"Just Be"

I'm sharing this story from Colorado, because it's essentially what I've been filming and studying for the past decade.

What's going on over on the Flipside?

IANDS (mentioned in the article) is a place for people who've experienced near death experiences to meet up and share their stories. (I'm appearing at the Santa Barbara chapter on March 8th, and the Orange County Chapter on March 11th. (link is from a talk I gave there in 2012, but it's the same place, just on March 11th, 2017) 

I've given a number of talks at the International Association for Near Death Studies - it's a group put together by scientists which allows people to share their experiences in a non judgmental way.  People are given the space to talk about whatever happened to them.

In my case, I've been examining what happened to them, and comparing it to what other people say has happened to them - sometimes under deep hypnosis, sometimes not.  And I'm finding (Michael Newton found this to be the case way before I came to his research "Journey of Souls" etc) that people are consistently saying THE SAME THINGS about the Afterlife.

That's why I've written these books and made the documentary "Flipside."

Because when you read and compare and watch these accounts, you also can see for yourself that they're talking about the same place (relatively.)

So here's an account from Fox News in Colorado:

‘Near Death Experiencers’ Meetup members share their stories

By Macy Egeland

Published: February 22, 2017 

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. — .....

They call themselves Near Death Experiencers, and some members of this Meetup say they have died and come back. The Near Death Experiencers group in Colorado Springs has more than 100 members. They say they’re a rarity that can share an important message.

It’s something we’ve all wondered, whether you’re religious or not: what happens to us when our lives come to an end?

“We all want to serve and help others to share the message of love,” organizer Theresa Diaz said. Now they’re sharing what they saw in the afterlife.

“It educates people on what the experience of dying is like and the other side to hopefully alleviate fears for people for their own death and their own passing, as well as for loved ones that maybe have or have not passed yet,” Diaz said.

For the members who say they have experienced death themselves, there’s no question about what lies beyond. “I wish that I could put it into words,” Dea Dewitt-Maltby said. “Seven years later, I’m still fighting for the words. It has changed my life completely.”

Dewitt-Maltby lives in Salida, and back in 2008 she was driving home from a shopping trip in Colorado Springs. While she was driving along Highway 115 right by Fort Carson, she hit a rut on the side of the road and lost control.

“I was being directed into the path of an oncoming 18-wheeler, and I knew that I couldn’t survive a crash like that,” Dewitt-Maltby said. “I just remember thinking ‘let me be the only one that dies in this accident,’ and that was the last thing I remember until I found myself hanging upside down in the vehicle and not able to move. I was crushed in between the steering wheel and the roof of the car.”

Dewitt-Maltby was badly injured. Her lungs had been crushed by the impact. But the only thing she could think about was her dog, Reebok, who ran away after the crash. “I remember just looking up and saying if there is a God, you made my dog, and you’re the only one who can protect him,” she said. “Please protect my dog. And within a millisecond, it was like this light came down out of the ambulance, the roof of the ambulance, it came into my face, permeated my whole body, filled me with peace and with the knowing that my dog was okay, that I was okay and that everything was taken care of. It literally went down through my entire body.”

And that was just the first of her unexplainable experiences. Dewitt-Maltby spent the next 12 days in a coma. “I knew that I no longer was connected to my body,” she said. “I knew that it was just consciousness. I was enveloped in these beautiful colors and these beautiful sounds and I knew I was being held.”

“It was as if that essence, and I’ll call that essence God, stroked the left side of my face, only I didn’t have a face, it was just the essence of me, and said, ‘just be,’” she said. “And for the first time in my life I understood what that meant. When that happened, it was as if somebody waved their hand and the whole universe opened up. And all of a sudden I’m out in this wonderful universe and there’s a million stars. Only they weren’t stars, they were souls. I had totally forgotten about this realm. I had totally forgotten about this life.”

Over the following days, Dewitt-Maltby began to recover and eventually came out of the coma a new person. She was also reunited with Reebok, who was found safe and uninjured. “Now I’d have to say I don’t have faith or belief, I have a knowing that there truly is life beyond this life and there truly is a fabulous essence of love that created us,” Dewitt-Maltby said.

It’s a belief she shares with many others who say they have had near-death experiences. Many of them say they encountered similar scenarios and feelings while they were on the other side. “The universe talks to us every single day, but are we listening? Sometimes I think near death experiences are just a rap upside the head for people,” Dewitt-Maltby said.

