To Be Or To Not Have Been and Daniel Day-Lewis

A rumination on Hamlet's question; "To be or not to Be."

Mr. Day-Lewis. National treasure.

To be or not to have been. Hamlet, the Danish Prince (not to be confused with the Danish Pastry) has the most famous soliloquy in the English language - perhaps in all human language.

Daniel Day-Lewis as Hamlet

"To live or not to live."  That's the question - if its noble to stay alive and suffer all the difficulties tossed our way willy nilly or to just end it?  And if we end it, what next? What's out there in the "undiscovered country?"

A long and glorious sleep?  With dreams? What dreams may come?

But hang on.  You know how it goes. (reprinted below)

In light of this Flipside research, how should this soliloquy go? (Apologies to the Bard)

To be Benedict or not

Here's the conundrum.  What people claim consistently under deep hypnosis (the reports from Michael Newton, 7000 cases over 30 years, or Dr. Helen Wambach 2000 cases a decade prior) is that we choose to incarnate.

We choose to be.

They claim we can opt out.  Choose to not come to the planet.  Or choose to not be.

Maybe the play calls for "The cranky drunk uncle." The cereal maker. The cereal eater. The cereal killer.  "I don't wanna play that part - you asked me to play the marauding drunk uncle in the Viking era!  No thank you!  Passola.  Passorama. Ask someone else. I don't care how good I was as your drunk uncle, I don't want to play him again!!!"

"Oooh but you're so good at it" they say.  "I can never learn the lessons I need to learn if someone else plays the part. I might forgive them. I need to learn the lesson of forgiveness. Or letting go. They aren't as good as you.  You're the best drunken uncle out there. Pleeeease?"

Wheedling and cajoling from the soul group and guides.  "They do have a point you know.  You haven't done that part in at least a dozen other performances..."

"Ok fine. If you insist. After all, 80 years on earth feels like a half hour back home.  You want an hour out of my existence?  I will give it to you because I love you unconditionally. But this is the last time I play that role for you." (applause, bowing)

This brings to mind the report of Daniel Day-Lewis giving up acting. 

You can give up hats, but you shouldn't give up why you chose to be on the planet.

Hilarious. You can't give up acting. It's what we do each time we choose a new lifetime.  We give it up when we graduate to the next level; spirit guide, teacher, council member and no longer incarnate.  Etcetera, etcetera, et cet er a.  

Giving up acting is like giving up breathing.  Why would anyone do that? (Besides when has he ever "acted?"  He's always "been" in every role I've seen him in.  I think he's just refering to the circus around the profession.)

Granny knows a conundrum when
 she sees it. (Irene Ryan)

I'd say that idea of "giving up" on acting is "kinda" selfish actually.   He's been convinced his acting chops came from his environment, from his genes.  But he knows that it comes from before that... it was in his conscious mind as a child. Because back there on the flipside, we choose who we are going to be, and what we are going to do, and we choose these occupations because it heals other people.

I've filmed 45 sessions, and have asked dozens for the "first conscious thought they had they would be doing what they're doing."  The FBI agent said "preschool."  I asked why. She said "I started keeping lists on everyone, what they wore, what kind of car they had, what they ate for lunch." We kinda know who we want to be. Question is whether we can get there or not.  But we choose these roles to "help other people." We choose our occupation to "heal other people."

I've been told that "the energy of a lifetime in the arts is very similar to that in healing.  The energy comes from the same place."  People often claim they choose a lifetime as an actor, director, musician to use their energy to "heal other people." (Not making this up, just reporting what they consistently say.) 

Like a doctor. Like a surgeon. Like a shaman. Like a holy man.  "One huge belly laugh can do more to change a person's health or dispostion in an instant."  "Tears work the same, but they require catharsis."  And Daniel Day-Lewis is the walking epitome of catharsis.   

Yes. I got an Oscar.
From Curtis Hanson.
Had to give it back though.

He planned this lifetime. He has honed and crafted and had fun with it. He instinctively knows the shoe maker, the tailor, the working man has the luxury of disappearing into his or her craft.  But acting is a craft as well.  It's the ensuing trivia, the icing of vanity; all of that is a mental image - a puff of smoke blown his way.  Wave those hands, ignore the smoke, and focus on the idea that a profession can and does heal lives.

