Showing posts with label aretha franklin. Show all posts
Showing posts with label aretha franklin. Show all posts

Friday

ADDICTION AND THE FLIPSIDE

 

ADDICTION AND THE FLIPSIDE

Richard Martini
3 min read

Addiction and the Flipside.

We did not plan for this episode. But our moderator on the flipside, Luana Anders clearly did, and brought a number of people to chat about it.

She said she wanted to discuss the process of addiction.

Elvis came to give his two cents about it. About how wanting to escape from reality comes from the idea that one is unloved, or suffering. Points out that in his life, he didn’t realize that he was causing others to suffer — and yet he now regrets having done so.

Janis Joplin came through to talk about her addictions — and how trying to escape from reality “was an illusion.” She offers that “escaping from the illusion of reality” — meaning becoming aware that one is onstage during their lifetime, creating a reality, and that by trying to escape from the reality they created for themselves, they lose the connections to others.

Then Aretha came through to say “everyone has addiction in their family.” She pointed out some of the smaller ones, like being addicted to soft drinks, or other vices that people have — that’s another form of addiction. And how everyone has a family member that suffers from addiction, so can be more empathetic about it.

Then Junior Seau showed up to talk about how addiction affects the brain in a similar manner to CTE (which he took his own life over). How the “hits to the head” cause the CTE, but the addiction is like taking “hits to the head.” Then he made the statement that the same therapy that cured Joe Namath from his CTE (which he’d come through to tell us before and is in the film TALKING TO PAUL ALLEN, JUNIOR SEAU AND DAVE DUERSON on Youtube for free) — he said that “oxygen therapy for the brain will help with the treatment of addiction.”

That may be a known fact — I don’t know. But it certainly bears looking into. I just hope people remember where they heard it — from Junior Seau on the Flipside.

Finally Anthony Bourdain came through and talked about how his use of heroin as a youngster had robbed him of the ability to experience joy, which contributed to his leaving the planet early. He expresses remorse for that — as noted he’s come through often on our podcast, and is always hilarious- but in this case, he reiterates how meditation can help people to survive being on the planet, but emphatically argues that “rehab” and “detox” are blips on a person’s time line. That they should have no fear of doing so, that they should say “fuck it, I’m going to do this” as well as to love oneself enough to care to fix the problem.

That was his “mic drop moment” which ends the podcast.

Again — no planning was done between Jennifer and I, the comments are so out there, so profound, so beyond any scope of theory or belief that either I or Jennifer could invent, and anyone who is a therapist, or interested in the subject of addiction should take a lesson.

Finally, I asked Anthony to ask someone in our class a question, and the one he asked them is “what’s the one thing that would have stopped you from being caught up in addiction?” and they all answered with the same word.

“Love.”

Mind bending to hear, mind bending to report.

Jennifer can be found at JenniferShaffer.com, the podcast is HACKING THE AFTERLIFE on itunes, the forum is HACKING THE AFTERLIFE on Quora, the website is HackingtheAfterlife.com and the film is on Amazon HACKING THE AFTERLIFE.

It’s an hour long podcast today, but is worth listening to by anyone.

Wednesday

Proof of the Afterlife from the Queen of Soul


Proof of the Afterlife from the Queen of Soul

Aretha Franklin 1968.jpg



Aretha in Billboard 1968. Wikimedia.

I began interviewing people on the flipside with the help of Jennifer Shaffer (who works with law enforcement cases nationwide) a few years ago. We hear all kinds of unusual information in these "chats with the flipside" - if someone comes forward and asks me to "pass along some information" to their loved ones, I do my best to do so.

The first people we interviewed I put in "Hacking the Afterlife"  but then once we began to "talk to" friends of mine who had passed away, a number of them brought their friends - and those friends brought their friends - our "group chats" can get pretty crowded.  

Luana Anders, our moderator (in Dementia 13)
But as noted, my friend Luana Anders (who is on the flipside) is our moderator, and the keeper of the "backstage passes" for purposes of our discussion.
(Actually it was Tom Petty (someone I never met) who dubbed her as the "person with the clipboard behind the velvet rope who has the backstage passes." Hence the title to the book "Backstage Pass to the Flipside: Talking to the Afterlife with Jennifer Shaffer.")

