Slices of Time and Stephen Hawking

From Wired Magazine - the Nebula where the black home exists. Note the dot at the center.  Reportedly, the black hole of recent photos.

So the other day I was talking to Stephen Hawking...

And he said that he could access time like "floppy disks."

Let's break this down for a moment.  I have been speaking to a number of people on the Flipside via Jennifer Shaffer, and in "Backstage Pass to the Flipside: Talking to the Afterlife" we had a conversation with Mr. Hawking just after he departed.

I asked him if he had seen a black hole since his departure and he said he had, that he had learned what it really was, but that it is more complex than he thought it was.  In subsequent follow up conversations, he allowed that the word "portal" would apply to a black hole, but not in the way we think of the word, as in "window."

Jennifer said that she could "see the location of the black hole" that it was not in the center of our universe (I asked) but that it was the larger one where "most of the matter is going through."

(For fans of "Flipside: A Tourist's Guide on How to Navigate the Afterlife" I had an out of body experience of going through a black hole.  I was so enchanted by it that I actually reached out to Hawking to describe it to him - but as of yet haven't asked whether he ever got my email. But I digress.)

According to what Stephen is "telling us" there is matter that moves from our universe to other universes via black holes.  "It's the source of the majority of dark matter as it moves through the hole or holes to create other universes."

Portal. According to Stephen.

Which begat a follow up question for scientists on the flipside - "What is dark matter and/or dark energy?" and I asked Jennifer to line up a "Panel of Flipside All Stars" who might know the answer to the question.

The All Stars include Albert Einstein, Carl Sagan, Stephen Hawking and Nikola Tesla. (I wrote a script about Tesla in the 80's, am familiar with his engineering background, and asked him to "show up for the conversation.")

Nikola

I know how odd this odds. ("Really? Do you Richard?")  But as a construct, it's been effective.  If one takes the time to look at the responses that we get, they'll find that many are accurate, contain new information that can't be ascribed to my mind, to Jennifer's mind, or any other method of understanding how we got the answers we did.

The results of this line of questioning to our "Panel of All Stars" were kind of astounding - no other way to put it. Albert gave us visual references to explain it, Carl Sagan made it more accessible using metaphor, Tesla gave us an understanding that was electromagnetic in nature, and Stephen gave us an actual formula.

A formula!  Indeed.

One that I have written down, and then looked up - and while it doesn't exist anywhere online that I could find, portions of the formula did exist on physics websites.  That alone gave me pause - Stephen Hawking giving Jennifer Shaffer a formula - which she repeated to me, which I filmed and wrote down.

At the moment I have some calls out to people who might be able to connect me with someone who knows physics, or a scientist who could understand this formula... because after all IT'S THE FORMULA FOR DARK MATTER.

I know how insane this sounds ("Really Rich? Do you?").  But it's just what we've been doing. Asking questions and then filming the answers.  Not all of them are going to be 100% accurate - there is the matter of translation involved - they're projecting a signal that taps into an image or sound or feeling in Jennifer's mind or field of awareness, and she tries to describe it using syntax and words and language.  An imprecise science to be sure, but it's what we've been doing.

For example, in one of the replies, she said "I'm seeing things being pulled."  I said "Do you mean a gravitational pull?" She tapped her nose, which is their way of saying to her "Correct." (As she puts it, they only do that when I'm asking questions, so it's not something she had ever thought to see or do in the past - they do it for her when I hit the nail on the head.) I knew that the way they discovered dark matter was because of its gravitational properties ("Dark" meaning "not understood" and "not visible" rather than "light.")

I said "They're showing you that dark matter has gravitational qualities?"  Another tap of the nose.  I say "Well, that's accurate in terms of science" and she made a face and said "I don't know that!"  Of course Jennifer on the planet doesn't know that. But Jennifer the medium just said it on behalf of someone who would know that.

So on to slices of time.

The other day Stephen showed up - as he always does, looking about 27, standing, in a suit.  A professor showing up to share knowledge.  In this case, I had a question for him about time.

The other night, Hank Azaria was on Colbert talking about the time that Hawking had appeared on The Simpsons.  Hank told a hilarious story, and I asked Hawking a question based on that story. 

