Here's my 'FLIPSIDE BOOK TALKS' page on youtube. There's some repetition here, but some of this bears repeating.
enjoy!
enjoy!
Showing posts with label reincarnation. Show all posts
Showing posts with label reincarnation. Show all posts
Sunday
Tuesday
Luana's Birthday and Scott De Tamble talks Flipside hypnotherapy
For fans of "Flipside" today is our pal Luana Anders birthday - or day she chose to join us on the planet.
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| "The Essence of our Relationship" |
Happy Birthday Luana!
When I put this photo on the fridge in 1996 I said aloud "Look, Lu, the essence of our relationship." - laughs and cappuccinos from L.A. to Rome. About 3 months after she checked off the planet, Charles Grodin had the psychic James Van Praagh on his talk show, and Chuck had me secretly call in to test how accurate he might be. When I asked about "a friend named Luana" Van Praagh said "She says there's a photograph on your refrigerator that is the essence of your relationship."
Luana's not gone. She's just not here.
She's home.
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| Lu |
On that note, I filmed this talk the other day at the Orange County Iands group about what it's like over there; home.
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| Scott De Tamble lightbetweenlives.com |
In it, clinical hypnotherapist Scott De Tamble talks about between life hypnotherapy and some of the insight he's gained from his 14 years doing it, as well as the Michael Newton method of hypnotherapy. After his 50 minute talk, there's a 20 minute open discussion, where I add my two cents about some of the cases that I've filmed with Scott.
I've been filming between life hypnotherapy sessions for the past six years, many with Scott, and the transcripts appear in "Flipside: A Tourist's Guide on How to Navigate the Afterlife" or "It's a Wonderful Afterlife: Further Adventures in the Flipside" volumes one and two.
The film "Flipside: a Journey into the Afterlife" features some of Scott's sessions, as well as interviews with other hypnotherapists.(all available online, in audible, ebook and paperback via flipsidethebook.com.) If you're interested in booking a session with Scott, he's in Claremont, CA, his website is lightbetweenlives.com. This talk was given at the Orange County Iands group (International Association of Near Death Studies), more info can be found at IANDS.org.
This is an organization dedicated to sharing experiences of a spiritual nature and most everyone in the room of this talk has either had a near death experience, or is familiar with the concepts Scott is speaking about (and people ask questions that he answers at the end of his talk) the form of hypnosis that is 4 to 6 hours in length, and was pioneered by psychologist Michael Newton, who taught Scott his method that he honed over 30 years with 7000 clients.
In the recent books, I examine the near death experiences (which science has been able to catalog and use in peer reviewed journals - see the work of Dr. Bruce Greyson at UVA) and compare them with between life sessions, where people under deep hypnosis see, experience, hear or feel some of the same hallmarks that people do during an NDE - a past life review, a visit with a guide or higher energy, moving into the light and beyond it, the experience of unconditional love, etc.
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| Luana waving from home. |
The premise of my latest books is that if we can study NDEs in a scientific setting and get verifiable results (that can and have been duplicated, in studies like Dr. Sam Parnia's "Aware" project) then we should be able to view these accounts of deep hypnosis between life sessions through the same lens.
Thousands of people have had them, report the same events no matter what their religious, ethnic or gender, and Michael Newton has trained hundreds of therapists who ask roughly the same questions to their clients - and the results are remarkable for their similarities, whether the client has ever been under hypnosis, or in many cases, is a skeptic and doesn't believe in any form of afterlife whatsoever.
So please listen to this talk in its entirety, if you have the 70 minutes, and keep an open mind.
I've known Scott for six years now, have filmed a number of sessions with him, and consider him a virtuoso in his abilities to explore and examine what a person says while under hypnosis about their previous lifetimes, and the journey of their souls between lifetimes. This is a pretty amazing talk, and if you're open to it, it will change your perspective about the planet.
Enjoy. And Happy Birthday Lu. Without further adieu:
Friday
The Jesus Question
A topic came up in a forum the other day, a person asked "What about the historical accounts of Jesus, Mohammed, Buddha and other avatars being "sent" to the planet for our own good? And further, asked if there was "any historical evidence that these people actually existed?"
I'm not a scholar. But I play one on TV. Just kidding. I've read and corresponded with a few biblical scholars, including Ian Wilson, who's written extensively about the Shroud of Turin.
But on a general note, I included a chapter in "It's a Wonderful Afterlife" Volume 2, where a medium claims to be speaking to Jesus during a session. And some things were said in that session that corroborated my own research into the arena... but here are my notes about her post:
Actually, Jesus is mentioned in the Qu'ran more than Mohammed. (excellent translation here from USC -) Identified as Isa, in that book, there's a claim that he survived the Crucifixion and traveled to India. In Asia he's known as Isa, or Issa. There's quite a bit of evidence of his travels there, if you care to examine it, from the years from 12-29, roughly, traveling along the silk route and teaching, learning from others along the way.
There's a book written about his journeys that was translated by a Sherpa, who translated it to Russian for the explorer Notovitch, who translated it to French when it was published. Later in the 1960's, another Indian pandit (Swami Abhedananda) read the same original book at Hemis, and concurred that Notovitch's translation was correct. (I mention this as Notovitch was assailed after the publication, but I like to point out he didn't translate it - his guide did).
(well made doc about the reports of his having been in India prior to his trip to Jerusalem)
I've read the book, been to Hemis, seen the BBC dox on the topic (available on youtube) and a friend made a film "Jesus in India" that explores the evidence of these stories. There's a website, "tombofjesus" that offers written accounts from other languages of his travels in Persia, India, etc. in their "documents" section. Even Josephus, the Roman historian mentions Jesus.
When it comes to stories about Krishna, Brahma, even Buddha, they're a bit like the greek myths - there may or may not have been these people who existed and were written about, Herakles, Hercules, etc, and their stories have grown over time.
However, if you ever get a chance to visit the "relics of Buddha" tour, you can examine for yourself the hair, blood and written scraps and other pieces of famous Buddhist icons, including his own relics that have been preserved for 2500 years. But in Jesus' case - yes, there's quite a bit of evidence of his existence. What's happened however, is like the Greek stories, and the Indian stories, that his path and journey was edited/changed/developed by those who had a vested interest in how they'd like events to happen.
Like editing out women from the apostles, or even editing the four gospels so they all end on the same sentence. Unlikely to happen when they're written so far apart by various people - and the Hemis book follows the story as told by Jewish merchants, who had one key detail different than the Roman version - their book claims that when Pilate asked Jesus about his comments about "render unto Caesar" that Jesus said in effect, "why are you wasting our time with these questions when you have the power of life or death over me?" at which point, Pilate orders his immediate execution. (with no side trip to Herod).
IT'S FREE HERE, VIA THE GUTENBERG PROJECT. TRANSLATED FROM TIBETAN TO RUSSIAN, THEN TO FRENCH, THEN TO ENGLISH. TEXT CORROBORATED BY OTHERS WHO HAVE SEEN IT. A COPY REPORTEDLY RESIDES IN LHASA.
In this account, the Sanhedrin, Jewish leaders protest vehemently, as Roman law precluded killing "holy men" of the Jewish faith, and argue that Jesus is "of the book" and not subject to Roman law. To which Pilate throws them out. They are the ones who did the Jewish ritual of "washing their hands" of his death, as a Roman prelate was also the head of the religion, and would never have performed a sacred ritual of their religion in public - it would have been heretical.
So the Roman editions of the Bible include the Sanhedrin being blamed for Jesus' death, and the Roman prelate "washing his hands" of the event. A convenient narrative that appears to have been added when Rome became Christian, and the Gospels were gathered and edited in the council of Nicea.
The Tibetan narrative ends with his "death on the cross" but other narratives pick up from there - when a fellow named Yuz Asaf (the anointed one) travels back to India in 33 AD, with his wife or mother Miriam (of virgin birth). There's a monument to Yuz Asaf in Persia, quoting him as saying "I am the light and the way." That fellow moves to Kashmir, where he's buried, and there's a plaster cast of his feet next to his tomb. Whoever this fellow was, clearly had survived a Crucifixion.
I was interviewing a medium the other day, who appeared to access Jesus during her session - (and I include a transcript from another session with Jesus and a medium in "It's A Wonderful Afterlife" volume two) and in this case, the medium claimed that Jesus showed her a quick series of images in succession - Krishna, Buddha, Brahma, etc - and the medium asked "These are all you?" And then after a pause said "No, he's showing me that all of these people were avatars, and that they're energetic makeup is closer to source, that's why when they're on the planet they have a stronger ability to be connected to the spirit world."
She also claimed that Jesus said he survived the Crucifixion, ("with the help of both Romans and his followers") and that he came here to let people know how close we are to the afterlife, that it's not far away, and that we are all equal over there, and should treat each other the same over here. I thought that was pretty interesting. In essence, what I've learned is that religion is humanity's way to explain, reconnect us to the spirit world, where we are forgiving, filled with love and see each other equally. And this examination of people under hypnosis - from a purely scientific point of view - is a way of proving to people that is the case.
