Circling the Sacred Mountain, God and Morgan Freeman

For fans of "Flipside"  

Cover photo Jock Montgomery, Cover type by Richard Rossiter

This is the book that was in the library of the apt I sublet while working on the film "Salt​." 

I had read the book and audited Robert Thurman's class at Columbia U in '96. In 2004 I was in Mumbai filming a Bollywood script when I got an email "If you can be in Kathmandu next week you can join our trip around Mt. Kailash in Tibet." I joined the trip and documented it ("Journey into Tibet." The full version is here and costs $2.99 to view, but all pieces are free on youtube if you search for them).




At some point we were on Mt. Kailash (pictured above) and Robert told us any wish made in this sacred place "would come true." I jokingly decided I'd wish for a million dollars... or a 3 picture deal. Couldn't make up my mind, and out of my mouth came the words "I want a son." I was startled when I said it. Then three years later, driving around Santa Monica with our son, and I asked "Did you know daddy from before?" He nodded, "yes." I asked "Where did you meet me?" He said "in Tibet." Startled, I said "Where in Tibet?" He said "On the path." I thought of all the paths I'd been on - then I remembered the wish I'd made. "Was it Kailash?" He shrugged. I asked "Was it Kangra?" He nodded "yes" and said "It was Kangra." 

Where I made the wish

Kangra is the name of the path in Tibetan where I made that wish. Then a year later, subletting an apt in the West Village while working on "Salt" son found this book in the owner's library, pulled it out to show his mom. He pointed to the picture of Mt. Kailash and said "That's where I found daddy."  

Sherry called me on the set and asked "Did you know this book was here?" I didn't and had not said the word Kailash to him other than in the car. "That's where I found daddy."  From Flipside: A Tourist's Guide On How To Navigate the Afterlife​


  

Morgan Freeman

is seeking the story of God on National Geographic.  The series opens with an interview with David Bennett - an author ("Voyage of Purpose") who had a near death experience.  I interviewed him for the book "It's a Wonderful Afterlife"  David has a fascinating story - he doesn't call this ball of light "God" in his book - but of course since the show is about God, Morgan asks him if the ball of light is God, to which David replies - "yes."


Important to be specific here - in his written account and in the account her gave me during his interview, he saw this ball of light as "millions of lights" - and a few of them separated from the light to travel to speak with him... so in essence, you could say that the ball of light was "God" and that the slivers of light that came to visit him where also "of God."

Because in this world of trying to use language to define the inexpressable, we seem to be caught up in what the word's say or mean.  Is God a he?  Often people will say "I felt a male presence" when asked that question.  Sometimes they'll say "I felt more of a female presence."  So it depends on the person doing the viewing.

In this search of "God" or the meaning of the afterlife, they're touching upon the surface of these questions - by the nature of the medium of course.  But in essence, they jump from David Bennett's first person account of his experience with the afterlife, to Dr. Sam Parnia's work - the doctor behind the Aware project - who has studied near death experiences.

Dr. Sam talks about life continuing on for a few moments after death, and David Bennett's experience was for "15 to 18" minutes. The implication being that David's experience couldn't be "hypoxia" or some other physical event created by the brain, because the brain didn't have oxygen for quite some time.


My interview in a noisy cafe with author David Bennett

But I think they're skimming the surface here.  It's wonderful to hear Morgan's face, to see his face react to these stories, to hear his own personal journey with this work.  But by limiting the series to a search for "God" - and then lightly touching upon what people say about their experience in the afterlife, is to mix the subjects up.

In Michael Newton's interview in "Flipside: a Journey into the Afterlife" he talks specifically about the "Creator or creators" that many of his clients have experienced.  These are people under deep hypnosis who recall not only past lives, but a between lives realm where they can examine, explore and explain what they're experiencing.

As I've outlined in "Flipside" and the "It's a Wonderful Afterlife" books these reports are consistent and they're replicable.  I've filmed nearly 30 people under hypnosis, and examined other taped recordings of these sessions from different people across the globe, and what they say is consistent.  That we don't die. That our consciousness continues on. That it's here that we are deluded by "reality" as if this was the only realm in existence. That we return "home" to be with our loved ones and teachers - and are able to see our lifetimes as "performances on stage" where we learn and teach and examine all forms of energy.

