Hacking the Afterlife with Jennifer Shaffer, Eddie Hassell, Stephen Hawking, Siskel & Ebert, Luana, Jim

Another mind bending foray into the Flipside.

First reminding the audience Jennifer and I will be appearing at the Contact In the Desert conference May 30th at 11 am, then Saturday May 31st at 11 am (ContactInTheDesert.com)

Today's podcast included a visit from the actor Eddie Hassell who pointed out that he'd turned the lights on and off at his parent's home in order to get them to reach out to Jennifer.  As it turned out, Steve Jobs was involved in this conversation as well.

Luana Anders wanted to discuss how people on the flipside manipulate energy - turning lights on and off, related to the power going out in a recent guided meditation, where at a particular point, it seemed as if someone on the flipside had frozen the internet.

I asked Hawking some of the same questions we'd asked him before, as well as to have him talk about how it's possible for him to be aware of all of his previous lifetimes now, but at the same time access information that is related to his most previous journey onstage.

Jennifer noted that the acclaimed film critics both Roger Ebert and Gene Siskel had shown up - I had met Roger when he was on the planet, and also noted how their review of my film "Limit Up" got it pulled from movie theaters when it came out.

It wasn't until later, when I learned about Ebert's own near death experience that he didn't believe in an afterlife - even though he'd literally "spoken to his wife to tell her to convince the doctors he was still alive" - even after that, he wouldn't allow that it was possible that consciousness continued on.

So for whatever reason (they said it was an anniversary, although I'm not sure its related to the film Limit Up's reviews) they showed up to give us a "thumbs up" for our podcast and our continued conversations with the flipside.

This isn't the sort of thing one might construct - since Jennifer saw all three of them appear at once, and it wasn't until after the conversation with Hawking did I ask them why they'd appeared.  Funny to consider.  I also got them to review Sean Baker's film "Anora."  (How about that? I defy any clip service to add their reviews "brilliant" to their publicity files "from the flipside")

Then Jennifer's dad Jim showed up to answer a question she'd had about her mother's appearances in her dreams - and a general discussion of how it's important for people to allow that it's possible for their loved ones to still exist - because even during dreams if we say to them "wait a second, you died" it's a form of denial of their existence and they "disappear" from our ability to see them.

Just something to keep in mind if one is visited by a loved one, by lights turning on and off, by the coincidence of seeing numbers on a clock, or hearing a song and then thinking of them at the very moment they want us to... allow that it's possible, and it won't freak people out so much.

Hawking also weighed in the recent reports of "possible life on another planet" ("Why not begin with every other planet?")  It's ironic because we haven't begun to understand the different frequencies of species on our own planet yet... dogs smell cancer, bees see UV light, birds change mating habits months in advance of bad weather, octopuses do more with 8 brains in one year of life than we do with 1 brain over 80 years... something to consider when talking about "life on other planets."  (What about lives we've yet to understand on our own?)