And finally, and this kind of blows my mind, I got an email from someone the other day including their LBL where they described in detail "the plot" of how they pulled off the most famous trick in history - that of making it appear that Jesus was dead (Using the teachings of an old wise man "from the Orient" who showed us how to "stop all breathing." - the same thing was said in the account in "It's a Wonderful Afterlife" that he had been taught "yoga techniques from a Tibetan monk"). And this transcript includes what and how he was able to leave Jerusalem, "changed his name" but was traveling with his "wife Miriam."
This person read the account in my book, was startled at how in line it was with her own LBL, where she was a man in Jerusalem, and a friend close enough to Jesus to know the story behind the story of how they helped him escape. (Mind blown!)
Is Jesus mentioned more often than Mohammed in the Qu'ran? Yes. Does the Qu'ran claim that Jesus survived the Crucifixion and went to teach in India? Yes. Does the Gospel of Thomas claim that Jesus sent Thomas to India, and then later he saw Jesus teaching there? Yes. Are there monuments to Isa in Asia that seem crafted by the same guy in the Bible? Yes. Is there a statue to Yuz Asaf in Persia? Yes. These aren't debatable facts.
As I mention in "Flipside" when interviewing former President of the Newton Institute Paul Aurand, I asked if there were any "recurring themes" in his clients. And he said he'd had numerous clients who remember lifetimes during the life of Jesus and how much his death (or disappearance) affected them. And then I filmed a woman (in Flipside the chapter "He Turned Sunset into Sunrise") who recounted the same story of knowing him, and his affect on her. I've known this woman for years, and was as startled as she was to learn this detail.
Then I found Dr. Brian Weiss' own experience of remembering a lifetime when he met and dined with Jesus, and then how when he was working on a client under hypnosis the client suddenly announced that "you were there too, Dr. Weiss. On the Via Dolorosa." And Weiss had never told anyone that he remembered being there when Jesus supposedly carried the cross for his own Crucifixion and this man described accurately the color of robe he was wearing (with "orange piping." a small detail, but a detail).
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I know at least one Harvard PhD who's working on a book about mediums and their experiences being "contacted by" or working with Jesus. And he's doing so under controlled experiments at his lab as we speak. So we'll see what science has to say about the existence of this "fellow from the Flipside."
So - that Jesus dude gets around.
Whether he's a figment of our imagination, a figment of the collective unconscious, or actually a dude still helping those who cross over and he tells them to come back (as happens often in NDEs) - that remains to be seen.
An awful lot of people from all walks of life claim to have seen him during their near death experience - but always as the fellow who says "It's not your time yet."
He's not reported showing up in people of other faith's NDE's, they appear to have their own avatars who show up to send them back to the planet.
But the bottom line is, research into these accounts hasn't even begun. And that's why I'm here discussing it. It should begin.
I'm not a scholar. But I play one on TV. Just kidding. I've read and corresponded with a few biblical scholars, including Ian Wilson, who's written extensively about the Shroud of Turin.
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| So far, a number of between life hypnosis sessions, people claim to have known him, seen him, or heard him speak in public. All of their accounts generally describe the same person (even though that may be influenced by paintings) but all have described the same intense reaction to being near him - something akin to "being mesmerized" "transfixed" "losing their breath" and in more than one case, tears and red cheeks the closer he appeared. |
But on a general note, I included a chapter in "It's a Wonderful Afterlife" Volume 2, where a medium claims to be speaking to Jesus during a session. And some things were said in that session that corroborated my own research into the arena... but here are my notes about her post:
Actually, Jesus is mentioned in the Qu'ran more than Mohammed. (excellent translation here from USC -) Identified as Isa, in that book, there's a claim that he survived the Crucifixion and traveled to India. In Asia he's known as Isa, or Issa. There's quite a bit of evidence of his travels there, if you care to examine it, from the years from 12-29, roughly, traveling along the silk route and teaching, learning from others along the way.
There's a book written about his journeys that was translated by a Sherpa, who translated it to Russian for the explorer Notovitch, who translated it to French when it was published. Later in the 1960's, another Indian pandit (Swami Abhedananda) read the same original book at Hemis, and concurred that Notovitch's translation was correct. (I mention this as Notovitch was assailed after the publication, but I like to point out he didn't translate it - his guide did).
(well made doc about the reports of his having been in India prior to his trip to Jerusalem)
I've read the book, been to Hemis, seen the BBC dox on the topic (available on youtube) and a friend made a film "Jesus in India" that explores the evidence of these stories. There's a website, "tombofjesus" that offers written accounts from other languages of his travels in Persia, India, etc. in their "documents" section. Even Josephus, the Roman historian mentions Jesus.
When it comes to stories about Krishna, Brahma, even Buddha, they're a bit like the greek myths - there may or may not have been these people who existed and were written about, Herakles, Hercules, etc, and their stories have grown over time.
However, if you ever get a chance to visit the "relics of Buddha" tour, you can examine for yourself the hair, blood and written scraps and other pieces of famous Buddhist icons, including his own relics that have been preserved for 2500 years. But in Jesus' case - yes, there's quite a bit of evidence of his existence. What's happened however, is like the Greek stories, and the Indian stories, that his path and journey was edited/changed/developed by those who had a vested interest in how they'd like events to happen.
Like editing out women from the apostles, or even editing the four gospels so they all end on the same sentence. Unlikely to happen when they're written so far apart by various people - and the Hemis book follows the story as told by Jewish merchants, who had one key detail different than the Roman version - their book claims that when Pilate asked Jesus about his comments about "render unto Caesar" that Jesus said in effect, "why are you wasting our time with these questions when you have the power of life or death over me?" at which point, Pilate orders his immediate execution. (with no side trip to Herod).
IT'S FREE HERE, VIA THE GUTENBERG PROJECT. TRANSLATED FROM TIBETAN TO RUSSIAN, THEN TO FRENCH, THEN TO ENGLISH. TEXT CORROBORATED BY OTHERS WHO HAVE SEEN IT. A COPY REPORTEDLY RESIDES IN LHASA.
In this account, the Sanhedrin, Jewish leaders protest vehemently, as Roman law precluded killing "holy men" of the Jewish faith, and argue that Jesus is "of the book" and not subject to Roman law. To which Pilate throws them out. They are the ones who did the Jewish ritual of "washing their hands" of his death, as a Roman prelate was also the head of the religion, and would never have performed a sacred ritual of their religion in public - it would have been heretical.
So the Roman editions of the Bible include the Sanhedrin being blamed for Jesus' death, and the Roman prelate "washing his hands" of the event. A convenient narrative that appears to have been added when Rome became Christian, and the Gospels were gathered and edited in the council of Nicea.
The Tibetan narrative ends with his "death on the cross" but other narratives pick up from there - when a fellow named Yuz Asaf (the anointed one) travels back to India in 33 AD, with his wife or mother Miriam (of virgin birth). There's a monument to Yuz Asaf in Persia, quoting him as saying "I am the light and the way." That fellow moves to Kashmir, where he's buried, and there's a plaster cast of his feet next to his tomb. Whoever this fellow was, clearly had survived a Crucifixion.
I was interviewing a medium the other day, who appeared to access Jesus during her session - (and I include a transcript from another session with Jesus and a medium in "It's A Wonderful Afterlife" volume two) and in this case, the medium claimed that Jesus showed her a quick series of images in succession - Krishna, Buddha, Brahma, etc - and the medium asked "These are all you?" And then after a pause said "No, he's showing me that all of these people were avatars, and that they're energetic makeup is closer to source, that's why when they're on the planet they have a stronger ability to be connected to the spirit world."
She also claimed that Jesus said he survived the Crucifixion, ("with the help of both Romans and his followers") and that he came here to let people know how close we are to the afterlife, that it's not far away, and that we are all equal over there, and should treat each other the same over here. I thought that was pretty interesting. In essence, what I've learned is that religion is humanity's way to explain, reconnect us to the spirit world, where we are forgiving, filled with love and see each other equally. And this examination of people under hypnosis - from a purely scientific point of view - is a way of proving to people that is the case.
And finally, and this kind of blows my mind, I got an email from someone the other day including their LBL where they described in detail "the plot" of how they pulled off the most famous trick in history - that of making it appear that Jesus was dead (Using the teachings of an old wise man "from the Orient" who showed us how to "stop all breathing." - the same thing was said in the account in "It's a Wonderful Afterlife" that he had been taught "yoga techniques from a Tibetan monk"). And this transcript includes what and how he was able to leave Jerusalem, "changed his name" but was traveling with his "wife Miriam."
This person read the account in my book, was startled at how in line it was with her own LBL, where she was a man in Jerusalem, and a friend close enough to Jesus to know the story behind the story of how they helped him escape. (Mind blown!)
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| I come from a long line of Catholics, both Irish and Italian. My grandfather was baptized her in this 5th century chapel in the Alps. |
Is Jesus mentioned more often than Mohammed in the Qu'ran? Yes. Does the Qu'ran claim that Jesus survived the Crucifixion and went to teach in India? Yes. Does the Gospel of Thomas claim that Jesus sent Thomas to India, and then later he saw Jesus teaching there? Yes. Are there monuments to Isa in Asia that seem crafted by the same guy in the Bible? Yes. Is there a statue to Yuz Asaf in Persia? Yes. These aren't debatable facts.
