Beyond Words

Each week, Jennifer Shaffer and I have chats with folks on the flipside. That is, people no longer on the planet.  Are we speaking to a floating ghost? Or an echo of a consciousness? Or a pool of consciousness?  Perhaps it's worth looking at the "process" involved.  

Jennifer is a medium who works with law enforcement agencies nationwide on missing person cases. She's used to jaded skeptics asking her questions and having their minds blown by her giving details that turn out later on to be evidence. 

By her "solving" a mystery by seeing the events that took place. She's not always able to do so - sometimes people can't project what happened to them, or she misinterprets the visuals, sounds or senses she is getting.  But when she's correct - she's correct. (Ask Bill Bratton, former NYPD commissioner about her.)

Jennifer and George Noory of Coast to Coast

What's the process?

I had a dream last night where I was speaking to Luana Anders and she said something that made me laugh, but it was a lightning quick thought.  I mean, she passed along something funny to me, I laughed, said "I get it" before she fully formed it - like I was on the same engram or thought path with her. 

And then a second later, after I said "That's funny!" I could not access it. That is me - Richard - the guy on the planet in bed having a dream where I'm talking to Luana, and I realize we're in mid conversation.

But my higher self - the two thirds left behind - got her joke.  And that guy laughed before she could finish saying it. But because the mind of "me" (Richard in bed guy) is not lightning swift, I couldn't hold onto it - because it was in her mind.  

So I tried to ask her - consciously - "What was it you were referencing?" She replied "Access and process."  Meaning - "It's about the process - and how we access our higher selves."

So this post is about process and access. How we access people who are no longer on the planet.  We are connected to them at all times (not aware of it), and since no one disappears or goes to nothingness, we all "return home" - a portion of them is always accessible.  Not a "floating, meandering" portion - but one that is connected to their "higher consciousness" which is aware of all of their lifetimes (as well as ours. Just ask.)

We have filters that block our access to that information, but those filters can be altered or adjusted during a near death event, out of body experience, taking hallucinogens, using meditation or under deep hypnosis.  The filters - the things that prevent us from accessing this information on a daily basis - are firmly in place. (For "filter references" in research, I recommend Dr. Greyson's "Is consciousness produced by the brain?" or Dr. Wambach's "Reliving Past Lives" where she suggests the "hypervigilant" left brain blocks the information received (the brain functioning like a stereo receiver.)

As they are altered when we are asleep.

In dreams. However - we can be open to their being altered while awake. And to do that, just "open one's mind up to the possibility that there is an afterlife" and things will spring forth. In the previous post, I mentioned how a close friend suddenly realized her pal who died ten years ago was "hanging out with her."  She had written me suddenly, saying that "It feels like this guardian or guide is with me now and is showing herself to me. I can feel and hear her."

I wrote: "Ask her who she is."  A few minutes later, she said "Oh my God! It's Sharon!"  I knew Sharon - my pal's close friend in high school - but Sharon is keeping an eye on her since she checked off the planet ten years ago. For ten years she had "no idea" who that person might be, never mentioned it to anyone (except to me once in an email, that someone "makes her feel completely at peace when she shows up.")  Told no one. Claimed who she was to no one.

And then when asked the question "Who are you?" she replied. Gave her a visual of who she is.  That kind of verification will mean nothing to someone who hasn't experienced it.  The super skeptics will remain super skeptics - until they have the same experience. That's how the mind works. Super skeptical until it's no longer useful.

I got a note from someone on Quora who self identified as a skeptic, but wanted to try to self experiment. He wanted to see if he could access someone no longer on the planet; his mother who had died some years ago. 

He followed the method I recommended; imagined her sitting across from him.  He said “I tried the method, spent ten minutes just pretending to see my mother, did a simple meditation of creating her, what she was wearing, holding her hands. He said, then he asked her a simple question he wouldn't know the answer to: “Who greeted you when you crossed over?” 

She replied (aloud, in his head) “Hugh Nessel.”

He had no clue who that was, so he reached out to his sister, the keeper of family histories, and she said “That was mother's maternal grandfather. You never met him because he died before you were born." 

He wrote to tell me that this incident had "shaken him to his core."  He had tried a simple self experiment... and the results surprised him.

Super skeptics will tell us that everything is cryptomnesia, something we heard before, or created with our minds, which are locked in place by the brain, and die with us upon departure.  That he must have heard this name somewhere someplace in his lifetime and that he just forgot it.  

But you see - that doesn't acknowledge the experiential portion. Which is "hearing his mother's voice saying new information that he had not heard before."  He had never heard her say "Hugh Nessel."  (Or had any access to it). And when he did hear her say it, he was startled to "hear her voice" but didn't say "Oh, right, that old duffer."  He was confused because he didn't know who that could be. She said a name completely foreign to him, but in her own voice, which he knew was hers.

But his sister set him straight. 

Someone he never met, who died before he was born, whose name would not be common knowledge. (This is just one of dozens of examples I can recount.)

Harry Dean and his pal Bill

Harry Dean Stanton showed up in a conversation with Jennifer Shaffer a week before his memorial service. He gave me three messages to give his close friends at the service.  Details about issues relating to their health that they had not told anyone, was not common knowledge. I went up to each of them and told them at the memorial service. They were flabbergasted.

I asked Harry what he wanted me to say at his Memorial - he said "Tell people to believe in the afterlife."  I laughed. "Harry, you were a famous atheist. None of your friends is going to believe I spoke to you."  He said "Then tell them to believe in the possibility of an afterlife so then they won't waste another minute of their life arguing about it like I did."  Sage words.