“We need support for one another because otherwise you feel kind of strange that you’ve had this experience and so you want to feel like you’re not alone. So we have each other to share our stories,” Diaz said. With stories so bizarre, this group is used to the skeptics.

But still, they want to share their stories and give those who believe a better idea of what lies ahead in the afterlife. “I don’t think any of us have all the answers, but we do know there’s something far greater than this reality that we’re living in,” Dewitt-Maltby said. “You don’t have to have a near death experience to find the doorway in between this world and the next.”

Dewitt-Maltby was also featured on a show called “I Survived Beyond and Back.” Dewitt-Maltby, Diaz, and the Meetup group’s creator, Roy Hill, have all written books about their experiences. They meet once a month.

There is an International Association for Near-Death Studies Convention in Denver this August. (I'll be speaking there.)

According to the International Association for Near Death Studies, near death experiencers often go through one of more of these scenarios:

Floating
Looking down at their body
Entering a tunnel
Moving toward a light
Seeing intense colors and music
Being met by others
Feeling unconditionally loved and at peace
Experiencing a life review
Seeing a border between life and death
Having a reluctance to return
Feeling no pain
Having no sense of time

These are the hallmarks of the near death experience.  They're also the hallmarks of what people say about the between lives realm when they access it while under deep hypnosis, or in some other fashion.

Consistently.

Across the globe. Doesn't matter if they've had a near death experience before, if they're atheists, agnostic or religious. When it comes to their descriptions of the flipside, they're consistent.  

Why does it matter? What's the big hurry to understand the flipside? Who cares?

Once you wrap your mind around the fact that we are here temporarily, you see that we choose to come here. And for those of us who plan on coming back, doesn't it make sense to leave behind a clean campground?  Let's pretend for a moment that what I'm saying is true, is accurate.

Doesn't it make sense to leave behind fresh water, fresh air and clean earth... if not for our children, but for our own return?

If it's true what these people are saying - that between lives we are all equal, there is no hierarchy - that we come here to learn lessons in love - doesn't it make sense to see adversity as something to surpass, to move beyond? To see our fellow humans here on the planet as what they really are? People from the same source that we are from?  People that deserves the same level of insight, learning and teaching that we deserve?

We currently are living in a time of challenges - but no more so than any era on earth, any epoch of this planet. Except perhaps that we are in imminent danger of losing the planet. Of losing what this place was, is, and could still be.  All we need to do is open our eyes... and "just be."

My two cents.

Introduction to "Hacking the Afterlife"

So sad to report the passing of my old pal Bill Paxton.

Photo: Billy Mumy

Known Bill him since his Martini Ranch days. (Bill had a hit song in the 80s as part of a duo. No relation.) (First 20 seconds of this clip are from Bill's band "Martini Ranch") 

Met Bill in London while he was making Aliens. He said he'd star in my 1st film "You Cant Hurry Love" rewrote a number of scenes. Hilarious. (Unfortunately his agent intervened but the film opens with his music as an homage to him. Some of his jokes remain). 

We tooled around Cannes (a few times), lost too much money at a casino, can still hear his booming laugh in the Aero for a screening of "Cannes Man". 

Such a distinctive laugh. It was his laugh that I 1st recognized in a pub in London. Grade school pal Lori Axelson knew his then girlfriend Louise; over a pint of Guiness he did his in your face - full frontal guffaw - and I said "Wait a second. You're that crazy brother from Weird Science!" 

Our last conversation Bill called driving in from Ojai, said "i'm in the catbird seat now, man. I get to pick and choose what i want to make." West Texas. Beloved brother. Rare individual. Heart of gold. Just at the beginning of the third act man. Sorry to not be able to see that. God speed Billy.

(For fans of "Flipside" and "Hacking the Afterlife" if Billy shows up in any of the research, I will report it here.  Not to mitigate the loss of him in any way - his family and friends are in shock - but if Billy does show up in one of my interviews, I will do my utmost to be as accurate as I can to anything he might be able to impart via a medium that I'm interviewing! As you know, a number of acquaintances have appeared during these interviews, and I try to search for "new information.")

For those unfamiliar with the concepts describe here:

Here's the Introduction to my book "Hacking the Afterlife."  Available in paperback, kindle, audible, itunes, etc. 

Introduction

To Be or Not To Be; That’s THE Question

“Ascent of the Blessed” by Hieronymus Bosch

This detail has been cited as an example of a near death experience, complete with a tunnel of light and souls venturing through it.  

