Hacking The Afterlife podcast

Hacking the Afterlife with Jennifer Shaffer, Luana Anders, Michael Hutchence and Elvis

A Memorial Day weekend podcast.  Michael Hutchence, who passed in 1997 stopped by to say hello.  He said that he wanted to "talk about death" but it wasn't until I was uploading this I realized he was referring to "a day where we remember people who have passed away."

I mentioned that we had spoken to him briefly before, that transcript is in one of our Backstage Pass to the Flipside conversations - if memory serves me it was a brief conversation about his crossing over unexpectedly.

In today's podcast he talks about who greeted him on the other side, and what that was like - as well as the perspective he has now after this amount time has gone by.  He mentioned how in the interim he's realized that he had planned to "leave early" - not that the events is chosen in advance, but that there's the aspect of "returning home."

When asked about that, he talked about already being back on the planet in there different individuals. While this may sound unusual - it's not unheard of.  We bring only a percentage of our conscious energy to a lifetime - the average is between 20 and 40% (based on interviews) - but that leaves behind 60 to 80% of our conscious energy - so in essence, we can do multiple journeys at the same time.

It's rare, I've only spoken to a few individuals who are aware of participating in that sort of journey - but it has been reported.  The point is that those individuals won't meet each other, but they will experience things to learn or teach lessons. 

In this case, Michael said he was back as a "homeless person" as well as a saxophonist living in London named Louis. (Or Luis).  

Anyways, we had a lively discussion about that aspect of how consciousness functions or incarnations works.

Then Elvis stopped by - and also wanted to discuss his journey.  I reminded him how he had returned to visit us a few years after our first conversation to talk about the unborn child that greeted him on the other side, and how he felt such overwhelming unconditional love during that experience.

I asked him some questions about that - and then Jennifer's father in law stopped by and had some observations for her - and her father told her that he had told this gentleman that the only time Jennifer "believes she's talking to us" was on our podcast.

Another mind bending adventure.  Happy Memorial day and thanks for tuning in!  And a reminder, we're appearing at Contact in the Desert this weekend, a lecture on Friday at 11 am (May 30th) and a workshop demonstration on Saturday at 11 am (May 31st, 2025). 

Enjoy!

Hacking the Afterlife with Jennifer Shaffer, Luana Anders, Hira, Mr. Bailey, Robin Williams

Our host on the flipside, Luana Anders wanted to talk about our upcoming talks at Contact in the Desert on May 30th at 11 am, and May 31st at 11 am.

To those fans of the podcast, Luana is our moderator on the flipside.  She passed in 1996, but brought Jennifer and I together and has been moderating our discussions for ten years.

Today she wanted to discuss our upcoming lecture and workshop on Friday May 30th at 11 am (See JenniferShaffer.com or ContactInTheDesert.com) or on Saturday May 31st at 11 am.

As Luana has suggested (or I suggested it, and she modified it) we'll talk about the process on Friday, how Jennifer can bypass the filters on the brain and talk to people off planet, and how by way of telepathy she's able to communicate with people no incarnate (which includes people who normally incarnate on other planets, as we've met a few.)

Then we'll do a demonstration on Friday of how to do that - an upcoming presentation for the workshop on Saturday where we'll dive deeper into this idea of communicating with people offstage.

In this instance, Luana has ALREADY LINED UP GUESTS but she's not telling us who they're going to be ("It's a surprise.")

Think about that for a minute - it's not a sales ploy or some kind of tool - we honestly don't know who she's going to bring, but whomever she does bring will be ready to talk to us about why they did agree to participate.

Mind bending to say the least.

Also a visit from the dog Hira (Robert Towne's dog Hira who was actually nominated for an Oscar for getting the screenplay credit for "Greystoke") and Mr. Bailey who has spoken to us before.

Robin Williams stopped to say hello and remind us "Whatever you need, send it out." He reminded us to "Pray" - not in a defensive way, but in a positive way. 

He also said "Get out of your head" which should be the headline for this episode. Meaning get out of your head, get out into nature, get out of the rut we put ourselves in.

Wise word from one of the wisest wordsmiths.

So again - we will be appearing May 30th at "Contact in the Desert" and May 31st - both at 11 am. On Friday it's a lecture about telepathy and demonstrating how Jennifer does what she does - and on Saturday it's a workshop in showing people how to do the same.

Come on down!