Finally,  someone on Quora asked me the same question today - "How do we know we are connected to our higher selves, so I can, for example, figure out the right trade to make? How do you differentiate between your own inner voice and the voice of your guide(s) or loved ones who are trying to communicate. How do I know whom to thank for the all the stock tips and subsequently, whom do I fault for not taking them ;) ?"

I replied: 

"You mean Lottery numbers? Well, I always ask. They always laugh. I recommend adding intent. Who am I here to help or heal? Who am I here (in this lifetime) to make their lives happy or comfortable? Focus on the intent of the trade. Not on the self profit. But on who it will benefit. And I’m not referring to trades that are related to “good causes” (though of course that’s related) I’m referring to choices that relate to “why we are on the planet.” 

I included a link from my film "Limit Up" which although cowritten with Luana Anders, was about how God (played by Ray Charles) was trying to manipulate the soybean market at the Chicago Board of Trade to end world hunger. (His assistant angel played by Danitra Vance.)  I sent him a link to the film which is below.

But I included this in the reply:

The best detail I’ve heard came from a conversation with Michael Newton via Jennifer Shaffer during one or our chats with him on the flipside. (Showed up, offered insight, not by request, but just because he can). I asked him for a simple 1, 2, 3 for communication. He said “Say their name, ask your questions.” I asked “do you say the name aloud or in your head?” He said “Doesn’t matter.” I asked “So how can you tell when your actually making a connection rather than wishful thinking?” He said “When they answer the question before you can ask it.” I said “Is there a 3rd thing?” He said, “No, only two.”...

(Just like the Luana conversation from last night referenced above. She was telling me something and I got it before she said it aloud. But my "lesser" conscious self didn't "hear it" - but my "higher self" got the image and joke intended before she even finished the sentence. Hence this post about "access" and "process.")

Say their name. Ask your questions. If one is trying to access their higher self, I recommend just asking their guide. (If they don’t know who that is, learn who that is). The guide has access to one’s life plan - and can answer pretty much any question one might have. But don’t be surprised if when one is about to “Make a trade” and they ask their guide for advice and they say “And what do you plan to do with the money that you get from that successful trade?” If it isn’t part of one’s life plan, or path - perhaps avoid it."

His reply:

"The reason for my question, if I may. So, I’m standing in my kitchen, making myself a munchie snack. You know, high on life. As I have a moment of creative genius. I top my warm raspberry crumb coffee cake that is sitting on top of vanilla ice cream bar separated by a thin layer of Belgian chocolate with a double espresso. and Viola. I’m a legend in my own mind.

Before ever taking a bite I said to myself, “Oh, man. Grandpa would LOVE this!”…and before I finished the sentence I heard his voice in my head, loud and clear say the word “Vkustnyatsina”, or scrumptious in Russian. I freaked for a second. I know I heard his voice. I read all your stuff. I knew it was possible but…I know it was unmistakably his voice. But is it him, or is there an intermediary that is showing me that image and sound, as a means of establishing communications, as my guide? How would I know the difference. Is this my higher self sending me an image of him because I miss him?"

My reply:

"Wow. That gave me a chill... THAT’S EXACTLY IT. We have a hard time training ourselves not to judge events that occur. And that, my friend, was one of them. Vkustnyatsina! I love it. Scrumptious!!! Only you would know his voice. He’s been trying to talk to you for a long time. Finally! You listened! Very cool. Spasibo. 

To which he replied:

"Thank you for the validation. I’m beyond words right now."

Beyond words.

It's a good place to be.

And now - in its 30th year, I bring you the epic film of "Limit Up" starring Ray Charles as God, Danitra Vance as his assistant, Nancy Allen as the soybean trader, Brad Hall as her BFF, Dean Stockwell as her boss. Luana Anders is in a scene asking me about soybeans. Enjoy something that is Beyond Words.

Filters to the Flipside and a chilling moment

Just a random observation here - about filters to being aware of the flipside.

For those not familiar with the idea that there are filters on the brain that prevent us from accessing our "higher selves" (or the two thirds of our conscious energy that remains "home" while here), or that there are some kind of "filters" that prevent us from accessing that information, I can suggest a couple of sources:

1. Dr. Bruce Greyson's talk "Is Consciousness produced by the brain?"

2. General discussion of brain filters in Dr. Helen Wambach's "Reliving Past Lives." (1978 Bantam)

Here's yours truly reading from the chapter "Home" in one of my books:

In the former, Dr. Greyson mentions how dementia patients have "filters that appear to die" when the brain atrophies.  He cites the 70% of hospice care workers who report prior to passing, their patients have spontaneously memory recall. "As if the filters were dying along with the brain." 

There's an interview with Dr. Greyson in the book "It's a Wonderful Afterlife."

In reports of children up to the age of 8 who can "see" relatives, or recall previous lifetimes, it coincides with the year that the skull hardens, so it may be a reception issue.  Meaning the thicker the skull the worse the reception.  Interesting to note, I happened to be reading the autopsy of Beethoven this morning (weird, I know) and they noted he had an "unusually thick skull."  Yet he reported during his lifetime of "channeling" or being connected to the "spheres of the universe" where music inspired him.  So maybe it's not a thickness of skull issue - but something else.

In Dr. Wambach's book, she notes that the right brain/left brain paradigm appears to be that the right brain is getting information unfettered, and the left brain parses it, puts it into the proper channels and filters out anything that is not conducive to the survival of the human animal.  (Reversed in people who are left handed).  But her idea is repeated by Greyson - that there are "filters" that somehow parse the information that the brain receives.

