Richard Martini's Blog, page 11

Flipside Book Talk "Keeping an Open Mind" Orange County Iands

The latest flipside book talk; for more info or to support the research, please visit HackingTheAfterlife.com. "Keep an Open Mind."

Its a Wonderful Afterlife book talk Tustin CA Orange County Iands Sat. Oct 10th

Writer, filmmaker, director Rich Martini is in the house!! Saturday, October 10th, 2015!!ROBINBARR ♦ OCTOBER 9, 2015 ♦ LEAVE A COMMENTFeatured Speaker​Rich MartiniAuthor, Filmmaker, Award-winning American film director, producer, screenwriter and freelance journalistDate:          Saturday, ​ October 10, 2015Time:         1:00-4:00 pmPlace:         Unity of Tustin, 14402 Prospect Ave., Tustin, CA
(Drive to the back of the church, turn left, and park.  Enter the 2nd door). What happens after we die? One of our most popular speakers, Rich Martini, award winning filmmaker and author of “Flipside: Journey to the Afterlife“, and “It’s a Wonderful Afterlife“, Volumes 1 and 2, is back to talk about the latest research into how near death experiences relate to between lives hypnotherapy, and first hand accounts of the ​flipside from people who are over there.He’ll talk about evidence for life after death, via the “life between lives,” where we reportedly return to find our loved ones, soul mates and spiritual teachers based on the evidence of thousands of people who claim that under deep hypnosis, they saw and experienced the same basic things about the Afterlife.  And more,  how we are fully conscious between our various incarnations, and return to connect with loved ones and spiritual soul mates, together choosing how and when and with whom we’ll reincarnate;  why souls choose difficult lives in order to learn from their spiritually, no matter how difficult, strange or complex a life choice appears to be, ​how it’s made in advance, consciously, with the help of loved ones, soul mates and wise elders.​ABOUT RICH MARTINIAfter Rich had several “Other” experiences, including the death of a soul mate, which revealed to him that there is more to life than is apparent, he started exploring and looking for more information and answers to the truth about life and death.Flipside was his debut non-fiction book. The film documentary is distributed by Gaiam TV and Amazon Prime. After experiencing a dream visit with his friend on the other side, Martini went on a literary quest to find out how science and philosophy are currently explaining these phenomena.He journeyed into Tibetan Philosophy, made documentaries in Tibet and India, and eventually was introduced to the work of the Newton Institute, founded by renowned author and hypnotherapist Dr. Michael Newton (Author of Journey of Souls). The book contains interviews with numerous hypnotherapists who talk about past life regression and life-between-life therapy, using the information to help patients examine their immortal identity.Flipside went to #1 at Amazon (Kindle, all its genres) and Rich’s follow up series It’s a Wonderful Afterlife also went to #1 due to his appearances on “Coast to Coast” radio. It’s a Wonderful Afterlife expands his research into the afterlife, including interviews with Bruce Greyson, MD, Mario Beauregard, PhD, and Gary Schwartz, PhD, about consciousness existing outside the brain. The author interviews people who’ve had both near-death experiences and between-life hypnotherapy sessions and includes transcripts from between-life sessions….including his own.In 1978, Rich graduated Magna Cum Laude from Boston University with a BA degree in Humanities. He attended USC Film School and received an MA degree in 2008 from their Master of Professional Writing Program.ReviewsRichard has written a terrific book. Insightful, funny, provocative and deep; I highly recommend it!
~Robert Thurman (author of Why the Dalai Lama Matters)Everyone should have a Richard Martini in their life.
~ Charles Grodin (Author of Just When I Thought I’d Heard Everything!)Inspiring, well written and entertaining. The kind of book where once you have read it, you will no longer be able to see the world in the same way again.
~ Gary E. Schwartz PhD (Author of The Sacred Promise)We viewed Flipside last night and were blown away about how good it is; the visuals were outstanding – the care taken in putting it all together really shows.
~​Michael Newton, PhD (Author of Journey of Souls)For more info, see:
www.AWonderfulAfterlife.com, www.FlipsideTheFilm.com or ​www.RichMartini.com​

The Martian and the Overview Effect

Via Paz on FB
Are you familiar with the "overview effect?"

You should be.
It's what astronauts report after coming back to Earth after spending some time in space, circling the "pale blue dot."
It's important because a number of people have cited it as a "consciousness altering event" that occurred when seeing the earth from outer space.
Carl Sagan mentions it and coined the phrase "the pale blue dot."
Scientist/Philosopher Giordano Bruno had an out of body experience where he "saw the earth" from outer space, and it altered his idea of the heavens (and he was burned at the stake for it.)
Private Manning cited it in the film by Alex Gibney as to why she felt compelled to share the secret military files she's spending life in prison for.


OVERVIEW from Planetary Collective on Vimeo.

"The overview effect is a cognitive shift in awareness reported by some astronauts and cosmonauts during spaceflight, often while viewing the Earth from orbit or from the lunar surface."

In my life of research, a "cognitive shift" is what I'm hearing over and over in interviews with people who either have had a near death experience, an out of body experience, a run in with someone who is no longer on the planet, or while under deep hypnosis. ("Flipside" and "It's a Wonderful Afterlife.")

People who've had these profound experiences claim that they've gone through some form of cognitive shift, where they no longer see their lives, or the lives of those around them in the same way.

During one hypnosis session, a woman was asked "what's the reason behind this shift?" and her "spirit guide" replied - "In terms of the cosmos, it's not a big deal.  However, if you want to understand a shift in consciousness, imagine yourself a crab walking on the ocean floor and you suddenly open your eyes and realize - you're in an ocean. That's a shift in consciousness."

So how is "The Martian" like the "Overview Effect?"

It's in the plant. (Funny. "Plant" and "planet." Can't get much closer than those two words).  

The plant that the "Martian" says hello to on Mars, and later we see a plant on another planet, which the actor in the scene says hello to as well.

How fragile. How precious. How indelibly linked are we to this place.  How incredibly amazing it is that we can actually have food and light and water - when obviously the experiment on Mars didn't have the same effect.  The experiment on Mars, for lack of a better term - we could call it the Universe's ability to turn a planet into a lush place teeming with life - didn't take hold on Mars.  For whatever reason.  And yet it did on Earth.

So when you go to Mars, and inevitably you will go to Mars when you see this amazing film, think for a moment how that sister planet - Mars might be an example of what Earth will look like in the future. 

