Irene Weinberg is the author of the 5 – Star reviewed book titled They Serve Bagels in Heaven: One couple’s story of love, eternity and the cosmic importance of everyday life. She is also the Creator and Host of this podcast called Grief and Rebirth: Finding the Joy in Life.
Having been asked many times to share details of her own life-changing spiritual awakening that happened when her husband Saul died next to her in a tragic car accident, Irene strays from interviewing grief and trauma specialists, healers, mediums and people who have inspiring stories to being interviewed herself! Enlisted to interview Irene for this touching and inspiring interview is her dear friend and one-time sister-in-law Carolyn Parrs, who was an intrinsic part of Irene’s life when she was transformed by her profound spiritual awakening.
IN THIS EPISODE, YOU’LL HEAR ABOUT THINGS LIKE:
- Who Irene was before the car accident.
- The three amazing and profound messages Irene received that led to Irene’s spiritual awakening.
- The Heavenly Directive Irene received just after the accident.
- The Divine Plan between Irene and Saul that led her to write They Serve Bagels in Heaven and create Grief and Rebirth Podcast.
SOME QUESTIONS CAROLYN ASKS IRENE:
- What was your life like after the accident?
- What prompted you to start this podcast?
- What role does awareness of the bigger picture play when it comes to healing?
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Listen to the podcast here
Who Is Irene Weinberg? Author And Host Of Grief And Rebirth Podcast
In this episode, I’m going to stray from interviewing grief and trauma specialists, healers, mediums, and people who have inspiring stories to share by being interviewed myself. I’ve been asked many times to share on this show details of my own profound spiritual awakening that happened when my husband Saul died next to me in a tragic car accident. I have enlisted the aid of Carolyn Parrs, my dear friend, who at one time was my sister-in-law, to keep me focused by asking me questions about my experience and adding some comments of her own.
Carolyn is speaking to us from Seattle, Washington, and I’m here in West Orange, New Jersey. I’m proud to let you know that Carolyn Parrs is a highly effective messaging strategist and business coach. She knows that many healing and wellness practitioners are strong on mission and purpose but struggle with messaging and marketing.
At her company, Mind Over Markets, she’ll help clarify your message so you attract more clients and have an impact beyond what you thought was possible. Her “build and scale a sustainable business coaching program” is designed to do just that. To learn more, be sure to go to MindOverMarkets.com. On a personal note, I want to share with you that I lovingly call Carolyn my witness and historian because she was an intrinsic part of my life when I experienced my life-changing spiritual awakening. Here we go, Carolyn. Let’s begin.
What an honor this is. Thanks for the plug, Irene.
It’s my pleasure.
This is going to be a wonderful journey. I’m so happy that I get to do this with you. Your audience, who have been tuning in to you for years now, are going to see the impetus for this show and all the other blessings that you bring to the planet. Let’s go.
Let’s do it. Have you got to a question for me?
I want to start with life before the accident because I want to set it up so your audience understands who Irene Weinberg was. What was life like before that auspicious day?
I was a pretty traditional girl, as you’ll remember, Carolyn, I’m sure. I went to the grave and I put a stone on a grave. Was anyone there? Did anyone listen? I didn’t really believe in anything spiritual. I was traditional. My husband and I were married for about eighteen years. We were a second marriage. We were very in love, and we definitely thought that all spirituality was complete hooey.
I’ll second that. I was one of those people who’s trying to do that.
That’s right. We didn’t have much of a relationship with you because you were more spiritual, and we thought, “She’s crazy.” We didn’t dig that at all. Did I get a surprise?
I know. Every time I brought that up with you, sometimes we’d have lunch together. Both our husbands were brothers. Irene and I were sister-in-law. I now call her my sister-in-love because I’m not married anymore to my ex-husband, but I figured I don’t have to divorce Irene, do I?
I tell people, “Carolyn divorced my brother-in-law, but she kept me.”