(I love #DanielDay-Lewis' work, he's fantastic in "#PhantomThread."  I know the great designer Nino Cerruti, and I felt this performance, unconsciously or otherwise, often captured Nino's bemused smile and design style. But I digress.)

Someone somewhere on the planet has been healed by watching a film or a performance. If you can heal one person than your choice to come here was worthwhile.

Really? Hard to believe
when you look like this guy.

I get emails from people who say "I read your books and I no longer see the planet in the same way.  Thank you." (As I've noted, I'll never get those kinds of reviews from my film work, I have written and/or directed 8 theatrical features.  People chuckle, sometimes laugh in my films - but no one was said "That film saved my life.") 

With Judy Dench in Hamlet. 

Actors can do that for people moment by moment.  Heal them, help them see a way out of their diaspora. Out of their doldrums. Out of their predicament.

Daniel is one of those people who can recreate human experience, embody compassion with a flick of his eyebrow, and wave of his hand.  If he wants to "give up acting" - he should add a proviso.  "I will give up acting until I'm cast opposite Meryl Streep."  (Another avatar of intent and healing light within a gesture. I'm not aware of any films they've done together, but would vote to see one.)

I'm not saying "don't give it up because you're good and the industry needs you."  That's all vanity.  "Vanum populatum." (google it) Do it because you still have more people to help and heal and make whole.

Jonathan Pryce checking out Yorick.

But back to Hamlet.

He too is talking about a choice, and the choice to give up acting, or to give up life, is after all - a personal one. It is about free will. Because we don't have to incarnate.

We choose to. To be or not to be. 

That's right. Every frog, every fruit fly chose to be here.  Don't like that analogy?  Sorry, too bad. It's accurate. And we can't kill them either.

Because we cannot "not be."  (First law of thermodynamics. Energy doesn't "die" or disappear, or even dissipate.  It just moves to another dimension, form or in our case realm. Energy cannot be destroyed. Not killed.  Not ended.  Just transformed.) 

Once we are formed as consciousness (willed into existence if you will - or won't - like Will Shakespeare) First "there was the word."  "Will."  And that's how we begin as well.  As will.

We all have free will.  We all are free willed.  (We should free poor Willy now and then as well.)

Nice hat. I get it. Tradition. But
it's also a costume bearing fardels.
Avoid the fardels.

To be on the planet or not.  To incarnate or not. It sounds like may people - based on the amount of complainers out there - wish they had not made that choice.

I hear you. You don't like being here. It's hard here.  It's beyond the capacity of many to navigate.

But mark these words. (Not on your screen, please, in a future book perhaps) Note the concept.  You made the bargain.

You agreed to come here.You said you could handle it. You had the choice to say no but you didn't.  You said "I want to be!"  "I can handle this! I got this! Let's roll!"  And you came here - the mewling welp suckled by his mum, taken care of (or not - it was by your design) and left to fend (or offend) for itself.

To have been. That's the victory. To be able to return home to the loving embrace of our brothers and sisters, of our friends and frenemies - of all the people who have ever been on the planet or have existed in any realm - those fellow travellers who we call our "soul group." To return to their loving embrace after we've successfully navigated the stage as we set out to do.

We've seen our loved ones before and we'll see them again. Inshallah. God willing.  Or our willing.  Will Shakespeare? Will he what precisely?

Free Will.  Indeed. An apt term for telling Will to come to life and unleashing that energy. 

Anyone who has ever been or ever existed exists still.  They're out there. Gone from this stage, but their role not ended.  "Not gone, just not here."  Never ended, just not here.  Off stage. Back stage. Back home.

To be or not to be.  It is the question we all asked and ask ourselves prior to every lifetime. What say you?

"From this day to the ending of the world, But we in it shall be remember'd; We few, we happy few, we band of brothers;
For he to-day that sheds his blood with me Shall be my brother; be he ne'er so vile,
This day shall gentle his condition: And gentlemen in England now a-bed
Shall think themselves accursed they were not here,
And hold their manhoods cheap whiles any speaks

That fought with us upon Saint Crispin's day." (Enrico the 5th)

"C'mon in the water's fine!"

Shall we take up arms, hold hands and leap into the breach, jump into the fray once more?  Go down there (or over there) to that planet where we get the luxury of breathing fresh air? Where we have the luxury of drinking cool refreshing clean water?  (Unless it's gone.  No longer fresh. Polluted and stale.) Why would we pollute, destroy the place we love to return to?