For example, Bill Paxton came forward to speak to us shortly after his passing (as well as two other mediums that I know) and there's a film on Gaia (the sound was poorly mixed, apologies, so they're replacing it as we speak) where I highlight excerpts from three different mediums who spoke directly to my old friend Billy, including Jennifer.  Viewers can see Jennifer on camera realizing who "Billy" is - as she didn't know who she was talking to until he showed her a visual of himself going to view the Titanic.



All three mediums gave the same answers to the same questions I asked him - and since I'd known him since both our careers began, I was able to verify the details he was giving. So thank you Billy and Happy Birthday (May 17th.)  

If anyone would like a taste of what it's like to "talk to" and "get answers" from a friend on the flipside, the film "Backstage Pass to the Flipside: Talking to Bill Paxton" will be uploaded in a few days (again apologies for the "overmixed" version). 



Now, on to other flipside matters.

After Aretha Franklin passed, she "showed up" during one of our interviews.  

Jennifer Shaffer's pic taken by Dave Chappelle

After her passing, Aretha appeared to Jennifer in our "class" which is attended by friends of mine who are on the flipside, and then friends of friends (including Ray Charles who was in my film "Limit Up" as I worked with him) and there are other members of our class who are "friends" of hers (Sydney Pollack, who directed "Amazing Grace"), and those friends of hers invited her.  However she wasn't prepared to "speak" with us when Jennifer first saw her. So I invited her to "take a seat" and observe what people were doing, and encouraged her to speak up if she wanted to at a later time.  


                                   My film where Ray Charles plays God and
                                   Danitra Vance is a guardian angel

I am aware that the process they go through to communicate is "complex" like higher math, and in order for them to do so, they require the same kind of focus and concentration that Jennifer Shaffer does when she does a session.  So by suggesting Aretha "take a seat" is to suggest that they can observe the process of "lowering their vibration" to be able to "talk" or "send images" to a medium.  It apparently is something that has to be learned or observed.  

By the end of our session, she wanted to say something. 

From "Amazing Grace" Warner Bros.

This was filmed with Jennifer Shaffer on 8-24-18 My questions are in italics, Jennifer's replies are in bold.

Rich: Does Aretha want to talk to us?
Jennifer: Yes. She says “She’s having a blast, she’s having so much fun... I feel like she’s still learning... how to learn how to heal herself... I felt her doing that. Does she have a sister? I feel like she’s up there with her... there are two up there with her... one is... down here?
(Note: All of her sisters have crossed, but she may be referring to someone who “feels like a sister” as she says later.)

Rich: I read that she didn’t leave a will. 

Jennifer: She says “She does have a will but they don’t know where it is.” "It's not with an attorney....  No, they won’t know where it is. It it feels like one of her sisters does, or someone who is like a sister to her." “She won’t know (where it is) but she will know...” She’s explaining that she won’t know... but that she should know...
What’s her name (who should know)?
Something with an S.

Okay, you want me to write about this?
She wants you to write about it... (Jennifer aside) I can’t believe I’m talking to Aretha! I just have to go with it. I’ve never heard her voice up close.  She’s putting me in a sweat... Hold on. She says “She wants to go back to the will. Feels like it’s in a house back in the 1980’s.”

(Note: It was found in a house in Detroit. I don't know who owns it or when she lived in it.)

Rich: So is it in a computer, in a file somewhere that’s named “will?”
Jennifer: I asked her: “Is it supposed to be found?” I’m getting it might never be found. She says they’re “still not looking in the right place.”

(Note: I suggested it was a file - typed up - not Jennifer. Typed onto a computer, as I was misunderstanding what she was saying was it was an old "file" - I was thinking efile).

Things could change...
I think they’re going to find something – and (then) I think it’s going to be contested... Hold on. She keeps showing me Whitney Houston. (Listens) She says she had a great love for Whitney, felt like she felt a great responsibility for Whitney – I don’t know.
Okay, I’ll look that up.


(Note: I did. Aretha was very close with Cissy Houston, Whitney’s mom, and took care of Whitney often. (Did not know that, nor was Jennifer aware of it). They were very close, and Whitney's bio says they spent a lot of time together. Not something I knew, or that Jennifer could have known. I asked her where the will might be - and she had a hard time describing it to us.  "Locked away" in a place "where no one knows it is" but in a file "with other items" etc. Reportedly Aretha didn't own a computer or ever wrote on one.)