I've filmed people who've had near death experiences, and seen how they can re-examine those events clearly - with more depth - I've filmed people who are skeptics, who don't believe in an afterlife, but who clearly remember previous lives and then experience the between life arena and are able to see their lives with perspective.  I've filmed interviews with people NOT under hypnosis - who by merely asking them the same questions people are asked while under hypnosis - are able to access the same clarity about past lives and the between life realm.

The point being - you don't need to have a near death experience to experience life off this planet.  You don't need to have a near death experience or be under hypnosis to access your memories of previous lifetimes or being able to talk to and hear from your spirit guides.  That you can access "new information" from them in the spirit world - meaning details that you aren't aware of, could not be privy to or never heard of - and yet turn out to be true because you've heard them from people not alive.

That's a series I'd like to work on - and perhaps one day will.  But for the time being we'll just have to hope that the people who are making these shows are able to take that one step further.  Or "One Step Beyond."

My two cents.

Garry Shandling's NDE

"I had a car accident when I was twenty-seven in which I was nearly killed. I had a vivid near-death experience that involved a voice asking, "Do you want to continue leading Garry Shandling's life?" Without thinking, I said, "Yes." Since then, I've been stuck living in the physical world while knowing, without a doubt, that there's something much more meaningful within it all. That realization is what drives my life and work." 
Garry Shandling

Garry Shandling from his Esquire article

Garry had a classic near death experience. He was asked if he wanted to come back and live the life he'd signed up for. Luckily for us, for comedy, he said yes. (If you don't know about NDE's I recommend checking out Iands.org, or watching David Bennett's account of his NDE which will be featured this week on the "God" Show with Morgan Freeman.)

Question is "who asked him the question, "do you want to return?" Turns out a number of people answer that question in my books "It's a Wonderful Afterlife" (1 & 2) Many people who've had NDEs claim we have spiritual guides who keep an eye on us at all times, and Garry appears to have met his. Its a profound experience, and nat geo will cover one example with Morgan Freeman and David Bennett in their "God" show. 

When you experience the reality that this isn't the only stage in the theater, that we choose to perform on this stage, it shifts the paradigm. If its true we choose our lifetimes, doesnt it make sense to leave behind fresh air, water and food for our return? 

And if someone is clever enough, find a way to reconnect us to our old comedy files?

From his article at Esquire:

"I'm more handsome than I act.

You're born a heterosexual. It's not a choice. Who would choose this? The guilt, the shame...and do you think I'm happy having to hire a decorator?

Call me old-school, but I miss the cold war.

Men who betray women also betray other men. Women shouldn't feel so special.

There's a good chance that if you're talking to me when I'm snoring, it means I'm bored.

Gossip is a sin.

I started boxing for exercise, and on the very first day, the trainer got in the ring with me and said, "Whoever controls the breathing in the ring controls the fight." I immediately passed out.

I had a car accident when I was twenty-seven in which I was nearly killed. I had a vivid near-death experience that involved a voice asking, "Do you want to continue leading Garry Shandling's life?" Without thinking, I said, "Yes." Since then, I've been stuck living in the physical world while knowing, without a doubt, that there's something much more meaningful within it all. That realization is what drives my life and work.

Dating a professional actress is tough. Especially if you're up for the same part.

Love is not enough to save a relationship.

My mother did the best she could. Sorry.

Dogs are not people. Be leery of any woman who refers to her dogs as her "kids," because you'll only end up paying for their schooling.

I remember when I was a struggling comic appearing for the first time in Las Vegas. Don Rickles came in to watch the new guy. Afterward, he came backstage, and I asked him if he thought I was funny. He said, "You know when you're funny. You don't have to ask." And he was right.

Smoothies might be fattening. Especially the ones made with frozen yogurt and gin.

Dr. Phil is hiding something. Otherwise, why wouldn't he use his last name?

Everyone at a party is uncomfortable. Knowing that makes me more comfortable.

Nice guys finish first. If you don't know that, then you don't know where the finish line is.

The best television series ever is probably The Twilight Zone.

Some people can fake it their whole lives.

