Showing posts with label mario beauregard. Show all posts
Showing posts with label mario beauregard. Show all posts

Thursday, February 25, 2016

Visions of the Flipside


Bosch


Heres a "Tunnel of white light" as heard in a high percentage of NDEs. I've heard variations, ball of light, moving through light, towards and into light. Feelings of unconditional love, infinite wisdom and reconnecting with loved ones. 

Dr Bruce Greyson UVA created the NDE scale, appears in "Its a Wonderful Afterlife." Mario Beauregard Phd, using fmri has proven these events, memories aren't confined to any particular place in the brain, or "god spot." 

He's in the book as well. Science shows these religious experiences arent religious at all, although they do inspire people to realize life isnt confined to this realm. In my research i find no two nde's are identical, yet they all point to the same conclusion. Like the word "home" - no one can define it outside their own experience, yet we can all agree it exists within our own journey. Not based on belief or philosophy but the data. 

Bosch's depiction of hell, on the other hand, is not in the data. 

Great to see in his paintings, but the few accounts I've examined, dissolve under analysis. "So why are you experiencing this?" Or "why did you choose to be here?" allows a person to see choice or free will is involved. This tunnel, on the other hand, is the way "home" according to the 25 I've filmed and thousands of cases I've examined. 

MEANWHILE FROM THE DAILY MAIL ON FEB 25TH, 2016:


The following is a news story about a woman who died for an hour, saw her husband during an NDE and came back. I'm posting it as "further data" - and by data I mean:

I'm referring to the thousands of cases Dr Greyson has examined at UVA, the data from the Aware project (2000 cases over 10 years) even your own brothers experience during an NDE. at some point thousands of cases, examined by scientists becomes "data." And this case is no different than those. Sorry. Its just science. But you'd know that if you read Dr Greyson's chapter in "its a wonderful afterlife." Not belief. Or philosophy. Or a story in the paper. Based on thousands of medical cases.


This story is just like all the other stories. Identical. Dr. Greyson is the person who created the NDE scale back in the 80's. Indeed, the medical establishment considers NDE research science and his articles have been peer reviewed and published. He's considered the "godfather of NDE research." 

His book "Irreducible Mind" is a textbook for many psychiatrists (as he is the head psychiatrist at UVA.) Interviewed him for the book (It's a Wonderful Afterlife). There are other scientists who have studied NDE - the Aware project, where a doctor studied NDEs under clinical conditions (hospitals, ORs, etc). 

As Harvard's Gary Schwartz PhD mentions in the foreword to Flipside - "at some point you have to stop pretending" that these cases are not data. Each and every case has been examined thoroughly that Greyson cites - I recommend his youtube talk "Is consciousness produced by the brain" for further cites.

Just because a person in the UK has the identical experience that other NDE people have - that my own brother had after dying in Fort Benning Georgia - which is also reported in the book - these cases all saying relatively the same thing. And that's how Dr. Greyson was able to make a scale of events for near death experiences. 

I've stayed at Greyson's home, and he's given me a tour of his facilities at UVA. I had a conference meeting with his associates at the Dept of Perceptual Studies - including Drs Jim Tucker, Ed Kelley (PhD from Harvard) when you have thousands of people saying the same things about their experience - the same way people collect data on headaches or acne, at some point subjective reports become "evidence" and "data." 

(I refer also to Mario Beauregard's "Brain Wars" for further cites and medical cases) 

I've documented these cases on film for the past 8 years. so I'm not offering that it's data lightly - but at some point, one has to step back from the insistence that its not data to ask - "why wouldn't we consider it data? At what point or degree would you consider it data, if scientists have gone on record saying that it is data?" 

Some folks will never see these reports as anytime but conjecture (for whatever reason). That's their path. But it's not mine. I've examined thousands of these cases, documented 25 on film and dozens in print - so to me - at the end of the day, since they all say relatively the same thing "I knew it was my wife/son/daughter/best friend because I know what their touch feels like, they answered questions before I could ask them" etc... these reports become what science requires: that they be consistent and replicable.

While this woman may have invented this incident, she didnt invent dying for an hour. The report she gives of seeing her husband is consistent with many NDEs. And as I've done, taking people who've had an NDE and filming them under hypnosis allows them to replicate the event. And as noted in "Its a Wonderful Afterlife" what they report is the same event yet with more clarity. They could dispute the memory of the event, but they do not. 

Doesnt matter what religion they are, what gender or background. They consistently say the same things.