If we don't take care of it. 
If we don't realize how precious it is. 
If we don't consider, embrace, understand the overview effect.

Here's a booklet from the overview project that is worth reading about space exploration:
http://www.overviewinstitute.org/images/overvieweffect.pdf

Amazing eulogy by Jeffrey Forrester about the Flipside

A good friend sent me this amazing eulogy today. He said it is ok to share it. It's a moving tribute, as its written by the man who passed away, who speaks with great clarity and insight about the flipside. The video of him as a child, posted below, is equally powerful, but the words are quite moving and a revelation. 

In his eulogy he references some first hand accounts of the Flipside from Swami Yogananda, and I've included excerpts below.  I didn't know Hefe, but I compliment him on his courage, his path and his journey.

Sail on brother. 

http://www.jlforrestermemorial.com/

Jeffrey L Forrester
1966 - 2015
September 7, 2015

Dear friends,

I wanted to say a few words that might be helpful in your processing of my death, wherever you are with it in your feeling right now.

First, I want you to understand that the death process itself – to a point anyway – is actually well familiar to me. I’ve spent an inordinate amount of time “off the body” and by that I mean in the etheric body, or ghost body – hovering over it, stepping off it, walking around my room and outside where I could observe my physical body at a distance, also interacting with other ghosts, or so-called “deceased” people, and in a number of cases, helping some of the truly bound into a transition “upward”, into a far greater process than simply meandering around the surface of the earth in a mostly semi-bewildered state. But there have also been an equal number of ghosts who are largely happy where they are, and are conscious, relational, conversational, and 100% as normal and functional as we are. An amusing thing. 

I’ve also spent an even greater amount of time in what is sometimes called the astral or what’s effectively an inter-dimensional domain. This astral domain of life is entirely real and self-existing, as real as anything you think real on this earth, and I think it’s maybe best characterized by a small chapter toward the end of Autobiography of a Yogi, (RM note: see chapter 43 excerpts below *) where Yogananda’s guru, Sri Yukteshwar, elaborates for many pages of detail his experience of this astral domain.

Among existing first-hand accounts from authentic gurus, I’ve found this one to be the most accurate. The astral dimension of life is pretty much like he recounts it. If you strip his communication of some of the culturally Indian mythology and language, it is exactly the way it is.

I’m telling you this not to imply any spiritual advancement on my part or to make any of you think I’ve simply lost control of my faculties. You may find it all preposterous, but you’ll see in time that all of what I’m saying is true. I mention it here because it’s relevant. Exhaustive time spent outside the physical body in either proximate, (ghost and subtle) or distant (astral spaces), profoundly changes your relationship to human death, and even the idea of losing your bodily life becomes a matter of indifference. In some way, death as we conceive it, does not occur at all. You simply transition into new forms of more subtle, yet incarnate experience, and most often a physical rebirth into the form that matches your evolutionary adaptation, typically human in our cases. 

Anyway, all this time spent ‘off the body’ has, over the decades, radically altered my feeling for and understanding of what death actually is – a “transition” – as my Guru accurately puts it – and not at all an ending. What is interesting is that both ghosts and astral or inter-dimensional beings view themselves as “the actually living” and all of humanity as being in a kind of temporary hallucination or dream-state.

The gross physical realm where we live and function is actually felt and seen by beings in a more subtle domain to be less real or even in some ways unreal. So it is the exact opposite of our own point of view, which claims that anything beyond the gross physical is likely illusory or even imaginary. In any case, you’ll see what I’m talking about and have no doubts about it at all when you’re dead. One of the many surprises you’ll find is that the thing that seems least real of all is the very life you just left behind. You turn your head back, looking at all that you have loved, cherished, and been so attached to, and you will laugh, because it seems suddenly and absolutely like a mere dream. And you love it still, without any difference, but it is yet a dream, and obviously so. I’ll leave that with you to contemplate.

Finally, I wanted you to know just how happy and deeply resolved I am about this entire event of transition. The last six months especially and even the last month in particular have been among the most transformative of my life, and in the most precious and positive of ways. Many dimensions of my person that were in any way in conflict or simply not internally resolved, have suddenly resolved themselves to an absolute degree, putting me in a place of such deep joy I can barely communicate it.

Why has this occurred? I can’t say. The depth of peace and love in me within is so deep that I’ve almost felt it as a final spiritual gift of some kind from the source of all such gifts in my life, my still Spiritually-Living Guru. I’ve intentionally pushed away that thought in the last months so it doesn’t become a self-fulfilling prophecy about some kind of deep resolution before an upcoming death—which I’ve been fighting against to the last. But if I am dead, which I will be as you’re reading this, then yes, it was a kind of prophetic event of some kind, but what a happy one!

I mean to say that if I am dead, it could not have come at a better time. That seems strange to say, but it’s logical from where I stand. My life is culminating right now in such an extraordinary way. Whether this moment leads to death, or even more life and the continued offering to the world of whatever authentic gifts I have – either outcome is “right”. Either seems both true and deeply appropriate to me. Of course, I have, and always will choose life. Life is a blessing to always cherish and preserve. But just know that if death came, it came in the most gentle of ways, and with colossal and uncanny gifts to me prior to its to sweet arrival.

I want to say that nothing has fueled my will to live more during this very long trial than how my closest friends and family have responded to this whole drama. The outpouring of energy, service, kindness, contemplative prayer on my behalf, and a river flow of love my way has been of such a volume that it’s been truly difficult to receive at times. I wish I could say in words or poetry how much I love each of you, and just how powerfully that love for you flows inside of me, but I can’t. It’s a thing beyond speech. Just know that I’ve received this love of yours deeply and if there were literally nothing else in my life experience, it alone would have made my life worth living.

I’ve found in all of this that the love we share between us is about as close to the true sacred as it gets. It’s a force to be reckoned with and if you learn nothing else from the ordeal of cancer, you’ll learn this. Nothing breaks my heart more than to feel the loss of my friends in the Way and everywhere. All else seems miniscule by comparison. 

For my friends everywhere, I want them to know that my death was an “easy death”. My life has been Blessed beyond belief, over and over again in a tidal wave of grace. I have nothing but gratitude for it. My death, not unexpectedly is equally Blessed. I find Bhagavan, my Sat-Guru, easily—on this side or the other. Or perhaps better said – He’s Always Finding me. I do not know what else to ask for in this life. Truly, there is nothing else.

I sign this letter with all, all of love to you.