Inside a Pioneer Stereo circa 1970. Limiters and filters parse sound waves.

The brain appears to function like a receiver.  One can point to a television receiver, but having sold stereo equipment in the 1970's, I can point to the limiters and filters in the receivers that unpack the radio waves to turn them into music.   How modern science points to the speaker and says "The speaker is creating the music" when that's not the case at all.

I used to sell these at Systems Warehouse in SF circa 1978.

But I'm noting that the filters seem to be adjusting. Either on their own - perhaps as a result of environmental factors (more wifi?) or physical reasons (more access to information about how things work on the flipside?) or perhaps because "it's time."

I've heard that often.

It's time.

Meaning, "time's up" or "it's time for people to shift consciousness."

Yesterday I got a text from an old friend who had told me somewhere along the line that she "felt" a presence guiding her. She said this presence often appeared while she was driving, and that it gave her immense calm and peacefulness. Yesterday, she texted me and said "I know this sounds crazy, but she's here. She's in my backyard by the pool. I can hear her clearly and I'm afraid she's going to disappear."

I pointed out that she's likely a guide or a friend on the flipside - she wasn't going anywhere, she had nothing to fear and knowledge to gain. I said "Ask her who she is. Ask her for a name."

When she did that she reported this person "zooming up" to her face and being inches away - and smiling.  She said that should have freaked her out - but it didn't because of the overwhelming calm.  I repeated the question - "Ask her for a name so we can refer to her."  She replied "Let's call her Peace and Calm."  I said "Okay,  Miss P and C, can you show our friend here if she knows you from somewhere?"

There was a pause (you know the pause sign when texting, or IM'ing... three dots moving back and forth.. signifying thinking...) and she suddenly said "Oh my god! It's "so and so!"

You just never know who is watching over you.

So and so is/was a close friend who died 10 years ago.  I knew her in high school as well, and it was a chilling moment - the cool kind of chill, as in "that gave me a huge chill." People often report "the shivers" or a "massive chill" when things come through from the flipside.  Like a "ringing bell" of verification.

  

I've filmed Jennifer Shaffer suddenly rubbing her arms or throwing on a wrap - "I'm getting massive chills here."  It means "You're on the right path."

Then this morning, someone I communicate with but haven't met wrote to me, and said he was part of a PTSD experiment, where he's going to be treated with a hallucinogen to help with his severe PTSD. When we first began to converse, he reported all kinds of trauma, but that meditation had helped him immensely.  We talked about the research from Richard Davidson at the University of Wisconsin that shows meditation can "cure or alleviate symptoms of depression."  We've talked about how that works, and why that works.

Soldiers often suffer from PTSD. I've met a few. Meditation helps.

Today he said the nurse was prepping him for the "adventure" and she said "People come here knowing what it is they're going to go through. We all have a council that helps advise us on these choices. So you may gain access to that council."

He was startled as it was something he'd read in my books - but of course it is mentioned in other books (including Michael Newton's work, "Journey of Souls"  and Robert Schwartz "Soul's Plan.")  But here was a medical technician giving a patient some ground rules about the trip they're about to take.  Something that is indeed moving into the zeitgeist.

In the research, I often hear something akin to "By talking about this stuff, it affects everyone. It affects the people who hear you talking about it, but it also affects people on the other side, because they become aware of how to communicate with their loved ones back here."  The point being, these advances in human consciousness move in increments - but we should be aware of when things are shifting.  It really won't be an immediate shift, but it appears it will be subtle.

A shift in consciousness, or a cosmic event that 

happened billions of years ago, and we're hurtling through 

that shockwave. Either way the result is the same.

I can only point to the first time I did a deep hypnosis session. Michael Newton suggested it, Paul Aurand, then head of the Newton Institute chose the hypnotherapist, Jimmy Quast of Easton Hypnosis, who happens to do the accreditation for the Institute. I designed some questions for my journey that I thought would prove or disprove whatever was experienced - a vain attempt to prove that what happened did not happen.. Unfortunately that wasn't the case.

Since then I've filmed 100 people, half with the help of hypnotherapists where they ask  the questions, and half with me just asking the questions to people not under hypnosis ("Architecture of the Afterlife"). The results are the same.

But I can't help but observe how many more people have written to me on Quora saying "I had this dream last night where I learned new information from someone" - could be a relative, loved one, could be a guide, could be someone they didn't think they knew but somehow did.  The information they're sharing is experiential - it's not theoretical, or based on religious beliefs, or scientific disbeliefs. They're having these visceral experiences of "talking to" "getting answers from" "relating to" people they didn't realize they could speak to or get answers from. 

It brings to mind the answer I filmed for a session of deep hypnosis in the book "It's a Wonderful Afterlife."

A skeptic came in to do a session. A female film executive, worked on multibillion dollar projects.  She didn't believe she could be hypnotized, or that there was an afterlife, or that she could speak to a guide. She said she did the session purely because her doctor said that "hypnosis can help you to relax."  Something she wanted to do.

But I insisted she write down a few questions for the hypnotherapist (Scott at Lightbetweenlives.com) so one of her questions was "What's the significance of the shift, or a shift in consciousness? Is it important?"

I gave her the question - and she thought it appropriate because she thought of that as "new age nonsense."  

In a few moments of her session she was reliving a lifetime in the 1820s, with details I later verified.  And then at some point she gained access to her guide, or to an older gent in a library. (Oddly enough, this same fellow showed up five years later in a different session with someone not under hypnosis - and he recalled the conversation I'd overheard five years earlier.)