HERE'S THE ARTICLE AS REPORTED FROM THE UK:

'Sonia, it's not your time... just go back to the kids': Bingo worker who 'died' for 56 minutes says she was saved by the spirit of her late husband who told her not to die

  • Sonia Burton, 50, suffered a heart attack and had no pulse for 56 minutes
  • Paramedics refused to give up on her and continued to carry out CPR
  • Mum-of-four said her late husband visited her and said 'it's not your time'
  • Sonia thanked medics who saved her when they were reunited on Tuesday
A bingo worker who had no pulse for almost an hour after suffering a massive heart attack says her late husband visited her and said 'it's not your time'.
Sonia Burton was 'dead' for 56 minutes following her heart attack at the bingo hall in Ashington, Northumberland, but paramedics refused to give up on her.
The mum-of-four said: 'The only thing I remember is my late husband coming to me and saying "it's not your time, Sonia, go back to the children". Then I woke up in hospital.' 
Saved: Sonia, who had no pulse for almost an hour, pictured with her daughters, granddaughter and brother
Saved: Sonia, who had no pulse for almost an hour, pictured with her daughters, granddaughter and brother
Message: Sonia Burton with her late husband John. Sonia said she got a message from John, who died in 2004 following a heart attack aged just 37, while she was being resuscitated 
Message: Sonia Burton with her late husband John. Sonia said she got a message from John, who died in 2004 following a heart attack aged just 37, while she was being resuscitated 
'Every day I think how incredible it is that I'm still here,' she said. 'I don't take anything for granted.'
On the day of her heart attack, Sonia had gone about her daily tasks with daughter Rebecca, 30.
She had been due to start work at Gala Bingo Hall in Ashington at 5.30pm but went in early at 4.45pm to talk to colleagues and have a coffee.
The 50-year-old said: 'I mainly work in the dining area and had been heading out of there when I remember getting a pain in my chest and then collapsing.'
Out cold, Sonia's frantic boss Karen Arkle began trying to resuscitate her as an ambulance was called. 
Within four minutes, paramedic Jason Riches and emergency care assistant Gary French were on the scene, taking over CPR from Karen. 
Sonia described herself as a 'living miracle' as she was reunited with the paramedics who saved her lifeSonia pictured with the people that saved her life - trainee paramedic Rosie Priest (left), and paramedics Stephen Eke (second from left) and Jason Riches (right)
Sonia pictured with the people that saved her life - trainee paramedic Rosie Priest (left), and paramedics Stephen Eke (second from left) and Jason Riches (right)
Sonia described herself as a 'living miracle' as she was reunited with the paramedics who saved her life
They were then backed up by paramedic Stephen Eke and first year student paramedic Rosie Priest.
For the next 56 minutes the team worked to save Sonia as she was transported to Northumbria Specialist Emergency Care Hospital in Cramlington.
It was while they were trying to save her that Sonia said she got a message from late husband John, who died in 2004 following a heart attack aged just 37.
'I spoke to him and he told me that it was not my time and I should go back,' she said. 'To be honest, it felt very comforting.'
By the time they arrived at Cramlington hospital, Sonia was still unconscious but had started breathing. 
She was then transferred to Newcastle's Freeman Hospital, where she underwent lifesaving surgery to have a stent fitted in her heart.
Eight days later she was back home, being cared for by brother, Mark, and her four children, Michael, 31, Megan, 22, Rebecca and 19 year old Thomas.
'It's strange to think I was technically dead for an hour,' added Sonia. 'If it wasn't for the guys being there so quickly and not giving up on me, it would have been a very different story. 
'My mind is a bit forgetful and I'm on a lot of medication but otherwise I'm doing really well - and, at the end of the day, I'm still here.'
Sonia Burton, pictured with her granddaughter Sophie Murray, said it would have been a different story if the medics had given up on her
Sonia Burton, pictured with her granddaughter Sophie Murray, said it would have been a different story if the medics had given up on her
 Sonia Burton, pictured with her family, was 'dead' for 56 minutes following her heart attack at the bingo hall
 Sonia Burton, pictured with her family, was 'dead' for 56 minutes following her heart attack at the bingo hall
Sonia's brother Mark, who she lives with, had been walking the dog when he received the call to say his sister had collapsed.
He said: 'They were working on her when I got there. It was frantic, there was no life in her at all.
'I said 'please don't stop' and, they never did.
'I couldn't be more thankful for everything Stephen, Jason and Gary did for Sonia that day. To see Sonia like she was that day and to see her now is phenomenal, I can't express just what a good job they've done.'
Paramedic Stephen, 43, said: 'Jason and I have over 50 years' experience between us and neither of us have ever seen somebody come back after that length of time.
'We often get a return of a pulse, maybe one out of 10, but usually it's just the adrenaline that's making the heart work again and as soon as that wears off they go back into cardiac arrest.
'It's unbelievable to see how well Sonia's doing now.'
Paramedic Jason, 44, said: 'You go into this job to help people. It's a nice feeling knowing that we were able to make a difference and even better to see what a remarkable recovery she's made.'


Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3418068/Bingo-worker-died-56-minutes-says-saved-late-husband-visited-said-not-time.html#ixzz41Dd8r3qL
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Monday, April 6, 2015

The Jerusalem Sydnrome


So what's going on?

There's the Stendahl syndrome (named in 1989, but observed for centuries) where people faint, or feel dizzy while looking at the David in Florence (I've had that myself) and the Paris syndrome where Japanese tourists wig out while in the City of Light (I've felt wobbly in Paris too, but usually after a late night of playing piano at Monteverde in Odeon).  

In the article below science tells us that there's three possibilities.  1. People go nuts visiting Jerusalem. 2. People are nuts who visit Jerusalem, then it manifests. 3. People are temporarily nuts (but when removed from the city, return to normal.)

Or....

In "Flipside: A Tourist's Guide on How to Navigate the Afterlife" there's a deep hypnosis session where a woman (a friend actually) reports remembering a past life where she lived in Jerusalem.  It happened to be in the year 18, and when she was asked in detail about her experience there - including the question "Have you ever seen anyone speak in public?" she remembering seeing Jesus speak. 

As noted in the chapter, LBL therapist Paul Aurand in NYC has had numerous clients where they claim to remember a previous lifetime in Jerusalem (a handful, but enough to mention it when I asked if he'd seen any patterns or trends in his work), where people remembering knowing or seeing Jesus.

What's great about the Jerusalem syndrome is that it affects all religions.  People report being "overwhelmed" and then they have some kind of psychotic break where they "claim they used to live there before."  And instead of treating these people with hypnosis - and asking them question about what they saw or experienced in a non-judgmental way, or by asking neutral questions like "why did you come to Jerusalem?" they're given psychotropic drugs to cure them of their "illness."

Wow.

Last time I looked the Hippocratic oath is about helping people - not in the manner that the Doctor believes or insists on believing, but in a manner that actually helps the patient.  So why not hypnotherapy?  Why not learn the techniques taught by the Newton Institute that allow for clients to examine and explore all manner of issues as to what may or may not be happening with their patient?

But I digress.

In the syndrome itself, from Wikipedia: as listed Jerusalem syndrome 

"is a group of mental phenomena involving the presence of either religiously themed obsessive ideas, delusions or other psychosis-like experiences that are triggered by a visit to the city of Jerusalem. It is not endemic to one single religion or denomination but has affected Jews, Christians and Muslims of many different backgrounds.

The best known, although not the most prevalent, manifestation of Jerusalem syndrome is the phenomenon whereby a person who seems previously balanced and devoid of any signs of psychopathology becomes psychotic after arriving in Jerusalem. The psychosis is characterised by an intense religious theme and typically resolves to full recovery after a few weeks or after being removed from the area. The religious focus of Jerusalem syndrome distinguishes it from other phenomena, such as Stendhal syndrome in Florence or Paris syndrome for Japanese tourists."

So.  As painful as it may be for modern medicine, there must be included another possibility, one that requires examining how consciousness may not be relegated to the brain (Dr. Bruce Greyson's "Is Consciousness Created by the Brain" on youtube will help, Mario Beauregard PhD's "Brain Wars" or Gary Schwartz PhD's "Sacred Promise" - all scientists discussing how it's possible that memories might exist outside the physical body) - or we can just ask the people who under deep hypnosis remember a lifetime in Jerusalem.  

The key is to ask questions.  "Where did you live? What was the name of your parent or relative? What did you do for a living?" and "Why is this memory coming forth today, what significance does it have on your lifetime?"  

I hate to upset the apple cart, but there is a distinct fourth possibility with regard to this syndrome, if we can rule out that the person was psychotic prior (and of course, we'd have to examine if they'd spent most of their lifetime trying to get back to Jerusalem) to their visit, if they were prone to taking drugs or hallucinating, or, if they actually remember a lifetime where they lived in Jerusalem.

