Hacking The Afterlife podcast

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.

Hacking the Afterlife with Jennifer Shaffer, Bill Paxton, Luana Anders and John McCain

Another fun podcast - Jennifer and I started off by talking about the process - how she helps law enforcement on a pro bono basis, and will be teaching a class soon in the process (details on her webpage JenniferShaffer.com).

She has two workshops - one that covers how to help law enforcement, and the second is for people who want to be part of the group that does.  I've attended in the past, and it's well worth the effort,  if only to understand the process.

Then we celebrated a bit of Luana's birthday - and she insisted I stop mentioning her age (as she was adamant about forgetting it while she was on the planet.)  Funny how she can still get me to laugh about it, although she's been off planet since 1996.

We asked if she had anyone on her VIP list (hence the title of our 3 books "Backstage Pass to the Flipside" because one of our classmates reported that "she's the one in charge of who gets to speak to us.)

Bill Paxton popped up and dusted himself off as if he'd been waiting to speak up. Funny guy Bill. He knew I had been speaking about him last week, and wanted to throw a curve ball in my recollection of how we met, and what it was like for the both of us back then. 

It was interesting to chat with Bill about golf - I knew he directed a film "The Greatest Game Ever Played" written by Mark Frost, directed by Bill. He mentions two things that I looked up - one is that he played a celebrity tournament and did badly, and the other that he is currently playing with a golfing icon.  In the former, I found that his father John (whom he mentions in this) actually was in a club with the great Ben Hogan, and reportedly Bill met Hogan when he was young.  I think Bill was either referring to Ouimet, the golfer he made a film about, or the late great Ben Hogan (Jennifer describes his outfit.)  It's the kind of detail I didn't know, Jennifer couldn't have known - so she wasn't "reading my mind" - but was answering directly from Billy.

Then, out of nowhere, someone elbowed Bill out of his seat - Bill said it was willingly, but Senator McCain wanted to weigh in on recent political events. And while during the election he took a particularly dim view of the former resident of 1600 PA Ave, his advice this time was to "bind up the nation's wounds" citing Abe Lincoln's ability to do so under more trying circumstances.

I was surprised, but not startled, as certainly he was a man of humor and integrity - and was clearly pointing down the middle of the road for the nation to consider healing. All I can say is it is another unusual podcast, this being our 61st.

Hacking the Afterlife with The Librarian (”5”) and Marlon Brando

It's our 60th podcast.  Yippee.  

 Jennifer was out of town last week, so I was thinking about a couple of people who showed up during previous sessions that we didn't speak to.

She mentioned the "Librarian" (whom I described as Danny DeVito because someone else described him that way in "Architecture of the Afterlife") So I asked if there was a reason he wanted to chat with us.

He implied that he had put it in my mind this past week to ask him some questions - which is often the case. In "Architecture of the Afterlife" he shows up in a session, and in this session I refer to the interview in "It's a Wonderful Afterlife" where a "curmudgeony librarian" who "doesn't look old but has a really old vibe" (who was asked "What are Who is God?"

What makes this so unusual - is that I've met him now through three different people who don't know each other, who couldn't have read about him in any of my books.  And in all three cases, they described the same fellow and in two of the cases, I was invited to speak to him.

So I didn't seek him out - he shows up in "Architecture of the Afterlife" and in a session with Jennifer in "Backstage Pass to the Flipside." When I quote him, even when it's via Jennifer she has no conscious memory of what he said - but she repeats what he said.  Or she refers to what he said to me in a zoom session with someone else entirely (another Jennifer that is in "Architecture.")

So I asked him some questions about the Akashic library.  Interesting answers.

In terms of Marlon, our moderator on the flipside Luana Anders knew many people who knew him (Robert Towne, who wrote that final scene of his in the Godfather, Sam Gilman, Wally Cox, Sally Kellerman and others) - so I have no problem asking him to come forward.  Jennifer doesn't remember that he was hesitant to speak when we did interview him - but in this case, he had shown up to talk about Audrey Hepburn.

But as noted in the previous podcast, Jennifer couldn't think of his name "that actor who plays the Mafia guy who was Al Capone" (clearly not coached as Marlon never played Al) - and two weeks ago, I missed it. But I thought I'd ask him what he wanted to share about her.

In the interim I looked up the fact that he had spent an evening with her and because he was unnerved by her, didn't speak - and she took that to mean he didn't like her. And it's a matter of public record that he wrote to Audrey when he heard that and apologized - public record that Jennifer is not aware of.

Again - not trying to prove anything to anyone - there is no hierarchy on the flipside, it is accurate that his will was found in a chair in Jack Nicholson's house, I've seen it, and I know what happened to it.  She mentions that as well, but it's not common knowledge.

Anyways - a bit all over the map, but not less interesting than the rest. 

Hacking the Afterlife with Jennifer Shaffer and Howard Schultz, Luana Anders

This is a session I filmed back in 2017. 

The idea was to create some form of expression where we could discuss the afterlife in real time, and put it somewhere. Pre podcasts.

Now when I view this file, I realize we were doing the same thing we've been doing for the past year.

