Cecil the Lion and the Flipside

There's a passage in "It's a Wonderful Afterlife" where a spirit guide is being asked a question that one of the people in the book posed as a question.  "What's the meaning of "the shift?"   

She asked the question half in jest, as she didn't believe she would get anywhere in her session, as she didn't believe in an "afterlife" or wherever the hell it was that people were claiming to go to speak to "wiser souls" that seemed to answer the deeper questions we have in life.

And her spirit guide said something to the equivalent of "You humans think that by naming something you'll get a better handle on it.  In terms of the cosmos, the "shift" has very little meaning, but if you want to understand a shift in consciousness, imagine yourself a crab walking on the ocean floor and you open your eyes and realize you're in an ocean."

This little fella is a ghost crab. Hmm. Aptly named?

I'm paraphrasing.  That came from my notes while I was filming the session.  My friend, who has worked on a few film blockbusters in the past, didn't believe a word I'd told her about this research into what people say under deep hypnosis about the afterlife.  She agreed to do a session because she had an upcoming surgery, and had heard that "hypnosis" could be beneficial.  (The surgery went fine, she's okay.)

I drove her out to Scott De Tamble's office in Claremont ("Lightbetweenlives.com") and Scott took her on a successful journey (I've filmed 25 with him, all successful journeys) where she not only saw a lifetime she had lived previously, naming towns and locations that I was able to find through searches, but she also described in detail this "between lives" realm where she met up with her soul mates, pals and others, including this kind of curmudgeon of a spirit guide, who felt her questions might have been lightweight.  After all, you get to a point where you can ask about anything in the universe, and your question is "what's the meaning of "the shift" in terms of new age concepts?

Amusing that he lumped us into the "you humans" part of the equation, but it brings to mind this tragic killing of the lion known as Cecil.

Of course that's not his name, Cecil is a name given to him by humans to examine him, "as if that would give us a better handle on him."  I too agree with the sentiments of Jimmy Kimmel, who eloquently put this man's journey to Africa in perspective, calling him out for some kind of mental or physical deficiency that made him want to populate his "man cave" with the bodies, skins and heads of animals. (Also agree that everyone should donate something in Cecil's name at wildcru.org)


Lest we forget: 100 years ago this dentist fellow would have been given a parade down main street.  Less than 50 years ago, he would have been in the pages of National Geographic, lauded for his "humane" hunting skills.  What a difference a few decades make - and a few pages on social media.

This dude is not a dentist methinks.

  Now we have dear heart Mia Farrow posting the fellow's address. The head of PETA calling for his "hanging" - and numerous others calling for his execution.  Preferably in Place de la Concorde where they used to take bourgeois pigs to administer justice.  And when someone does hunt down this dentist, put his head on a stake, quite a few people would say "well, I thought he should be punished, but maybe not that punished."  It's clearly a "Lord of the Flies" moment, when we use social media to "Kill the pig, drink his blood!"

I'm not mitigating any of this.  I don't believe in hunting animals for sport.  I do my best to feed our kids organic food from farms where I can only believe their inserts that the animal I'm eating was humanely treated. (Again with the humane label.  You think the animals are walking around saying "Well, Joe, at least you're going to be killed humanely.  I'm just going to be hit by a Vespa.")

From the New Yorker

So in the desire to take the bows and arrows out of the hands of those about to hunt this fellow down, and perhaps to disarm some of the bows and arrows of those who feel the need to hunt - it's a simple question; "So why are you on the planet?"

It's not a hard question.  And when people get the opportunity to answer it - either during a near death experience, or perhaps under deep hypnosis, or even via communication with those no longer on the planet - the answers are always interesting.

Everyone, according to these reports, has a reason or multitude of reasons why they chose to be on the planet.  Some to work out issues from previous lifetimes, indeed, and many who agree to come here to help out others during their journey here.  I don't know the reason behind this dentist's journey here - perhaps it was to fix a lot of teeth, and kill a handful of animals - but there's also the possibility that he agreed to come here to raise the consciousness of the planet.