Where we get to witness a dawn and sunset.... we get to witness life all around us?  Despite closing our eyes for a third of our lives, despite being asleep for fully one third of the trip - we get to be here on this mangificent blue ball hurtling through space.  What a joy!  What a delight!!!

Why would we ever choose not to be here? Ah yes, back stage. Back home. Where we reconnect with our loved ones. Where we experience unconditional love on a permanent basis. The kind of love Will wrote about in his sonnets, the kind of love that is beyond comprehension, beyond the capacity of the brain to understand which can only be known by experience. That kind of love.

I could go on.  I will go on.  Be.  Don't not be. Trust in the choice you made. You chose to be. Try to understand and enjoy that choice. Make others happy they made the choice to be with you.  
Be all you can be. In your heart. In others' hearts.

Catch you on the Flipside. 

HAMLET: To be, or not to be--that is the question:
Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer
The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune
Or to take arms against a sea of troubles
And by opposing end them. (except we don't... the troubles end to be sure, but we don't end)
To die, to sleep--
No more--and by a sleep to say we end
The heartache, and the thousand natural shocks
That flesh is heir to. (That we chose to experience so we could understand or know them)
 'Tis a consummation
Devoutly to be wished. To die, to sleep--
To sleep--perchance to dream: ay, there's the rub,
For in that sleep of death what dreams may come
When we have shuffled off this mortal coil,
Must give us pause. (Or not. Some are able to lucid dream. Some experience dreams as reality. Some believe that the dream state is reality. We have a poor choice of words for a myriad of experience that we can only refer to as a dream.)
There's the respect
That makes calamity of so long life.
For who would bear the whips and scorns of time,
Th' oppressor's wrong, the proud man's contumely
The pangs of despised love, the law's delay,
The insolence of office, and the spurns
That patient merit of th' unworthy takes,
When he himself might his quietus make
With a bare bodkin? (All stones in our path that become diamonds once we've overcome them.  A bodkin is a knife, and one could argue that the cigarette, the drunk driving is a form of bodkin, that we don't see as threatening our existence - except when it does.)
 Who would fardels bear,
To grunt and sweat under a weary life,
But that the dread of something after death,
The undiscovered country, from whose bourn
No traveller returns, puzzles the will,
And makes us rather bear those ills we have
Than fly to others that we know not of?
(Um, like Jason Bourne - we all come back from that excursion. All, except those who choose not to return. That's up to them. But even you dear Will have made this journey many times.)
Thus conscience does make cowards of us all,
And thus the native hue of resolution
Is sicklied o'er with the pale cast of thought,
And enterprise of great pitch and moment
With this regard their currents turn awry
And lose the name of action. (Or, people realize that they chose to be here, that being here is actually a fun place to be, even if someone has murdered your father the King.  If it's revenge you want, your best option is to serve it by making the perpetrator realize he too chose this lifetime, and nothing can kill your father - hence why he keeps showing up as your ghost.  Or did you not realize that?) -- Soft you now,
The fair Ophelia! -- Nymph, in thy orisons
Be all my sins remembered.  (One can hope that in Ophelia's prayers, she prays for Hamlet to realize that compassion is the greatest gift he can learn, and forgiveness the gift he can bestow.  But alas, then we would have no drama.  Conflict is the essence of drama, so thank heavens that he existed in Will's mind so that we can witness the kind of drama we don't have to live through!  If we watch this kind of drama on stage and learn what we don't want to be, it's arguably a form of "experiencing it during a lifetime" and if we've learned the lesson, we don't have to repeat it.  Exeunt.

Hacking the Afterlife is available here:
Flipside is here:
It's a Wonderful Afterlife is here:
and you are Here. Be Here Now.

Talking to Harry Dean Stanton on the Flipside

"Just open yourself up to the possibility that there might be an afterlife."