Rich: You did say a girl with the name S has your will. Who is that?
Jennifer: Did she have a daughter?
I don’t know – I don’t think so.
It feels like (a daughter named) Shannon. Shaneen... or Shawna?

(Note: The name was "Sabrina." When the film "Amazing Grace" came out, I looked up who was involved with Aretha's estate.  It turns out Ms. Sabrina Owens, her niece was unanimously appointed to be executor. I reached out to Ms. Owens and she said "Aretha didn't own a computer so this couldn't be her."  However, she offered that it wasn't that she didn't believe in the afterlife, she wrote that since her mother (Aretha's sister) had passed, she felt she was around her often.)

Filmed in April, 2019

Hello Jennifer. Class. 
I’ve got goose bumps.
I was just talking about how I reached out to Aretha’s niece Ms. Owens, how she wrote me back. Aretha, can I ask you some follow up questions? You told us the will was written in 1982. What did you mean by that? Was it typed up in 1982?
It was handwritten in 1979 feels like.
Did someone else write it, like a secretary?
She wrote it.

(Note: Some of the details were inaccurate - like it being written in 1982 or 1979. According to the NBC report below, it was written in 2010. However that doesn't mean she didn't write it earlier as well.)  Jennifer is just responding to what she's seeing or being given. I try to include both the inaccurate and accurate details - everything is subject to interpretation. The 1982 may refer to another document.  When something is inaccurate, that allows people to "toss everything out" - which may be the best for them, but doesn't eliminate the many details that are accurate.)

I wrote to your daughter, (Aretha's sister's daughter).
“Thank you.”
Are you aware of what I wrote to her?
“Yes.”
So is it accurate? What did we get wrong?
The typewriting thing...

(Note: I wrote about it being "typed up" which is inaccurate.  So it's like she was corrected that part of it. It was handwritten.)

The will?
It was written in 1979 – it felt like her dad was present...
Maybe her secretary or his secretary typed it up?
I feel like it was handwritten.
By who?

Aretha.

(Note: Her dad being present could have been him "from the flipside" as well.)

Who... has this document? Is this someone in your family...?
“Someone in her family,” she says.
Would your daughter Sabrina know who this is?
“Yes.... They don’t know that they have it but they do.”
So it’s in a two story house, upstairs?
Feels like it’s in an office.
Is it a female or male who owns this house?
Female.
Is it in a filing box or a cabinet?
In a little box.
Are there other things in the box?
Yes, newspaper clippings. I saw like old newspaper clippings.
Okay, that’s pretty specific. Anything you want me to tell your daughter, Sabrina?
She blew (her) a big kiss. Now she’s showing me a ring.
Is it Aretha’s ring or her mom's ring?
It’s Sabrina’s ring – she says it’s a ring that Sabrina has that she should clean and wear.
Is this a ring Aretha gave to her Sabrina's mom? Or that you used to wear?
She gave it to Sabrina... gave the ring to Sabrina.  But it was originally Aretha’s. 

(Note: Ms. Owens says she has a number of rings from her aunt Aretha.  Her email mentions that she knows her mother is watching over her, and that she often reaches out to her for guidance (and helps her finding things "as a result of asking"). Ms. Owens says she knows our "loved ones stick around to guide and protect us," but did not believe the information provided by the medium was accurate." She says she was not surprised to find the wills where they were, or that the wills were handwritten - as Aretha was "old school." I mention this to point out that I'm not claiming that we helped her find the will - we did not - but we did pass along accurate information to her.)

Jennifer Shaffer in action

So - let's put it this way.  This post is a litmus test for people about the flipside.  

I contend that the research demonstrates that "life goes on, that are loved ones are like butterflies while we focus on the chyrsalis" and many of us are not open to the idea that life goes on, or that we can communicate with our loved ones (who are the butterflies in this analogy while we remain the caterpillars).  

In some cases, they're "open" to the idea that their loved ones guide them, but not open to the idea that the conversation can be as direct as we are doing.  And I respect that as well, because it's not up to me to change anyone's idea or opinion about anything.

However, there are some who will see these "edited transcripts" as proof positive that there is an afterlife.  After all, I didn't know she had a niece, didn't know her niece's name began with the letter S or sounded like Shawna; I didn't know that she had a handwritten will, or that she gave anyone a ring ever.  