Instead of wondering "how is this possible?" or "How does that physically work?" wonder "How come I haven't looked into this before?"  Once you begin to examine multiple memories of people living in a particular city or previous lifetime, you can start to compare the details of these various lifetimes.  In Brian Weiss' work, he recounts having a client who remember Brian living in Jerusalem in a previous lifetime.  Dr. Weiss had told NO ONE about his past life memory of living in Jerusalem and wearing an robe which had orange piping as part of his daily wear, and during a past life regression, a client said that he too had lived in Jerusalem, and he remembered Dr. Weiss as well.  In fact he remembered a particular incident in Jerusalem and suddenly said "And you were there!" and described Dr. Weiss in detail, EXACTLY as Dr. Weiss had seen himself in his own past life memory.

Let's pretend for a moment that Dr. Weiss is telling us the truth. (I do, but many may not.)  Let's pretend for a moment that somehow this client sought out his services, not realizing that he'd met him in a previous lifetime.  And finally, let's just let the details of this story be what they are (instead of the rather stunning detail that both were attending the moment when Jesus carried the cross on the Via Della Rosa).

One fella standing off to the side.  One fella standing on the other side of the road.  He's lying on a couch in Dr. Weiss' office, and remembering a previous lifetime where he was standing by the side of the road, and suddenly says "and you were there" and describes in detail the same outfit that Dr. Weiss saw himself in.

What are the odds of that happening?

There aren't any really.  Some make the argument that the "client was reading the Doctor's mind" but then you have to demonstrate how that works, rather than how that dismisses this story.

And once we've accepted Dr. Weiss' story for what it is - just data - then we can see that the idea of the Jerusalem syndrome needs to be examined in the light of scientific data with regard to how and when and why this person remembers a lifetime where they once lived in the city they're currently having a "psychotic episode."

I just ran across this article from Huffington Post where Dr. Weiss did a session with his daughter Amy who was suffering from cataracts - and by doing her past life regression (in a group! from her own dad!) she saw herself in a lifetime where she was blinded for her beliefs - and then end result of this memory was that she was cured of her cataracts.  

"Amy says she closed her eyes and heard Dr. Weiss instruct her to go back in time to when the symptoms first began. Rather than picturing herself as the young woman she was, Amy experienced something very different. "Immediately, I saw myself in the body of an old man with long white hair, living in the Middle Ages," Amy says.

This old man, she explains, lived a very solitary life inside a hut. "I was basically a hermit," Amy says of her past life. "But these townspeople thought I was a wizard and that I was doing evil."

The townspeople took action, storming the hut. "They came in with their torches and set fire to everything I owned," Amy says. "And the fire burned my eyes. It blinded me... I could feel his pain, and, so, that man just sunk into a deep depression."

Dr. Weiss then told his workshop attendees to go to the end of that life and hear what the message of that life was. "The message I heard was, 'Sadness clouds the eyes,'" Amy remembers. "For me, that had a double meaning, not just that I had been carrying the cataracts and the literal blindness from the past life, but... I had been carrying that man's sadness in the present life too."

After this regression, much to Amy's surprise, her doctors told her that her cataracts had disappeared. "There could be biological explanations for why my cataracts healed," she says. "But it doesn't really matter to me. What matters to me is that they were gone."

So if past life regression can help remove cataracts, might it also help people treat the Jerusalem syndrome?