Hacking the Afterlife with Jennifer, Mother Teresa, Pope Joan, Augustine, Jesus, Jim and Luana

This is our 2025 Mother's Day special. 

We didn't plan it that way, but that's what it become. As we've noted in the past, Jennifer and I don't plan any aspect of our podcast other than asking Luana Anders, my pal on the flipside, who wants to come forward and speak with us.

Jennifer and I have been doing this weekly for ten years, the past five on our podcast.  In today's episode Mother Teresa came forward to talk about Mother's day - and how women are built like Gaia - the mother earth - for compassion and empathy and whether they have or had children, they should be honored as mothers.

I made a fun suggestion to invite Christopher Hitchens to chat with us - we've spoken with both Mother Teresa and Hitchens in the past - both transcripts are in the books BACKSTAGE PASS TO THE FLIPSIDE - but interesting to note that Mother Teresa nixed that idea.

As I note in the podcast he was in denial about their being an afterlife - she said she had met him on the flipside, and no she didn't want to invite him to speak.

She wanted to talk about the loving energy that people share and should focus on.  I asked her about the story of "Pope Joan" and I was startled to hear her confirm that it occurred. 

That's mind bending - because the Church claims it did not, but if one has ever lived in Rome, they know that some streets are blocked off permanently - and no one is allowed to go down them.  According to legend, Via Papalis - between St John Lateran the old Vatican and the city - Pope Joan fainted from loss of blood, either from a miscarriage or from her period - and she was erased from the history of the church.

Jennifer didn't know the story, but Mother Teresa does - and said it was true, and is "one of the greatest stories in history."  Mind bending because one could argue it presages the story of the film "Conclave" - I asked questions about the new Pope Leo, and we were told it was "meant to be" that he is the "Pope that is needed in this time."

They won't alter our future with info - but this was mind bending to say the least.

I invited the philosopher St. Augustine to share his opinion because the New Pope is from the Augustinian order - and he said "drink the wine." (Referring to his book "Confessions" and Jennifer's recent post about a client on the flipside who regretted he didn't drink the wines he had collected. 

Jennifer's father Jim stopped by, and then when asked who wanted to speak, Jesus showed up.  Unlike most podcasts, I didn't edit any of the pauses between questions. So if one is listening there will be long periods of silence - if they're watching they will see Jennifer's face go through various emotions when hearing the answers.

The answer is love. And Jesus repeats that in his answers to my questions. It's all about love - and "everything is always okay."

Happy Mom's day.

Hacking the Afterlife with Jennifer Shaffer, Rich Martini, Luana Anders, Linda Medlyn, Steve Jobs

On the anniversary of Jennifer's mom's passing, Linda stopped by for a chat about the process. That is - 'How do people offstage reach out to people onstage with coincidence or bits and pieces of memory, so we know they still exist?"

In this case, she reminded Jennifer of a dream that she had where she'd seen her parents line dancing - the memory of seeing them doing that cowboy style. 

That came out of a conversation about how my wife was aware of being visited by someone who popped the lyrics of John Denver's song into her mind - to not only remind her that he's visited her before, but that the lyrics have a special meaning to him.

So Sherry went onto this person's web page, and indeed, back in 2012 they'd posted the lyrics to the song as it held some kind of special resonance to them.

So the question is - how do you do that?

This led to a discussion of how I'd done a guided meditation with a woman (it wasn't asked for, it was a demonstration) where she had all kinds of mind bending people come through, but at the end of her session I casually asked where in Manhattan she was living - and it turned out to bein the same building I lived in for a year back when I was producing pieces for the Charles Grodin show on CNBC.

So the question went to Luana - "is that a coincidence, or is it something else?"  And that led to a discussion of how time works on the flipside - that people who are offstage often report that it feels like "time doesn't exist" - and a discussion of how Dr. Greyson notes in his NDE research that even those who experience that feeling do so sequentially.  That is - time does exist when meeting someone first, then the next person, then having another event occur.

As noted, people like Jennifer, who is open to conversing with people offstage, can have a better view of the likely outcomes since so many are aware of what she's doing. However, that doesn't mean that people will learn something that will prevent their plan of learning that experience during this lifetime - or it won't alter someone else's path that is going to involved as well.

As usual, mind bending stuff.

Then Steve Jobs stopped by.  fans of our work know that he's been stopping by since Jennifer and I first met - and subsequently one of his family members has worked with Jennifer, so she's had enough conversations with him so I can kind of "skip down" or ask questions not about him, but about other people.