Yet these were all accurate things that happened.

I do know that I've verified many of the sessions that Jennifer and I have done with those on the flipside, and have written about them (Harry Dean Stanton, Bill Paxton, etc) and this is just one more.  
Partners in chatting to the flipside

We did not find Aretha's handwritten will as directed by Aretha.  But we did learn things that only Aretha knew, that only Aretha could observe, or pass along to us.  It's not my job to convince anyone that there is an afterlife, nor is it Jennifer's.  The reason we do this work is to "open up people's minds to the possibility that there is an afterlife."


Here's the article from NBC's website:

"Aretha Franklin's handwritten wills, if real, shed light on a titanic — and complicated — life..."

Image: Aretha Franklin performs at New York's Radio City Music Hall

Aretha Franklin at Radio City Music Hall in July 1989. Mario Suriani / AP file

May 21, 2019 

By Alex Johnson

"Representatives of Aretha Franklin's estate and her family have asked a judge to tell them what to do with three handwritten wills found hidden in her home, one of which includes a big surprise.

The wills were discovered May 3 in Franklin's Detroit-area home, two in a locked closet for which the key was hard to find and one in a spiral notebook stuffed under cushions on a sofa, according to documents filed Monday in probate court in Oakland County, Michigan.

When Franklin died in August, lawyers reported that she had no will.

3 handwritten wills found in Aretha Franklin's home
The 16 scrawled pages haven't yet been authenticated as being in Franklin's handwriting, attorneys for Franklin's four sons and the personal representative in charge of the estate wrote. And even if they are real, it's not clear that they're valid, according to the court documents, which ask the judge to sort through it all and determine where to go next..."

Image: Purported Aretha Franklin will
A page from one of three handwritten wills believed to have been left by Aretha Franklin, who died last year.Oakland County, Michigan, Probate Court


Only respect to Aretha and her family and loved ones.  I'm very glad they found a written example of what she wanted to pass along.  And glad to be able to repeat it here.


Harry Dean Stanton and pal.

Finally, last Thursday, I was writing a reply on Quora about "proof of the afterlife."  I pointed out that Harry Dean Stanton had come to a session with me and Jennifer after he passed but before his memorial service.  Harry Dean reported things about who was in the room when he died (a detail I didn't know but later verified) what he said to those people in the room (a detail I didn't know but later verified) and he had specific private messages (about health) to friends of his that were going to be at his memorial service.  I passed those messages along privately and each one of them was startled, as they were absolutely accurate.

But when I sat down to interview Jennifer last Thursday, she said "Harry Dean Stanton is here."  I asked "Why?" She said "it's about something you wrote.  How it reverberates."  I said "That's funny, I was quoting Harry Dean this morning to someone on Quora.  I was telling the story of we had asked Harry what he wanted me to say at his memorial service; "Tell people to believe in the afterlife."

Knowing what a skeptic he was in life, how he was famous for being an atheist who said "nothing happens when we die" ad nauseum, I laughed and said "Harry. None of your atheists friends are going to believe me if I say that at your memorial service."

He said "Then tell them to BELIEVE IN THE POSSIBILITY OF AN AFTERLIFE and then they won't waste any more of their life arguing about it like I did."

Jennifer said "He wants to thank you for posting that."  Okay. You're welcome Harry.


Monday

Amazing Grace, Sydney, Aretha and Dave Chappelle

Image result for amazing grace aretha
Aretha in the film "Amazing Grace" photo Rolling Stone
Run, don't walk to see "Amazing Grace" - the 1972 film that features footage of a live "in church" concert that Aretha gave in 1972 in Los Angeles.

 




"Amazing Grace" is the fourth live album by American singer Aretha Franklin. Released on June 1, 1972 by Atlantic Records, it ultimately sold over two million copies in the United States alone, earning a double platinum certification. As of 2017, it stands as the biggest selling disc of Franklin's entire fifty-plus year recording career as well as the highest selling live gospel music album of all time. It won Franklin the 1973 Grammy Award for Best Soul Gospel Performance.The double album was recorded at the New Temple Missionary Baptist Church in Los Angeles during January 1972. A film documenting the making of the album was set to be released in 1972, but was shelved by Warner Bros. (Wikipedia)

The film has not been seen since it was shot (and directed) by up and coming filmmaker Sydney Pollack.  Sydney had just come off of "They Shoot Horses Don't They?" and have obviously been influenced by the cinema verite' style of shooting. 
Mick's Dad hanging out with his son and me

(Mick Jagger is glimpsed, along with Charlie Watts and Billy Preston, who apparently stopped by while making "Exile on Main Street" but for some reason - none are ever in focus in the film. Every time the camera finds Mick, somehow they can never bring him into focus.) 