Luana on the Flipside (or a mirror in Rockefeller plaza)

This is a post about my pal Luana Anders (who passed away in 1996) and my pal Harry Dean Stanton (who passed a few weeks ago) and my conversation with them via Jennifer Shaffer (JenniferShaffer.com)

First some bonafides; I've known Harry Dean Stanton since I appeared in an episode of "Laverne and Shirley" with him back in the 80's.  I played a pizza delivery guy who whenever he rang the doorbell, was always shy a couple of slices of pizza.  "Hey fur face, where's the rest of our pizza?"  (Shirley's line) And I'd make up some story "Well, I was on my way here, and suddenly I saw this fire in a building, and I set the pizza down, and went over to the building and caught this baby that fell out of window... but when I got back to your pizza, a few slices were missing."  

All the while, wiping pizza crumbs out of my beard.

Charles Grodin got me the part, it was his idea, he called his pal Penny Marshall and she brought me in to do an episode.  I filmed the bit on the same night that Harry Dean Stanton was performing - singing songs actually, and later, when I ran into Penny she said "Oh, I forgot. We had to cut you. Harry's song went long." (Some years later we shared the "millennium cruise" aboard Bob Shaye's yacht - and I played piano while Penny sang. So there was a circle to that story too.)

But in Harry Dean's case, that circle closed yesterday in a cafe in Manhattan Beach.

Wine and Spirits anyone? (Jennifer's name for a cool talk show)

It's where I meet up with Jennifer Shaffer to talk about the flipside, and when we're there together, we sometimes "invite" folks to come and chat with us "if they're available."  It's a strange set up - we have a small knit group of folks we normally speak with, and our class cheer leader is Luana Anders, my pal who passed away some 20 years ago, who inspired this journey into the Flipside, and has been appearing to me and in my books since then.

She was very tight with Harry Dean Stanton.

Harry Dean Stanton "Everyone's favorite character actor"

How tight?  Well, I did not know this when she was on the planet, but a mutual friend told me about a trip he took with Luana and Harry Dean up to the Monterey Pop festival in 1967.  The film played at the Aero theater in Santa Monica recently, and I went to see it just to experience what they'd experienced - but I don't recall mentioning any of that to Jennifer.  Either way, as I'm about to report; she wasn't aware of it.

So yesterday we asked Luana to stop by.  I said "Lu, our mutual friend Harry passed away recently, I wondered if we might chat with him?"

Jennifer said "He's sitting next to her."

Harry with a close pal.

Now, allow me to pause for a moment - I know how weird this sounds.  But I can tell you that I've verified many of our sessions.  I've heard things from Luana (and others - I've filmed about 30) that I did not know (so it can't be cryptomnesia, something I read, Jennifer read, heard or was told me) but later proved to be true. (It happens in "Hacking the Afterlife" with Jennifer.)

This has happened numerous times, and the details she gives me are verifiable.  They're usually private - so I don't normally talk about this kind of thing in public.  (If Harry had children or a family, I'd share it with them privately. I've shared many details from our sessions with family members, but in this case Harry was a solo trapeze artist.)

I knew and got to hang out with Harry over the years as well.  

We jammed at a party one night - playing guitars, him crooning his Spanish repertoire - Harry knew them all.  We also spent a night drinking at Dan Tana's with Dabney Coleman at their booth. I mentioned seeing Harry at Dan Tana's to Jennifer, and Harry said "Until four a.m." (which was accurate.) We drank until the wee hours, smoking cigarettes outside; Harry was always friendly to me because of the Luana connection - but he firmly did not believe in an afterlife.  He spoke of that disbelief often.

He was kind of famous for talking about it - this was the only path and journey, and after that, nothing. (As the director of his most recent film Lucky points out: "He was deeply spiritual person who was 100% certain that there was no God and there was only a void and we were all going to disappear into nothing and no one was in charge," Lynch says. "He was deeply committed to that worldview.")

His film "Lucky" goes into it in detail, although I haven't seen it yet, I'm sure he gets a lick or two in there about this being the only go-round on the merry-go-round.

That is, until I spoke to him yesterday. On the Flipside.

HDS - Entertainment Weekly

Jennifer did not know who he was, did not know who I was referring to, and I carefully avoided saying his full name or credits or how they knew each other.  But I suspected that it might have been "unusual" or "difficult" for Harry to accept the fact that there IS an afterlife, and it would likely have given him some pause.

It did.

(I filmed this event, it will be a chapter in my next book, but in essence this is how Luana and Harry described the process via Jennifer.)

Luana Anders in the 1960's.

About a week prior to his passing, Harry said, Luana started appearing at his bedside.  He said she was wearing her hippie outfit - specifically the one that she was wearing when they drove up to Monterey in 1967.  