Bizarre Syndrome Makes Visitors to Jerusalem Go Crazy

Bizarre Syndrome Makes Visitors to Jerusalem Go Crazy
LiveScience.com 
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View photo
A small number of people who visit Jerusalem have developed seemingly spontaneous religious delusions, a set of conditions known as "Jerusalem syndrome."
As Christians and Jews around the world prepare to celebrate the holidays of Easter and Passover, many will flock to the city of Jerusalem. Since ancient times, the city has been a magnet for religious pilgrims from some of the world's largest faiths — namely, Judaism, Christianity and Islam.
But for a small percentage of these visitors, their reverence ofJerusalem may become pathological — in other words, a visit to the city may trigger obsessive ideas, delusions or other psychotic experiences.
Some psychiatrists have dubbed this condition "Jerusalem syndrome," and say it happens in people who have no prior history of mental illness. However, others dispute the diagnosis and say the condition is more likely part of a broader psychosis, and is not unique to Jerusalem. [Top 10 Controversial Psychiatric Disorders]
"I'd never heard of it before," admitted Simon Rego, director of psychology training at Albert Einstein College of Medicine/Montefiore Medical Center in New York City. "You see things like this emerge periodically in the literature, where people think they have found a unique syndrome," but it may just be the result of an underlying mental illness, Rego told Live Science.
Jerusalem syndrome was first identified in 2000. Israeli psychiatrists reported in The British Journal of Psychiatry that they had examined 1,200 tourists who had been admitted to the city's Kfar Shaul Mental Health Center with "severe, Jerusalem-generated mental problems" between 1980 and 1993. The researchers identified three varieties of Jerusalem syndrome.
The first type included people who suffered from a previous psychotic illness, which often made them believe they were characters from the Bible. For example, one American tourist who had paranoid schizophrenia believed he was the biblical Samson, and visited Israel because he felt compelled to move one of the stone blocks in the Western Wall. (After some commotion, police intervened and took the man to the hospital.)
Patients with the second form of the syndrome may have some signs of mental disorders but not a full-blown mental illness. This category includes some people in nonmainstream Christian groups who settle in Jerusalem to wait for the reappearance of Jesus Christ. The researchers also gave the example of a healthy German man who was obsessed with finding the "true" religion, and came to Jerusalem to study Judaism, but wound up having a psychotic episode in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre (built on the site where Jesus is believed to have been crucified and buried).
Finally, the third type of patient identified in the study had no previous history of mental illness, had a psychotic episode while in Jerusalem and recovered spontaneously after leaving Israel. Only 42 of the 1,200 patients in the report fit these criteria.
...Dr. Alan Manevitz, a clinical psychiatrist at New York City's Lenox Hill Hospital, said he thinks Jerusalem syndrome may result when a person who is at risk for psychosis undergoes the stress of traveling to another country and is immersed in a place of religious significance.
"I think what happens is, vulnerable people can be inspired by the circumstances around them," which, in Jerusalem, happens to be religion, Manevitz told Live Science.
Rego agreed that the psychotic syndrome is not unique to Jerusalem. It may be influenced by being in the city, he said, but not caused by it. "If it was purely causal, you would expect everybody who visits Jerusalem to get it," he said.

Thursday, February 26, 2015

Flipside in the News... Ed Sheeran Et Al

Just wanted to weigh in on some recent news stories that point to the research in "Flipside" and "It's A Wonderful Afterlife."
(On SALE AT AMAZON)

Let's start with the Brit Awards.  While winning his award, the amazing singer and musician Ed Sheeran said:

"Since I was a little kid I dreamed of people all over the world singing my songs and although I've got a long way to go, this shows that I'm stepping in the right direction." Ed Sheeran



Ed Sheeran, photo: Daily Mail UK

I've asked a number of people "their first conscious thought they'd be doing what they're doing" and often hear of recurring dreams, visions, or "always knew" as if the future lies somewhere under the surface of our reality. 

Not that we're destined, as free will reportedly dictates our path (to accomplish or screw up), but the dreams or visions appear to have little or nothing to do with nature or nurture. Genetics or environment seem to only support the outcome, but its the consciousness of knowing your path that puts one in the "right" direction. (Sheeran quote is buried after Madge's tumble)

I've come across many accounts of people who had profound dreams, recurring dreams or visions of what or who they were to become.  It was also in their behavior in the school yard.  

I asked one FBI agent when she first became conscious of what she might want to do in her life.  She said in preschool, because "I started keeping lists on what people did in school every day. What they wore, what they ate."  (As quoted in "It's a Wonderful Afterlife")

Was she seeing into the future?  Or seeing the path that she'd already chosen for her to be on?  Does it matter?  It does if you're a parent or guardian, and your child says something silly like "When I grow up I'm going to sing music to millions of people."  The answer is, "Cool! Let me get a camera and I want you to say that on camera, because in 20 years, it will be very valuable."

Just like Dave Schultz (the Olympic wrestler, whose story is told in "Foxcatcher") told his father when he was 5 that he "wasn't going to be here very long," but that he had come here to "teach a lesson in love."  (A conversation the father didn't remember until he said it at the eulogy.)  That's a hard pill to swallow - but when you consider the growing mountain of evidence that shows that we don't die - that we are here on stage temporarily, and that those we love have not disappeared, or gone into oblivion, it can be a source of comfort to those who would like to know there is data that backs that up.


Dave Schultz told his dad he wouldn't be here long.
Then, I found this clip, on the anniversary of George Harrison choosing to be on the planet (his birthday), an old friend of mine posted this link to his speaking about death. George says in the clip:

"What happens when you die? That, to me, is the only thing that's of any importance. The rest is just secondary." "If you want to know anything in this life, you just need to knock on the door. Which I found through meditation. It's all within." (At the end a live version of "All Things Must Pass.")  





"What happens when we die, is the most important thing for us to know while we are on the planet."  

Why is that?

