Surviving Death | Official Trailer | Netflix

Our pal Steph Arnold is featured in this series, and also appears in the book "Architecture of the Afterlife!" 

The Old Guard and The Flipside

Perhaps you've seen the latest film on Netflix starring Charlize Theron.  If not, perhaps shy away from reading this post. It contains spoilers - not about the plot, but about how consciousness works. 



The film is about these "Guardians" who don't know why they're Guardians, don't have a clue as to what makes them Guardians, but in general they keep coming back to the planet.

Like the rest of us. But I digress.

In this story, there's only four that have found each other - there could be more, others may show up willy nilly, no one knows. (It was also the plot of a series I pitched to a number of folks as a series some years ago. The idea based on the old myth that there are "Guardians" who guard the planet at any given time.) 

I first heard the idea from Mr. Spock - that is the actor who played Mr. Spock was talking about it some years ago, this tradition that the Torah talks about "Guardians" who function like "Angels" who walk among us to save the planet.  (At the time, I pitched it to tech companies looking for a series to be played on mobile devices, or to TV entities.) I called it "The 84" - and had an elaborate plot of these "Guardians" saving the planet from rebooting. One company pretended to love it, another pretended to like it, and one other pretended they'd already made it.

I guess I was a bit early on that one.  Or too late perhaps in light of the planet in the midst of rebootage.  But again - I digress.

In the soon to be a series, successful Netflix film "The Old Guard" - it highlights folks who show up on the planet (never die actually) and play these roles over and over again. 

The so called "Archangels"
Oddly enough in "Architecture" there
are four of them mentioned.

Except of course, they took out the messy part about being born and growing up - and just had folks be themselves 100 years ago, a thousand years ago - etc.  Like "Vampires" who never die, except they fight on behalf of "the good."

Guardians of another era.

The show sidestepped "What constitutes fighting for good?" by having the characters offer "Depends on the century."   Sometimes they fight on behalf of "the good" and other times they fight for whomever pays them.

Enter Chiwetel Ejiofor.

Chiwetel Ejiofor (google)

Chiwetel is good and bad in this show. (As a character, he's a great actor.) I got to work with Chiwetel on the film "Salt."  He's a charming Brit who can't resist football. (Torn Achilles during filming forced crew to shoot around his injury. No running, jumping, kicking - scenes designed so he could pretend he was about to do those things.) Not that it affected his acting - he's a consummate actor, and I defy anyone to point out the scenes where he was in pain. (Hint; all of them.)

In "The Old Guard," he's the "bad guy" who realizes that "Andy" (Charlize) has been spotted over the centuries saving people's lives, and each one of those folks goes on to save more lives.  So he's also the good guy.

This details shows up often in the flipside research.

During "the life review" on the flipside, people are often shown these details. A person who insists "they didn't do anything worthwhile" during their lifetime had their guides and teachers show them - "Oh, you remember that kid you saved from the runaway carriage? That kid grew up to be Marie Curie." 

In Michael Newton's "Journey of  Souls" he spoke of a client who recalled being in front of his council going over his lifetime. When asked "Did you help anyone?" He talked about all the charities he contributed to, all the donations he made... and the council member repeated the question. "But did help anyone?"  And this man, who was recalling a wealthy lifetime from the 1920's couldn't think of one.  So they showed him.

Rich fellow recalled a life of ease.

He was on a trolley in a city and he came across a woman who was weeping. She had lost everything was feeling abject and worthless and couldn't help her sobs.  The man put his arm around her and said "Everything is going to okay."  His council then showed him how that simple act had "saved her life" and like a wave of positiveness had healed many other people as well.

In David Bennett's near death experience, which he reveals in his book "Voyage of Purpose" David recalled a life review.  



He was a science officer aboard a ship and drowned for 12 minutes - during that time, before a wave smashed him into a rock and brought him back to life - his guides showed him two events. One of which was a woman who used to come into the store where he worked - a grumpy Gus whom no one could make smile. So he took it upon himself to make her smile - did this thing that went out of his way to bring some joy into this woman's miserable life.  

And he saw how that event had "moved like a wave" through the woman's life, effecting her family and others.  Every act of love we make begets other acts of love. We can't see it - the way that Charlize's "Andy" was not aware of it - but it is there if we want to access it.

How to access the life review without being dead or having a near death experience?

