Football, Film and Flipside... and Happy New Year

The Flipside, Football and Film.... and Happy New Year to you....

As y'all know, I've spent the past 8 years or so filming people under deep hypnosis. I've reported what they've said in my books "Flipside: A Tourist's Guide on How to Navigate the Afterlife" and film "Flipside: a Journey into the Afterlife," and "It's a Wonderful Afterlife" volumes one and two.  Basically, I've been reporting what people say under deep hypnosis, a technique pioneered by Michael Newton ("Journey of Souls").

I report that when the research is examined, we find reports that are consist across the spectrum of people who have had a near death experience, out of body experience, or some other consciousness altering event.  I've been gathering stories about what people have said about the afterlife, including stories from people who claim to communicate with those on the flipside, in my new tome, "Hacking the Afterlife" which will be out sometime in the new year.

Couple of stories came to my attention recently - and it's with regard to people getting a "sense" that events that have happened in their life might have had more than meets the eye to their occurrence.  Some folks consider this coincidence - but if you're into consciousness studies, you'll find people like Harvard's Gary Schwartz PhD and UVA's Dr. Bruce Greyson are writing and studying "coincidence" from a scientific point of view. But is coincidence really random? Or is it possibly part of a larger fabric of who we are as human beings? On a quantum level?

Yesterday in the LA Times, there was an article about a kicker for Stanford. 

Can Conrad Ukropina give Stanford a closing kick? He's done so, memorably

Stanford place kicker Conrad Ukropina is lifted by fans and teammates after hitting a 45-yard field goal as time expired to give Stanford a 38-36 win over Notre Dame Nov. 28.
(Marcio Jose Sanchez / AP)

Mike DiGiovannaContact Reporter

Conrad Ukropina needed a strong leg, good technique and timing, supreme concentration and confidence and endless hours of practice to become the kicker he is today, the starter for a Stanford team that will play Iowa in the Rose Bowl on Friday.

He also caught a few breaks. Literally.

Ukropina, who grew up in Pasadena, about four miles from the Rose Bowl, enrolled at Los Angeles Loyola High in 2008 and won the starting quarterback job on the freshman team.

But a week before the first game, Ukropina got spun awkwardly during a tackling drill and sustained four fractures in his left forearm, an injury that sidelined him for two months.

"That was a bummer, but I had just made 100 new friends on the team so I really wanted to stay with them," Ukropina said. "I had a cast on but went to practice every day. All I could do on the sideline was kick. I would literally kick the ball into a fence when I was bored. I kind of discovered a hidden talent."

Ukropina played soccer but had never kicked a football before suffering that broken arm. In his first game, near the end of his freshman season, he made a 44-yard field goal. By his sophomore year, he was kicking for the Loyola varsity, and by his junior year he was training with a private coach.

During the summer before his senior year, Ukropina won the kickoff, punt and field-goal competitions at Stanford's kicking camp, which ultimately led to a scholarship offer.
Now look at him: A redshirt junior on the sixth-ranked team in the nation, he's made 17 of 19 field-goal attempts this season — including a dramatic 45-yard walk-off kick to give Stanford a 38-36 win over fourth-ranked Notre Dame on Nov. 28 — and all 61 of his extra-point attempts. He might even have a shot at the NFL.

"Isn't it funny?" Ukropina said of his fortuitous break. "I don't want to use the word fate, but there was some sense that that's what was supposed to happen."

Ukropina spent 2013 and 2014 as the backup to Cardinal career scoring leader Jordan Williamson before moving into the lead role this season. He thrived in the spotlight, kicking a pair of field goals in each of Stanford's two wins over USC and his memory-maker against Notre Dame. "He's made some big kicks for us this year," said Pete Alamar, Stanford's special-teams coordinator. "He's handled the stage well.".....

 
Rose Bowl Flipside: "Isn't it funny?" Ukropina said of his fortuitous break. "I don't want to use the word fate, but there was some sense that that's what was supposed to happen." This is a story about a kid who broke a bone, it kept him from the goal - but that break put him on the path he was supposed to be on. 

We can't see how setbacks, breaks, loss, problems in our lives turn us in the right direction - unless we look closely. I've been filming people under hypnosis for eight years saying the EXACT SAME THING. "That setback, that tragedy, that loss was the reason for my change, my life gaining meaning, my victory." Once we take "Time" out of the equation (easy to say, hard to do) we get a glimpse of our lives as a brilliant story conference, with highlights and low-lights planned in advance so we get the most out of it. 

Not every mark is hit, not every goal is made - but we do our valiant best to make it the best damn show anyone's ever seen us do. Make the most out of your new year by looking into these highlights and low-lights as steps along the path that lead you to victory. And enjoy the Rose Bowl too.

Even the actress who stars in the latest Stars Wars film had a "Flipside" feeling that she should audition for the lead in the new film:



"I emailed my agent that I have this really weird feeling; I really feel like I need to audition," recalls Ridley." 

"My first few auditions really didn't feel good, but my last audition suddenly felt like something clicked," says the 23-year-old Londoner.

A version of this story first appeared in the Nov. 13 issue of The Hollywood Reporter magazine. To receive the magazine, click here to subscribe.
Before landing one of the most coveted roles of the decade, Star Wars: The Force Awakens heroine Daisy Ridley had become accustomed to disappointment. In the months leading up to her first audition for Episode VII's female lead, the 23-year-old actress' confidence was shattered. Just one week into a gig with a small workshop, she was told not to bother coming back. And then after nabbing a lead role in the E4 series Youngers, the part was cut down to just one day of filming. "I was kind of used to things not happening, so I just felt the whole way through [the Episode VII audition process], 'I'm going to lose the job. They're going to find someone better than me,'" she recalls. Even her first two Star Wars auditions were underwhelming — at least from her perspective. Remarkably, Ridley kept getting called back, and something clicked in that final audition, propelling her past the horde of hopefuls. Now, she says with a degree of satisfaction, "I've got opportunities I didn't have before." That's an understatement.