A “Life Hack” refers to “any trick, shortcut, skill, or novelty method that increases productivity and efficiency, in all walks of life.”^[1]

Or in this case; “and beyond.”

I’ve been examining near death experiences, between life hypnosis sessions, out of body experiences and speaking to mediums and others who report relatively the same things about the afterlife.  These reports point to the conclusion; that we don’t die, that those who’ve gone before us are accessible on the other side of the veil.

I’ve been filming people under deep hypnosis for a decade and I’ve expanded my research to include people who’ve had near death experiences, as well as interviewing people who appear to be able to communicate with people no longer on the planet. At some point, by asking questions about a person’s “memory” of a past life, I realized people appear to be able to access and explore a “between lives realm” without being under hypnosis at all. 

The unusual premise of this book is that what or who we are as individuals does not disappear upon our demise and this bundle of “what we are or were” is still accessible to our loved ones back here.  Reportedly, our core essence doesn’t turn into bits of fairy dust and vanish after death, nor does our life’s energy drift into a Jungian pool of unconsciousness. These reports claim our “life energy” moves from this reality into another “reality,” reportedly like walking from “one room to the next.” Like using the transporter room from a Star Trek episode.

Of course, our physical bodies eventually dissolve, turn to ash. But the energy does not; as the “law of conservation of energy” argues in physics.^[2] Reportedly, our energy exists here during our lifetime, like a smaller piece of a holographic image. When the plate of a hologram is broken into pieces, each part contains all of the information from that holographic image, but “in a diminished fashion.”  Once we are finished here with this lifetime, our energy apparently leaves the body and “returns home” intact to reconnect with the rest of the energy left behind.  

According to the hundreds of sessions or cases I’ve examined, dozens of near death experiences, hundreds of hypnosis sessions, along with the 30 or so that I’ve filmed – when we return “home” we reconnect with that portion of our energy we left behind coming here. What was startling to learn, and a bit disconcerting, is that most people claim we only bring a relatively small portion of our overall life force to our lives; the average is “about one third.”^[3] Further that each lifetime is a choice.

To decide to incarnate or not to incarnate. Good question.

This book will explore “life planning” sessions, where under deep hypnosis, people access that decision to come to the planet, why they chose their particular persona, and what they hoped to accomplish in doing so. That our life choice is not based on previous lifetimes or karma, or difficulties we’ve had in the past – although we certainly can choose to explore those arenas - but the choice to do so is based on free will.  We can always say “No. I’m not returning. I have better things to do back here than to go down there with the rest of you.”

But for some godforsaken reason, because our soul group convinces us to do so, or our guides convince us that it’s a journey we should take on behalf of others, we agree to participate. Indeed, those of us here have all agreed to come here, to get back on stage, to play our parts as requested of us. We may not like it once we get back here, but how we perform is entirely up to us. When we leave this mortal coil – it’s not that we drift like a “wisp of smoke” into a bardo as Buddhism argues, but a full third of our energy heads “back home” to reunite with the other two thirds of our energy that is “always back there.”

It’s bit like the liquid robot from in the film “Terminator 2.” When a piece broke off, the liquid sought out the rest of the robot so it could reformulate the whole machine; our energy seeks out and finds the rest of our energy and melds with it to make us “whole” again.  People have described this event of “resynthesizing” with their higher energy as “mind blowing” and “intensely healing.” When we reconnect with our literal selves, we remember the motivation behind our adventures here, and all of our previous adventures with other members of our soul group. We can see why we chose this lifetime, we understand why we chose our previous lifetimes, and understand the overall theme of all of those choices.

They report that each lifetime reflects the overall discipline that our soul group is working on.  Like being part of a university class in a chosen discipline; one soul group’s overall theme might be medicine, healing, compassion, forgiveness, loyalty, any of the various themes that are explored in literature and the theater. 

In one between life session a woman reported that her “soul group examines what addiction does to people” and recalled various lifetimes that include addictions in all their forms.  She was able to see that the overdose of her brother, the sexual addictions of her father, and her own life’s addictions all had a theme to them, of understanding the fundamental energy behind addiction and how to transform it into healing energy.

In some cases a soul may not want to return “home” right away, may forestall the trip to stick around and see how things play out. It’s up to us whether we stay or go, after all, just as it’s up to us whether we come here or not. We might see these souls who haven’t left in some energetic, etheric way. They’re usually referred to as “ghosts” and in popular media appear with eerie music. But in many cases, after a person checks out, says goodbye to their loved ones, they can’t wait to get back home. They report they usually can’t wait to return to their friends, “back home.” 