I never listen to the audiotapes of my shrink sessions because the audience is usually so bad, I can't tell which jokes work and which ones don't.

Tom Hanks seems to know exactly what he's doing.

I once saw an elaborate landscape in a gallery, drawn in pencil, that took my breath away. Then I realized the artist probably didn't have enough confidence to use a pen.

A woman once asked me to autograph her T-shirt right across the chest. It only occurred to me later that she may have recognized me.

Nothing can succeed and last without teamwork.

I was anxious and depressed ahead of my time. I didn't need 9/11 to realize that in life, anything can happen. I've been on a state of alert since high school. Code plaid.

Impermanence. Impermanence. Impermanence.

Intellect without heart scares me.

Buddha didn't get married because his wife would have said, "What, are you going to sit around like that all day?"

The problem with the Pledge of Allegiance isn't the "God" part. It's the "pledge" part. Does a child know what kind of commitment he's making, and to whom, and at what cost?


I'll never agree to make another list like this one."

The Story of God, Flipside and Near Death Adventures

The Story of God with Morgan Freeman on April 3rd, opens with the story of David Bennett's near death experience.

Here's a five minute clip which begins with David's story:





Now, the question is - does David say that he "saw God?"

He doesn't really.  I mean in the show, they may ask him that question point blank "Did you think you saw God?" and he answers it.  But I don't know. I'll have to tune in. But in my interview with him, he just spoke of seeing a "white ball of light."

As mentioned previously, I had the opportunity to interview David for my book "It's a Wonderful Afterlife."  I was in upstate New York at the upstate New York Iands.org conference room, and David was my host.  The night before my talk, I looked him up online and found his book, which I downloaded from kindle and read that evening.  And then the next day I got a chance to ask him some questions about his experience - and asked if he minded if I recorded our conversation.

So here is our conversation.




I have to apologize, as we were in a noisy coffee shop - I didn't intend to broadcast or put this online, but I did want a record of our conversation so that I could transcribe it and include it in my book "It's a Wonderful Afterlife Volume One."

You should take a look at David's amazing book, as it details more than could be said in the time we spent together.  You can find that here. 

It's interesting to note that David's experience, while it's featured in the "God" episode from National Geographic TV, and it's on the website version - it's not in the print version of the magazine article.  In that article, the mention of the research from Dr. Sam Parnia's "Aware" project is mentioned, and the discussion is led into an aread of "preserving human tissue" so that we might be brought back to life from some cryogenic state, like the Revenant.  Left for dead, but then returned at a later date.

Then there's a mention of a scientist who refutes "near death experiences" (or as Dr. Parnia calls them "death experiences") who claims that people are merely experiencing "Hypoxia" - that their brain is not dead, but "active" and creating the hallucination of the afterlife.

Kevin Nelson, a neurologist at the University of Kentucky, was on Neal’s panel, and he was skeptical—not of her memory, which he acknowledged was intense and valid, but of its explanation. “These are not return-from-death experiences,” he said, also contradicting Parnia’s view of what had happened. “During these experiences the brain is very much alive and very much active.” He said that what Neal went through could have been a phenomenon called REM intrusion, when the same brain activity that characterizes dreaming somehow gets turned on during other, nonsleep events, such as a sudden loss of oxygen. To him, near-death and out-of-body experiences are the result not of dying but of hypoxia—a loss of consciousness, not of life itself.  From Nat Geo

As my old Oxford/Harvard trained professor Julian Baird used to say "I'd agree with you but then we'd both be wrong."

There are numerous medical cases where blood does not go to the brain for a long period of time - the brain is not functioning and can be measured as not functioning - and those cases, also have the same "afterlife" experience that David Bennett did, as well as many of the thousands of cases listed in Dr. Bruce Greyson's cites ("Irreducible Mind") and Dr. Sam Parnia's cases.  There's no evidence or data to support his conclusion "during these experiences the brain is very much alive."  Because A. Kevin wasn't there. B. He didn't measure the brain of the person having the experience. C. He's assuming the brains must have been active because it's counter-intuitive to everything he (thinks) he knows.