I thought the only logical way was deep hypnosis, hypnotherapy. I recommend finding a hypnotherapist trained at the Newton Institute only because I've filmed so many of them. If one wants to work via Skype, there is a searchable list on their database.  I have worked often with Scott at lightbetweenlives.com - he's a virtuoso at what he does. 

But as demonstrated in "Architecture of the Afterlife" one can access this information without any help at all.  

I demonstrate how just asking someone simple questions can lead to the same information. The results are not the same because hypnotherapy can help and assist people with a host of issues, but just in the simple search for "evidence of the afterlife" - having people who are skeptics, disbelievers suddenly access this information is ringing a gong behind them.

They may not recall how that gong was rung, but eventually the waves of frequency will affect them in ways they've yet to discover.

So - yes, the "Old Guard"  is accurate about the journey. Except the small detail that we all come back, we all choose to come back, we all volunteer to return.  

No, there's no evidence of a squad that is aware of this information.... although one could argue that hypnotherapists are; Dr. Weiss, Michael Newton, Dr. Helen Wambach were all aware of how the process works. Arming them with weapons might not be such a great idea - but at the moment, I'm pointing out that the "backstory" of what happens in the "Old Guard" is related to the research.

That is - that we all reincarnate (if we choose to do so.) We are fully aware prior to incarnation of all of our lifetimes, and the basically blueprint of what we want to achieve or accomplish in this lifetime we've chosen. 

We bring "about a third" of our conscious energy to that lifetime - but the human brain puts up filters around the age of 8 (when the skull hardens, so it's likely a frequency issue) so we aren't aware of this information unless we have a near death event, out of body experience, do guided meditation or hypnotherapy.  Those are all avenues to bypass the filters.

Or one can watch a film like "Old Guard" and consider that it's possible they've been here before, that we've been here before. That the times we experience "deja vu" it's likely related to experiences we've had before in different parts of the planet or even on different planets (See "Architecture of the Afterlife" for an indepth discussion of that.)

Luana is one of my Guardians

It's not my opinion, theory or belief that people say the same things with or without hypnosis about the afterlife. I've been filming them do so for over a decade.  

And thanks to Charlize and company for making a film that puts at least the possibility that life goes on into the zeitgeist. 

My two cents

Flipside and "The Discovery" at Sundance

"How's life with the dead?"

That was a greeting I got this morning.

"Oh, life with the dead is fine, if you mean my daily routine of chasing my tail."

Sundance has a film starring Robert Redford, directed by Charlie McDowell (co-written by Charlie and Justin Lader) that deals with the Flipside.





I haven't seen the film, "The Discovery" and I look forward to seeing it.  From the trailer and online reports, it appears this is a story about a scientist who discovers there is an afterlife.  Mayhem ensues.

From CNET.com: "The Discovery" (Netflix original movie) is set one year after science proves that there is indeed an afterlife. As a result, millions of people around the world commit suicide in order to cross over. The movie follows the scientist who confirmed the afterlife (Redford), his son Will (Jason Segel) and Isla (Rooney Mara), the woman Will falls in love with who has a tragic past."

Charlie's mom is Mary Steenburgen and his dad is Malcolm McDowell.  Mary starred in a film "Going South" with my pal Luana Anders (who as fans of the Flipside books know, is the genesis of my journey into the afterlife - she came back to visit me a number of times after her passing, and since then I've found a way to visit her on the Flipside.  (I'm not kidding. Just read "Flipside")

I met Charlie's father Malcolm McDowell some years ago. My wife and I were invited to dinner with Julian Cerruti and his mom Chantal and Malcolm.  Malcolm was a longtime friend of Julian's dad Nino (the clothing designer, one of the few people I've met on the planet where I felt like I'd known him forever and appears briefly in my film "Cannes Man").  

 For me the dinner was a delight because I've been a fan of Malcolm's work since "If" and "O Lucky Man."  (If you haven't seen the latter, I highly recommend it.)

Younger days. Charlie's pop.

Of course I loved him in "Clockwork Orange" but I wanted to know about "O Lucky Man" - a film I saw in college and wrote a paper about, having interviewed the composer Alan Price backstage in Boston.  The film (edited badly for the US release) was an epic journey in a Voltaire's "Candide" like fashion, where Malcolm plays a man who goes through hell and back to find himself. The extended version is brilliant the music even more so.

