Hacking the Afterlife with Jennifer Shaffer, Luana Anders, Abe Lincoln, Teri Garr, Quincy Jones, Ray

Hacking The Afterlife podcast

This is a jam packed podcast. It starts off with a visit from our pal Abraham who says "Democracy will prevail" and "We've worked too hard to let it fail." Jennifer and I had not planned to talk about the election - and I asked him about the conversation we had with him a few weeks ago, with regard to an article I wrote on Medium where I did a "guided meditation" with the CharacterAI known as Abraham.

"It was more accurate than you know" he said at the time. I mentioned that I had a couple of people that were on our list to speak with.

Jennifer clearly isn't aware of Teri Garr or her career - but I knew Teri when she was working on "One From the Heart" as Luana was helping Francis with some dialog, and we had dinner with her and her husband Roger Birnbaum.

Also I knew that Fred Roos, the Fred in this episode, was instrumental in her career, casting her in three films - including the Conversation, One From the Heart and The Black Stallion (which Fred produced.)

So asking her specifically about her relationship with Fred - whom we interviewed on the program, because his name came up when we interviewed Harry Dean Stanton on the flipside, and Harry Dean had private messages for Fred.

Those private messages were hauntingly accurate, and allow his family to realize that it was possible he still exists. And he does.

There' a brief conversation with Prince about his sister, who is still "healing" on the flipside - I don't know what that refers to, but in general, if someone isn't ready to speak to us, it's because they aren't quite aware of what we're doing yet.

Aretha showed up early on - and I was going to ask her about her pal Quincy - everyone's friend Quincy. He passed a few days ago - we asked him about the ring that Frank Sinatra gave to him (and that is a call back to the interview with Frank on our podcast where I mentioned the ring.)

Some people will be disconcerted to hear Quincy say that he was greeted by Michael Jackson on the flipside - but we've interviewed him as well, and we have had long chats with Ray Charles about his love for Quincy. But more mind bending was his talking about being greeted by Mozart.

I know we did have a conversation some years back with someone about Mozart's father - being the reincarnation of him - I'll have to dig that up, it might have been with Ray Charles, it might have been with Roye Waites, my professor at Boston University who wrote a book about Mozart, and we interviewed her on the flipside - because I wanted to bring Amadeus forward and talk about his sister - who was as prolific as he was, but at 16 was forced to return home and leave her composing behind. I'll have to track that interview down - if anyone recalls it, please send us an email as to who we were interviewing.

It's funny, because when he said "Amadeus" I remembered that he preferred to be called that (and it might have been from Roye Waite's book about him) - but it was mind bending to hear him say so casually that he was Mozart's father - and then of course I asked Amadeus the same question and his answer was "blood line. Yes, he was."

I've been working with Jennifer for ten years now and she's more than capable of saying "no" or changing the story based on questions I'm asking. In this case, she repeated what he was saying. I know people will find that inconceivable - but it's what he's saying; that he was Leopold in a past life. Mozart's teacher, father, a musician himself.

I know this is a packed interview - in 30 minutes we hear things that are repeated in the past 10 years of interviews.

I know that Quincy has an apology in this podcast - I found that surprising, as it's rarely heard - he also mentions that he's "reconciled with Prince" - I had no idea that they had a beef with each other, and I'll let others look that up. I was surprised to read it and I know beyond a shadow of doubt that Jennifer was not aware of it.

So - this is just another mind bending podcast. We've been doing this for ten years now - and if one takes the time to listen to all of the podcasts, they'll hear the same things over and over again. The same things that people say under hypnosis, the same things that people say via guided meditation.

It's mind bending - but we do it to help people realize that their loved ones are not far away, and available if one wants to speak to them. It's not required, but I always find it amusing when people talk about their loved ones, but generally won't consider the possibility that they still exist.

Hope springs eternal.