In this case, I asked about people in the tech world who are convinced that consciousness is confined to the brain (someone like Bill Gates or someone like Elon Musk whose focus and aim includes a belief that consciousness is confined to the brain and the "known universe."

Jennifer reminded us that the previous week Stephen Hawking had said that he "wished he had been aware of how consciousness worked" while he was still on the planet.. that he could have been able to bypass the filters on his brain and access other dimensions, or previous lifetimes.

He's been showing up in our work since he passed - and the transcripts of those chats are in the books BACKSTAGE PASS TO THE FLIPSIDE and also on our podcast by searching for "Stephen Hawking" on the podcast.

He also stopped by during a multiple person conversation - I'd invited four scientists, Sagan, Tesla, Einstein and Hawking - all who are available now on the flipside, and can answer questions about "who greeted them when they crossed over" and "what they've learned since being offstage."

Interesting enough, Steve had advice for Bill Gates (other than saying "he's been through enough difficulties") - but advised that he'd have to "believe that we could talk to Steve" before he could "hear any advice."  As to Elon - about how he might change his attitude about empathy being a hindrance to civilization (as opposed to it's dependence upon it) - he suggested "playing a sport" - and specifically which one, it was "car racing" - as he'll learn he has to depend on others to succeed.  (Interesting idea).  First and foremost he said "He needs to take up a sport - not buy a team - but to participate in a sport."

It's not opinion, theory or belief that people can access loved ones offstage - it's what I've been filming people doing for over fifteen years (FLIPSIDE, TALKING TO BILL PAXTON and HACKING THE AFTERLIFE are on amazon prime or gaia) and ten years with Jennifer every week - where we ask the same questions to people offstage, and sometimes I'll have other mediums ask them identical questions. (Hawking was interviewed by Dr. Medhus on her program and said the same basic things, in the film TALKING TO BILL PAXTON I had three mediums ask him the same questions - and all of them reported identical answers.

The point being - there may be some other worldly explanation how a medium can answer the same questions when I'm not in the room and someone else is asking those questions (a blind study) but I'm not aware of how.

Again - Jennifer works with law enforcement agents nationwide on a number of cases. A third of her day is pro bono work.  You can find her at JenniferShaffer.com and also at "Uncorked" events in Manhattan Beach.

You can find me at RichardMartini.com - or send an email to MartiniProds at gmail.com to book a session where we talk to loved ones offstage.

I asked Luana if the Pope wanted to come forward, both Jennifer and I held our breath - until she said "two meetings in the future."  (We'll see if he's up for it then).  Since it was Earth day we spoke a little bit with folks offstage about how we can change the planet.

Thanks for tuning in!

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?)

Hacking the Afterlife with Jennifer Shaffer, Rich Martini, Luana Anders and Samantha the Dolphin

Another mind bending podcast.

Jennifer had one of her "uncorked" events in Manhattan Beach this past week, and one of the attendees wanted to speak to her pet hamster who had passed away.

Jennifer recounts doing that as well as talking to a "tree" in their yard that was ill and about to pass away.  We've had multiple conversations both with animals, and with trees (look for "General Sherman" on the podcast.

But we've also had a conversation with a dolphin before. (Look for "Edgar Cayce, Doris Stokes and a dolphin" on the podcast.

In this one, Luana Anders, my pal on the flipside who passed in 1996 brought forth a dolphin who wanted to speak with us.

The construct is this - the dolphin isn't "sitting in our interview chair" but she's able to communicate directly with Jennifer.

And since we've interviewed animals before, I try to ask the same questions I ask everyone that shows up in the research.

In this case, Luana gave her the name "Samantha" (which could have been a play on my dog Sam that I've spoken to in the past, I don't know, that's Luana's sense of humor.)

And Samantha said a number of mind bending things... that only 5% of her conscious energy is outside herself, "the higher consciousness" that is addressing us directly.  Generally people report we bring between 20 and 40% of our conscious energy to a lifetime, and that when we have brain issues (dementia, etc) we only have around ten percent or less of our conscious energy.

If I was hearing this correctly, Samantha was saying "only 5% of her conscious energy is offstage" - because dolphin don't have the same filters we do.

In terms of what was heard or learned; the dolphin consider themselves the "sheriffs" of the sea, as well as the librarians collecting data. That they are aware of everything going on in the ocean. 