Sydney's film "Amazing Grace" is Amazing


Having a dozen or so cameramen filming allowed Sydney to capture the show in its rawness.  I would offer that since he wasn't familiar or used to shooting concert footage, there's some serious gaps in the footage - many out of focus shots, a sparing use of split screen that could have been utilized more often, barely any footage of the band, for example, who are amazing musicians. (Cornell Dupree – guitar, Kenneth "Ken" Lupper – Hammond, Pancho Morales – congas, Bernard Purdie – drums, Chuck Rainey – bass backed by Southern California Community Choir with Alexander Hamilton conducting.)  

But the film was eventually finished by producer Alan Elliott who took it over from Sydney once he passed in 2008.  Aretha blocked it from being shown for reasons unknown (going to court to stop even this version being seen). As a filmmaker, I would guess it is because she looks like she's seriously ill, has a cough - the first night of the two night concert, she didn't crack a smile, and night two she looks a little better, but at one point is literally held in place, (the way FDR was held up for his speeches) by James Cleveland.  


Image result for aretha amazing grace
A still from "Amazing Grace"

It's almost as if she wasn't well enough to be seen performing - and  yet somehow she gives one of the greatest performances of all time. It's as if she channeled this performance from somewhere deep in her soul, but didn't want people to see her that way.

Aretha blocked the showing of this film for most of her life. She's clearly suffering from something; perhaps flu, or a chest cold, and looks absolutely miserable when she takes the stage.  She's resplendent in a white dress covered with sequins - but since they're shooting in an non air conditioned church, everyone is soon drenched in sweat, she has to ask for water, and noisy air cooling fans were not anywhere to be seen. 

The only person who comes to Aretha's physical assistance is her father Reverend Franklin, who at one point mops her face dry while she's singing with her eyes closed.


Image result for aretha amazing grace
Aretha's father mopping her face
But it's the give and take between her and the Reverend James Cleveland that is the heart of the show.  We find out during the second night, that Aretha has been singing and playing with James Cleveland since they were children in Detroit. Aretha is feted by her father, the famous preacher C.L Franklin - who sits on the front row. He admits that Aretha had called him and asked him to come down at the last minute as he reveals he didn't sleep the night before, worrying about what he might say.


Related image
How sweet that sound
The interaction between them is revealing and fascinating - when she attends to him, she's polite, but all business,and makes a point of scraping off a piece of lint on his pant leg.  He's sitting next to a famous singer who is introduced, and at some point during his brief introduction to his daughter, where he recalls Aretha singing when she was 6 or 7 in the living room, and then on tour with him at age 11.  

Even in his speech to his daughter, he can't help but say that she's "borrowed" her talent from others, clearly "learning from James Cleveland" from "Mahalia Jackson," and from "Clara Ward" (the woman sitting next to him, who Aretha "preferred to view strictly as his friend.") Even when her father talks about her, he can't give her the "props" she deserves - (and she fired her father as her manager) it's clear he still can't give her unconditional love.


Image result for aretha amazing grace
Aretha did not want people to see this film, or to see
her in it the way she's depicted.
The good reverend also singles out another singer in the audience, a woman wearing a white streaked hat, who overcome with something... (perhaps a need to share the spotlight) leaps up at one point and storms the stage, only to be tackled by those around Aretha, put back down into a seat (so she can't "interrupt the filming") Perhaps she just wanted to sing along, or dance along - and some folks do get up and dance.


Night two from the film
But none of this takes away from perhaps the greatest filmed recording of a singer at the height of her powers ever made.  

Watching her craft a phrase, is a master class in music - in counterpoint, in harmony, in syncopation, and in soulfulness...  She clearly is one of the greatest singers of all time (as if it needed to be said) but also perhaps the greatest gospel singer of all time. Not only for her ability to craft a song, but for the way she channels what she's singing from somewhere deep inside. 