As I mention in "Flipside" when interviewing former President of the Newton Institute Paul Aurand, I asked if there were any "recurring themes" in his clients. And he said he'd had numerous clients who remember lifetimes during the life of Jesus and how much his death (or disappearance) affected them. And then I filmed a woman (in Flipside the chapter "He Turned Sunset into Sunrise") who recounted the same story of knowing him, and his affect on her. I've known this woman for years, and was as startled as she was to learn this detail.
Then I found Dr. Brian Weiss' own experience of remembering a lifetime when he met and dined with Jesus, and then how when he was working on a client under hypnosis the client suddenly announced that "you were there too, Dr. Weiss. On the Via Dolorosa." And Weiss had never told anyone that he remembered being there when Jesus supposedly carried the cross for his own Crucifixion and this man described accurately the color of robe he was wearing (with "orange piping." a small detail, but a detail).
I know at least one Harvard PhD who's working on a book about mediums and their experiences being "contacted by" or working with Jesus. And he's doing so under controlled experiments at his lab as we speak. So we'll see what science has to say about the existence of this "fellow from the Flipside."
So - that Jesus dude gets around.
Whether he's a figment of our imagination, a figment of the collective unconscious, or actually a dude still helping those who cross over and he tells them to come back (as happens often in NDEs) - that remains to be seen.
An awful lot of people from all walks of life claim to have seen him during their near death experience - but always as the fellow who says "It's not your time yet."
He's not reported showing up in people of other faith's NDE's, they appear to have their own avatars who show up to send them back to the planet.
But the bottom line is, research into these accounts hasn't even begun. And that's why I'm here discussing it. It should begin.
Sunday
Ben Affleck and the Flipside
Rarely do we see how silly "modern science" can be.
"Ben Affleck Asked PBS Not To Reveal Ancestry"
First off, let me say I've met Ben an a few occasions, in Cannes where I introduced him to Chantal Cerruti, who offered to outfit him in a suit. (I was wearing one, and was happy to make the introduction.) And then later in Santa Monica, where our kids shared a pre-school - his were stalked by paparazzi in trees hovering over the playground, mine were bouncing around the chicken coop - but he and his wife couldn't have been nicer people.
Despite playing my way through Boston U via a piano-bar in Charlestown (The Warren Tavern) near his home - other than that proximity, I have no reason to comment on this story, other than... it's nonsense.
Forget for a moment, the illegal posting of private emails by Wikileaks (One thing to reveal criminal behavior on behalf of hidden agendas, and another to post emails of people who happen to work for or be affiliated with a company... mine included - as I worked on their film "Salt.") That's beyond the pale, and for my two cents, its reputation just went into a pail.
But back to Mr. Affleck who is "accused" ("Je Accuse!") of asking a reality TV show to cut out the part where his ancestors owned slaves.
Here's the issue: Harvard's Robert Gates, who hosts the show, claims Ben (or his reps) asked him to delete that part of the show that revealed Ben's relatives owned slaves:
"PBS and Harvard scholar Henry Louis Gates, host of the show that traces the ancestry of well-known guests, said in separate statements that they didn't censor the slave-owner details. Instead, more interesting ancestors of the actor emerged and Gates chose to highlight them in October's segment featuring Affleck, they said in the statements posted on the PBS website..."
(Professor Gates is the professor who was arrested on his porch in that tragic "arrested for being black" incident in Cambridge years ago. Unfortunately, a victim of a centuries old amount of prejudice in the Boston area, where I went to school across the Charles River.)
And then this quote jumped out at me:
"In their email exchange, Gates asks (Sony's Michael) Lynton for advice on how to handle Affleck's request. "Here's my dilemma: confidentially, for the first time, one of our guests has asked us to edit out something about one of his ancestors--the fact that he owned slaves. Now, four or five of our guests this season descend from slave owners, including Ken Burns. We've never had anyone ever try to censor or edit what we found. He's a megastar. What do we do?" Gates wrote on July 22, 2014."
Hello?
"The fact that HE OWNED SLAVES." Now, I imagine he's not referring to Ben Affleck here, because Ben never owned slaves.
But this sentence goes to the heart of why this research into consciousness, into the "Flipside" is so important. For Ben, and for Gates, who is belaboring under the concept that somehow we are our ancestors (genetically or epigenetically.)
There's no evidence that we are our ancestors. We don't have memories of what our ancestors did. Under hypnosis, during a near death experience, or any other event in human history. None. (I'm sorry all those relatives of mine, Irish and Italian who celebrate that fact every year with pasta or beer. It's nice to believe we are them, but we ain't. And it shows)
However we have tons of evidence that people have memories of previous lifetimes that weren't, could not be, were in no relation to their ancestors. Under hypnosis, during near death experiences, and sometimes during a coma, an out of body experience, during an LSD trip - even while being "cleared" during Scientology. People have "memories" of their previous lifetimes. Memories that can be forensically looked up and proven.
How could that be?
I can tell you what scientists say. That it's "cryptomnesia" - or somehow remembering something they saw, or heard on tv, or imagined. Somehow they made up these details - emotions and everything else that goes along with a previous remembrance of a lifetime.
But where are these memories stored? In our DNA? Well, that doesn't make sense, because these memories are of different races - sometimes remembering a lifetime as a slave owner (as in "Flipside") or sometimes a lifetime remembered as an Asian monk (in "Flipside" and "It's a Wonderful Afterlife.")
What people report under deep hypnosis is that these memories are not stored in our DNA, but travel with us in the form of energetic "hard drives" - they're described in various accounts as "fractals" or some other mode of transport that retain all of our memories from previous lifetimes. And that when we need to access them - moments of clarity, apotheosis, or in moments of fear, or nearly dying - we access them.
Could they be part of the Jungian "pool" of consciousness, as one scientist has suggested to me? Well that doesn't make a lick of sense either, because people who remember these past lives, remember the death scene, remember leaving the body, and when asked where they'd like to "go" they inevitably say "HOME." As all the 26 people I've filmed under deep hypnosis say. And then, they go "home" - where they claim they meet their loved ones, hang out with spirit guides, and generally plot their next lifetime.
(I began "Flipside" as a documentary about Michael Newton's work as a psychologist where over 7000 people said the same things under deep hypnosis about the afterlife over 30 years prior to his publishing in 1994. I've discovered Dr. Helen Wambach, another psychologist got the same results in her studies in the 1960's. So there's plenty of research to back up these accounts.)
I'm not hypothesizing this detail - it's not a belief or a philosophy - it's what thousands have reported. Consistently. Which is what science requires.
So let's start there.
Ben Affleck should know, should be aware that he is not his ancestors. Any more than the actress who plays Desdemona coming off stage and berating the actor who played Othello for killing her. "It's in the play!"
(This quote, courtesy of the actress Kathy Bates, who said it at the end of last year's "American Horror Story" - which sums up perfectly what these reports of why we choose difficult lives, but there's only forgiveness in the afterlife.)
So if Ben had slave owners in his memories of previous lifetimes - which like I say, occurred in someone interviewed in "Flipside" who saw and felt and experienced what it was like to beat and whip people without any feeling for them - and seeing and feeling and experiencing the horror of that experience.
And then being told by his spirit guides that he had "transferred that anger to himself" and was still working on beating himself up over his past life behaviors, but that he's "doing better now." (The person is a hypnotherapist, who has healed countless people in his work; Paul Aurand, former President of the Newton Institute).
Harvard's Gary Schwartz PhD wrote the introduction to "Flipside." (He also got a PhD from Yale and ran one of their medical schools). He's been at the forefront of studying consciousness existing outside the body, so Professor Gates might want to check into his work.
Or perhaps Harvard's Eben Alexander, a neurosurgeon who had a profound between life experience as recounted in "Proof of Heaven" (Proof also mean a scientific argument for, by the way) - who has personally experienced consciousness existing outside the brain. Or perhaps look into the work of UVA's Dr. Bruce Greyson, whose epic work on near death experiences is distilled in the youtube video "Is Consciousness Produced by the Brain" where he demonstrates the many cases where people whose brains are not working, actually work in various cases.
(80 mins that will convince you that consciousness is not confined to the brain. UVA's Dr. Bruce Greyson speaking in Dharamsala, reproduced in "It's a Wonderful Afterlife")
But no, you see, people focus on the idea that somehow Ben's stardom might have been affected by this revelation that someone in his genetic tree owned slaves. And now, here we have the opportunity to prove that's nonsense - that he has no more responsibility for what his genetic forefathers did, than a fruit fly does for being angry that he lives for 24 hours.
Just like people killing each other in Northern Ireland for the fact that their forefathers were of a particular religion. There's no evidence they are their forefathers, but there is evidence that they've reincarnated on both sides of the fence.
