Episode 152: Forever Family Foundation

why they believe in the afterlife. They're usually long episodes. I record them on video, put them on YouTube, and here on Shades of the Afterlife. Less interviews and more of me reporting in on the Afterlife. But every so often there is a guest that is so extraordinary and their story is so important to hear that I just feel I need to share it on both my podcasts. The gentleman you're going to meet in just a moment. His name is Bob Ginsberg. He's created what's called the

Forever Family Foundation. He'll tell his story about starting it after his daughter passed in a car accident. But since then, his wife has passed, he's lost everything in a hurricane, and he's really suffered through grief, and with that he continues to do so much. So I think you'll agree it's worth repeating, So let me tell you about him. Robert Ginsberg is the co founder of Forever Family Foundation,

a global not for profit organization. Over the years, he has met and interviewed hundreds of scientists, researchers, medical doctors, academics, and mediums who believe that our consciousness survives physical death. Bob hosts Signs of Life Radio Show and is the past editor of Signs of Life magazine. He also heads the Foundation's Medium Evaluation certification program and writes a blog

at Beyond the Five Senses dot com. He's the author of the books The Medium Explosion, A Guide to Navigating the World of those who claim to Communicate with the Dead, and his latest book is titled My Life Here and There, a Journey that transcends time and space. Bob and his wife Fran who is now in spirit, and Forever Family Foundation are currently featured in the Netflix series Surviving Death.

His website is Forever Familyfoundation dot org, where science and spirituality work hand in hand to bring comfort to the bereaved. So let's listen to Bob tell his story.

our brains. Our brains produced consciousness and therefore, when our brains are no more aware, no more, and then you know, tragedy struck. And even though I didn't so quoted believe in the afterlife, my son and my daughter were in a car accident and my wife woke up at three o'clock in the morning the day of the accident, and she was trembling and shaking and ash and white. And

I said, what's the matter. And she just stared straight ahead and she said, something horrible is going to happen today. And I said, well, you know, what does that mean? You know, she said, I can't tell you other than the fact that our lives are going to be changed forever today. And I took it seriously, because you know, my wife was I mean, she wasn't a medium, but she was an intuitive person. And there were many things that happened in our lives together that I couldn't explain.

She would have these visions and premonitions and so forth, and they were all good things. But logic told me if she was right, then she could be right now. So I did what most parents would do, and I watched over our three children during the day, and one was back at college, the other was going to college the next day, and my youngest one was working a part time job, and as the day progressed, I let my guard down, and you know, we went out to dinner.

It faded for my awareness and I dismissed it. And of course, you know, on the way home from the restaurant, my son and my daughter were involved in the accident and my daughter didn't survive and my son had had very serious injury. So later on, you know, my son was in a coma. He emerged and it was queer that he was going to survive. I kind of hit me because, you know, as you might expect, you're in shock, you know, for quite a while. And I said, wait a second, like, how did fran know? How did my

wife know? Because I saw her she knew that this was going to happen, although she didn't have the details. So that started me on a quest. I mean, I'll call it a quest, but it was probably more of an obsession. I had to know. I had to find out how she knew. That was the first thing, and then I had to find out if it was possible

that my daughter still survived in some form. And then I started crisscrossing, mostly in the United States, meeting with medical doctors and scientists and researchers and authors and people in the field, trying to see if there's any evidence from credible people that had letters after their name, that studied consciousness, that suggested that we do, you know, we're more than our physical bodies. And I found the evidence to be overwhelming and compelling, to the point where I

couldn't believe where nobody knew about this. I mean, how is it, you know, kept secret? And one thing led to another, and you know, we started the foundation in two thousand and three and we gathered scientists and mediums and academics, you know, on various boards, and we like to think of ourselves as a convergence of science and spirituality.

Oddly enough, what I found doing the work is that sometimes I'd be interviewing physicists and you know, which was kind of out of my league, and I said, well, they sound a lot like the spiritualists I'm talking about. There was essentially talking about the same thing coming from a single point of light and life and passion and love you know, on the other side, and how we're all connected. So there's not that much of a difference as people might think. You know, between science and spirituality.

I've been learning every day, so you know, we're not grief therapists, you know, and we're very careful, but the information that we provide has been helpful to the people that are breathing because, I mean, let's face it, if you've lost somebody close to you, the only thing that gives you any hope or comfort is the thought that they still survive in some form. So if you could show them reasons why this is probable, you know, it

brings some comfort. Plus the fact that you know, we try to force their people to have their own personal experiences and I don't have to tell you how that could flip one's perspective on life and death because they have. If you have this profound experience, I mean, it doesn't have to be a near death experience. It could be a profound and evidential medium reading. That could be a dream visitation, that could be a multiple multitude of different things.