I am at peace, in a deep rest, and my heart is Joyful.

I hope you will always remember how much I loved you.

I loved you with everything I have.

I so much look forward to seeing you again.

And, yes, it will be soon.

With all my love and a heart broken with the sheer joy of all of it, I bow down low, with the humility of my monk’s interior, to my Guru, to my brothers and sisters in the Way, and to each and every one who has ever touched my hand and said without a word, I am with you.

Love,

Hefe


https://vimeo.com/139726219


Hefe from function108 on Vimeo.


RM: I posted this eulogy primarily because he's got a unique perspective on life and the afterlife.  He's spent many hours outside of his body and exploring this other realm.   It's not something everyone can do - we all choose to come to the planet, we all choose our lifetimes, so rest assured that you are doing the thing that you sign up for - to live this life.  But this is a fascinating farewell, as he really elaborates on the journey that he's taken.  This life is wonderful and worth sticking around to explore.  But consciousness does continue on, as we will one day see.

I looked up the references he mentions above, and will post some excerpts from it and where possible , point out how similar this text is to the research behind "Flipside" and "It's a Wonderful Afterlife."

* Autobiography of a Yogi  can be found if you click this link.  If you want to see what he's referring to, scan down to chapter 43, which I will reprint below, courtesy of the Swami. It's a 16 page discussion, it was written in 1946. (All rights belong to Parahamsa Yogananda, this excerpt is here for educational purposes only.)

After the death of his guru, Sri Yukteshwar, Swami Yogananda visited Bombay....

"Sitting on my bed in the Bombay hotel at three o'clock in the afternoon of June 19, 1936.... - I was roused from my meditation by a beatific light. Before my open and astonished eyes, the whole room was transformed into a strange world, the sunlight transmuted into supernal splendor. Waves of rapture engulfed me as I beheld the flesh and blood form of Sri Yukteswar!

"My son!" Master spoke tenderly, on his face an angel-bewitching smile. For the first time in my life I did not kneel at his feet in greeting but instantly advanced to gather him hungrily in my arms. Moment of moments! The anguish of past months was toll I counted weightless against the torrential bliss now descending. "Master mine, beloved of my heart, why did you leave me?"... 

"I left you only for a little while; am I not with you again?"

"But is it you, Master, the same Lion of God? Are you wearing a body like the one I buried beneath the cruel Puri sands?"

"Yes, my child, I am the same. This is a flesh and blood body. Though I see it as ethereal, to your sight it is physical. From the cosmic atoms I created an entirely new body, exactly like that
cosmic-dream physical body which you laid beneath the dream-sands at Puri in your dreamworld. I am in truth resurrected-not on earth but on an astral planet. Its inhabitants are better able than earthly humanity to meet my lofty standards. There you and your exalted loved ones shall someday come to be with me."

(He explains what work he's doing in the afterlife helping new arrivals, and then reports:)

"There are many astral planets, teeming with astral beings," Master began. "The inhabitants use astral planes, or masses of light, to travel from one planet to another, faster than electricity and radioactive energies. "

"The astral universe, made of various subtle vibrations of light and color, is hundreds of times larger than the material cosmos. The entire physical creation hangs like a little solid basket under the huge luminous balloon of the astral sphere. Just as many physical suns and stars roam in space, so there are also countless astral solar and stellar systems. Their planets have astral suns and moons, more beautiful than the physical ones. The astral luminaries resemble the aurora borealis-the sunny astral aurora being more dazzling than the mild-rayed moon-aurora. The astral day and night are longer than those of earth."

"The astral world is infinitely beautiful, clean, pure, and orderly. (RM Note: Same accounts from Galen Stoller in "My Life After life" and Erik Medhus in "My Life After Death") There are no dead planets or barren lands. The terrestrial blemishes- weeds, bacteria, insects, snakes-are absent. Unlike the variable climates and seasons of the earth, the astral planets maintain the even temperature of an eternal spring, with occasional luminous white snow and rain of many-colored lights. Astral planets abound in opal lakes and bright seas and rainbow rivers...."

..."On earth a solid must be transformed into liquid or other form through natural or chemical processes, but astral solids are changed into astral liquids, gases, or energy solely and instantly by the will of the inhabitants."

"The earth is dark with warfare and murder in the sea, land, and air," my guru continued, "but the astral realms know a happy harmony and equality."

"Astral beings (can) dematerialize or materialize their forms at will. Flowers or fish or animals can metamorphose themselves, for a time, into astral men. All astral beings are free to assume any form, and can easily commune together. No fixed, definite, natural law hems them round-any astral tree, for example, can be successfully asked to produce an astral mango or other desired fruit, flower, or indeed any other object."

"Everything is vibrant with God's creative light. No one is born (per se) of woman; offspring are materialized by astral beings through the help of their cosmic will into specially patterned, astrally condensed forms. The recently physically disembodied being arrives in an astral family through invitation, drawn by similar mental and spiritual tendencies." 

..."The astral body is an exact counterpart of the last physical form. Astral beings retain the same appearance which they possessed in youth in their previous earthly sojourn; occasionally an astral being chooses, like myself, to retain his old age appearance."  

..."Friends of other lives easily recognize one another in the astral world," Sri Yukteswar went on in his beautiful, flutelike voice. "Rejoicing at the immortality of friendship, they realize the indestructibility of love, often doubted at the time of the sad, delusive partings of earthly life."

..."Communication among the astral inhabitants is held entirely by astral telepathy and television; (RM note - interesting he uses "television" as in 1946 is was barely in existence) there is none of the confusion and misunderstanding of the written and spoken word which earthdwellers must endure. Just as persons on the cinema screen appear to move and act through a series of light pictures, and do not actually breathe, so the astral beings walk and work as intelligently guided and coordinated images of light, without the necessity of drawing power from oxygen. Man depends upon solids, liquids, gases, and energy for sustenance; astral beings sustain themselves principally by cosmic light."

..."The earth-liberated astral being meets a multitude of relatives, fathers, mothers, wives, husbands, and friends, acquired during different incarnations on earth, as they appear from time to time in various parts of the astral realms. He is therefore at a loss to understand whom to love especially; he learns in this way to give a divine and equal love to all, as children and individualized expressions of God." 

"Though the outward appearance of loved ones may have changed, more or less according to the development of new qualities in the latest life of any particular soul, the astral being employs his unerring intuition to recognize all those once dear to him in other planes of existence, and to welcome them to their new astral home." 