Right on. I think that’s an accurate description. I just remember you always got your nails done. Your nails always look great, and you always had sequined outfits. You had a life with Saul. Saul was a successful builder. You were his wife, and you kept everything beautiful and pretty. Your house was immaculate.
It’s because we had an image to maintain because when he was wooing investors or whatever he was doing, it was important. I was a very simple girl when we got married. I wasn’t spoiled at all. When I married Saul, all of a sudden, I was wearing pretty jewelry and I was wearing beautiful clothes. We were going out with people. I was traditional in my behaviors and beliefs, but I adopted that lifestyle.
I met you that way. That’s how I knew you for a number of years. I don’t even know, maybe it was ten years. I just knew you that way. Even though we were not really friends, we were related because of the brothers, then it happened. One December day, an incredible life shift happened. Why don’t you tell your audience about that day?
I’ll take a deep breath, and I’ll launch into it. Saul and I were married for just about eighteen years. One day, I was washing dishes at my kitchen sink while Saul was watching a Jets game on TV. As you can tell, everyone knows I’m a Jersey girl. I suddenly got a very strong thought that was not my thought that came into my head. It said, “Saul has to go, many lessons will be learned from his death.” I stepped back in my kitchen and I thought, “This is crazy.” I filled a glass of water, brought it over to Saul, kissed the top of his head while he was watching the football game and I put that message completely out of my head. I never forgot it, but I discounted it. I said, “This is crazy. What is this?”
It wasn’t a thought you were thinking. It was just a message you received, and like, “What was that?”
It came through like it was my own thought, but it wasn’t my thought. We were big skiers, and we had a ski house in the Catskills off the New York state throughway. Two months later, we were at our ski house. We had a great weekend, did our thing, and all that jazz. We get into our car. I’ll never forget it. I said to him at the time, “Saul, you’ve had some tough times in business. You’ve been tired. Do you want me to drive home?” He said, “No, I’ll drive home. I’m fine.”
We get in the car, and we start driving down the New York State throughway. We were on the throughway for about an hour and a half. I suddenly felt the car go into a huge swerve. As it did, I looked over at Saul, and I saw that he was sound asleep at the wheel. We were going 72 miles an hour. I looked over, and I went, “Saul.” He woke up. He saw what was happening. He went to pull the car out of the swerve. Instead of riding itself, we started lifting off like I was on a gigantic rollercoaster. We took off into the air. As we took off, I got a second message, and it said, “He’s not going to make it. You are.”
This is like mid-air. You’re tumbling.
I haven’t made my first tumble. It was like we just took off to go to the first flip, and I get, “He’s not going to make it. You are.” I’m petite, so I pull myself all into myself, lower my head, pull my knees into my chest, and we begin what feels like a rollercoaster. I was conscious and aware of everything. Each time we lifted way up in the air, the car would bounce really hard on its right side and lift back up into the air. This happened four times until we slid into a ravine on the side of the road.
It was really funny because months later, when I went back to the scene, I noticed that there was a guardrail before the space where we flipped and after. That one space, there was no guardrail. We went right through that space. There’s a guardrail there now, but there wasn’t at that time. We flipped right down and were upside down. I’m thinking to myself, “Holy moly, I got told Saul’s going to go.” I look over at him, and I said, “Saul, are you okay?” I see that he’s gone. I am looking at the shell of my husband.
This is a lot to process, but at first, I got told, “He’s got to go.” Now I’m told, “He’s not going to make it. You are.” Now, I see it’s true. He’s completely gone. Just as I’m starting to process that, I had three major operations after the accident, I’m really not aware that I’m bleeding to death from an artery in the bottom of my foot and all this jazz. It’s happening so fast. I see a helicopter land in front of me. It turns out I found out we held up traffic on the throughway for two and a half hours that day.
A helicopter lands in front of me. I saw these EMTs jumping out of the helicopter and running over to my car. Three guys pulled and pushed and turned my car over. As we righted ourselves, the car bounced a little bit. My car was, I have to tell you, shattered. There were pieces on the road six months later still. My window was shattered. The car was beyond totaled.