Just like people killing each other in the Middle East. There's DNA evidence that shows Palestinians and Israelis are nearly identical in their DNA, much more so than those outside their group. And there's no evidence that people had previously lifetimes in their genetic tree - unless they chose to do so. And there's plenty of evidence of people reincarnating on "opposite sides of the fence."
Just like slaves and their slave owners. There's no evidence that people remembered lifetimes as slaves (unless that was a choice they made in a previous lifetime) nor is there any evidence that people were slave owners. However there is evidence that a boy in Ohio who is white, remembers a lifetime where he was a young girl who died in a fire in Chicago (who was black.)
Here's his story.
"It's in the data. Data does not lie. We only lie to ourselves about the data." (said no one but me)
What the research in "Flipside" demonstrates, (and now in "It's a Wonderful Afterlife") over and over again is that we choose our parents each time out. We choose our lifetime each time we decide to come here. Yes, we can choose to be a slave owner, yes, we can choose to be a slave - and we have our own private, personal reasons for making that choice, and none of us can judge another for their choice - because we can't be in their shoes.
And in this case, Ben chose to be here on the planet, and I applaud him for it. But he should take this opportunity to look into the research - the real research about who he is, about why he chose to be on the planet. He'll find it if he looks for it, if he's open to it. To examine why he chose this particular life, this particular path.
And that my friends, is my two cents for the day.
"Ben Affleck Asked PBS Not To Reveal Ancestry"
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| (AP Photo/Cliff Owen, File |
Despite playing my way through Boston U via a piano-bar in Charlestown (The Warren Tavern) near his home - other than that proximity, I have no reason to comment on this story, other than... it's nonsense.
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| She agrees with me. Or at least I hope so. Taken on the set of my film "My Bollywood Bride" |
But back to Mr. Affleck who is "accused" ("Je Accuse!") of asking a reality TV show to cut out the part where his ancestors owned slaves.
Here's the issue: Harvard's Robert Gates, who hosts the show, claims Ben (or his reps) asked him to delete that part of the show that revealed Ben's relatives owned slaves:
"PBS and Harvard scholar Henry Louis Gates, host of the show that traces the ancestry of well-known guests, said in separate statements that they didn't censor the slave-owner details. Instead, more interesting ancestors of the actor emerged and Gates chose to highlight them in October's segment featuring Affleck, they said in the statements posted on the PBS website..."
(Professor Gates is the professor who was arrested on his porch in that tragic "arrested for being black" incident in Cambridge years ago. Unfortunately, a victim of a centuries old amount of prejudice in the Boston area, where I went to school across the Charles River.)
And then this quote jumped out at me:
"In their email exchange, Gates asks (Sony's Michael) Lynton for advice on how to handle Affleck's request. "Here's my dilemma: confidentially, for the first time, one of our guests has asked us to edit out something about one of his ancestors--the fact that he owned slaves. Now, four or five of our guests this season descend from slave owners, including Ken Burns. We've never had anyone ever try to censor or edit what we found. He's a megastar. What do we do?" Gates wrote on July 22, 2014."
Hello?
"The fact that HE OWNED SLAVES." Now, I imagine he's not referring to Ben Affleck here, because Ben never owned slaves.
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| Includes an account of someone who did own slaves... in a previous life |
There's no evidence that we are our ancestors. We don't have memories of what our ancestors did. Under hypnosis, during a near death experience, or any other event in human history. None. (I'm sorry all those relatives of mine, Irish and Italian who celebrate that fact every year with pasta or beer. It's nice to believe we are them, but we ain't. And it shows)
However we have tons of evidence that people have memories of previous lifetimes that weren't, could not be, were in no relation to their ancestors. Under hypnosis, during near death experiences, and sometimes during a coma, an out of body experience, during an LSD trip - even while being "cleared" during Scientology. People have "memories" of their previous lifetimes. Memories that can be forensically looked up and proven.
How could that be?
I can tell you what scientists say. That it's "cryptomnesia" - or somehow remembering something they saw, or heard on tv, or imagined. Somehow they made up these details - emotions and everything else that goes along with a previous remembrance of a lifetime.
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| Hypnotherapists in Iowa watching "Flipside" on DVD. Available on Amazon, or Gaiam TV. Nice screening room. |
What people report under deep hypnosis is that these memories are not stored in our DNA, but travel with us in the form of energetic "hard drives" - they're described in various accounts as "fractals" or some other mode of transport that retain all of our memories from previous lifetimes. And that when we need to access them - moments of clarity, apotheosis, or in moments of fear, or nearly dying - we access them.
Could they be part of the Jungian "pool" of consciousness, as one scientist has suggested to me? Well that doesn't make a lick of sense either, because people who remember these past lives, remember the death scene, remember leaving the body, and when asked where they'd like to "go" they inevitably say "HOME." As all the 26 people I've filmed under deep hypnosis say. And then, they go "home" - where they claim they meet their loved ones, hang out with spirit guides, and generally plot their next lifetime.
(I began "Flipside" as a documentary about Michael Newton's work as a psychologist where over 7000 people said the same things under deep hypnosis about the afterlife over 30 years prior to his publishing in 1994. I've discovered Dr. Helen Wambach, another psychologist got the same results in her studies in the 1960's. So there's plenty of research to back up these accounts.)
I'm not hypothesizing this detail - it's not a belief or a philosophy - it's what thousands have reported. Consistently. Which is what science requires.
So let's start there.
Ben Affleck should know, should be aware that he is not his ancestors. Any more than the actress who plays Desdemona coming off stage and berating the actor who played Othello for killing her. "It's in the play!"
(This quote, courtesy of the actress Kathy Bates, who said it at the end of last year's "American Horror Story" - which sums up perfectly what these reports of why we choose difficult lives, but there's only forgiveness in the afterlife.)
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| Kathy Bates in her "Freak Show" costume |
And then being told by his spirit guides that he had "transferred that anger to himself" and was still working on beating himself up over his past life behaviors, but that he's "doing better now." (The person is a hypnotherapist, who has healed countless people in his work; Paul Aurand, former President of the Newton Institute).
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| Gary Schwartz PhD, author of many books on consciousness, "Sacred Promise" included. |
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| Harvard's own Dr. Alexander wrote about his consciousness existing beyond his body. |
Or perhaps Harvard's Eben Alexander, a neurosurgeon who had a profound between life experience as recounted in "Proof of Heaven" (Proof also mean a scientific argument for, by the way) - who has personally experienced consciousness existing outside the brain. Or perhaps look into the work of UVA's Dr. Bruce Greyson, whose epic work on near death experiences is distilled in the youtube video "Is Consciousness Produced by the Brain" where he demonstrates the many cases where people whose brains are not working, actually work in various cases.
.jpg) |
| The book by Dr. Greyson, Drs Kelly, interviewed in "It's a Wonderful Afterlife" |
(80 mins that will convince you that consciousness is not confined to the brain. UVA's Dr. Bruce Greyson speaking in Dharamsala, reproduced in "It's a Wonderful Afterlife")
But no, you see, people focus on the idea that somehow Ben's stardom might have been affected by this revelation that someone in his genetic tree owned slaves. And now, here we have the opportunity to prove that's nonsense - that he has no more responsibility for what his genetic forefathers did, than a fruit fly does for being angry that he lives for 24 hours.
Just like people killing each other in Northern Ireland for the fact that their forefathers were of a particular religion. There's no evidence they are their forefathers, but there is evidence that they've reincarnated on both sides of the fence.
Just like people killing each other in the Middle East. There's DNA evidence that shows Palestinians and Israelis are nearly identical in their DNA, much more so than those outside their group. And there's no evidence that people had previously lifetimes in their genetic tree - unless they chose to do so. And there's plenty of evidence of people reincarnating on "opposite sides of the fence."
Just like slaves and their slave owners. There's no evidence that people remembered lifetimes as slaves (unless that was a choice they made in a previous lifetime) nor is there any evidence that people were slave owners. However there is evidence that a boy in Ohio who is white, remembers a lifetime where he was a young girl who died in a fire in Chicago (who was black.)
Here's his story.
"It's in the data. Data does not lie. We only lie to ourselves about the data." (said no one but me)
What the research in "Flipside" demonstrates, (and now in "It's a Wonderful Afterlife") over and over again is that we choose our parents each time out. We choose our lifetime each time we decide to come here. Yes, we can choose to be a slave owner, yes, we can choose to be a slave - and we have our own private, personal reasons for making that choice, and none of us can judge another for their choice - because we can't be in their shoes.
And in this case, Ben chose to be here on the planet, and I applaud him for it. But he should take this opportunity to look into the research - the real research about who he is, about why he chose to be on the planet. He'll find it if he looks for it, if he's open to it. To examine why he chose this particular life, this particular path.
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| Prior to some screening somewhere on the planet. |
And that my friends, is my two cents for the day.
Monday
Proof of Life After Death via New Information
I'm often asked...
"But is there any proof?"
Usually the question is preceded by swear words, or annoyed reactions. "Yeah, right" is common. So I started thinking about it.
Where is the proof?
And if it's not something tangible - how could it be? And just what is tangible evidence of there being "Life after Death?"
