Hacking the Afterlife Reviews

Amazon page for "Hacking the Afterlife"

"Everyone who has ever lived continues to exist on the Flipside and if possible, can be asked direct questions." This is the startling premise of "Hacking the Afterlife" which argues it's possible to obtain "new information" from people no longer on the planet. 

These "afterlife interviews" are conducted via various mediums, with people under deep hypnosis, or with people fully conscious yet able to access and remember details of previous lifetimes. The reports offer practical advice ("afterlife hacks") on how to navigate our lives and improve our planet. 

Best selling author of '"Flipside: A Tourist's Guide on How to Navigate the Afterlife" (also a film) and "It's a Wonderful Afterlife," (both went to #1 at Amazon kindle) frequent guest on "Coast to Coast," explores the Flipside via mediums and other methods, "interviews" a variety of people who are no longer on the planet. 

Interviews with someone who claims to be Edgar Cayce "sleeping prophet," three different mediums who claim to be able to speak to Amelia Earhart, "conversations" with Robin Williams, the Artist formerly known as Prince, and a number of people who claim to have known the person known worldwide as the "Alpha and the Omega." The Author explores these accounts with an open mind, and invites the reader to do the same. 

Quotes for the book from the people who were interviewed: 

*"This book will have people questioning their own disbeliefs and belief paradigms. It's a translation of the ethers." Edgar Cayce via medium JenniferShaffer.com 

*"Good luck to you for making the unbelievable claim that there even is an afterlife. " Howard Schultz, friend who passed away recently. 

*"They should read your book if they want to fly. It makes the reader open up. It's beautiful written music, Rich." The Artist formerly known as Prince Rogers Nelson. 

*"Two words; "Love, Love." The key ingredient for happiness is to love the love; love love, and then send it to everything." Robin Williams via Jennifer Shaffer. 

* "Lift this book to your soul. And see what your soul has to say. Hearing the words from the book; don't judge it, just listen to your spirit. It will guide you and tell you that the "unthinkable" is real. Laughing is the best medicine. Don't waste time trying to dig up things." Amelia Earhart (who proves in this book that she died in Saipan during the war) 

*"More people will be changed by your words than the ones who can't hear what you're saying. It is a challenge frequency that always hurts initally." From the person known as the Alpha and the Omega.


REVIEWS

5.0 out of 5 stars

"Richard has topped his Flipside Series with Hacking The Afterlife. My favorite chapters were/are the chapter that had the message from Planet Earth and the long chapter about Issa/Jesus. 

Everything I have read or listened to Richard's Audible Books are truly Awesome Research Material. I have all 3 version of this Book, the Audible.com version, the Kindle Version and the actual book. I am on the 5th listening of the Audible version and the information he shares about Jesus showing up in either a LBL or through a Medium is truly what the World needs to hear. 

Richard's Catholic Brain Freeze seems to be in the background because the information rings very TRUE to me. I was raised Southern Baptist, but later adopted Non-Denomination/Gnostic Beliefs about Jesus. It makes sense that the Romans would do some rewriting of the Bible when it was put together in 325AD. 

Richard's Hacking the Afterlife and Flipside series brings out truths that the Protestant Religions would rather keep buried/denied to their believers. As Richard says He is not there to Rock Your Boat or Beliefs. I recommended this book to some friends and they thought I was crazy to believe in such research. 

I have always wondered about the missing years of Jesus in the 4 Gospels and this book covers those years and it truly makes sense. We all have to test the spirits and I believe the Holy Spirit has allowed this information to be made known to help all of us to LOVE One Another even more and to enjoy our Vacations here on earth. This Book is AWESOME.

5.0 out of 5 stars

This detailed kindlebook of Hacking The Afterlife; Practical Advice From The Flipside by Richard Martini has written details from different writers that give different perspectives on the afterlife. I do like the healing guidance and reminder that it is possible to recover towards triumph from almost any challenge in life. 

Deep down I already knew this but it is healing to see that reminder in written form. I respectfully disagree on some of the points made in this kindle book yet my spiritual heart is indirectly influencing me to give myself more time to revisit some of the points I disagree with that are currently left unwritten. 