"Because every atom in creation is inextinguishably dowered ("In a way that cannot be extinguished; immortally") with individuality, an astral friend will be recognized no matter what costume he may don, even as on earth an actor's identity is discoverable by close observation despite any disguise." (RM: Note - and why when people say they see "Jesus" it's not because he's wearing a name tag).

..."The astral being does not have to contend painfully with death at the time of shedding his luminous body. Many of these beings nevertheless feel slightly nervous at the thought of dropping
their astral form for the subtler causal one. The astral world is free from unwilling death, disease, and old age. These three dreads are the curse of earth, where man has allowed his consciousness
to identify itself almost wholly with a frail physical body requiring constant aid from air, food,and sleep in order to exist at all." (RM Note - "Curse" is a curious word, but considering the speaker was a guru, would have observed them as such)

..."Physical desires are rooted in egotism and sense pleasures. The compulsion or temptation of sensory experience is more powerful than the desire-force connected with astral attachments or causal perceptions."

..."Causal desires are fulfilled by perception only. The nearly-free beings who are encased only in the causal body see the whole universe as realizations of the dream-ideas of God; they can
materialize anything and everything in sheer thought.  (RM: Note: this is often repeated in the research, "everything is energy" and we learn how to "focus our energy" via thought) Causal beings therefore consider the enjoyment of physical sensations or astral delights as gross and suffocating to the soul's fine sensibilities." 

"Causal beings work out their desires by materializing them instantly. Those who find themselves covered only by the delicate veil of the causal body can bring universes into manifestation even as the Creator. Because all creation is made of the cosmic dream-texture, the soul thinly clothed in the causal has vast realizations of power..."

..."A soul, being invisible by nature, can be distinguished only by the presence of its body or bodies.... 

...."A man identifies himself about sixteen hours daily with his physical vehicle. Then he sleeps; if he dreams, he remains in his astral body, effortlessly creating any object even as do the astral beings."

...."Angelic guru," I said, "your body looks exactly as it did when last I wept over it in the Puri ashram."

"O yes, my new body is a perfect copy of the old one. I materialize or dematerialize this form any time at will, much more frequently than I did while on earth. By quick dematerialization, I now travel instantly by light express from planet to planet or, indeed, from astral to causal or to physical cosmos." My divine guru smiled. "Though you move about so fast these days, I had no difficulty in finding you at Bombay!"

"O Master, I was grieving so deeply about your death!"

"Ah, wherein did I die? Isn't there some contradiction?" Sri Yukteswar's eyes were twinkling with love and amusement. "You were only dreaming on earth; on that earth you saw my dream- body," he went on. "Later you buried that dream-image. Now my finer fleshly body-which you behold and are even now embracing rather closely!-is resurrected on another finer dream-planet of God. "

"Someday that finer dream-body and finer dream-planet will pass away; they too are not forever. All dreambubbles must eventually burst at a final wakeful touch. Differentiate, my son Yogananda, between dreams and Reality!"

"My child," his voice rang out, vibrating into my very soul-firmament, "whenever you enter the door of samadhi and call on me, I shall come to you in flesh and blood, even as today."
With this celestial promise Sri Yukteswar vanished from my sight. A cloud-voice repeated in musical thunder: "Tell all! Whosoever knows by nirbikalpa (self realization through meditation) samadhi realization that your earth is a dream of God can... find me resurrected in a body exactly like my earthly one. Yogananda, tell all!" (RM: Note - Okay, we will.)

Excerpts from Chapter 43, "Autobiography of a Yogi"

Hacking the Afterlife: Practical Advice from the Flipside gofundme page

A new GoFundMe campaign for my next book "Hacking the Afterlife: Practical Advice from the Flipside"  (click here to go to the site)


Our grandparents seeing the King of England in 1933. Wouldn't it be great to ask them questions?


Hello!  Please help me to write my newest book  "HACKING THE AFTERLIFE: Practical Advice From the Flipside."

After writing "Flipside: A Tourist's Guide on How to Navigate the Aftelife" and"It's a Wonderful Afterlife: Further Adventures in the Flipside" I've continued to gather information and research from people no longer on the planet.  It's occurred to me (and with some encouragement from those "over there") that I should focus on writing a book that helps bring "new information" from people no longer on the planet to help those struggling over here.I'm an award winning film writer/director, documentary filmmaker, journalist, and as of late, an author of books about the afterlife.  I've written and/or directed eight theatrical features, a number of documentaries, and have written for Premiere, Inc.com and Variety. All three of my self published books have been best sellers at Amazon, going to #1 in their kindle categories aftermy appearances on "Coast to Coast" with George Noory. 

Allow me to clarify; I've filmed dozens of sessions of people under deep hypnosis who consistently say the same the things about the journey of souls into the Flipside. 

I've interviewed dozens of people who've made the trip to the Flipside, either through a near death experience, a deep hypnosis session, through out of body experiences, or mediums who have a reputation for helping people in need and report the same details of their journey. I've interviewed scientists who are working on the cutting edge of consciousness studies, who claim that the brain is not the source of all thoughts or memories. 

And many of the people I've interviewed, who've made these trips into these other realms, bring back "new information" - things they couldn't have known consciously, or subconsciously - and the information appears to come from people on the Flipside.

So if it is possible to seek out information from people under deep hypnosis, or after a near death experience, or even while a medium is accessing people on the Flipside, doesn't it make sense to see if there's any life enhancing information that can be accessed from that interchange? Like "How can I make my life easier?" "How can I find my true love?" "How can I help save the planet?" "What or who is God?" "Why am I here?" "Why am I suffering?" "How can I shift my perspective?"

I left out "And what are the lottery numbers?" because I've asked that question a number of times, and actually was given a series of numbers during one session. I went to the nearest lottery and played them - and won.  

I won a dollar.  And as I saw that I'd won my dollar I heard in my head "You didn't say how much you wanted to win. We just wanted to prove to you that you can!"  So, people on the Flipside have a sense of humor as well, apparently.

How could accessing this info help the planet or help people in need?  

Well, of course, logic tells us that if a person asks a personal question and gets a specific answer, there's no way to verify that answer didn't come strictly from their subconscious.  

However, if you ask the same question to a variety of different people - using different protocols - either while they're under hypnosis, or while speaking through a medium - if there's a consensus about the answer, then that's a novel way to gather data.  If the same answer comes up dozens of times - then the data supports the conclusion, just as it would from any survey.