Harry said "I thought I was hallucinating."  He said that he recognized her, but assumed it was a trick of the brain to have her appear in this memory.

I asked Luana what happened next.  

She helped him remember the drive to Monterey.  (Jennifer at first said "Santa Barbara" and I said "I think it was further north.")  Upon crossing over, Harry saw himself in this car, driving up to Monterey.  He "assumed it was a dream."  

There was a third friend in the car as well. Let's call him "Fred."  (I reached out to "Fred" yesterday as Harry had a message for him, and answered some questions raised here) 

Harry said "I thought this is what happens when people die - they go to a happy memory, like a dream, and then they're in that dream forever in kind of a loop."  The idea that a dream or memory would just play out over and over when someone was no longer on the planet.

Then, he said, they had a flat tire.

And as they were fixing the flat tire, Harry said he "realized this was not something that had happened" - that they did not have a flat tire on this trip.  

So he looked at his friend "Fred" and said "We didn't have a flat tire." And "Fred" said "I know."

It was at this moment he realized he wasn't in a dream - but "in the afterlife."  Harry chuckled as he said (through Jennifer) "Luana gave me a soft landing by doing that."

I said "I'm in touch with the other friend in the car - "Fred" - he's still on the planet, just to be clear, when you were speaking to him while fixing the flat tire..." Harry interrupted "I was talking to his higher self."  (It's a term I often use to describe the energy that is always "back home" in the afterlife.) 

(According to the thousands of cases done by Michael Newton of people under deep hypnosis (7000 over 30 years, as detailed in "Flipside") people claim we bring about a third of our energy here, and the rest is "always back there.")  

So when Harry saw his pal "Fred" helping him with the tire, he realized he was talking to the "higher self" version of his friend.

He added "And the higher self version is much less uptight than he is down on the planet."  

Jennifer didn't know that - could not know that - but I know that.  This "Fred" fellow is famously taciturn, doesn't speak unless questioned, he's described by all who know and love him as a "doesn't speak until spoken to" kind of guy.  So for Harry (through Jennifer) to describe him that way was precisely as I know him.  And it made me laugh.

He said ""Fred" is heartbroken, you need to let him know I'm okay."

I said "What have you been doing since you arrived back there?"  He said "Seeing friends. Thousands of friends.  You can tell my ex that I saw our child who passed away."  I said "Who is that?"  He said "Look it up - we had a child in 1962 (Jennifer said "the date 1962 comes to mind" - so don't know if it happened then, or she was born in 1962, or some other connection to that date) and that child passed away.  Let her know that I'm with that child."  

I said "Harry, I have no way to access her."  He said "Google it."  

So I will.  (People don't lose their syntax or personality when they get to the flipside.  They're not gone. They're just not here.)

I asked "Is there anything you want me to share with people, your friends, fans, or just anyone?" He said:

"Tell them there is an afterlife.  Tell them to believe in an afterlife."

I laughed.  I said "Harry you were famous for claiming there isn't one. Who is going to believe me when I say "Harry Dean said "You should believe in the afterlife?"

He said "My point is that you spend so much time worrying about whether there is one or not, if you just open yourself up to the possibility, then you won't spend so much time, like I did, on that hamster wheel worrying about whether there is one or not."

I said "So how did you come to believe there wasn't one?"

He said "Too many of my friends died. That was painful. It was a way that I could wall off the pain. Just easier to believe it didn't exist."

I thanked him for the point.  "Believe in the afterlife" - not because there is or isn't one - but the act of opening yourself up to the possibility there might be one, takes the onus and pressure off the wasted energy worrying about it. (to paraphrase Harry.)

Old pals, Jack and HDS (and Luana)

(I didn't mention Harry's other friends, that we eventually spoke of, as I didn't want to inject bias into my questions to Jennifer about Harry.  But later, he had some wry comments about Marlon and Jack which I'll include in the chapter.) 

I will be transcribing the session verbatim.  It was thrilling for me since Jennifer didn't know anything about this trip.  I didn't know anything about the trip either until a few months ago, when the third fellow in the car told me about it.

I said "Harry, show Jennifer where you were going in Monterey.  What did you guys do up there?'

