Browne - Afterlives of the Rich and Famous

From Sylvia and Lindsay:

For you, Steve

we truly hope youve found

everyone youre looking for

over there

Contents

T his book is about current events in the lives of celebrities whove passed away, as reported by a resident expert on the Other Side whose name is Francine. Two obvious questions probably leap to mind: Whos Francine? and Since these celebrities are dead, doesnt that pretty much mean theyre doing nothing? Believe me, if I didnt have good answers to those questions, this book wouldnt exist.

As for the first question, Francine is my Spirit Guide. Like your Spirit Guide and everyone elses, shes been with me all my life. Youll find a complete definition of Spirit Guides and what they do for us in the glossary, so for now Ill just tell you about her.

I was born psychic, with an inherited ability to tune in to the spirit world of the Other Side. At first, starting when I was five years old, I was only clairvoyantthat is, able to see spirits (and I wasnt exactly thrilled about it, believe me). But then one night when I was eight, I discovered with an equal lack of glee that I was also clairaudient, or able to hear spirits, as well, when a chirpy, high-pitched voice came crashing into my bedroom and announced, Dont be afraid, Sylvia. I come from God.

My beloved, brilliantly psychic Grandmother Ada explained, after prying her terrified granddaughter from around her legs, that the voice was simply my Spirit Guide introducing herself, that we all have Spirit Guides, and that theyre around to gently help us navigate our way through these brief trips away from Home. And so, tentatively at first, I began communicating with Francine. Throughout our sixty-five years together shes never lied to me, never betrayed me, and never steered me wrong (I took care of that on my own). Shes also been a fascinating, invaluable source of volumes of information about the afterlife.

Its a requirement of all Spirit Guides that theyve incarnatedoth erwise, our problems, worries, and missteps on earth would be incomprehensibly trivial to them, living as they do in the blissful perfection of the Other Side and seeing everything that happens through the perspective of eternity. Francine (who introduced herself as Ilena, which I apparently didnt like and promptly changed to Francine) only chose to incarnate once, as an Aztec-Incan woman who died at the age of nineteen, in 1520 , saving her infant daughter from a spear during the Spanish invasion of Colombia. Shes accompanying me through this lifetime as a result of a mutual agreement we made at Home, before I decided to come to earth again for the fifty-secondth and last time.

Ive communicated with Francine every day of my life since I was eight, and I love everything about her but her voice. Like everyone in the spirit world, she lives on a plane that exists on a much higher frequency than ours, with the result that when she talks, she sounds like a tape recording played on fast-forward. I intend no disrespectIm deeply grateful for her guidance and for the fact that I can hear herbut it took me a while to even be able to understand her, and after just a few short sentences, listening to her can be downright irritating.

When I was in my late teens, I began wishing that other people could hear the wealth of wisdom she had to offer without subjecting myself to hours of that annoying, chirpy, Alvin-and-the-Chipmunks voice. She came up with the perfect solution: with my permission, she could borrow my body and my vocal cords and, instead of talking to me, she could talk through me. In other words, by going into a trance and essentially stepping aside temporarily, I could channel her, for as long or short a time as I wanted, with no risk to me whatsoever. I wouldnt have any memory of what she said while I was gone, but she could give talks and lectures without driving me or others crazy, and people could record her on tape if I wanted to check out what went on in my absence.

I wanted no part of it when she first suggested itI wasnt about to turn over control of my body and voice to anyone, thank you, not even to someone I trusted as much as I had come to trust her. But I finally agreed to try it, if only to prove her wrong, find out I hated it, and determine never to let it happen again.

As always, she was right. It was so harmless that there was nothing about it for me to hate, and Ive been routinely channeling Francine ever since, going through the simple process of announcing her impending arrival, closing my eyes, and letting my spirit take a break from my body, so that she can come in. Her voice is mine, of course, but her speech pattern is slower, her vocabulary and knowledge far exceed mine, and as a resident of the Other Side shes able to give eyewitness accounts of everyone and everything that goes on there.

Throughout the years shes given countless lectures to groups ranging from ten people to thousands, and shes provided an inexhaustible amount of extraordinary, profound information for any number of my books. She doesnt participate when I give readings, largely because she usually responds to earthly problems (including mine) with the accurate but unhelpful assurance, Everything will work out as its meant to. It frustrates me, so I can only imagine how it would frustrate my clients.

For decades now, after certain celebrities have passed away, Ive had calls from the press asking for my psychic input on anything those celebrities might have to say or any information I had to offer about their lives or transition to their afterlives. Francine contributed an enormous amount of that information. And I dont mind admitting that over the years Ive checked with Francine many times about deceased celebrities I especially loved (or, in one case in particular, especially didnt). Slowly but surely, with an emphasis on slowly, it occurred to me that a book about celebrity afterlives might be of interest to a wide variety of people, from their fans to their families. I began assembling brief biographies, and those were fascinating enough all by themselveseven while putting together biographies of celebrities whose lives I would have sworn I knew all about, I kept thinking, I didnt know that.

And then, while my friend and assistant, Linda, sat beside me with a tape recorder running, I channeled Francine and let Linda ask question after question, late celebrity after late celebrity. What youll find in this book, then, is a collection of biographies and Francines comments, transcribed and edited from the tapes of those trance sessions, as much or as little as she had to say about each name that came up, unless it was too indiscreet to include. (Francine has no filters when it comes to answering questions.) Im not kidding about as much or as little as she had to say, either, believe me. When she was finished talking about someone, she was finished, no matter how many more questions Linda asked her, sometimes because thats all there is and sometimes because, frankly, apathy might set in on Fran cines part. We all love each other here, she explained more than once, but that doesnt mean we all find each other interesting. In fact, there were a few names Linda brought up (after Id spent hours gathering information for their biographies, I might add) to which Francine simply replied, No. Thats it. Just no. She didnt even care to discuss why she was saying no, and I didnt blame Linda one bit for leaving it at that and moving on.

Francine also asked me to clarify what might be a misimpression in reading her comments. Several of her discussions include other celebrities with whom the celebrity in question socializes, works, or performs, and she doesnt mean to imply that celebrities on the Other Side only hang out with other celebrities. For one thing, the whole concept of celebrity is meaningless at Home, where everyone is of equally admired status. For another thing, she thought it would be more interesting to us here on earth to limit her observations to names with which were probably familiar. The way she put it was, I could tell you that one of your celebrities enjoys horseback riding with John Smith or taking guitar lessons with Susie Jones, but would anyone care? I had to admit that no, we probably wouldnt. So please dont be misled by her genuine efforts to edit herself on our behalf. All things considered, Im sure she did us a favor.