Because you see, his one act of brutality - allowing these hunters to lure the lion out of its sanctuary, shooting him with a bow and arrow, not killing him, then hunting him for 40 hours and "taking" him... that may have been done with the desire to teach the planet a lesson.

Let's start with this.  We don't die.  Cecil is not dead. We will not be dead.  We will go on.

Wait, what?

This is what this research shows.  Thousands of cases, and the 25 I've filmed, as well as examining reports from near death experiences and people speaking to those who are no longer on the planet - well, they all say the same danged thing. 

We don't die.

So if you start there - we don't die. Cecil didn't die.  Cecil (for lack of a better name, and it's not his name, but one given to him by dudes at Oxford - who deserve our help and support - if you can donate to them at wildcru.org in Cecil's name) has gone back "home."  He'll be there with his friends and loved ones, the folks who went before him, and will reconnect to see what his next lifetime is going to be.

Because that's how it works.  It's not my philosophy or belief in how it works - its what people consistently report how it works.  It's what people report the architecture of the afterlife actually is.  That we don't die - our physical bodies do - but our spirits, or souls, or energy pattern - whatever you prefer, does not.  And according to these reports, it melds back with our loved ones and together we work on what our next adventure is going to be.  

Home.  (Home?) "Home."

Somewhere along the line this dentist agreed to help heal people, helping them with cavities and other problems (I read it somewhere that dentists have the highest suicide rates - why is that? I don't know) and also agreed to play this role of hunter.  And on some level knew that his hunting was going to affect a shift in consciousness.

Not everyone is going to stop eating meat.  Not everyone is going to stop hunting. But big game hunters who used to post their pix on Facebook and social media will think twice about doing that - as it certainly can be negative on the pocketbook - and perhaps, just perhaps, a person will think twice about taking up the "sport."  Look, racism was once "par for the course." Sexism was once "part of the deal."  "Wanton mistreatment of animals" is also something the planet has dealt with since man climbed down a tree or walked out of the cave.

There is an ecosystem to be sure.  But have humans screwed it up?  Just ask the fish who live near Fukushima. Ask the rhino that has been decimated for it's packed animal hair that becomes horn.  Dogs for lunch? Just ask the Chinese dogs who are decimated as food scraps.  The list goes on and on.  None of us are immune to what we've done to the planet as a species - but there is always hope, because we are sentient beings.  There is always hope for a shift in consciousness that will alter how we view this blue dot that we currently inhabit.

from Oliver Sach's Twitter - the Pale Blue Dot

The good news is that Cecil has returned "home" - just the way the native Americans spoke of the "Buffalo Realm" where the buffalo would return to the loving realm of the White Buffalo before choosing to come back again. Cecil is okay, Cecil is going to be fine.  This dentist, not so much.  He's got a long way to go before he gets to go back home and reap the scorn or the accolades that await him there. 

That's why this research is so fascinating from the standpoint of perspective.  Did the dentist sign up for a lifetime where he could bring this kind of sport to an end?  If so, then we should applaud him.  But there's no way of knowing that - as much as we might want to judge him, might want to do the same injustice to him that he's done to other animals - we can't because we aren't in his shoes.  We can't because we aren't part of his soul group.  We don't know why he's a jerk.  But we can isolate him, take him out of circulation, and prevent him from doing this kind of harm to the planet again.  And by doing so, we raise our own awareness of the planet.

After all, and I may sound like a broken record, if what these thousands of people are saying about the journey of souls is true, that we choose our lifetimes, that we come back here at the behest of others, usually to help and take care of others, doesn't it make sense to leave behind a place we might want to return to?  A place with fresh water, air and earth so we can enjoy those things like we have in the past? And let's expand that to include "and a healthy, robust animal kingdom that we can all appreciate?" 

My two cents.