I said "Hank Azaria was on Colbert the other night, and told a story about you.  He said that while they were at the table read, waiting for you to appear to do the show, Harry Shearer, who does a number of voices on the show, said something funny about you.  Are you aware of what it was?"

Jennifer said "That he has no concept of time."




BOOM! That is exactly what Shearer said. "The man has no concept of time." He said it as a joke, dryly, without looking up from his script. 

Because cast and crew had been waiting a half hour for him to arrive, all in anticipation of this superstar.  On Colbert, Hank said it was the funniest line he'd ever heard anyone say, and I laughed aloud when I heard it.  

But Jennifer had not heard it, and more importantly NEITHER HAD HAWKING.

Because he wasn't in the room when it was said.  He may have heard it afterwards, he may have heard it as a joke later - he may have even heard someone tell him that Harry said it. Maybe even Harry told him.  I don't know. 


But Hawking could not know what Azaria witnessed - nor could Jennifer.  There are some who would claim that somehow Jennifer is "reading my mind" but then that implies accessing consciousness outside the brain, so first they'd have to admit that to be the case before making that argument.

Yes, consciousness does exist outside the brain, (according to scientist Bruce Greyson) but I asked a follow up question for my own edification.

I said "So how are you aware of this Stephen?  You weren't there, you were not in the room - did someone tell it to you later, or did you somehow hear about it at another date?" He said to Jennifer that he had "accessed the time frame."

I asked him how he did that.  He said "Time is like floppy disks." Jennifer said "He's showing me those old floppy disks people use to use, and he says "It's all numbers."

A slice of an earlier time let's say.

So let's unpack this for a moment, shall we?

Some years ago I passed a restaurant that had been closed since the quake of '94, but as I passed it, I suddenly "heard" the sound of people in the restaurant, and flashed on a moment I had in that restaurant decades ago, having breakfast with my friend Luana Anders (who is our guide on the flipside, who helps facilitate these meetings with people over there, including with Stephen.)  In that brief moment, I experienced a slice of time - as it had been years earlier.

(Which is like the time my wife was walking in Washington Heights in Manhattan and turned the corner to see a large outdoor gathering of people dressed in 18th century costumes having a dance; that is until they disappeared and she realized they didn't exist.) 

Or the program that Arthur C Clarke did on "the unexplained" he detailed stories of people who visited Versailles and claimed to see "People in wigs walking around" or those who've been to Gettysburg and claim to see "troops dressed in uniforms marching." It's as if these people are accessing "slices of time." 



In the "Holographic Universe" by Michael Talbot, he argues that everything in the universe is holographic in nature. In that if you examine something from the perspective of time, one can see other aspects of it. I've found this to be the case in my research - by merely asking people simple questions about a memory they once had, I've found they can access all kinds of information, including who else was there to witness the event, why experienced the event, if anyone at the event has had a previous lifetime with them, what that lifetime was like, what their guides look like and what they might want to impart to the person I'm speaking with. 

If I did it one time, it could be chalked up to someone's imagination, but I've done it many times - and the people who've never met, never read my books, have no access to flipside discussions or conversations, are suddenly "speaking to their guides" and hearing the same answers they all give. 

One of the oddest questions I ask ("Really Rich? You? Ask odd questions?") is when I'm "visiting a council." "Can I ask you, council person, have you ever heard of me, or what I'm doing?" And often I get the answer "Yeah, you're the guy who goes around asking councils questions." 

Sometimes it's with a person who has no idea why they respond in that fashion, sometimes, a council member will say "No, I have not heard of you" - but generally, even among different members of the same council, some of heard of this method of "asking questions" and some have not. 

I guess there are water coolers on the flipside to have these kinds of discussions. But back to slices of time. If what he's saying is accurate, then any slice of time is numbers. And if that's the case, then we only need to find a method to decode those numbers to recall experiences that occurred before. 

When people are under deep hypnosis, they get to access these "floppy disks" - when people visit "Akashic libraries" they too are accessing the same disks. (I don't use the word Akashic normally, as it's just Sanskrit for "library" despite what new age folks like to say about it. Channeling the Akashic records is literally visiting someone's library.) What I've learned in visiting a few libraries is that no two are the same, the library itself reveals itself to the person who is viewing it based on their subjective reality (like everything in life apparently) and that each person sees different aspects of their own "library." 