She said "He's showing me big screens and people sitting around.  Luana said it was a 'free love' event. (We had not discussed a year or time when this event happened.)  I said "What's happening on the screens, what are people doing?"  Jennifer said "It's like a concert of some kind, listening to music."  I said "Harry, show her who is performing at this concert."  Jennifer looked into the deep distance and said... "Prince?"  

Did not play Monterey.

I chuckled.  I said, "Okay, you can see a guy playing a guitar who could be Prince. Look more carefully. Is that Prince?"  

After a long pause she said "Is it Jimi Hendrix?"  

A chill came over me as she said it.  This of course, was the famous concert where Jimi lit his guitar and the world on fire.  I spoke to the third person in the car yesterday and he confirmed that they did see Hendrix, and no, they did not have a flat tire that he could remember. Jennifer said she saw Harry and Luana smoking pot together, getting high, but this third fellow said he's never touched the herb, but couldn't rule out they may have been getting stoned.

Did play at Monterey

At some point, my friend Bill Paxton showed up in this discussion.  (Bill was an old friend, he's shown up a whole bunch of times, including when I'm interviewing other mediums, and his visits will be included in the next book).  Bill did a number of "we're not worthy" bows towards Harry, as he was and remains a big fan.  

Harry Dean and Billy P. in "Big Love."

But then, Bill knew both Luana and Harry, so it's not out of the ordinary that the three of them would be hanging out.  Bill joked "Harry's the new guy here, so Harry's gotta sit at the end of the row in this crew." (I'm paraphrasing, but in typical Bill fashion, made light of what we were doing.)  Harry also made a number of jokes, bad puns, and when I have the time to transcribe, will share them as well.

Bill Paxton directing

If you've never come across my page, welcome.  And a warning:

I am reporting what I filmed verbatim.  Jennifer works with law enforcement agencies nationwide on missing person cases. We've filmed other sessions where she's told me things about friends of mine (information from them on the other side to their loved ones over here) that turned out to be accurate, true, and not what I (or Jennifer) knew or could know. Verifiable details.

I've been cataloging what people say about the afterlife for about a decade now - I've examined the work of Michael Newton (7000 cases over 30 years), Dr. Helen Wambach (2000 cases a decade earlier), and filmed over 40 between life sessions.  (I've done 5 myself, four with Scott De Tamble (lightbetweenlives.com)  

I've interviewed scientists about consciousness and near death events, and have had a number of near death experiencers do between life sessions to gather further information.  I have worked with a number of mediums, including Jennifer, to access "new information" from people no longer on the planet. 

All of this is cataloged in my books "Flipside" "It's a Wonderful Afterlife" volume one and volume two and "Hacking the Afterlife."  I'm currently crowd funding my next book "The Afterlife Expert."

I offer this information merely as a reporter (I'm a filmmaker, have written and/or directed eight theatrical feature films, some documentaries, and been a journalist for a number of magazines).  

I'm not trying to alter, adjust, change anyone's beliefs, or reroute their journey or path in any way.  I've found that the people who are drawn to this research come because of some reason only they know.  It may be part of their path or journey, or they're trying to understand someone else's path or journey. This research is not for everyone, nor should it be.  Not everyone needs to know "what happens at the end of the novel" and it's infinitely more fun to not know the ending to the play when you're in the play.  But for whatever reason, it's been my passion for the past decade.

 Harry Dean was a friend, and remains one to this day.  While he had many more famous friends than me, our mutual pal Luana, one of his nearest and dearest friends was there to greet him on the flipside (along with others) and she orchestrated this session between me, Harry and Jennifer.  I know what it's like to hear and see Luana (and have visited her a number of times "over there" and the information is consistent and revelatory) know what its like to see her "over there" (appears younger than when I met her, but the same persona, sense of humor and deep insight.)



God rest ye merry gentlemen.  

It took me a few minutes after he said this outrageous thing "just believe in the afterlife" -- but now I feel I understand what Harry is saying: 

"Just allow that there might be an afterlife.  Even if you don't believe it, open yourself up to the possibility that it might be true." As if allowing ourselves to be "open to other possibilities" helps us navigate life on the planet. As if allowing that there's more to this journey than we can comprehend takes some of the stress out of experiencing it.  Good point Harry.  Thank you.

