Here's
a pretty dramatic "Flipside" moment, and I will endeavor to interview
Chaz Ebert about it for the next book. I knew Roger Ebert, my brother
Jeff worked with him at the U of I on the school paper, and Roger had
given me a brutal "thumbs way down" review of my film "Limit Up" which
literally killed it while it was in the theaters. I thought he'd
appreciate the story about a guardian angel who helps a woman become the
first female soybean trader at the Chicago Board of Trade and Ray
Charles played her boss, God; I had no idea he was an atheist when I
insisted to the studio that they get Roger a copy of the film for his
review. One of the many errors I've made in my film career. (No really,
it's a fun movie; Danitra Vance, Ray Charles, Brad Hall, Nancy Allen -
just hard to find.)
However, he was always friendly when I
saw him at Cannes or other fests. I met his wife Chaz a few years back
as well - a lovely couple. So when he was pronounced dead and then
revived some years ago, he wrote how Chaz reported she heard him saying
"I'm still here." She insisted the Doctors revive him - and they did.
He went on to live another four or five years with her. It didn't
change Roger's opinion of an "afterlife" as he wrote a column about what
happened - how he wasn't conscious of calling out to her, but she was.
I noted how funny it was that the proof there is "consciousness after
life" actually happened to him - and to the person he loved the most on
the planet - but he was blind to it. And six days ago, this appeared in
Esquire, Chaz's recollection of his final days. He was experiencing
what so many have experienced - some in near death experiences - and
some while under deep hypnosis as pioneered by Michael Newton and
outlined in my first book "Flipside."
Take a moment to read
this description of Roger's last moments on the planet. "The one thing
people might be surprised about Roger said that he didn't know if he
could believe in God. He had his doubts. But toward the end, something
really interesting happened. That week before Roger passed away, I would
see him and he would talk about having visited this other place. I
thought he was hallucinating. I thought they were giving him too much
medication. But the day before he passed away, he wrote me a note: "This
is all an elaborate hoax." I asked him, "What's a hoax?" And he was
talking about this world, this place. He said it was all an illusion. I
thought he was just confused. But he was not confused. He wasn't
visiting heaven, not the way we think of heaven. He described it as a
vastness that you can't even imagine. It was a place where the past,
present, and future were happening all at once. (http://www.esquire.com/blogs/news/roger-ebert-final-moments)
Funny how he reviewed his glimpse of the nature of reality; "It's all a
hoax." He could have said "It's all a movie" or "It's all a theatrical
piece" which would have been a bit more accurate (according to the
research). "Hoax" implies there's someone behind the curtain pulling the
strings, and pulling something over on people. "Illusion" is accurate,
but again, so is film; funny he didn't make that connection. But when
you examine the "Flipside" you find that there's no one but you pulling
the strings - albeit with help from spirit guides and other resources -
but we experience events and problems in our paths because we put them
there, to examine them, to learn from them - to learn compassion for
others. We are directing the hoax, so to speak, and when we experience
the vastness, the "stepping outside of time" that one can experience
during a near death experience or under deep hypnosis, we see the past,
present and future as other events to experience. And we experience the
vastness, as Eben Alexander did in "Proof of Heaven" as a "glittering
darkness" where we are all connected at the same moment. But don't take
my word for it; take Roger's. Two thumbs way up.
http://www.gofundme.com/FlipsideTheSequel