There are various details included such as sometimes when a person dies it is actually common for some men and women to meet family members and or friends and or other members from their soul group from both their current lifetime and past lifetimes, people can be met by their spirit guides, our spirit guides are very supportive and positive even if we veered towards a course different from what we set out to do prior to incarnating, information on the council of elders.

It is possible for a man or woman to ask for help in a course adjustment if they are concerned about living their lives in alignment with what their soul/higher self set out to do in their present incarnation, the hall of records, soul groups, pre-life planning, a person can go a thousand years in living in the non-physical realms/afterlife before reincarnating back on earth if they choose to do so, and much more...

5.0 out of 5 stars

Hacking the After Life will help satisfy curiosity about this topic!

"A very interesting and enlightening book regarding what's beyond this plane of existence. The author draws first on his experience with Michael Newton, Phd. who, in his books notes cases with countless patients who had recall of not only previous lives, but also lives between lives, then with his own experience of being regressed. As a result, he began interviewing folks while in a state of regression.

I recommend this book to perhaps satisfy the curiosity about this topic.

5.0 out of 5 stars
Fascinating

I am only partially through this book, but I find it fascinating. It is just incredible the work that Martini and his partners are doing in the between life area. I would love to participate in a between life session.

5.0 out of 5 stars

Enjoying it. Good follow up to his previous books on the same subject. This book is more in depth and even refers back to his other works. It's got me fascinated..... Makes me wonder if my husband, who recently transitioned to the flipside, is reading along with me. Wish he'd let me know.....

5.0 out of 5 stars

Great Book!

I enjoy all of Mr Martini's books. This one is great.

5.0 out of 5 stars

A definite must read!

This is a great read in the series of books on the afterlife by Richard Martini. I remember being skeptical, but intrigued, when I first read "It's a Wonderful Afterlife", but something in the back of my mind kept telling me this was really how it was. I think you will find his interviews with people in the afterlife quite fascinating and eye opening. I sincerely suggest all his books on this subject. And I thank you Mr. Martini for opening my mind to a new way to look at the afterlife.

5.0 out of 5 stars
Five Stars
Love this book, I'm reading it now & can't seem to put it down! 5 Stars!

Most recent customer reviews

5.0 out of 5 starsFive Stars

Love it.

Published 23 days ago by Tamara F. Guion

5.0 out of 5 starsLife changing read....

This is my first book by Richard Martini and my first book on past life / between life regression therapy.Read more

Published 28 days ago by E. Kepner

5.0 out of 5 starsLoved this book!

Thank you to the author for his beautiful work. I would recommend this to anyone interested in finding meaning in their life's journey.

Published 1 month ago by Kindle Customer

5.0 out of 5 starsFive Stars

Fine

Published 4 months ago by Ron Banister

5.0 out of 5 starsFive Stars

Very cool reading

Published 5 months ago by debbie schaare

5.0 out of 5 starsFive Stars

Great book!

Published 6 months ago by david h. brown

5.0 out of 5 starsFive Stars

May we all finally be ready for the truth revealed herein...

Published 7 months ago by Paul Kurowski

Maximum Selfie and other thoughts on the S word

I received this email today, and with the author's permission, am sharing it here.

Divine Light or dust in the Vatican?

"Dear Rich,

I lost my beautiful 23 yr old daughter to suicide a year and a half ago.  There were a lot of factors that hit at once, creating a perfect storm, and she decided to go.  

As you would imagine, this caused the kind of pain to me that dropped me to my knees, hurt my chest, made me physically ill for months.  

Having had a mother who was a clairvoyant (and moments of my own that come in unexpected bursts), and having attended my local Buddhist Center for about 12 years, I began searching for something.  Peace, validation, anything.   

After reading everyone else’s books, I read all of yours and really did like them best.  

I did the best that I could, but it is hard to quell a grieving mother’s pain, and she was on my mind often.  

About three months after (her) dying, she came to me in a dream/vision/lucid thing and told me that she will be coming back, as her  brother’s child.  I have told her brother, but he has not told his wife!  

Three weeks ago, I went to the hospital with trouble breathing.  It turns out, I was in the middle of active heart failure.   I am in my 50's, and my co-workers were in shock as I appear to be the healthiest there!  