But in answer to the question, this older gent said "You humans think by naming things you'll get a better handle on them.  A shift in consciousness, in terms of the cosmos, is no big deal."  (When he said that, I thought - "you mean like Saturn running into Jupiter would be?")  But again - I'm across the room behind a camera. Not asking questions.

And he said "If you want to understand a shift in consciousness, imagine yourself a tiny crab walking on the ocean floor, who stops, opens its eyes and says "Hey! I'm in an ocean!"

That metaphor made me think of how oxygen functions like water - we are in the ocean of oxygen, we don't see it as water, but if we did, we might stop polluting it, or cutting down, burning the trees that give us the oxygen to breathe.  That the very thing that keeps us alive in this water, is the thing we are destroying. 

Further, I've heard it from various sources (trees) who say "If you want climate change fixed, plant a trillion trees. By doing so it will lower the temperature because oxygen will cool the atmosphere by lessening the carbon." Not a concept I was familiar with when I first heard it, but am now.

(By the way, my pal Nick Milo just turned me onto this search engine - "Ecosia" - for very 45 searches they plant a tree.  On their way to a billion... but we need a trillion. However, easy way to contribute to greening the planet. They have a Chrome extension as well.) 

But if you want to understand a shift in consciousness, picture that baby crab walking on the ocean floor, stopping, looking around and saying "Hey. I'm in an ocean!"

It's what I felt when I walked out of the session with Jimmy Quast. 

Basically in four hours I had proven beyond a shadow of my own doubt that I could recall previous lifetimes, speak to and communicate with loved ones no longer on the planet, further to speak with wise council members who gave me sage advice.  

I asked them "If there was one thing I could pass along to the planet, what would it be?" (Not knowing that I would be writing books, making films on the topic, but here it is.) "Just let go."  

In that moment I realized they were saying "let go of anger, of fear, of all of it. Hold onto the one thing that is universal - unconditional love - and let the rest go."  And when I walked out of that hotel in Schaumburg Illinois where the Newton conference was taking place, I literally felt as if the earth has shifted on its axis.

        A shift is a shift is a shift.

As if everything I thought I knew was inaccurate.  But not so inaccurate that the planet would fly off into the sun - but off its axis enough that I had to start from scratch to understand what it all meant.  And that moment gave me a massive chill.

My two cents.

Hacking the Afterlife with Jennifer Shaffer, David Bohm, David Bowie and Chadwick Boseman

The latest podcast. A number of people asked me about this, or about doing this. I always ask Luana if the "person I'm thinking of wants to be interviewed." 

Sometimes they say "No," or Luana says "They're not ready yet."  

In this case, while Jennifer had heard of his passing - she had not seen his iconic roles.  I'm fortunate to say that I have, and it gave me the unusual opportunity to ask him questions without Jennifer being aware of what or how he might answer based on her knowledge of his work.  

Some folks may be offended by this kind of exploration - we do it because it demonstrates that anyone can do so, that our nearest and dearest are not gone. One doesn't need a medium per se (it helps) but one can focus on the signs, incidents, reports from others that we all here. 

David Bohm, the great scientist weighs in on something, the late great David Bowie is asked some questions, and I saved my research for someone I greatly admire - but left it up to him whether he wanted to answer any of our questions.  

I asked for specific messages to folks that I know or have met in my career that he knows - and he responds accordingly. Not gone. Just not here.

PS. As I was falling asleep last night, I heard a voice say "Thank you." I thought - "who would be thanking me?" The response I got was "For putting this out there."  I replied, "Oh you mean the five people having pizza watching it who will appreciate it?" I heard a laugh, then  "More than you know."  

I'm not a medium - but sometimes, I'll let my imagination run free.  What I tell people is "if you hear something from a loved one, or even a stranger, instead of parsing it, just allow that it was "heard in a dream."  

And in terms of what Jennifer and I are doing - it's a bit like the two of us are sharing a dream. She's telling me what she's seeing in a dreamlike state (without hypnosis) and I'm allowing my imagination to run free for questions to ask.  

Obviously it relates to the idea of "what is waking reality? Are we living in a form of a dream?"  

Perhaps we are. It's fun to imagine it being so. 

My two cents.

Truth is Beauty and All Lights Matter

Last night I was having a chat with someone on the flipside. 

Not entirely sure who, but I was aware that he was Jewish, because he was showing me some artifacts from his "shul" back in New York City.  I heard the word "shul" and remembered it enough to include it in this post. The word means synagogue in Judaism, and I was being shown these items, not from a perspective of pain or suffering, but just history, or remembering.

It reminded me of when I played piano at my friend Dave Patlak's little brother Danny's Bar Mitzvah.  Danny, bless his heart, is no longer on the planet, but when he was mitzvahed the family asked me to play.  At the time I was playing guitar and piano in "open mic nights" in Chicago, and said "Sure."

But I wanted to play "Hava Nagila."  (Most people were playing "Tequila" or "Innagaddavida" at events, but I thought I'd be politically correct - funny, I never knew what the title of "InnaGaddaDaVida" meant until today - according to its Wiki page, after a gallon of Red Mountain wine, it's what the drummer heard from the drunk Iron Butterfly vocalist Doug trying to sing "In the Garden of Eden.") Growing up Cat'lick, I didn't know the tune other than Harry Belafonte's version.

So I learned it - and I played it. 