It really can make a big difference in one's grief. And it's been shown that, you know, as published in peer review journals, that the studies show that those who believe in life after death do better in their grief than those who don't. Then that makes a lot of sense to me because that's the only thing. That's the only thing that gave me any hope. That's a long winded answer to your question. I'm sorry for taking up so much time.

daughter still existed. But I still spent years and years, admittedly as somewhat of a hypocrite, because here I am, you know, giving talks about evidence of an afterlife and I still didn't fully buy in. It was it was as if I was trying to convince myself. But eventually, you know, I moved from that stage of hope to belief and into knowing, you know, and it took a long time to get to that knowing stage. So yes, my daughter was coming through even though I wasn't recognizing

like true after death communications. Over a period of about I don't know, I mean, I journaled everyone, But over a period of about four years, I had seventy four dream visitations for my daughter, and you know, and they were true visitations in every sense of the world. They were tactile. I could talk to her, I could see her, I could hug her, I could kiss her, we could have a conversation. So that was my you know, lifeline.

I felt very fortunate to have that. But yeah, I mean I've discussed them and written about them.

things really occurring. And when I had twenty million to one shots, I had to relent and throw out my hands and say, you know what, I have to follow the evidence. I have to be true to my word. This is the evidence. It's true. A lot of people take the path if science lots of times can open one up to recognizing all these things that are happening.

Because I needed that foundation, you know, of belief. And once I had that, then I started to get my own different types of after death communications and so forth. So yeah, we were both fortunate that she was a good communicator.

you to absolutely believe. But as you say, you're absolutely right. We're human. You know, we have human emotions and plus you know, our upbringing and social influences and educational influences or religious influences, you know, I mean, they're all part of who we are. And we're taught to question things that we can't perceive with our own physical senses, and that's instilled deep and you know into our consciousness.

she created everything that we do. I mean, she created the foundation, she created or you know, the medium certification program, and then you know, the radio show and publishing a magazine, which I after she passed, I couldn't keep up with that, so we don't. We don't do that anymore. And then we we'd hold annual conferences you know, across the United States. That took a lot of work. So she was wearing a lot of hats, and she literally worked eighteen hours

a day, seven days a week. Never took I mean, we could never go on vacation or anything because even if I grabbed her for a couple of days, I couldn't get her off the you know, the computer and worrying about this and that. So that became her life. And I understood that she felt that her whole life previous to this was building up to that point. So I never would have even thought to do this work,

you know, you know, without her. And then I when she got sick, I mean, she got very sick, very quickly, and I couldn't really It takes over your whole body, you know, And I couldn't really have many conversations with her because she wanted to keep that positive mental latitude, you know, that she wasn't going to die, and at what the things we were doing, you know, were going to help and so forth. But I got to have a few conversations near the end, and I said, what

do you want me to do with the foundation? You know, you need to tell me. I'll do whatever, you know, so I don't know at one point, which is so totally not like her, because she was like a workaholic and like a force of nature and everything that she got into. She looked at me and she says, why don't you just have a big party? You know. It's like, actually a big FM party were exact words, you know.

So I was like, that was not her, you know talking but but but I was able to identify the core things that we do that she wanted me to continue, and that's that's what we're doing. And fortunately she laid out the blueprint. I just continue to plug in the pieces and following her direction and we keep growing. And so it's like a testament to her vision. But now we've got fourteen thousand members, you know, across across the world, and you know, everything that we do is well populated.

And so that just shows you that there's such a great interest in the work, you know, that you and I and everybody else does. And plus the fact that as people my age, you know, baby boomers, start to get closer to their physical demise, a lot of people are questioning things that they never question before. They questioning their own mortality and could there be a possibility. So it's not only grieving people that are interested in the worker, it's people that are curious.