In this book  "HACKING THE AFTERLIFE: Practical Advice From the Flipside"  I will apply those results to practical applications. Through a series of "life hacks" I'll explore "How to Navigate the Planet," "The Flipside of the Flipside" and other essential questions.  Ways to gain information from over there to help folks over here.  

Having difficulty finding your soul mate? Well, what do people say over there about the process? What they have to say about it is pretty consistent. Having stress over feeling like "I don't belong here"?  Let's talk to some folks who claim that they don't normally incarnate on the planet and see what they have to say.  Having a hard time understanding why there's so much negativity in the world, or fear based reporting going on?  Let's discuss this from those who might have a better perspective on it. Feeling bereft over the loss of a loved one and unable to recover? Well, we can ask those over there about how to lessen that kind of emotional pain and loss.

I've filmed a number of sessions where the person who is under deep hypnosis will suddenly say "And tell Richard to keep up his work, as we appreciate it over here."  

Sometimes I barely know the person who is doing the session, or sometimes I nearly fall off my chair.  But if there is such a thing as divine guidance, this is the fastest way to access and spread that information as I'll post updates of what I learn along the way.

I will be seeking to gain this information from sessions where people discuss these events on the Flipside, from people who've had near death experiences who can recall similar themes or revelations, from those who've had out of body experiences and from people no longer on the planet who appear to be in a continuing dialog with those off the planet.  

"How can we alter our perspective in order to make life easier for us over here? How can we alter our perspective to make the planet safer? How can we use this information from the Flipside to help us on our path and journey here?"

My last books "It's a Wonderful Afterlife" volumes one and two were crowd funded. (Thank you!) Your generous support of my last book allowed me to focus fully on the task at hand, and the response has been terrific. If you'd like to check out my blog "The Martini Shot" there are numerous "Flipside" based essays.  And the documentary "Flipside" and the "It's a Wonderful Afterlife" books are all available online.

So I'm reaching out again to those of you who can afford to support this research, who appreciate the books so far, or just want to support me on my path and journey into the flipside.  (I do like writing about it, I'm just not in a hurry to get there.) Thanks in advance for any donation you can make. It all helps immensely.

Here's the latest book talk I gave in Chicago at the International Association of Near Death Studies in Evanston.  The title of this talk is "SACRED HEART."   It's about 90 minutes.  Thanks for tuning in.  Rich

suicide prevention month and UW Madison mindfulness study

September is Suicide Prevention month; give a moment of support to all of those who have family problems, health struggles, job issues, worries of any kind and just needs to know that someone cares. BUT BEYOND THAT: depression is regulated by the amygdala. You can cure or alleviate depression thru meditating, for the science behind it, search Richard Davidson, U of Wisc. Learn how to meditate and teach it to your loved ones. Then contemplate the notion that you chose this life for a reason, its not random. In that choice, is all you need to know about why you're on the planet. What lessons you chose to learn, what difficulties you chose to overcome. Meditate on all those you've helped, or who have helped you, and thank them in your heart. Then open your heart to everyone and all things, and know that whatever is bothering you, like a raging storm, will eventually pass, and you can affect its passing via meditation or mindfulness. My 2 cents on suicide prevention month.

Some folks associate meditation with religious or holistic or natural cures. My point is, the science, the actual data, the peer reviewed data, shows that a particular form of meditation ("tonglen") cures or alleviates symptoms of depression by directly affecting the amygdala and its ability to regulate seratonin.

If someone has been using seratonin release inhibitors (for depression, anxiety, nervousness, sleep) theres a safe, no side effect, medically proven alternative to paxil, zoloft, prozac. 

You don't have to be a monk to learn tonglen, but davidson himself told me its what he used in his ground breaking study. 

I believe any doctor who doesn't acknowledge alternates to medication either hasn't read the study, doesn't believe the results, or is addicted to prescribing meds with severe side effects. It's not an "alternative medicine" option, in my opinion, it should be the main prescription, with psychotropic meds reserved to treat the extreme cases. 


We tend to dismiss evidence if it doesn't fit the money making paradigm. It's not an opinion on my part, as i attended a lecture at UCLA where Davidson presented his evidence to a room full of doctors and psychiatrists eager to hear of a way to not "prescribe psychotropics to teens" as one doc put it. "Tonglen can cure or alleviate symptoms of depression." It should be taught in med schools worldwide. My two cents.

Nirvana and the Flipside

Interesting story came to my attention the other day...

Portals are everywhere.A friend on Facebook posted this story about her dad: 



"Many of you know my dad recently passed. 
 Here is one of the incidents I experienced with him in hospice. I was alone with dad one day, he was in bed, he called me to the bed and grabbed my hand. 

He was seeing something from the "beyond", and I could feel his energy rise, and his eyes were darting back and forth and at the same time he cracked a wee smile. He said loud and clear.. "Nirvana." 

He was squeezing my hand with a decent grip for a 94 year old man in hospice. Then, as fast as the show appeared, it left.. He let go of my hand and said, Oh crap, I'm back!!!

I wrote to her; 

"Condolences... and yet, this about sums up my "Flipside" research. On one side "Nirvana!" On the flipside: "Oh crap, I'm back."
Portals literally everywhere.
What's going on here?  

It's quite common in the hospice stories I've heard. Usually seeing someone, often a loved one, sometimes a stranger (over here, not over there) beckoning. Sometimes a vision, like Steve Jobs saying "oh wow, oh wow, oh wow" before he passed, or Roger Ebert calling it "a vastness you can't imagine" - it's as if the filters, or interference shuts down, or is shutting down, and we get a glimpse of the flipside. 

The "oh crap" part is funny, because over here we're slow, we're heavy, we lose the feeling of unconditional love we feel over there. But we also forget why we came here while we're here, to change lives and learn lessons.

Her dad Will perfectly sums up the difference between here and there. (He's not gone by the way; he's just not here).
I'm sure he's adjusting, lots of pals to see again, stories to share. I hope Will reaches out to his daughter; not everyone is tuned the same, if he can figure out the tuning, he'll reach out. Either in dreams (easiest) or some other fashion. 

Dr Elisa Medhus got a physical phone call from her son Erik on her cell (hardest). It took that dramatic step to get her attention. But you never know - think of a question you don't know the answer to, and ask it aloud. (Holding a pic, according to the reports, seems to help) If they can, they'll answer it.
Are you seeing something I'm not seeing?So when you wake up in the morning, it's good to think a bit about what will said.  Is it "Nirvana" or "oh crap?"  I think we can choose Nirvana - and the more we see it here in our conscious minds, the sooner we'll see it there when the time comes. 