Malcolm told me some great stories about the film - for example, I wanted to know why Lindsay Anderson decided to use the same actors for different parts.  It was such a clever choice, almost like seeing reincarnated friends again - and the subtle way in which Malcolm's character in the film did a double take when seeing the same actor (who perhaps died in the previous reel, but was now playing a man servant) again in the story. He said it was just one more example of Anderson's genius (and cost cutting!)

I get a lot of great stories just by asking.

He told me that when he was acting in A Clockwork Orange, he was having a hard time because Kubrick, notorious for multiple takes, wasn't giving him any direction at all.  So Malcolm called Anderson, director of his previous film "If" for advice.  And as he put it "Lindsay directed my performance in Clockwork over the telephone." Funny.

So his son Charlie has co-written and directed this Redford film - where he plays a doctor who is experimenting with "time travel" in the sense that we don't die, we continue on.  But once "the afterlife" is proven to exist, it appears everyone is in a big hurry to get there.

Which brings me back to the "how's life with the dead?" comment.

The flipside isn't this foggy.

Just a word or two about suicide.

First of all, I'm a reporter here, not a doctor. So if someone asks "where'd you hear that?" it's from some rube (me) who claims that he "talks to people who talk to the dead" all the time.  Someone who claims that he's seen people who are supposed to be dead and they tell him "new information." (which I report in my books). Someone who claims that the afterlife is just this place that we call "home" and that when we get off stage we return there.

I had an NYPD detective pull me aside on the set of "Salt" to ask me about a ghost in his house and his daughter talking about reincarnation. I said to him "Look, first of all, you're talking to some guy on a movie set. Let's begin there." 

But then, after asking some questions, we discovered the ghost was his old partner who died 10 years ago, showing up to his 8 year old daughter "younger and thinner" and that she was remembering a lifetime in Australia.  I suggested his partner was not haunting him, but keeping a watchful eye on someone he loved, and that he take out a map of Oz and ask his daughter "So, where did you live before?" He did, and she showed him, told him the epic story of her previous life and death... and finding him.

But I digress.

These details are not my "belief," a philosophy or a point of view. Or a religious concept.  

I'm just a frickin' reporter, man.

But the topic of checking yourself off the bus comes up a lot.  I've met parents whose children have departed early, I've spoken to people who consciously remember checking themselves off the planet in a previous lifetime, I've filmed people who remember a lifetime they left early during a previous lifetime. 

I spoke to a woman (recounted in "Flipside") who told me that she was on her way to do herself in, was literally standing in line at the hardware store with the chemicals she needed - when she overheard some boys from Uganda talking about their journey. Once she spoke to them she realized she was here on the planet to help them.  She now runs an orphanage for "lost boys" in Uganda.

She waited before she checked out.

Not all of us do that. Not all of us can.  It would be extremely irresponsible of me to claim that I know some magic formula for keeping people on the planet.  I don't.  But I do know what people say consistently.

This is the playground. This is the ballpark. This is the game that we all want to participate in. We sign up for roles that are difficult - in advance - because we know they're difficult. We sign up for them to learn a lesson. It might be a lesson in love, in forgiveness, it might be a lesson to teach others - it might even be because "we're in a hurry to get back to the other side because we have work to do over there that requires our full attention."  (I know what that sounds like.) But we sign up to come here for a reason.

What people report about the afterlife (I've filmed 35 deep hypnosis sessions, some with Scott De Tamble (lightbetweenlives.com) and some with others, I've examined Michael Newton's research (7000 cases over 30 years) and Dr. Helen Wambach's cases (2000) and people consistently say the same things (relatively): we choose to come here. We choose to learn or teach some lesson here. We eventually all get off stage and go "home." And there's no judgment negatively of how we get off stage. We are the only people who give ourselves a hard time for "quitting early" or for "screwing up everyone else's plans."

No punishment. No suffering. Just compassion. Some people don't want to hear that, don't like to hear that... but it's consistently reported. Now - would that fact make everyone jump into Niagara Falls? Or off the Golden Gate?

It's a bit like stopping in the middle of a play and shouting "I don't like this play!" and jumping off stage.  Not going to get much applause for that move. And when you get backstage, the rest of your cast is going to come and say to you "We're all going to have to do this again for you.  Thanks a lot."

