flying in to talk about the flipside

Flying in from the flipside. MY TIME SLOT IS 2:45-3:45 PM ON SATURDAY THE 26TH. (5:45 TO 6:45 EST)

Here's the sign up link:

LINK TO CONFERENCE

https://thusmenla.org/p/the-art-of-living-and-dying?affcode=790278_cey7_hrr

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Also...

Just a general thank you to all the folks who’ve been donating to the research. It’s not something I ask people to do, but some want to - and there’s a list of links at Rich Martini's WebPage - but I want to at the very least acknowledge a number of folks from around the planet who suddenly decided to send something my way to encourage me to continue doing what I’m doing. John in Arizona, Marc and Raili in Norway, Andrew in Switzerland, Cathy D and this story from Kai:

“My donation was a thank You for Your great work. I just finished the 2 books “It’s a Wonderful Afterlife.” “Architecture of the Afterlife” is waiting in line with the Tuning into afterlife. (And I still feel like to reread the first one “Hacking the Afterlife” there was a real “a-ha moment” in this book. In the chapter about talking to the spirit of Earth, I saw myself so clearly in a large auditorium, more like stadium, but indoors. It was like part of the (life) planning session, there were some planners in the middle and I so much wanted to be part of this current life, I looked over to my friends and they were like, “Don’t look at us, we will not joining you!” From the front of me, my son turned around and said, “I will help you with this.” Then I snapped back to my home, jumped out of chair and shouted, “I got the part, I got the part!” and I was really happy in this moment.

Your books are well written, entertaining, light and with so much information. I love your books. They are exactly what I need. No fictions. No dogmas. As a parent to trying to reach to the Flipside, I am open to every opportunity to learn how to do it. I’m on this journey a little over year and my son is guiding me where to look and from what to learn. I am amazed how much there is information. And I am sad that the only way to find the way to it seems to have to be the hard way.

It would be so much nicer to know who you are without it. But this seems to be the part of human experience. You lose some, you gain some. And then you will know; you haven’t lost anything really. I have my connections to the Flipside and You have been a great help leading me to find ways to do it. Thank You!”

Thank you Kai for that note, and I’m sorry for the loss of your son. He’s lucky to have chosen you. In terms of this research, which is unusual to say the least, I try to dedicate some part of my day to moving the needle forward. Whether it’s our podcast with medium Jennifer HackingTheAfterlife.com, or posting excerpts of films at Richard Martini MartiniZone - or putting up documentaries like FLIPSIDE or Hacking the Afterlife - or the 9 books I’ve put out there - it’s certainly something I’ve done because I feel compelled to do so.

It’s unusual to get donations from folks in Switzerland, Norway, Arizona - across the globe - but in my mind these people are all connected by the research. Because ultimately this research isn’t about me - it’s about how everyone says the same things about the journey with hypnosis, meditation or mediumship. And those nine books, three documentaries on Gaia demonstrate that.

In the 100 hypnotherapy sessions I’ve filmed, half without hypnosis, I’ve also done six of them with different hypnotherapists.

Each one has been a revelation of new information - afterwards I do the research to see how accurate or inaccurate my memory is, or my memories were. Then I transcribe the sessions, so I can get another crack at them, seeing what new ideas come to mind - and when I do so, it’s like I’m pushing the filters further out of the way.

My dreams have changed in that I have become aware during dreams that I am in a dream, that the people in my dream are playing roles in my dream, that I can stop them in the dream and ask them other questions about the journey. And then, when I do the podcast with Jennifer, frequently she’s start the podcast saying “You had an unusual dream yesterday.” And we explore what folks on the flipside were trying to share.

I guess this is a long preamble to a dream I had last night where I was hanging with my father, the inspiration for the book “Architecture of the Afterlife” - and we were talking about architecture, life, other stuff. And as the dream ended, I was aware of him taking my face in his hands as if to make me remember this moment, and saying “Son, you’re doing good work.”

This from a guy who built the largest university in the world (King Saud in Saudi Arabia) to the Sheraton on the Nile, a Beechnut factory in China, schools in Virginia and Chicago (they shot “Breakfast Club” in one of his his) to the window design on the Bahai Temple in Evanston - hearing “You’re doing good work” from dad the architect who worked at Holabird and Root is high praise.