There is evidence, data of many cases outlined in Mario Beauregard PhD's books, including "Brain Wars."  He's a neuro-scientist as well, and he's been able to verify that there is no so called "God spot" on the brain, and he cites a number of cases where people's brains had no blood for an extended period of time, no oxygen to the brain, ie were dead - and yet reported seeing/sensing/hearing a number of things they could not have sensed or heard.  (My favorite is the man born blind and yet while outside of his body, saw that the doctor was wearing orange tennis shoes and told him so. "New information" that could NOT be from his brain.)

It's a bit like the idea of having 99 scientists who talk about climate change being man made, and yet they always refer to the one scientist who doesn't believe it to be the case.  In this instance, there's no evidence that it's Hypoxia - that's just an assumption, and therefore should be treated as one.

As I've pointed out in my books, when you have thousands of people saying relatively the same things about the afterlife - no matter who is asking the questions - then it behooves us to examine what really might be going on, instead of fretting over how the conclusions might appear to our colleagues. Or if they fit neatly into a materialist reality.  

Quantum physics has proven repeatedly that the material world as we know it is some form of an illusion - and there shouldn't be any surprise that our adventures in consciousness defining might have the same conclusion. Since there is no scientific defintion of consciousness - and since there are numerous cases that point to consciousness not being confined to the brain - then we have to conclude that consciousness is NOT NECESSARILY confined to the brain. 

If you want medical cases cited - I refer the reader to Bruce Greyson's youtube talk "Is Consciousness Produced by the Brain" (also reproduced in "It's a Wonderful Afterlife Vol One") where he cites a number of cases where brains were not functioning (due to Alzheimers or another medical condition) should not have been able to function, and yet people were able to suddenly regain their memories as if the memories themselves were not confined to the brain.

Here is that talk. It's worth 90 minutes of your time. (If you actually care to know the science behind these conclusions.)



But beyond that - one sure way to prove that it's not hypoxia is to examine the information that is gleaned from the experience.

For example, if a person is traveling in a train their entire life, and they've never known anything but the world passing by them in motion, if they stepped outside the train and stopped for a moment, then got back on the train and explained what they've experienced, we can't conclude that they're "hallucinating" or "delusional" or inaccurate.  We can only assume they've had an experience that is different than our own.  And once we compare these reports of "train stoppage" we can get a clearer picture of what the world might look like when the train is stopped.

That in itself doesn't make it accurate either - because like blind scientists examining an elephant, each will come back with a different description.  "There's a hell over there with flames and pitchforks" or "there's bug eyed aliens over there" or "there are angels flying around with lutes" - might all be descriptions that people have had during some kind of consciousness altered event - but that doesn't make them accurate or true either.

And when you actually take the time to examine the reports of people who've had a near death experience, and compare them to reports coming from people who under hypnosis can recount their near death experience, or who under hypnosis can recount the last time they died and went "back home" (as I have done in my books) then you have a better shot at coming to some conclusions about the architecture of the afterlife.

Once we introduce words into the conversation, instead of imagery, senses, or feeling - then by the very nature of language we limit that experience, or we reduce the experience into some form of syntax that others can understand.  It's what we've been doing for as long as we've been on the planet - using one word to describe "water" when the bushmen have dozens, using one word to describe "snow" when the indigenous tribes of the north have many, using one word to describe "love" or "home" or "heaven" or "God" applies in the same way.

Depends who you ask.

In David's case, as you'll hear in the interview, he saw a "ball of light." But it was later, as he approached the light - that a few shards split off from the light and came toward him.  During his near death experience he only saw them as shards of light, but later, while under deep hypnosis with a Michael Newton trained therapist in upstate New York, he was able to identify who these shards of light were -- their names and their connection to him.

During his hypnosis session he was able to reaccess the event in a way that allowed him to see a number of things in a different light.  Not that they were different, or inaccurate, but in a different way, the way we might see a painting after years and realize that there's more to it than we thought at first glance.

And finally - David was able to bring back "new information" from his near death experience.

That's information that he didn't know at the time of the near death experience, could not have known, could not have been "cryptomnesia" or "hypoxia" - because these events had not yet occurred on the planet.

In his near death experience, David saw into the future.  He saw a doctor, one whom he didn't know yet, come into an office and tell him he had only a few months to live from a cancer diagnosis.  And in David's near death experience he saw that he survived that diagnosis, survived the cancer.

