James Van Praagh speaking to Luana Anders

Luana in a mirror of a mirror. Hello Lu.

In case folks missed it, some years ago I was producing segments on the Charles Grodin show. Chuck was best friends with Luana Anders, and she introduced us. He and I became pals and he's the godfather to our children... and when Luana passed away, Charles called me up and invited me to come and work for him on this show. 

Charles Grodin
from his CNBC days

I had seen James on CNN, and suggested that Chuck invite him onto the show (for two appearances.)  I've never met James in person, although I have seen him in person - but at this point, I wondered if it was possible for James to communicate to Luana (who had appeared in my dreams at this point as a younger woman.)

Charles is an equal opportunity skeptic - he has always suggested that we let evidence speak for itself. That being said, he was the person who initially turned me on the work of Robert Monroe and out of body experiences.  But in this case, he did not believe or disbelieve that James could speak to the afterlife, but invited him on at my suggestion.

We devised an experiment.  I would call in from my home and pretend to be an average caller - Charles arranged with a producer on the show to take my call, but she had no idea why I would be calling.  So live on the air, Charles took my call, pretended not to know me (and there was no interaction with James prior or after the call about this conversation with Luana) and the following is what occurred.

In the call, she refers to a few things in my apartment including my cocktail glass collection (my last name engenders gifts that are Martini glasses of all shapes and sizes.)  But there's a moment in this clip when I realized beyond any shadow of doubt that James could speak  to our departed friend - further that our departed friend was "still alive" - as she had to have been "over my shoulder" when I put the only photograph of her on the refrigerator and said aloud "Oh, look, the essence of our relationship. Cappuccino's and cookies in Italy."  Laughter as well. Lots of laughs.

Here's the photo that was on the fridge. The only time in my life I've spoken to a photograph as I put it up.

"The essence of our relationship."

Here's the moment when James Van Praagh connected to her.



People still exist who are not on the planet.  It's up to us to figure out a way to communicate with them.

https://youtu.be/TmvZdWK0H0U

Charles Grodin, James Van Praagh and the Flipside

Mom, me, and Luana in Roma circa 1986

Some years ago (1996) I was invited by Charles Grodin to appear on his talk show as a "Hollywood Correspondent" - the joke was that he would say "Here's our Hollywood Correspondent with the latest news" and I would appear on screen bragging about all the Hollywood gossip I had discovered.  

Charles would frown with disdain, (he loathes Hollywood gossip) and ask me what movies I had seen - and basically I would blather about celebs, string nonsense together - I actually never had any gossip, or any real stories to tell. If I "went to a screening with Tom Hanks" it was because I was sitting in the back row. 



Charles' pal Elaine May called him up and said she thought the bit was hilarious, but other people (like my mom) were wondering why "Charles was so mean to you."  So he brought me on to explain the bit - as well as tell a story about my first audition for an agent. (A positive review from Elaine May is worth its weight in gold.)

Here's one of the clips with me as Joe Hollywood.

CHARLES WITH MEDIUM JAMES VAN PRAAGH

In the following clip, this was the moment that I realized that people don't "die" that "life goes on."  It's the kind of thing that is unique to the person experiencing it. One tends to have epiphanies alone.  

In my case, I was producing segments for the Grodin Show for six months, had seen James Van Praagh on CNN, and since our mutual friend Luana Anders had passed away a couple of years earlier, I suggested that Charles bring him on and see if he could speak with her.  

Charles is an open minded skeptic - neither believing or disbelieving - but allowing people to share their experiences. He notes that in this clip.

Luana Anders in a mirror in Rockefeller Plaza

In my case, when Luana passed away, I put a photograph on my refrigerator and said aloud "Well, that's the essence of our relationship. Laughing while having cappuccinos and cookies in Rome."  We spent a lot of time laughing when she was still on the planet.

However, fans of Flipside will know that since this show - in 1998 or 1999 perhaps - she had started to visit me from the other side.  And in this case, I was no longer on the show as a segment producer (he had moved from CNBC to MSNBC) and I called in from Santa Monica - Charles arranged with the producer to give me a direct line to call in - but no one knew I was going to be calling in but Charles and the producer.

James Van Praagh, here with medium Tony Stockwell
(who appears in "Architecture of the Afterlife"

In this example, James talks about a couple of things that are absolutely verifiable. 

This photograph that I put on the refrigerator - there was only one photograph of me and her, and when I put this one up, said that sentence aloud.  "The essence of our relationship" - and I know I've never spoken aloud to a photograph before or since. So when James referred to the photograph - there was only one photo on the planet he could have been referring to. THIS ONE:

The essence of our relationship

The other thing was my Martini glass collection.  