My two cents.

Flipside of the Flipside

Tragedy is everywhere.

Courage is everywhere too.

It takes courage to come to the planet.  That's what the research shows anyway - in the scholarly articles that were done about hypnosis by Dr. Helen Wambach in the 1960's and the many cases reported by Dr. Michael Newton in the 1970's-90's we find that each time people choose to show up on the planet there's a reason to do so.

Divine light or some dust?In other words, the journey, as hard as it is to accomplish, isn't done without some forethought.

People say that sometimes they were coerced to "come back" by their loved ones - because they wanted them to play some kind of role in their lives, and they just weren't "all that happy" to do so, but did it out of a favor. And when they get here to the planet, they forget that they made that agreement and came to fulfill a role - and just don't want to be here at all.

And then other people come to give others such a deeply profound lesson in love that it takes the breath away.  I'm reminded of these stories with the loss of this little Syrian boy who drowned while trying to get to a better life than where he was.
Aylan Kurdi and his brother Galip. courtesy CNNI've seen some pretty intense films made in Syria, in the midst of this war, by people who still live there, who still are trying to make sense of the nonsense, who observe "If we were kittens, more people would pay attention to us."  It's an epic crisis happening on the planet, and there doesn't seem to be much that anyone can do about it, except wait and see who winds up on top.

 
Here's a film that shows why people are doing everything to leave Syria. It's 14 minutes, worth watching.

But I'd like to offer that despite this tragedy - which is ongoing - people can understand that we all choose our lifetimes. 

Sometimes its to come here to teach a lesson in compassion.  How can people turn their backs on those fighting for their lives?  How can we turn our backs on the planet which is fighting for its life?  How can we turn our backs on our loved ones who are fighting for their lives?

Research shows we come here for a reason and not to just cut down trees.
 But somehow we wind up turning our backs, or doing the politically expedient thing - whether it's attacking and going to war and taking more lives, or ignoring the people who are in desperate straights, or ignoring the homeless person asking for a nickel or a smile.  

People in the Sudan, people lighting themselves on fire in Tibet to escape Chinese occupation, people who are impoverished, addicted to drugs, who lash out - people who are in uniform who fear for their lives and pull the trigger before they realize what's happening... these events occur every day, and we get so caught up in the emotion of them, we can't stop to applaud those who came here, sacrificed their lives so we could learn something about compassion.


It's hard to wrap my mind around it, for sure, but I offer it because it's in the data. It's in the thousands of cases that have been examined, it's in so many differing accounts from so many people across the planet who've never met, that there must be something more to it than meets the eye.

Two people who chose very different paths, but found ourselves at the same place. Which takes us to another eyeful.  A county clerk raised by her tradition to be conservative takes it upon herself to deny gay people the right to marry.  Conservative pundits run - no, elbow each other to her defense, until it turns out the clerk has been married four times, twice to the same fellow, whom she conceived kids with with one of her previous husbands.  If she had spent any time reading the actual book, instead of smacking people with it, she might have seen the concept that "love your neighbor as yourself" and "what you do to the least of these, you do to me" is in that good book... over and over again.

"Kingdom of God is Near" isn't a warning; it's a location.

But somehow, she can't see the fact that we are all equal - on this side of the fence, and on the other side of the fence.  That the "Kingdom of God is near" isn't a warning, but an observation of locality - that heaven, or the flipside, is actually so close we need only close our eyes to focus on it, get information, solace and energy from it.  And lessons too.

I'd post her picture, but what's the point? She'll be on a book tour soon, and her face splattered across the media, and then some years later, it will come out that she meant something else, or that she's sorry for causing stress, or whatever.

Here's the thing.

What the research into the afterlife shows is that the predominant paradigm in the universe is love. 

We don't have a proper definition for the word love, just like we don't have one for the word "home" (which every session I've filmed, when people are asked "where would you like to go?" they say "home" and they don't mean here.)  We have no real, concrete definition for love - but we all know what it means, we've all experienced it, so therefore, we "know it."

Universal studios, otherwise known as The Universe.
And as I've heard on more than one occasion doing this research "God is too difficult a concept for the human brain to comprehend, it's not physically possible" yet "you can experience God if you open your heart to everyone and all things."

Open your heart to everyone and to all things.

Shall we repeat it together out loud?  "OPEN YOUR HEART TO EVERYONE AND TO ALL THINGS."

Open your heart to all things. Including fans of the Cubs. (me) That's what, or who God is.  And you can experience God by opening your heart to everyone and all things.  I get this information from the Flipside.  And it's information from the Flipside that helps us over here on the Flipside of the Flipside.

If this county clerk could open her heart to everyone and to all things, she would experience God. Open her heart to the things she doesn't understand, or fears.  It's that simple.  And in like form, that means I have to open my heart to her.  I don't know why she chose this path, but I honor it.  It's possibly to show and demonstrate what lack of compassion is so we can experience compassion.  I don't know why she chose a life to have three husbands and four marriages, but I honor that choice.  It's her choice after all, I'm not in her shoes, and I can't judge her for it.

Opening your heart to all things, not so hard if the thing is a rose.
The thorn not so much.  Just like the parents of the child who drowned trying to find safety and freedom and love with his family.  

He's not gone, he's just not here. He came to teach a lesson in love, perhaps to learn a lesson in love - I don't know the answer because I'm not in his shoes. He knows why he chose this path, and he may have left early because he's going to come back in the future with his soul mates to perform some other act of compassion. It's possible.

He will always be with his parents.  He had his reasons for coming here to have a short life - I can't judge those reasons either, but I can appreciate the outpouring of love for him.  I can appreciate that everyone seeing his photo has opened their hearts just a bit, and can feel that experience of love.  I honor him for his courage to do so.

Love exists.  And God, or whatever word you prefer, whatever nomenclature makes you comfortable - you can call it "the energetic etheric quantum substance that connects all of us etherically" - or you can call it "the thing that I know exists because I exist" - whatever words suit what your heart feels, that's the idea I'm trying to get at.

We learn from this research into the flipside how to live and behave and be compassionate on the flipside of the flipside. Which is.. 

Right where you are.

My two cents.