Though the CAA-repped actress is well booked with Episode VIII, which begins shooting in January in London, and then Episode IX, she will soon be familiar to a globe-spanning fan base and presumably have her pick of roles and directors. 

But even after seizing the role of Rey, Ridley continued to face rejection. She recounts being turned down for an unnamed film role in the past year after a sweat-induced wardrobe malfunction in front of a casting agent. "I'm sure the star they cast is much better than me," she muses. Perhaps it's that self-deprecating air that helped win over Force Awakens director J.J. Abrams and the Lucasfilm brass. And whether her career trajectory is more Harrison Ford or Hayden Christensen, Ridley has a backup plan in play: She's begun taking courses for a psychology degree. And of course, she's staying put in London, where she lives with her family and her deaf and blind dog named Muffin. "I love to come to L.A. to visit, and then I like to come to rainy old London because it's home," she says. The Hollywood Reporter talked to Ridley about her impossible ascent from obscurity to Next Gen Hollywood force.

How did you land the part of Rey?

I had heard about the role quite a while before I auditioned, and I emailed my agent that I have this really weird feeling; I really feel like I need to audition. Then months went by and the same people were reading for it. But I still really had this feeling of needing to read for it. So I emailed my agent again for an audition. I had four or five auditions over seven months, and it was a very emotional time. My first few auditions really didn't feel good, but my last audition suddenly felt like something clicked. You're so desperate to get a role, but I felt like even if I didn't get it, I did a good job, I'd done myself proud.".....

Feelings of what we should do, or shouldn't do. And then we follow our instincts and realize our path is exactly where we are, where we were always supposed to be.



 We can't see how setbacks, breaks, loss, problems in our lives turn us in the right direction - unless we look closely. I've been filming people under hypnosis for eight years saying the EXACT SAME THING. 

"That setback, that tragedy, that loss was the reason for my change, my life gaining meaning, my victory." Once we take "Time" out of the equation (easy to say, hard to do) we get a glimpse of our lives as a brilliant story conference, with highlights and low-lights planned in advance so we get the most out of it. 

Not every mark is hit, not every goal is made - but we do our valiant best to make it the best damn show anyone's ever seen us do. Make the most out of your new year by looking into these highlights and low-lights as steps along the path that lead you to victory. 

Happy New Year!

May The Flipside Be With You...

Funny how much George Lucas' research into the Force mimics research into the Flipside.

Back in the 1970's, George wanted to make a Flash Gordon movie, tried to acquire the rights, but couldn't. So he set out to tell his own space saga, in the style of the old serials, the kind that Flash Gordon did.  Evil emperors, heroes fighting their way through space.  So George wrote this film as a trilogy with the help of Joseph Campbell, the author of "Hero with a Thousand Faces."

Most people know about this connection - but if you don't, Professor Campbell had studied thousands of different myths, and had synthesized them into simple story lines.  Hero goes off on a journey, travels to far and distant lands, and then returns with some kind of benefit or victory - and there are other darker forces that are included in these myths, including son learning that father is not who he thought he was, mother turns out to be someone else, etc.  It's a brilliant book if you haven't seen it, and I highly recommend all of his books.

Hero with One face. courtesy wiki

But meanwhile George made "American Graffiti" and it won a number of awards, and did great box office.  So at some point they suggested George renegotiate his salary for directing "Star Wars." He was going to be paid something around scale at the time, $150,000 for making the 8 million dollar film (which the original budget had been sliced in half by the skeptical studio.)  Ultimately, the put 3 more million into the finished budget, but when the discussion of his salary came about, George remembered his dream.

He had a dream that he saw R2D2 and his other characters on coffee mugs, keychains, etc.  Now whether it was a conscious dream, or a dream while he was asleep doesn't matter - it's not the sort of thing people see when they're making a film.  (Sure, Hateful Eight lunch boxes, but not likely back in 1976).

So George famously turned down the increase in salary (they offered him $500K) in return for the rights to the sequels and the merchandising.  Today it's considered the smartest business deal ever made in Hollywood - as it turned into a multi billion dollar bet.  No one thought that the film would be so wildly successful, and they couldn't foresee what George did.  Star Wars Everywhere.

But let's examine this for a moment.

They credit Castaneda and Campbell here. But should include Flash.

Who dreams about coffee mugs with their characters on them?  

Not many people.  Being a film writer/director myself, it's hard enough to picture who your characters are and what they're doing - without having to think of ancillary markets.   
But George had this dream - that he saw these creatures and characters on mugs and items.   

Now when you're dreaming or visualizing something - you're not thinking "Gee, how can I market this idea?"  Generally you're seeing things or items, and in this particular dream he saw things that no one else saw or could see.  Tesla was famous for conceiving and testing his inventions in his minds eye - before he ever put them onto paper - and as he attested, "they always worked" once he put paper to metal.

Was George seeing into the future? Or was he imagining the future?  I don't know.  But it's the same thing.

Hasro bro. Originally Parker.

I do know that I played Risk with George once in Francis Ford Coppola's home.  George had come by for Thanksgiving dinner, and I was there with Luana Anders (the inspiration for my Flipside books) who had starred in Francis Ford's first film - "Dementia 13."  They had met while he was still a sound man on Roger Corman films, and he asked Luana if she would star in a movie he was going to shoot in Ireland.  It was on the way back from Luana's Roger Corman film "The Young Racers" with Mark Damon, and Francis did the sound, and his girlfriend, later wife Eleanor did the costumes on that film, and the one in Ireland. 



Same cast worked on Dementia. Francis Ford was the sound man.


And some odd years later, after I'd met and befriended Luana, I met Francis at a screening of Apocalypse Now in Westwood, and mentioned Luana's name.  He asked me to tell her to call him - which I did - which led to 8 years of our going up to the Coppola home for their traditional thanksgiving dinners.  I was a literal fly on the wall - some amazing people came through, I generally hid behind the piano, where night after night, they let me pound away on the keys.  Sometimes Francis would pick up his stand up bass and play along... but one night we sat down to play Risk.