Heathy eating, exercise, etc.  When I went in, I really did not care whether I lived or died.   The cardiologist found that I needed a double bypass, and I didn’t care.   I called my son, and told him (what I wanted him to do with my belongings) and had the surgery.   
Two days after surgery, I developed blood clots in my leg and one in each side of my heart.  The doctors were stunned, as this is apparently a rare complication and very life threatening. They put me on strong blood thinners, IV.  With the lighting in Intensive Care, sleep was elusive.   

I had several “incidents” while in there.  One was a foggy, distant vision of what you would call a council meeting, except I wasn’t included.  I was the subject, though.  

It seemed one cloudy spirit was discussing me, presenting my case to the five indistinct shapes in front of me.  I asked that they please, please send help to break up the clots, because I wanted to go home.  My significant other is an introvert, and (I feel it would be hard to leave him on his own...)

I was also thinking of my son, who has no one but me left. Grandparents, his father, friends, he (like me) has more people on that side than on this, and I knew (my leaving would be difficult.)  

The spirits seemed to take this into account, but there were a couple things they wanted me to know. The first was that my grief was causing an attachment that is preventing my daughter from moving forward and coming back.  

The second came in a separate incident.  I had always suspected I had been in the Holocaust and I saw myself, in a different body (trimmer and slight) rushing at dusk to Shabbat.  

I didn’t even know what Shabbat was until I looked it up the next morning!  But I recalled the cobbled street, the rush to get inside before nightfall, and the awful horror of being caught out.  
A night or two later, I was moved to a private room, which would allow for sleep.  But, I laid awake and could feel long fingers on a very small hand reaching into my heart and “squishing up” the clots.

Friday, the cardiologists gathered, as they generally do in scary groups. They told me they would repeat the ultrasound test to determine the size of the clots.  If they were the same or bigger, they would transport me to a hospital about 30 miles east of me.  
IF they showed any sign of reducing, they would send me home on coumadin and a wearable vest with an external defibrillator.  They said that once the clots became small enough to move out of the heart, in 2-3 months, they could cause a stroke, so I’d wear the vest daily.   Those were the choices.  

Once of them started to say, "If they had dissipated..." but trailed off and told me to "never mind, as that wasn’t possible."  

I knew what was possible, and had told my significant other.  He said when they came into the waiting room, he could tell the cardiologist couldn’t believe it, but the clots were entirely GONE.   

So, I am home, recovering.  

I have always been extremely disturbed when others are hungry, although I have no problem skipping meals myself.  But, seeing hungry people kills me, and watching the movie “Into the Wild” threw me into uncontrollable hysterics.  

I think they were providing me with a reason why, and perhaps I can help heal the past by volunteering at a local food bank.  As for my daughter, I am working on the grief.  I have spent years in meditation and “training the mind”, so when the thoughts intrude, I calmly redirect them now.  She isn’t forgotten at all!  I am glad to be here, to welcome her when she comes back!

I saw a story in the last Good Housekeeping.  A mother lost her daughter, to Cerebral Palsy I believe.  And, Mom then became pregnant right through a tubal!  They are so astonished at how much the new baby reminds them of the lost child.  

Why, oh why, do people raised in Western faiths not believe that their God can do ANYTHING? They deny the very possibilities, limiting their own God.  

"Why, sometimes I've believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast." Alice in Wonderland. And so should we.

Thank you for the wonderful work that you do.  I follow your blog, receive and read your every email and look forward to your future work...."

My reply:

"Wow. Thanks for sharing this. It's very moving. I'm sorry to hear of your trauma but so encouraged to hear of your spiritual journey. 

There are a few Michael Newton trained therapists near you. A session might allow you further access as well as some answers and new observations. 

The Maestro Michael Newton
"Journey of Souls"

Also check out Carol Bowman book "Children's Past Lives" and website are worth checking out. Erik Medhus book "My life after Death" is worth reading, Galen Stoller's "My Life after Life" or "The Afterlife of Billie Fingers" all give insight into what your daughter is experiencing.

Either way thank you for sharing. Perhaps I can share some of it on my blog so others can experience your story? "

Her reply:

"Actually, I’ve read all of those and more!  