And it occurred to me, that the proof is in the telling.
It's in the actual tale that is told by the person who experiences it.
First, allow me to state up front that spirits, ghosts, people who used to live on the planet and no longer do is one particular form of inquiry.
Then we have people who experience ESP, people who are alive, on the planet and have some kind of extrasensory event occur that isn't easily dismissed.
Then we have people who have a near death experience, who claim that while they were "no longer in their body" they experience all kinds of events, usually wonderful, sometimes less so.
And finally we have people who've had out of body experiences, who while they're napping, or sleeping, they find themselves feeling the experience of "leaving" their body and traveling out and around (sometimes into space) and seeing some unusual things.
We also have accounts of religious people who've had a spiritual awakening or experience where suddenly they feel like they know some of the secrets of the universe, have "spoken to God" or somehow been moved in some unnatural way.
And then we have people under deep hypnosis who recall a previous lifetime, but beyond that, a life between lives where they report that they travel "back home" where they see and experience a number of various hallmarks that include soul groups, wise elders and other tales.
So is there a working model for all of this other worldly behavior?
I suggest that there is.
We find in these detailed accounts from Michael Newton's work ("Journey of Souls") that there's a working model. That we as souls are born from energy, that we're each looked over by a spirit guide, that we live back home with a group of other souls that we normally incarnate with, and that we have affiliated groups around us at all times. His clients also reported life reviews while visiting back there, meeting spiritual guides, and sometimes visiting a "hall of records" of sorts which contain all the possible lifetimes of everyone in existence.
Newton had 7000 clients take him to this life between lives arena over his 30 year career before he published the results. I have investigated 26 cases where I chose the subjects, chose them because of their skepticism, and filmed them having the same results whether or not they believe in an afterlife, believed they could be hypnotized or believe in anything beyond their own reality. And they all had the same basic experience.
And I've filmed myself having four different LBLs with two different therapists on two sides of the continent. The results from examining these cases, is that they're nearly identical to those listed above, and serve as a model for all of them.
Now he's not the only psychologist to explore this in his work. Dr. Helen Wambach explores it in her work, that predates his publication by ten years. She did sessions of people under hypnosis and asked a series of questions that got the same results that Michael Newton's work did.
And he's not the only therapist who has dealt with past life regression - Dr. Brian Weiss has written extensively about his work, Dr. Raymond Moody has written extensively about it, Dr. Bruce Greyson has written extensively about near death experiences in scientific journals, Dr. Jim Tucker has written extensively about the reincarnation cases he's examined, Dr. Gary Schwartz has written extensively about his scientific research into mediums and ESP.
And they aren't all in agreement about their own particular fields, I might add. But they all appear in some form or another in my book.
Further, the details that these people report, including life reviews, tunnels of light, a feeling of connectedness to everyone and all things, are reported in near death experiences in the same words. So people who have "died" and come back to report these details are basically saying the same things that Newton's clients are saying. There are variations, but basically those variations seem to depend on each individual. In other words, your experience in the after life is unique to you.
So people who sense ghosts - people who've died but haven't gone home - people who sense events in the future - outside the timeline so to speak - people who speak to and hear from the dead, are all reporting the same thing.
But is this evidence of the afterlife?
It is if the report includes new information.
New information would be a report of something that the person experiencing it does not know, could not know, could never know.
New information would be a report of a sibling, friend or relative who is dead, that no one else knows is dead.
New information would be a report of meeting or seeing people who are dead, but that this person never knew were dead, or had never heard of before, and yet can be examined because they existed.
New information would be reporting that in a previous lifetime they said or did something that no one over here could possibly know about and upon forensic research finds out to be true.
New information would be someone who has passed on, reporting a piece of information that has occurred somewhere on the planet that this person does not yet know.
New information would be someone who has passed on and reveals a secret phrase or word to someone who is still here on the planet.
I have all of these above reports in the books "Flipside: A Tourist's Guide on How to Navigate the Afterlife" and "It's a Wonderful Afterlife: Further Adventures into the Flipside" volumes one and two.
For example, Dr. Eben Alexander met a sister he never knew he had during his near death experience, Colton Burpo met a sister he didn't know he had during his near death experience, when my own father passed away, he spoke to me and gave me a list of names to tell my mother that he was currently with - and she recognized them as friends who had died during WWII. Names I'd never heard, could not have heard of.
NEW INFORMATION.
But here are some links - each one has its own form of "New Information." Details a child could not know, never heard and could not access in this lifetime. So where does that leave us?
Once we realize we may incarnate, that we can incarnate, doesn't it make sense for us to leave behind fresh water, air and land if only so we can use it the next time we're here?
"But is there any proof?"
Usually the question is preceded by swear words, or annoyed reactions. "Yeah, right" is common. So I started thinking about it.
Where is the proof?
And if it's not something tangible - how could it be? And just what is tangible evidence of there being "Life after Death?"
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| Waiting for enlightenment at Caffe Luxxe in Santa Monica |
It's in the actual tale that is told by the person who experiences it.
First, allow me to state up front that spirits, ghosts, people who used to live on the planet and no longer do is one particular form of inquiry.
Then we have people who experience ESP, people who are alive, on the planet and have some kind of extrasensory event occur that isn't easily dismissed.
Then we have people who have a near death experience, who claim that while they were "no longer in their body" they experience all kinds of events, usually wonderful, sometimes less so.
And finally we have people who've had out of body experiences, who while they're napping, or sleeping, they find themselves feeling the experience of "leaving" their body and traveling out and around (sometimes into space) and seeing some unusual things.
We also have accounts of religious people who've had a spiritual awakening or experience where suddenly they feel like they know some of the secrets of the universe, have "spoken to God" or somehow been moved in some unnatural way.
And then we have people under deep hypnosis who recall a previous lifetime, but beyond that, a life between lives where they report that they travel "back home" where they see and experience a number of various hallmarks that include soul groups, wise elders and other tales.
So is there a working model for all of this other worldly behavior?
I suggest that there is.
|
| Includes interviews with scientists |
We find in these detailed accounts from Michael Newton's work ("Journey of Souls") that there's a working model. That we as souls are born from energy, that we're each looked over by a spirit guide, that we live back home with a group of other souls that we normally incarnate with, and that we have affiliated groups around us at all times. His clients also reported life reviews while visiting back there, meeting spiritual guides, and sometimes visiting a "hall of records" of sorts which contain all the possible lifetimes of everyone in existence.
Newton had 7000 clients take him to this life between lives arena over his 30 year career before he published the results. I have investigated 26 cases where I chose the subjects, chose them because of their skepticism, and filmed them having the same results whether or not they believe in an afterlife, believed they could be hypnotized or believe in anything beyond their own reality. And they all had the same basic experience.
And I've filmed myself having four different LBLs with two different therapists on two sides of the continent. The results from examining these cases, is that they're nearly identical to those listed above, and serve as a model for all of them.
|
| Includes transcripts of LBL sessions |
Now he's not the only psychologist to explore this in his work. Dr. Helen Wambach explores it in her work, that predates his publication by ten years. She did sessions of people under hypnosis and asked a series of questions that got the same results that Michael Newton's work did.
And he's not the only therapist who has dealt with past life regression - Dr. Brian Weiss has written extensively about his work, Dr. Raymond Moody has written extensively about it, Dr. Bruce Greyson has written extensively about near death experiences in scientific journals, Dr. Jim Tucker has written extensively about the reincarnation cases he's examined, Dr. Gary Schwartz has written extensively about his scientific research into mediums and ESP.
And they aren't all in agreement about their own particular fields, I might add. But they all appear in some form or another in my book.
Further, the details that these people report, including life reviews, tunnels of light, a feeling of connectedness to everyone and all things, are reported in near death experiences in the same words. So people who have "died" and come back to report these details are basically saying the same things that Newton's clients are saying. There are variations, but basically those variations seem to depend on each individual. In other words, your experience in the after life is unique to you.
So people who sense ghosts - people who've died but haven't gone home - people who sense events in the future - outside the timeline so to speak - people who speak to and hear from the dead, are all reporting the same thing.
 |
| Includes interview with Michael Newton |
But is this evidence of the afterlife?
It is if the report includes new information.
New information would be a report of something that the person experiencing it does not know, could not know, could never know.
New information would be a report of a sibling, friend or relative who is dead, that no one else knows is dead.
New information would be a report of meeting or seeing people who are dead, but that this person never knew were dead, or had never heard of before, and yet can be examined because they existed.
New information would be reporting that in a previous lifetime they said or did something that no one over here could possibly know about and upon forensic research finds out to be true.
New information would be someone who has passed on, reporting a piece of information that has occurred somewhere on the planet that this person does not yet know.
New information would be someone who has passed on and reveals a secret phrase or word to someone who is still here on the planet.
I have all of these above reports in the books "Flipside: A Tourist's Guide on How to Navigate the Afterlife" and "It's a Wonderful Afterlife: Further Adventures into the Flipside" volumes one and two.