John filmed my first effort

I hadn't played the game before, I think I played a conservative game - as did George, but he was the first one to fall, and then Francis threw all of his armies at my troops, and for some lucky roll of the dice, he failed in disrupting my armies, and fell out of the game as well, and that left me and his nephew John Schwartzman playing each other - which Johnny won handily. I remember thinking it was odd that Francis did such a rash thing of throwing everything at me, and then failing to dislodge me from the game - after all, he was my host, and I couldn't for the life of me figure out why he was trying to destroy me at that very moment.

But oddly enough, John grew up to become an accomplished cameraman, (He shot a short film that started my career with "Video Valentino" and shot my film "You Can't Hurry Love" and 2nd unit on "Limit Up") and shot the film "Jurassic World" and of course we all know that this week "Star Wars" surpassed the economic records of that film. 

So what does this have to do with the Flipside? 

Well, consider for a moment that George, way back in the 1970's, had this odd dream that he needed to hang onto the rights to the film's characters and story lines.  And he was right.  With his guidance, the films became the zeitgeist of our world. 

And maybe it wasn't such a dream - but a vision of his own future. In the same way that people envision what's going to happen to them, but haven't a clue as to how or why they're going to go about it.  "I always knew that I would be a _____" is something I've heard alot in this research.  Like the FBI agent who I asked "When did you have the conscious thought you'd work with the FBI?" And she said "Preschool" she said.  I asked "How?" She said "I kept lists on everybody in class - what they wore, what they had for lunch."

The other day, Kathleen Kennedy recounted the story of how she had hired a young J.J. Abrams to help catalog Steven Spielberg's super 8 films at Amblin, and now here all these years later, the film that she once stood in line to see she produced, and J.J. directed.  Another example of the Flipside in action.  Is it a mere coincidence that these people all came together? 

As I'm fond of quoting my old professor Julian Baird (who went to Oxford and Harvard and taught at B.U.) "I would agree with you, but then we'd both be wrong." 

If you examine the research of what people say from the Flipside (flipsidethebook.com or flipsidethefilm.com) - they talk about time being relative.  That events that seem to take forever over here, appear to happen in a few seconds, minutes or hours over there.   

For example in one of the cases in "It's a Wonderful Afterlife" a woman says that her entire lifetime as a British Sailor in the 17th century, felt like "about 15 minutes" from her perspective over there.  That 25 year life where she remembered details about being a Captain aboard a British ship (details which I was able to verify) felt like about 15 minutes over there on the Flipside.  

So if you do that math - 100 years is like an hour.  Star Wars came out a little less than 40 years ago.  And how long ago did that feel to the folks over there? Oh, about half an hour or so.  And when you examine people discussing their "life planning" session - where they discuss or plan what the highlights of their lifetimes are going to be - we see that it's not mistake that George wanted to make a Flash Gordon film.  (I did too). That serial made him remember the life plan he had that would include making Star Wars, and when it came time for him to "take the money" his higher self allowed him to access the merchandising that was going to come in the future.  

The movie wasn't begun when he had the dream about the coffee mugs.  It wasn't in the theaters yet.  It was in his mind.  And on the page.  But there's more than meets the eye to this story. Clearly.

And then finally, when we examine the Flipside with regard to "the force."  The force refers to the "light" that connects us all.  That tapping into that light - or that consciousness - is a way of doing super human feats, or understanding powerful thoughts and feelings.  And is also responsible for why and how people like mediums access the flipside - they're able to tap into the "force" and see visuals and feelings that relate to events they couldn't possibly know.

In the 25 sessions that I've filmed of people under deep hypnosis, remembering previous lives, many of which I could verify, they recount a "between lives realm" that exists in "Now Time" - meaning exists as I'm writing this sentence where they are able to observe and access why and how they chose to come to the planet. They speak of a "light" and "radiance" that connects us all - describing it alternately as "A string of lights" or "beams of light" that connect everyone and all things.

(J.J. Abrams worked on the show "Lost" which existed entirely on the Flipside in "now time."  Between life time where people examined their previous lifetimes.  Coincidence?  Perhaps.)

In terms of the "dark side" of the force - well, that's great here on this realm, and of course is part and parcel of Campbell's Greek myths, and the myths that we all experience here.  The path while we are human includes good and bad, dark and light - but, in the thousands of cases I've examined of people talking about the Flipside under deep hypnosis, in the 25 cases I've filmed - and in the literature I've studied about this realm, there is nearly no mention of there being a "dark force" or "dark entity" that exists over there.  

Evil, as a thing, does not exist on the Flipside. (Or those who've claimed to have experienced some form of it have actually said "in very minute amounts" compared to the light).  I'm sorry if that rocks anyone's boat, but it's not my opinion, or belief - it's just in the data - it's in the research and it is repeated consistently.  If it was different I'd report it - but it's not.

So the idea that someone can "fall into the dark side" does not bear out in this research - because we choose our lifetimes, we plan our lifetime in advance - not down to the nth degree, but on an improvisational level - so that fact that "bad things" happen - or that our loved ones get killed, is beyond our comprehension to understand or comprehend unless we are in their shoes.  

From that perspective I'm sorry that this latest incarnation of the story didn't go further into the Flipside to research that out - perhaps someone will in the future - but the saga that we all go through is thought out in advance before we even get to this universe.  Certainly things happen that seem random, that seem out of the blue - but when you really examine them, they tell a different story.

There are two volumes. Filled with testimony.

So "The Force Awakens" - well, the force never sleeps - it may be that we're so caught up with being human, living our lives and cursing the darkness that we lose touch with the flipside - so I'll offer General Leah's advice (Carrie Fisher) who posted today "The Force has awakened, and now I'm going to go and take a nap."

May the Flipside Be with you.  Meaning may you always be aware of the fact that your loved ones are not gone, they're just not here.  That we are wearing this costume and walking in these shoes for a reason, and that we're doing exactly what we signed up to learn, teach or share.  And that's a powerful thing to wake up within you - so when you think about the Force awakening, think about the Flipside awakening within - being awake to the nature of reality in all its beauty.

My two cents.