Anyways, thanks for the continued support - it doesn’t need to be financial, it’s good when people have the courage to share stories of the afterlife that have happened to them, that they may or may not fear their colleagues or family will be horrified by - that lump all “tales of the flipside” with pyramid hat wearing people who speak in tongues. When someone shares a story, or research, or data - it’s humanity moving the needle forward in this unusual way that has only been available for a few decades. Sharing new information online with others in a forum about the afterlife.

Nothing wrong with examining the journey. It’s what we’ve been doing since we first started it.

My two cents.

THE ART OF DYING TO LIVE CONFERENCE

Hey! I’m appearing at an “Afterlife Conference” in February. I’m posting a link here. My old friend Professor Robert Thurman is hosting the event through Menla, the non profit organization set up by the Dalai Lama for Friends of Tibet. Robert is both an engaging speaker, a sage and a teacher of Buddhist philosophy, and I have had the privilege to travel to both India and Tibet with him and hear his insight into many things, including the afterlife. I could argue that without being allowed to accompany him to a trip around Mt. Kailash, I wouldn’t be on this page.

SIGN UP USING THIS LINK IF INTERESTED!

https://thusmenla.org/p/the-art-of-living-and-dying?affcode=790278_cey7_hrr

Based on the research I’ve been doing into “how to stay in touch with the flipside” - I’ve been invited to be part of this teaching conference. Others who will participate are Deepak Chopra, Dr. Eben Alexander and fascinating speakers, so it’s an august group to be associated with.

Some have asked me about doing this kind of thing, and it’s the first I’ve agreed to be part of. I will be talking about the new book “Tuning Into the Afterlife: Staying in Touch with the Flipside” - and discussing the latest research, as well as the unusual methods I’ve used to film people reaching out to the flipside and learning new information about doing so. (Cannot be cryptomnesia if it’s new information.)

I’m happy to share the link - there’s a fee to sign up that goes to the organization and I can suggest that if one can afford it, there will be some really interesting, sage folks participating that will make it worth anyone’s while to hear what they have to say about the journey.

So for serious students of the flipside (I say that tongue in cheek) or for those who want to explore THE ART OF DYING TO LIVE here’s the first notice of it: 

The Art of Dying to Live: An Exploration of Life, Death, and the Afterlife

February 23 - 27, 2022

It is our pleasure to invite you to join us in our online conference and practice retreat, The Art of Dying to Live.

This is THUS | Menla’s new incarnation of a powerfully transformative event Tibet House US launched with the New York Open Center 20 years ago, which introduced thousands to the cheerful exploration of the realities of death and dying as the doorway to living ever more vibrantly in the precious moments of life. Over these five days, experienced practitioners will present visions and lead practices drawn from spiritual wisdom, scientific insight, and time-tested experiential methods of dealing with death and dying that immeasurably enrich the lives of those facing death, as well as those facing bereavement.

Join us to explore ancient and modern understandings and engagements with the arts of dying and living through the lenses of different traditions, including Tibetan and Zen Buddhist, Christian, Hindu, Judaic, and Shamanic traditions. Study the nature of death as part of life, and compare all visions of possible afterlife experiences from existential to theistic to shamanic.  

Teachings and practices will be weaved throughout the conference to help us contemplate our own life and death more fully. Experts from the field of care giving and bereavement will bring support to those who are caring for those at the end of life or grieving for a loved one.

In this interactive online conference, you will hear from leading keynote speakers on the subject:

Dr. Eben Alexander, Sierra Campbell, Deepak Chopra, Dr. Terri Daniel, Joan Halifax, Andrew Holecek, Jussara Korngold, Simcha Raphael, Henrietta Mann, Dr. Gabor Maté, Frank Ostaseski, Mingyur Rinpoche, Therese Schroeder-Sheker Robert Thurman, Alberto Villoldo, Henry Fersko-Weiss, Dr. Jessica Zitter and Richard Martini.

Participants will have the opportunity to dive deeper with live Q&A and interactive breakout sessions on the subjects of: Preparing for the Journey; Visions of the Afterlife; and Grief, Bereavement, and Forgiveness.

 All participants are welcome to take this journey with us, into the Art of Dying to Live from February 23 - 27, 2022. 

DEEPAK CHOPRA™ MD, FACP, founder of The Chopra Foundation, a non-profit entity for research on well-being and humanitarianism, and Chopra Global, a modern-day health company at the intersection of science and spirituality, is a world-renowned pioneer in integrative medicine and personal transformation. 