The word LIBRARY is consistent - but the objects within it are not. Some see video screens, some see stacks of books, some see microfiche. But when they access these files, they do report it's the "history of a person" or of themselves. And in this particular instance, Mr. Hawking has identified them as "numbers." 

A very complex form of math. 

Slice of time Lawrence of Arabia

But when it comes to coding the future - or having computers change our future - I think people have it backwards. Computers can't decode the past - we can do that, but we have filters that prevent us from doing so. 

If we can disrupt those filters - either via a near death event, a drug, deep hypnosis, or some other method, we can access this information. (For examples of people doing so, I recommend the IANDS website). 

Our experience is tailored to our path and journey, so it won't be like peering into someone else's journey - we do have free will, and disrupting someone else's path (or people on another planet's path) appears to be something that we cannot do, be we can alter our own path and journey by accessing these moments in the past and seeing that we chose them to learn lessons from them. 

By observing the past, we change the present and alter our future. Eventually people will realize that the object isn't to make computers sentient - it's to realize that all living things are sentient, but we have filters in place that prevent us from understanding that. These filters and limiters, like those in a stereo, prevent us from accessing universal information, or even being aware of this information. 

Slice of time Marilyn and Mom

Not the mundane coded intel inside a computer that is keyed in or posted by partisans - (those in charge of what information is uploaded, or ignored)  but the raw intel of the universe - the intelligence one student filmmaker at USC called "the force" or what a professor in Vienna dubbed the "universal unconscious." 

Carl Jung was half right on this score; it's universal all right, permeates everything like the dark energy/matter that is a vehicle for it. (Another thing that Hawking answered; "Would you consider dark matter and energy to be "source?" To which after a long pause, Jennifer said "Yes.") 

Call it Source or The Force, but you tap into it the moment the filters stop functioning. Could be a near death event, deep hypnosis, obe, drugs (or "death") but the advancement in science will come when people learn how to unlock those filters/limiters. Not "code the game" but decoding the filters that keep us from the actual source. 


One final note on slices of time. Was watching a video of some Lakota warriors the other day, and it reminded me of one of my own past life experiences, remembering that lifetime when I walked among those proud people. We tend to think we are separated by time and space. It appears memory is holographic and time is merely numbers held in space by thought. 

If you can decode these numbers a person can relive any moment, explore any previous lifetime. Something foreign like this Lakota song of liberation becomes familiar, the earth opens itself up to memories of sensations, people, events. 

Wakan tanka - dark energy - source - the force - permeates all. 

People and events are not gone. They're just not here.  

Letters about the Flipside and the Second Coming

Couple of letters sent on the same day have me talking the flipside. Excerpts: 

Consider the Source

Hi Rich,

I purchased several of your books on audio, watched your flipside documentary, bought the flipside book (just to have on the shelf for reference), listened/watched some interviews, talks and other shows, etc… with you....  I consider myself a healthy skeptic just like anyone else but if I can somehow find a plausible explanation or perhaps make a connection with a little bit of science, then it becomes all the more believable for me and easier to accept. You have to have an open mind and heart which is a pre-requisite to accepting any of this, I think. Since I currently work in the world of (audio) that is my way to connect the science part of it and explain to others how (electro-magnetic) energy is at the root of so much of it. 

...I've also realized that despite my enthusiasm and realizations, I can’t expect others to share the same feelings and beliefs. It’s funny to see how people react when you mention anything related to the subject of death, ghosts, spirits, life after death, souls, etc... It can be all over the place from one extreme to the other and the funny part is, I was the same way but on the opposite side of the scale until I drank the kool aid and became a true believer.

I wanted to Thank You for all the work you’ve done and sacrifices you made to do all the research and share it. That’s huge and you did it from the angle of just trying to lay out there what you’ve gathered from other people’s work and some of your own experiences and work as well. 

