Hacking the Afterlife with Jennifer Shaffer, Luana Anders, Amelia Earhart discuss "signs" and the "Team"
Hacking The Afterlife podcastShow Notes
Another fun conversation with folks on the Flipside. In this, Luana Anders, our moderator on the Flipside wants to discuss a dream that I had recently where I was on one side of a door with my brother, both of us trying to get it open - and on the other side I could hear my mom's voice. As I awoke, I recognized the door. It's the same door that was mentioned a few weeks ago during a podcast, and I asked my friend on the flipside about this door - and her message to me was "let it go." Which I did. But the dream made me reach out to the folks who have this door - and sending a text message about the dream prompted a reply that said "your family can come and retrieve the door if they want to." When I awoke from the dream about the door - I was thinking about the metaphor. It was the last remaining piece from the house I grew up in, that our father the Architect designed and built for his family - and that door has every person's name and a date who crossed into our threshold. Hundreds of names of people - old girlfriends, (we were four boys) but also wives, children, grandchildren, their pets - all stood against the door while my dad marked their height and the date they were there. Luana is on the door. Multiple times. My parents, my brothers, their families - our dog Sam - all on the door. And the reason that came to me after the dream is that this door represents a kind of Akashic library - retaining the time signature, the frame of time when that person stood against the door - had themselves measured, the time and place dated. Many of the names on the door have left the stage - but they - like all of our loved ones - still exist outside of time as we understand it. They're available - all of them - because that floppy disk of who we are has the mathematics of the time frame imbedded in that door... so to speak. Like a photograph - or a video - but in ways different, perhaps more fun, because we can see the handwriting of the person who wrote their name, signed their name, wrote the date - on the door. And now it's in my brother's garage. He sent me a photo of it the other day - and there they are, all of them, our friends, pals, lovers, relatives, comedy giants, musicians - all of them on that one door. That I thought was gone. But it is not. And this week I'm editing a "best of Amelia Earhart" so I invited Amelia to stop by and weigh in - and she talked about the crew we all have. The team on the flipside. Our teachers, our guides, our classmates, our higher selves, our council members - all participate in our journey, but are like a plane's mechanics... each bolt, each oil drop, each gear and mesh is related to a safe flight. We are never alone in the air with our plane - we have all these folks on the ground who did their job that got us airborne. I used the metaphor of a football team - guards and tackles, linebackers, halfbacks, quarterbacks - and the coaches and men and women behind the team - who design the plays, watch the footage - all of them are involved in each and every play. It's a bit like what the astronaut said the other day when someone asked her about what constitutes a crew or a team - and she started to talk about what a good crew means, and realized somewhere in that thought that everyone on Earth is part of that same crew. The crew that keeps our planet going forward. Sorry I didn't mention it on the podcast, but I'm mentioning it now. Be kind to everyone.
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.