Hacking the Afterlife with Jennifer Shaffer, Luana Anders, Kobe Bryant, Jesus and friends
Hacking The Afterlife podcastShow Notes
We weren't able to do a podcast tonight, "unforeseen circumstances" (isn't that funny for a podcast where we talk to the afterlife?) - but am rerunning one of our most popular podcasts, with the additional opening and subtitles, so people can "sing along with us." Just kidding. Here's the original liner notes: This was from a year ago.... For those not familiar with this podcast; Jennifer Shaffer is an intuitive medium who works with law enforcement nationwide on missing person cases. She does pro bono work daily for them, and once a week we get together and see what we can learn from the flipside. We've been doing this weekly for 8 years, the last two on our podcast. I'm a filmmaker, have written and/or directed 8 theatrical feature films, a couple of documentaries. Some years ago, my best friend died in my arms and started coming to visit me. Instead of being freaked out by it (and her showing up to friends and family members) I started to dig into how that might be. That's resulted in 10 books (Flipside, etc) and four with Jennifer Shaffer. In this edition, a number of people show up that we've spoken with before. We interviewed Kobe just after his passing, it's the last chapter in the book "Backstage Pass to the Flipside 3" - where he talks about his journey, and I ask him questions in Italian. Eventually members of his family have met with Jennifer - so it's not unusual for us that he might stop by. The construct is this; my friend who passed away is on the flipside, and has organized a "group meeting" or a class as we call it, not to teach folks on the planet, but to teach people on the flipside how to communicate using frequency, images, visualizations on the flipside. Jennifer may get an image, let's say of a character from a TV show, and it may be their way of giving her a thought so that I could say, "Do you mean someone who shares the same name of that character in the TV show wants to speak to us?" That happens often. As noted, Jennifer is doing her best to translate what is coming to her. Like a translator at the UN, the people on the flipside are downloading a lot of information, and she does her best to catch the meaning, syntax and general idea of what someone wants to impart. A number of people stop by who've been interviewed before; Prince ("I was addicted to jumping off pianos, which caused me to use pain killers"), Robin Williams ("Love Love"). Marilyn stops by - refers to something I was writing at MartiniZone.com the other day - and when I asked if she wanted to talk about the manner of her passing, she said she wanted to talk about how she had two children waiting for her on the flipside. Both whom had not come to term. That concept has been repeated in the research - consistently. A number of people in our podcast have mentioned it, the idea of "those we don't have are waiting for us on the flipside." Harry Dean Stanton said the same thing - and I was able to verify it (but don't mention it in the podcast.) It's in "Backstage Pass to the Flipside." Harry came through after he passed and before his memorial. I asked him what he wanted me to impart to his friends (as noted.) He also said that when he passed, "He was in a room with five women" and when he got to the flipside, he was met by a "baby that he didn't have in life." In other words, a child was there to greet him with this profound unconditional love. At his memorial that I went to a week later, I asked someone who was with him at his deathbed to describe the scene. She said "There were five of us with him, all women." I asked if he had said anything unusual while she was in the room. She said "Yes, he asked me to hand him the baby. But there was no baby in the room." I had heard THE SAME THING from Harry on the Flipside via Jennifer a week earlier. At some point, the Alpha and Omega stops by - and mentions the one thing he wishes people would not do, that is "get freaked out by his name." (Jesus). I've had a number of
More from Hacking The Afterlife podcast
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.
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!
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
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!"
Another mind bending podcast... Elvis introduced Jennifer to his friend Dolly Parton. I had an inkling she would show up this week - as the day she passed I heard her voice say "I'd love to be on your show Richard" or something to that effect. I know I was thinking about something else at the time, so was suprised to hear it. And for the next couple of days it felt like we were having a conversation - me hearing Dollyisms (as a jaded blues music player, Dolly was not on any of my play lists, although I admired her voice and writing skills). So for a couple of days, I kept hearing funny comments and remarks - and then nothing the past few days, so I wasn't sure if she'd show up or not. But she did. Jennifer is a huge fan, and becomes emotional while repeating what Dolly asks her to say. Jennifer wasn't aware of the duet "Islands in the Stream" with Kenny Rogers, but Dolly made her aware of that. I asked her the same questions I ask all of our guests; who greeted her? (Husband Carl). Was that a surprise? (No, because he'd been standing by for her since he left). She spoke about her mediumship abilities - something I'd read about prior to the session. Other tidbits of fun - and observation about what it's like on the other side, and how musicians hang out together. She was and is a fan of Aretha's - and brought her along with... We spoke briefly with my pal Charles Grodin about the premiere of the documentary on TCM about him last friday night "Rebel With a Cause" and he mentioned to Jennifer his work with getting people out of prison (she hasn't seen the documentary, so it's not something she would know about). Anyways, just another day at the office. Enjoy.