I was invited to a screening of Sunset Blvd. A dark comedy made by Billy Wilder in 1950. William Holden, Gloria Swanson, Erich Von Stroheim - at the last minute I was going to see it by myself, thought twice about it - but something or someone insisted I go.

At the screening, Nancy Olson who starred in the film as the girlfriend of William Holden was there. She had wonderful stories about her experience on the film - her second movie. After the screening I had an urge to go to the Chateau Marmont hotel... I didn't know why, but couldn't talk myself into doing it.

Later, I discovered that Billy Wilder, the director and writer of the film wrote it while he was living in the hotel, and the room that Holden lives in with a Murphy bed was identical to the one that Wilder lived in when he wrote it.

Then for the past few days, I have been hearing, getting messages from Mr. Wilder, about my own career, about films I've written and scripts I haven't yet gotten into production.

So that was the genesis of this conversation. First Carl Weathers, who was an active member of the DGA, my pal whom I wrote a script with (Apollo Creed in Rocky) started the conversation, which then drifted to Luana Anders - where I asked if this Billy fellow wanted to be interviewed.

He did. He said he was greeted by his mother on the flipside - which was poignant because she had not come with him to the US and when he went back to extricate her from Germany, she and her husband and Billy's grandmother were victims of the Nazis.

He expressed sadness at not trying harder to get her to join him in America. I had a million questions to ask him about his writing partner and others - but he spoke about the fast times and laughs (and booze) that he and William Holden shared.

At some point I asked Walter Matthau some questions, since I was his dialog coach on a Charles Grodin film "Movers and Shakers." It was a treat to meet him - part of Hollywood royalty.

Billy talked about the great times they had back then, and how being back home was like "being in a Fred Astaire movie." He noted that he'd made "about 30 movies" (for the record he directed 27 films, including Spirit of St. Louis, the Apartment, Some Like It Hot, etc). He said that in the afterlife, it was like being on a back lot and each sound stage was filled with all the people he'd made a film with - and so each sound stage was another "chapter in his life."

Amazing description. We asked him about Marilyn Monroe and other folks he worked with - and he knew them all.

When I mentioned what a great screenwriter he was, Robert Towne showed up to talk a bit about the process, and how on the flipside, he's still honing his writing skills. He said that he was learning how to be more open to the muse - and agreed that was something for every artist, painter, musician... that we are always honing our skills either onstage or offstage.

And when talking about it, he pointed out that he was in the "before life" zone and not an "after life" arena. Because we can and do return when we want to.

Another mind bending episode.

Another mind bending podcast. In this case as usual, Jennifer and I had no idea whom Luana Anders, our moderator on the flipside would bring to the conversation.

In this case it was my old boss Robert Towne, the screenwriter who passed away recently. He brought up the topic of "DreamBombing" a person's dream. Jennifer said the term, then later I asked him if he coined it or she did - and he took credit for it.

The idea is that they can "slip into" a dream we're having and just say hello. We may be disconcerted, we may not be aware of it - I have no conscious idea that I saw Robert recently, but it is accurate that an hour ago I got an email from his daughter, and it is accurate that I've had dreams in the past where I'm suddenly hearing Robert's comments or voice.

He was a unique voice in life and as a writer. Previously we'd asked him who he may have rubbed elbows with since crossing over and he mentioned both Charles Dickens and William Shakespeare.

I asked Will an innocuous question - I know that Jennifer doesn't remember the questions we've asked people before, and when I ask a vague question like "Was the last time we spoke an accurate description of events?" I know that Jennifer is capable of saying "No." Or "Not so much."

In this instance he replied "More than I imagined it would be." And in that instance I asked him a multitude of questions about his life, his family, the stories about his work, the rewriting done by actors onstage, the genesis of his ideas, as well as remarking how he'd written Romeo and Juliet during the pandemic.

He said "A lot of great work comes out of pandemics."

Unusual comment to make, and in his case; absolutely accurate.

Robert said he'd just come by to mention the dream bombing - and then Luana said she wanted to emphasize the idea of how people should think in terms of doing this kind of work - accessing people offstage.

She said 1. You have to believe it.

That echoes what her friend Harry Dean Stanton had said, that to "allow for the possibility that life goes on is key" in terms of getting any information.

So it's not that one has to believe in religion, or believe in tooth fairies, or believe in pyramid hats, but to believe that it's possible that one's loved ones still exist - that's key to them being able to communicate.