Because the answer will inform how you live your life, how you relate to people, how you relate to fear, to stress, to other people behaving badly.  

And finally, a "Near Death Story" with a different outcome:

In the Independent Newspaper in the UK, there's this story about a fellow who "died twice" and both times didn't see or experience anything (consciously) and they use it to report that "nothing happens after we die." No light, no tunnel. Nada. Zip.


Tunnel? Doorway? Different planes of existence? Pixels on a page?  All of the above.

Au contraire.

One person had that experience - an unconscious one - but thousands have had the opposite experience.

We all have different dreams, different experiences of being awake, widely divergent concepts of what being alive is. Or consciousness is. This fella experienced being dead and nothing came to mind. No tunnel of light. Just blankness. 

Never mind thousands have the opposite experience; scientists like Dr. Bruce Greyson at UVA studying cases for decades, Dr. Sam Parnia's published results of the extensive 7 year Aware Study showing consciousness existing outside of dead people, or the 100 cases Mario Beauregard PhD cites in his neuroscience research where people had no blood to the brain for minutes, and yet saw, heard new information from their "out of body" perspective. 


I got pals all over the planet.  These fellas are in Kashmir. Made me a rug.
Some people are actually convinced nothing happens after we die. Sorry to say, it's just not in the data.

Finally, if you want proof of the afterlife, I suggest you watch this clip.  In it, author David Bennett ("Voyage of Purpose") recounts his near death experience where he saw into the future and saw that he would be diagnosed with cancer that would only give him months to live, and then survive it (knowing he would survive it, because he'd already seen that he would). His case has been examined by science: Dr. Greyson at UVA.  I'll let him describe his experience in his own words:



My two cents.

"Flipside" and "It's A Wonderful Afterlife."
(On SALE AT AMAZON)


Saturday, February 21, 2015



Dr. Oliver Sacks announced today that he's been told he has months to live, and wrote about it eloquently in The New York Times today.  

"Over the last few days, I have been able to see my life as from a great altitude, as a sort of landscape, and with a deepening sense of the connection of all its parts. This does not mean I am finished with life.

On the contrary, I feel intensely alive, and I want and hope in the time that remains to deepen my friendships, to say farewell to those I love, to write more, to travel if I have the strength, to achieve new levels of understanding and insight.

This will involve audacity, clarity and plain speaking; trying to straighten my accounts with the world. But there will be time, too, for some fun (and even some silliness, as well).


I feel a sudden clear focus and perspective. There is no time for anything inessential...."


Dr. Sacks is one of the pre-eminent brain researchers of our time. ("The Man Who Mistook His Wife For a Hat")
I completely understand his desire to keep his mind focused and his life geared to those things that he considers essential. This is his path and journey, and he's following it exactly as he's planned it.
 I don't know if he's familiar with Dr. Greyson's work at the University of Virginia dealing with consciousness ("Is Consciousness Created by the Brain") or neuroscientist Mario Beauregard PhD's research in neuroscience ("Brain Wars") or Dr. Sam Parnia's recent "Aware Study" results of what people experience while having a near death experience, but if he was familiar with this work, he would have a new appreciation for the facts that show our energy, or whatever it is that animates our bodies, our souls, do not die.
 That the transition to the Flipside is more like leaving a stage, walking through a door, or stepping into a pool of water than whatever's been suggested in the past.
He's got an entirely new adventure to experience ahead of him - and it's not one of dissolution of mind, in fact it's entirely the opposite, reconnecting with our higher selves, where most of our energy resides in this other realm, where he experience all of our lifetimes, and see the nature of reality from a place of full consciousness.  Not omniscience, not all knowing, but certainly more knowing than what we experience here.
But I mention him because in his work he's examined cases of people who hear "celestial music" and he concluded that it's either crytomnesia (hearing it from somewhere else) or hallucinatory. 
 I've found numerous cases of people hearing music during their near death experience, or even during a between life hypnotherapy session - and in some cases, it can be proven that they could not have heard the music or been hallucinating it.
In Mario Beauregard's interview in "It's a Wonderful Afterlife" he cites cases where people have been blind from birth, who had a near death experience, but were able to describe what people were wearing in the hospital room, or what colors they were wearing, even though they should not have been able to.  In like form there are cases where people are deaf and have had a near death experience, and seen or heard things that they could not in their conscious lives.  
At some point you have to allow for the facts as they're presented to speak for themselves.  There are numerous cases of people who have died, meaning no blood going to the brain, where they see or hear events their conscious mind should not be able to.  In Dr. Greyson's talk "Is Consciousness Created by the Brain" he cites cases where people with alzheimers who should not be able to remember anything, suddenly remember with clarity great detail just prior to their passing.  And after death, the autopsies show that their brains should not have been able to access these memories.  
The point being, that the brain appears to function more like a receptor, or receiver of consciousness.  And that reception is not the creator of the music so to speak, but merely accessing it.
The following is an excerpt from "It's a Wondeful Afterlife: Further Adventures into the Flipside" where I talk a bit about "Celestial Music."
There have been numerous accounts of people hearing these dulcet tones, from Beethoven to other classical composers who heard the music running in their head during their waking hours. 
I've spoken with Stuart Sharp, or at least emailed with Stuart, who is cited below as someone who had an experience with celestial music.  He has a pretty amazing story, where the night before the funeral of his son, he had a vivid dream where he was listening to an awesome symphony.  And one of the people he saw in his vision, a guardian angel of sorts, said to him that he needed to remember what he was hearing because one day he would be performing the symphony in front of people.