In Honor of Dr. Oliver Sacks and Celestial Music

Dr. Oliver Sacks announced today that he's been told he has months to live, and wrote about it eloquently in The New York Times today.  

"Over the last few days, I have been able to see my life as from a great altitude, as a sort of landscape, and with a deepening sense of the connection of all its parts. This does not mean I am finished with life.

On the contrary, I feel intensely alive, and I want and hope in the time that remains to deepen my friendships, to say farewell to those I love, to write more, to travel if I have the strength, to achieve new levels of understanding and insight.

This will involve audacity, clarity and plain speaking; trying to straighten my accounts with the world. But there will be time, too, for some fun (and even some silliness, as well).

I feel a sudden clear focus and perspective. There is no time for anything inessential...."

Dr. Sacks is one of the pre-eminent brain researchers of our time. ("The Man Who Mistook His Wife For a Hat")

I completely understand his desire to keep his mind focused and his life geared to those things that he considers essential. This is his path and journey, and he's following it exactly as he's planned it.

 I don't know if he's familiar with Dr. Greyson's work at the University of Virginia dealing with consciousness ("Is Consciousness Created by the Brain") or neuroscientist Mario Beauregard PhD's research in neuroscience ("Brain Wars") or Dr. Sam Parnia's recent "Aware Study" results of what people experience while having a near death experience, but if he was familiar with this work, he would have a new appreciation for the facts that show our energy, or whatever it is that animates our bodies, our souls, do not die.

 That the transition to the Flipside is more like leaving a stage, walking through a door, or stepping into a pool of water than whatever's been suggested in the past.

He's got an entirely new adventure to experience ahead of him - and it's not one of dissolution of mind, in fact it's entirely the opposite, reconnecting with our higher selves, where most of our energy resides in this other realm, where he experience all of our lifetimes, and see the nature of reality from a place of full consciousness.  Not omniscience, not all knowing, but certainly more knowing than what we experience here.

But I mention him because in his work he's examined cases of people who hear "celestial music" and he concluded that it's either crytomnesia (hearing it from somewhere else) or hallucinatory. 

 I've found numerous cases of people hearing music during their near death experience, or even during a between life hypnotherapy session - and in some cases, it can be proven that they could not have heard the music or been hallucinating it.

In Mario Beauregard's interview in "It's a Wonderful Afterlife" he cites cases where people have been blind from birth, who had a near death experience, but were able to describe what people were wearing in the hospital room, or what colors they were wearing, even though they should not have been able to.  In like form there are cases where people are deaf and have had a near death experience, and seen or heard things that they could not in their conscious lives.  

At some point you have to allow for the facts as they're presented to speak for themselves.  There are numerous cases of people who have died, meaning no blood going to the brain, where they see or hear events their conscious mind should not be able to.  In Dr. Greyson's talk "Is Consciousness Created by the Brain" he cites cases where people with alzheimers who should not be able to remember anything, suddenly remember with clarity great detail just prior to their passing.  And after death, the autopsies show that their brains should not have been able to access these memories.  

The point being, that the brain appears to function more like a receptor, or receiver of consciousness.  And that reception is not the creator of the music so to speak, but merely accessing it.

The following is an excerpt from "It's a Wondeful Afterlife: Further Adventures into the Flipside" where I talk a bit about "Celestial Music."

There have been numerous accounts of people hearing these dulcet tones, from Beethoven to other classical composers who heard the music running in their head during their waking hours. 

I've spoken with Stuart Sharp, or at least emailed with Stuart, who is cited below as someone who had an experience with celestial music.  He has a pretty amazing story, where the night before the funeral of his son, he had a vivid dream where he was listening to an awesome symphony.  And one of the people he saw in his vision, a guardian angel of sorts, said to him that he needed to remember what he was hearing because one day he would be performing the symphony in front of people.