For example, Dr. Eben Alexander met a sister he never knew he had during his near death experience, Colton Burpo met a sister he didn't know he had during his near death experience, when my own father passed away, he spoke to me and gave me a list of names to tell my mother that he was currently with - and she recognized them as friends who had died during WWII. Names I'd never heard, could not have heard of.
NEW INFORMATION.
But here are some links - each one has its own form of "New Information." Details a child could not know, never heard and could not access in this lifetime. So where does that leave us?
Once we realize we may incarnate, that we can incarnate, doesn't it make sense for us to leave behind fresh water, air and land if only so we can use it the next time we're here?
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| I hear dead people. On the set of "my bollywood bride." |
Friday
What's in your spiritual DNA?
What’s in your DNA?
I was having a conversation with a good pal today about his recent foray into finding out his genetic code. He discovered that he was 37% Ashkenazi, a whale of Scandinavian, 1% Asian, and 2% Irish. He was telling me because he and I have always celebrated St. Patty’s together; I can boast off-the-boat relatives from Erin, and have always considered myself to be around 50% Irish and 50% Italian. (My handsome dark haired 1st gen Italian architect of a dad married a vivacious, 2nd gen Irish concert pianist with red hair. Go figure.)
But my pal also mentioned that his wife was a bit disappointed because she hadn’t found the American Indian blood in her DNA that she’d always heard was there – and to which she has a particular affinity for.
To which I said “Well, they haven’t tested her spiritual DNA yet.”
There isn’t a test for that, but there is a method for understanding that sentence, as well as discovering your own.
Many of us have heard from complete strangers “I think you were a such and such in a past life” or in some cases “You were a so and so in a past life, and that’s why you’re dealing with this issue in this life” as if this other person knows beyond a shadow of doubt who you once were.
Never mind that they often repeat celebrities (I know of three actresses who were “told” they were the reincarnation of someone famous, and yet I know of someone who discovered by accident under hypnosis that they recalled the intimate details of this person’s life – and is recounted in “Flipside.")
Or the old saw that "everyone remembers being Cleopatra in a past life." I'd agree with you, but then we'd both be wrong. That's not at all in the data, and those folks who "remember a lifetime" of fame or infamy almost never have a story of how they learned this information while under deep hypnosis or from a near death experience.
What's happening is that memories that aren't contained in your body (how could they be?) will come forward into the mind, and are greeted the same way fantasies and dreams are greeted. "You're not real." But once they find a pathway into the memory banks, you'll find they actually feel different than dreams or imagination... as they'll have context and substance.
It doesn't mean that was your lifetime. That's why so many people think they were Cleo. Because no one is guiding them through the session and asking them to "look around." You see yourself in an Egyptian temple and look around, you're going to assume "I'm Cleopatra!" without someone saying "What do your clothes look like? Are you young or old? Who is around you? What are their names? Why are we here? What's this memory mean to you, and why has it popped up today?" Just asking these questions allows you to see things in greater detail, to clarify details - and sometimes to realize it's not what you initially thought it was in the first place. "Everyone was Cleo in a past life" applies to people who have an untrained hypnotist doing a session and they haven't a clue as to how they arrived there, or the person is self examining, and because of the ego, doesn't realize they were the bug sweeper to the Egyptian Pharaoh, but from a completely different era.
So when someone says "I died on the Titanic" the question is "why did you choose a lifetime where you would die at sea?" There were a lot of ships that sank over the eons and when they're remembering that awful moment - it gets stored in the brain around the same place that the visuals from the film "Titanic" are stored - hence why we think one must be related to the other.
I spoke to an august professor of mine about it, a graduate of Oxford and Harvard and he said succinctly “I don’t care who I was before. I’m working on who I am now.”
True enough.
But the idea that we were someone in a previous lifetime – and further that we are someone who maintains an identity through all lifetimes – is something to examine, especially when we might be trying to figure out what the hell we’re doing here on the planet as it is. It’s not enough to say “Well, I don’t care who I was” because just coming to the conclusion that you were a person in a previous lifetime, leads to the inevitable examination that you might actually come back to this planet again, and therefore, you bet it’s important to know that.
How are you going to have fresh water, land or air upon your return if some jerks are destroying the planet while they’re here, when we can see they don’t believe for a second there’s any more to their lives than “get more, earn more, take more, use more, then no more.”
So who we were in a previous lifetime counts at least as much as who we genetically were in a previous lifetime.
Why?
For example, DNA proves beyond a shadow of doubt that Palestinians and Israelis are closely linked as relatives. Actually as close as any family members. So when people say “Stop the fighting, you’re acting like a bunch of crazy family members!” they’re actually accurate. Their genetic codes nearly match. So what’s the problem?
Then when you factor in that there’s a spiritual evolution going on here – that people choose their lifetimes, one side of the fence, the other side of the fence – not based on karma, or any kind of punishment (“Oh, you smite me? Well, next lifetime I’m gonna smite you!”). It doesn’t work that way. At least that’s what the data shows. That’s what the research shows.
We choose who we’re going to be from life to life. You want to be an indigenous native? You ready to sign up for prejudice, difficulties dealing with other races and the rest of it? I honor your choice to be closer to the planet. You want to sign up for a lifetime of poverty growing up Africa in the shadow of famine and disease? Brother, I bow to that choice, you have a much more courageous streak than I have, I could not choose such a difficult lifetime that serves to teach others about compassion and love. You want to sign up for a lifetime with a physical disability because you feel you can teach others about compassion? I applaud you for your difficult choice. Again, it just shows the depth of your courage and age as a soul.
But the choice to come here in and of itself requires courage. So I applaud everyone who makes the choice to be on this planet, to go through the emotional wringer, with all the hopes and dreams and failures, the heights and depths of love, misery and solace. Difficult choices all. I salute all fellow travelers. It’s an amazing and miraculous thing to get here, and we know how hard it is to stay.
Some want to sign up for a lifetime where you help others learn about negativity, or chaos, or the energy of excess, addiction or some other unimaginable difficulty; I applaud you as well my friend, because I know that I personally am not geared to conquer those lifetimes.
Some of us can be Vikings, but others of us prefer to be Monks – and yes, occasionally the Monks lose their heads to a Viking’s ax, but sometimes the Monks teach the Vikings that their path might not be worth the negative repercussions in this lifetime or even in the afterlife. There’s Valhalla to be sure, but not everyone gets to be a Valkyrie. That takes time and compassion.
So let’s work on one day being able to offer people a spiritual examination of their “spirit DNA.” Let’s add to the mix of science (medicine, psychology, sociology) not only the genetic background of an individual, but their spiritual background and how that influences their present life. That the lifetimes that we’ve led in the past certainly have an effect on the lifetime we’re currently leading, just as my Irish knees don’t like kneeling in pews because I probably knelt too many times picking potatoes in a previous existence. (Or so I used to tell my parents. “No more kneeling!”)
And having filmed 25 between life sessions that almost all included some form of past life memory, and having examined the thousands more that have been reported by people like Dr. Michael Newton, Drs. Brian Weiss and Helen Wambach, I can allay something that might be a bit of fear. The mind rarely lets the brain learn about terrible lifetimes. Even in one case where a man remembered having to go through a “rebooting” process because of something he’d done over a number of lifetimes – so drastic that his elders actually told him that they’d “reconstructed” his energy in a dramatic fashion, which may have resulted in his no longer having an existence – but did not… Even then, he was not able to access what he’d done, or why this process was done to him.
So you have nothing to fear from examining a previous lifetime, as your own subconscious will filter out whatever you’re not supposed to know.
Which makes me wonder, why did your subconscious send you to this page?
I was having a conversation with a good pal today about his recent foray into finding out his genetic code. He discovered that he was 37% Ashkenazi, a whale of Scandinavian, 1% Asian, and 2% Irish. He was telling me because he and I have always celebrated St. Patty’s together; I can boast off-the-boat relatives from Erin, and have always considered myself to be around 50% Irish and 50% Italian. (My handsome dark haired 1st gen Italian architect of a dad married a vivacious, 2nd gen Irish concert pianist with red hair. Go figure.)
 |
| Me an my brothers from another mother. |
But my pal also mentioned that his wife was a bit disappointed because she hadn’t found the American Indian blood in her DNA that she’d always heard was there – and to which she has a particular affinity for.
To which I said “Well, they haven’t tested her spiritual DNA yet.”
There isn’t a test for that, but there is a method for understanding that sentence, as well as discovering your own.
Many of us have heard from complete strangers “I think you were a such and such in a past life” or in some cases “You were a so and so in a past life, and that’s why you’re dealing with this issue in this life” as if this other person knows beyond a shadow of doubt who you once were.
Never mind that they often repeat celebrities (I know of three actresses who were “told” they were the reincarnation of someone famous, and yet I know of someone who discovered by accident under hypnosis that they recalled the intimate details of this person’s life – and is recounted in “Flipside.")
 |
| My "throw back thurs" pic - looks very much like me, but is Auguste Rodin about 100 years ago. |
Or the old saw that "everyone remembers being Cleopatra in a past life." I'd agree with you, but then we'd both be wrong. That's not at all in the data, and those folks who "remember a lifetime" of fame or infamy almost never have a story of how they learned this information while under deep hypnosis or from a near death experience.