To be clear, this isn’t my belief, philosophy or religious bent. I have a background as a journalist (written for Variety, Premiere, USA Today and Inc.com) I’m a documentary filmmaker (“White City/Windy City” “Journey into Tibet”) I’m a film director (“Limit Up,” “Point of Betrayal,” “You Can’t Hurry Love” among others) and I’m just reporting what the research consistently says. I’m not an expert on the afterlife, nor an expert on anything really.  I’ve been filming and interviewing people about their Flipside experiences for a decade.  The reports are essentially the same.

These eyewitness reports are a bit like the explorers who took ships across the sea, then came back with fantastic tales of what they’d seen.  Some went with an attitude of reinforcing their religious beliefs, some made up stories to get money for future trips, while others kept diaries and reported verbatim what they’d witnessed. But when the reports were consistent and could be repeated, their destination became “the new world.”  What these people report about the Flipside is both consistent and replicable, which is pretty much what science requires for something to be considered data.

The main difference here is that when these explorers return from their trip abroad, they refer to that other place across the sea as “home.” 

Further, the research shows that while we are on the planet, that two thirds of our energy back there, on the Flipside, isn’t just floating on clouds. It’s reported that our higher selves “attend classes,” “learn how to manipulate energy,” even report playing “games with our soul mates.” In one case, a person reported finding her soul group playing an elaborate “game of tag.”

She said the game required a person to track down and “capture” six other soul mates. They could hide “anywhere in the universe;” the added complication was that “everyone is invisible” and they can hide “in any realm” they wanted to.  Like an incredible multi-engine version of a Google search, but using their mind’s engine to search for the energy pattern of invisible entities in multiple dimensions.

They also report that on the Flipside, our higher selves can tune in, watch, enjoy or be horrified by our performance back here.  A bit like watching a play in the theater where we are both in the audience and on stage at the same time.

The people on stage have a filter that prevents them from knowing there’s an audience watching them, or from knowing why they chose a particular part or costume or prop, or why they agreed to the part in the first place.  Of course, it would ruin the play if they spent most of their time shading their eyes to wave at the audience and say “Hi Mom. Look at me! I’m in a play!”

From our seats “back home” we can cheer, applaud, cry, laugh with those onstage acting out these roles.  When our friends exit, it’s reported we often congratulate them for a job well done. When the actor who plays Romeo meets the actress who played Juliet backstage, he doesn’t chastise her for screwing up his life and causing both of their deaths. He embraces her, congratulates her for a job well done. “Great acting tonight, Julie.” “You too Romy; see you at the after party.”

“It’s not your time to exit the stage yet.” 

Some people have a near death experience, find themselves “back home” with their soul group, but these folks are usually told “Hey, get back on stage! You’re not supposed to be here yet.”  

I’ve spoken to a number of International Association of Near Death Studies groups^[4] and I’ve met a number of people disconcerted they felt so wonderful “back home” and are upset to be forced “back here.” They saw loved ones back there, experienced the unconditional love many report backstage and have no desire to put on the makeup, and step into the limelight.

We live in a world where we try to own time, manipulate and change time. We may not be happy we have more work to do onstage, work that we aren’t prepared for, or want to do.  But hang on.  What if I told you it’s possible to “go home” while you’re still here, still on the planet? 

What if I told you it’s possible to visit your friends who are no longer on the planet, and you can ask and get information that you didn’t know was possible to learn?  What if I told you that anyone who has ever walked the Earth is available and accessible, because their energy never dies?  It transforms, as per the first law of thermodynamics, from one form to the next, but the essence of that form, since it’s outside of time, will always exist.^[5] So if you want to ask Will, “What did you mean by to be or not to be? Is that a rhetorical question? Or are you talking about incarnation?” you can.

We’ve all heard fantastical accounts about the afterlife.  From visions of satanic fires to angels riding on clouds, we’ve been inundated with these reports since humans populated the planet. But in reports of the afterlife, isn’t it unusual that no two of these reports are ever the same?   

As scientist Dr. Neil deGrasse Tyson points out, a rainbow is different for everyone who sees it.  No two rainbows are alike. “The exact Rainbow any of us sees in the sky is entirely our own -- a personal, yet communal gift from the laws of optics.”^[6]

The same is true for visions of the afterlife.  Two people may visit a “Library of records” but no two descriptions are alike.  People may visit a “soul group,”^[7] but exactly where it’s located or how it’s constructed varies from person to person.

