Hacking the Afterlife with Jennifer Shaffer - a visit with Charles Grodin

This is an homage to Charles Grodin.

Having known him for 40 years, I know pretty well what his references are, what he's saying or revealing. In this podcast, one could say it's a culmination of 40 years of knowing him, ten years of filming people accessing the afterlife, and five years of filming sessions with Jennifer Shaffer weekly.

It's also our 10,000th download - we have 60 podcasts so far. Jennifer notes that she didn't know Charles outside of the fact that we were friends, she never saw him interviewed, knew nothing about his life, other than seeing him in "Heaven Can Wait." At the end of this podcast, when I refer to "Midnight Run" I forgot that she had not seen the film. I recommend sticking around to the end to hear what he has to say about it. It was an honor to be able to do this on his behalf. It was an honor to know him for 40 years. As I wrote on Facebook about him: Godfather to our kids. The most loyal friend I've ever met or could have the good fortune to have met.

A mentor who was instrumental in my life and journey - tears are not enough to shed, the loss of someone so funny, witty, charming, compassionate - he embodied so much more than anyone knows or has heard about him, or could have known about him. Sherry, the kids and I heard that he passed peacefully this morning, that it was a transition of beauty and grace - and no doubt in my mind he's going to be as entertaining, fun, delightful and charming on the flipside as he was on this side.

My wife pointed out that when Jennifer mentions "Hairspray" after mentioning Warren Beatty, is a reference to his film "Shampoo." What's funny about that reference is that Robert Towne (the writer of Shampoo with Warren) wrote the movie about Chuck's friend Luana (who was dating a hairdresser Richard Alcala) and that Jack Warden, star of that film and also in Heaven Can Wait was a close friend of Chuck's - and an original member of the "Fun Patrol." (Harper Simon, myself and Chuck were the other three members.) Someone you can call day or night and get a laugh from.

We are bereft that he's left the building, if one could add up all the laughs, all the joy, all the fun events this person brought to our world - it would take up too many memorials. The folks who knew him and loved him will miss him the most - the folks who saw him or laughed along at his films and work will talk about him for a long time, every time he appears on camera now and into the future will be another reminder of his unique light. Here's to you Chuck. Charles Grodin. From Pittsburgh. We love you.

We will always love you. And we hope you can swing by sometime to let us know how you're doing. More tributes to come, and when the spark hits, will share some of his wit and wisdom when it comes to mind. Sail on maestro. More seas to explore and conquer. "

All photos and content are used a part of the "Fair Use" idea in copyright law that allows for using a clip to illustrate a point. All original rights are retained by the copyright holders. No endorsements are implied or trying to be made. This interview is based on 5 years of working with Jennifer Shaffer who works with law enforcement agencies nationwide on missing cases pro bono, on ten years of filming people accessing the afterlife with or without hypnosis (100 to date) and the thousands of clinical case studies from Dr. Wambach, Dr. Weiss, Michael Newton and the Newton Institute, and the 100 cases I've filmed (50 without hypnosis.)

For further info, see "Flipside" or "Talking to Bill Paxton" on Gaia or Amazon Prime, see books "Flipside" "It's a Wonderful Afterlife (with a forward by Charles) "Hacking the Afterlife" and "Architecture of the Afterlife" or Jennifer Shaffer's and my three books "Backstage Pass to the Flipside" 1, 2 and 3. The new documentary film "Hacking the Afterlife" will be premiering on Gaia and reflects ten years of filmed research.

See you in the next life, Chuck.