It not only helped me learn a lot and profoundly changed my life but now I look at people, things and the world differently (and countless others out there do as well), thanks to your work. So, if you ever get complacent or it just feels like “ho-hum is it all worth it?”, I would say a resounding “YES!” ....Anyway, that’s pretty much what I wanted to pass on and I recommend your work to anyone that’s willing to listen. Thanks again for doing all you’ve done and please don’t stop; it really is appreciated and enjoyed by many and helping to change the world one baby step at a time! "Tom"

****

Then this one:

Hello Rich,

(I am a mental health professional) I was not particularly religious but had some unusual childhood events that always made me question things. Distinctly remember seeing glowing children around my bedside in hospital singing and dancing when I was really ill and have had many wishes come uncannily true. Always held a belief in something more to this life than what we understand but hadn't given it much thought. Not religious but seemed to intuitively understand that if there is a god he doesn't care about churches and religion (just never made sense that a god would care about bricks so much).....a curious agnostic perhaps.

So, fast forward to mid last year, and I stumbled upon some writing that triggered this 'journey' of discovery that got me searching the meaning of existence. A very metaphysical text that got me thinking about reality in a way that I had never really even considered. I think it was such a shock to the system that it literally jolted me into an awakening. It was bizarre - quite literally like a bolt of lightening whilst I was sat reading on a hotel bed on a business trip. 

Fast forward to the day after (still in shock) and it happens again except this time its like this most incredible feeling of love and oneness followed by this bizarre glow to the world that I cant describe....like a shimmer....and then this indescribable love for Jesus…..I literally cant explain that but it made me want to sign up for a Christian ministry there and then.....it was surreal.

....I have kept a job, maintained a family and function normally...….if it wasn't for those things I would have run into the hills and become a hermit :) .... I think that the second coming of Jesus is also a metaphor for this spiritual journey mankind is experiencing?......not a literal return of Jesus…..is this right or am I crazy? We are literally living out the 'end times' its just not the apocalyptic vision of death and damnation...….just a raise in consciousness that perhaps kicks mankind back into gear. See, these are the thoughts I have, these ideas now just come to me. 

Anyway, that's my surreal experience, still unfolding, still having some strange moments. Has anyone shared anything similar? "Stephen"

**********

Well, yes and no.

In terms of Stephen's epiphany, I've written about various people who've had an experience like his. Mario Beauregard PhD talks about his in "It's a Wonderful Afterlife" - when he was 12 and walking in the woods, he suddenly felt "connected to everyone and all things."  He said he spent his life in science (he's a neuroscientist) trying to figure out why that happened.  Sir Francis Younghusband had the same kind of epiphany coming out of Tibet. My wife Sherry had it one day after attending a class that taught the person how to "access left brain memories" and saw everyone in the same light.

It occurred to me last week that the "second coming of Jesus" - aside from the apocryphal nature of the idea - could indeed be, the REALIZATION THAT HE NEVER LEFT.

As I point out in "Hacking the Afterlife" the consistent reports of "seeing Jesus during a near death event" "talking to Jesus between lives" or "Meeting Jesus through a medium" - are consistent.  If they were made up stories they should include the belief system of whoever is making them up - but they don't.  The stories I'm filming and hearing are consistent in that they are "contrary to religious texts" "contrary to reports in the bible" - if they were being "made up" by the individuals reporting them, you'd think they would follow a familiar narrative.

But they do not. What they claim is oddly consistent - that Jesus didn't die on the cross, that he didn't die of old age either - that none of us die. That we "return home" to access the flipside, and that people like Jesus (or other avatars who've come to the planet that brought more of "source" with them - that's a quote from one of the interviews with him).

Further, the more I do this research, the more I'm "hearing" from a variety of people (some friends, some acquaintances, some strangers) that somehow they are involved in "helping adjust the consciousness of the planet."  So maybe that's what's happening - we're going to arrive at a time and place where we realize that we don't die - we realize that we can communicate to others without words - that we will be able to understand intent and a person's path just by seeing them, not by their actions or words - in essence, a shift in consciousness so profound that it literally is the "second coming of Jesus."  Meaning - it's not that he's coming back... he's already back.   I interview him in "Hacking the Afterlife."



In Tom's case, I'm just grateful for the shout out. 

I answered the following question on Quora today:

Is the mind an elevated form of the brain?

I think it’s a semantical discussion that we haven’t begun to understand. The brain is part of the human body. The mind, on the other hand, appears to exist within the brain and outside of the brain simultaneously.