We may even see the same person in the afterlife others have seen. They may appear to us differently than they appear to another person, it appears to depend on how they want to present themselves.

Sometimes we see them as older, sometimes younger, depending on the person we’re visiting. Yet we have a feeling of knowing that we’re actually seeing the person we once knew.  I’ve filmed first hand reports of these encounters with people from all walks of life; different genders, beliefs or lack of belief - who are consistent in their reporting. With different hypnotherapists, different accounts of near death experiences, different experiences as we’ll see; all describe the same “place” in a different way.

Caveat Emptor!

As I’ve mentioned in “Flipside: A Tourist’s Guide on How to Navigate the Afterlife” and “It’s a Wonderful Afterlife” a skeptic is someone who “doesn’t believe in the prevailing school of thought.” I’m a skeptic in the truest sense of the word.  Science considers accounts of past lives to be “cryptomnesia”; something a person imagined, heard, or read about someone else’s life, that they forgot -- but their subconscious did not. Or, science argues people may tap into what Carl Jung referred to as the “universal unconscious” - a place in the universe where the energy from our lives supposedly comes to rest, floating like an island of non-biodegradable detritus in outer space. Past life memories are people merely “tapping into” that island.

Further science believes near death experiences are due to Hypoxia, lack of oxygen in the brain which causes hallucinations.  (As happens in high altitude.)  I know about Hypoxia – I’ve been at high altitude in the mountains of Tibet and had some pretty fantastic “visions” up there.  But science “believes” this because, well, there’s no data on the topic.

Finally, materialist science believes consciousness begins and ends in the brain, as if the engrams contain all the information we need to know, and if someone has enough of them – or a computer does – it can become “sentient.” To quote my former Oxford/Harvard alum Boston University professor Julian Baird; “I’d agree with you, but then we’d both be wrong.”

The simplest way to prove past lives, out of body experiences, near death experiences are actual events, not imaginary, is through the evidence of “new information.”  If a person sees, hears, learns something during one of these events that they couldn’t possibly have known - that there’s no “known example” anywhere in books or the internet or in “some other person’s mind that perhaps they were accessing” - then it must come from somewhere else other than the brain.

If that new information turns out to be accurate -- then the person could not have gotten the information from the Jungian unconscious, from the energetic memory of some previous person, from the hidden recesses of their subconscious, or from not being able to breathe atop Mt. Everest. 

It’s not up to me to convince anyone either way. I’m just a reporter here. If that’s your final answer on the matter, as they say, I recommend putting this book back on the shelf, returning it to the kindle app or whatever dime store bin you found it.  You should be able to get your money back. After all, buying books is not like being alive – they come with a money back guarantee. There may be solid reasons for you not to venture down this avenue, and I appreciate that. I’m not writing these books for everyone. No really, if you’re feeling the slightest bit uncomfortable, it’s going to get a lot more freaky up in here. Maybe this amusement park ride isn’t for you.

Apologies in advance for syntax mistakes, typos, and any other errors I make here; someone complained of my reading of my books on Audible, I sometimes laugh, am overcome with emotion, correct myself or as one wag put it, could “hear my cat meow” in the background. If meowing bothers you, then I’m not your guide. Get a refund, please!

That being said, there are people who may need to hear these reports, and need to hear it in the tone and syntax I express. For whatever reason.  Now, for those of you who have stuck around:  I invite you into this world of the afterlife, where we can query people no longer on the planet with specific questions and get some pretty amazing answers.  Care to follow me? But you have been warned.

Giordano Bruno, philosopher burned at the stake for revealing his out of body experience where he saw that the earth goes around the sun.

“L’asciate ogni speranza voi ch’entrate”

 “Abandon All Hope Ye Who Turns the Page.”

---

[1] Detail from “Ascent of the Blessed” by Hieronymus Bosch. Wikimedia.

[2] In physics, the law of conservation of energy states that the total energy of an isolated system remains constant—it is said to be conserved over time. Energy can neither be created nor destroyed; rather, it transforms from one form to another.

[3] I examined these reports in “Flipside: A Tourist’s Guide on How to Navigate the Afterlife” and “It’s a Wonderful Afterlife volumes one and two.” There are many other sources, a partial bibliography is at the end of this book.