And finally, I'll end with a Harry quote from when he was still on the planet: "Heisenberg, Max Plank and Einstein, they all agreed that science could not solve the mystery of the universe." Harry Dean Stanton

Interstellar and "the ghost is us" scene

I spoke at the Center of the Heart church in Santa Barbara yesterday.

It was pretty mind bending - I invited two audience members onstage (the Reverend Maryum Morse, and the Core Council VP Roxy Angel Superstar).

I'd never meet either before yesterday.

And in a few moments, just asking them questions about their journey - we went somewhere unusual, somewhere that people go under deep hypnosis - but we went there just by my asking a series of improvised questions.

We went to visit their councils, we went to visit their loved ones who have crossed over, we got to ask them questions about their journey and what they're up to these days.

For those of you familiar with my research, it's something I've been doing as of late.  Asking someone if they've had some kind of altered consciousness event that they're aware of (could be a dream, a near death event, an out of body event, or they're a medium) and then I ask them questions to see what is in their memory.

I've learned the memory is holographic.

Meaning we think that it's transitory, subject to interpretation, or some other pejorative associated with memory.

I'm finding that's not the case.  When you have a memory - you have a 360 degree memory.  It included everyone that's around you at that moment in time.

It's a holographic memory - I call it that because if you take a holographic photo of something, and then smash it to pieces, each piece of the smashed hologram contains ALL THE INFORMATION from the photograph.

All of it.

So when I ask people to remember some event that happened when they were children  (Tony Stockwell's memory of a ghost child in his room when he was 8) I can ask them to access that memory, and then reanimate it.

In other words - if there was someone in your dream or vision, or past life memory, or if there was some person in your near death event - we can go back to that person and ask them questions IN REAL TIME - in present tense.  Not just "How are you?" or "Where are you?"  But "Describe to us what you're spending your time over there doing."

I've been doing this for months now, and will be part of my new book "The Afterlife Expert."

(If you'd like to donate to help its creation in return for a copy and other prizes, please go to www.gofundme.com/theafterlifeexpert) 

I will be posting the 40 minute video in a day or so, so you can see for yourself how it's done.  Does it require my presence to do it?  I have no idea.  But I'm showing people how it's done. What you do with that information is up to you.

Meanwhile....

Was watching "Interstellar" the other night and rethinking the part about the "tesseract."

For those of you unfamiliar with the film; here's a clip:



For those of you who saw the film, a reminder:

Cooper, the intrepid astronaut, goes through a black hole along with his computer TARS to see if they can find a way to transmit that information back to planet Earth. It's a last ditch effort, and appears to have gone haywire, when agent Cooper exists his space craft as it breaks up from the pressure.

However, he finds himself in a geometric place - which he calls a "tesseract" - which means "a 4 dimensional cube" - Cooper is looking out through ribbons of energy (roughly).  While he's in this geometric shape - he sees all the moments of his daughter's lifetime.  Including when he was about to leave her behind, and then the gift of his watch that he gave her. 

At some point Cooper realizes that the "aliens" who sent information about how to travel through time and space were not aliens per se - they "are us in the future." 

In other words, human beings, or conscious entities, who are trying to help earthlings from a long time ago, but have found a way to communicate from the future to us in the past to save the human race.

It's a shame they don't save Earth - because everyone is on "space stations" by the time Cooper returns (to Station Cooper - named for his scientist daughter).

But this is what I'm doing.

I'm reaching out to "us."  The people not of the future - but the people who are no longer on the planet.  I'm using the common tools that we have (mediums, hypnosis, open discussions) to ask questions of people on the flipside.

Because WE ARE THE GHOSTS.

You see?

We don't die. Only about a third of our energy is here on the planet, so two thirds is always "back home."  People back home claim they attend classes in "energy transformation" - I've been to a few of these classrooms myself, have interviewed teachers and students alike - and they all say the same things relatively.

They are us.

They are no longer on the planet.

And yet I am interviewing them and trying to gain the knowledge they have to help the planet they've left behind.

We are the "ghosts in the machine."

Human bodies are like computers or robots that have been animated - but much more interesting.  We choose to be here, so we may one day choose to be part of the lifetime of a robot - that's really up to us to make that choice.  I'd argue that were millennia away from being able to make that particular journey - because it's taken millions of years for us to figure out how to animate the creatures of this planet with our consciousness.

We are the aliens.

We are the humans.

We are the consciousness that's part of the sentient universe.