And the music haunted him so much that he left his job as a cook in a pub in England, and wound up with only a guitar to his name.  One day he was playing some of the music he had heard out in the street as a busker, and someone from the BBC spoke to him about his tune, and Stuart told him the story... and lo and behold, Stuart eventually composed the music and conducted the London Philharmonic playing the song he'd heard in his head.  
The point is, that it was not a hallucination of music he'd heard previously. Oddly enough, Google makes "crawlers" that "crawl through various music posted on line to find the original authors of various compositions - so if what Stuart had heard had ever been performed by anyone else, it would have shown up in their copyright infringement notice.

I've spoken to many near death experiencers who heard "celestial music" during their near death experience.  In my research, I note that when someone hears "new information" from the afterlife, or spirit world - meaning information they could not have learned while being alive, could not have heard or experienced in their journey or path on this planet, then that experience must point to another paradigm at play.  

If you hear, sense, feel or experience something (music, someone telling you something, someone introducing you to a family member you didn't know you had, as in the case of Dr. Eben Alexander, and Colton Burpo, who both met sisters they didn't know existed - could not have known existed) that is new information from the Flipside... then it is proof that there is a Flipside.

 IPSO ERGO FACTO.




“I contemplate the luminous bodies continually revolving within their orbits, the sun, the stars, and then my spirit rises beyond these constellations, millions of miles, to the Source from which all creation flows and from which new creations flow eternally.”   -- Ludwig Von Beethoven