Because if you don't believe you can communicate; you won't.

Second part is to 2 open yourself up to the possibility of communication. That means don't focus on sound, image, answers - focus on the question one is asking and allowing them to find a way to answer it. Could be a coincidence, could be music, could be a specific answer, could be that one turns on the radio hears the answer, opens a book reads the answer, or somehow is made aware of the answer in some method.

They communicate in the best way they know how, and that might be the best way they think we can comprehend what they're saying.

So this podcast is more about process, and a visit from two great writers.

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Thanks!

I went to the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce ceremony for my pal Carl Weathers. (We wrote a script together were friends for 20 years.) At the ceremony I met some relatives and friends, and told them I might be able to reach out to Carl via our podcast (again.) If one searches his name on this podcast, they'll see the initial interview.

But in honor of his family and friends, here's an article that talks about what the ceremony was like:

HOLLYWOOD, LOS ANGELES -- Carl Weathers was honored with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame this week.

On Thursday, the actor, known for his role as boxer Apollo Creed in the "Rocky" films as well as his time as an NFL linebacker for the then-Oakland Raiders, was posthumously honored during a ceremony by his dear friends in Hollywood and sports, including Las Vegas Raiders owner Mark Davis, actress Bryce Dallas Howard and actor LeVar Burton.

Carl Weathers' sons Matthew Weathers and Jason Weathers, as well as his partner Christine Kludjian, also paid tribute to him in moving speeches.

"My father was an individual with dreams and aspirations," Matthew Weathers said in his speech. "He knew what he wanted at a very young age. He told me on numerous occasions that if he had some money in his pocket as a young man, he'd go to the movies."

A picture of Carl Weathers, the late actor renowned for his iconic roles in films such as "Rocky," is displayed on his star as he is honored posthumously on the Walk of Fame. A picture of Carl Weathers, the late actor renowned for his iconic roles in films such as "Rocky," is displayed on his star as he is honored posthumously on the Walk of Fame. "Not a lot of people have the opportunity to do what he did," he added of his father's illustrious career. "He was proud of what he created. So am I. It's hard to imagine that he's not here."

Jason Weathers echoed his brother's words about their father and said that he's "so proud" of him.

"I wish he could be here to experience this," he continued. "I know he was looking forward to this -- over 50 years in Hollywood, in his career, and now to be immortalized with a star is just truly wonderful."

Along with the "Rocky" films, Carl Weathers starred in "Happy Gilmore" alongside Adam Sandler, "Predator" with Arnold Schwarzenegger and more. More recently, he played Greef Karga in the Disney+ series "The Mandalorian" and directed several episodes of the show.

Howard, who worked as a director on "The Mandalorian" alongside Carl Weathers, called him a "titan of a man."

"Carl was not only one of the central stars of 'The Mandalorian,' he was also one of the show's regular directors," she said. "It astonished me how effortlessly he wore both hats. It was truly remarkable to spin both those plates, acting and directing."

"Carl did it with grace, ease and enthusiasm," she added. Burton, meanwhile, called Carl Weathers "the embodiment of a good man." "Carl was also an icon," he added. "A legend. Apollo Creed will go down in history as one of the most popular figures in entertainment history and that is due to the charisma and talent of Carl Weathers."

Here's the youtube clip with those speeches... https://www.youtube.com/live/QdVMklVyGK0?si=CH5OPTwMgwsK5-DI&t=1589

I share this information as an old friend of Carl's and some family members and I talked about me sharing this interview later on in the day.

It's an example of how easy it is to speak to our loved ones offstage. Jennifer is very talented at what she does, and because I knew Carl well, as well as the other questions I ask during this podcast, I know that we're hearing new information from someone offstage.

Anyone can.

To book a session with Jennifer: JenniferShaffer.com To book a guided meditation with Richard: RichardMartini.com

Enjoy the play!

Another one of those mind bending podcasts. Today Jennifer Shaffer's mom stopped by to say hello, to give Jennifer a frequency or feeling for when she's around her.

Then we invited Luana Anders, our moderator on the flipside (LuanaAnders.com) to tell us if anyone had made her guest list. Luana moderates our podcast from the flipside - as recounted in the book and film FLIPSIDE and HACKING THE AFTERLIFE it was after Luana's appearance on the Charles Grodin Show courtesy of James Van Praagh that I became aware that she not only still existed but could direct the conversation.