But he didn't understand it when it happened to him that first time.  In fact when he shared it with a loved one, she doubted him so completely as to think he was insane.  It was over a decade later that David shared his experience with anyone, and only after re-experiencing the event during a meditation session.  And it was years after that he revisited it completely with the help of hypnosis - to see some of the events in a different light.

He told me the story of how when he was in the doctor's office to get the results of his xrays, that a NEW DOCTOR entered the office. Someone that he'd never met, but because his doctor was unavailable, had been given the task to tell David he had weeks to live.  And David RECOGNIZED the Doctor from his near death experience decades earlier.  He knew what the Doctor was going to tell him "You won't survive this, get your life in order" - and he also knew that he would survive it.

Of course the Doctor told him "you're in denial."  But it was the Doctor who was in denial, as David knew he would survive the ordeal and the cancer (with medical and holistic treatment, he followed the course required but also allowed for other therapies as well).

The point is that there are many NDEs where people experience new information - something they could not know, but later learn to be true - proving beyond a shadow of doubt that these events could not by "cryptomnesia" (having been heard or experienced at an earlier date subconsciously) or "hypoxia" (lack of oxygen brain altering event.)

So what are we to make of this?  Does it mean we should all start wearing pyramid hats?

But let's start with that these events can be categorized, they can be studied, and they can offer information about the flipside, or the afterlife.  And that what they say on the flipside is consistent, and its repeated with case after case after case.  There's a reason they aren't studied on the university level, and its because if you can't sell it as a pill, it's just not examined by modern research science. Who would fund such a study? 

A philanthropist?  Problem with philanthropy is simple - if it doesn't benefit the person putting up the money, why put it up?  If they can't find a way to sell it into the future, why bother?

The answer is: if you are a philanthropist, and you care about the future of the planet, then start by helping humans realize that we do reincarnate. We do come back here if we choose to do so - and that it makes sense to leave behind a planet with fresh air, fresh water, fresh food - not only for our children, but for ourselves.  If and when we choose to return to the planet.

That's a pretty profound rethinking of the problem, wouldn't you say?  

It's not just about finding God - but about finding why we're here on the planet in the first place.

I had an older cousin ask me this question today: 

"Richard, I do not mean this negatively at all, but why are you so obsessed with death and "the after life"? Are you not happy in this life and appreciate all the beautiful things and people here? Just curious."

To which I replied:

Not obsessed my dear. I'm an author and filmmaker. But then you'd know that if you'd read Flipside. There's a film and three best selling books. Will send you a link. 

Your mom (my aunt) told me how your father came to visit her the night he died. She said "he appeared at the end of my bed, young and healthy (which is what people report) and he said "I'm fine and i love you." Then the phone rang, the hospital called to say he died. 

Your brother saw our grandfather after he died. Your brother was downstairs in your basement, in his darkroom working on photos, came out and saw our grandfather in his favorite chair. Startled, your brother stepped back in the darkroom - but he said when he opened the door again, our grandfather was still sitting in the chair, smiling. Your brother ran upstairs. 

My father came to visit me the night he died, put his hand on my shoulder asked "why didn't you tell me your brother had a son?" I told him I felt it wasn't my place to reveal that information, as I'd only heard a rumor that was the case. (It later turned out to be true, so when my brother announced it, I already "knew" it. An example of "new information.") 

Then he told me he was in a "beautiful" place. Called it "indescribably beautiful." That he was with mama and papa, his brother, then named friends who died in WWII that I'd never heard of. "Harry, etc," all confirmed by my mother the next day. Names that I did not know but that both he and she did. 

When I told this to your sister she said "bullshit!" - but its not BS. I'm just reporting what eyewitnesses say about the afterlife. And they say it consistently. 

Is it valuable to know we don't die, that our loved ones wait for us? Its not for everyone. 

But I've had at least one grieving mom who read my book say "thank you for saving my life." Not the kind of review i could ever get in my career in film. But worth aiming for.

Near Death Experiences and National Geographic

David Bennett ("voyage of purpose") quoted here, tells his amazing story in my book "Its a Wonderful Afterlife Vol 1." 