This EMT reached into my shattered window, undid my seatbelt and took me by the shoulders. I guess it’s something they’re taught. He turned me around and started to pull me by my shoulders out of the window of my car. As I was sliding through the window of my car, an unemotional, authoritative-sounding male voice boomed into my head and gave me a heavenly directive. It said, “Be loving and kind to everyone,” as they laid me on the side of the road.
It’s amazing that in that state, you were this open space. All that was going on, and you’re receiving that incredible message.
It was unbelievable. I have to say, and I’ll talk about this later on in my story, but on the Earthbound plane, aside from, “Be loving and kind to everyone,” coming through my head, I remember thinking to myself, “I’m going to get through this somehow because I have to teach my son.” Saul was buried on his 21st birthday. I have to teach my son that you can get hit by a grenade in life and come through it to the other end. This, to me, was so amazing. I thought this within the first few minutes of the accident and having gotten this spiritual directive.
Now, I’m on the side of the road. They’re putting on a tourniquet. The guy said, “We’ve got quite a bit of bleeding coming out of your foot. We’re putting a tourniquet on.” Instead of screaming for myself, instead of carrying on, I started saying, “Be loving and kind to everyone.” It still was in my head. I was like, “What’s your name? Thank you for coming out. I know it’s the weekend before Christmas. Thank you so much for being so good to me and for loading me on the helicopter.”
Be loving and kind to everyone. Click To Tweet
I was not doing the typical “My husband’s dead. What am I going to do?” I got in that moment because I got the directive that, even though I hadn’t believed in it before, Saul must be nearby. We go on. There’s something to this. Something’s up. I don’t know what it is, but somebody pretty powerful just told me to be loving and kind to everyone. Here I go. It was a directive, and I was not going to ignore that.
It wasn’t even a cognitive thing like, “I need to be loving and kind.” It is totally immersed inside every one of your cells. We heard about it that night, and we were all obviously shocked and saddened. I came to the hospital. We’re on the outs because the brothers weren’t talking to each other. I walked into your hospital bed, and there are people in the room. You looked at me with the most illuminated face and joy. You said, “Hello.” You graced me. “Come in, Carolyn.”
It blew me away. It blew my circuits because I was like, “This does not make sense. She just lost the love of her life. She was in this car accident. She could have died herself.” You were spiritually reborn. That’s what real spiritual rebirth is because you were at this witnessing. That phrase, “Be loving and kind to everyone,” was the result of that? What happened there?
Just to back up a minute, not only was I so different when I greeted you, but in the actual hospital, instead of screaming for myself, they brought me in on the gurney, they laid me down. I said to each nurse, “What’s your name? Thank you so much.” I swear to God, it was unbelievable. “What’s your name? Thank you for being here. Thank you for helping me out.” They started taking off my jewelry, and I said, “Can I please just hold onto my wedding band, please?” The doctor came over to me, and he said, “Let her keep her wedding band on.”
The doctor came over, took my hand, and he said, “I have to tell you that your husband is gone.” I said, “Doc, I know. I am the luckiest woman in the world because I have been blessed with a wonderful marriage and a good man. How ever many years I had with him, I am so fortunate.” I got a call from his assistant three months after the operation with all they did with me. She said, “I have to tell you, you changed lives in the emergency room that night. We see tragedies in the throughway all the time. No one ever reacted the way you did to everyone who came near you.” I said, “Trish, I had a profound spiritual awakening that changed the way I see everything in life.” It was amazing.
I was a witness to that. After that encounter with you is when I fell in love with you. I love the kind of expanded love. You’ve been one of my closest friends ever since. I was so in awe of how a person could be like that after what just happened to her. It didn’t make sense because I knew that if it was me, I would never be like that. I probably would’ve fallen apart. You were just like a Buddha.