Chopra is a Clinical Professor of Family Medicine and Public Health at the University of California, San Diego and serves as a senior scientist with Gallup Organization. He is the author of over 90 books translated into over forty-three languages, including numerous New York Times bestsellers. His 90th book and national bestseller, Metahuman: Unleashing Your Infinite Potential (Harmony Books), unlocks the secrets to moving beyond our present limitations to access a field of infinite possibilities. 

For the last thirty years, Chopra has been at the forefront of the meditation revolution and his latest book, Total Meditation (Harmony Books, September 22, 2020) helps to achieve new dimensions of stress-free living and joyful living. TIME magazine has described Dr. Chopra as “one of the top 100 heroes and icons of the century.”

Robert Thurman is Professor of Indo-Tibetan Buddhist Studies at Columbia University as well as Co-Founder and President of Tibet House US | Menla in service of HH Dalai Lama & the people of Tibet.

A close friend of the Dalai Lama’s for over 50 years, he is a leading world-wide lecturer on Tibetan Buddhism, passionate activist for the plight of the Tibetan people, skilled translator of Buddhist texts, and inspiring writer of popular Buddhist books. His most recent book is Wisdom Is Bliss: Four Freindly Fun Facts That Can Change Your Life

In partnership with Nena Thurman and dedicated contributors, he now focuses on making Tibet House US and its Menla Retreat & Spa a global center for the promotion, study and practice of Tibetan Buddhist healing arts and sciences of body, mind, and spirit, dedicated as a complement to the vast life work of its patron, His Holiness the Dalai Lama.

To learn more: www.bobthurman.com.

Eben Alexander, MD, was an academic neurosurgeon for over 25 years, including 15 years at the Brigham & Women’s Hospital, Children’s Hospital, and Harvard Medical School in Boston.

He experienced a transcendental Near-Death-Experience (NDE) during a week-long coma from an inexplicable brain infection that completely transformed his worldview.

A pioneering scientist and modern thought leader in the emerging science that acknowledges the primacy of consciousness in the universe, he is the author of the New York Times #1 bestseller Proof of Heaven, The Map of Heaven and Living in a Mindful Universe.

To learn more about his work: www.ebenalexander.com

Richard Martini is a best selling author and an award winning writer/director. His 8 books about the afterlife have all been #1 in their genre on Kindle. (“Flipside” “It’s a Wonderful Afterlife” Part One and Two, “Hacking the Afterlife” “Architecture of the Afterlife” “Backstage Pass to the Flipside” 1, 2 and 3. He's written and/or directed eight theatrical features ("Limit Up," "Cannes Man" "You Can't Hurry Love")  curated historical content for “Salt” (Angelina Jolie) "Amelia" (Hilary Swank) was “Associate to Phillip Noyce” on “Salt.”  His documentaries include “Journey into Tibet with Robert Thurman”, “Talking to Bill Paxton” (Gaia) and “Flipside” Amazon Prime.  “Sister Cities – Chicago/Casablanca” was made for the U.S. State Dept. His latest book is TUNING INTO THE AFTERLIFE: his most recent documentary is HACKING THE AFTERLIFE 

His documentary about the afterlife under hypnosis ("Flipside") was also a best seller (#1 in its kindle genre); his 8 books on the topic have all hit #1 in their genres. He’s had 10 appearances on “Coast to Coast with George Noory” and seven on the “Beyond Belief with George Noory” on Gaia. This first appearance was the 2nd highest rated show on the network. His three books with medium Jennifer Shaffer (“Backstage Pass to the Flipside”) have all been to #1 in their genre after his Coast to Coast appearances.

SIGN UP USING THIS LINK IF INTERESTED!

https://thusmenla.org/p/the-art-of-living-and-dying?affcode=790278_cey7_hrr

Eben Alexander on the Science of the Flipside

Here's an excellent scientific analysis of the flipside from a scientist. 

Mnemosyne, Goddess of Memory

This interview with Dr. Eben Alexander which includes reference to Ed Kelly's work (who I met with at UVA along with Dr Greyson as reported in "it's a Wonderful Afterlife") is worth reading and repeating.

(I will add my flipside comments where *noted.)

Dr. Eben Alexander on His Near-Death Experience—and What He’s Learned About Consciousness

In 2008, Eben Alexander, M.D., an academic neurosurgeon for over twenty-five years, including fifteen years at the Brigham & Women’s Hospital, Children’s Hospital, and Harvard Medical School in Boston, fell into a deep coma due to bacterial meningitis, from a particularly vicious strain of ecoli. 