(Here's the audible version of "Hacking the Afterlife")

But this film  "The Discovery" should engender a discussion about suicide and the afterlife. And I'm raising my hand to say a few things to Charlie, to Robert, to whomever wants to know... that there is a body of evidence out there about this topic.  If I may:

A. The afterlife has already been proven to exist. Look up "post materialist science" and you'll find the scientists on the cutting edge of this research.  We don't die.  We can't die. Suicide doesn't get us anywhere but off this stage.

B. That's no solace for parents who've lost a child, for a lover who's lost a friend. For anyone anywhere who has lost someone to suicide;  it's like a giant tsunami of sorrow that washes away everything in its path. It's not something we can take lightly.  But it is something we need to talk about. Openly.

C. This research into the afterlife shows us why we came here in the first place. We've had many many lifetimes. They all have a theme. If you examine the previous ones you may get to understand the theme, and understand why you've chosen this path and journey.

D. It takes courage to come here in the first place. According to the research, we can say "no" when our guides suggest a lifetime that is difficult.  We can say "No, I don't want to be a child born into poverty in africa, born HIV positive who lives with flies and dies in 6 months."  But there are those who say "I volunteer. Yes. I can teach a lesson in love. I can teach the doctors and nurses and those who fall in love with me a lesson in love. I can do this." Give them credit for having the courage to do so.

 I talk about this stuff in my books, or I go on at length about it in my book talks on youtube (I do mean at length - there's about 25 - 1 hour to 2 hour talks here): 




Which backs me all the way up to the woman who asked me "What's new in the world of the dead?"  She said "What's the point of all this past life research? I don't care who I was in the past, I just want to live my life as it is."  ("Don't turn on the stage lights please!")

I said "That's great.  But the reason it matters is because when you examine all the different lifetimes you've had, you'll see a theme - a healer, a doctor, a soldier, etc.. and you can choose to continue doing that, or realize that you might want to take on some other classes." Karma doesn't dictate who we are going to be - if we get to choose (or not choose) a lifetime it's because we think we're going to master whatever the lessons are from that life.

Past life/reincarnation research is important because once we realize that we've all chosen to come to the planet, doesn't it make sense to leave behind a clean campground, not only for our children, but for our own possible return? Leave behind fresh air, water and earth that we might enjoy it again?

She argued "But what about Hell? What about evil on the planet?"

I offered "If no one dies, then no one can be harmed, can they?  If they step off stage, they're backstage - there's no harm that can come to them over there.  Evil is a construct of the planet - because of it's polarized system, positive/negative. It only exists onstage. Once you're outside of time, or outside of this realm, it's doesn't exist, or it does so in relatively minute amounts. That's what's reported."

She said "What about those who have a near death experience and see evil?"  I said "In sessions I've filmed, when asked "Why did you choose to experience this?" these folks report that it disappears once they realize that they've chosen to go to wherever place they're experiencing. How could it dissolve unless it was a mental construct in the first place?"  

Plus no two accounts of heaven (or hell) are the same. If no two descriptions are the same, can it exist? It can only be an energetic construct based on the person conjuring it up. And in all the cases I've examined, I've never encountered a "dark side" - only descriptions of "being back home" that include the concept of "Unconditional love."

She gave me this 20 mile gaze, looking at me as if I was losing my marbles.

22 mile gaze.

I told her about the interview I did in "It's a Wonderful Afterlife" (vol 2) where I spoke to an attorney who claimed all of her clients who had committed 2nd degree murder had a visitation, "vision" or some other kind of visit from their victims where they heard a version of "I'm okay. And I can help you."  

It's not something anyone could ever talk about obviously - ("Hey judge, you'll never guess who visited me...") but it's related to the fact that everyone, once they're off the planet, no matter in what fashion - is okay. 

They're not gone. They're just not here.

I think it's sad to not be able to hold their hand, share a slice of pizza or have cappuccinos with them, but they're okay. 

If you ask them, they will tell you.

I had a woman approach me at a book talk once. Her daughter had been murdered. She put her finger in my face and said "How dare you say that my daughter's death somehow might have been part of her life's plan!"  I looked at the finger, then at her.  I sat her down.

"Can I speak frankly to you?" She said "I wish you would."  I asked "Since her death has she ever been to visit you, or have you felt her presence?" She said "All the time."  I asked "Was she a happy person?" She said "Yes." I said "Then pretend it is her. Imagine for a second that she's come back to see you and wants to give you a message. Imagine how hard it is for her to connect with you because you're so angry about her passing. Would she want you live your life in such anger?"