What's fascinating about David's experience is he saw into the future, experienced himself surviving cancer, so when decades later, the doctor came to give him the bad news that he had weeks to live, he recognized this new doc's face from his NDE decades earlier. 

When the doc said "you won't survive this" he knew he would survive it and told him so. "You're in denial" the doc said. Turns out the doc was the one in denial. 

Good to see national geo opening up their field of vision.

From National Geographic's website:

"Coming Back From the Brink of Death"

What you see and feel in a near-death experience can profoundly change the rest of your life.



"One night off the California coast in 1983 David Bennett, chief engineer on a research vessel, and his crew tried to outrun a storm in an inflatable boat. About a mile from shore the boat was capsized by a 30-foot wave, and they were tossed into the chilly Pacific. His life vest was faulty, so his lungs filled with water. He remembers feeling total bliss. Something or someone told him it wasn’t his time, though, and after 18 minutes underwater he popped up to the surface. His crewmates, who were all floating on the water, were shocked to see him."

You can see an interview with David here, that is the source of the chapter in "It's a Wonderful Afterlife Volume One"

By Robin Marantz Henig

Photographs by Lynn Johnson

"At a family picnic at upstate New York’s Sleepy Hollow Lake, Tony Cicoria, an orthopedic surgeon, had just tried to call his mother on the phone. An approaching storm sent a lightning bolt through the phone into his head, stopping his heart. Cicoria says he felt himself leave his body, moving through walls toward a blue-white light, eager to be one with God. He emerged from his near-death experience with a sudden passion for classical piano, creating melodies that seemed to download, unbidden, into his brain. He came to believe he’d been spared so that he could channel “the music from heaven.”



"A head-on collision landed Tricia Barker, then a college student, in an Austin, Texas, hospital, bleeding profusely, her spine broken. She says she felt herself separate from her body during surgery, hovering near the ceiling as she watched her monitor flatline. Moving through the hospital corridor, she says, she saw her stepfather, struggling with grief, buy a candy bar from a vending machine; it was this detail, a stress-induced indulgence he’d told no one about, that made Barker believe her movements really happened. Now a creative writing professor, she says she’s still guided by the spirits that accompanied her on the other side."



"Carol Burke was seriously injured in a car crash in the Dallas Fort Worth International Airport employee parking lot, requiring surgery to remove her spleen and repair numerous broken bones. She lost half her blood. Feeling herself floating near the ceiling of the hospital room, she could see her mother and a friend at the foot of the bed, afraid that she would not return. She remembers feeling nothing but peacefulness and love." 



"Ashlee Barnett was a college student when she had a serious car crash on a remote Texas highway. Her pelvis was shattered, her spleen had ruptured, and she was bleeding profusely. At the scene, she says, she moved between two worlds: chaos and pain on one side, as paramedics wielded the jaws of life; and one with white light, no pain, and no fear. Several years later she developed cancer, but her near-death experience made her confident that she would live. She has three children and counsels trauma survivors."



"Pam Kircher contracted meningitis at the age of six. She remembers being in her room in a small house outside St. Joseph, Missouri, looking down at a girl on the bed. Immediately after she recognized herself, she returned to her body. Fearing ridicule and ostracism, she kept this near-death experience secret for almost four decades, yet it motivated every life decision she made. She became a family-practice physician. Now retired, she works in hospice care and talks openly about her experience, hoping it will bring comfort to people at the end of their lives."


For more information on near death experiences, or to share one that you've experience, highly recommend checking into iands.org - where I met David Bennett.

Near Death and Afterlife in the Emerald Isle

Got a lovely note from a writer from Ireland today.   

Ms. Fitzpatrick

She's Roisin Fitzpatrick, who had a near death experience, wrote about it, was interviewed and examined about it, and has shared her experience with the planet. 

I was going to say "I got a note from a woman in Ireland today" - but realized that whatever words I try to attach to her experience become qualifiers - so when people read this they might say "well, that's what happens in Ireland," or "she's a woman, so it's different than my reality" or even "She's from a particular part of Ireland, so that gives me some context to parse her experience into an acceptable understanding."  When talking about things that are not of this planet, it seems we have to add or subtract all of these possibilities that "it's not me" before we can accept the fact that "it could have been me."