After a week in a deep coma, his doctors put his survival rate well below 10 percent, with the caveat that if he did somehow emerge, he would be in a nursing home for the rest of his life. 

Not only did he make a full and miraculous recovery, but he recounted an incredibly deep and profound near-death experience from his time in this coma, when the neocortex of his brain was completely shut down. He was effectively dead, without a functioning brain—and from a materialist view of science, certainly not a brain that could manifest his experience, which he documents in great detail in the New York Times #1 bestseller, Proof of Heaven.

As a neurosurgeon, he had heard stories from patients about their own NDE’s, which he had casually dismissed as hallucinations, never taking the time to entertain or explore what his patients recounted, or what it could possibly mean. 

As he writes in Proof of Heaven, “Like many other scientific skeptics, I refused to even review the data relevant to the questions concerning these phenomena. I prejudged the data, and those providing it, because my limited perspective failed to provide the foggiest notion of how such things might actually happen.” He goes on to add, “Those who assert that there is no evidence for phenomena indicative of extended consciousness, in spite of overwhelming evidence to the contrary, are willfully ignorant. They believe they know the truth without needing to look at the facts.”

Since his near-death experience, Alexander has taken a bit of a right turn to explore, as the philosopher David Chalmers calls it, “the hard problem of consciousness,” which essentially boils down to whether the brain creates consciousness, or whether we are spiritual beings living a physical existence, where the brain functions as more of a filter. 

In Alexander’s latest, even more fascinating book, Living in a Mindful Universe, he explores the science behind all of it in great detail, as well as discussions about everything from where the brain stores memories (hint: nobody knows), to what the other side might be able to teach us about our reality today.

Nasa Photo of "Home"

Q&A with Eben Alexander, M.D.

Q: Before your near-death experience, you explained that you would have considered yourself a “skeptic,” without really understanding what that meant—in your book, you describe the concept of pseudo-skeptics as well. How has your stance changed based on your own experience, and everything you’ve learned since?

A: Before my coma, I would say I was an open-minded skeptic. The pseudo-skeptics, in contrast, are those who have made up their minds based on their prejudices, and who prove to be remarkably resistant to accepting empirical data or reasoned arguments. Many critics of spirituality, psi, and paranormal experiences, especially those who write publicly in disparaging terms about other’s sharing of such experiences, are simply pseudo-skeptics. Living in a Mindful Universe challenges many of those fundamental beliefs directly, in an effort to more broadly explain all of the empirical evidence of human experience. 

Having had a personally transformative experience of my own, my stance is now far more open, because I see possibilities for a worldview that is more comprehensive, synthesizing the evidence for our spiritual nature living in a spiritual universe along lines that fully accept the frontier science emerging from quantum physics and cosmology.

Q: What is the materialist view of consciousness?

A: Conventional science can be called reductive materialism, or physicalism—basically, that only the physical world exists. This means that thoughts, emotions, perceptions, and memories are merely epiphenomena of the physical workings of the brain, and thus have no real existence in their own right. 

Thus, according to materialism, consciousness is no more than the confusing result of the chemical reactions and electrical fluxes in the substance of the brain. Major consequences of this view are that our existence is birth-to-death, and nothing more, and that free will itself is a complete illusion. If conscious awareness is nothing more than chemical reactions, there is no place for “free will” to play a role.

“The brain is more a prison from which our conscious awareness is liberated at the time of bodily death, enabling a robust afterlife that also involves reincarnation.”

My new view, and one that is emerging in neuroscience and philosophy of mind, is the exact opposite: that soul/spirit is what exists, and projects all of apparent physical reality from within itself. The brain is more a prison from which our conscious awareness is liberated at the time of bodily death, enabling a robust afterlife that also involves reincarnation. Our choices matter tremendously, and thus free will is a crucial component of evolving reality.

Q: What do we know about the brain and what can we prove?

A: We know a tremendous amount about the brain and its workings, including the evidence that it is not the producer of consciousness at all. 

The best clinical examples are terminal lucidity, acquired savant syndromes, and hallucinogenic substance studies. In the cases of terminal lucidity, elderly demented patients become much more reflective and communicative around the time of death, in ways that would be impossible if the brain were somehow producing consciousness. 

(*NOTE: See Dr. Bruce Greyson's youtube talk "Is Consciousness Produced by the Brain" on youtube, or reproduced in "It's a Wonderful Afterlife")

Acquired savant syndrome occurs when some form of brain damage—such as a head injury, stroke, or autism—allows for superhuman mental feats of memory, calculation, gnosis, etc. 

