Last shot of the day on a film set, also the last name of the author of this blog. Martin - Latin singular, those soldiers who work for Mars, God of War. A smith. In this lifetime of words, music and film. AKA "The Afterlife Expert" (Coast to Coast AM) If you want to reach me, I can be found on FB, LinkedIn, or Gmail under MartiniProds (my youtube channel)
Jennifer Shaffer and I were conspiring the other day on how we can turn our unusual lunchtime chats into a larger venue. We came upon doing some kind of weekly event, where we chat up people on the Flipside while having our normal out of this world conversation.
Jennifer Shaffer
For fans of "Hacking the Afterlife" you'll know Jennifer from the extensive interviews I did between her and Amelia Earhart which are transcribed in the book. I know how unusual that sentence is - but if you'll read the book, you'll see there's no other way to describe what that event was like. She is the third medium who I have spoken to "Amelia" with. So just as a data subset, I've asked the same questions with three different mediums. And the answers have been consistent and verifiable. Many of the questions are not public knowledge because I've been researching her story for 30 years. (Like one question to a medium was "who was the love of your life and was it a painter?" was correctly answered by all three.) I knew that she had a relationship with a woman painter, and I knew it was part of her open relationship with her husband George. I didn't know the exact identity of that painter, and during the second session, she offered that she would share that information with me in a "private session" - meaning one that wasn't being filmed.
Fred Noonan and Amelia
Not only was I able to track down that special friend of hers, but was able to verify a number of other profound details about her life, her disappearance, her death. I won't go into detail here - it's in detail in the book, and clips can be found at EarhartOnSaipan.com - but suffice to say, Jennifer was the third person confirming the same details, and further offered "new information" that wasn't part of the public record, or any of my research over the past 30 years. Imagine my chagrin when I verified that these details were accurate - meaning a detail that only Amelia would know about, because no one else on the planet was aware of it, and I was able to verify its accuracy. But last night I was at a friend's house, and inevitably the conversation drifted in the Flipside direction. One of the people at the table had met with Jennifer at my suggestion, and proceeded to tell how Jennifer connected to this woman's brother who passed earlier this year. The story could only have come from her brother, because it happened years ago in another country in their home kitchen.
A party my grandparents went to in London 1933
As the story unfolded, this woman's brother showed Jennifer a scene that occurred in this woman's youth - ("He's showing me something that happened in your kitchen a long time ago...") a scene my friend had forgotten, had never shared with anyone, except her mother. And later, she called her mother and told her what Jennifer had said, and the mother recalled the name of the person in the scene. "Oh you're talking about so and so. I remember that!" My friend couldn't remember the girl's name, but her mother did. It was new information coming from someone no longer on the planet. As I pointed out - this story would not convince, could not convince anyone else at the table that there was a Flipside, or that our loved ones are still around. It would only be "beyond a shadow of doubt" to one person at the table - and that was my friend telling the story. Since no one reading this knows this friend of mine - then just my saying "it's accurate" does no good at proving or disproving anything. And if you spend enough time going through all the possible permutations of an excuse - all of it comes up empty. Either it happened or it didn't. People can make up their own minds how that could have happened. All I can say is that it's consistent with ALL of my research. People on the Flipside remind us of stories that only they would know - on one hand to tease us about them, on the other hand to prove to us that they're actually communicating with us. In this case I know it happened, and I've seen and filmed it happen many, many times. But as someone else at the table said "Well, I think it's great that the Flipside exists, but I like it here, I like being alive, I'm in no hurry to go anywhere else, so what's the point of examining that?" And I said "Here's the point. You honor your loved ones by acknowledging that they still exist. They don't love you any less from over there, in fact they love you unconditionally from their perspective. So if it's possible to love someone unconditionally who isn't on the planet, how hard can it be to start loving people unconditionally who are on the planet?" So as an experiment - and based on Jennifer and my "conversation" with Michael Newton the previous week, I suggested this. I poured a toast into the glasses of the people sitting near me and said "I want you to think of one person who is no longer on the planet that you'd like to make a toast to. Only I want you to make the toast to them in present tense, as if they were still here, as if they were literally in front of you when you make the toast." One woman picked her grandmother, who brought tears to her eyes, because she felt so connected to her. When she started speaking of her in past tense, I asked her to change it, how sweet she is, how incredibly generous she was, became "how generous she is." And this woman's face brightened as she spoke. As if the simple act of putting the memory of her grandmother into the present tense allowed her to let go of the sadness surrounding her passing.