End of the World and the Elaborate Hoax

Our daughter asked if I'd heard these "rumors the world was going to end next month."


Before... and after we blow up.
I had not - so I had to look them up.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-1052354/Are-going-die-Wednesday.html

Are we all going to die next Wednesday?

Two nightmare scenarios, two ends of the world. In the first, there is little warning. For maybe a month there would be no sign that life was about to come to an abrupt and nasty end for all living things on Earth. Then, earthquakes would start unexpectedly, alerting geologists that something terrible, unimaginable, was amiss. After a few days, these seismic disturbances would reach catastrophic proportions. Cities would be levelled, the oceans would rise and wash in a series of mega-tsunamis that would attack the world's coasts, killing millions.
I have some good news and I have some bad news with regard to this research.

You want the bad news first? Okay.  

"We don't die."

What I mean by that is literally, we don't die.  So even if the planet blew up tomorrow, we don't die.  So we would go and populate some other planet in the Universe. (and perhaps screw that up too) I've had at least one person speak of an apocalypse on "another planet" during a lifetime she remembered prior to this one on Earth. (In "Flipside").

She said that the citizens of the planet had allowed science to get out of control, (no, it wasn't called "Krypton") and in their search to design some kind of energy mechanism, had caused the destruction of their planet.

Just like in the movies.


I'd hate to see it go. So much work involved!!
So is it possible for us to destroy the Earth by doing an experiment on it?

Well, according to these eyewitness accounts, it's happened before, just not on this planet.  So technically, sure.

And, the good news?

There are reports of people out there who keep an eye on us so we don't screw up the planet.

Wondering why we haven't been hit by an asteroid in the past million or so years?  I have too.

I've interviewed more than one person who under deep hypnosis has spoken of how the Earth came into being - how there are "entities" or "energies" that oversaw the process, that planned these events "in the future" and that "continue to guide it."

There is a universal law of "no interference" according to these folks.  So we are free to destroy it if we want to.  However, when it comes to helping the Earth move along, these folks act like guardians, or sheep herders perhaps is more accurate - helping seed life, and creating an environment so that we could inhabit this planet.  I'd say they've done a heck of a job.


Space fotos NASA. Guardians watching over us? Cool!
I know how weird this sounds.  But I'm just repeating what they've said.  That the "reason an asteroid wiped out the dinosaurs" was so that human life could come to fruition.

As if they protected the Earth in some fashion from other asteroids, but allowed one through to help with the "intelligent design" of the planet.  (And I'm not referring to the religious version of that phrase, obviously, as the only thing that atheists and evangelicals agree on, is that I must be crazy.)

It's hard to put our minds around planning "that far" into the future - but when you consider that once we're outside of this realm, we're outside the normal constructs of time and space.  

Meaning, planning on creating a habitable planet so humans could inhabit it is exactly what happened.  So - is it possible that's what occurred? I don't know.  All I can tell you is that I've talked to more than one person who described these folks who "oversee" or "keep an eye" on our planet during its journey. My job is to report whatever it is I hear (but I try to limit these reports to two or more folks who've said relatively the same things.)  

So what does that have to do with Cern starting up?  All I can say is either the doomsday folks are right - and if they are, then some event will occur so that the accelerator does not work properly or doesn't do it's desired functions. (Thank you folks who oversee our planet!) Or, it's time for us to move on to another planet.  Or the doomsdayers are wrong, and there's never been a reason to worry.

All I can tell you for a fact (from the research) is this: no matter what happens, we don't die.


A rose is a rose... unless it's a photograph.
So sorry to hear of the latest shooting of a reporter on camera. 

I'd offer that the odds are, the fired employee was on SSRI drugs given him by a shrink. (Every "mass shooting" since Columbine was someone who had easy access to guns, and had been on prescription anti depressants.) So I would lay even money that it's the case here.

Why does this happen? 

Because the anti depressants alter the behavior of the amygdala (they supress seratonin release in the brain, which has unforseen consequences).  So in people severely depressed the switch is screwed up - and (a doctor friends says up to) 15% of the people on SSRI drugs it has a deleterious effect - shuts off the "morality" switch, and something they would never have thought of outside a video game (or torrid fantasy) seems like the most logical thing in the world to do. 

I'm sorry to hear of these tragic events that caused the death of three people.  However; to sound like a broken record - we don't die.  


This dude looks like me in a past life. (Rodin) Or I look like him in this life.The reporter is not here, but she's not gone. The cameraman is not here, but he's not gone. The shooter is not here, but he's not gone either.  No one involved is "gone" or "dead" or whatever term we have to signify "the end." 

All three stepped thru the doorway marked "afterlife" and all three are experiencing that now.  

The reporter, who is likely hanging around this realm to spread love to her father and her fiancee, family and friends - the cameraman, hanging around his family and friends to see how things play out, the shooter, who is watching all the chaos he created and lives he's wrecked. (And watching the usual nutballs claiming "it didn't happen, it's a false flag Obama trick to take away my guns.") 

When you realize we don't die, we can't die, people can't kill us it alters our prespective. If we aren't killable, then people don't have to fear death, or their guns being taken away. The hard part is to enjoy their lives and still have compassion for those that might take it away. 

We all move into the next realm - whatever that represents based on our journey here - and then if and when we feel like it we come back with the help and advice of our loved ones.  

We can argue all we want about taking away guns - it only makes logical sense to treat guns the way we treat cars - licensed, accompanied by tests and earning the privelege to own a license.  For me it's not a Constitutional issue - but one of common sense.


My pal in Darchen.  Long way from here, but always connected.

I have not watched the shooter's video of his actions because frankly, I'm not interested in indulging his view of the planet. I understand that he thought it was a good idea to use social media to focus on himself, and I understand the "tipping point" result of his choice, but I'm not interested in being forced to step into his shoes.

And the reason it's hard to judge this guy's actions is because I'm not in his shoes.  I don't know what soul contract he made before he came here - it may have been to show that people who are given SSRI drugs are dangerous to society - it may be to convince congress to change gun laws - but that was his journey, and I can't judge it because I'm not part of his soul group. (At least I hope I'm not.)  But if we knew someone in his soul group - perhaps we could ask them. And perhaps it's possible to ask him too - because he didn't die either.  (Sorry to say, but it is what it is.)

He's caused a mountain of grief to be sure. There's a mountain of pain and suffering that he participated in, and I haven't the faintest idea how or why he signed up for a lifetime what would include that. My heart goes out to this reporter's parents, her dad and fiancee, family and friends, and those of the cameraman as well.