The emerging evidence from functional MRI (fMRI) and magnetoencephalography (MEG) studies of patients on serotinergic hallucinogenic drugs (like psilocybin, DMT [ayuhuasca], LSD, etc.) reveal the most profound of such drug experiences are associated with the greatest shutting down of the physical brain’s activity. 

This shocking finding of such experiments is fully consistent with my own amazing explosion of rich, vibrant, ultra-real conscious awareness—that accompanied the progressive damage to my neocortex during severe gram-negative bacterial meningitis, rendering me comatose for a week in November 2008.

“We need to accept that full explanation of mind and consciousness must involve investigation beyond just the physical substance of the brain.”

Search for “the hard problem of consciousness” to find more of the absolute dead end this kind of thinking has yielded about the nature of consciousness, and the relationship between brain and mind. From a physicalist perspective, the problem of how consciousness might arise from the physical brain becomes the impossible problem. 

We need to accept that full explanation of mind and consciousness must involve investigation beyond just the physical substance of the brain. 

One of the most renowned neurosurgeons in the 20th century, Dr. Wilder Penfield of Montreal, spent his career studying the effects of electrical brain stimulation in awake patients, and is thus a scientist in better position than most others to discuss this mind-body problem in detail. In his 1975 book Mystery of the Mind, he made it very clear that the brain does not explain the mind, thus is not the producer of consciousness itself, nor is it the harbor of “free will,” or even the repository of memory storage.

"Home" courtesy NASA

Q: Why do you believe there is such a chasm between materialist or physicalist science and those who believe that the soul survives death/is not created by the mind? Why is it so difficult for both belief systems to coexist?

A: The scientific revolution began approximately four hundred years ago, when the likes of Galileo Galilei, Francis Bacon, Isaac Newton, and others were trying to define the laws of causality in the physical world. If they strayed too close to the realm of mind or consciousness, they risked being burned at the stake. 

Scientist Giordano Bruno

(*NOTE: Giordano Bruno, as I mention in "Hacking the Afterlife" was burned at the stake because of his "out of body experience."  He had an OBE that revealed to him that we aren't the only solar system, and that as he "traveled through space" he saw that other solar systems revolved around suns.  He spoke about it publicly, eventually getting him a one way trip to the stake.)

Over the centuries, physics was viewed as the study of the physical world, and thus, from a scientific perspective, the physical was the basis of all of reality. This necessitated the supposition that humans and their awareness of the world was just another subcategory of the physical.

The problem is they failed to realize that subjective reality is the only thing any human being can possibly know to exist, and that our mind is intimately involved not only with perceiving the world around us, but also in generating the emerging reality.

Quantum physics, the most proven theory in the history of science, insists on putting consciousness back in primary position as the initiator of all of emerging reality, yet the modern physics community has difficulty relinquishing the many-century notion that the world can be explained through physical matter alone. Many quantum physicists are advised to “shut up and calculate.” That is, to pay no attention to the completely counter-intuitive and bizarre properties of the subatomic world that appear in quantum mechanics experiments.

“The problem is they failed to realize that subjective reality is the only thing any human being can possibly know to exist.”

Materialism is the easy science, the low-hanging fruit, and very much held onto by those who simply want to claim some knowledge of reality, even though it fails miserably at explaining anything about conscious awareness itself, or all manner of human experiences, both mundane and exotic. 

The answer comes in adopting a much grander world view, notably that of metaphysical idealism: that consciousness is fundamental in the universe, and that all else, including the observable physical universe, emerges from consciousness.

Q: As a neurosurgeon, it seems that your opinion about the function of the brain has changed, from believing it creates consciousness to wondering if it isn’t some sort of filter. What do you believe the function of the brain really is, and what does science currently support?

A: Filter theory makes the most sense to me—that the physical brain serves as a filter, only allowing in limited states of conscious awareness. 

(*NOTE: In Dr. Greyson's interview, he points out that those filters appear to "die" with patients that have Alzheimer's - he cited that 70% of the hospice care workers report their patients "regaining full memory" just prior to death - either minutes, hours or sometimes days.  As if the "filters keeping conscious thought" outside of their brains have died; when these patients' brains are studied via autopsy, they're shown to be atrophied and incapable of memory.  Unless memory is not soley a function of the brain.)