About ten years ago, she began to help Jennifer and me access a group of individuals on the flipside that Luana knew over her career of doing 300 film and TV shows. Luana introduced me to Charles Grodin, a good friend who is godfather to our children (my wife and I).

Charles was close friends with Phil Donahue, so I suspected that since Charles has shown up recently (there was a screening in NYC of a documentary about his life) I wondered if Phil was ready to chat about his life.

Sometimes they aren't - if they've just crossed over and had a lifetime of not believing it was possible to do so. However, as Phil notes - Charles visited him often in his later years to pave the way.

Jennifer didn't know that Phil's father in law was Danny Thomas, nor did she know that he had made a "promised with God" to find a way to help people if God could help him in his time of need.

That's where St. Jude's hospital came from, and his daughter, Phil's wife Marlo Thomas carries on that giving tradition.

I know both Phil and Marlo - my wife and family have been to their home in CT, and as noted, Phil took photos of us and gave the prints and frames to us as a gift when we left. I still have them in our home. Cherished gifts.

Some things to note; I didn't say the name of Vivian Maier - most don't know who she is, but I asked him about Vivian and if she influenced him at all (years after her passing, it turned out she was a preeminent photographer and her photos are now world famous of life in Chicago.)

Phil reports that her demeanor influenced him in his career. He also said that his son James was one of the people to greet him on the flipside. Perhaps the most uncanny moment is when I asked him about his father in law - and his promise to God.

Not something Jennifer is or was aware of - and when she's done with her sessions, she "shakes it off" and forgets pretty much everything that is said. So if it comes up again, I'd have to remind her of the fact that Phil's father in law was one of the most famous television actors of the 50's and 60's, and that his wife was "That Girl" Marlo Thomas.

As we all get older, the fame of those who were before becomes a matter of history. It was fascinating to hear Phil talk about his "many life reviews" - meaning he becomes aware of all of his previous lifetimes. When asked "how many" he said "more than you could comprehend."

But notably, in one of them he recalled being "mute" or not able to speak or express himself. He obviously made up for that lifetime with his career of over 7000 television shows, for inventing the format of speaking directly to audiences, and hearing what they had to say.

If one takes the time to read his bio, he was as generous as the day is long - but more importantly he wanted to say that Marlo was not only the love of his life, but he continues to love her from the flipside, and reminds her that the dreams she has of him - or feeling his hand in hers - that is actually him doing that.

It's why we do this work.

I hope this helps someone out there on the planet who has lost a loved one.

They aren't gone. They just aren't here.

Please visit Hacking the Afterlife on Youtube and subscribe. Lots of fun information there as well.

Jennifer is in NYC, but we were able to find a way to do our podcast from both coasts. In this one, we begin by welcoming the folks from Alex Ferrari's podcast "Next Level Soul" who found us after listening to my recent podcast on Alex's channel.

Jennifer talks a little about her work, her journey to the work, and how she works with law enforcement pro bono on a daily basis. (I have met some of the folks she works with, and in the book ARCHITECTURE OF THE AFTERLIFE one of them did a guided meditation with me.)

Then we discuss a few of the guided meditations I've done recently, including one where a person saw Jim Henson in a vivid dream, so during her meditation, we asked him to come forward and answer a couple of questions about his journey. He talked about being connected to his family, and mentioned his daughter and son who have carried on his work.

He also spoke of how people can access loved ones offstage if they need to. Then I asked some questions about a recent unusual event - son and wife were walking in the park playing "20 questions" (where you think of an object or phrase or person, and the other person has 20 tries to guess it). And as they were walking past a slightly schizophrenic (not sure if he was or wasn't, but he had no filter when he spoke) fellow on the part bench, said aloud the phrase he was thinking of. "In and Out Burger animal style." (Which only people in LA know what that means). Jennifer said that the fellow wasn't an intuitive per se, but that it was Robin Williams who popped that answer into his head.

Which is mind bending, since Robin played the Fisher King so well in the feature film where he played one of those savants. As noted, Robin does show up often in people's sessions, and lately I've heard his name quite a bit.

Which led to a question about an event in a library where a friend picked up a book and heard someone tell them that was the "same book they had checked out of the library many times." And a closer look at the left over page where they used to stamp the data of each checkout, showed that the time stamp of the date (about 16 weeks in 1967) corresponded when this person "Carlos" was reported to be researching in this very library.