I will be looking for a hypnotist near me. No hurry in this moment.

And, of course you can share!  That’s why we’re here, right?" 

Hacking the Afterlife

And my reply:

"Thank you.

Well, I've had pals interested in the topic reach out to hypnotists near you before, and come away with a bad experience - or no experience.  So before you see one, make sure you've done your research on them - most hypnotists don't have a clue about the flipside, or about Michael Newton's work. That's why I recommend people who've trained with him or his institute... and some of them are doing skype sessions now... or you can ask. 

(I think Scott De Tamble lightbetweenlives.com might be, you can ask him.)  

JenniferShaffer.com (medium) and Scott De Tamble (hypnotherapist)
My two secret weapons when I want to address or interview the flipside.

"By the way; I think it's time we stopped using the term suicide... but I can't think of a more apt one that allows for grieving and loss - after all, even if they are somewhere else, or aren't here - it's a loss to not have them around.... and it's always tricky when they decide they want to come back right away - did they learn the lessons they were trying to learn?  

It's one of those long discussions with council and guides and soul group members....  because over there is the natural state of affairs... not here.  So when we discuss coming back here "right away" it's usually because we feel as if we didn't accomplish what we set out to do.  And there's no punishment in that - there's no "spanking machine" for failing to accomplish your goals.  (Something I remember from my days of playing "Kick the Can.")

There's regret, to be sure, perhaps the pain and sorry of making everyone else suffer through the experience - that's reported consistently.  But those are emotions we feel regret about - that we feel awful about when we've done something that has screwed up our path or the paths of those we love.

But the flipside is a place of unconditional love. It's a place of ultimate compassion. It's a place where we can see why we've done things, why we've come to the fork in the road, and how not to be swept away by it the next time around.  It's a place of ultimate reflection and learning.

So once someone goes "home" - what's the big hurry to get out of the house?  Chill awhile.  Reflect.  Everyone you've ever loved will eventually join you - and the time over there is so relatively different, it'll feel like ten minutes went by.

So "ultimate selfie" - "maximum selfie" come to mind as alternatives for "The S word." The idea that we get so wrapped up in our minds (sometimes because of ssri drugs as I've mentioned in my books, or allowing the amygdala to control our emotions, etc) - that we can't think of anything but checking ourselves out... 

But as we know, as science proves - the physical act of helping others - and in your case helping in a food bank - are physical things that we can do to "cure or alleviate depression."  

To alter the repository of depression - regulated by the amygdala - to allow for a more compassionate flow in our minds - (See "Tonglen Meditation" as a Tibetan meditation that helps regulate this, as proven scientifically by Richard Davidson at the University of Wisconsin) 

Davidson with a monk described as the
"Happiest person on the planet" according to former neuroscientist turned Tibetan Buddhist monk Matthieu Ricard's MRI.

I attended a lecture by Davidson at UCLA and it was filled with psychiatrists eager to find an alternative to prescribing SSRI drugs to teens.  There had been a spike in suicides - and Davidson's research on Tibetan monks - a ten year study - showed that just one session of meditation could change the physical shape of the amygdala.  

Further that meditation can "cure or alleviate symptoms of depression."  It's not a religious concept - or a yoga method - but a scientific method.  Meditate on healing and helping others and you heal yourself. (I asked him specifically what Tibetan Meditation he used in the study, and he told me "Tonglen" - which means "give and take" and is designed for the meditator to heal or cure someone else in their mind.)  

In Davidson's study, monks trained in meditation were used.

What I realized is that this "mental act of helping others" - is reflected/identical to the physical act of helping others.  

In other words "Love your neighbor as yourself" and physically help them - can cure you or alleviate symptoms of depression.

Helping others actually helps us... I'm fond of saying that when someone is super depressed, get on a plane and go to India... the people over there live in such difficult circumstances, yet have the brightest smiles, the happiest dispositions - and I think it's because under extreme conditions, in a culture that believes that life is temporary, and that we all return here - they can enjoy the ride for what it is.... 

Of course there are all kinds of people in India - there are good guys, bad guys, criminals, sadhus, holy men, pandits - as in every culture - but when I'm in India I literally feel like I'm on Mars.  