Vatican connected light
Another fellow called upon his 104 year old grandfather, who had been strongly influential in his life. And as he spoke of him in the present tense; you could hear the pride he had in how this person lived his life up until he passed. How influential he still is in his life. And my friend spoke of her brother, who made/makes everyone laugh, and what a bright light he was/is in his family. As she got used to speaking of him in present tense, toasting his humor, his family, his spirit, it really did feel as if he was in the room. It was an odd moment. Everyone expressed a joy doing that. And then a few minutes later, a woman who had claimed skepticism of the topic ("I don't believe in any of all that") said - "I've never told anyone this before, but when I was 22 I had this out of body experience, I didn't believe it at the time, but I was standing there in front of a campfire, and suddenly I lost sense of time until someone shook me." I said "Well, let's try to go back to the moment just prior to someone shaking you. What do you see or experience?" At first she said "I don't remember." And I said "Every moment is recorded, we don't have a delete key, so the memory is somewhere if you just allow it to come forward." She quietly looked off in the distance. "Okay. Well... I had this feeling of connectedness to everyone.. and to all things. I could see the connections to everyone, its like the invisible strings that connect everyone that we can't see. They look like lines of light, light that exists between objects... and they have color, like red and white." I pointed out that I'd heard reports like this before - seeing a "spider web" of light that connects everyone and everything. I asked if she had any emotion with this vision. She said that she had a sense of love... "overwhelming unconditional love." I asked if anyone was around in spirit form when she experienced this moment 15 years ago. She said "Yes." I asked if it was male, female or both. She said, feels like both, but predominantly male. I asked if she could see him, she said "No, he just seems like a bright light." I asked about the content of the conversation and she said "He is telling me how things work. How the universe works. But it's not a linear story. It's like he's downloading all that information into me at the same time." I asked if any emotion was associated with this information. She said "That everything is going to be okay." I noted that it's not the first time I've heard about this apotheosis. That Mario Beauregard PhD talked about his experience at 12, when he was in a forest behind his home and "saw how connected to everyone and everything we all are" and had spent his life and career examining that as a neuroscientist. There are other cases, and I mention them in "Flipside" and "It's a Wonderful Afterlife" where people suddenly feel "connected to everyone and all things." I guess it's not that unusual I would meet someone at a dinner party who had the same experience. I offered that we honor those who are no longer on the planet when we listen to them, especially when they bring along such a profound experience. She took 15 years to share that message, and now I get the chance to share it as well. "Everything and everyone is connected. And everything is going to be okay." No hypnosis. No philosophy. No belief. No religion. I'm just reporting as best I can what I heard at a dinner table at a friend's house, simply asking some questions that anyone could ask. Just a group of people sitting at a noisy dinner party, having a casual conversation, with me slipping in questions about the architecture of what they experienced. And now it's out into the planet. How cool is that?