(I could write "I got an email from a human being who had a profound other wordly experience today, and she's sharing it with the world." That should be enough of a headline, but most people need qualifiers to allow them to navigate the day.)

So let's just say she's a real person, who had a real experience, who has been examined by the foremost authority on near death experiences, and here's what he has to say about her book and her experience:

"Róisín Fitzpatrick has written a remarkable book that is unique in the annals of near-death experiences. Fitzpatrick describes her own harrowing brush with death and transcendent near-death experience, and guides us through her discovery of the forerunners of NDEs in the ancient roots of pre-Celtic culture. Experiences like Róisín’s have now been validated by hundreds of scientific studies around the world, and provide evidence that consciousness is more than the brain and indeed that we are more than our bodies. As a guide to enhancing your own spirituality, Taking Heaven Lightly is a love story in the most sublime sense." (Dr. Bruce Greyson)

So, what happened to Ms. Fitzpatrick?

Nothing short of an extraordinary event that occurred to an ordinary person, and she's chosen to "come back here" to share it with the planet.  And to you dear reader, I now pass it along to you, for your own perusal over a cup of coffee.  Here's her Blog:

(As an aside, I made a trip to the Emerald Isle when I was 19.  I was traveling with a gaggle of students, we were going to school in Rome, and somehow we managed to wend our way through Europe during spring break - well now, come to think of it, exactly 40 years ago this week.  We were staying at B and B's, and I was the fellow who would try to bargain our way into a group rate.  "I know you only charge $10 a night, but might we get a discount for 6 of us?"  It always seemed to work, if only because it seemed like these folks had never heard someone make that particular pitch before.

It as 1975 you see - before the Irish boom, before the internet, but just around the time that the government doubled the tax on beer, so everyone went to paying double what they'd paid the week before for the same pint.

I wound up playing Chuck Berry tunes in a band at a local pub, and the owner let us stay in the rooms above.  We wound up staying in Cork, invited into a home to play guitars and drink tea - it was around midnight that the "owner" of the place these guys were squatting in came home and booted us into the street.  Still, the hospitality was epic - complete strangers took us in bits and pieces. Two here, two there...  and finally we made it to Killarney, where the skies parted in Simpson's fashion, a blast of sunlight broke through, a bright shaft of light landed on top of the head of a buck - a deer who had wandered out of the brush to face our small contingent sleeping in tents.  It was as magical a moment as I've ever seen - the entire country was now aglow in a different color, as the sun reveals why it's the Emerald Isle.  I can still see that deer staring at us, a timeless beauty, faced with stragglers from the Rome Center.)

I went to school in Rome in 1975.

But I digress.

On March 22nd, 2014, Ms Fitzpatrick had a near death experience that shook her to her core.  She traveled to see Dr. Greyson at the University of Virginia (fans of "Flipside" will note that Dr. Greyson's interview "Is Consciousness Created by the Brain" appears in "It's a Wonderful Afterlife" volume one), where he interviewed her, and gave her context and insight into the profound experience which had happened to her.  (That account is HERE).  From her website:

"In this ground-breaking book, ("Taking Heaven Lightly") Róisín Fitzpatrick shares with the reader her remarkable journey when in 2004, without any warning, she suffered a life-threatening brain haemorrhage. While in the ICU of Beaumont Hospital, she felt herself being drawn out of her body and enveloped in a radiant light. There, in a blissful vision of the afterlife, she experienced the most powerful transformation of her life. Róisín's discovery – that ‘Heaven’ lies within each of us, that we are pure love and always at one with the eternal light – changed the course of her world. She went on to make a full recovery by integrating this newfound love and light into her daily existence.

Róisín calls this her ‘near-life experience’ because it has given her the freedom to truly live life. And she encourages readers to embrace this precious gift of life by asking the question: are you living your best life now? She provides an inspirational guide with simple, yet, powerfully effective practical exercises to show ways to be able to feel and experience this light in our own lives. To quote Dr. Ranck, this is 'A book of wise words that will introduce some people to the light, will draw others back to the light and will itself long shine light in all sorts of unforeseeable and beautiful ways.'