So it's really hard to focus on whatever I thought was depressing when there's so many people who need my immediate help, even if it's a stick of gum or a smile.

So when depressed, go to Mars.

One of my many trips to Mars.

Anyways, thanks for writing, yes, I'm working on the next book - as we speak....

Thanks for the encouraging words - you who need encouragement to be on the planet as well - and I believe sharing your story will help someone neither one of us knows." (Who's been guided by a loved on on the flipside to this page.)

Everyone you've ever loved is keeping an eye on you.  But don't take my word for it. They're trying to tell that to you.

Post Script:

When I was writing this post, as I started to refer to the suicide mentioned in her email, I had the feeling I should include some information about SSRI drugs and Davidson's work at the University of Wisconsin. 

I refer to them in my books - it's a topic I'm familiar with, and have done research on.

SSRI drugs are the ones commonly given to treat depression and a variety of other symptoms not related to depression.  ("Prozac," "Zoloft" and others). I first encountered them in Europe when a filmmaker friend committed suicide a few weeks after finishing his film. His wife was befuddled as he was the happiest he'd ever been, but was having trouble sleeping. He was given Prozac to help him sleep.

On the other hand, I have heard a number of people say their lives were "saved" by SSRI drugs. They are offended when I talk about them, and I've even been asked to leave them out of my books.

According to a physician I interviewed for Flipside, up to 15% of the folks who take SSRI drugs can't tolerate them. (He said there's a simple test that Doctors don't give.) 

And these people have the "adverse effects" - the warnings that are buried deep in the website of the drug manufacturers. (By law, they have to publish them. They're rarely on the drug itself, but they are in the drug literature in the pharma co's site.)

As a point of fact, every mass shooting since Columbine has had an SSRI component - the shooter or shooters had taken them, sometimes in their teen years.  As I've noted, the NIMH issued a warning on their website about prescribing SSRI drugs to children under 18 AS THEY HAVE NOT BEEN TESTED for that.  They were seeing a spike in suicides and were warning doctors from prescribing adult medicine for children. (And also the reason that Davidson's talk at UCLA was standing room only.  He queried the room as to why they'd come to his talk, and they spoke of how they were looking for "alternative" therapies to prescribing SSRI drugs.)

This is not my opinion, belief or theory. These facts are easy to find in the literature about these drugs.  Yet for some reason, like the S word, we tend to ignore what we don't like to hear.  I understand that. But I post this anyway.

After I posted this today, I received this email from the mother of the daughter who killed herself: 

"I hadn’t even mentioned, but they had put her on the SSRI drugs. They were switching her prescription at the time, she was hormonal and when she failed a test (in school) that day, she (killed) herself.

 When I tried going to a suicide survivor group, I was shocked by how many of the living and the dead had prescriptions for those drugs.  

We are a drugged society.  One of our monks did a teaching on it, pointing out how many people believe physical “things” bring them happiness.  

If they did, you would think Americans would be the happiest people on earth!  But, as you know, it is the poorest who are the most generous, and giving to others brings true happiness."

Well said ma'am.  

Like I say, I'm terribly sorry for her loss, but perhaps by sharing it someone else will think twice about a prescription for their children that includes SSRI medication. 

Be vigilant. 
Do the research. 
Go to the drug manufacturer's website.
Get a second opinion.
Check into Davidson's work at the University of Wisconsin.  It's breathtaking science.

My two cents.

Ghosts Are Not Ghosts and other Flipside Observations

Time to stop calling them "ghosts." "No such thing as ghosts" is accurate. 

They're only "people no longer here." I've cataloged many cases of "ghosts" giving new information; details, facts only they know, have seen or observed - often after they left. My books "Hacking the Afterlife" and "It's a Wonderful Afterlife" include verifiable cases.


In Dr Bruce Greyson's interview (psychiatrist, UVA, DOPS) in "It's a Wonderful Afterlife" he argues these end of life events occur because the atrophied brain is no longer blocking access to higher consciousness or virtual memory. He cites cases where Alzheimers patients regain full memory prior to passing yet autopsies show their brains could not function as they have. As if the "partitions" had ceased functioning and a person regains memory for a brief time.