Something caught my ear in this interview the other night. Sting (Gordon Sumner) talks about how much it moves him that people come up to him and tell him how his music has been a theme in their lives, or his music changed their lives, or had a profound effect, whether they got married, fell in love to it, etc. And he joked "I just got into it to find women." Well, of course, he found Trudy. And has had a gaggle of kids while finding her. But I digress. In the research behind "Flipside: A Tourist's Guide on How to Navigate the Afterlife" and "It's a Wonderful Afterlife," and now "Hacking the Afterlife" I've filmed people under deep hypnosis talking about their "life planning sessions." I've reported my own five different between life sessions, but it was in my first session when I asked my guides the question: "So why did I choose my life?" and the answer was "Every thought, action, word or deed contains your energy. So if you write a poem, sing a song, write a book, paint a painting - every talk show you do - some part of your energy, who you are as a soul, your heart - goes into that work. Whether you work in a bank, or move digits around on a board, some of your energy goes into that as well - but if you're doing that work with your heart, then it can be a healing energy." I said that I chose a lifetime in film because I felt that combining words, visuals and music I could help heal people. And then I said "I just wish I'd chosen someone more successful at it." Which elicited a laugh from my spirit guides and the hypnotherapist doing the session - the only time I've gotten laughs on both sides of the veil. But Sting did the same. When he signed up for this lifetime he wanted to help heal people with music. He's an amazing singer, gifted musician, and has explored a variety of different styles. But at his core, it's not about the content of each lyric, it's about the intent and heart that he brings to his work - and that is attached to the music and lyrics and stylings - which directly affects people on the planet. And they come up and say it to him; aloud. "You changed my life. Thank you." There's no greater honor then to sacrifice your life for others. There's no greater gift that you can give then to give your heart to others. Yes, he's had a great journey and path, and yes, he's had pain and sorrow and suffering too. It's written in his face. But when someone comes up to you and says "Your music helped form who I am as a person" you need to see that was what he signed up to do. It's healing. It's helping. It's why he's on the planet. Some years ago, I reviewed Sting's show at the Wiltern when I was writing for Variety. After the show, I got to meet him backstage, and then for some odd reason, I was on a plane the next day to go to Italy. And when I got off the plane in London, and went to the passport agent, Sting was standing in line behind me. And I turned and introduced myself. "Hi, I'm Rich, I met you at your show the other night." And he nodded, used to fans and fandom. I added "I write for Variety." The look on his face reminded me of when I was sitting next to Van Morrison and said the same sentence. Van said "I don't talk to the media" and got up from the table. "But I'm not The Media" I said. (And I had my film "You Can't Hurry Love" pay him $30K for the use of "Wild Night" in a clip, but I forgot to mention that part.) Anyways, he seemed chagrined that a "critic" was in the same line as him. Moments later, I was going to the kiosk to catch the British Air flight to Rome, and he was there too. He waved me over and introduced me to his wife Trudy. "This is Rich Martini, he wrote the Variety review." She brightened, and he said it as if it was something he'd actually read. I thought "Wow, polite guy." I tried to not hover or talk too much other than to say I was a fan. On the plane, I sat in steerage, but as I left, passing through first class, I saw the sweater that Trudy had been wearing sitting on the floor. So I grabbed it and when we got to customs I shouted out "Oh, Missus Sting! You forgot your sweater!" It was worth the laugh. "Mrs Sting" couldn't have been more appreciative. But wait. There's more. About six months later, I was talking to someone on his staff, and they said "He's coming into town. I'm sure he'd want you to have a ticket." I wasn't reviewing the show, was reluctant to call, but I did. When his personal assistant said "Why are you calling?" I said "Well, I saved Trudy's sweater on the plane." And his assistant said, "Do you realize how many people call me every day to get free tickets to his shows? And you're calling because you saved her sweater?" I mumbled, "Well, it was a long story, but it was because I write for Variety..." and the assistant interrupted me. "You wrote the Variety review?" I paused. Uh-oh. Maybe they didn't like it. Gulp. "Yes." She said, "That was the best review I've read. (She may say that to all reviewers, what do I know?) It covered his life, his journey, his writer's block, and talked about finding his voice when he went back to his father's hometown..." I blushed... over the phone. She said "What night do you want tickets for?" So I went to see him again, sat in the seat like any other fan. He's great. Some years later, I ran into him at an art gallery. I said "Hi, you don't remember me but..." He interrupted me: "Rich Martini" he said. Shook my hand. "Thanks for saving my wife's sweater." This guy is something else this Sting. So I know he's going to read this post. He's that kind of a guy. Checks stuff out, remembers it, soaks it in, turns it into a song. If not him, then his assistant, or someone out there in the ether will pass it along. He will read this blog, this memory down life's lane. And I'm here to tell him that the story he told on Colbert is the essence of why he chose to be on the planet. How do I know that? Because in the 35 cases I've filmed, the 7000 I've examined from Michael Newton, and the 2000 from Dr. Helen Wambach - they all say the same thing. We choose to come here. And we choose to do the work that we're going to do so we can help other people.
I print transcripts of these filmed sessions in the book "Flipside" and "It's a Wonderful Afterlife" and "Hacking the Afterlife." And the film "Flipside" is actual footage of people saying these things. Consistently. Over and over and over again. Under hypnosis. And in the latest book - not under anything at all. So Gordon chose this life - chose this name, which is not only associated with bees, but is a musical term, like a cymbal being smacked - a "sting" - On behalf of all those people on the planet that you chose to change their lives; thanks dude.