I've made a point of visiting the Gospel tent in New Orleans whenever I make it to the Jazz Fest and I've heard some of the greats Gospel choirs - but nothing like what is depicted in this film.


Alexander Hamilton leads the choir

She is so raw and real in this film, at one point she is transported - clearly in some kind of zone, where she's singing without even being aware that there is no microphone near her, calling and responding from a place deep within her heart. 


Thankfully James Cleveland moves the mic in front of her. This moment is something to behold - because all of the songs are about where she is now.

On the flipside.


She sings that she longs to be in that place "where there is no age."  She longs to be "back home" where unconditional love exists. She longs to be with Jesus. She longs to be in the light of unconditional love.


She sings it over and over again - but with such ferocity, such tenderness, that the audience is transported to where she is now.  The queen of soul, is also the queen of gospel, and she's also the queen of the flipside.


Jennifer Shaffer and I have interviewed Aretha, as well as a number of her associates and friends on the Flipside. We spoke to Ray Charles (who appeared in my film "Limit Up" playing God) and Ray jokes about how out of focus much of the movie is - "They would have done better to have me shoot it instead!"  (He can joke about that now, because, well - he can SEE the film now.)  

Everyone that is part of our group has weighed in on this film, this performance - "Transcendent" "Why there is a heaven" "Timeless" "Beyond Sound" "Channeling from the Ethers" to "she's why it can be so much fun back home."

Here's an excerpt of the interview that Jennifer and I did which will appear in "Backstage Pass to the Flipside; Talking to the Afterlife with Jennifer Shaffer" (Book Three)



This is a combination of two interviews with Aretha. My comments and questions are in italics, Jennifer’s replies are in bold.  The first was conducted just after her elaborate funeral.

Richard: Does Aretha want to talk to us?
Jennifer: "Yes." She says “She’s having a blast, she’s having so much fun... I feel like she’s still learning how to learn how to heal herself... I felt her doing that. (Listens) Does she have a sister? I feel like she’s up there with her... there are two up there with her... one is... down here?
(Note: All of Aretha's sisters have crossed over, but she may be referring to someone who “feels like a sister” that is still here, as she says later.)
I don't know. I did read that she didn’t leave a will. 
She says “She does have a will but they don’t know where it is.”
It’s not with an attorney?
It’s very old. It could be an old email. Was she married a lot, or did she have a lot of relationships? Five?
(Note: Wikipedia reports she was married twice, but had “five long term relationships.” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aretha_Franklin)

I don’t know.
She’s laughing... she’s trying to give me a timeline.
Roughly what year was your will written?
"1982."
(Note: Asking again, later, she said she hand wrote it in 1979, and that it was later typed up, and remains in a box of "old newspaper clippings" in a distant relatives home)
The person you were married to in 1982 will know where it was or his heirs?
"No, they won’t know where it is." It it feels like one of her sisters does, or someone who is like a sister to her. “She won’t know but she will know.” She’s explaining that she won’t know... but that she should know. It could be like an email archive.
What’s her name?
Something with an S.
(Note: I tracked down this person with an S in her name, who is her niece, and is currently overseeing the estate.) She's telling me she watched over Whitney Houston.
(Note: This is accurate as well, Aretha worked with Dionne Warwick, Mavis Staples, and Cissy Houston, who began singing with Franklin as members of the Sweet Inspirations. Cissy sang background on Franklin's hit "Ain't No Way". Franklin first met Cissy's daughter, Whitney, in the early 1970s. She was made Whitney's honorary aunt and Whitney often referred to her as "Auntie Ree". (Wikipedia)

Okay, you want me to write about this?
She wants you to write about it... (Jennifer aside) I can’t believe I’m talking to Aretha! I just have to go with it. I’ve never heard her voice up close.  She’s putting me in a sweat... Hold on... She says “She wants to go back to the will. Feels like it’s in a house back in the 1980’s.”
Did she write it on a computer and save it? What’s the file called?
“Will.” But it’s not her house.
(Note: I've been told she didn't use a computer. This was written last fall when no will had been found, and Forbes was writing how that is a problem. (Don’t forget to write a will.) https://www.forbes.com/sites/markeghrari/2018/10/16/aretha-franklin-left-an-80-million-estate-and-no-will-heres-why-that-matters-to-you/#39e8c8005375)

Richard: Aretha who was there to greet you when you crossed over?
Jennifer: Prince says he was there (to greet her) with Ray Charles.
(Note: Prince began showing up in our work since “Hackingthe Afterlife.” I directed Ray Charles in a film called “Limit Up” – we talked to him as well (in “Backstage Pass to the Flipside” where he detailed who greeted him when he crossed over.)