The brain certainly manages many functions of the human body and gives us our linguistic capabilities and ability to analyze and solve problems. But these seemingly superior traits (as compared to other species) often serve to limit us from the full spectrum of what is possible. 

The production model of physicalism (that is, that the physical brain creates consciousness out of the purely physical matter of the brain) is the least reasonable of the options to explain consciousness, and fails miserably at providing any explanatory potential.

Sunset is a sunrise elsewhere. Always transforming.

Q: Is there a way to prove any of this?

A: The evidence that the materialist “brain-produces-consciousness” model is wrong is all around us. To the scientific-minded who want to pursue it, I recommend Ed Kelly’s two extraordinary books Irreducible Mind and Beyond Physicalism. 

(*I met with Ed Kelly PhD when researching "It's a Wonderful Afterlife." )

Conventional science has been guilty of suppressing and denying a mountain of evidence over decades, simply calling all manner of such human experiences (remote viewing, out-of-body experiences, precognition, past life memories in children, NDEs, shared death experiences, etc.) “hallucinations,” instead of studying them in more detail and trying to understand them. 

Sooner or later, sheer frustration about the failed world view of materialism is inevitable, and the result will be the extinction of that world view, in favor of one far more capable of explaining the wide variety of human experiences to be fathomed.

Q: For people who want to explore their consciousness on a deeper level, what do you suggest? Is there anything that you’ve experienced since that is NDE-like?

A: The worldview of idealism (that our consciousness creates all of unfolding reality) opens the door to the extraordinary potential each and every one of us has to influence our lives. We are all a part of this consciousness and it’s incumbent on each of us to uncover the truth of who we truly are.

“The veil is part of the ‘programmed forgetting,’ an intentional loss of memories from past lives and between lives that gives us ‘skin in the game.'”

Beginning around two years after the coma (in 2010), I started investigating binaural beat sound technology, a form of brain entrainment, utilizing a timing circuit in the lower brainstem. I wanted to duplicate the neocortical inactivation experienced during my coma, but without coming so close to death. Binaural beats have been crucial during my soul journey of the last few years, allowing me to reconnect with the realms, beings, and fundamental forces of love that I first encountered during my NDE. 

In particular, I’ve found the tones developed by Kevin Kossi and Karen Newell of Sacred Acoustics to be especially powerful. I have partaken in past life regressions, and feel they also help in this journey of discovery, but tend to default to self-generated investigations by exploring within consciousness through Sacred Acoustics audio recordings. I have had broad success at revisiting the spiritual realms I encountered during my coma and continue to develop my connection with my higher soul.

(*NOTE: My exploration of binaural beats included a head-ache, so I've focused on merely "asking questions" to someone who has had a near death event, or perhaps a recurring dream.  If the architecture of the afterlife is a known quantity (and it appears to be, without structure per se, but with words that evoke a memory, as in "council" "soul group" etc.)

Q: Can you tell us more about binaural beats?

A: Binaural beats are a phenomenon discovered by mid-nineteenth century Prussian physicist Heinrich Wilhelm Dove, who found that presentation of slightly different frequency, pure tones to the two ears (varying by anywhere from less than 1 Hz to ~ 25 Hz with each other) engendered a wavering sensation in the perception of the sound. 

The frequency of the wavering results from the arithmetic difference between the two tones, i.e. 100 Hz in one ear combined with 104 Hz in the other ear leads to a 4-Hz wavering sound. Others have investigated the alterations in consciousness associated with this binaural beat phenomenon, especially in enhancing out of body and remote viewing experiences.

Various benefits of binaural beats include reducing constant mind chatter, improved sleep, less anxiety, emotional release, spiritual guidance, enhanced intuition. Everyone is unique and it is important to try firsthand to see for yourself what results might be achieved. Karen and I regularly teach workshops on how precisely to do this, and free training videos are available at Sacred Acoustics, along with a free 20-minute sample recording.

Take a left past the galaxy to get "home."

Q: Why do you think the veil exists, i.e., what do you believe that we are here to learn?

A: I believe that fundamentally the universe exists so that sentient beings can learn and teach in this “soul school,” the sum result of which is the evolution of consciousness itself. Such learning necessitates that we not be privy to all that is known by our higher soul. 

However, we reconnect with the spiritual realm after bodily death, in the process of a life review; encounters with the souls of those in our soul group; and re-immersion into that ocean of unconditional love represented by God and similar concepts by those who have had such rich, spiritually transformative experiences. We can also access our higher soul through prolonged and extensive programs of “going within,” or meditation, practiced throughout our lives.

