martini

So in that vein – I’m offering that it is possible to communicate with people no longer on the planet, and I’m doing pretty much the same thing that the Tibetan sage Tsong Khapa did – which was to call upon those who might know an answer to a complex question, ask for them to stop by and converse, and then report what they’ve said verbatim.

While there are those who will remain skeptical about all things about the flipside – that’s fine, as I’m fond of saying “Not everyone signs up for a lifetime to know how the play ends” – but for those who consider Tsong Khapa’s accounts of his journey into understanding the finer points of Buddhism accurate, then there’s no reason any of us can’t do the same with other people no longer on the planet, who might know the answers to questions we might have. As I’m fond of saying, “My two Buddhist cents.”

Here’s a link to the film “Journey Into Tibet with Robert Thurman” available for free on YouTube. https://youtu.be/MqbG_RY4eiY Enjoy!

The Martini Shot

Buddhism and the Flipside; Tsong Khapa

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