What's happening is that memories that aren't contained in your body (how could they be?) will come forward into the mind, and are greeted the same way fantasies and dreams are greeted. "You're not real." But once they find a pathway into the memory banks, you'll find they actually feel different than dreams or imagination... as they'll have context and substance.
It doesn't mean that was your lifetime. That's why so many people think they were Cleo. Because no one is guiding them through the session and asking them to "look around." You see yourself in an Egyptian temple and look around, you're going to assume "I'm Cleopatra!" without someone saying "What do your clothes look like? Are you young or old? Who is around you? What are their names? Why are we here? What's this memory mean to you, and why has it popped up today?" Just asking these questions allows you to see things in greater detail, to clarify details - and sometimes to realize it's not what you initially thought it was in the first place. "Everyone was Cleo in a past life" applies to people who have an untrained hypnotist doing a session and they haven't a clue as to how they arrived there, or the person is self examining, and because of the ego, doesn't realize they were the bug sweeper to the Egyptian Pharaoh, but from a completely different era.
 |
| Me with some neighborhood girls around age 9. Talking Flipside no doubt. |
So when someone says "I died on the Titanic" the question is "why did you choose a lifetime where you would die at sea?" There were a lot of ships that sank over the eons and when they're remembering that awful moment - it gets stored in the brain around the same place that the visuals from the film "Titanic" are stored - hence why we think one must be related to the other.
I spoke to an august professor of mine about it, a graduate of Oxford and Harvard and he said succinctly “I don’t care who I was before. I’m working on who I am now.”
True enough.
But the idea that we were someone in a previous lifetime – and further that we are someone who maintains an identity through all lifetimes – is something to examine, especially when we might be trying to figure out what the hell we’re doing here on the planet as it is. It’s not enough to say “Well, I don’t care who I was” because just coming to the conclusion that you were a person in a previous lifetime, leads to the inevitable examination that you might actually come back to this planet again, and therefore, you bet it’s important to know that.
How are you going to have fresh water, land or air upon your return if some jerks are destroying the planet while they’re here, when we can see they don’t believe for a second there’s any more to their lives than “get more, earn more, take more, use more, then no more.”
So who we were in a previous lifetime counts at least as much as who we genetically were in a previous lifetime.
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| Pere Lachaise Cemetery in Paris |
Why?
For example, DNA proves beyond a shadow of doubt that Palestinians and Israelis are closely linked as relatives. Actually as close as any family members. So when people say “Stop the fighting, you’re acting like a bunch of crazy family members!” they’re actually accurate. Their genetic codes nearly match. So what’s the problem?
Then when you factor in that there’s a spiritual evolution going on here – that people choose their lifetimes, one side of the fence, the other side of the fence – not based on karma, or any kind of punishment (“Oh, you smite me? Well, next lifetime I’m gonna smite you!”). It doesn’t work that way. At least that’s what the data shows. That’s what the research shows.
We choose who we’re going to be from life to life. You want to be an indigenous native? You ready to sign up for prejudice, difficulties dealing with other races and the rest of it? I honor your choice to be closer to the planet. You want to sign up for a lifetime of poverty growing up Africa in the shadow of famine and disease? Brother, I bow to that choice, you have a much more courageous streak than I have, I could not choose such a difficult lifetime that serves to teach others about compassion and love. You want to sign up for a lifetime with a physical disability because you feel you can teach others about compassion? I applaud you for your difficult choice. Again, it just shows the depth of your courage and age as a soul.
But the choice to come here in and of itself requires courage. So I applaud everyone who makes the choice to be on this planet, to go through the emotional wringer, with all the hopes and dreams and failures, the heights and depths of love, misery and solace. Difficult choices all. I salute all fellow travelers. It’s an amazing and miraculous thing to get here, and we know how hard it is to stay.
Some want to sign up for a lifetime where you help others learn about negativity, or chaos, or the energy of excess, addiction or some other unimaginable difficulty; I applaud you as well my friend, because I know that I personally am not geared to conquer those lifetimes.
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| My college ID. |
So let’s work on one day being able to offer people a spiritual examination of their “spirit DNA.” Let’s add to the mix of science (medicine, psychology, sociology) not only the genetic background of an individual, but their spiritual background and how that influences their present life. That the lifetimes that we’ve led in the past certainly have an effect on the lifetime we’re currently leading, just as my Irish knees don’t like kneeling in pews because I probably knelt too many times picking potatoes in a previous existence. (Or so I used to tell my parents. “No more kneeling!”)
And having filmed 25 between life sessions that almost all included some form of past life memory, and having examined the thousands more that have been reported by people like Dr. Michael Newton, Drs. Brian Weiss and Helen Wambach, I can allay something that might be a bit of fear. The mind rarely lets the brain learn about terrible lifetimes. Even in one case where a man remembered having to go through a “rebooting” process because of something he’d done over a number of lifetimes – so drastic that his elders actually told him that they’d “reconstructed” his energy in a dramatic fashion, which may have resulted in his no longer having an existence – but did not… Even then, he was not able to access what he’d done, or why this process was done to him.
So you have nothing to fear from examining a previous lifetime, as your own subconscious will filter out whatever you’re not supposed to know.
Which makes me wonder, why did your subconscious send you to this page?
Thursday
"I Used to Be Somebody Else"
Boy Remembers Previous Lifetime
I met and discussed this and other cases with Jim Tucker who examined this case in his book "Return to Life." Dr Tucker (from UVA) is a scientist and a skeptic in the true sense of the word. He is thorough and leaves no stone unturned. So he's the lead guy in this case, which falls in line with the research Ive been filming the past 6 years. The question is, why did he choose his previous life, why did he choose this one, and what do the two have in common? Eventually we'll be discussing the arc of many lifetimes to understand someone's path and journey.
FROM TODAY.COM
“He said mom, I have something I need to tell you,” she told TODAY. “I used to be somebody else.” The preschooler would then talk about “going home” to Hollywood, and would cry for his mother to take him there. His mother said he would tell stories about meeting stars like Rita Hayworth, traveling overseas on lavish vacations, dancing on Broadway, and working for an agency where people would change their names.
She said her son even recalled that the street he lived on had the word “rock” in it.
“His stories were so detailed and they were so extensive, that it just wasn’t like a child could have made it up,” she said. Cyndi
said she was raised Baptist and had never really thought about
reincarnation. So she decided to keep her son’s “memories” a secret—
even from her own husband.
Privately, she checked out books about Hollywood from the local library, hoping something inside would help her son make sense of his strange memories and help her son cope with his sometimes troubling “memories.”
“Then we found the picture, and it changed everything,” she said.
That photo, in one of the books from the library, was a publicity shot from the 1932 movie “Night After Night,” starring Mae West in her film debut.
“She turns to the page in the book, and I say ‘that’s me, that’s who I was,’ Ryan remembers.
Cyndi said she was shocked, and only more confused, because the man Ryan pointed to was an extra in the film, with no spoken lines.
But finally she had a face to match to her son’s strange “memories,” giving her the courage to ask someone for help.
That someone was Dr. Jim Tucker, M.D., the Bonner-Lowry Associate Professor of Psychiatry and Neurobehavioral Sciences at the University of Virginia.
The child psychiatrist has spent more than a decade studying the cases of children, usually between the ages of 2 and 6 years old, who say they remember a past life.
In his book, “Return To Life,” Tucker details some of the American cases he has studied over the years, including Ryan's.“These cases demand an explanation,” Tucker said, “We can’t just write them off or explain them away as just some sort of normal cultural thing.”
Tucker’s office contains the files of more than 2,500 children— cases accumulated from all over the world by his predecessor, Ian Stevenson. Stevenson, who died in 2007, began investigating the strange phenomena back in 1961, and kept detailed interviews and evidence on each case.
Tucker has painstakingly coded the handwritten files, discovering intriguing patterns. For instance, 70 percent of the children say they died violent or unexpected deaths in their previous lives, and males account for 73 percent of those deaths— mirroring the statistics of those who die of unnatural causes in the general population.
“There’d be no way to orchestrate that statistic with over 2,000 cases,” Tucker said.
Tucker said the majority of children he has investigated say they remember average lives— rarely do they claim memories of someone famous. He said Ryan’s case is one of his most unusual because of the incredible detail he was able to provide. Tucker, with help from researchers working on a documentary tried to identify the man Ryan pointed to in the book about Hollywood.
After weeks of research, a film archivist combing through original production materials for the movie “Night After Night” was able to confirm who he was. His name, Marty Martyn, a former movie extra who later became a powerful Hollywood agent and died in 1964.
“If you look at a picture of a guy with no lines in a movie, and then tell me about his life, I don’t think many of us would have come up with Marty Martyn’s life,” Tucker said, “Yet Ryan provided many details that really did fit with his life.”
After digging through old records— almost none of them available on the internet, and tracking down Martyn’s own daughter, Tucker was able to confirm 55 details Ryan gave about his life.