A sunset is a sunrise somewhere else.

She said "No."  I said "Well try to honor that then. Try to honor who she was by thinking of her in a positive light, remembering her laughter and what a light she was in your life.  Then allow her to communicate with you the best way that she knows how - it might not be a direct message, but it might be an indirect one. Might come from someone else, might come from a dream, a photograph you run across, a piece of music you both loved. Allow her into your life in the way that she would be able to reach out to you." 

A month later, I was giving a book talk in Santa Monica and spotted her in the back row.  Afterwards I went and sat with her. "How are you?" She said "I just wanted to come here, look you in the eye and say "Thank you for saving my life."

Tears came to my eyes. I said to her "Look, it's not me. It's the research. I'm just reporting what these people have said consistently. But thank you for saying that, it means a lot to me."

A couple of months later, I heard from this woman that she had progressed so far as to begin taking a stand-up comedy class. She'd found a way out of her anger and into something that could heal her and others. I hope she's doing well as I write this. 

No parent should have to lose a child. Therapy, suicide prevention, showing them a different way, talking openly and frankly about bullying, drugs, or any other process they might get in over their heads can help. Seek advice from a therapist. (avoid the SSRI pills if you can, but if the Doctor insists, then visit Richard Davidson's work at the University of Wisconsin where he proves scientifically that meditation can cure symptoms of depression (and circumvent SSRI drug use)).

But we can't always discern or understand why a loved one has left the stage... in whatever fashion. Try not to judge them for doing so, just keep your heart open to them.

Many judged Robin Williams harshly because he chose to check himself off the bus. But he's okay. He's just not here. People chose to judge Prince harshly for taking pain killers. But he's okay. He's just not here. People tend to focus on the method people get off stage - but if you realize that they're just back stage and you will see them again - why not focus on the light they brought into our lives?

All we can do is ask them. Through meditation, through hypnosis, perhaps through just opening our minds up to the question "Why?"  Hard to comprehend or accept the answers, but if we stay open to them, we often can hear the reason.

After this mother's comments, it made me reflect on my own path and journey - writing and directing films, trying to find the right path for myself. I realized no matter how many films I might make, I would never get a review like "Thank you for saving my life."  

Finally, I would offer kudos for this film "The Discovery" because the more we're talking about the flipside, about going there or coming back, the more it will help the planet.  Congratulations Netflix, (makers of another consciousness lifting show "The OA" which deals with near death experiences), Robert Redford, and Charlie McDowell (and co-writer Justin Lader)!

Break a leg. But not mine.

My two cents. Or in this case my two rupees.

The OA and The Flipside

Just watched the first four episodes of the new series on Netflix "The OA."

Spoiler alerts ahead!  So if you haven't watched up to episode 4, then g'wan and do so.  Y'all come back ya hear?

Okay.  Team. Gather up.  Let's get in a huddle so we can talk about this show in whispered tones.

"I think Brit Marling is an alien."  What? Who said that? No she's not. She's from Chicago. "But look at her movies, "the East," "Another Earth" - I mean, c'mon, she's obviously not from this planet.  She writes and stars in films that are about "off planet experiences."  And none more impressive than her latest offering, done with some guy name Batman." And it's produced by Brad Pitt! 

 

No, that's Brit Marling and Zal Batmanglij.

Batman and his Robin: Brit Marling. (Cub fan? Hope so)

All right now, team. Let's get this straight. Her show is called "The OA." They may reveal what that means soon - but I'm getting "the Original Angel" as in "the original gangster..."  It may also just be omnopoetic - OA sounds like "Away" which is what happens to you when you are from "Away."  (And for those who've been up to Maine, everyone who isn't from Maine is from away. Whether it's Vermont or Mars, everyone not born in Maine for at least five generations is considered to be "from Away."  Or from "OA."  Which is OK (and not Oklahoma).

What's "The OA" about?  

It's about near death experiences who come back and may or may not act like "angels."  The argument, as put forth in the show is that people who've had an NDE have "Chosen to return to Earth" despite knowing what their adventure might entail, and so therefore can be classified as angels.

Well, team, let's clarify something off the bat.  "I'd agree with you but then we'd both be wrong" as my old professor Julian used to say.  Which means "That's not in the research."  What is in the research is that WE ALL CHOOSE to be here.  