I've been in those same shoes - when I worked for CNBC on the Charles Grodin show, I did countless "stand ups" or "man in the street" interviews all over Manhattan.  I know that world, I've had fun doing it. I know others in that world, and my heart goes out to them as well, as it will surely engender copycat incidents.  We live in a crazy world.


I worked on The Charles Grodin show for CNBC for 6 months.
On a Flipside level, the research shows we come here knowing basically what role we're going to play.  And only about a third of our energy comes here to each lifetime.  And it's that other two thirds that is always back there, always watching whats happening here, always amused, always behind the scenes - always adjusting to whatever other people do.  

So we can argue - the nature of reality is a "false flag" event.  

It's in the research, that is, it's in the actual sessions talking to people who remember past lives and the between lives realms - and their testimony is corroborated by people who've had near death experiences and are scientists and generally are considered experts in their field.  There is an architecture to the afterlife if we look for it.

Events play out the way they play out - and part of the reason is seems scripted is because on some level - it was scripted. Once you can embrace the concept that we don't die - on some etheric energetic level - we can see that everything that happens is part of the school of learning.  The question is, are we strong enough students to learn from these lessons?  Can we still have compassion in the face on tragedy?  Can we honor a person's memory by coming to the conclusion they're still here?

It reminds me of Roger Ebert's last words.  Prior to his passing - he wrote a note to his wife Chaz that said "It's all an elaborate hoax."


Roger Ebert experience the hoax paradox with Mr. De Niro
She was confused. "What's an elaborate hoax?"  I think he was referring to reality, to the nature of existence.  It's all an elaborate hoax because we don't die.  Life continues on.  Not just here, but over there as well.  I offer this by way of solace to those who can't bring themselves to go on after such tragic events. But don't shoot the reporter.  I mean that literally.

My two cents.

Mother Earth and consciousness outside the brain

Can consciousness exist outside the brain?


Look deep into my eyes...
This is pretty much the crux of the question about the afterlife.

Great talk by Dr. Bruce Greyson on the topic can be found here:

There are scientists, reasonable people, very intelligent people, who don't believe it's the case.  There are doctors, lawyers, educators, politicians, business people who don't believe this is the case. There are entire sociological structures who don't believe it's the casee.  It's at the heart of whatever debate anyone wants to have about the afterlife.

And from my research into the topic, I can tell you that religious people don't really believe it either. Plenty of theories about the soul going somewhere - used to go to limbo, then when limbo was cancelled, Buddhists believe that there's a subtle clear light of consciousness that moves from one body to the next, but not that it's fully conscious - they describe it as a "wisp of smoke."  There are a number of eastern religions who feel that our consciousness after leaving our body is pushed/pulled moved around to places based on our karma, or good or bad deeds.  Certainly that's echoed in the Christian religions who believe that sin or the lack of it dictates where and how our consciousness moves around after we're gone.

Look deep into my eyes...
And then we have the post materialist scientists, those dealing with quantum physics who believe that there may be a myriad of universes, options, that are occuring, all of them beyond our will, and that in the afterlife we find ourselves pulled in a myriad of directions, perhaps millions of lifetimes and choices, ad nauseum.

It's just not in the data.

What is in the data - or research - or anecdotes - I don't particularly care what one calls them, but they're eyewitness accounts, we find that not only are we conscious after this life, there are many accounts of being hyper aware, or conscious of other details, all of our lifetimes, conscious of libraries, and classrooms and teachers and schools and groups of individuals who guide and counsel and love us, and laugh at us too.

Basically that everything we've been told about the afterlife - that it's a place or retribution, it's a place of revenge, it's a place of suffering from our actions here on the planet, is not supported by the data.  Or anecdotes.

Light reflecting on light
I use the word anecdote because that's the latest attack by materialist scientists talking about near death experiences.  "They're just anecdotes."  Well, if you get 10,000 anecdotes, and they all relatively report the same events, do we ignore them?  And then if you compare the 10,000 anecdotes to people who have had between life experiences, either via a coma, or while under deep hypnosis, or some other consciousness altering event, should we discount them when they all relatively say the same things about the afterlife?  I call them "eyewitness accounts" because what else are they?  If you get 10,000 people who witness the same event, you're going to get that many saying different things about it - but you're also going to find that most of them say the same things about it.  Because that's the nature of language, of communication, of syntax and nomenclature.  They express themselves in the best way they can.

Recently, I was given a transcript of a session that a person did while under deep hypnosis, where he was able to access some other entity that was not human in nature, not alien in nature either, but just some form of energetic thought that was beyond anything the person who had the experience had ever heard of or pondered before.

This person remembered a previous lifetime, the dates, life and journey of someone who lived in the 15th century, and during that lifetime had this apotheosis event where he/she felt connected to the earth.  And the hypnotherapist asked this person to describe that event in greater detail.  And further, the therapist asked the person to examine what that "connection to the earth" was about.

And in the session, this person claimed to be speaking to an entity - or energetic force if you will - that represented the planet itself.  Mother Earth. Gaia.  Whatever new age phrase you'd like to associate with this particular entity - that's been written about for eons, that many native cultures have claimed exists.

The pale blue dot has its own soul? Who knew?

And in this fairly mind blowing encounter, this entity shared some wisdom - that every planet has their own version of an energetic "oversoul" that represents the planets (and stars I would imagine) and that they're all interconnected.  That they all form some kind of network that is sentient.  I've heard this before during some of the sessions I've filmed - that the "universe is sentient" but I didn't quite understand the concept.  Perhaps this is a way of getting closer to that.

And this "mother earth" energy seemed slightly annoyed by the way humans had been treating their home.  She/he likened it to "having the flu." She/he was describing the human a bit the way we would describe germs that have taken over our health, and how that would eventually "no longer be the case."  This person couldn't access any apocalyptic version of events (for which I was grateful) but that things would "right themselves" in a way that it's supposed to.  And that the consciousness of the planet is being raised, and those who can't handle that transformation will choose to incarnate on other planets where they'll fit in.

Which I thought was kind of funny.  "You don't have to go home but you can't stay here."  This person under deep hypnosis was claiming that those who can't handle the transformation of energy won't be coming back.  It does give one pause.  But it's just one person's observation, and if I get another dozen or so who say the same thing, I'll spend more time examining it.  But until then, it's just another anecdote.  Enjoy the weekend.