[4] Iands.org is a great place to share and listen to a variety of experiences like this.

[5] The law states that “energy can be transformed from one form to another, but cannot be created or destroyed.”

[6] Neil deGrasse Tyson tweet ‏@neiltyson 12:41 PM - 14 Jun 2016

[7] “Soul groups” are spoken of by Michael Newton in “Journey of Souls.” His reports suggest 3-25 people in the immediate circle, with the average being about 15.  

Santa Barbara book talk "Hacking the Afterlife"

Talking "Hacking the Afterlife" on March 8th, at the SB IANDS - International Association for Near Death Studies

The venue: Unity of Santa Barbara
227 E. Arrellaga Street
Santa Barbara 93101

Time: 6:00pm - 6:45pm Small Group Mtgs
7:00pm - 9:00pm Main Meeting
If you're in the hood, stop on by!

Good Grief and Gwyneth Paltrow

There's no amount of solace that we as humans can have towards someone who's lost a friend, a lover, a family member, a child, a co-worker, someone that we love who is no longer on the planet.

From "The OA" - being consoled on the flipside by a "ghost"

This past weekend, a young girl died in our home town, and the memorial for her was standing room only. She was remembered as someone who was a light in people's lives. Stories were told about some unusual "Flipside" like events prior to her passing... she had a bad cold, and called her brother to tell him he had to drive home to see her.  He thought it was odd that she would call him to do so, as no one thought it more than a cold.  

But it turned out to be more than a cold, and she was no longer on the planet after a sudden turn for the worse.  Almost as if she "knew" she was no longer going to be on the planet, and insisted that he come home so she could say "goodbye."

Memorial for my pal Paul Tracey at his gravesite
in 2004. He's come to visit me a few times, including
during a trip to Tibet (as recounted in Flipside).

I've heard and gathered a number of reports of people who appear to "know" in some fashion that they're about to check off the planet.  My brother's close friend called him one night to tell him how much he loved him, and how much he had influenced his life.  Then the next day, playing in a softball game, he suddenly had a heart attack and died.  At the funeral, his widow remarked on the phone conversation she had overheard between my brother and his friend.

"I've never heard him talk like that to anyone."  My brother had not either, and they spent over an hour on the phone talking about their path and journey together, and all the fun and comic moments they had, and all the things they shared as close friends.  It was "like he was saying goodbye."

Well, not goodbye.  But "See you later, alligator."

Actress Luana Anders who has been to visit me
often, those visits are the genesis of the Flipside research

People contact me from all walks of life about helping a friend, or relative who has experienced a sudden tragic event.  They've lost their mom, close relative or a best friend, and are having a hard time trying to "get past it."

I got a call like this the other day from a brother of a good friend back East.  His mom had passed away, and he had the good fortune to be able to hang out with her the last years of her life.  He told me how he had gone over to see her just about every day to have lunch with her, and how devastated he was when she passed. But he had a profound dream about her, and wanted to know if I could explain it, or what it might mean.

Dreams are like reflections in glass.

He began by saying he "didn't believe" in anything beyond what we experience on the planet, and that it was hard for him to repeat the story. But he said the dream "was so real that I know it wasn't a dream."

He said he was at an event with tables and large ceilings. He later said he recognized the venue, it was a place they had been to large scale events over the years with his family.  He said he suddenly heard his mom call out to him by name.  

He said he went over to her table, and she looked happy, and vibrant.  He said he suddenly felt a ball of light come through him, a light that made him feel completely happy, accompanied by an overwhelming "feeling of love."  

I asked him if the words "unconditional love" would apply to that sensation.  He said they would.

What I didn't tell him, is that his brother and I spoke just after she passed away, and I asked him if he had any visitations from her. He said flat out "no" as if that wasn't a possibility.  But he did say that he "had a dream about her."

And it was the same kind of experience after their mom passed. My friend is an award winning reporter, from a famous newspaper, and in his dream (after she passed) he found himself in her old room, and went over to her chair and hugged her. And he said that during the hug, he felt like an electrical charge - but accompanied by an incredible experience of unconditional love. 

As I pointed out to both brothers, the reports from the Flipside - either from people under deep hypnosis or from people who've had near death experiences - report this specific feeling; an experience of unconditional love.  People sometimes feel it during a near death experience, sometimes when describing a feeling of traveling "through space when they are met by a light" and the "experience just beyond the light" or "being inside of the light" is one that they repeatedly use the words "unconditional love."