(*NOTE: "Soul Group" is not referring to James Brown or other groups of singers. (joke) However it is referenced quite a bit by Michael Newton, where I first found it in my research.  I've filmed 40 sessions of people visiting their "soul group" - I've done 5 sessions myself, and visited my "soul group" and "classrooms" and "libraries" and "councils" in the between lives realm.  Afterlife is a misnomer in the sense that life doesn't end, nor is it something that occurs "after we are here."  According to the research, some part of our consciousness is always "back home" - participating in events there while we participate in events here.  That's not opinion, belief, or theory - it's just based on the thousands of cases Michael Newton, Dr. Helen Wambach and the 40 sessions I've filmed claim.)

The veil is part of the “programmed forgetting,” (*NOTE: Scott De Tamble, hypnotherapist in Claremont (lightbetweenlives.com) calls this "Forget-me-juice.") an intentional loss of memories from past lives and between lives that gives us “skin in the game.” 

That is the emotional buy-in to our status as “individual souls” to live our lives to the fullest. Hardships serve as the engine for our soul’s growth and the growth of other souls with whom we are connected.

(*NOTE: Mnemosyne.  Remember her? Used to be very popular. Her name was cited prior to every Greek play so the actors "could remember."If you look up the Goddess of Memory, Mnemosoyne, you'll find that when someone dies, they take a drink from the river Lethe to "regain all of the memories of their lifetimes," and a drink from the river Mnemosyne when they return - to "forget all of them". Apparently, an accurate description of the process.)

Reprinted from Goop
Eben Alexander, M.D. spent more than twenty-five years as an academic neurosurgeon, including fifteen at the Brigham & Women’s Hospital, Children’s Hospital, and Harvard Medical School in Boston. In 2008, he had a near-death experience that has led him to deeply explore the complexities of consciousness, which he writes about in the books: Living in a Mindful Universe, Proof of Heaven, and The Map of Heaven.

Mnemosyne.  Remember her? Used to be very popular. Her name
was cited prior to every Greek play so the actors "could remember."

What Dreams May Come

Had the most unusual dream last night.  It was long and involved, and I was in some kind of limousine... the world zipping by outside, and I was focused on the individuals inside this limo. And there was a young child in the limousine, funny, giggling... but by the end of this dream, he was 21... long hair, blonde, easy laughter.  Kind of a surfer dude.

And realizing that I'd been in this limo driving around for over 20 years, I said "Wait a minute. Who are you, and why am I dreaming about you?"  He said "I'm your son."  

Mind blown. NASA

He smiled, matter of factly, revealing something I did not know, and could not have conceived of.  And then I did the math, and sure enough, it's possible that he was a child that we did not have because of a miscarriage a long, long time ago.

I bring it up, not to disturb anyone - but it made me think about the onset of life. What people say under deep hypnosis about the nature of life is consistent and unusual.  One guide described it as "uniting two photons of energy, one male, one female - not necessarily either or more or less of one, but those are the easiest words to use - and they're overseen by a group of souls who are like caretakers.  Then bits of energy are added, here and there, until they're "old enough" or "ready" to take life in some form. It might be on the planet, it might be somewhere else. They're assigned a guide to watch over all of their lives, and together with their guide, they map out what kind of journey they're going to have."

In my case, I had this discussion with my guide - someone who used the analogy of a "giant canvas."  He said "think of a blank canvas, and each lifetime is color. And Richard and I worked out all the various colors we'd like to explore and use, and at some point we'll look at the canvas and say "you need more red here, or more blue here..." and at the end of all of his lifetimes, we'll have this amazing portrait of a life well lived.  

Lotta stars up there. NASA

He said "And then at that point, when Richard has gone through all of his lifetimes, and this canvas is finished, he will have the option to become a guide, and then he'll oversee someone else's journey."  He said "when I graduated from all of my lifetimes, Richard was my graduation gift."

Ok.

Like a diploma on a plate.  

Handed over to a guide; here you go.  Now get to work.

But in terms of each lifetime, it's worth considering how or why we choose to come to this planet, to be born in this era.

We live in an era where abortion is legal, and there's a hot debate whether or not life begins at inception. 

Well, the research is consistent in this area, and it bears repeating; we choose to come here, we choose to be born, we choose the manner and person and method of that birth.  We do so with the guidance of our spiritual guides, friends and loved ones in the between lives realm. 