If you’d like the science behind that sentence, I recommend Dr. Bruce Greyson’s youtube talk “Is Consciousness Produced by the Brain?” and his new book. Or Ed Kelly PhD’s “Irreducible Mind” or Dr. Presti’s “Mind Beyond Brain.” Both Greyson and Kelly are at UVA, as members of DOPS they’ve been doing the hard science behind consciousness, Presti is a neurobiologist, psychologist, and cognitive scientist at the University of California, Berkeley.

I’ve been doing the soft science - filming people under deep hypnosis saying the same consistent things about the afterlife, the process, the journey. What they say is this:

We exist prior to coming to life as conscious energy. When we choose to incarnate, we bring “about a third” of that energy to any particular lifetime. So while we are here, we are “semiconscious” as two thirds of our conscious energy is elsewhere (according to this research, “back home.”) Once the physical body dies, the consciousness returns to the consciousness left behind. Once the filters of the brain are “off” we are able to access the rest of our conscious memories - previous lifetimes, why we chose this life, etc.

In this model - as simple as it is - the brain is an organ that functions like a receiver. I used to work in stereo, so it’s the easiest metaphor for me. There are limiters and filters which parse the “radio waves”that bring the information to our brain (as well as what we create through our experiences here) but by and large we can only focus on what we have within the confines of the receiver.

Sometimes the receiver’s limiters or filters get “knocked out.” During a near death event, during an accident, sometimes with drugs, often with deep hypnosis - the filters stop functioning which allow us to access this “other information.”

So mind and brain are apples and oranges. Yes, both edible. Yes, both fun. But the brain functions to parse, limit or filter experience, which appears to have a corresponding reaction with “mind” - some people under deep hypnosis claim that we have fractals or geometric shapes that function as portable hard drives with regard to mind and see them while under hypnosis. (I have).

Further, in the cases reported by Dr. Greyson, hospice care workers for Alzheimer’s patients report in the UK that 70% of their patients “spontaneously” recovered their memory just prior to passing. Sometimes for minutes, hours or days, people remembered things they couldn’t before - and when the autopsies are done the brains have atrophied beyond a point where they should have been able to access these memories. As Greyson puts it “It’s as if the filters have died along with the brain.”

So brain is a subset, an engine to mind (conscious energy). We all have our own, we bring about a third with us, and when we return we can access the other two thirds. Everyone has the same kind of conscious energy - like water droplets - so we are capable of accessing their information, their experiences as well… and therefore the idea of “god” becomes a kind of hub, or ability to access everything at once. As one person told me in “It’s a Wonderful Afterlife” - “God is beyond the capacity of the human brain to comprehend. It’s not physically possible. However you can experience God by opening your heart to everyone and all things.”


Easy to say but hard to do. But indeed - if you can picture accessing all the other ions in the universe simultaneously, you’d have an idea of how mind is more than what the brain functions as."



BACKSTAGE PASS TO THE FLIPSIDE: TALKING THE AFTERLIFE WITH JENNIFER SHAFFER BOOK ONE AND BOOK TWO.

Amazing Grace, Sydney, Aretha and Dave Chappelle

Aretha in the film "Amazing Grace" photo Rolling Stone

Run, don't walk to see "Amazing Grace" - the 1972 film that features footage of a live "in church" concert that Aretha gave in 1972 in Los Angeles.

 



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

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

Mick's Dad hanging out with his son and me

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

Sydney's film "Amazing Grace" is Amazing

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

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

A still from "Amazing Grace"

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

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

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

Aretha's father mopping her face

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

How sweet that sound

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

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

Aretha did not want people to see this film, or to see
her in it the way she's depicted.

The good reverend also singles out another singer in the audience, a woman wearing a white streaked hat, who overcome with something... (perhaps a need to share the spotlight) leaps up at one point and storms the stage, only to be tackled by those around Aretha, put back down into a seat (so she can't "interrupt the filming") Perhaps she just wanted to sing along, or dance along - and some folks do get up and dance.

Night two from the film

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

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

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

Alexander Hamilton leads the choir

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

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

On the flipside.

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

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

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

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

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

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

Richard: Does Aretha want to talk to us?