And finally, with his permission, I'm reprinting an email I got from a Minister of a large church in big city in a conservative state.  He'd written me asking about my research into reincarnation; ("flipside" and "its a wonderful afterlife") noting that if its driven by karma, as depicted in eastern philosophy, it implies "it doesn't really matter if we're aware that we reincarnate or not." 

I replied that the main difference my research shows from traditional incarnation theory is "free will." That we choose to return here, and if that's the case, its important to leave behind a clean planet. Here's his reply: 

"You make two points that resonate with me. One is that reincarnation does matter if it's true. As you know and write about, there is a lot of evidence that it is true. As you say, it matters because it has implications for how we live. Personally, I find the idea of reincarnation liberating in the sense I can relax and enjoy the show more knowing this is not my only performance so I don't have to try to cram everything into this one performance.

The other point you make is that we reincarnate by choice based on our own goals and our own free will. Reincarnation by free will is a powerful and empowering concept. As you say, none of the religions, ancient or modern, got that right.

By the way, it took me about two months to read your books and it usually only takes me a few days to read similar books. The reason is your books are so dense in the sense of heavy, packed with new ideas, stories, insights and such. Your books also kept leading me to other books and I world go read them then come back to yours. Your books were like reading an encyclopedia in a way. Mind blowing. So it took time to read, digest. Let it sink in. Then read a little more.

I'm looking forward to reading your new book Hacking the Afterlife, when it is done. I hope that project is going well.

Merry Christmas to you and your family, Rich. Keep up the good work." 

I'll endeavor to try. Thanks for the vote of confidence!

The Angel who inspired Its A Wonderful Life

A story about an angel.

Santa Monica Sunset

"Its a Wonderful Afterlife" is on sale via Amazon  (www.flipsidethebook.com) 

I watched the Capra film the other night, annual tradition, and I was asked the story that Capra recounted about the genesis of the film (and how I came upon the title for my book.)

Frank says in his book "Name Above the Title" he started deflecting meetings by telling his agent "I'm not feeling well."  He had spent a fortune fighting his boss Harry Cohn for stealing his name and putting it on films in England ("Frank Capra presents" even though he had nothing to do with the films.) Capra was exhausted from the lengthy court battle (which Cohn eventually settled, but the scene where George Bailey screams at his kids and destroys the bridge model is based on what Capra did after losing the first round. He says he screamed at his family, then went up the hill behind his house and was so filled with rage it made him nauseous.) 

Capra said once he started telling people he "wasn't feeling well" he wasn't feeling well, and doctors came to see him and couldn't tell him what his problem was.  But it was so bad, he says he was at death's door - lying in bed,  refusing to get out, or see anyone.  And then one day his assistant Max told him that "someone was here to see him" but the man wouldn't give a name and insisted on coming up to his bedroom.

Capra says he crawled out of bed to go to the next door room where the man was sitting.  He described him as a short bald man with glasses, but a nondescript face.  He had never seen the man before, and neither had Max.  But the man started railing at Capra saying "You have to get out of bed. You're in there feeling sorry for yourself, when people out in the world need your talent."  Capra says that Max had the radio on, and he could hear Hitler shouting in the next room.  The bald man said "You hear that man shouting hatred in the next room?  How many people can he reach with his voice? A million? You can reach tens of millions of people in the dark in a theater."  He told Capra to "stop feeling sorry for himself, to get out of bed and get back to doing what you were put on Earth to do."

Capra says after the man left, Capra called his writing partner and the two of them drove out to Two Bunch Palms and locked themselves into a room until they hammered out "It's a Wonderful Life."  (Capra said the studio purchased a self published book which is credited in the film, but Capra claims it was this little man who inspired his film.)

Years later, when National Security Advisor in the Reagan administration Robert McFarlane tried to commit suicide, he got a copy of the film in the mail from someone anonymously. (Perhaps from Reagan himself? Makes sense). 

Robert "Bud" McFarlane

But watching the film made McFarlane realize he had more things in life to live for - (Bud is still alive, still kicking) - but he says he never knew who sent him the videotape.  

Perhaps a little bald man with a nondescript face?

Merry Christmas! https://youtu.be/lxNXtjGY_Us

It Takes a Village and Credit Where Credit is Due

Very hard to see the string of life that connects us all to everyone else. Hard to see that it "takes a village" for good things to happen, as well as bad.

SM Sunset

In light of the recent events in San Bernardino, it's hard to see any sense from something that's so painful or diffcult to wrap our minds around. How does all this pain and suffering relate to our current journey in life? It takes a village for these kinds of events to occur - looking the other way, watching someone you know purchase tons of ammo (His father is quoted as saying "When I saw my son with a gun, I said "In 45 years in America, I never needed a gun" to which his son replied "Your loss." Obviously he'd been angry for awhile.) It takes a village for these events to occur, from the indiscriminate drone strikes to the angry woman who seeks revenge, to the person selling tons of ammo to anyone who wants it, to the postman who delivers it and doesn't care why.  

It's hard to examine why events like these occur on a spiritual level, but it behooves us to look at the research.

I'm fond of writing "Well, I don't know why this person acted this way because I'm not in his or her soul group."  (You'd have to have read "Flipside" and "It's a Wonderful Afterlife" to allow me that point of view, and apologies to those of you who have not.  It doesn't come lightly.) In my research people report previous lifetimes where tragic events occurred, but from a soul perspective they talk about how and why they signed up to participate in them.

I can tell you that in the transcripts of the over 25 sessions I've filmed and documented, there are many tales of people remembering difficult, painful previous lives, and they discuss "why" they chose them - and even when they said they chose that lifetime, they observe that perhaps it was more difficult than they thought.

For example my pal Howard Schultz (television producer) did a between life session some years ago.  And in it he remembered a lifetime where he was a young Jewish girl living in Denmark, who was deporated and sent to die in Dachau.  He was asked why he chose such a difficult lifetime and he said "to experience the dark."  He said that he'd had so many lifetimes that were filled with light, it was important for him "to remember the dark" and that he'd agreed to partipate in that dark period.   