This is not my opinion belief or philosophy.  It is just consistent in the research. Sorry if that bothers people - it's not my intent to bother anyone.  But it is my intent to report what the research consistently shows.

Michael Newton did over 7000 hypnosis sessions, Dr. Helen Wambach did over 2000; both had the same results. I've filmed 40 sessions, also had the same results. 

So what about miscarriages, stillbirths, abortions?  Who are these folks and why did they choose to not be here?

Every story is unique.  

I have one close friend who lost her baby just prior to birth. She had a profound vivid dream sometime later where she "spoke" to her baby - and recognized him as someone she's known for many lifetimes. In his own words he "Changed his mind" just prior to coming here.  He "thought he could handle it" and then decided he "could not."  In her vision, she saw they had many lifetimes together.  Did this help her recover from her pain and loss? I don't know. I'm just reporting what she said.

In my lifetime I've known many women who've had abortions or miscarriages.  And in some of the research I've done, either via mediums or while a person is under hypnosis, or even during a near death experience - someone "meets" someone in the afterlife that is reported to be their "sister" (in "Heaven is For Real" during his NDE he met a sister he didn't know had died in childbirth, or in Eben Alexander's "Proof of Heaven" he's guided by a woman he later learns was a sister he didn't know he had), sometimes people meet brothers or sisters who died after coming here, and in some cases meet brothers or sisters that were "supposed to be here but couldn't make it."

I don't know what this dream was about - but it was a startling revelation to my conscious mind, meeting a son I didn't know, had never met, but who was letting me know that he was always with me and his mom, no matter what our "current reality" might be.

Oddly affirming.

It makes one wonder if all births are "meant to be" - after all, someone signs up to be part of our world, and then we decide they should not be.  I've always been an advocate of free choice, but perhaps in the future, part of counseling might include a hypnotherapy session where the mother (or father) gets to connect with this soul that is planning on coming here, and wants in on the decision whether to come or not.

I'd hasten to add, that everyone has their own path and journey, and I'm not here to admonish or tell anyone what their path and journey should be.  But I am here to say that consciousness doesn't occur at conception - it only opens the door to that person who is planning to come here.

Mind bending, isn't it?

So I'm editing together some of my "Hacking the Afterlife" sessions with Jennifer Shaffer.  It's hard to find a way to tell these stories - basically Jennifer and I meet up, have lunch, and then I interview "whoever shows up."

The interviews are free wheeling, accompanied by noisy restaurants, clinking cutlery, and occasional jokes that some might find bizarre, even offensive.  I'm not sure how much of that to change, cut out, or leave in - as the raw nature of these conversations are part of the unusual investigations I'm doing.

For example, most people prefer to have their music recorded on a sound stage in a quiet setting, so they can really hear the music - I'm a guy who likes the raw open air sound of people performing in their natural setting.  In my CD of the Nechung Monks I recorded them live in a temple. You can hear birds chirping, clocks ticking, monks pouring tea. The quality of the sound includes all the other prayers done in the same place.  

But I understand why we have microphones isolate so we can hear dialog. Robert Altman was a fan of overlapping sound - some people found it crazy making - but others found it liberating. Our ears are always being inundated with sound, and it's part of our own filtering that allows us to focus on one voice at a time.

But back to my dream.

I asked this boy what his name was. He laughed. "Let's call me "Zero" as I don't really have one."  I said "Zero? That's an odd thing to call you, it's not really a name."  He smiled and said "Right."  

So Zero.  Nice to meet you.  It may very well have just "been a dream."  But it also may have pointed to something more profound than any dream - those that are with us, part of our journey, are never not part of our journey.

I'm continuing my research as best I can, and that new research will go into the book "The Afterlife Expert." Thanks for tuning in.

Map of Heaven

Great book!

Dr. Eben Alexander, MD uses his background in science to explain post materialist theory and its roots in quantum mechanics. He explores his own profound near death experience, and combined with letters from his readers, shows how their accounts echo accounts back to Plato and Aristotle. 

Fun to see him cite Dr. Bruce Greyson's contribution to the NDE field, mentions Roger Ebert's "It's all an elaborate hoax" comment (as do It's aWonderful Afterlife: Further Adventures in the Flipside Vol 1 and Vol 2) and an introductory quote on "how to navigate the afterlife." 

Glad to see we're on the same page, albeit different paths!

  (On sale at B&N for $6)

The Map of Heaven: How Science, Religion, and Ordinary People Are Proving the Afterlife Paperback – October 7, 2014