In this session, my old friend Howard Schultz, the producer of many successful TV shows ("Extreme Makeover") shows up to chat with us about the process of talking to the flipside.

A portion of this clip will be in the new film from Gaia "Hacking the Afterlife."  As one can see, I've been gathering clips for that film for quite some time.

At this point, Jennifer and I had been filming these kinds of conversations for about a year or two. Filming it in her office in Manhattan Beach was a way to demonstrate that we can do it on camera, live - which was a precursor to our podcast.

Jennifer's on vacation this week, so I pulled this rabbit out of the hat.  If I had shown it years ago, it wouldn't make sense, but in light of our podcast, fits right in. Enjoy.

Hacking the Afterlife with Jennifer Shaffer, Audrey Hepburn, Monte Hellman and Laurie Bird

Another jaw dropping session. 

I didn't have anyone in mind as I sat down to dial up the podcast, but suddenly the late Monte Hellman came to mind. Monte passed away a few days ago - and I thought since he was friends with Luana, Harry Dean Stanton and others both on this side and the flipside, thought he might be an interesting interview.

At one point Jennifer mentions the "actor" who played a Mafia Don who lived on an island - who stopped by to say hello. That was obviously Marlon, as I didn't put the two together, as she said "He was in the Mafia and he lived on an island." (That would be Al Capone.)  She mentioned that he played Al - but obviously he didn't play Al, Robert De Niro played Al.  

Normally that's the kind of connection I make in my mind - but at the time she was saying that Audrey Hepburn had shown up unannounced to chat with us on Earth Day. Later, I looked up to see what connection Marlon and Audrey had - apparently he was shy around her, and their one evening together made her think he didn't like her - when Marlon heard about it, he wrote her a letter to explain what really happened; he was shy.

This is the kind of detail I didn't know - but know now, and certainly in a week we can ask Marlon if that's what he wanted to mention. 

Needless to say, it was startling to hear that Audrey wanted to chat with us. I report accurately that two nights ago I watched "My Fair Lady" for the first time and marveled at her performance.  It's rich and full of grit - and knowing that she had served in World War II as a partisan, made me think about her journey in life, and then I recalled seeing her in Chicago at the Art Institute. Didn't speak to her, but watched her float down some stairs in her awesome way.

At some point, I decided to ask Monte Hellman to come forward. The person he said he knew is "Fred" - that would be Fred Roos who produced two of his films, and remained a friend despite winning an Oscar for Godfather II. Then I asked about Laurie Bird - Jennifer had no idea who she was, but correctly reported that she had committed suicide at age 26. She had left Monte after a 4 year relationship, took up with Art Garfunkel (a friend of Luana's, as was Paul, who I met and spent time with via Charles Grodin.) The last time I saw Art, we talked about Luana and he revealed they "dated"- something I didn't know.

But Laurie Bird overdosed at Art's apt. in NYC when he left her to make a film.  Her message to Art is poignant and apt.

What Monte had to say to his friends Jack, Robert and Fred are all poignant as well.  But the reason we do this podcast is to make people aware that their loved ones do not die. As Audrey noted, "there is no hierarchy on the flipside"- and it's important to remember that.

Everyone is accessible.  It just takes a little time and effort - through hypnotherapy (I've filmed 50 sessions) through meditation (I've filmed 50 without hypnosis) through mediumship - people like Jennifer function like a cellphone to the flipside.

This sessions is about as mind bending as they come. Glad to be able to present it a few minutes after recording it.

Hacking the Afterlife with Jennifer Shaffer, Bernini, Michelangelo, Romeo Martini and Hira

A continuation of a conversation from a couple of weeks ago. 

My father, the architect, said that he was working with "architects" on the flipside. When asked who they were, Jennifer said she was hearing "Bernini and Michelangelo."  

As someone who majored in Humanities at BU, who wrote a miniseries for HBO about the Medici family in the Renaissance, I'm familiar with Michelangelo's story and Bernini's.  We revisited our previous conversation to ask these fellows some questions about their lives and journey. As noted, Gian Lorenzo Bernini is less well known than his counterpart from a century earlier - but I'm' aware of both of their lifetimes.

This might be more geared to art history majors, but they won't believe it either.

Then we have a chat with Robert Towne's dog Hira - a dog I walked for three years when Robert's office was at Warner Brothers.  As noted, Hira has already proven details about his being aware of humans, he spoke directly to Jennifer about an event that happened on Catalina that only he would know about.

But in this cases, I asked him about the process - how to help people access their pets on the flipside.

Enjoy.

Hacking the Afterlife with Jennifer Shaffer, Steve Jobs, Jesus, Amelia Earhart and Luana Anders

Jennifer is on spring break. 

So in lieu of her being here, I started to look for something that we might have filmed awhile ago, but follows our format. This was our second interview on camera, done in her office in Manhattan Beach on Dec. 21st, 2015.

At the time I was thinking about making these conversations into a documentary. Little did I know that our conversations over lunch, or in her office would become a six year journey together, and a podcast for the past year.

But this follows the same format without the format. In other words, we had spoken to Luana Anders before, but this was before we consider our conversations to be part of a class, or part of a group environment - where she would hold the clipboard and let people come forward to speak (and assist them in being able to do so.)