I asked a simple question about Samantha's opinion of humans - she pointed out that a human had saved her mother's life in a previous lifetime (as a shark) and that she appreciate that aspect of humanity.

I asked a question about empathy - since a certain person in high places said some comment about "empathy holding back civilization" - and the dolphin replied that "empathy is the only thing that moves civilization forward."

Empathy to help others, to heal others, to find a cure for cancer, illness, etc.  It's a mind bending answer, but it's a mind bending comment for someone to make - who clearly has no clue how consciousness functions or incarnation works.

Samantha reiterated that "animals understand how incarnation works but humans do not."  There are many things humans don't get - in terms of other dimensions, and Samantha said she and others kept tabs on that - including those stories of "UAP's (UFO's)" that shift in and out of the water.

I know all of this is mind bending - and it's a perfect reason to stop watching the podcast. If one is having a hard time comprehending this information, perhaps a good time to look into the data, research from UVA medical school DOPS lab that shows consciousness is not confined to the brain.

Or to examine the clinical case studies of Dr. Wambach, Dr. Brian Weiss or Michael Newton and the Newton Institute in terms of how people can recall previous lifetimes, or how their own incarnations have worked.

Truly one of the most mind bending podcasts we've done - and I'm shocked to say it was only 30 minutes of questions and answers.

Hope people take this opportunity to research the topic - because we're touching the tip of the iceberg - literally.

We don't understand how animals or plants communicate - but we can learn.  And this is a way to ask them questions and get answers.

Hacking the Afterlife with Jennifer Shaffer, Luana Anders, Tyler Sanders, Heath Ledger, Marilyn Monroe

Today's podcast got crowded!

We started off by talking about Jennifer's recent visit to the Oprah studios where she participated in a discussion about menopause and at some point Oprah made her way to Jennifer and put her around her and said "thank you."

She was referring to a session that Jennifer had done with a friend of Oprah's and the kinds of unusual details that Jennifer was able to access to help this friend on her journey.

Then I spoke about a dinner in a restaurant recently, where someone named Daniel spoke to someone at our table (more on him if he shows up) but when I asked Luana if Daniel wanted to speak to us, someone else took the speaker's chair.

In this case, the late young actor Tyler Sanders. Tyler had written on his arm, "Do More" and he lived that motto.  He took his father skydiving, did not pass up any adventure that he might have been on.  Much beloved by his family, friends, and although we knew him for a short amount of time, he made a large impact on our lives.

He passed a few years ago, just prior to a major advance in his career, by experimenting with a drug that he thought was something else, but turned out to be laced with fentanyl.

When I heard that he passed, I was traveling with a friend who was a medium, and she described what she saw about his passing - and a few minutes later had Jennifer on the phone and she was telling me the same details.

It's unusual to be in such an odd position - to have friends who are mediums, who can access "what happened" almost in real time.

So when Jennifer mentioned that he was in our class, she had spoken with him briefly three years ago. He wanted to raise the topic of "sudden passing" and as he did so, other people started showing up, Heath Ledger, Paul Walker and Matthew Perry.

Now, for those who may be offended at the "number of celebrities" who show up on our podcast, I try to remind people that we aren't in charge of the guest list. It's Luana Anders, who appeared in over 300 TV shows and films in her life, who worked with everyone from Marlon Brando to John Belushi... so it's not unusual to have a "celebrity packed" classroom, because in the rubric of "everyone is six degrees from Kevin Bacon" (Meaning we're all connected to each other if we look for the connections) sometimes a whole gaggle of people show up about a particular topic.

I invited Paul to speak as I know we had a brief chat with him after his passing, and we did a couple of interview with Matthew Perry, so I focused on Heath Ledger and asked him about his journey.

Who met him on the other side, what that was like (and if memory serves me we did speak to him briefly years ago - I'll have to look it up - but when Jennifer said that he was "met by his dog" I seem to remember that in one of our "Backstage Pass to the Flipside" books.  I'll look it up.

He had a message for a mutual friend Phillip Noyce (I said "Phillip" Jennifer supplied his last name, not because she knows him, but because she met his wife for a reading 3 or 4 years ago.)

I passed the message on to Phillip and he thanked me for doing so.  (Doesn't mean he's a believer or an advocate, but he is a polite Aussie like his old friend Heath.)

Then Marilyn Monroe showed up - and I'm sorry to Paul and Matthew, but I focused my questions to her - about her passing.  