Howard on a panel

However, he said, it had altered him in a profound way - he said that the events were so dark, that it had "scorched his soul."  The hypnotherapist (Scott De Tamble, lightbetweenlives.com) asked him if there was any way to help him with that wound.  Howard said "They're taking me to the "river of souls" and I'm walking out into it, and I'm being healed by it."  

I'd never heard of anyone describing a river during these sessions, much less a river of souls - but I understood what Howard was trying to express.  That by walking into that river, he was able to sooth and heal a psychic wound.

Unfortunately for those who knew him, Howard passed away suddenly a year ago.  The tributes to his life and journey have been nothing shy of amazing, as he moved and touched many people he worked with.  He also observed during his between life session another reason he had named his company "lighthearted entertainment" - as it helped "bring people into the light through laughter."

What about someone who hasn't had one of those sessions, and yet is able to affect people in a profound way?

I heard of one such instance this past weekend.  About six months ago, a close friend was outside a Whole Foods grocery store in our hometown of Santa Monica and witnessed a homeless man being arrested for "stealing food."  

She instantly saw what the problem was - this man was hungry and couldn't afford to pay for the basic foods he had lifted.  On the spot she asked if she could pay for them.  But the store manager said "no" as the police had already been called.  She pleaded with the officer to let him go, but the officer said it was "out of his hands."  He had to arrest the guy and bring him downtown.

(My friend had experienced what being arrested was about - she had once been arrested during a protest to save trees in our hometown, and the brutality of the prison guard, who wouldn't let her use the restroom or make a call for six hours was traumatic.) So she did her best to stop this process from happening, and when it happened anyway, she took to the telephone to protest.

She called the store manager who told her to call corporate headquarters.  And at Whole Foods corporate headquarters she got someone who was sympathetic, but really couldn't do anything to change this particular case.  However, she thanked her for making the call and said "If anything like this comes up again, please give me a call."

This past weekend, there was the annual Christmas event at the Veterans Hospital here in Santa Monica. And one of her co-workers was organizing it, but suddenly got off the phone and said that for some reason they had lost their sponsor, and the event was happening in only a few days and they lost a sponsor!  

Annual Xmas event at the VA in West LA

So she remembered this woman's words, got her on the phone, and quickly Whole Foods took over the sponsorship, and supplied 3000 items (for free) to these veterans and their families who attended the event in Santa Monica.

When I heard the story, I said "that's amazing that you did that for these people."  She said, "Oh I didn't do it.  I just made a phone call to the people who did it."

Ah, but that's the point.

It takes a village to help someone.  It takes a village to hurt someone.  But if you do that one gesture, that one thing that will help another person today, that's the kind of healing and helping hand we all need.  It required that poor homeless guy to steal some food (she paid for it anyway) so that she could make that call to find that person who would later become the sponsor.  The woman even said "We plan these events at least a couple of years in advance, but because it's for Veterans, we'll step in."

So credit where credit is due.

That woman is my dear wife, mother of our two kids; Sherry.  And she made some people very happy this weekend, but won't take credit for it.  However, she deserves to be applauded for her efforts. If she hadn't tried to save that homeless fellow, she wouldn't have the woman's phone number. 

Sherry not taking credit.

It does take a village, but at least one villager has to step up.

Hacking the Afterlife on Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving.

From Southern Cal

It's a good day when we can give thanks, when we stop to consider how we got here.  And a note about HackingTheAfterlife.com

I've filmed 25 people under deep hypnosis now, and just about every one of those sessions, the person asks their "guides" - 

"How am I doing?"

Meaning, "Am I on the right path? What should I be doing differently?"

And nearly every time the guides respond with "You're on the right path. You're doing exactly what you signed up for. Give yourself some credit for getting this far."

How do we give ourselves some credit?

By giving thanks.  By noticing where we are on the planet, and how we got to be where we are at this very moment.  Could be with help from loved ones, family - and a good reason to celebrate them, to honor them, to remember them.

Recently I've made friends with a mathematician.

We were talking about his life and his path and his journey - and I said to him "Well, I know this is going to sound odd to you, but I've filmed a number of sessions with people where they claim to see geometric shapes that the visible eye can't see.  Further, they claim that these shapes or fractals contain information, or data, or somehow are linked to our previous lifetimes here.  People have compared them to "portable hard drives" that travel with us during our lifetimes to help us have access to events that happened previously, functioning as "ball bearings" that help keep our machinery working."

Typical fractal

I half expected him to burst into laughter.  Instead, he said

"I see them all the time."

I asked "while you're dreaming?"  He said "No, I see them when I'm conscious.  Out of the corner of my eye.  And I have a number of colleagues who see them as well.  It's not something we normally talk about, but I have met others."

So here is a gentleman, a man who works in math on theoretical physics, on quantum theory, confirming something that I found in my research while listening to people under deep hypnosis.

That's the reason I'm working on this new book "Hacking the Afterlife."  They idea is to take information that I've discovered there, and then ask people who've never been hypnotized, or who we might not expect to have any knowledge of these events, and see what we can learn from them.

I asked the mathematician to draw one.  He did. Looked like a series of waves over a DNA Hexamer. I asked him what the lines contained.  He said "I don't know. But this is what I've seen."  I asked if it was possible that they contained data.  He didn't know, but figured it was possible.

Yesterday I was talking to someone who works in the medical industry, helping create conferences for surgeons and doctors wordwide. This person's background is firmly rooted in materialist science.  Yet, after a few minutes talking about the research in my afterlife studies, she said "Well, I heard a voice speak to me once - it saved my life."

I told her about Gary Schwartz's experience - the Harvard Professor was driving in a car with his wife when he heard someone say "Put on your seatbelts."  He told his wife to put on her belt, and minutes later they were rear ended, and the belts saved their lives.  He's spent the rest of his career trying to figure out what the science is behind that voice.  (I suggested to him that he might want to focus on "who" the voice was.)

This person agreed with me - as she said she recognized the voice of the person who told her to "slow down" while she was driving in a forest in Europe.  She did, and just missed a car accident.  She said three different times this same voice has spoken to her, always related to driving, always a male voice.  (I suggested perhaps it was time to "slow down" in general.)  But she couldn't place who the male voice was - guessed it was someone close to her - but could not identify the voice beyond that it had saved her life a number of times.