And the music haunted him so much that he left his job as a cook in a pub in England, and wound up with only a guitar to his name.  One day he was playing some of the music he had heard out in the street as a busker, and someone from the BBC spoke to him about his tune, and Stuart told him the story... and lo and behold, Stuart eventually composed the music and conducted the London Philharmonic playing the song he'd heard in his head.  

The point is, that it was not a hallucination of music he'd heard previously. Oddly enough, Google makes "crawlers" that "crawl through various music posted on line to find the original authors of various compositions - so if what Stuart had heard had ever been performed by anyone else, it would have shown up in their copyright infringement notice.

I've spoken to many near death experiencers who heard "celestial music" during their near death experience.  In my research, I note that when someone hears "new information" from the afterlife, or spirit world - meaning information they could not have learned while being alive, could not have heard or experienced in their journey or path on this planet, then that experience must point to another paradigm at play.  

If you hear, sense, feel or experience something (music, someone telling you something, someone introducing you to a family member you didn't know you had, as in the case of Dr. Eben Alexander, and Colton Burpo, who both met sisters they didn't know existed - could not have known existed) that is new information from the Flipside... then it is proof that there is a Flipside.

 IPSO ERGO FACTO.

Chapter Ten– “Celestial Music”  

“I contemplate the luminous bodies continually revolving within their orbits, the sun, the stars, and then my spirit rises beyond these constellations, millions of miles, to the Source from which all creation flows and from which new creations flow eternally.”   -- Ludwig Von Beethoven

How does music fit into these visions of the afterlife?

During LBLs and NDEs people often report “hearing” music that’s not of an Earthly nature.  In a number of LBLs I’ve heard people report that music and healing come from “related” places in the universe.   But there are many musicians who claim to hear music when composing.

When we study the great composers, like Beethoven, we find that they spoke often of “hearing celestial music.” Oliver Sacks, the renowned scientist, considers this “hallucinatory music.”  As he notes:

True musical hallucinations are experienced by those who have them as unprecedented and deeply disquieting. There is insufficient awareness among physicians of musical hallucinations, in part because patients are reluctant to report them, fearing that they will be dismissed or seen as ‘crazy’. But musical hallucinations are surprisingly common, affecting at least 2% of those who are losing their hearing, as well as patients with a variety of other conditions. Working with a population of elderly patients (though I have seen it in younger people as well), I am often given vivid descriptions of musical hallucinosis, and I think it is by far the most common form of non-psychotic hallucination. I related two stories of musical hallucination in my 1985 book “The Man Who Mistook his Wife for a Hat,” and since then have received hundreds of letters from people with this condition. With musical hallucinations it is common for several voices or instruments to be heard simultaneously, and such experiences are almost always attributed, initially, to an external source. Thus in 1995 I received a vivid letter from June M., a charming and creative woman of 70, telling me of her musical hallucinations:

“…Most of the music I hear is from my past—many of the songs are hymns, some are folk music, some pop up from the forties and fifties, some classical and some show tunes. All the selections are sung by a chorus—there is never a solo performance or any orchestration. This first started last November when I was visiting my sister and brother in law in Cape Hatteras, NC, one night. After turning off the TV and preparing to retire, I started hearing ‘Amazing Grace.’ It was being sung by a choir, over and over again. I checked with my sister to see if they had some church service on TV, but they had Monday night football, or some such. So I went onto the deck overlooking Pamlico Sound. The music followed me. I looked down on the quiet coastline and the few houses with lights and realized that the music couldn't possibly be coming from anywhere in that area. It had to be in my head.”

It was not clear why June M. started to have musical hallucinations, or why she still has them, 11 years later. She has excellent hearing, is not epileptic, has no known medical problems and is intellectually quite intact. With her, as with many other patients, the most searching examination may fail to pinpoint the cause of musical hallucinations…” [1]

There is another possible explanation for the source of her music that Dr. Sach’s hasn’t explored: that it is not created by her mind.