And the room was clapping, applauding and singing along until I forgot how it went - and apologized profusely, and said "Let's see if I can remember how it goes this time" and someone in the back of the room yelled "DON'T KILL IT AGAIN!"

Pretty funny. I'm still laughing about that one.

So this fellow in my dream and I were chatting about the idea of how everyone is just "Walking each other home."

I've heard it often - I know Ram Dass made it a popular phrase, but it's been repeated in the flipside research.  "All roads lead to the same garden."  Meaning, all religions, all philosophies, all non religions, all belief systems - we are all just walking each other home.

But beyond that - "who's the we?"  If we ask people on the flipside what they look like to others, they often report "I'm a light."  

People can be asked "What color is that light?"  Even the ones who say "It's mostly white" will also add "It's got streaks of vibrating blue, pink..." etc.  These strands appear related to guitar strings - vibrating at a frequency if you will. All lights have all kinds of color inside of them.

Rich, Jennifer and Scott De Tamble

Scott De Tamble, lightbetweenlives.com and I have frequent discussions about what he's heard or learned about the flipside. He observed that when he's speaking with or communicating with someone considered to be "old and wise" or venerated (worshiped, adored) when asked "So if you were looking into a mirror, how would you see yourself?" they inevitably say "as light."

So in essence - we are all lights.

When I'm doing my research with Jennifer Shaffer, and ask her "How does the bat signal go out to inform people that class is about to begin?" she often gets the visual of Christmas tree lights going on - or a string of lights, lights beyond lights into infinity. 

In one of the first sessions I filmed, Chanda Berlatsky ("Flipside") saw how everyone is connected together like a "string of lights."  This metaphor is used over and over again by people who are trying to describe what they are seeing from the perspective of the flipside.

We are all just lights.

Class in session

And then the conversation drifted into that speech that King T'challa gives at the UN - (the late great actor Chadwick Boseman) “Now, more than ever, the illusions of division threaten our very existence. We all know the truth: more connects us than separates us. But in times of crisis the wise build bridges, while the foolish build barriers.” ⁣

And I had this odd LIGHTNING BOLT of a revelation.  These wars, these divisions, they're all metaphors - all portions of plays written to teach us lessons. Take any division in human history and examine it from this lens.

Diasporas worldwide. 

People being harassed for the color of their skin, for their religion, for their sex, gender, choice of mate - etc.  Millions of Jews being harassed since forever - not just by Christians, but beyond. Arabs fighting other Arab tribes. For money, for gold, for oil, for sand.  Chinese tribals factions - Asians like the Khans marching across the globe, Tibetans being rounded up modern day, Native Americans wiped out by Europeans. Alexander the Great and his Greeks created war and havoc in India - in Egypt across the planet. Followed by the Romans versus the non Romans. Asians versus Asians, Africans versus Africans, Russian tribes versus Russians, etc.

It's them versus us. Us versus them. 

All variations of color of skin, of backgrounds, beliefs - like warring ants coming together to wipe out other armies of ants.  From the above point of view, it's just ants fighting, but from the ants' point of view - it's history, it's differences, it's... survival.

And yet here we are all lights. 

Just lights. But not only lights - multi-faceted, multi-jeweled lights. Multi-colored lights. At our essence and core, droplets of water fighting other droplets of water over something that has nothing to do with who or what we are. Refractions of light. Reflections of light.

What I got from this discussion with this fellow on the flipside is "We never learn."  

When I heard that - I realized each and every diaspora is a lesson... whether its building walls to keep out immigrants, or millions exterminated because of their religion. Estimates of 20 million Russians killed by Stalin because he feared them overthrowing him. Nazis exterminating gays, Jews, Catholics.... people they considered "less than."  Never mind that the concept of Aryanism - that Tibet as the birthplace of the Aryan nation was fabricated out of thin air...  Pol Pot arming children to kill children. Chairman Mao allowing the cultural revolution to murder estimates of ten million. Alexander the not so great wiping out civilizations - Darius of  Persia, Genghis Khan and all his crazy kids...  etc.  All of it ridiculous wastes of humanity.

Not a lot of women in there, but give Victoria her due. Or Elizabeth. Or Catherine the Great, or Elizabeth of Russia. Napoleon. Even Columbus, and his impact on the Americas. Millions upon millions willing to kill each other (they didn't do all the killing, they pointed and the rest of the ants rolled over the hill and slaughtered the rest.)

Will we never learn?

Reportedly, there is a time element involved. I've heard it often in the research. That human consciousness is shifting whether it wants to or not - to realize that we are not alone in the universe.  

That the process of incarnation reveals that we chose our lifetimes as humans, that as light beings we choose lifetimes in other time zones, other realms, other planets.  That's not my opinion, theory or belief. It's in the reports. I turn on the camera - people report they can recall lifetimes on other planets, I put those transcriptions into my books.

Or, I turn on the camera, a medium talks directly to someone who is no longer on the planet, who reports new information from their perspective - and I post it online. It's data. We may not like the data, but that doesn't affect the data.

So how to impress upon humanity that everyone they meet, everyone they've met, everyone they will meet is a light? 

They may be a bright white light, or a blue light, or pink, orange, green, purple - all variations on light. And if they look carefully they'll see the light dancing, moving, not matte, but electric and present.  Not skin color. Not size or shape. Hair or eyes. Not clothing.  Not anger, resentment, fear, jealousy - those may all be aspects of one manifestation of that light, but the overall picture or package is light.

