Hacking the Afterlife with Jennifer Shaffer, Luana Anders, Lisa Marie Presley, her dad, Prince, Bill Paxton
Hacking The Afterlife podcastShow Notes
Another mind bending session if only because of the scope of the conversations. We begin with our usual catching up - Jennifer is doing her "Wine and Spirits" events in Manhattan Beach, and I've been doing guided meditations with people (she's at JENNIFERSHAFFER.COM) and I'm at RICHARDMARTINI.COM We invite Luana Anders for a chat, and Luana brought up a guided meditation I did the other day as she wanted to discuss something that occurred. Jennifer doesn't know what it is - because I haven't told anyone. Nor do we speak prior to the session. But during a session, a woman was accessing her council when we spoke to one of her teachers, and I asked him if he was teaching a class. He said "Yes. "Flying." I asked if we could visit the classroom and speak to one of his students. We did that and Bill Paxton appeared as he was conversant about the idea of "flying at the speed of thought." As we discussed that other class members started showing up and Luana wanted to refer to that - saying that these sessions we're doing is helping people on the other side how to communicate with their loved ones on the planet. Then we spoke with Lisa Marie Presley - who wanted to talk in general about the topic of "leaving the stage early" - as her son Benjamin had done so. Jennifer and I aren't dispensing any kind of medical advice, and if one is feeling suicidal, please call #988 and seek professional help. But we had a general discussion about depression, about the research that shows meditation can "cure or alleviate symptoms of depression" - we talked about the number of people who have left the stage early (Anthony Bourdain, etc) who have come to our podcast to suggest that people take up meditation to help these issues. And I cited the work by Richard Davidson at the University of Wisconsin ("Healthy Minds") that showed how meditation can "cure or alleviate symptoms of depression." Lisa Marie's son came forward and talked about what it was like for him to return home - saying that while he was met by "overwhelming unconditional love" he felt he also carried the trauma and sadness he'd caused others by his leaving early. I asked his grandfather if he wanted to weigh in and deferred to his daughter. However Prince came forward to talk about how "jumping off pianos" led to his pain killer addiction - but he doesn't regret "jumping off pianos" because it's a metaphor for living a life fully. And then Bill Paxton weighed in from his perspective, and I asked him about his pal Rob Lowe (who has spoken to Bill on a podcast where he showed him "how to fly" on the flipside.) Another mind bending adventure. Thanks for tuning in.
More from Hacking The Afterlife podcast
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.
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!"