Which I find kind of funny. Because what's "conditional love?"  It's pretty much how we exist on the planet. "I'll love you if you love me" or "I only love people who are my skin color, from my background, are my height, weight, same color eyes, have the same heritage, blood type or shoe size."

It's not a common phrase. We don't hear it in church "God is unconditional love." "Love your neighbor unconditionally as yourself."  It's not part of our advertising, or media, or arts (I did write and direct the film "You Can't Hurry Love" perhaps I should have called it "You Can't Hurry Unconditional Love.")

But what's consistently reported by people who are able to examine these events - and I've heard them from people under deep hypnosis, from people who've had near death experiences, from people who are fully conscious who are having coffee and telling me about their experience - when I say "Stop. Hold onto that memory for a second. What did you feel like when you went into that light/or embraced your mom/or saw people who no longer exist on the planet? What words would you use to describe that feeling?"

They often say; "UNCONDITIONAL LOVE."

"What does that mean to you?"  "It's a feeling beyond bliss, beyond anything, of being completely and utterly connected, of being loved unconditionally, of having no fear and total happiness...."

You get the idea.

So when we go home, we experience unconditional love.  Okay.  Got it.

Do our loved ones still exist after they pass away?

Well, yeah. Why wouldn't they?

Unless they don't want to visit you. Mom and dad.

I kid. If you've read my books "Flipside" "It's a Wonderful Afterlife" or "Hacking the Afterlife" you'll find quite a bit of first person eyewitness accounts of people who have visited, or had visitations from people no longer on the planet. Not one or two - but thousands. I've filmed 35 people under deep hypnosis talking about these events, and have interviewed a number of scientists talking about consciousness research.

Our kids went to the same preschool. Oh boy.

Recently, Gwyneth Paltrow is in the news because she endorsed this book of this fellow who claims that he's an intuitive who talks to people on the Flipside about healing.  I have not read his book,  I have seen the article complaining about it in the Independent by Ms. Hosie, and I comment on it here, because, well, it's worth talking about.

Why complain about GP endorsing a book from a NY Times bestselling author? What's the point? That he shouldn't heal people with his books? That she shouldn't point out people who claim to heal people from the Flipside? That we should ignore what people say about the Flipside, even if it can be verified, it can be forensically proven, or it's a source of new information?  Hard to pin down what's the beef here.

What's the beef?

But it brings up the question:

Can doctors heal us from information from the Flipside?

In the Independent article they complain that she's advocating this fellow's book who claims that he's getting medical advice from "ghosts."  Okay. That's worth noting. Yes, you generally don't want to get medical advice from ghosts unless you've seen their degree. I'm not kidding.  We tend to think of ghosts, or people "channeling the other side" as omniscient, or sacrosanct, or "absolutely correct."  That's not in the research at all. (Wiser, smarter, have access to more lifetimes than we do, but not omniscient.)

What we find is that "talking to ghosts" can be a verifiable event, but that doesn't mean the ghost is any brighter, smarter, more adept than when they were previously on the planet. (Gee. What if you're accessing a doctor who is still dispensing bad advice?) That being said, there are some "ghosts" that do have experience over here as doctors, or as healers, and getting advice from them is worth examining or exploring.  After all, if they still exist, and can help, why not ask them questions?

Anita Moorjani was dying of cancer. And while she had a near death experience she "understood the cause of her illness" and started to heal herself, so by the time she got back into her body the healing process had begun. This happened under clinical conditions.  But she's a doctor who accessed her "higher self" to affect a cure. (Is your higher self like talking to a ghost? Well, if you understand the concept of the "ghost in the machine" then, as a matter of argument, yes, you are.)

One of the most famous people to give and get medical advice from "ghosts" was Edgar Cayce. 

Edgar makes an appearance
in "Hacking the Afterlife'

 While under a trance, Edgar would access information that was not only accurate, but could cure people of illnesses. He was immensely famous for this ability - and many poets, Presidents and scientists went to visit him.  But was Edgar 100% accurate?  Of course not. 

Why? Short answer (based on the research) is because we have free will. 

People don't sign up for a lifetime to NOT experience life - they do so to learn and teach and explore.  Not everyone signs up to be ill, it's a consequence of being human - and while everyone appears to want to be cured of their illness, the only way to really know what that's about is to speak to their higher selves. "So why did you choose this lifetime where you'd have this illness? And what's the best way to cure yourself, if that's what you're trying to do?"