What's going on?

Well, on one hand, by using hypnotherapy, we can get to the source of these questions. Once you understand the architecture of the flipside, the general idea of how things work after we check off the planet, you can ask questions about it.  And ask questions to people who are no longer on the planet about it.

So if you're interested in hearing more, seeing more, please visit and donate to my gofundme page - at HackingTheAfterlife.com

Thanks for all the donations already, and have a great Thanksgiving!!!

RM

Thoughts on the City of Light

Thoughts on Paris:

As we pick up the shell casings, wash away the blood, turn off the news from the horror of it all. We'll point fingers at others, try to make sense of tragedy, try to remember what Paris was like before. We search for answers, curse god, curse our brothers, curse the bullets, the bombs, the drones, the dead, those who drove us here, those who've driven this bus, our bus into a ditch. 

We weep for Paris, city of light, city of love, crazy city of jazz, of singing, dining, art, stunning beauty brought to its knees by a handful of lost, unhappy, unloved, bereft souls. How did their world become so dark they feel the urge to darken the rest of us? Guns will be reloaded, drones will be sent, warbucks spent, more blood spilled, terror breeds terror. I weep for Paris, i weep for the past, my past, my friends, who live in this city. 

But i weep also for my world, my planet, my children who will never know the Paris i knew, who now live in a world of rage. Would knowing that we dont die, that we choose our lifetimes no matter how difficult, help? I dont know. 

All i can say is, Converse with the ghosts of Per Lachaise cemetery. They can tell you, Paris will rise again. That Paris is okay, and she will recover, standing atop that heap of hate, waving that magnificent banner of red, white and blue. Vive la France!

Was at an event this morning, and the people involved asked everyone to stand and sing "Imagine" in honor of the Paris bombings.

Imagine 
by John Lennon and the Plastic Ono Band

Imagine there's no heaven
It's easy if you try
No hell below us
Above us only sky
Imagine all the people
Living for today...
Imagine there's no countries
It isn't hard to do
Nothing to kill or die for
And no religion too
Imagine all the people
Living life in peace...
You may say I'm a dreamer
But I'm not the only one
I hope someday you'll join us
And the world will be as one
Imagine no possessions
I wonder if you can
No need for greed or hunger
A brotherhood of man
Imagine all the people
Sharing all the world...
You may say I'm a dreamer
But I'm not the only one
I hope someday you'll join us

And the world will live as one

Pianist Plays 'Imagine' Outside Bataclan, Uniting Parisians In Moment Of Peace
He rolled up a grand piano and played to a crowd of journalists and onlookers.

Reporter, The Huffington Post
Posted: 11/14/2015 11:12 AM EST | Edited: 1 hour ago

The day after a series of attacks in Paris killed more than 120, a man rolled up a piano outside the city's Bataclan theater and played John Lennon's "Imagine."

CNN's Hala Gorani reported on it live from the scene Saturday during the CNN morning show "New Day." The sounds of the piano can be heard in the background of her report.

"There's a grand piano that was just rolled out in the middle of the crowd and in the middle of this group of journalists and someone playing 'Imagine' by John Lennon -- quite loudly, so perhaps you watching us all over the world, can hear it," Gorani said. 

German news site Sudkurier identified the man as German pianist Davide Martello, based on a tweet in which Martello said he would be playing Paris, rather than appearing as planned on Saturday in the German city of Konstanz. 

Martello, who goes by the nickname Klavier Kunst, then tweeted out a link to the Sudkurier piece with a message in English.

He posted identical messages on his Facebook page.

"Imagine," the title song of Lennon's 1971 solo album, remains one of the world's most famous peace anthems. Its lyrics ask us to imagine a world of unity and harmony. It specifically speaks about removing nationalist and religious prejudices.

"Imagine there's no countries / It isn't hard to do," Lennon sings. "Nothing to kill or die for / And no religion too / Imagine all the people / Living life in peace."

At least 89 people died in the attack on the Bataclan theater on Friday night. It is the site of the deadliest in a series of gun attacks and bombings across Paris that have killed at least 129 people.

Martello has a history of taking his piano to socially significant events. He played an extended set at the protests in Istanbul's Gezi Park in June 2013.

"My goal is to travel around the whole world with my grand piano and to inspire people in the middle of the streets," Martello wrote on his Facebook page. "I compose my own stuff usually in the street or daydreams."

Quantum Weirdness, Biocentrism and the Flipside

Some pals of mine turned me on to Robert Lanza's book "Biocentrism: How Life and Consciousness are the Keys to Understanding the True Nature of the Universe."

Excellent tome, highly recommended.  Some observations based on the research that I've been doing into first hand accounts of people no longer on the planet:


Review of Biocentrism by Richard Conn Henry, Professor of Physics and Astronomy, The Johns Hopkins University (Journal of Scientific Exploration)

“The heart of [biocentrism], collectively, is correct. On page 15 they say “the animal observer creates reality and not the other way around.” That is the essence of the entire book, and that is factually correct. It is an elementary conclusion from quantum mechanics.

So what Lanza says in this book is not new. Then why does Robert have to say it at all? It is because we, the physicists, do NOT say it–or if we do say it, we only whisper it, and in private–furiously blushing as we mouth the words. True, yes; politically correct, hell no!

Bless Robert Lanza for creating this book, and bless Bob Berman for not dissuading friend Robert from going ahead with it. Not that I think Robert Lanza could be dissuaded–this dude doesn’t dissuade! Lanza’s remarkable personal story is woven into the book, and is uplifting. You should enjoy this book, and it should help you on your personal journey to understanding.


In Dr. Lanza's book (with Bob Berman) goes into how quantum theory works only when consciousness is added to its mechanics.

That consciousness - and the way that Dr. Lanza discusses it, the observer observing phenomena creates that phenomena (because it's translated into phenomena in the brain.)

I've found the same accounts in the research I've been doing into what people say about the afterlife through eyewitness accounts (near death experiences) via hypnosis sessions (memories of previous lifetimes and the between lifetime arena) and mediums (not discussing predictions, but when discussing architecture of the afterlife.)  