If you got that message, it might’ve changed things for you too. First of all, one of the reasons we got closer is because you were one of the few people I could talk to about this. It was 1997 when the accident happened, and it was still foo-foo, woo-woo, which is where I had been before the accident. “This is baloney.” You were ahead of your time. Now, many other things happened after the accident to me that started me on my path. One of the few people I could talk with was you.
It was Crazy Carolyn.
You were no longer crazy. You were the one that wasn’t crazy.
Life after the accident, this tragic and amazing experience happens to you, and then you have to live your life now. It’s like before and after the accident. What was life like that?
They Serve Bagels in Heaven: One couple’s story of love, eternity, and the cosmic importance of everyday life
I’m in grieving hell. Even though I got to be loving and kind to everyone, I’m on the floor crying my eyes out. I couldn’t kick my feet because I was in a wheelchair with crutches, but I was upset. Not only that, but Saul never planned to die that night. Heaven obviously knew something was up. There were a lot of loose ends with his estate. There were a lot of problems with finances. There were a lot of problems with the kids that I’m not going to go into. There were all kinds of things going on. I spent almost every day crying my eyes out, really upset, trying to grapple with things. I also knew something was up and I didn’t know what it was. That was in the back of my mind all the time. I had no idea.
We had to choose his coffin. We had to do all of that. We had to get through the funeral, which you remember the whole thing. Now what? I had just gotten out of my wheelchair about six weeks after the accident, and I got a call from my dry cleaner, of all people. If anyone knows me, you know I’m very friendly, and I’m very open. Before the “be loving and kind,” I was a very friendly, open person.
My dry cleaner called me and said, “You seem like a very open-minded person. I want to tell you something that I don’t usually tell people.” I said, “Okay.” He said, “My son died of a drug overdose eight years ago. My wife and I were inconsolable. We went to grief counselors, psychologists, and psychiatrists, and no one could help us.”
“Someone told us that the soul goes onto the other side and there are special people called mediums who can communicate with the soul on the other side. We are going to be going to a little gallery, which is when a group of people get together to hear from deceased loved ones. We’re going to be going to something like that in about two weeks. If you are open, I would like to take you.”
I was a nervous wreck. I didn’t know what to expect. I quickly read a book that I thought had to pertain to souls on the other side or something, but I had no idea. I was just able to drive Saul’s car. I’m telling you this for a reason. My car was completely totaled in the accident. I was driving Saul’s car, and it says, “Saul Z,” on the license plate because Saul used to sell condos to kids in Hoboken, New Jersey. They called them Uncle Saul Z, so he had Saul Z. Carolyn’s smiling because she knows the personality. He had Saul Z on his license plate.
I took the Saul Z car, and I drove five counts away. I got out of my car, and I left it in my dry cleaner’s driveway. I climbed into the backseat with my dry cleaner and his wife. We drove about 40 minutes from his home to the hotel. This man was John Edward, who’s so famous now. He was just starting out at the hotel which was five counts away. I had no idea what to expect. I walk in. He greets my dry cleaner and his wife. He looks at me, and he says, “I don’t even want to know your name. I don’t want to know anything about you. Just go upstairs. I’ll be there in a little while.”
I’m a nervous wreck. It’s like I’m getting ready for a date or something. I have no idea. I saw these other people in the room with me, and there were about 35 of us. I found out later that some of them are called sitters who had lost deceased loved ones. In those days before voice recorders and all, they also had brought people to take notes for them as messages came through. I had no idea what this was all about, but I was sitting there with all these people.
All of a sudden, John Edward gets to the front of the room, and he starts channeling or communicating with people’s deceased loved ones. It was like Saul waited for me to get the idea. I witnessed about five different readings. “I’m getting a message from someone who shot himself in the head with a pistol.” “That’s my father.” “Someone’s telling me that she saw you hanging three pictures for Christmas.” “Yes, that’s my mother.” I’m listening to these amazing messages. All of a sudden, I hear, “I’m getting a soul on the other side,” and he’s talking about Dr. Pepper. “Does anyone relate to Dr. Pepper?” My dry cleaner’s name was Joel. I said, “Joel, start writing.”