How does music fit into these visions of the afterlife?
During LBLs and NDEs people often report “hearing” music that’s not of an Earthly nature.  In a number of LBLs I’ve heard people report that music and healing come from “related” places in the universe.   But there are many musicians who claim to hear music when composing.
When we study the great composers, like Beethoven, we find that they spoke often of “hearing celestial music.” Oliver Sacks, the renowned scientist, considers this “hallucinatory music.”  As he notes:
True musical hallucinations are experienced by those who have them as unprecedented and deeply disquieting. There is insufficient awareness among physicians of musical hallucinations, in part because patients are reluctant to report them, fearing that they will be dismissed or seen as ‘crazy’. But musical hallucinations are surprisingly common, affecting at least 2% of those who are losing their hearing, as well as patients with a variety of other conditions. Working with a population of elderly patients (though I have seen it in younger people as well), I am often given vivid descriptions of musical hallucinosis, and I think it is by far the most common form of non-psychotic hallucination. I related two stories of musical hallucination in my 1985 book “The Man Who Mistook his Wife for a Hat,” and since then have received hundreds of letters from people with this condition. With musical hallucinations it is common for several voices or instruments to be heard simultaneously, and such experiences are almost always attributed, initially, to an external source. Thus in 1995 I received a vivid letter from June M., a charming and creative woman of 70, telling me of her musical hallucinations:
“…Most of the music I hear is from my past—many of the songs are hymns, some are folk music, some pop up from the forties and fifties, some classical and some show tunes. All the selections are sung by a chorus—there is never a solo performance or any orchestration. This first started last November when I was visiting my sister and brother in law in Cape Hatteras, NC, one night. After turning off the TV and preparing to retire, I started hearing ‘Amazing Grace.’ It was being sung by a choir, over and over again. I checked with my sister to see if they had some church service on TV, but they had Monday night football, or some such. So I went onto the deck overlooking Pamlico Sound. The music followed me. I looked down on the quiet coastline and the few houses with lights and realized that the music couldn't possibly be coming from anywhere in that area. It had to be in my head.”
It was not clear why June M. started to have musical hallucinations, or why she still has them, 11 years later. She has excellent hearing, is not epileptic, has no known medical problems and is intellectually quite intact. With her, as with many other patients, the most searching examination may fail to pinpoint the cause of musical hallucinations…” [1]
There is another possible explanation for the source of her music that Dr. Sach’s hasn’t explored: that it is not created by her mind.
A speaker can sometimes pick up the vibrations from other sound waves and reproduce them, but the sound is not being created by the speaker. Sometimes our radio picks up bursts of short wave radios from police scanners, but it’s not that the announcement is created by our stereo.
In Eben Alexander’s NDE he heard “celestial music.”  “I heard… the richest, most complex, most beautiful piece of music (I’ve) ever heard.” It’s also one of the hallmarks of NDE’s according to Bruce Greyson’s research.
“As a high school student, Burt Bacharach always had trouble getting to school on time: he couldn't sleep at night because he kept hearing music in his head. Throughout his life, Bacharach would never stop hearing music, because for him music would always be about sounds rather than ideas.” [2]
In David Bennett’s interview (“Voyage of Purpose”) he talks about hearing a “canyon of sound” during his NDE.  He gives specific details on what that music sounds like. 
Pete Townshend, legendary member of the band, The Who, heard celestial music as an 11 year old boy. “Townshend tells of hearing the music while on a boat with his Sea Scout troop. “I heard violins, cellos, horns, harps and voices, which increased in number until I could hear the threads of an angelic choir. It was a sublime experience. I have never heard such music since and my personal music ambition has always been to rediscover that sound and relive its effect on me.”[3]
Stuart Sharp heard celestial music when he was a young man. The experience was similar to Townshend’s: he first heard the angelic orchestra in a dream as a boy in 1956. Years later he heard it again after his baby son Ben died at birth. He explains: “In my dream I was back at Ben’s graveside staring down at his tiny white coffin. I heard distant angelic music with choirs, violins, cellos, horns and harps that grew in intensity and I gasped as Ben’s spirit rose slowly through the coffin. I couldn’t bring myself to see him in the mortuary. I didn’t have the courage.”
He was so haunted by the music he quit his job as cook in a Leicestershire country pub, left his wife and two daughters and moved to London and into a homeless shelter. He taught himself to play music after he bought a battered guitar from a second-hand shop which, by an amazing co-incidence, happened to be owned by Townshend’s parents. Eventually Stuart Sharp met someone who was moved by his story and helped him record with the London symphony – the result is an orchestral piece called “Angeli Symphony.”[4]
I’ve found other accounts, just from searching them out on the internet. From the NDE of “Jeanette Mitchell-Meadows”: “When I went for surgery the operation took nine hours. During the operation my spirit left my body, in the time it takes to blink an eye, I was in Heaven and saw the light of Heaven… There were musical notes I have never heard on Earth.  They were so clear and flawless, and the tone was so beautiful.  It is the most wonderful place to be. [5]
Or the account of an NDE from Canadian musician Gilles Bedard: "All day long, I went in and out of a coma… Then I saw myself from the ceiling. I was nine feet higher than my body and I was looking down at the people around me.... My vision expanded and I went into a place like a cosmos where there were twelve people standing in a half-circle. They were all pure white lights and they had no faces. I somehow knew these people although they weren't family or people I could recognize. It was as if they were waiting for me. I asked them what was happening, and they told me, 'You are not going to die. You are going back to Earth. You have something to do.' I asked them what it was, and as soon as I asked it was as if I knew the answer… What I remembered most is the music I heard when I was out of my body. It was fascinating.[6]





ref-[1] “The Power of Music” by Oliver Sacks. Oxford Journals Brain Volume 129.
ref-[2] “Self-Portrait of an Experimental Songwriter” David Galenson, Huffington Post 2-19-14
ref-[3]“Who I am: a Memoir” by Pete Townshend Harper, 2013
ref-[4] “Homeless man turns haunting noises in his head into symphony” The Express May 2, 2013
ref-[5] http://www.bibleprobe.com/mitchell-meadows.htm
ref-[6] Gilles Bedard's Near-Death Experience and Music Research by Kevin Williams  http://www.near-death.com/music.html

excerpt from "It's a Wonderful Afterlife: Further Adventures Into the Flipside" Volume One.  All Rights Reserved. Copyright Richard Martini 2014.

Journey Into Tibet

I spent a few weeks with Robert Thurman in Tibet, documenting his journey there. There are clips avail on youtube, but here is the complete documentary "Journey Into Tibet."

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