Here we are at another DAY OF THE DEAD, but this one is in 2026. Also happens to be a day of Election, and going over some of the previous days of the dead, some of the same folks showed up.

Two weeks ago, John McCain showed up on the podcast to tell us that "change is inevitable." In this one, he says the same thing, but 6 years ago! There's one from 2020, one from 2021, and 2024... we have a number of folks show up - including John Maverick McCain, JFK, Sargent Shriver (Maria's dad) moderated by our pal Luana Anders on the flipside.

Also a chat with Matthew Perry from this date someo years ago and River Phoenix stopped by as well.

They're not gone, they're just not here.

So this is a "Best of the Day of the Dead" podcast.

Enjoy. #MatthewPerry #JFK #RiverPhoenix, #BobSaget, #SargentShriver and pals

We've been doing this podcast for six years, and meeting up weekly for 12. When Maverick, John McCain left the stage, he showed up a number of times. He asked us to send a private message to his daughter, which I protested I had no way of doing that, and he said "You'll figure it out."

I did - but have no way of knowing the reaction. When I was writing my first feature "Three For the Road" I met with John's chief of staff, so I did have some background information about him most don't know.

But in terms of his showing up on our podcast, each time he shows up to talk about politics, often bringing former Presidents along with him. As Jennifer notes in the show, when he showed up to speak, she was reluctant to go down that path, since we rarely let politics enter the frame. (Why? Well, it shuts down a person's ability to hear messages of love from the flipside when they're stressing over events of the day.)

For fans of the podcast, they know what we interviewed the current President's father and brother on the podcast, as well as the son of the previous President - Jennifer was only answering questions I was giving to "first names only" - and didn't know who "Fred" "Beau" referred to.

What we heard from the family members of those politicians was the same - onstage we struggle to understand why things happen, but offstage we can see the wheelworks, understand what role a person plays onstage, and how that affects others.

That being said, John in this podcast said he didn't want to give air time to the person she was fearing we'd speak of - but wanted to talk about how change affects the planet, affects the individual.

That we're going through a period of change, and that's okay, that's a good thing. It's what we do while we're onstage. We learn and move forward. But it's also a conversation about not attaching emotions or fear to change - it's the most constant part of existence.

And we also spoke to a friend of mine's dog who passed recently. It was my old boss Robert Towne's dog Hira who introduced us to the idea we could communicate with animals offstage - he's featured in BACKSTAGE PASS TO THE FLIPSIDE and has shown up in many sessions to talk about how "animals understand incarnation but humans do not."

In this instance, Lulu said she'd "been with her owner in a previous life" and that "there is room for another dog in her owner's life - and that she would be instrumental in finding that dog (as well as share some of the frequency of that dog.)

Easily the most profound part of this discussion today - because learning that not only are our pets aware of us, they report finding us, they report coming back to be with us, standing by us, being connected to us - and that we can communicate with them.

So while one is going through the process of voting this week, remember that our teachers, guides, loved ones, classmates, council members and animals... are all rooting for us.

Worth contemplating.

I ran across the debut episode of our podcast from March 20, 2020. All the guests we had spoken to before - so it wasn't new for us to have them show up in our "classroom in the afterlife" that is moderated by Luana Anders.

For fans of "Hacking the Afterlife" "Backstage Pass to the Flipside" Jennifer Shaffer, medium-intuitive (JenniferShaffer.com) and I demonstrate the kind of conversations we've had with folks on the flipside. In this case, I didn't ask for anyone to come forward, but three folks that we've interviewed before did - Anthony Bourdain, Will Shakespeare and John Lennon. Now I have no claim, nor does Jennifer make any claims about the individuals we are speaking to - what I do is have many interviews with the same folks (sometimes with different mediums) and we discuss the "architecture of the afterlife."

Some will be offended by this podcast - if so, I apologize in advance, and suggest listening or watching something else. I will begin to post our audio versions on itunes (podbean) every week - and we will discuss whatever comes to mind. I'm just about finished with "Backstage Pass to the Flipside Book 3" where we converse with people I knew, people that Jennifer knew, people that I met, people that Luana Anders has met, people who show up in our sessions unannounced - uninvited - but in order to do so they have to get the "backstage pass" from Luana - our moderator for these sessions. They claim she helps them to "modulate" or alter their frequency in order to "converse" with us - putting an image into Jennifer's mind (or perhaps tapping the engram where the image exists) and then they give her a series of images.

What I bring to the plate, as evidenced in this initial podcast - that I help to "unpack" visual messages. Sometimes by showing her a face or a person, that relates to someone else (like if someone is named "Fred" who wants to speak with us, she sees an image of her husband, who shares that name.)

By doing this over the past five years, we have been able to ask questions and get new information - that is information that cannot be cryptomnesia or some other form of mental construction - from folks who used to be on the planet. That alone makes this endeavor worthwhile.

It's not to say that "only Jennifer" can help one access the flipside (she does work with law enforcement agencies nationwide) but to say that if one tries to do so consistently (even in dreams, or in some other fashion) they can get replies from people no longer on the planet. In our books we talk to people I knew (and then I have two other mediums as the same questions to get replies) or we talk to people that Luana knew on the flipside.

It's uncanny - but my pal Luana and I speak every week, and despite the fact she left the planet 24 years ago, we converse more now than we did then! All I can say is to follow the advice of the late actor Harry Dean Stanton who came through clear as a bell prior to his memorial service, gave me private messages to pass along to his closets friends there (and I did, and they were flabbergasted because he was talking about private health concerns for each of them).

I asked him "Harry, what do you want me to tell your friends at hour memorial service?" Through Jennifer he said "tell them to believe in the afterlife." I said, "c'mon Harry - you were a famous atheist, a skeptic - all your friends are not going to believe that I spoke to you and heard this from you."

He said "Then tell them to believe in the POSSIBILITY of an afterlife, then they won't waste another minute of their lives arguing about it like I did." Duly noted. I'm posting this here on my MartiniZone webpage so that folks can see what's in store. We've been doing this for five years now - and I publish transcripts of our chats with the flipside. We don't get everything right - we aren't supposed to - but we do get a consistency of reporting.

Which is worth noting. Anyone can do this. The point our loved ones have made is "we know we still exist, it's you folks back there who don't believe we do." Oh, and the alpha and omega shows up at the end, along with Robin Williams. To quote Robin "Love the love." Or just... love love.