That is - everyone gives me one on my birthday or some other occassion - and I have quite a few from around the globe.  So when she refers to my "cocktail glass" collection, she's specifically giving James Van Praagh an image that will get me to say "Martini glasses."  Even though James TO THIS DAY doesn't know my last name or that I was calling in on the show.

But this kind of thing is subjective. For me it was evidentiary. For others they may imagine it something else. They can parse the idea, try to explain it away  but I left in the part of the clip where Charles confirms it was accurate.  

And this moment turned my life in another direction - if it was possible for her to "visit me" or to "appear on the Charles Grodin show" with her old friend Charles (they appeared in "Sex and the College Girl" together decades earlier and remained lifelong best pals.)

For me, her showing James the photo and the cocktail glass collection was absolute proof that she still existed.

And if she still existed, then how could I go and seek her out?  Since then I've written 8 "best selling" books  (kindle in their genre) about our journey - the new book "Architecture of the Afterlife" mentions her, and the latest book with Jennifer Shaffer, Luana "writes" the forward.  Because she can communicate with us, and does so EVERY WEEK.

With Jennifer Shaffer

Every week for the past five years I meet up with Jennifer Shaffer (a medium who works with law enforcement agencies nationwide, has assisted in a case with Bill Bratten (former NYPD commissioner) and Jennifer and I have been demonstrating for five years that it's possible to speak directly to our loved ones on the flipside.

Our new book - written the help and assistance of Luana - who is outside of time, is in "Backstage Pass to the Flipside 3". 


Luana is our moderator on the flipside, and she is referenced often on our Podcast (HackingTheAfterlife.com) and in the Video Clips (MartiniZone.com)

It's funny - I gave these VHS tapes to someone at a local college - it took him two years to get around to them. And today I'm finally putting up to clips.

Enjoy. 

My Life After Life

At the tail end of the "coast to coast" broadcast, I mentioned a book called "My Life After Life" - I'm mentioning it again because of an email I read the other day regarding the book.

Galen's book

It was written by Galen Stoller - a 16 year old boy who passed away a few years ago.  His father, a pediatrician, had a friend who is a psychic and he reached out to her to see if he could contact his son.  He did.  And the son suggested to his dad that he "write a book."  So the dad set about writing one - and after a year admitted that he just couldn't finish it.  The son said "No dad, not a book about you - a book about me, written by me."

So they set about doing so.  He channeled what his son was experiencing in the afterlife and wrote it down.  It's a vivid pretty mind blowing vision of what happens when we die.    I become interested in the book when I read about classrooms in the Afterlife that Galen was attending.  For those of you who've read "Flipside," these classrooms are reported quite a bit - and have been reported in James Van Praagh's book "Talking to Heaven" and other places.  In the film "Flipside" I recount my own between life session where it felt like I visited a couple of these classrooms.

I also wanted to know if the father (or the son) had known about reports of classrooms in the afterlife from any afterlife research - the father told me that he hadn't, nor had his son.  The accounts of these classrooms is pretty uniform - what I've gathered from my own research is that they are usually classes in energy transference - I visit two such classrooms in "Flipside" but from the point of view of an interloper - in Galen's case, he's a student in one of the chairs in his own classes.

But something happened the other day that will give this account further resonance.  The father got an email from a woman in St. Louis whose husband died.  They'd spent 50 years together and were very close.  She has a friend who is a medium, and the medium offered to contact her husband for her.  In the session, the husband said "there's a boy over here, his name is Galen and he's written a book. It has a red cover and a picture of Galen on the cover. I think it would help you understand what its like over here."

In her own words:"I first heard about Galen’s book from my husband, who is on the other side.  I was having a reading and (my husband) started describing a book with a red and green cover and gave the title.  The reader (medium) hadn’t heard about it because it had just been published.  I got the book, read it as fast as I could.  it is a beautiful book.  Then the next reading I had with my husband, we discussed it.  He wanted me to have more insight into what it was like where is now, although he stressed that it wasn’t just Galen’s environment but close... I asked him if he knew Galen and he said no, but the book was known there." -- 

The medium says she'd never heard of the book or the title.  The father had just self published it, so it wasn't widely known.  But the deceased husband said "I'm not in the same place as Galen, but his book accurately describes the journey and passage here."  The woman wrote to Galen's dad to thank him for publishing this book - which her husband had led her to.

For me, I'm happy to know that our work - here or there - can be observed or examined.  Wow. Perhaps bookstores over there are doing better than they are over here!