Is there anything we should pass along for your friends Miss Franklin?  Or family?
“They’re fine.” (Tell them) “I have no pain.”
Prince has her in his arm and he’s walking her up the aisle.
Anything you want to say about your funeral?
“Extravagant.”
So who greeted you when you crossed over? Prince is telling us he was there, but who were you first aware of?
She just showed me dancing with this guy – he brought her into a memory.
Stevie Wonder said he went to see you before you passed.
“Two days before,” she said.
What did he say to you?
She says that he said “It’s okay, she’s got a lot of friends up there.”
Some of whom are in our class. So Miss Franklin, who have you been visiting with?
"Everyone." (Jennifer aside) They’re all laughing.
There’s a video of you playing “Nessun Dorma” for your granddaughter; quick question, I was wondering if you were you an opera singer in a past life?
"Yes."
What era?
"16th century... somewhere in Paris. And she married somebody Italian."
Let me ask you a musical question, so the coloratura which you had in your voice, which is so unique -- which you carried throughout your life... was that related to your previous lifetime?
“Yes, yep.” She’s showing me, as an example, my work – showing me my brain and what I’m doing here, and how my ability to use this ability to talk to people on the other side is something I’ve carried through all of my lifetimes. Its more accepted now, and I would be struggling now if I hadn’t figure it out.
Is that true most musicians carry their frequency from life to life?
“Yes.”
Who did you admire as a singer or performer?
"Sammy Davis Junior."  Sammy showed up earlier... (he’s) hanging out with Prince.
You know Michael Jackson, don’t you?
She’s like “Of course I did, that’s such a stupid question.” She loved him.
(Note: We talked to Michael later, after the HBO film came out, and his interview was unusually revealing and complex, which I’ll share at a later date.)
What do you want us to pass along to your friends and family?
"They’re still looking for the will." She said “Tell them to breathe.”
You said it was on a computer that your sister once had – all your sisters are on the flipside now.
Then it’s someone who was like a sister to her.
So it’s on her desktop, in a file somewhere that’s named “will?”
I asked her: “Is it supposed to be found?” I’m getting it might never be found. She says they’re “still not looking in the right place.”
Things could change...
I think they’re going to find something – and (then) I think it’s going to be contested...
You met some great singers back in grade school in Detroit... they interviewed Smokey Robinson for example, he was talking about listening to your dad Reverend Franklin on the radio, and when they heard you’d moved into the neighborhood, everyone went to see and meet him.  That’s when he first heard you playing and singing in your home.  Smokey said “her voice never changed; I heard her when he was 5!” What was it like being born into such a famous reverend’s family?
She says “He wanted to change the world like Martin Luther King; it felt like he might have gotten corrupt a little bit – she saw (him do) a lot of things that just didn’t make sense.
(Note: I'm told that Reverend Franklin and Aretha were close, and there's no evidence of any malfeasance or wrongdoing when he managed her career. But as always; "we are just reporting.")
But in terms of choosing the family and neighborhood to be born in...?
“That’s what she charted,” she says. “That was her math.”
(Note: This is consistent in the reports from the flipside that I get from people under deep hypnosis. They claim that we all choose our lifetimes, and work out the “story points” in advance of what we’re going to accomplish, as well as who is going to participate in that journey.  “Charting” is a way of saying “Planning.” The term “math” refers to the complex math involved in having people react at the particular time they’re supposed to, like planning out the math of a pinball game in advance, and already knowing where the ball is going to hit... but that giving it that “extra English” you’re able to influence events.  Not that a lifetime is “locked in stone” or destiny is already planned – because we have free will (to screw things up if we want to) but in general, she’s saying she “did the math” of the equation that would bring her to fame by being born into the family of C.L. Franklin.)