It's a bit like walking past the sandbox. There's a group of toddlers over there throwing sand, arguing, fighting over toys. We can go over and say "Guys, calm down. There's no point in fighting over this stuff. It's just playtime." And they look up at the ancient, old avatars looking down at them and say "Pfft. What do you know?" and go back to slapping, biting and throwing sand.

The oldsters look at each other and smile - with amusement, or perhaps melancholy. "Were we ever that young?" We cannot interfere, yank the toddler out of the box - we can't interfere, stand in the middle of the sandbox... we can take their toys away, but even then they don't want to hear the lessons.

Blind leading the blind (on film)

But we can repeat what we learn. And by repeating what we've learned - or giving people to access what we've learned, or by showing them how to access this information by bypassing the filters and accessing memories of previous lifetimes via hypnotherapy, guided meditation or just one on one questions - allows people to open up the garden gate.

The truth is just by reading the above sentence, one's higher self becomes aware of the process.

And some will see the truth in this research - or see the beauty.

John Keats doing his best Adam Driver imitation

Today an old friend was quoting the "Ode to a Grecian Urn" - and it reminded me I had been to the place where the young poet Keats died at the ripe old age of ... 25 to the same disease that felled his family.   Too young to die, but his words burn brightly.

His poem ends with the following:     

"When old age shall this generation waste,
                Thou shalt remain, in midst of other woe
Than ours, a friend to man, to whom thou say'st,
         "Beauty is truth, truth beauty,—that is all
                Ye know on earth, and all ye need to know."

There are things of beauty here on the planet. 

We need to preserve them, not only for future generations, but for our own possible return. 

TRUTH IS BEAUTY

I was making my Dogme film "Camera - Dogme #15" - and was filming a wedding and ran into Jack Nicholson. (I made it for fun - it was awarded the Dogme certificate, played in Dogme fests around the world, including India where I presented it to a sold out audience of 3000 Indians - who roared with laughter). 

I asked Jaaaack to make a toast for the wedding couple (I was going around asking people "How do you keep a happy marriage?" It appears in the film "Camera - Dogme #15").  He said "Suuuure Richaard."

The wedding couple were two old friends.  I asked Jack for a toast, and he gave it to me.  I realized to my dismay that I hadn't recorded it, had just pointed the camera at that iconic face and had forgotten to push record. I had the temerity to apologize - and ask for a "take two." This is his "take two" Where he quotes "Ode to a Grecian Urn."




My two cents.

Context and the Flipside

And now... for some 

CONTEXT:

1. The circumstances that form the setting for an event, statement, or idea, and in terms of which it can be fully understood and assessed.  The parts of something written or spoken that immediately precede and follow a word or passage and clarify its meaning.

Last night, I was having a conversation with someone who was talking about context.  I either asked him, “Are you asking me to give context?” Or is that something you’d like to talk about?

I don’t recall his answer. I don’t recall who it was I was talking to.  I’ve been having these events often – where I become aware that I’m speaking to someone in a dream – could be a disembodied voice (“Guardian of the Galaxy”) could be a woman’s voice (“Talking to Mary”) or it could be a male voice (“Talking to fill in the blank”).

When I do the sessions I film with Jennifer Shaffer, I don’t provide any context. I just ask if “anyone wants to speak to us?” or if “the person who showed up in my dream last night wants to speak.”  Jennifer has no idea who I’m referring to and she does her best to report directly what she sees. She knows that our friend Luana Anders on the flipside is standing by with a clipboard of who has been invited to speak to us. 

Last night, with regard to our recent conversations I’ve been posting (I’ve been filming sessions weekly with Jennifer for over 5 years, it’s the basis of “Hacking the Afterlilfe” and “Backstage Pass to the Flipside” books one, two and three), I was advised I needed to give context.   

Now – if someone isn’t aware of how that process works, they may need some context for it.  If they go back to the book and film “Flipside” for example, they’ll see that I have had “spirits” or “beings” that have visited me in my sleep my entire life, but I dismissed them entirely as any sane person would.

They’d know that I’ve had any number of “ghostly beings” show up in my room – in hotels around the world, in odd locations. I’ve seen or interacted with ghosts from different time periods, had conversations with ones who had appeared suddenly and asked them what they were doing there.

In Sydney, staying at the home of filmmaker Jan Sharp and her director husband Phillip Noyce, I was greeted by a fellow hanging from the rafters. It was my first night in Sydney, was startled awake by a guy dressed like a painter who was hanging by the neck from way up in the rafters. When I startled awake and gasped, he said “I’m sorry, it’s just something I feel the need to do” and a ladder appeared, he descended it – in his orange smock – and pulled the rope with him.  When he got to the floor, he, the rope and the ladder disappeared.

Later I asked Jan about the ghost in her house. She had no idea what I was talking about. I told her the story. She was incredulous – but said “Well, our house painter committed suicide by hanging, but he lived a mile away.” I said “Well he must have liked your place, because he’s still hanging around.”

Ba dum bum.

It wasn’t until I met Jennifer Shaffer that I realized I could access people on the flipside via a medium.

Up until then, I had been filming people under deep hypnosis accessing loved ones on the other side. Sometimes, rarely, during a session, their “guide” or teacher would refer to me, sitting across the room as the camera filmed the session.  Someone I had never met, referring to me across the room with regard to the person who was doing the deep hypnosis. But I was not having any interaction with them.

And then I realized I could. Without hypnosis. I could ask people the same basic questions a hypnotherapist did – without hypnosis – and see where we could go. I was startled to see that I could speak to guides, council members, visit libraries, other realms, past lives – all without hypnosis. Again – I recorded all of these sessions, either on tape or with a camera. I had no idea where we would go – but I knew the hallmarks.  And nearly every time we had the same journey.