very soft and silky and swat. I love to hold her hand. You know, it sounds corny, but I loved all the had so to the point where I was a pest, you know. So she I was always driving, and she was always in the passenger seat, and I'd always hold out my right hand, you know, for her to you know, like she usually grab a hold of my thumb, you know, and that all was right in the world. I felt comfort and you know, all that

stuff after that. So after fran passed, every single time for the first I'd say year and a half, I would say out loud to her friend, show me, so I need you to do this, Just grab my hand, my thumb, you know, and I'd hold out my thumb like an idiot. You know. People would turn up, pull up next to me and had a red light and I'd be having my thumb out, you know, and talking to somebody, imaginary person, I thought, and nothing like a

year and a half, I asked nothing, never anything. And then one day I said out, well, look I don't care, I really need this. You gotta do this with me. You got to find a way. And with that I felt not only grasped my thumb, somebody grasped my thumb, but there was a vibrant energy in the base of my thumb and my whole hand was vibrating, and the energy just had moved up all the way, you know, to the top of my thumb, you know, and then

back down again. And these communications, you know, they come with the sense of knowing there was no question in my mind. You know that, you know, nothing had ever happened like this before in my life, you know. And here I am asking her for a year and a half and it finally happens, and it lasted, I'd say, for a good It wasn't like fleeting. It lasted for a good ten to fifteen minutes, and then it gradually went away. And of course despite me I still asking it.

You know, it's not happened since, you know, because she would be saying, look, don't be an idiot. I gave you what you wanted. It takes a lot of work. I can't do it again. That to me, The way I reason that out is that's something she would do. It's something that I could not question, you know. So I've had some dream visitations, not as profound as the ones that I you know, that I had with my daughter. I get certain signs that I recognize, but it's not something that comes very often.

you know the ones that don't get them. Questionable, does this mean that my loved one doesn't love me? You know? Or of course not. But as you just hinted at, you're an entity of thought and energy. Can't be easy, I mean I think that there are mediums on the other side that help our discornet loved ones to communicate. I mean, yes, there are people that can communicate right away for whatever reason, but others, you know, it takes nothing comes through for quite a long time, and then

it starts, you know, to come through. So I wish I had the answer, you know, as to why some people don't get science. But I tend to think that it's it's a learning process. Plus the fact that I think there's a lot to do there. I mean, we're constantly learning and progressing and exposed to all different things, and we can just by thought alone, migrate among the

you know, the universe. I mean, plus the fact that they know that this physical existence is just a tiny blip and that you know, they're going to see us again, and they're not in grief and it's not as profound as what we think it is, you know. So they know that we'll put in our time here and we'll do our learning, and you know, we'll move on. So but certainly for those that don't get scientists, not the doesn't have anything to do with the love or the bond that you had with somebody.

our imagination. But that's how mediums work. That's how it works. And I think sometimes we get so caught up in social media and our mind thinking about the past or worried about the future, that we can't get in that present moment we are, when we dream, we are just before we fall asleep, and that might be the way they.

interviewing people in our field. But that was so demanding because I refused to interview anybody unless I read their book if they if they're a published author, you know, first. And so I had to read, you know, four sometimes five books per month, you know, with everything else that we're doing. I mean I had books all over the house, had books in the bathroom and books on my night table. Everybody, so I went to a book and then I slowly developed the skill of speed reading. So that's the only

way that I get through it. But after doing it for so many years is and I can't keep this up. So now we have any different We have five different formats of the show. You know. We have one week one of our certified mediums host the Mediums and Messages show, and its simply listeners can call in and get many readings from one of our certified mediums. We have a medium interviews. You know, the mediums don't do readings, but you get into the mind of the medium by listening

to the interview. We have a personal Experiences show. I still do some interviews, so but that took a big load off of my plate and people get exposed to many different things. So that's but you know, we continue to do that. I host with two co hosts a show at the beginning of each month called The Gathering, and it's really just like a big after life discussion group where people call in with their questions or email and their questions or personal experiences and we talk about those.

So yeah, I've been doing it, but just something we can't stop. We've been doing it for so long, you know.

directions and I never got to write. So I built a business over the years, and I used to do the next best thing. I used to use my advertising skills to help, you know, build the business. That was my one way of writing, so to speak. And then after I retired from my real corporate job, I had more time and I started, you know, I was always writing stuff the foundation, you know, all of our you know, literature and so forth. And then I got the idea to write a book, and I wrote the book, and

I wrote the second book. And then there's a lot of stuff not connected to the Foundation that I would like to get out there. So I just started you know, that blog Beyond the Five Senses dot com, just so my head doesn't explode, just to get some thoughts out there, you know, and you know, keep writing. It's always been a big part of my life, but it remained, you know, hidden. So now I get to sort of fulfill what I

really should have been doing all these years. You know, if I was a writer, I wouldn't have made any money.

you could do with it what you want. I remember every once in a while, like when that Netflix documentary came out, all of a sudden, I started getting phone calls from clients in mine that I've had for thirty forty years, and I'm like, what was that you that I just nobody had better? But I always kept that part, you know, separate friend. On the other hand, we were complete opposites in every way. It's amazing. Like they say,

opposites a tract. I guess that's true. But you know, she would use every opportunity that she had, no matter where we were. It could be a restaurant, there could be a doctor's office, you know, to try to educate people into the stuff that we, you know, we were doing.