Jennifer: "Yes." She says “She’s having a blast, she’s having so much fun... I feel like she’s still learning how to learn how to heal herself... I felt her doing that. (Listens) Does she have a sister? I feel like she’s up there with her... there are two up there with her... one is... down here?

(Note: All of Aretha's sisters have crossed over, but she may be referring to someone who “feels like a sister” that is still here, as she says later.)

I don't know. I did read that she didn’t leave a will. 

She says “She does have a will but they don’t know where it is.”

It’s not with an attorney?

It’s very old. It could be an old email. Was she married a lot, or did she have a lot of relationships? Five?

(Note: Wikipedia reports she was married twice, but had “five long term relationships.” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aretha_Franklin)

I don’t know.

She’s laughing... she’s trying to give me a timeline.

Roughly what year was your will written?

"1982."
(Note: Asking again, later, she said she hand wrote it in 1979, and that it was later typed up, and remains in a box of "old newspaper clippings" in a distant relatives home)

The person you were married to in 1982 will know where it was or his heirs?

"No, they won’t know where it is." It it feels like one of her sisters does, or someone who is like a sister to her. “She won’t know but she will know.” She’s explaining that she won’t know... but that she should know. It could be like an email archive.

What’s her name?

Something with an S.
(Note: I tracked down this person with an S in her name, who is her niece, and is currently overseeing the estate.) She's telling me she watched over Whitney Houston.
(Note: This is accurate as well, Aretha worked with Dionne Warwick, Mavis Staples, and Cissy Houston, who began singing with Franklin as members of the Sweet Inspirations. Cissy sang background on Franklin's hit "Ain't No Way". Franklin first met Cissy's daughter, Whitney, in the early 1970s. She was made Whitney's honorary aunt and Whitney often referred to her as "Auntie Ree". (Wikipedia)

Okay, you want me to write about this?

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

Did she write it on a computer and save it? What’s the file called?

“Will.” But it’s not her house.

(Note: I've been told she didn't use a computer. This was written last fall when no will had been found, and Forbes was writing how that is a problem. (Don’t forget to write a will.) https://www.forbes.com/sites/markeghrari/2018/10/16/aretha-franklin-left-an-80-million-estate-and-no-will-heres-why-that-matters-to-you/#39e8c8005375)

Richard: Aretha who was there to greet you when you crossed over?

Jennifer: Prince says he was there (to greet her) with Ray Charles.

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

Is there anything we should pass along for your friends Miss Franklin?  Or family?

“They’re fine.” (Tell them) “I have no pain.”

Prince has her in his arm and he’s walking her up the aisle.

Anything you want to say about your funeral?

“Extravagant.”

So who greeted you when you crossed over? Prince is telling us he was there, but who were you first aware of?

She just showed me dancing with this guy – he brought her into a memory.

Stevie Wonder said he went to see you before you passed.

“Two days before,” she said.

What did he say to you?

She says that he said “It’s okay, she’s got a lot of friends up there.”

Some of whom are in our class. So Miss Franklin, who have you been visiting with?

"Everyone." (Jennifer aside) They’re all laughing.

There’s a video of you playing “Nessun Dorma” for your granddaughter; quick question, I was wondering if you were you an opera singer in a past life?

"Yes."

What era?

"16^th century... somewhere in Paris. And she married somebody Italian."

Let me ask you a musical question, so the coloratura which you had in your voice, which is so unique -- which you carried throughout your life... was that related to your previous lifetime?

“Yes, yep.” She’s showing me, as an example, my work – showing me my brain and what I’m doing here, and how my ability to use this ability to talk to people on the other side is something I’ve carried through all of my lifetimes. Its more accepted now, and I would be struggling now if I hadn’t figure it out.

Is that true most musicians carry their frequency from life to life?

“Yes.”

Who did you admire as a singer or performer?

"Sammy Davis Junior."  Sammy showed up earlier... (he’s) hanging out with Prince.

You know Michael Jackson, don’t you?

She’s like “Of course I did, that’s such a stupid question.” She loved him.

(Note: We talked to Michael later, after the HBO film came out, and his interview was unusually revealing and complex, which I’ll share at a later date.)

What do you want us to pass along to your friends and family?