So if you follow that argument, WE ARE ALL ANGELS.  Which may or may not be the case.  It's possible if you consider the Earth a stage that we choose to perform on - and that nothing that happens to us on stage can ever be considered "negative" - it's just an experience with another actor who we agreed to be on stage with, it's just an experience we might have agreed to explore, it's just an experience - because once we're off stage or "back home" (as people call it) then we are no longer bound by the rules of the stage.

Let me clarify.

This series is loosely based on the books by Dr. Ray Moody. (As reported in the interview with Mr. Batman in the Hollywood Reporter.)  Now I haven't seen his name mentioned in the credits, so I sincerely hope they've made some agreement with regard to his stories, which were gleaned from numerous cases over a lifetime career of dealing with Near Death studies.  

But aside from that obvious question - the question becomes "are they actually recreating real stories or are they just lifting pieces of them to fit their storyline?"

Well the answer is both.

For example, Brit's character has a "spirit guide" who speaks Arabic to her when she's on the Flipside - either via a near death experience, or in her dreams.  The guide (Kaithun - which means "origin" in Arabic) speaks to her in her native tongue, Arabic, and Brit's character speaks to her in Russian as a young girl, and later in English.

I found that to be accurate.  We all have a spirit guide (according to the research, which includes Michael Newton's and mine), sometimes more than one, and when we greet them in the afterlife they present themselves as the way they want to be presented.  They speak whatever language they speak in their mind - so we wouldn't be hearing "Russian" or "Arabic" but "mind speak" - but by having her speak in Arabic and having Brit's character understand is a cool way of presenting this fact.

Same goes for the scene where Brit's character confronts the school teacher who is adamant about expelling the bully - but Brit's character offers "You've been doing these lifetimes as a teacher for a long time now, and don't you think its about time you started to teach the person who needs the teaching the most; ie. the bully?"

This is something a spirit guide might say in an afterlife council meeting.  When examining a person's life, or helping them examine it, council members frequently make cogent and profound statements like this that offer a different perspective.

These reports can be found in the work of Dr. Bruce Greyson, my pal who invented the near death experience scale, and whose talk on consciousness "Is Consciousness Produced by the Brain" is epic.

Check it out.

It's as long as four episodes - but MORE MIND BLOWING.  And it's science to boot.  Yay.

But let's examine some of the concepts in the show.  Like "what it's like on the flipside."  Is it a green screen room where stars are all around you? (Nice effect gang).  Well it depends on the person.

Like the other day, when having lunch with Jennifer Shaffer and someone came through (a famous film director who died, but whom I had met years ago) and as I was asking him about his experience on the flipside, he said, "No one ever comes over here (to the flipside) wishing they "held back more" during their lifetime."

That's the kind of profound (new information) sentence that I could never create - and that Jennifer doesn't share, or didn't until she said it aloud.  It's not the kind of perspective we could have over here - after all, our whole lives we've been told to "restrain" and "don't do that because it's too much" or "hold back and be quiet" - when the very reason for us agreeing to come to the planet is to "go beyond the pale" "do whatever it is that we're supposed to do" "take a leap off a mountain."  After all, what's the point of being here if we don't explore it to its fullest?

Brit Marling (Getty Images)

Which brings me to the failing of the show.  I can't call it anything but that - because they just didn't do enough research to understand the architecture of the flipside - (that's a link to the audible version of my book "Hacking the Afterlife") and that's not a fault, but it is a failing.  The key story line in this season anyway, it's a scientist (inventor, who lives beyond his means, but we're told he's sold patents in the past) who has been torturing individuals who've had a near death experience, by making them go through it again and again.

It works as a metaphor - for what people assume is going on during their lifetimes on Earth - that we're in some kind of grand experiment, and since we don't die, we can't die, no one dies, it's not that big of a deal that the "scientist in the sky" is putting us through this.  As a metaphor - I get it.  But it's sooooo wrong.

Let's go back to the Angel concept.  "They choose to come here so they have a noble cause by coming back from their death experience."  Well, yeah, that's true. But WE ALL CHOOSE TO COME HERE. Not just the near death folks.  They're often given a choice - "You can stay here, back home, or you can go back to your life and finish what it was you were going to do."  People who have these experiences (Dr. Eben Alexander "Proof of Heaven" or Trumpo (prescient name, isn't it?) in "Heaven is for Real" or Dr. Rajiv Parti, or David Bennett, (Voyage of Purpose) or Anita Moorjani... to name a few) - all of them chose to come back here.  But my point is that they also chose to live this lifetime. To examine these realities. And to experience being outside of it.