Fifteen years before he met me, Saul’s brother, your ex-husband, put Saul’s name in a Dr. Pepper commercial because he was quite well-known in the advertising business, and that was his account. Of all people in the world, the ad said, “Dr. Pepper is coming East from California. Let’s talk to the man of the industry, Saul Weinberg, what he thinks of Dr. Pepper.” Saul used to think this was hilarious. Not Joe Smith or John Doe. He put his brother’s name.
For John Edward to be standing in front of that room and say, “Dr. Pepper,” when this wasn’t even a part of my life with Saul, this happened fifteen years before I married Saul, there was no doubt. He then started. For 35 minutes, with undeniable proof of survival, it was amazing. He’s telling me he died in a different state from where you lived. He died in New York. We live in New Jersey. He’s saying that he liked to tell a lot of jokes with accents. You remember that, Carolyn. He always used to tell jokes.
He’s telling me he wore a lot of hats. He was going bald. He always wore baseball caps. He’s telling me, “You’re wearing his skier charm under your blouse.” That was true. There was a message about each of the kids. The kicker, he’s telling me, “You’re driving his car with Saul Z on the license plate.” How the heck could John Edward know anything about Saul Z? That car was parked five counts away. Now, I have 35 minutes of these amazing messages, which my dry cleaner has been busy writing down and scrambling down for me. Who can I tell about what happened to me? There are only two people. I called my mother and I called you.
Let me ask you. This is out of your radar of knowing that this could happen, and then you got a download. He just channeled right through. What were you experiencing during that time? What was happening to you?
I laid my eyes out. I was crying. I was laughing. I was smiling. I was amazed. You name it, the emotion was there. At one point, John Edward stopped and he said, “How long has this guy been on the other side?” All of a sudden, that was a new phrase for me, “other side.” I said, “Two months.” He said, “This is an old soul. This is a very evolved guy. I can tell by the way he’s coming through to me. He’s been around the block a lot.” I was like, “Really? We come back.” This is my whole introduction to getting into this world. I had no idea. You got a message also. When I called you, you said that two weeks after Saul died, you got a message.
I was in training at that time. I was actually studying energy work, and Saul came through. Actually, I felt the energy of Saul. I remember I was getting dressed at the time, so I was like, “Get out of my room.” I’m like, “Can a ghost see you get dressed?” He mentioned another woman. It ended up being his daughter in your life and the relationship between you and the daughter. I brought some information back to you around that.
There was the business. You say you got the message. I was going crazy with these business problems. He said she’s inherited four business deals. Three will work out and one won’t. That’s exactly what happened.
Interesting. This totally flipped your life.
Now, of course, I want more. I’ve heard from him and I want more. What else has he got to tell me? On the Earthbound plane, I am missing him like crazy. Now, I’m really going into the grief and all of that. I start going to various mediums, healers, and all these different people. Actually, it was a good thing because it kept me busy and kept me occupied and not focused as much on my grief because I was so upset.
The thing that knocked me out was that in any way he could, he would let me know that it was him. Through one, he told me the first meal I ever made him. Through another, he told me the outfit he was wearing the night he died. Through another one, he described his private parts. Through another one, he described even the shoes he was wearing the night he died. He had a pair of blue and green shoes. You know Saul, he was fashionless. The woman actually said to me, “I’m seeing a pair of worn blue and green moccasins and they seem to be his favorite pair. He’s saying he wore them the night he died.” I was like, “Yeah. Holy moly.”
He’s coming through with all this information. There’s something else they’re telling me that is knocking me out. Each one of them says, “He’s saying there’s a divine plan that if certain things didn’t work out for him while you were together on the planet, that he was going to work with you across the veil and you were going to help a lot of people together. He was asking you to write a book.” I’m like, “What book? I was a buyer for Macy’s. I was a violinist. I helped him in his real estate business. What kind of book is this?”