At some point Jennifer "guessed" the name of the fellow, and before she could say that name, I said "That's correct" realizing she'd guessed it (without hearing it.) We did talk about this fellow for a bit - but I was recounting recent articles, and not asking him directly about the accuracy of those articles, so I decided to leave it just at the name "Carlos." (Could be Santana, could be the Jackal, could be someone else entirely.)

I'm not trying to be cagey, I just want to point out - anyone can do this, do the same thing. Jennifer saw Wayne Dyer show up - someone she met, revered, and confirmed who this person was, and then my old boss Robert Towne stopped by, and because he was the most poetic person I have known - asked him to talk about his experience on the flipside.

I said something like "Well you probably don't miss much on the flipside" because people report we can create anything. And he corrected me, and then spoke eloquently about all the different things that are difficult to create on the other side that we choose to incarnate to experience. (Sea air with salt, the touch of a cheek, a hug, some spectacular sunsets) - he says that "all those colors are there, but it's different to experience them on the planet."

It's about as poetic as one can be on a podcast.

Enjoy, and please be kind to someone today who needs it.

First; Jennifer's got another one of her Uncorked events in Manhattan Beach - tickets are available, for sixty bucks one gets a glass of wine, two hours with her and others who all get spoken to. The events are fun and easy to attend. UncorkedWineShops.com https://uncorkedwineshops.com/medium-monday-tickets/

For ticket info: JenniferShaffer.com

This is a continuation of our conversation with Robert Towne, my old boss who left the stage last week. Jennifer mentions how she was walking on the beach the other day and Robert (and his dog Hira) appeared walking next to her... Jennifer did a number of sessions with Robert and so she's used to communicating with him.

In this episode, I'm continuing with my list of questions to ask him about - people that we spoke with before, people offstage and if he has messages for people onstage.

In this case, Robert was doing a rewrite or polish for a script about Napoleon (I don't know if it was his own, or it was for someone else, like Ridley Scott as Robert wrote "Days of Thunder" for his brother Tony.

Comes to mind - when his brother Tony passed, we were doing this research, and Robert asked me about his passing, so we did a session asking Tony what happened. It's in the book BACKSTAGE PASS TO THE FLIPSIDE.

Either way - I want to point something out. We accessed Napoleon and his friend Betsy Balcombe in a previous session - it might be in print instead of in the podcast list - that would be in BACKSTAGE PASS TO THE FLIPSIDE 1, 2 or 3 - and in that instance, she identified herself as Napoleon's friend, and when asked whether he died of natural causes or was "poisoned" we heard her say it was poison. (or not from natural causes).

In this episode, I ask Robert if he's had a chance to ask Napoleon about the accuracy of that, and the answer is the word "wife."

For those paying attention, that could be the wife of Napoleon (who was having an affair back in Paris, had two children with that fellow and married him) that could be the wife of Balcombe, but his family left St. Helena before Napoleon died, it could be "Fanny" the wife of one of his lieutenants he made a pass at, and nearly jumped off a ship at the thought of being stuck on St. Helena with him - or it could have been any number of wives on the island, as apparently, he'd have flings with quite a few.

Wild and crazy guy.

But in reading the A. Robert's autobiography of him, it's clear that he died of stomach cancer. The doctors did an autopsy, it's the same disease his father died of - and it's clear to me that is what he died of. "It was a miracle he didn't die from it earlier."

In terms of this kind of research, asking questions and getting answers, because I've been doing this for 8 years weekly, I have to allow that it's possible I was asking the wrong question, it's possible that Napoleon was trying to steer the conversation to another topic (like "It was my wife Josephine that caused me to have agita which turned into stomach cancer") or it could be that the word "wife" meant something else altogether.

It's important to note this - because I'm asking leading questions and I could be leading the medium into an area where they are trying to answer my questions based on what they're getting from the flipside. (I've seen people do this, and likely I have done it before as well.)

Jennifer says what she hears, senses, or visualizes. Why he answered "wife" is subject to more questions - because I could revisit the conversation and point out that it was cancer that took his life, so what's he pointing to a wife or his wife, or someone else's wife?

Either way - this is one of those things that make people say "well it's all subject to conjecture" so therefore it's pointless to ask questions.

But clearly Robert was able to express who Rudy the Rank was, and Charles Grodin is able to express his opinions about the movie we were watching.

Either way - we do this work to encourage people to explore on their own - to ask questions, to gauge the answers, to ask more questions and see what one can learn. If one doesn't want to they don't have to - but clearly if one does want to communicate, they can.

Just research the answers (as I've done here.)

Hope this helps.