And we all have access to this information - we just need to go within to access the hologram of our memories... and ask the right questions.

Okay, I'll stop now - that's enough to chew on.  If you want more, CHECK OUT "HACKING THE AFTERLIFE."

Available in audible, kindle, paperback, etc. 

Flipside and Choosing your Parents

Appearing with George Noory June 27th at the Great Greek in Sherman Oaks.  What fun!
Here's a link to my appearances with George on Coast to Coast.  More details to follow....

Meanwhile:

Saw a young woman sobbing on the street yesterday. I stopped and asked if I she was ok. 

She said "I'm sorry. I don't think you can help." 

I said "Maybe talking can help." 

She said "I just heard my dad is smoking crack again."

Hanging with George Noory.

I asked if he'd been arrested or was ill. She said "No. He's back in rehab. I heard it from my sister." 

I said "I'm sorry you both have to go through that. But may I ask you a personal question?" She said "Sure."

I asked "Why did you choose him as your dad?" 

Latest tome.

She paused. Looked at me with her purple hair and nose ring. 

"I don't understand the question." 

I said "Just try and open yourself up to the answer. If it was possible; why do you think you chose your parents... this particular mom and dad?"

She said "To learn how not to behave. To understand what I didn't want to become. To learn from their mistakes." 

I said "Well then, it sounds like you chose wisely. It's not easy for him to learn the lessons he's signed up for, just as it's not easy for you to sign up to learn lessons from the both of them. 

But maybe you've done it for a reason you don't consciously know, but agreed to learn. Sometimes people say they learned how to heal others after recovering from an illness."

I got lucky in choosing this guy.

She said "I've heard something like that before. That we attract those things and people we need to learn from." 

I said "So maybe that's why I stopped to talk with you."

She wiped her tears and said "Thank you. I feel much better now." 

I said "Thanks for sharing your story. First time I've ever heard that particular sentence; "My dad's back on crack." 

She laughed.

Mission accomplished.

Documentary version at Amazon. 

In posting this story, some pals weighed in - and these were my replies:

Scott: I was adopted at birth. I have never met another blood relative, but my entire life I have felt as though I am where I am supposed to be, with the parents who were meant to be mine.


Rich: Cool. I've filmed people under deep hypnosis, both adopted and adopters, who claim they could see that they had chosen their families. It seems counterintuitive, but I think it's related to quantum entanglement. The idea that those individuals you know and love from previous lives are on the planet and somehow they "seek" each other out. Like magnets. Either way it's consistently reported that we choose (agree, ask, plan) the circumstances of our being here. Reports have been gathered via transcripts of hypnosis sessions, interviews with near death survivors, etc. ("Flipside," has the adoptee info.) Pretty mind blowing.

Gayle: Doing God's work


Rich: Well, to be fair, just saw a woman in distress on the sidewalk in front of Starbucks. I was sharing science with her. (Consistent reports that are repeated in the work of Dr. Wambach, Michael Newton and others.) But during one filmed session (in "It's a Wonderful Afterlife") a woman asked "what or who is God?" 

And her "spirit guide" said "God is beyond the capacity of the human brain; it's too complex. However you can experience god if you open your heart to all people and things." 

So yes, if that's accurate, then it isn't only that "God is love" - but love, the ineffable term we can't define, is what God is. When you share science you are sharing love (of humanity, of the planet, of existence) my two cents.

Richard: Wonderful. I'm so glad we choose you as our neighbor:) (from my old neighbor)


Rich: It's funny how when we have that feeling when you meet someone "I feel like I've known you forever." Sometimes it's with a "soulmate" sometimes with your literal "mate." ("Check, mate?") 

I've found if you really examine it - that conscious moment when you felt that way about someone - you find the seeds of this research. How could you "know" someone you've just met? How does that feeling of comfort - often described as "home" - square with the linear time line of our journey? 

So the idea "there are no mistakes" or "there's no such thing as coincidence" may be rooted in that quantum reality. "Oh no, not YOU again!?" (Just kidding) In my case I get that a lot.

And finally:

Rich: Six degrees of Kevin Bacon. I found this woman's profile on Facebook, and we have two mutual friends. 

(Were the friends somehow spiritually involved, quantum entangle-mentally involved in my stopping to speak to her? Remains to be seen.)  My two cents.