(There was one who brought a crowd with them to watch, one brought a camera to film me “doing it” – and their pal didn’t go anywhere.  It appears to be related to the one on one experience.) But I have done it in public – on the radio, with Dr. Drew, Heather Wade and others. (see MartiniZone.com for examples).  The point being – these folks had no idea they could access their council, talk to a guide, or see a previous lifetime.  But they did.

I did not. I wasn’t seeing anything, just listening to their journey and asking questions. Leading questions – because I was literally “leading them” to visit a guide, council or teacher.  I know they exist, and I shorten the time to help them have direct access. (A typical hypnotherapy session might last four to six hours.) I’ve filmed over 100 of these sessions – half with hypnotherapists, and half without. People all go to the same places – and where they go is contrary to their belief system, or their lack of belief system.  Consistently go to a place where they learn that everything they were told about the process is inaccurate. No other way to put it.

So how can Jennifer and I be speaking to Sammy Davis Jr.?

Well, it went like this. Some years ago, we were doing a session and she said “so and so is here.” It might have been Aretha Franklin.  Aretha came through clear as a bell – and asked us to reach out to her niece to find her hand written will. I did reach out to her niece – not knowing she had one, not knowing she was the executor of the estate, and told her what her aunt told us.  She said “I do believe in the afterlife, as I speak to my mother often, but I don’t believe this medium was speaking to my aunt.”  Which is fine – I wasn’t trying to convince her otherwise. I was passing along a message.

Which included that she would find her will soon – and she did.  And I reached out to her again to say “I’m glad you found her will, but it is pretty much what your Aunt told us” to which she replied “It was logical that she would have a will and that I would find it.”  Which is true. Again – not selling anyone on anything. Aunt Aretha asked, and I delivered.

We’ve done that at least a dozen times – asked to reach out to the relatives of Tom Petty, RFK, Chicago Bear Dave Duerson, filmmaker Sydney Pollack (whom I knew), Bill Paxton (an old friend) Harry Dean Stanton (an old friend) John McCain and others – reaching out to us because they had a specific thing of piece of information they wanted us to pass along to their loved ones. I always say “C’mon man, they aren’t going to believe I spoke to you, why can’t you just reach out to them yourself?”  To which they would reply with a variation “But I’m asking you to.”  

Who am I to say “No?”

I’ve been doing this for so long with Jennifer, I know longer feel the need to prove or provide context. In this case, I asked Sammy Davis Jr. to “show Jennifer where he met Frank.”  And she replied “He’s showing me the Harlem Globetrotters.”

Just think about this for half a second. I asked a question. She got an image. Her reaction was to say “did he have anything to do with basketball?” I said “Tell me what the image is you’re seeing that made you say that.”  She said “I’m seeing the Harlem Globetrotters.”

The answer was “Harlem” or “The Apollo Theater” (or it may have been another theater).  That’s where Frank Sinatra met Sammy.  And he’s searching for an engram in Jennifer’s mind that relates to the answer “Harlem.”  Here’s Jennifer, born and raised in California, has her own frames of reference – has likely never been to the Apollo in Harlem (I used to film segments for the Charles Grodin show there weekly) – and there’s not really a visual that she has reference to that she can use…other than Curly Lemon’s club.

It’s just one tiny detail in a mountain of them.

Now comes the context.

Sammy has lived many lifetimes. He’s “back home” with his friends and family, and when he appears to the folks in our classroom, he’s appearing in that time frame where people knew him as Sammy Davis Jr. If he wanted to appear to someone in his lifetime – he can choose the age, the appearance that person would most likely remember him. He’s the one creating the avatar.  At first Jennifer mentioned his height – and didn’t have his first name.  She eventually got to Davis Jr and I supplied the rest.

I’m not trying to prove this is Sammy Davis Jr. I am trying to allow anyone who “shows up in our class” to speak their truth. Sammy wanted to speak about the recent troubles in Kenosha Wisconsin.  He spoke eloquently and with context about the journey.  

It’s hard for me to not speak about it – because I grew up nearby, have been there many times, and outraged that the Chief of Police, an avowed ideologue, still thinks it’s proper to handcuff a “suspect” who has been shot seven times, is likely paralyzed – to handcuff that fellow to his bed. If I could fly and drive to Kenosha and stand with the people who are outraged I would.  But this isn’t about me or my opinion.  I had someone on here complain that John Lewis came through to encourage people to vote.

To vote for equality, to vote to save the planet.

Someone was upset about that. She was of the opinion that people stop caring about their loved ones, once they cross over. They do not. I have had conversations with people who are considered “right wingers” in their lifetime – including a President who came forward to talk about his path and journey. I don’t pull any punches in these interviews, if anything I edit out the more outrageous things I ask them. Because it’s not about me – as we know – it’s about what they want to say.

That’s just context for the Sammy Davis portion.

Then we have Bill Paxton stop by to say there is an anniversary.  It’s likely he was referring to something to do with his family – and any member of his family that sees this, will know what he’s talking about. It may have been that when we met in London it was around this time period – I don’t recall. But we became pals after that. He may have been referring to some specific anniversary, and we could dig into it deeper by asking him questions – but by Jennifer saying “There’s an anniversary” I knew at that moment that whoever knows him and knows what he’s referring to had the message he wanted to pass along.  (Here's me talking to Bill via three mediums)

I wasn’t giving him the bum’s rush (although he might say I was, that was our relationship.)