Dr. Greyson's amended talk is also in "It's a Wonderful Afterlife"

These are not ghosts. These are loved ones who can supersede the false curtain we live with on a daily basis. People who are no longer playing our virtual game, yet have stopped by to help a loved one step off stage.

This author should freak out. Everything he's been told is inaccurate. Bodies die; people do not.

(Michael Woloschinow for The Washington Post)

"At the end of her life, my mother started seeing ghosts, and it freaked me out"

by Steven Petrow

"Last summer, six months before my mother died, I walked into her bedroom, and she greeted me with a tinny hello and a big smile. She then resumed a conversation with her mother — who had died in 1973. “Where are you?” Mom asked, as though Grandma, a onetime Fifth Avenue milliner, was on one of her many European hat-buying junkets. As I stood there dumbstruck, Mom continued chatting — in a young girl’s voice, no less — for several more minutes. Was this a reaction to medication, a sign of advancing dementia? Or was she preparing to “transition” to wherever she was going next?

Regardless, Mom was freaking me out — as well as my brother, sister and father.

As it turned out, my mother’s chat with a ghost was a signal that the end was inching closer. Those who work with the terminally ill, such as social workers and hospice caregivers, call these episodes or visions a manifestation of what is called Nearing Death Awareness.

“They are very common among dying patients in hospice situations,” Rebecca Valla, a psychiatrist in Winston-Salem, N.C., who specializes in treating terminally ill patients, wrote in an email. “Those who are dying and seem to be in and out of this world and the ‘next’ one often find their deceased loved ones present, and they communicate with them. In many cases, the predeceased loved ones seem [to the dying person] to be aiding them in their ‘transition’ to the next world.”

While family members are often clueless about this phenomenon, at least at the outset, a small 2014 study of hospice patients concluded that “most participants” reported such visions and that as these people “approached death, comforting dreams/visions of the deceased became more prevalent.”

 The author’s grandmother, Marjorie Straus, with his mother, Margot Petrow, left, and his aunt Ann Youngwood. (COURTESY OF SUSAN YOUNGWOOD )


Jim May, a licensed clinical social worker in Durham, N.C., said that family members — and patients themselves — are frequently surprised by these deathbed visitors, often asking him to help them understand what is happening. “I really try to encourage people, whether it’s a near-death experience or a hallucination, to just go with the flow,” May explained after I told him about my mom’s visitations. “Whatever they are experiencing is real to them.”

Valla agreed, telling me what not to do: “Minimize, dismiss or, worse, pathologize these accounts, which is harmful and can be traumatic” to the dying person. In fact, May said, “most patients find the conversations to be comforting.”

(RM: Especially because... they're real!  For example - examine what were Steven Jobs last words? "Oh wow. Oh wow! Oh wow!!!" Not exactly something that was "comforting" for a last person to see or say, but echoes what others say as they enter the flipside: amazing, brilliant, fantastic. (I have a chapter in Flipside - "Are Last Words the First Words in the Afterlife?")

"That certainly appeared to be the case with my mother, who had happy exchanges with several good friends, who, like my grandmother, were no longer living.

In a moving 2015 TED talk, Christopher Kerr, the chief medical officer at the Center for Hospice and Palliative Care in Buffalo, showed a clip of one his terminally ill patients discussing her deathbed visions, which included her saying, “My mom and dad, my uncle, everybody I knew that was dead was there [by my side]. I remember seeing every piece of their face.” She was lucid and present.

Since Mom had already been diagnosed with advanced dementia, I originally thought her talks were a sign of worsening illness. In fact, current research posits that a combination of physiological, pharmacological and psychological explanations may be at play. That’s exactly what May’s hands-on experience of more than 14 years revealed to him, too.

(RM: If you watch the clip above, Dr. Greyson explains that despite an atrophied brain due to Alzheimer's - or perhaps as a result of it - people in 70% of the cases in the UK were able to regain their memories just prior to passing.  Fully. As if the barriers had come down so that they could say goodbye. Later, autopsies showed they should not have been able to communicate, let alone remember their lifetime.)

May acknowledged that it’s understandably “hard to have empirical evidence” for such episodes in patients, but that it’s important for family members and health professionals to figure out how to respond.