In the reports, people claim that they experienced an illness so that the could "become better doctors in a next lifetime."  People claim that the illness was a way of teaching lessons in love and compassion to those around them.  

I cite a case in Flipside where one fellow claims he chose the life of a baby in a previous lifetime (in 1964, in Miami Fl) he lived 4 years in an incubator, experiencing a debilitating illness that kept him in the ICU his entire life.  

When asked if that was a "difficult choice" he said "Not really. From my perspective I was loved, and experienced love.  That lifetime was to teach others around me about love."

Good grief!

I'm not here to debate whether Goop is a fabulous website, or where Gwyneth Paltrow's intentions lie in promoting books about healing. (Our kids went to the same preschool, and we share a good pal in Dr. Habib Sadeghi) 

I don't know who the Medical Medium claims to be channeling, or accessing, or his methodology for doing so.  That's not really my point. Yes. There are charlatans out there doing this kind of work. But that doesn't mean that what everyone is bringing back from the Flipside is inaccurate.  

It does mean that we need to check into the methodology (the degree hanging on the wall) of how the information was accessed and why. And the best, most accurate way to access that information is to do it yourself.

How to do it yourself?  

Well, there are two methods I recommend. One is via a hypnotherapy session with a Michael Newton trained hypnotherapist (there is a searchable database at the Newton Institute website). I work often with Scott De Tamble here in LA, he's a virtuoso at what he does. You want to know why you chose this lifetime? He can guide you to the answer.

The other method is via talking to a medium yourself. I work with Jennifer Shaffer here in LA, who works pro bono with law enforcement on missing person cases.  You want to speak to a loved one no longer on the planet? She can guide you to them.

What I recommend, if you're going to go down this path - is do your research, bring questions that you don't know the answer to, or could not know the answer to, and ask specifics about the individual you're seeking to speak with. It's not often, but sometimes the door is slammed shut for some reason, and it may be to not "alter your path" by accessing this information. But even in those cases, I've seen Scott De Tamble use the Socratic method ("So why did you bring this person to this session if you don't want them to access this information?") to pry open doors that normally seem closed.  

All I can say for a fact, is that in the 35 sessions I've filmed, the 5 I've done myself, and the many hours I've filmed Jennifer doing her thing, I've gotten accurate, verifiable information from the Flipside that I could not have had access to.  

The three Flipsideers (Jennifer and Scott)

All I can report is what I've seen or experienced, and that is that indeed - people who are no longer on the planet report that they are still learning, teaching and going to classrooms over there on the Flipside, and that they continue to help heal, and help doctors here who need to help their patients.

That there's no one cure for every illness, but that if the person is able to examine their path and journey, they can find the source of their illness, whether it's genetic, sociological, psychosomatic, or otherwise... and the reality is that since there is no death, even if an illness doesn't appear to be survivable - it is survivable, because no one dies.  

We merely exit the stage.

If you're stopping by this blog for the first time, I sincerely know how odd and controversial that statement is.  But if you care to go down the rabbit hole with me, check out my books - or book talks on youtube - or look into other reports on the same topic.





For those interested in the science of consciousness, I recommend the books done by the scientists at UVA ("Irreducible Mind" "Beyond Physicalism" "Return to Life" etc.) "Biocentrism" by biologist Robert Lanza, "Brain Wars" by neuroscientist Mario Beauregard, "The GOD Experiments" by Gary Schwartz PhD, or Carol Bowman's "Children's Past lives."

For those interested in the Flipside, I recommend Michael Newton's "Journey of Souls" as a jumping off place, Erik Medhus "My life after death" Galen Stoller's "My Life after Life" and Annie Kagan's "The Afterlife of Billy Fingers."  

These are all first hand accounts of what it's like on the flipside, and Dr. Newton's book is what spawned my documentary "Flipside."

In audible, ebook, paperback, etc.
Links on the side of the page.

So, again, I'm not mitigating grief.  God knows we all go through it. But having some perspective is good, having a sense that "they aren't suffering anymore because they've gone home" is good to hear or know.  It's not worth arguing about - because after all, not everyone is supposed to see the curtain pulled back, not everyone is supposed to see the Wizard of Oz, and it's not my job to pull that curtain back for everyone.  

But for those folks who feel the need to reach out and share their stories, that's why I'm doing this research. (And Gwyneth, if you or your peeps are curious about this research, just ask Habib-ola.)