I was more of a reserved, you know kind of person, and I never did that, but you know, the foundation sort of got me out of my shell sort of because I was, especially after fran passed, I was was to do things that I never had to do but they needed to be done. So then I you know, and then would writing the books and stuff, and then the documentary has started doing more interviews and so forth.

But I'm still not totally comfortable with it. But I do it, you know, and you get better at it through the years.

was nobody that could convince me. But I think it's our own journey as being a human that eventually we start asking these questions.

death experiences and deathbed visions. You know, this is a prime example, or terminal lucidity, you know, a sudden awakening with somebody that's totally you know, mentally and physically incapacitated. You show up one day about a week or so before they pass or just before they're passing, and they're totally lucid. It's as if they were never sick. And I've experienced that in my own family. And you think it's a miracle, you know, and then there is no

medical or scientific explanation for that. It doesn't exist. I mean, it's not possible, and yet it happens, you know, and I believe it's because we all have escorts to the other side, you know. I mean, you know, whether we can communicate that to others or not, it's just the way that it is. So, you know, a lot of these things is you know, you can't dissect them in a laboratory. Traditional science doesn't lend itself to these spontaneous

types of events. But then the anecdotal evidence is beyond overwhelming. You know, millions and millions and millions of people can't keep experiencing the same thing, you know, without you paying people paying attention to it. You know, even though it's so called anecdotal, I.

All these questions. Yet it's so easy to say, well, science hasn't proved it yet you know, it's like, oh, got to think out of the box. Think out of the box, Bob, right.

word to all this stuff is real. And how comforting is it that loved ones come to help us across the veil. I find that really exciting and comforting.

very close, you know, with Fran. And then after Fran passed, she said, would you mind if I ask friend and spirit connected to EVP a series of questions every week to see if we get anything. And I said, no, go ahead, and she would send me the audio recordings, you know, after she did them. And you know, with EVP, some of them you have to listen really hard, you know, but some are fairly clear. And in one of the EVPs, she said, what is the name of the organization that

you founded? And you hear faintly but clearly, you know, Forever Family Foundation, you know. And then on another day it happened to be my birthday and she said, do you have a message for Bob? And you hear happy birthday. I mean it, listen. A lot of EVPs can be dismissed, as you know, as anomalies, but those that you can hear, they're really really compelling evidence because it's something that we

can perceive with our physical sentence. Sentence. We didn't read about it in a book didn't come through a third party, you know, as a medium. So what we're actually hearing, you know what we said, and we have it on recording tapes. So I don't dismiss the body of evidence from electronic boy phenomena and instrumental transcommunication. It's it's really valuable.

the dead. So I met with some well recognized you know, scientists in the field that study mediumship, and I kind of picked their brains and they helped me to develop our own certification process. So, you know, we've been doing

that consistently since two thousand and five. So obviously over those years I've witnessed I can't tell you how many medium breedings Between that and you know, the work and the foundation and demonstrations and so forth, and mediums I don't have to tell you they have a lot of responsibility because they're sitting with grieving people that are just, you know, just on the edge of belief. Is this afterlife just a crop, you know? Or is it real? And if they go in and they get a horrible

medium breeding, it does more damage. You know, they're in worse shape than when they got there. On the other hand, a really evidential mediumship reading can change their lives for the better, have profound influence on the rest of their lives. So as a resource for the Bereave, we set up our own evaluation system. Now, I had no idea when we started, like how many people would gain certification, like

percentage wise and not. What I found consistently over the years is that only between ten and fifteen teen percent of the mediums that we evaluated, you know, gain certification, which meant that eighty five to ninety percent did not. And that didn't make me very popular in the mediumship community.

But you know, I felt that would you want this practitioner sitting with your you know, your loved one, charging a lot of money and having a long waiting list or not, you know, and we needed to have It's not to say that our process is full proof, but what we found over the years that the mediums that we certified are more consistent. They rarely have ever, you know,

failed to connect and the evidence. And you know, we have five different scoring methods that we use and they have to meet the minimum guidelines in each of the five scoring methods, and a medium with marginal ability is just simply not going to be able to gain certification. It's really tough, but that's the way it has to be. So the problem is that a lot of the mediums that we certified over the years have gone on to

become famous. And you know, when when a medium becomes famous, very often they do fewer and fewer readings, they charge more and more and more money, and the waiting list before you know it is three four years. So you know, that doesn't do us any good.