(RM: "Empirical evidence" may be difficult, but "eyewitness reports" are not.  There are thousands upon thousands. If people consistently say the same things - whether during a near death event, while under deep hypnosis, or in hospice care about the afterlife, isn't that worth examining? People at the end of life don't claim to see martians, aliens, Barney, Big Bird or other imaginary creatures (for the most part) but consistently claim to communicate with loved ones,  hear messages from loved ones or people they don't recognize but somehow have known forever. "That little man in the doorway is beckoning me."  They may not recognize them here - in this lifetime - but they do once they go "home" - as every case I've filmed describes the place we go after we are here.)

Last fall, another visit to Mom raised the stakes. As before, she greeted me by name and spoke coherently for several minutes before she turned to the bookcase near her bed and began cooing to an imagined baby. I watched in astonishment as Mom gitchi-gitchi-goo-ed to an apparition she referred to as “her” baby.

“My baby is very sick,” she repeated, clearly deeply concerned about this apparition. “She’s very thirsty. She’s hungry. She’s crying. Can’t you do anything for her?”

I didn’t know what to do. Neither did my siblings or Dad. I had long stopped “correcting” Mom. A year earlier, Mom had regaled me with the story that my niece Anna had made a delicious dinner the night before and was at that very moment out doing errands. In fact, Anna was away at college; also, I’ve never seen her cook, and she doesn’t even have a driver’s license. But why contradict Mom’s vision of a perfect granddaughter?

(RM: I've found in my research the opposite is effective.  To ask questions. To actually listen to what they're saying. Just because you can't see what they're seeing doesn't mean what they're seeing isn't there. (Ask Ray Charles).  But if you ask simple questions - "Who is this baby?  Is he or she a friend of yours? It's it someone you know from here in the hospital? Or is this someone you used to know?"  By asking simple direct question, you'll be surprised - perhaps "freaked out" by the answers.  If you actually care to listen to the person who raised you - actually listen to them and not assume they're crazy or nuts - you actually might learn something new from them.  I've been asking these questions for years and get some pretty amazing answers.  It doesn't hurt to ask)

Social worker May, when asked about these sorts of imaginings, put it this way: “Don’t argue, because an argument is not what they need.” I decided to go along with the “baby” story and told Mom I was going to take the baby to the kitchen to bottle-feed her, which alleviated the crisis.

As the fall days grew shorter, Mom’s “baby” was a continuing presence at my visits, with my mother becoming increasingly distressed. I would settle things down by giving the imagined infant an imaginary bottle, or cradle her in my arms and leave the room for a while, saying I was taking her to the doctor. At one point I asked gently, “Mom, do you think the baby is you?” She didn’t miss a beat. “Yes,” she replied. “The baby is hurting.”

(RM: Fantastic! A question asked and answered.  "Is the baby you?"  First you need to clarify what that means.  "How could the baby be her?"  Well, if you examine the research, the reports (Dr. Helen Wambach, Michael Newton's books) claim that only about a third of our energy is here while we're incarnated.  Two thirds is always "home" or "back there" -- where we "return." 

So seeing a child that is hurting - which she may actually be seeing, or may be referring to herself, not a scrambled idea, or a mixed message if you've actually examined other reports of people who say something quite similar. He asked "Are you the baby?" She answered "Yes."  She answered the question as to what she was experiencing or seeing. The next question is - "How can that be? Or is there anything you want to tell that baby that is you?"  If you follow my logic, there is no question that is wrong when it comes to talking to the flipside, or those people with a foot in both realms.)

In fact, the largest study to date on deathbed visions reported on numerous cases when the “arrival of . . . a visitor appeared to arouse anxiety and intensify death fear.”

(RM:  Really? That's the best they can come up with? How about the "arrival of a visitor" was "followed up by a series of questions. "Who are you? Why are you here? What's your role in this person's life or spiritual evolvement? Is there anything that you want to impart to this person or to those around them? How can you help them in this transition?"  No one is going to be fired for asking the questions. But the answers may yield helpful and/or calming results. And what's the harm in doing that?)

But what to do? I hated that Mom’s level of distress was skyrocketing in what turned out to be her final weeks. I simply held Mom’s hands a bit tighter and tried to distract her as best I could with family and political news. Oh, and I cooked, which she loved my doing.