"They’re still looking for the will." She said “Tell them to breathe.”

You said it was on a computer that your sister once had – all your sisters are on the flipside now.

Then it’s someone who was like a sister to her.

So it’s on her desktop, in a file somewhere that’s named “will?”

I asked her: “Is it supposed to be found?” I’m getting it might never be found. She says they’re “still not looking in the right place.”

Things could change...

I think they’re going to find something – and (then) I think it’s going to be contested...

You met some great singers back in grade school in Detroit... they interviewed Smokey Robinson for example, he was talking about listening to your dad Reverend Franklin on the radio, and when they heard you’d moved into the neighborhood, everyone went to see and meet him.  That’s when he first heard you playing and singing in your home.  Smokey said “her voice never changed; I heard her when he was 5!” What was it like being born into such a famous reverend’s family?

She says “He wanted to change the world like Martin Luther King; it felt like he might have gotten corrupt a little bit – she saw (him do) a lot of things that just didn’t make sense.

(Note: I'm told that Reverend Franklin and Aretha were close, and there's no evidence of any malfeasance or wrongdoing when he managed her career. But as always; "we are just reporting.")

But in terms of choosing the family and neighborhood to be born in...?

“That’s what she charted,” she says. “That was her math.”

(Note: This is consistent in the reports from the flipside that I get from people under deep hypnosis. They claim that we all choose our lifetimes, and work out the “story points” in advance of what we’re going to accomplish, as well as who is going to participate in that journey.  “Charting” is a way of saying “Planning.” The term “math” refers to the complex math involved in having people react at the particular time they’re supposed to, like planning out the math of a pinball game in advance, and already knowing where the ball is going to hit... but that giving it that “extra English” you’re able to influence events.  Not that a lifetime is “locked in stone” or destiny is already planned – because we have free will (to screw things up if we want to) but in general, she’s saying she “did the math” of the equation that would bring her to fame by being born into the family of C.L. Franklin.)

Who was your biggest influence?

“God.”

Okay, but on the planet – that you want to give a shout out to?

He was white – (Jennifer aside) I'm trying to figure out who it is..

A singer?

No.

Producer?

Yes.

From Detroit?

New York. Feels like.  He believed in her and also he kind of saved her from her own family. (Jennifer aside) I don’t know anything about her family.

Who’s the friend from New York?

She’s dancing with him... She met him when she was like 14.  Her dad wanted control over her though, (which caused friction) they reconciled later though.

(Note: If I was to hazard a guess, she would be talking about Columbia record producer John Hammond who signed her after hearing a demo recorded in NY at 16. Her father was her manager at the time. From an interview with John: “I’ve always been a freak for gospel music. So one day a songwriter named Curtis Lewis came in with a demo of about five of his tunes. The third tune was a thing called “Today I Sing the Blues,” and it was just this girl on piano. And I screamed! I said "For Chrissakes who is this?" He said: “She’s a 17 year old girl from Detroit.” And I said "Can she do anything else?" And he said she was a gospel singer who sang with her father’s choir with Sam Cooke.”  That was Aretha.)

Her dad was a nationally famous preacher – who left buffalo and moved to Detroit. I saw her in a show in Pittsburgh once when she had a Charley horse and had to limp offstage.

“Shit happens,” she says.

So what was your favorite song? Everyone asks.

She says “Somewhere over the rainbow.”

That was your favorite song?

She loved the one you mentioned earlier – she showed me that she’s holding a flower (when singing it) That song that you saw her sing (on YouTube), she’s mentioning that.

“Nessun dorma?” Lovely. Kind of a metaphor for the flipside. The lyrics are so amazing.

She’s saying “(the words) they’re so very important.”

It means “No one’s asleep or no one sleeps” in Italian. A metaphor for the afterlife; as “no one dies.”  Nessuno dorma.

She said she had a premonition before that... when she was going to pass.

Luana, is this exciting for you to meet Aretha or have the Queen of Soul in our class?

Luana says, “There is no hierarchy (on the flipside) but she definitely adds spice to the class.”

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

JenniferShaffer.com

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

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

Dave uses Jennifer's camera for a selfie at the Chateau Marmont

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

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

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

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

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

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

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