In the first half, Alex Lickerman, MD, a primary care physician, and Ash ElDifrawi, Psy.D., a thought leader in clinical, social, and consumer psychology discussed their quest to find how people can achieve an enduring happiness. Their search revealed that basic beliefs that most people hold about how to be happy are wrong. They classified these beliefs into nine "core delusions" or world paradigms that either block happiness or offer only transitory periods of it. Going from negative to positive, they include the "Hell" of suffering, and the "Hunger" of not being able to get what you want, or not being satisfied with what you have. There is also the "Animality" of transitory physical pleasures like food and sex, Lickerman stated, and the "Anger," of competition and the need to be superior to those around you.
Other states include "Tranquility," in which people seek to live a life without pain, and thus never take risks, and "Rapture," where people gain happiness from whatever they have but are highly susceptible to loss. "Learning" is a condition where happiness depends on creating something meaningful, but can lead to obsession. "Realization," the world of self-improvement, can also lead to self-absorption, and "Compassion," the happiness derived from helping others, can involve self-sacrifice. The state that fully breaks free of all delusions said ElDifrawi, is "Enlightenment," where people experience the sublime, and happiness comes from perceiving the world in a continual state of wonder and is not derived from attachments or having certain things and experiences. To find out which "world" you most inhabit, take the assessment test on their website.
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Author and afterlife researcher Rich Martini argues that upon death no one really dies. In the latter half, he presented his research and information that he says he obtained by interviewing folks (including many celebrities) after they have passed away such as Bill Paxton, Anthony Bourdain, and Tom Petty. He contacts the deceased by working with the medium Jennifer Shaffer, and this includes the late hypnotherapist Michael Newton, whom he studied with and documented his work on the life between lives. From the after-death state, Newton shared advice with Martini for those who wish to converse with the departed. He suggested simply saying the name of a loved one, and addressing them in the present tense as though they are there with you. "When you hear the answer before you can form the question, then you'll know you have a connection," Newton offered.
Through Shaffer, Bourdain revealed that rather than food, he misses the interpersonal connections he had with people, and he recommended the practice of meditation (something he did not engage in when he was alive). Martini often starts his communications with the departed by asking who was there to greet them when they crossed over to the Other Side. The recently deceased Microsoft founder Paul Allen told him he was met by a football player who had taken his own life. Among the many celebrities Martini says he's communicated with, JFK revealed to him that the Mafia was the most to blame for his assassination, and rather than planning it, the CIA simply looked the other way.
News segment guests: Mat Stein, John M. Curtis