In other podcasts, and in the transcripts of our conversations in the books BACKSTAGE PASS TO THE FLIPSIDE we go into detail about her - about her flings with powerful men - but what makes this worthy of note was the question about greeting her father "that she never knew."

While common knowledge that was the case - I'm more interested in what people have to say about that experience, and she reiterated what we've heard before. That her "missing father" agreed to play that role in this lifetime, as it was part of the inspiration that got her out of her "Norma Jean" shell to create this persona that became world famous and was always in search of that "father figure" she didn't have in life.

She joked about "ignoring some of the bad films" that she made - but the point is, we're speaking to the "higher consciousness" of an individual - in this case a woman named Marilyn who was born as Norma, who created an avatar called "Marilyn" but who has had other lifetimes before, and will have more lifetimes after.

Anyway, another mind bending session capped off by an appearance by Aretha Franklin - who in our interview many years ago, joked about being the "black Marilyn Monroe."  That's the fun thing about this podcast - and the research - Jennifer and I have been doing this weekly for ten years, the transcripts are in the first four books, and on occasion someone we interviewed a long time ago, shows up and makes the same reference or joke they did back then.

I know Jennifer isn't aware that Aretha made that joke back then - but she reminded us how she had told us she had a "handwritten will" that would be found by her niece - and that is what happened (despite her niece saying that she "didn't believe we were speaking to her aunt.")

Which is fine. People show up for different reasons at different times. The idea is to be open to the possibility.

As Luana's last words repeat at the end of the podcast.

Enjoy. 

Hacking the Afterlife with Jennifer Shaffer, Luana Anders and an orb from another dimension

Another one of those mind bending podcasts.

It's starts off as we always do, chatting about events of the day and what we've been up to. 

Jennifer talked about an event recently where she read some friends, and a child came through to talk about their experience being on the planet (in the crib, etc).  How uncanny it was because so many of the details were confirmed by the women in the room.

Then we invite Luana Anders, my pal who passed in 1996 who moderates our podcast from the flipside to have a chat. 

She wanted to talk about how we communicate through the heart. How we aren't aware of that frequency, but we are on the flipside.  Jennifer mentions that she has a client in Dubai (UAE) that she works with - and the distance has little to do with the messages that come forward.

Then Jennifer shared a video that she got from a friend of an orb outside her window. Jennifer talks about how her friend had filmed it with her cellphone outside her window.

For those who are interested in "Orbs" - if one searches through the podcasts using that word, they can find a conversation we had with someone who had a number of orbs show up on her ring camera a few years ago.

It coincided with a memorial for her husband, and wanted to know if there was a connection - so we chatted directly with the husband offstage, who confirmed a number of details that we didn't know - but his wife knew.  And then the following week she shared a few more hours of footage - and that's discussed extensively on that podcast, including Jennifer's seeing them often in her home.

She's also shared footage before of seeing orbs... the link can be found here: (cut and paste) https://youtu.be/k9Sq14pFCxs

But this is clearly the most unusual video I've seen of an orb - ever. And it goes on for quite a time - and we ask Luana to tell us what that is, or who that is - and she does.

Mind bending stuff, thanks for tuning in!

 

 

Hacking the Afterlife with Jennifer Shaffer, Luana Anders, Amelia Earhart, Harry Dean Stanton, Gene Hackman

Another unusual podcast.

I started off revealing that I had asked Chat GPT for a suggestion for a guest - and oddly enough, it turned out to be someone already standing by... Amelia Earhart.

Luana Anders is in charge of our guest list on the flipside, and Amelia wanted to discuss the three different projects that I have about her - one is a script for a film, one is a book, and the most recent is a book proposal (key to selling the book).

I was working on it yesterday, so it was prescient to discuss it.  She wanted to suggest I be more "wild" with it.  I'll have to think that one over a bit. But good advice. 

Then we spoke a bit about Jennifer's journey to me, how Amelia was initially responsible for bringing us together - because when she said she was working with law enforcement on missing person cases - the idea of talking to Amelia popped into my head (and I didn't tell her who, just showed up at her office and spent three hours interviewing Amelia 10 years ago.

Funny for her to put it this way.

Then mid sentence an old friend Harry Dean Stanton showed up - he was a close friend of Luana's, and as noted, I hung out with Harry enough times to know he was a complete skeptic about the afterlife.