One evening I made a simple dinner: spaghetti with a store-bought marinara sauce and a bright green leafy salad. Mom had pretty much stopped eating by this point, which is common as the end draws near, but she made a show of trying her best with this repast for the two of us, plus my father. It was heartbreaking to watch her try to spear the pasta, but she managed several hearty mouthfuls, saving room for a scoop of Sealtest vanilla ice cream.

After dinner, I helped her back to bed, where she exclaimed: “How did you know?” “How did I know what?” I asked. “That was exactly how I wanted my funeral to be. You invited all my favorite people, and the food was just what I would have ordered.”


She was beaming. Six weeks later, she passed — and pasta and salad were on the menu at her service.

(RM: I would argue that she was describing her own funeral service with her favorite people - which includes her husband and her son, (and of course all those on the flipside waiting for her, including her mom) and the food she loved the best.  I know that on my pal Luana Ander's last day on the planet, she asked me to bring her a tuna sandwich from "Ocean Seafood" in Santa Monica. Her favorite. 

I didn't know where it was, had never seen the sandwich, and could not find it pre-smart phone days. I brought her a sandwich from a nearby deli. The look of disappointment on her face remains; I had failed in the one simple last meal request she had. (I was able to connect her to her best friends however, the Coppolas called in from Turkey on a satellite phone, Robert Towne, Charles Grodin and Jack Nicholson called to say their goodbyes, so I was happy about that) After she passed, I made a point of stopping by to eat that same damned tuna sandwich - which I finally found, and still regret not bringing her.  At least the author Steve Petrow got to serve his mom her favorite last meal.)

Steven Petrow, the author of “Steven Petrow’s Complete Gay & Lesbian Manners,” addresses questions about LGBT and straight etiquette in his column, Civilities.  Follow @StevenPetrow

(RM: My only desire in using this wonderful story of Steven Petrow's on my blog is not to chastise the medical community for not understanding or examining the flipside, or make light of a loved one's passing. 

Anyone who's read my work knows the depth of emotion I associate with anyone's passing. I've experienced it profoundly myself, as has everyone reading this post. 

In my case, readers know that "Flipside" the film and book came out of my friend Luana Anders returning to visit me in dramatic fashion after her passing, in such a visual and profound way, that it put me on the path of trying to discover if it was my imagination or - if it was accurate, how could I go and visit her?  I've done so, at least five times since beginning this journey.  

I've been researching the topic for 20 some years, I'm a filmmaker and an author, and have written extensively, and have many book talks on youtube (MartiniProds) and speak often on Coast to Coast radio.  

With Coast to Coast's George Noory
at a recent public appearance

My point of this post is to show that there is ample evidence to back up precisely what his mother was experiencing. That it's not merely a story of ghosts, or a "ghost story" or some other pejorative people use for consciousness - but an example of what's really happening just outside of our perception. 

We only need to reach out to understand it better.)

And some testimony from a Hospice Chaplain:

Here's Hospice Chaplain Savarna Wiley talking about the same phenomena, as well as her journey to becoming a hypnotherapist in her 2013 talk at the Afterlife Convention in Santa Monica:






So Steven Petrow;  I've got some good news for you.

Your grandmother was visiting your mother.

And your mother is with her now - and both are keeping an eye on you.

How do I know that?  

It's in the research.  It's not my opinion, belief or philosophy.  I've examined 10,000 cases of people talking to loved ones under deep hypnosis, as well as filming 40 of them, and doing 5 myself.

I've interview mediums, scientists, doctors, psychiatrists and others - to get to the bottom of why this might be. I've published those findings in "Flipside" "It's a Wonderful Afterlife" and "Hacking the Afterlife."  

Transcripts, eyewitness accounts that confirm precisely what your dear mother was telling you.

And is trying to tell you still.

You just need to open up your awareness a bit to hear her.  

If you need help doing so, contact me at @martinizone on twitter, richardmartini (at) gmail, or find a Michael Newton trained hypnotherapist near you (searchable at their website), see for yourself if you can or cannot continue the conversation with dear mom.  Bon voyage! (and bon appetito!)