I think portions of this may have been reproduced in the book "Hacking the Afterlife" - the Jesus portion at least, where she says "I just saw Jesus" and instead of just allowing that to be part of the conversation, to ask him to swing by for a chat. This is also the second time where he shifted into jeans and a tee shirt (he does so in an earlier interview with Jamie Butler (also on this page) and later in an interview with Kimberly Ray (also on this page).

Again - we are improvising here. We have no plan, we have not discussed what we might talk about - but this was five and a half years ago - our second meeting, and just wanted to note how our relationship has not changed. Lots of laughs, some irreverent comments, some challenging questions - Jennifer speaks a little about her process - of how she "sees" or "hears" or visualizes information from the flipside.

I am the gadfly who asks pesky questions. "What does he or she look like?" "Why are they here?"  Steve Jobs stops by - as noted, she did not know that he had shown up in a filmed hypnotherapy session a week earlier with a friend who worked for him. She had said "Bill Gates is here" - and I was so flummoxed I didn't think to ask him what "Oh wow, oh wow, oh wow" meant - the words he said to his sister on his death bed.

Also we get to hear some things that are repeated in later podcasts. But for fans of this research, fans of Jennifer, this is an interesting portrait into an earlier time in our journey.   We did this filmed session as a podcast before podcasts existed... I know when I first listened back to it I thought "I can never use this in a film, since I'm talking to much and you can't see who that is talking..."  Little did I know that five and half years later we'd have spent every week for six years doing these kinds of conversations - "Backstage Pass to the Flipside" book one, two and three.  

Enjoy.

Hacking the Afterlife with Jennifer Shaffer, her dad, my dad and a few others

Had some unusual dreams the past couple of days and used them as a jumping off place for the podcast.   First wanted to know if there was any meaning to find, then wanted to know how to help people contact their loved ones on the other side.

Acknowledging that it's not easy for everyone, it is easier for some - and there are techniques to learn. Meditation helps because it rewires the brain. Allowing that it's possible helps because that appears to be required to actually strike up a conversation.

Jennifer's dad comes through to chat about who greeted him on the other side, and then my father stepped forward to tease me that I'd never asked him. So we did. Mind bending as always.

There's an interview with "Sam the Dog" in the book "Backstage Pass to the Flipside" and also is referenced in "Architecture of the Afterlife" in the chapter "You don't want to believe it."

Hacking the Afterlife with Jennifer Shaffer, Edgar Cayce, Doris Stokes and a dolphin

Tonight's podcast starts off with a general discussion of staying healthy during Covid.

A recap of the conversation with Dr. Jonas Salk from a year ago where he recommended drinking elderberry, aloe vera and acai juice to prevent Covid (published in April 2020 on RichMartini.com)  Then Edgar Cayce stopped by to talk a bit about his council of doctors who he used to help heal people on the planet, and how they are always accessible to everyone.

Then Luana Anders, our moderator was asked if someone wanted to come forward and Jennifer got an image of the woman, knew who she was but could not get her first name. That's key - because she got it wrong at the beginning... "Mavis" was the name she heard. So I called her Mavis and asked her why she showed up in our class and on our podcast to chat.

She said she wanted to point out that it was much harder than we were making it out to be for people to access their loved ones on the other side, and that might cause some consternation.  And then Jennifer looked up her name and recognized it - the famous medium Doris Stokes (who died in 1987). 

I hadn't heard of her - obviously as I asked her why she came by to chat with us, or if she just wanted to criticize our podcast... obviously if Jennifer knew who she was up front, she would have said her name "Doris" and not "Mavis." And obviously if I knew she was going to come by I would have done a little research to ask her questions.

I see from her Wikipedia entry that fans of the Amazing Randi spent time discrediting her - all I can say about that is we talked to Randi, the podcast with Randi is up on MartiniZone.com and anyone can hear Randi apologize for being such a tool of the skeptics of the world.  Like Houdini debunking many shady psychics in his day - he too is quoted (in "Backstage Pass to the Flipside") that his impression of the flipside changed once he got there.

All we can do is report.  Finally, we have a chat with a dolphin - no request came to do so, but I had a compelling email from a woman on Quora whose life has changed since her swimming with them, and she felt like she was "home" when she did so.  It would take a few conversations with someone like this dolphin to get to a consensus about what he was saying - that they're much wiser, older and more sane than humans.  But I suspect we always knew that anyway. 

Hacking the Afterlife with Jennifer Shaffer, Jim, Elvis and Luana

This is an exploration into incarnation.   Not in reincarnation - but the process of incarnation. How does it occur? We have a chat with Jennifer's father, a Mormon Bishop on the flipside. He discusses the process of a "drop of light" coming to incarnate in the guise of a human.

When asked if anyone else wanted to speak on the topic, Elvis came forward to observe that music is the same kind of frequency that the drop of essence is described as - another bit of the overall light that is part of incarnation.

A discussion of past lives ensues - and how everyone brings an amalgamation of all their lives to the current lifetime, which may include music, art and other energies.  It sounds esoteric and it is - but it is based on the flipside research.  Thanks for tuning in.