When the fifth person that you go to tells you the same message that you’re supposed to write a book, it’s your husband, you would do anything for him, and now he’s on the other side, you start to say, “All right. Let me take a stab at this.” I start to inquire and ask questions to people. I then said to you, “Do you know of anyone who could get me information because I am being told I’m supposed to write a book?”
You called me and you had been at this Wiseman bookstore in New Jersey and a flyer fell out of it with a name of a psychologist who did automatic writing. Did I know what automatic writing was? I had no idea, but you said to me, “Maybe this is a place that you could start.” I don’t know what I would’ve done without you, Carolyn, because I was lost with all this stuff going on. You were filling in the blanks for me.
First of all, you were an open person and then had this profound life-changing incident and voice through. I just felt like a guide at the time watching you and seeing you having so many things that were happening and being given to you that was guiding you on that journey. You ended up writing a book.
I ended up doing it. First of all, I started working with this woman with the flyer. She was wonderful and she did this automatic writing. I would ask a question. She would tilt her head, she could hear, and she would write down what Saul was saying to her. Now, of course, I’m starting to read all these other spiritual books and I’m learning that people have past lives. I’m learning all kinds of information. One day I said to her, “I don’t know what I’m supposed to put in this book, but I’m asking him questions. I wonder if we’ve had past lives. Can you get that information for me?” She said, “I don’t do past lives.”
Now I go back to the source again and I go, “Carolyn, do you know anybody who does past lives?” You said, “I know a healer in Massachusetts who channels from the other side.” You recommended this woman. I called her up. Immediately she said to me, “Your husband is right here and he’s saying that you ought to come to work with me.” Anybody else would’ve said, “Is she out of her mind? She’s just had this car accident. She’s just healing. Is she going to go to Massachusetts to this funky woman’s healing cabin? Why? Just because people are telling her she’s supposed to write a book and she’s supposed to get information.”
However, I knew it was Saul. He was coming through in any way that he could. He even described his toes to me through someone. He was coming through. I knew it was Saul. If I was supposed to help him, okay. I found my way to Massachusetts and I get out into this sheep field. She had a healing cabin in a sheep field. To say the least with my fancy-schmancy New Jersey.
Now you’re in a sheep field. “How did I end up here?”
I talk about that in the book. It was quite an experience. She welcomes me into the healing cabin and I can’t see them, but she tells me that as soon as I came in, it was like a stadium of angelic beings all around us. They were telling her that she was supposed to help me write a book. Once again, it was the same validation. She said she had turned down other offers to write books because of her channeling abilities, but she was being told that I had tremendous integrity and that she should work with me.
That night after that experience, I cried my eyes out, to say the least, but here we started. I started working with her and I started asking her questions. It was amazing. She would sit at her laptop and I would ask a question and her fingers would start to fly across the keyboard of the laptop with whatever the answer was. I asked about past lives. I asked what it was like for him to cross over. I asked what they do about evil in heaven. I asked him all these questions and I was getting answers, but I was still a little bit like, “Carolyn recommended her. She’s getting all this information.”
It’s all so weird. I think those things, too.
The thing that sold me, as the book began to unfold, one day, she said to me, “I’m getting a message that one of your first lifetimes together, Saul was a rabbi in Ancient Israel and you were this little boy in his class that was called a yeshiva.” She was a Methodist. She had never heard a word of Hebrew in her life.
She said, “I am asking what his name was and what your name was in that lifetime. I’m getting a really weird name and I don’t understand what it is. He keeps saying that you were this really good little boy in his classroom. He says, ‘Yeled tov’. I never heard a word like yeled tov.” I was like, “Yeled tov is Hebrew for a good little boy.”