I've found that there are some key maxims that dovetail with Dr. Lanza's work. Here's ten of 'em.

1. Everything is energy.

Just so we're on the same page here, it's important to note that - everything, every thought, deed, action, feeling, emotion has its roots in energy. Thoughts are energy, emotions are energy, matter is energy agreeing to hold together in one place.

2. We are energetic beings.

We influence what we're going to see or perceive, or experience, based on our reception of that energy, like a stereo receiver.  And like a stereo receiver, or tv set, we have certain filters that block out other information - either because it's unnecessary, or it would interrup our functioning properly (or living out our lives as we've planned to do so.)  And by the way, in some of the accounts I've examined, people on the flipside claim that when two individuals come together, they can create any structure over there that they want to - classrooms, schools, homes, a bar - whatever floats their boat.  But it takes focus and concentration of energy. 

("Afterlife of Billy Fingers" by Annie Kagan, "My Life after Life" by Galen Stoler, "My Life After Death" by Erik Medhus all contain the same basic concept.)

3. Time is holographic in nature.

Dr. Lanza talks about people revisiting, as he does, their youth and other time frames, noting that they still exist.  They exist in our minds to be sure, but they exist inherently, since time is a structure of our experience.  So previous time periods exist, as well as people who lived in these time periods also still exist.  

4. No one dies.

He notes that this is what his research has proven to him.  And it is the same thing that I've learned in my research - but to take it a step further, no one dies, but everyone is accessible.  Meaning if you had the coordinates of a person - the time frame when they existed in the form that you want to access (not in a present lifetime, or a previous one) you can access these individuals.  And you can do it consistenly with different people in different places.  it's a matter of asking someone to see if they can access someone who used to be on the planet, and then if they can, to ask that person who is no longer on the planet to answer some basic questions about their existence, or more importantly "their opinion" about what's currently happening at the moment.

5. Everything is relative.

I've found this to be true as well.  So if I ask medium A to access a historical figure, they will do their best to speak or observe or translate what they're sensing or hearing.  I then ask medium B to access the same person - and while I get the same basic answers to events in that person's life, I get a slightly different impression of that person - because of the filter that is being used to access that person.  For example, I've done extensive historical research into the life of Amelia Earhart.  I've worked on two films about her life, and know some intimate details about her life that aren't public knowledge.  I've spoken to "Amelia" or a form of Amelia through a variety of different mediums to ask further questions about her path and journey on the planet - about "what happened" and why.  Depending on the skills of the medium I've gotten detailed answers to questions I know for a fact I'm the only person privy to - and further have been told details ("new information") by her that turn out to be true upon further forensic investigation.  


I bring this up not because I've done extensive research into Earhart's life and death, but because I've been able to use this odd method to access information from her. 

6. Time is relative.

I know how weird that sounds - but I've found it to be accurate. First of all, time and space are a construct of our realm.  That doesn''t mean they don't exist in the realm outside this realm - but that it's inherently different. I've spoken to a number of people about time "outside" of time - and one person said "It's relative. If you look at a string you'll see that it goes from left to right - but if you look at it from the end, it's all one piece.  So it depends upon your point of view."

Got that?  --------- is a linear expression of time.  But O is also an expression of time, if O is the end of the string - and you're looking down it. So time is relative as well.

7. If we don't die, then everyone who has ever lived is accessible.

Hard to get your mind around - but think of anyone in human history. Imagine for a moment that 2000 years to someone outside of time might feel like a couple of weeks.  So talking to someone who existed 2000 years ago isn't that hard to fathom.  So how to reach out to that person?  You merely have to ask for them.  How to ask for them?  You need to access the energetic pattern that once existed as them.  Which is back to the hologram of time.  If once we're outside of time we're outside of time - then it's no problem for me to ask a question to Plato, Cicero, take your pick.  They didn't die, they can't die, they aren't dead, so therefore they still exist.

Have they reincarnated? It's likely, it's possible, but it's up to them.  Can we access all of their lifetimes? Why not? I've interviewed numerous people who've seen or witnessed dozens of their own lifetimes, and remember details from all of them.  If we can access our own memory of various lifetimes, then why not access someone else's memory of their lifetimes?

8. There are no questions that can't be answered.

Ah, but that's the rub. How do you ask the question?  You might want to know how to turn salt water to fresh water. Or coal to gold.  Is it possible?  Well, it may or may not be physically possible - but there's no question that can't be posed to those who would know, to those who are outside our time frame, to those who had a hand in the creation of the universe.

9. If consciousness is responsible for the creation of the Universe, then why can't we ask it questions?

We can. I have. I would argue that if you ask one person, or one entity a question of such magnitude, you'll get a complex answer. But if you ask 100 people on the flipside the same question, you'll eventually see a pattern in the answers.  It could be the human being making up the answer, it could be some kind of universal memory of events - but it could also be the answer.  And there's no point in asking a question you know the answer to.  Ask the questions you don't know the answer to.

10. The veil is thinning.

I don't know why this is, but it's been reported often in many sessions. It's been reported by people under deep hypnosis, by mediums, by people on the flipside who when asked "why is it so easy to access you?" the answer is "because the veil is thinning."

What is the veil?  Is it a filter in the minds of humans that doesn't allow us to access other information, the way snakes and bees can access ultra violet light?  Is it a form of energy that allows dolphin to communicate with each other soundlessly to perform complex maneuvers in synch that haven't been taught? Is it the definition of quantum weirdness? Or quantum entanglement where one photon always knows what's happening with the other photon?

I don't know.

But I bet we'll find out.

Some further thoughts for today:

In "Biocentrism" Lanza has opened up a can of worms, or perhaps a panorama of pandorian perplexity.  He shows (it's a "proof" really, a scientific paper that argues for something to be true) that consciousness - or whatever we call mind - is intimately involved in every part of the universe including but not limited to, its creation. It begins with "if a tree falls in the forest does it make a sound?"  (if your ear doesn't hear the sound wave, then "sound" doesn't exist) and moves into quantum entanglement and describes my new favorite branch of science "quantum weirdness." 