Róisín also seamlessly weaves her near-death experience (NDE) with the eternal light – solas síoraí – of our ancient Irish myths and monuments, shining a light on our past, present and future. She shows how we can all connect with this light to enhance our daily lives, and develop a deeper connection to a sense of peace and unity beyond the physical realm. Her near death experience has been validated by Dr. Bruce Greyson, one of the pioneers and medical experts in this field in the United States for over 40 years."

Dr. Greyson also included this message to Ms. Fitzpatrick: (We have a gaggle of Fitzpatricks, Muleadys and Hayes on the Irish side of my family, and my mom always referred to them as "Ms Fitz" - get it?)

"You have something valuable to share with people who are searching for a meaning in life, a reason why we are here and a purpose to our existence. Many people are looking for something deeper, wishing to find more joy and inner peace, maybe even yearn for a divine connection which at some level we know exists but seems to be elusive and beyond our grasp. Through the journey of your near-death experience you can share how this unconditional love and powerful light is the truth of who we really are." (Dr. Greyson)

As fans of "It's A Wonderful Afterlife: Further Adventures in the Flipside" know, I expand the research around "between life" hypnotherapy sessions to include near death experiences and other phenomenon that have been investigated, to show how there are similar accounts in all of these stories.  The key element is that of hearing or sensing or experiencing "new information" - that being information that could not have come from a memory currently in the person who experienced the near death experience, the visitation from the afterlife, or while under deep hypnosis.  When these people report "new information" from the Flipside, it verifies that indeed there is life after death.

Science has a term for "past life memory" - cryptomnesia.  It means that whatever memory you think you had actually came from something you read, heard, or saw - even in utero - because of the firm belief that everything (consciousness) is created by the brain.  And that would make sense if the data supported that assumption.  But it does not.

I cite numerous examples in the books, ("Flipside" and "It's A Wonderful Afterlife") but for starters Dr. Eben Alexander ("Proof of Life") was led around his NDE by a woman he did not consciously know, but felt he'd "known forever."  It wasn't until much later that he learned from his birth family (he was adopted) that he had a sister, and when they sent him a photograph of her, he recognized her as his "afterlife guide."  In Colton Burpo's account of his NDE, ("Heaven in for Real") he met his sister that he didn't know had died in childbirth, as his parents didn't tell him that information.  So when he returned, that was one of his observations. "I met my sister."  Just the other day Jaime Prymak Sullivan (Cawfeetawk) posted a video of her daughter seeing her grandmother on camera (also on this blog), where the daughter said that her grandmother was calling her by the pet name that only Jaime knew.  

In my own case, my father visited me after his passing and asked me to write down some information, which I did.  It included a list of names of people he was currently with, and when I showed that list to my mother she identified numerous friends who had died in WWII that I'd never heard of.

This is all "new information."

Information that could not have been looked up, could not have been known before hand.  Or if you find yourself trying to make the case that there's a remote possibility that perhaps in some strange twisting of reality those details might have been accessed, I submit that's just your brain trying to do its best to contain, or block information that's foreign to it.  There may be some physical reason for this "denial of service" message that our brains seem to adhere to, but there's equally the possibility that there's a reason why these "blocks" appear to be "thinning" or disappearing altogether (in cases where people have an NDE or go through deep hypnosis.)

I could go on, but I'll leave that as it may be.

I haven't met Ms. Fitzpatrick, but hope to do so one day, if only to discuss this further.  I did meet David Bennett, ("Voyage of Purpose") who also had a near death experience, who also was interviewed by Dr. Greyson, and who also had "new information" revealed to him during the NDE. (That he would get cancer and overcome it, and when the Doctor on call came into the office to report the news, he recognized this Dr. from his NDE and knew exactly what he was about to say.)  Here he is in his own words:

Interview with author David Bennett by Rich Martini

Author David Bennett ("Voyage of Purpose") has written an excellent book about his near death experience, and has been studied by Dr. Bruce Greyson at UVA.  Here is an interview we did in upstate NY after my book talk "It's A Wonderful Afterlife."  If you ever wanted to know what a near death experience was about, David's got an amazing story.  Also he's survived cancer and his journey through that is as compelling.  Highly recommend listening to his story.