Then the portion where Mary comes forward again. Requires context – I know how hard it is to hear “the mother of Jesus” is appearing in someone’s mind’s eye.  The first time I met her was not with Jennifer, but it was during an interview with a minister back east in Connecticut. (It’s in “It’s a Wonderful Afterlife”). We were having this conversation about her viewing her life planning session and she said “Mary’s here.”

I try not to judge what people say, so I asked her some pointed questions.  I asked Mary why when anyone was quoting her while seeing her, she would say things that were simple by design; “Love your neighbor. Just give love.” Etc. She said she “tailored her comments to those who were listening so they could remember them.”  She also shape shifted in front of this woman – at first, as the icon, and then a few minutes later as a normal looking beautiful older woman who has a heart of gold.

That’s disconcerting to some. They’ve been told that she’s an icon on a painting. Or that she ascended into heaven and sits on a chair somewhere. Why people who claim that avatars can traverse all realms, or “behave like gods” would take the time to sit around and twiddle their thumbs waiting for humans to figure out what they’re doing, is beyond me.  Suffice to say, I don’t judge it when “Mary” shows up.

In this case, I asked her to bring forward an old pal of hers. Mother Theresa. I even got a side comment from her about Christopher Hitchens (whom we interview in “Backstage Pass to the Flipside 2”). I have an entire chapter filmed with skeptics and atheists about the flipside. They said basically what the late actor Harry Dean Stanton told us; “Tell people to believe in the possibility of an afterlife, so then they won’t waste another minute of their life arguing about it.” Sage advice.

Harry Dean Stanton and pal

Context.

Each one of these sessions requires it – I don’t expect anyone to watch it and say “Oh my, they really are talking to so and so.” It’s also clear to me that everyone “appears” to their loved ones as they want them to – or in terms of what they “believe them to.”  

That is – if I knew Uncle Pete at the age of 60-80 he’s going to appear in that visual, if I knew Uncle Pete aged 10-15 it would be then – but the essence of who Pete is, is aware of how to construct a visual that fits my perception.  

They’re tuning themselves, frequency wise so we can communicate. (It's reported they are "lowering" their frequency to communicate with us.)

In like form, they may appear to some religious person in a more “regal” or less panoramic fashion. Recently I filmed an interview with a fellow who saw Jesus visiting his council. He described the classic visual of Jesus – long hair, robes, etc.  His eye color (hazel) matched other accounts of him but I asked him (through this fellow who wasn’t under hypnosis) to appear in “casual clothing” to this fellow. And suddenly he transformed into a guy wearing a white tee shirt, jeans and tennies.

I told the fellow later that this is nearly always the outfit he changes into. I mean – it’s not coming from me, and it’s not coming from this fellow – it’s Jesus’ choice.  I didn’t say “Can you put on a white tee, jeans and tennies?” I just asked “Could you appear in more casual clothing?”

Further, this fellow had a memory of being at the Crucifixion.  Just in terms of data, that makes six people I’ve met who claim that they were also there, observing the events.  This particular fellow claimed that he was the one who stuck a spear into the side of Jesus. He used the name "Longinus" - but historically that name didn't appear until the 8th century. So it's likely a mythological story - yet he was seeing the same diorama that others have seen, albeit with different eyes.

However, since blood and water reportedly emerged from his poke into the side of the fellow on the cross, I pointed out that’s an indication of being alive, rather than dead. (Corpses don't bleed.)

So the person who was taken off the cross was apparently alive (and the aloe and myrrh brought by Nicodemus were restoratives, not to "anoint the dead" since it’s not in the Jewish tradition to anoint the dead. Never has been.)  

That sparked a lively discussion – where this fellow was convinced that Jesus did not survive the Crucifixion, was an astral fellow when he went to visit the apostles (80 miles away in Galilee) and the fact that he ate, slept and drank with them (as reported) was what the astral fellow wanted to do. I said "How can it be that I've interviewed a dozen other folks who tell an alternate story?"

He said “You believe what you want to believe.”

At first I thought he was saying to me, Richard, that what I have heard about him surviving the crucifixion, as reported by over a dozen people was something I wanted to believe. 

I said it wasn’t.  Then, he repeated the phrase.  

It took me awhile to realize he was repeating it as information - not a pejorative - it refers to “anyone on the flipside believes what they want to believe as well.” 

That is – if your belief system includes whatever aspect of the afterlife you may have believed, at first, you are going to experience what you believed in.

I must add, “at first” as I’ve filmed numerous interviews with people who at first thought something was occurring or had occurred, and then a few moments later said “Oh, I see, I constructed that experience. That is what I expected to happen. And now it's later on and I'm with my guides and teachers and fellow classmates and family; now I’m home.” 

So that is worth repeating. 

Believe what you want to believe. If the belief system that someone wants to hold onto, that the dead are dead, that they cannot speak, that spirits are demons, etc, etc – that’s their belief system. Not up to me to argue it.  You believe what you want to believe.

Which is why I film these sessions – because, when they say things that they don’t believe – that is, say things that they are observing, experiencing that are not part of their “belief system” – and the reports are consistent and reproducible, then it’s just data.  

As I’m fond of saying “Data doesn’t require belief or faith or disbelief. It’s just data.”

So in this research – what we’re doing accessing folks on the flipside, one can argue we are compiling data.  So far, in the over 5 years doing this with Jennifer – we’ve had the same results. It’s possible we might get a different result at some point, or I might hear an alternate reality – but so far, I am reporting what it is we get.

And that’s my context for the day. 

Or my two cents.