A speaker can sometimes pick up the vibrations from other sound waves and reproduce them, but the sound is not being created by the speaker. Sometimes our radio picks up bursts of short wave radios from police scanners, but it’s not that the announcement is created by our stereo.

In Eben Alexander’s NDE he heard “celestial music.”  “I heard… the richest, most complex, most beautiful piece of music (I’ve) ever heard.” It’s also one of the hallmarks of NDE’s according to Bruce Greyson’s research.

“As a high school student, Burt Bacharach always had trouble getting to school on time: he couldn't sleep at night because he kept hearing music in his head. Throughout his life, Bacharach would never stop hearing music, because for him music would always be about sounds rather than ideas.” [2]

In David Bennett’s interview (“Voyage of Purpose”) he talks about hearing a “canyon of sound” during his NDE.  He gives specific details on what that music sounds like. 

Pete Townshend, legendary member of the band, The Who, heard celestial music as an 11 year old boy. “Townshend tells of hearing the music while on a boat with his Sea Scout troop. “I heard violins, cellos, horns, harps and voices, which increased in number until I could hear the threads of an angelic choir. It was a sublime experience. I have never heard such music since and my personal music ambition has always been to rediscover that sound and relive its effect on me.”[3]

Stuart Sharp heard celestial music when he was a young man. The experience was similar to Townshend’s: he first heard the angelic orchestra in a dream as a boy in 1956. Years later he heard it again after his baby son Ben died at birth. He explains: “In my dream I was back at Ben’s graveside staring down at his tiny white coffin. I heard distant angelic music with choirs, violins, cellos, horns and harps that grew in intensity and I gasped as Ben’s spirit rose slowly through the coffin. I couldn’t bring myself to see him in the mortuary. I didn’t have the courage.”

He was so haunted by the music he quit his job as cook in a Leicestershire country pub, left his wife and two daughters and moved to London and into a homeless shelter. He taught himself to play music after he bought a battered guitar from a second-hand shop which, by an amazing co-incidence, happened to be owned by Townshend’s parents. Eventually Stuart Sharp met someone who was moved by his story and helped him record with the London symphony – the result is an orchestral piece called “Angeli Symphony.”[4]

I’ve found other accounts, just from searching them out on the internet. From the NDE of “Jeanette Mitchell-Meadows”: “When I went for surgery the operation took nine hours. During the operation my spirit left my body, in the time it takes to blink an eye, I was in Heaven and saw the light of Heaven… There were musical notes I have never heard on Earth.  They were so clear and flawless, and the tone was so beautiful.  It is the most wonderful place to be. [5]

Or the account of an NDE from Canadian musician Gilles Bedard: "All day long, I went in and out of a coma… Then I saw myself from the ceiling. I was nine feet higher than my body and I was looking down at the people around me.... My vision expanded and I went into a place like a cosmos where there were twelve people standing in a half-circle. They were all pure white lights and they had no faces. I somehow knew these people although they weren't family or people I could recognize. It was as if they were waiting for me. I asked them what was happening, and they told me, 'You are not going to die. You are going back to Earth. You have something to do.' I asked them what it was, and as soon as I asked it was as if I knew the answer… What I remembered most is the music I heard when I was out of my body. It was fascinating.[6]

---

ref-[1] “The Power of Music” by Oliver Sacks. Oxford Journals Brain Volume 129.

ref-[2] “Self-Portrait of an Experimental Songwriter” David Galenson, Huffington Post 2-19-14

ref-[3]“Who I am: a Memoir” by Pete Townshend Harper, 2013

ref-[4] “Homeless man turns haunting noises in his head into symphony” The Express May 2, 2013

ref-[5] http://www.bibleprobe.com/mitchell-meadows.htm

ref-[6] Gilles Bedard's Near-Death Experience and Music Research by Kevin Williams  http://www.near-death.com/music.html

excerpt from "It's a Wonderful Afterlife: Further Adventures Into the Flipside" Volume One.  All Rights Reserved. Copyright Richard Martini 2014.