to change that, and I know Bob is too. You're listening to Shades of the Afterlife on the iHeartRadio and Coast to Coast AM Paranormal Podcast Network.

a while, you've get a big donation. And you know, my wife used to say, like every time we were running low on money, like the universe would take care of it, you know, all of a sudden we'd get a big check in the mail and so forth. But because now because we have so many members, it feeds everything else. There's more donations are events. So we have four grief retreats a year, and they sell out within two weeks after I post them, and I post them

like almost seven eight months in advance, you know. And that I attribute to the Netflix because we allowed Netflix to film one entire retreat in Connecticut. They got there Friday afternoon and they stay stay till Sunday night.

some of the stuff that they'll here. But I always felt the way to back into telling people about the afterlife would have more impact in a novel form. So I had some criticism because in the middle of the book, or towards the second half of the book, I die in a plane crash on the way to one of our conferences. And then I explained, which is partly based

on fact, you know, my work with a physicist. You know, we had developed a system between the two of us where one of us would be able to communicate with absolute clarity, you know, from the other side. But I had people like friends of mine that like was searching the internet to find out if I really die, because, as I said, okay, well that means that the writing was good because you believed it, you know, And of course so here I am, you know, writing about what

the afterlife is like. Obviously it's just based upon all my reading, you know, and experiences and what I've heard others. But it's a way of opening up people's minds to what things might be like like on the other side. And that thus the title my wife here and there, because it's my life in both places.

So it was a heavy hit. But as I tell people, I was kind of stressful and it was aggravating, but after what I had been through, I was surprisingly calm throughout the whole thing, because there is a world of difference between losing a loved one and losing material things. The two can't be compared, you know, So I've already been through the other parts several times. You know. So this was I don't want to say it was a walk in the park, but it was. It was manageable,

and I understand. I mean, most of the people that are on the island that I live, you know, that lost everything. I didn't want to diminish their grief, because it is grief. Grief of your home and all your belongings is a form of grief. But I had the so called luxury of being able to put that in perspective because in a big picture, it doesn't mean anything. Yeah, it does not, you know. So I was able to get through it, and eventually I was fortunate to find

construction crews working around the clock. And you know, now my home is totally rebuilt. So in retrospect, how many times do we things happened to us during the course of the day that we think is monumental. Oh my god. You hear people talking sometimes I want to choke people. You know, it's like, you're not going to remember this two days from now. You know, you want to know profound,

you know, brief and so forth. But again it's you know, we're all human, and we all have egos, and we all have wants and needs, So I get it, you know, I was like that. I think that having grief losing someone does provide even though it's hard to recognize for a lot of people for quite some time, it provides some meeting and purpose that didn't exist before. Things that were very important, not mainly material things don't have the same cachet as they once did, you know, because that's

not what's truly important. As they say, you're not taking it with you, right, we're not.

Foundation dot org. Bob, anything else you'd like to share, because I'm finding our time really wonderful.

things for what they are. I mean, I've replaced things that I used to enjoy with sitting out on my dack pre dawn and waiting for the sun to rise and you know, listening to the birds and watching the vibrant colors and so forth, and that's that's my adrenaline.

You know, things like that, I just would urge people to always try to step back and just experience, because there's so many things that are happening around us that we just simply refuse or unwilling to recognize that that can really do a lot for us.

I get wild turkeys and the chipmunks and squirrels, and I must have two hundred hummingbirds by the gallons of nectar that I'm putting out.

person because I always play by myself. I don't want to play with anybody else because it's a form that's a form of meditation for me. I just walking through the nature and the course and you know, thinking of things, and I don't want the pressure of competing or anything else. So it's another form of meditation. Meditation just comes is all around us if we want to take advantage of it.

way or if this was somebody else's works, and he says, Honey, I just watched the waves and it all came to me. Wow. Yeah, being present being with nature amazing. Well, Bob, thank you so much for being our guest today, and let's plan another interview because then we can delve into something else you want to talk about. I just I'm left wanting more, and I think that's a good thing. Well.

and not always. Most of the time they are subtle feelings within us, and it's like peeling an onion. There are different layers. It's a beautiful opportunity to learn to work with your soul. And I tell you there are miracles that happen in our online classrooms. Of course, we practice on each other and you may just receive that soul satisfying word you need to hear. Bases we Don't Die dot com. Go check out all the good things.

If you want to join my new Patreon club and receive a list of all five hundred and fifty total episodes of my work, I wouldn't mind if you want to be a supporter. But most of all, thank you so much for listening to Shades of the Afterlife on the iHeartRadio and Coast to Coast AM Paranormal Podcast Network.