Who was your biggest influence?
“God.”
Okay, but on the planet – that you want to give a shout out to?
He was white – (Jennifer aside) I'm trying to figure out who it is..
A singer?
No.
Producer?
Yes.
From Detroit?
New York. Feels like.  He believed in her and also he kind of saved her from her own family. (Jennifer aside) I don’t know anything about her family.
Who’s the friend from New York?
She’s dancing with him... She met him when she was like 14.  Her dad wanted control over her though, (which caused friction) they reconciled later though.
(Note: If I was to hazard a guess, she would be talking about Columbia record producer John Hammond who signed her after hearing a demo recorded in NY at 16. Her father was her manager at the time. From an interview with John: “I’ve always been a freak for gospel music. So one day a songwriter named Curtis Lewis came in with a demo of about five of his tunes. The third tune was a thing called “Today I Sing the Blues,” and it was just this girl on piano. And I screamed! I said "For Chrissakes who is this?" He said: “She’s a 17 year old girl from Detroit.” And I said "Can she do anything else?" And he said she was a gospel singer who sang with her father’s choir with Sam Cooke.”  That was Aretha.)

Her dad was a nationally famous preacher – who left buffalo and moved to Detroit. I saw her in a show in Pittsburgh once when she had a Charley horse and had to limp offstage.
“Shit happens,” she says.
So what was your favorite song? Everyone asks.
She says “Somewhere over the rainbow.”
That was your favorite song?
She loved the one you mentioned earlier – she showed me that she’s holding a flower (when singing it) That song that you saw her sing (on YouTube), she’s mentioning that.
“Nessun dorma?” Lovely. Kind of a metaphor for the flipside. The lyrics are so amazing.
She’s saying “(the words) they’re so very important.”
It means “No one’s asleep or no one sleeps” in Italian. A metaphor for the afterlife; as “no one dies.”  Nessuno dorma.
She said she had a premonition before that... when she was going to pass.
Luana, is this exciting for you to meet Aretha or have the Queen of Soul in our class?
Luana says, “There is no hierarchy (on the flipside) but she definitely adds spice to the class.”




Well that’s an understatement. And you can say hello to Sydney Pollack; he’s in our class as well. You’re always welcome to chat with us Aretha.  Thanks for coming!

JenniferShaffer.com
Jennifer was at the Chateau Marmont recently when she met Dave Chappelle. Or rather; Dave met Jennifer. When she told him she was a medium, he said (paraphrasing) "There's one person I'm thinking of, that I miss."  Jennifer said "It's Aretha."  He nearly fell over as indeed, that's who he was thinking of.  

She went on to tell him and his associates that they were on their "way to a meeting where it would be decided that they would go to Japan."  They were floored by this detail, as they were on their way to a meeting and had no idea what was in store. Yesterday Jennifer received a text message from one of his associates who was there when they met, who wrote: "We just landed in Japan. And we wouldn't be here if it wasn't for you."


Dave uses Jennifer's camera for a selfie at the Chateau Marmont
You just never know where messages are going to come from. Try to stay open to them.  And whatever you do, run, jump, walk, swim to the theater (or when it's on cable) and see this film about Aretha.  It's the most unbelievable singing I've ever heard.

During our next session, I asked folks on the flipside about who had orchestrated Jennifer's being at the Chateau. We were told it was folks who "hang out there" including one who died there.  So we asked Aretha to weigh on, and what her connection to Dave Chappelle might be and Aretha said she once "sang in his ear."  (I don't know if she literally did this, or he had a dream about it). I asked "What song did you sing to Dave?"   

Jennifer said "She's showing me an image of you playing the piano."  I thought "That's funny - I play, but I don't know any Aretha songs except..." and I said "Does she mean "Amazing Grace?"  And Jennifer tapped her nose; her way of saying "that's it."  

I had uploaded a version of Amazing Grace - based on the original story of the song, how it has a flipside element to it, and posted it on youtube.  By putting an image of me playing the piano in Jennifer's head, I was able to figure out what song Aretha was referring to.  And it happens to share the name of this amazing film.

In the film, Aretha's version of Amazing Grace is so powerful that James Cleveland bursts into tears and has to leave the piano to sob in the seats behind her.  (When he introduces the song, he mentions that when she sang it during rehearsal, he remembered what their lives were like 20 years earlier (1952) when they met. And he's overcome at the impact of her version.) 

She is transcendent when singing this song - as if she is channeling something beyond time and space to accomplish what she does in the film.  

Once you hear her version, you will never hear the song again without thinking of Aretha Franklin.

Image result for aretha amazing grace

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