It turns out Martyn wasn’t just a movie extra. Just as Ryan said, he had also danced on Broadway, traveled overseas to Paris, and worked at an agency where stage names were often created for new clients.
Tucker also discovered Ryan’s claim that he lived on the street with the word “rock” in it was nearly spot on— Martyn lived at 825 North Roxbury Dr. in Beverly Hills. Tucker was also able to confirm other obscure facts that Ryan gave— how many children Martyn had, how many times he was married, even how many sisters he had. While Martyn’s own daughter grew up thinking her father had just one sister— Tucker was able to confirm he actually had two, again, just as Ryan claimed.
Dr. Tucker’s research is not without critics. When his work was recently featured in The University Of Virginia Magazine, some readers shared their outrage in the comments section. One reader wrote he was “appalled” that this kind of work is being done at the university. Another called Tucker’s research “pseudoscience.”
Tucker said he’s only trying to apply the rules of science to the mystery of reincarnation. Even with Ryan’s case, there was one fact the detailed obsessed scientist thought the little boy had wrong.
“He said he didn’t see why God would let you get to be 61 and then make you come back as a baby,” Tucker said.
That statement seemed to be incorrect because Martyn’s death certificate listed his age as 59 years old when he died. But as Tucker dug deeper, he was able to uncover census records showing Martyn was In fact born in 1903 and not 1905, meaning Ryan’s statement — not his official death certificate— was indeed correct. Now that Ryan is 10 years old, he said his memories of Marty Martyn’s life are fading, which Dr. Tucker said is typical as children get older. Ryan said while he he’s glad he had the experience, he’s also happy to put to move on, and just be a kid.
FROM NBC:
I met and discussed this and other cases with Jim Tucker who examined this case in his book "Return to Life." Dr Tucker (from UVA) is a scientist and a skeptic in the true sense of the word. He is thorough and leaves no stone unturned. So he's the lead guy in this case, which falls in line with the research Ive been filming the past 6 years. The question is, why did he choose his previous life, why did he choose this one, and what do the two have in common? Eventually we'll be discussing the arc of many lifetimes to understand someone's path and journey.
FROM TODAY.COM
'Return To Life': How some children have memories of reincarnation
It’s not unusual for little boys to have vivid imaginations, but Ryan’s stories were truly legendary. His mother Cyndi said it all began with horrible nightmares when he was 4 years old. Then when he was 5 years old, he confided in her one evening before bed.“He said mom, I have something I need to tell you,” she told TODAY. “I used to be somebody else.” The preschooler would then talk about “going home” to Hollywood, and would cry for his mother to take him there. His mother said he would tell stories about meeting stars like Rita Hayworth, traveling overseas on lavish vacations, dancing on Broadway, and working for an agency where people would change their names.
She said her son even recalled that the street he lived on had the word “rock” in it.
Visit NBCNews.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy
 |
| Dr. Jim Tucker with boy and his mom |
TODAY / Jake Whitman
Privately, she checked out books about Hollywood from the local library, hoping something inside would help her son make sense of his strange memories and help her son cope with his sometimes troubling “memories.”
Jake Whitman / TODAY
That photo, in one of the books from the library, was a publicity shot from the 1932 movie “Night After Night,” starring Mae West in her film debut.
“She turns to the page in the book, and I say ‘that’s me, that’s who I was,’ Ryan remembers.
Cyndi said she was shocked, and only more confused, because the man Ryan pointed to was an extra in the film, with no spoken lines.
But finally she had a face to match to her son’s strange “memories,” giving her the courage to ask someone for help.
Jake Whitman / TODAY
That someone was Dr. Jim Tucker, M.D., the Bonner-Lowry Associate Professor of Psychiatry and Neurobehavioral Sciences at the University of Virginia.
The child psychiatrist has spent more than a decade studying the cases of children, usually between the ages of 2 and 6 years old, who say they remember a past life.
In his book, “Return To Life,” Tucker details some of the American cases he has studied over the years, including Ryan's.“These cases demand an explanation,” Tucker said, “We can’t just write them off or explain them away as just some sort of normal cultural thing.”
Tucker’s office contains the files of more than 2,500 children— cases accumulated from all over the world by his predecessor, Ian Stevenson. Stevenson, who died in 2007, began investigating the strange phenomena back in 1961, and kept detailed interviews and evidence on each case.
Tucker has painstakingly coded the handwritten files, discovering intriguing patterns. For instance, 70 percent of the children say they died violent or unexpected deaths in their previous lives, and males account for 73 percent of those deaths— mirroring the statistics of those who die of unnatural causes in the general population.
“There’d be no way to orchestrate that statistic with over 2,000 cases,” Tucker said.
Tucker said the majority of children he has investigated say they remember average lives— rarely do they claim memories of someone famous. He said Ryan’s case is one of his most unusual because of the incredible detail he was able to provide. Tucker, with help from researchers working on a documentary tried to identify the man Ryan pointed to in the book about Hollywood.
After weeks of research, a film archivist combing through original production materials for the movie “Night After Night” was able to confirm who he was. His name, Marty Martyn, a former movie extra who later became a powerful Hollywood agent and died in 1964.
“If you look at a picture of a guy with no lines in a movie, and then tell me about his life, I don’t think many of us would have come up with Marty Martyn’s life,” Tucker said, “Yet Ryan provided many details that really did fit with his life.”
Jake Whitman
After digging through old records— almost none of them available on the internet, and tracking down Martyn’s own daughter, Tucker was able to confirm 55 details Ryan gave about his life.
It turns out Martyn wasn’t just a movie extra. Just as Ryan said, he had also danced on Broadway, traveled overseas to Paris, and worked at an agency where stage names were often created for new clients.
Tucker also discovered Ryan’s claim that he lived on the street with the word “rock” in it was nearly spot on— Martyn lived at 825 North Roxbury Dr. in Beverly Hills. Tucker was also able to confirm other obscure facts that Ryan gave— how many children Martyn had, how many times he was married, even how many sisters he had. While Martyn’s own daughter grew up thinking her father had just one sister— Tucker was able to confirm he actually had two, again, just as Ryan claimed.
Dr. Tucker’s research is not without critics. When his work was recently featured in The University Of Virginia Magazine, some readers shared their outrage in the comments section. One reader wrote he was “appalled” that this kind of work is being done at the university. Another called Tucker’s research “pseudoscience.”
Tucker said he’s only trying to apply the rules of science to the mystery of reincarnation. Even with Ryan’s case, there was one fact the detailed obsessed scientist thought the little boy had wrong.
“He said he didn’t see why God would let you get to be 61 and then make you come back as a baby,” Tucker said.
Jake Whitman / TODAY
That statement seemed to be incorrect because Martyn’s death certificate listed his age as 59 years old when he died. But as Tucker dug deeper, he was able to uncover census records showing Martyn was In fact born in 1903 and not 1905, meaning Ryan’s statement — not his official death certificate— was indeed correct. Now that Ryan is 10 years old, he said his memories of Marty Martyn’s life are fading, which Dr. Tucker said is typical as children get older. Ryan said while he he’s glad he had the experience, he’s also happy to put to move on, and just be a kid.
FROM NBC:
‘I used to be somebody else,’ Oklahoma boy talks about
past life in Hollywood
MUSKOGEE, Okla. – An Oklahoma boy is
causing skeptics to take a closer look at their beliefs related to life after
death. Cyndi Hammons says it all started when Ryan was just 4-years-old. He
would wake from horrible nightmares. When he was 5-years-old, he told her
something unbelievable before going to bed.
The then-preschooler would talk
about ‘going home’ to Hollywood, meeting stars like Rita Hayworth, traveling to
Paris, dancing on Broadway and working for an agency where people would change
their names. “His stories were so detailed and they were so extensive, that it
just wasn’t like a child could have made it up,” she said. Cyndi began
researching Hollywood, hoping to make sense of her son’s strange ‘memories.’
“Then we found the picture and it
changed everything,” she said. “She turns to the page in the book, and I say,
‘That’s me, that’s who I was,” Ryan told TODAY. The photo was from the 1932
movie “Night After Night.” Cyndi says she was even more confused because the
man Ryan pointed to was an extra in the film. She turned to Dr. Jim Tucker, an
associate professor of psychiatry and neurobehavioral sciences at the
University of Virginia.
After weeks of research, the family
found out the man’s name was Marty Martyn, a former movie extra who later
became a powerful Hollywood agent. “If you look at a picture of a guy with no
lines in a movie, and then tell me about his life, I don’t think many of us
would have come up with Marty Martyn’s life,” Tucker said. “Yet Ryan provided
many details that really did fit with his life.”
Tucker was able to confirm 55
specific details Ryan gave about his life. In addition to talking about his
work history, Ryan was spot on when it came to how many times he married, how
many children and sisters he had, a fact his own daughter didn’t even know.
However, one fact Ryan did not get
right was Martyn’s age. “He said he didn’t see why God would let you get to be
61 and then make you come back as a baby,” Tucker said.
Martyn’s death certificate listed
his age as 59-years-old when he died. When Tucker dug deeper, he realized
Martyn’s official death certificate was wrong.
Ryan was right after all.
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