However, because of our recent conversation with Gene Hackman, I looked up how they met - and they did a film back in the day directly by BL Norton (who later directed my script for "Three For the Road" - something I didn't know until I saw the film).

Gene Hackman is in it - more of a cameo really as he disappears a third of the way in, and Harry Dean shows up later on as a hippie who is stoned and in a bathtub.

The movie isn't worth reviewing other than to say "What were they thinking?" 

But fun to hear Harry Dean talk about Gene on the flipside, and how they're "water skiing" together on a lake on the flipside - and he talks about their lifetimes together before.

Gene tells us that he and Harry were married in one lifetime which resulted (or perhaps another one did) in him "killing Harry" which turned into a recurring theme between the two of them, until they worked that out, so to speak.

Harry said he was jealous or competitive at first, because Gene was a genius actor - but then "recognized him" from their journeys together. (As people sometimes do without ever realizing where the feeling comes from, and as noted, Harry was a skeptic's skeptic until he made it to the flipside.

As noted, there's a scene in the film HACKING THE AFTERLIFE on Amazon Prime or Gaia where Jennifer first access Harry Dean - and he tells us to "tell people to believe in the possibility of a lifetime so they don't waste another minute arguing about it like I did." 

Wise words.

Another mind bending episode. 

Hacking the Afterlife with Jennifer Shaffer, Lisa Marie, Michael Jackson, Robin Williams, Charlie Chaplin

This was an unusual podcast just based on the folks who showed up to chat with us.

Jennifer and I had taken a trip to the Chateau Marmont on Sunset Blvd, and we had a group of folks who stopped by to say hello. At some point John Belushi talked about "ghost watching" - not to show up in the hotel to watch people onstage, but to watch "the other ghosts wandering around."

Lisa Marie Presley and Michael Jackson showed up to talk about early exits - people who leave the stage early for whatever reason. And that brought a bunch of people forward, from JFK to Elvis, to Matthew Perry, Robin Williams and others... the point they were making is that people leave the stage in all different fashions, and it's about focusing on who they were while they were onstage, and not how they left it.

We had a brief chat with Gene Hackman again - to clarify what happened in light of the police reports... and he made a joke about it.  I try to repeat the advice that these folks are available to anyone if they take the time to ask them questions. But be prepared for them not being all that interested in questions that relate to our journey and not theirs.

I asked my old pal Charles Grodin about what it was like to see his old friend Gene, and then we shifted to an event that happened later in the day. While dining at Musso and Frank's in Hollywood two members of my group saw "a ghostly figure" sitting in the corner of the room.

They didn't know who it was or could be, but said he "looked like the actor Robert Downey Jr." (And even then they didn't know his name either, and asked questions about someone named "Downey")

They also heard him talking about "table #1" to them - so I invited the waiter to stop by the table and simply asked about any ghosts people might have seen in the restaurant. He said "Charlie Chaplin" and I asked where table #1 was - and he mentioned the table that I had lunch with Jonathan Winters - which was table #1 - and how that's where Charlie liked to dine.

We asked Charlie about why he was seen "scribbling notes" and he said it was the place he liked to have good ideas and good food, but also said in this instance, he showed up so that members of my group would see him, and that would inspire me to invite him to chat on our podcast.

I don't know how else to put it - but Jennifer and I have been doing this weekly for ten years. Not everyone who shows up in our conversations is a celebrity - but because of my 40 years in the business, and Luana Ander's 300 TV shows and movies (my friend who moderates our podcast from the Flipside, who passed in 1996) I'm not surprised when people do show up that we can recognize.

Jennifer's father Jim also stopped by to clarify some things, and I must say - the topic of leaving the stage early came up - if someone is in need of help or counseling, there is help - and one should reach out to 988 and the counselors there from any telephone.

But in my desire to not use the S word in the podcast, I tried to leave it out of the conversation, as the algorithms will generally not want it to be discussed - but the important point was made by people offstage - that is to realize that life goes on no matter what happens, and that everyone onstage signed up to be onstage, and should see what things might occur or happen that we could not be aware of.

Oh, and Robin Williams showed up to not only discuss the same topic, but to confirm that during a recent guided meditation, this woman saw him in her "classroom in the afterlife" - and he confirmed that it was him BEFORE I COULD ASK THE QUESTION.

Anyways, all of it is mind bending, and hopefully whomever needs to hear what they are talking about is able to hear what they're trying to say.

Thanks for tuning in!