That's just in the research. 

Eventually, Brit and Batman-glij will get to the Flipside books where they can read transcripts of people saying precisely the above.  And see the cites and quotations, and interviews with scientists who explain and explore why this is the case.  And it will likely become part of their universe.

At least I hope so.

(If so, give me a call. I'm in the DGA/WGA)

But the reason I use the word "failing," (being a former music critic at Variety, I was excoriated for never having a "bad word" to say about musicians) is because these characters (SPOILER ALERT!) spend 7 years being tortured by this crazed NDE "scientist" when all he needed to do WAS ONE SESSION WITH A MICHAEL NEWTON TRAINED THERAPIST to examine what these people were seeing.  (In LA, I recommend Scott De Tamble, but outside of LA, check the Newton Institute searchable website for someone you click with.)

I've done that - I've filmed these sessions - people who've had a near death experience, RE-LIVING - OR GOING THROUGH THE NDE AGAIN - while under hypnosis. They're able to revisit EVERYTHING they experienced during the NDE (without the pain) and are able to examine, explore, and understand - as well as meet spirit guides who help them explore and understand these profound concepts.

One 6-8 hour session, and the crazed scientist would have had ALL THE EVIDENCE he needed.  Because these session are replicable and they're consistent. Which is what science requires for experience to become data.  Consistent and Replicable: Dr. Helen Wambach reported on thousands of cases, I've filmed 35, Michael Newton wrote about his career of over 7000, there are over 200 hypnotherapists Newton trained that are currently working across the globe, and they've had thousands of cases as well.  And everyone says basically the same thing about the journey of souls.

Relatively - meaning, no matter who asks the question, no matter what the background of the subject, they experience the same hallmarks others do who've never heard of the research.

Doesn't matter what age, what religion, what background - basically, those who can take that adventure into the between lives arena, report the SAME HALLMARKS.

This is not my opinion, belief, or some form of philosophy. I'm just reporting these research. It is what it is.

On the other side of the coin, we have a film like Collateral Beauty. I haven't seen it yet - but have seen the trailer and read the reviews.  Sorry to hear that it's not well regarded.

I hear there's a copy of Michael Newton's "Journey of Souls" on a desk in the film about grieving and "the dead."  I'm sorry that the box office numbers have been bad for this film, like I say, I've yet to see it, but it's the kind of thing that those in the industry will say "It's too much of a downer, this death thing."

I agree.

It is a downer. Unless you realize no one dies.  There's no point in consoling Will Smith if he's going to spend the rest of his days believing that his daughter is gone, or "lost" or some other version of "resting in peace." Never to be seen again.  Or floating on a cloud.

That's not in the data. That's not in the reports.  What is in the reports, talking to people who used to be on the planet and no longer are, is that they're on to another adventure. Just like this one.  They're not "gone." They're just not here.  I'm sorry if that's upsetting, or beyond logic.  It is consistent in the data.  It is what it is.

Doesn't mean the topic will ever be "commercial," or that it will be for everyone. (ie "The ABC Afterlife Spectacular," brought to you by Heavenly Acres.") After all, we all agreed to be on stage here together, who wants to have a show where some nut is always turning on the lights and shouting "Hey! It's only a show! This is only a stage! Stop worrying so much about how the play ends! They all end! They all have a new beginning. Stop worrying about how you or your loved ones are going to get off stage!  Just enjoy the show!  And turn off the damned lights!!!!"

So, this Brit and Batman-glee-Jay (sorry, it's easier to remember) - some would argue that they must have had off-world experiences in order to be able to create this kind of prescient and sentient material.  

Pete Smith, President of the Newton Institute told me (In "It's a Wonderful Afterlife" that up to 30% of their clients claim they've had "off world" experiences, either in a past life, or by being visited by people who aren't from "around here."

Are these two filmmakers people who've had "off world experience" and are bringing their higher conscious selves to the screen?  Could be. 

The only way to know would be to put them under deep hypnosis and find out... and if you're interested, let me know. I've filmed 35 sessions so far - and a session with you both would be FANTASTIC.

Brad, you can come along as well. Get a handle on why you chose this lifetime. Ask Angie, she knows me from "Salt."  I drove her out of Korea.

Stay tuned.