Hacking The Afterlife podcast

Hacking the Afterlife with Jennifer Shaffer, Luana, Robert Thurman, Michael Newton, Robert Towne

Hacking The Afterlife podcast

Show Notes

Another mind bending podcast. Jennifer said Robert Towne, Luana's pal had stopped by to admire the "puppy paw" necklace she had on (that she forgot she was wearing.) Then Robert Thurman came through. He came to talk about a celebration ("birthday party") someone was having with his wife Nena. I said I had just received a link to a celebration in his honor. "A Bob Thurman Celebration" at the WoodstockAwakening.org website. It included many of his friends and wife - and he wanted to say that he thought it was wonderful. (I hadn't viewed it yet, but did so after the podcast. Mind bending). But then I told him how I'd done a guided meditation with someone who saw a Tibetan Lama on her council - I recognized the name of the Lama, and asked that Lama if "he'd seen Thurman." The Lama said "No" - but I said, "Would you like to?" And then said "I don't know how you communicate over there, but I know that saying his name, you'll know his frequency." The woman said "He's here - standing in a library holding some books." (She wasn't aware that Bob was an author - and it was after the session, we were talking about his translation of "The Tibetan Book of the Dead" - and in that moment, realized it was his book, his translation! But she said "He's saying that you need to find some hidden texts, Richard." In Tibetan Buddhist tradition, "hidden books" are those that have yet to be translated. So I asked Jennifer to ask him "what's the subject matter of the book?" She said "Jesus and Buddha." I could have fallen off my chair. Some years ago, when Bob and I were in Hemis, Kashmir, the abbot of the monastery said that his monastery is where Jesus studied Buddhism - and is where the "Kanjur of Hemis" existed. I didn't understand what he was saying until I researched it later - and indeed about a dozen people have translated, seen this book that includes the story of "Issa" as Jesus is known in Asia. The book THE GREATEST STORY NEVER TOLD AS TOLD BY JESUS AND THOSE WHO KNEW HIM includes that translation done by Notovitch - and points out all the unusual long lost religions the book refers to - that Notovitch could never have known about. I had asked Bob some years ago if there were any copies of the Kanjur of Hemis outside of India - I had learned there were at least three copies, but unknown where they are. So Jennifer tells me that Bob is saying that I need to research, use the internet to find that book and extract "the Life of Issa" from it. Then Michael Newton stopped by to add something to "how to contact your loved ones on the flipside." All of it mind bending! I point out that the guided meditations that I'm doing are in the book AI AND THE FLIPSIDE: ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE PICTURES ITSELF IN A BOAT ON A RIVER. If you want to know what the meditation/adventure is like, that's a great place to start (www.RichMartini.com)

More from Hacking The Afterlife podcast

Oct 23, 2026

I ran across the debut episode of our podcast from March 20, 2020. All the guests we had spoken to before - so it wasn't new for us to have them show up in our "classroom in the afterlife" that is moderated by Luana Anders.

Oct 16, 2026

Another mind bending podcast. Amelia Earhart is in the news - and came through to talk about what the expedition means to her. She then was followed by the screenwriter, my old boss Robert Towne who wanted to weigh in on Tom Cruise's performance in the film "DIGGER." Robert worked with Tom often, and he gave it a rave. And then - both Roger Ebert and Gene Siskel stopped by - whom we interviewed before in BACKSTAGE PASS TO THE FLIPSIDE BOOK THREE, and they gave their thumb reviews. Mind bending stuff all the way around. The recent book SHE WAS NEVER LOST: The Amelia Earhart Saga is available everywhere.

Oct 10, 2026

This is a rerun of a podcast from two years ago - it didn't have subtitles but I've included them now. This was an unusual podcast just based on the folks who showed up to chat with us. Jennifer and I had taken a trip to the Chateau Marmont on Sunset Blvd, and we had a group of folks who stopped by to say hello. At some point John Belushi talked about "ghost watching" - not to show up in the hotel to watch people onstage, but to watch "the other ghosts wandering around." Lisa Marie Presley and Michael Jackson showed up to talk about early exits - people who leave the stage early for whatever reason. And that brought a bunch of people forward, from JFK to Elvis, to Matthew Perry, Robin Williams and others... the point they were making is that people leave the stage in all different fashions, and it's about focusing on who they were while they were onstage, and not how they left it. We had a brief chat with Gene Hackman again - to clarify what happened in light of the police reports... and he made a joke about it. I try to repeat the advice that these folks are available to anyone if they take the time to ask them questions. But be prepared for them not being all that interested in questions that relate to our journey and not theirs. I asked my old pal Charles Grodin about what it was like to see his old friend Gene, and then we shifted to an event that happened later in the day. While dining at Musso and Frank's in Hollywood two members of my group saw "a ghostly figure" sitting in the corner of the room. They didn't know who it was or could be, but said he "looked like the actor Robert Downey Jr." (And even then they didn't know his name either, and asked questions about someone named "Downey") They also heard him talking about "table #1" to them - so I invited the waiter to stop by the table and simply asked about any ghosts people might have seen in the restaurant. He said "Charlie Chaplin" and I asked where table #1 was - and he mentioned the table that I had lunch with Jonathan Winters - which was table #1 - and how that's where Charlie liked to dine. We asked Charlie about why he was seen "scribbling notes" and he said it was the place he liked to have good ideas and good food, but also said in this instance, he showed up so that members of my group would see him, and that would inspire me to invite him to chat on our podcast. I don't know how else to put it - but Jennifer and I have been doing this weekly for ten years. Not everyone who shows up in our conversations is a celebrity - but because of my 40 years in the business, and Luana Ander's 300 TV shows and movies (my friend who moderates our podcast from the Flipside, who passed in 1996) I'm not surprised when people do show up that we can recognize. Jennifer's father Jim also stopped by to clarify some things, and I must say - the topic of leaving the stage early came up - if someone is in need of help or counseling, there is help - and one should reach out to 988 and the counselors there from any telephone. But in my desire to not use the S word in the podcast, I tried to leave it out of the conversation, as the algorithms will generally not want it to be discussed - but the important point was made by people offstage - that is to realize that life goes on no matter what happens, and that everyone onstage signed up to be onstage, and should see what things might occur or happen that we could not be aware of. Oh, and Robin Williams showed up to not only discuss the same topic, but to confirm that during a recent guided meditation, this woman saw him in her "classroom in the afterlife" - and he confirmed that it was him BEFORE I COULD ASK THE QUESTION. Anyways, all of it is mind bending, and hopefully whomever needs to hear what they are talking about is able to hear what they're trying to say. Thanks for tuning in!

Oct 3, 2026

THIS IS A PODCAST WE DID ON THIS DATE TWO YEARS AGO IN 2024. Before the book SHE WAS NEVER LOST came out... but the story remains the same. This version has subtitles for the hard of reading, but the sound is the same for the hard of hearing! xo

Sep 23, 2026

Today's episode begins with a discussion about talking to people on the flipside - Jennifer describes the over 200 people that she read recently, and gives an account of one of the stories where someone came through and flipped out their family when the grandmother said "I'm so glad you didn't get that tattoo!"

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