What does this have to do with It's a Wonderful Afterlife: Further Adventures in the Flipside? The books interview people who've been to "this other realm" or scientists who examine this "other realm" through near death experiences, out of body experiences or while under deep hypnosis. 

And what they say about the journey dovetails with what Dr. Lanza (with Berman) is writing about - that consciousness does go on, and quantum science is an explanation for it.  But it's a bit like a scientist standing on the edge of a continent and saying "there's land over here!" Everyone and their brother will deny there's land over there, and will argue for not exploring that land for fear of ... perhaps destroying our land. But when you speak to the explorers who've been there - to that land - you get a consistency of reporting.  

They're saying the same basic things about this territory - "it's vast" "beyond the brain's ability to comprehend" "time doesn't exist" (or it exists relatively different) "I saw my loved ones, held their hands" "I saw all of my various lifetimes at once in a flash" "I spoke to my spirit guide who showed me why I chose this lifetime" "I felt like I was close to source, or God" "I loved it so much I didn't want to come back" "there's a feeling of unconditional love over there" "I see now why I chose this difficult life, to help others out of compassion" "I saw Jesus, and he was wearing jeans and a tee shirt" "I met my spirit guide, who has been with me for all my lifetimes" "It's so awesome I can't use words to describe it."  

I've been getting these reports - on film - for the past six years. At first I didn't know what to make of it - "how could all these people who've never met be making up the same story about the journey of souls?"  "How is it that I, who am not trained in therapy at all, can merely ask a series of questions and get the same answers that people give while under deep hypnosis, or from their subconscious about a near death experience?"  

Here, for the first time in my experience, is a biologist who offers some logical conclusions about how consciousness creates our universe - but I would offer - to what end is that happening?


And from what I've learned in this research is that there is a reason for that - it's not random, it's not karmic and it's not willy nilly - there's a logic (and symmetry and beauty) to the entire program, to the adventure, to what it is we're doing here on the planet. 

And my observations are not limited to my brain capacity, nor my ability to ask people unusual questions, or to have a camera in the right place at the right time - we are all imbued with these abilities, we are all spirits living as human beings, and even though a majority of us (Lanza puts it at 75%) will never have an apotheosis, or experience where we see how "all things are connected" (I haven't, but I've interviewed many who have) in this lifetime - that "spiritual awakening" that the NY Times magazine wrote about in 1976 (He quotes it in the book), that doesn't mean that we can't put our minds around it, hone the abilities we have to sense and feel and emote, and allow that all of this research is being done for the betterment of the planet.  

"On January 26, 1976, the New York Times Magazine published an entire article on this phenomenon, along with a survey showing that at least 25 percent of the population have had at least one experience that they described as “a sense of the unity of everything,” and “a sense that all the universe is alive.” Fully 40 percent of the 600 respondents additionally reported it as “a conviction that love is at the center of everything” and said it entailed “a feeling of deep and profound peace.”


Berman, Bob; Lanza, Robert (2010-02-02). Biocentrism: How Life and Consciousness are the Keys to Understanding the True Nature of the Universe (p. 34). BenBella Books, Inc.. Kindle Edition. 

My two cents with some spare change.

Flipside Book Talks

Here's my 'FLIPSIDE BOOK TALKS' page on youtube.  There's some repetition here, but some of this bears repeating.

enjoy!

Interview with Kevin Moore and the Flipside

for more info on the new book, or to donate: HACKINGTHEAFTERLIFE.COM 

Here's an interview I did with Britain's version of "Coast to Coast" with Kevin Moore.  Kevin's got a cool blog, he's an unusual cat, and at the end, we do an impromptu interview with someone who may or may not be the person mentioned - I try not to judge these things - and you'll see from my questions to this "person on the flipside" that I had a couple of things to clarify with him... be that as it may, it's entertaining at the very least. 

 Enjoy.

Jim Carrey and the Flipside

Came across this cool clip today.


Jim Carrey introduced Eckart Tolle and transcendental meditation

Well... you can get back to the flipside. 

A variety of ways to accomplish it - via meditation, between life hypnotherapy, a near death experience, and other consciousness altering events. 

I've been writing about these reports in "flipside" and "it's a wonderful afterlife." When we experience that apotheosis, there's a reason for that occuring, there's a logic to it, there's a sequence that allows that to occur, and the architecture of those events can be studied, examined, and made sense of. 

Not everyone signs up for that experience and with respect, I've observed that we all choose different paths -- but for those who do want to take that flipside journey, it appears to be something we all can experience when we put our minds to examining, understanding or experiencing it. 

My two cents.

The latest flipside book talk; for more info or to support the research, please visit HackingTheAfterlife.com. "Keep an Open Mind."

The Moore Show in the UK - Interview with Erik Medhus live on camera

I'm talking on this fellow's show next week, "The Moore Show" - here's a cool interview from last week with Dr. Medhus, her son Erik (who is on the Flipside) and Jamie Butler, who does a great job of speaking on his behalf. (For more videos see ChannelingErik.com) 




New information is in here: at one point Erik makes a suggestion that the host says he had just heard from his guides a week earlier. 

Some fun quotes - Erik calls coming back "extreme sport into human life" (the process of making the switch from there to here) refers to the "beauty of being human... the beauty of having the struggle." 

Erik asks his mom for the Schopenhauer quote: 

"Truth goes through 3 phases, ridicule, opposition, accepted as self-evident." 

Erik: "The hot ticket (in the near future) is going to be how science explains energy, and we're all going to have these.. aha moments." 

"Death is kind, death is a transition... we don't have to be so worried about success in a lifetime, focus on the emotions..." 

"Laughter heals... laughter aligns all the energy in the body so the (person) can vibrate higher, and you can perceive that subtle light energy... a wonderful dose of medication." (Same thing I heard in my 1st LBL - "laughter is the fastest way to change a disposition.") 

This is an example of how speaking to people on the Flipside can help enhance and be healing for what we're doing on this side.

for more info, or to donate to my next project, please visit HackingTheAfterlife.com