That’s how I knew that this was real because he was saying he called me the yeled tov in that lifetime. That lifetime was an amazing lifetime. It began our journey, which I talked about in the book of other lifetimes that we had together. I tell in the book how I decided I’d be the female counterpart of the two of us in most of our lifetimes and all of that. It’s fascinating.
Say the name of the book.
This is the other fun part of it. It’s called, They Serve Bagels in Heaven. I tell people, “If you want to find out if it comes with lox and cream cheese, you can look at it.” There’s a whole scene in the book because Saul, when we cross over, I learned we are acclimated to what made us comfortable and what we were familiar with on this side of the veil. There is a scene where Saul’s mother meets him and they have coffee and bagels in heaven. It’s amazing.
That’s good to know. I love bagels and I plan on going to heaven.
Personally, I’ve placed my order for champagne.
I’ll join you.
I want to tell people the subtitle. It’s They Serve Bagels in Heaven: One Couple’s Story Of Love, Eternity, and the Cosmic Importance of Everyday Life, because I’ve learned about the cosmic importance of everyday life.
Say more to that. What does that mean to you? The cosmic importance of everyday lives.
It’s because everything we do has a consequence. Everything we do has karma. We get a life review when we cross over. There are reasons that certain people are in our lives, and it’s all about how we choose to deal with things. When you cross over, they don’t want to know how much money you made. If you’re a billionaire, they want to know how loving and kind you were, how you treated people, and how you treated yourself.
Irene Weinberg: Everything we do has a consequence. Everything we do has karma. We get a life review when we cross over.
A lot of big lesson that is.
Loads. I talk a lot about that in the book, also. That’s how my story started, and then I was out there. I’m doing my thing. I’m doing little presentations. The book is selling beautifully. I have about 72 5-star reviews on Amazon. I’m doing my thing. All of a sudden, one day, I’m sitting at my desk and the word podcast comes into my head. I said to my publicist, “What’s a podcast?” I believe the messages I had gotten were those stories. I said to her, “What is that? I just heard the word podcast.” She goes, “I can help you do that.” I thought, “Is this the next part of my divine plan? I just got that message.” I then thought to myself, “If I was going to do a podcast, what would I do it about?”
I thought about the fact that I had been so hobbled by grief, other than the fact that I had the messages, but I was so hobbled by the grief and all. What did I do to help myself heal, knowing that I had said, “I’m going to get through this?” I worked with a life transition coach who was wonderful and I also worked with a spiritual healer now that I had opened up to the energetic ways that people can also heal. The two of them helped me so much to move through this awful period of my life to where I was going to go next.
I remember my life transition coach saying to me, “We have to figure out who you’re going to be without Saul.” I remember screaming and crying, “I don’t want to be anyone without Saul.” She said, “This is your choice. Are you going to move on? Are you going to create a new life for yourself? Are you going to sit and long for what you can no longer have anymore?” I started working with her and I also started working with this wonderful spiritual healer.
I decided to interview grief and trauma specialists, healers, mediums, and people who have inspiring stories to tell, because I learned how important it is to rebirth yourself. You can create a new life for yourself, even though you don’t want to, but you can do it. It has tremendous positive ramifications for your life and for the people in your life all around you, which is another part of my story.
You can rebirth yourself. You can create a new life for yourself. Click To Tweet
The birth of Grief and Rebirth was about that. That’s the whole point. How grief, the people that are grieving right now, we’re in the middle of COVID, and so many things that are happening. If we just stay awake and aware and embrace what’s happening, I know that’s really hard to open our eyes of wisdom. That’s actually words from a spiritual teacher of mine. Opening our eyes of wisdom is what happened here for you.
Exactly. The other thing is that when I decided to do Grief and Rebirth, all the people we interviewed, I’ve made it into a healing community. Anyone tuning in to this show can go to my website. Are you looking for a medium? Listen to what they have to say. It is not a Yelp review. You listen to the interview and you decide if this person’s right for you. Do you need healing of some kind? They’re on that website. Go listen to that.
What’s the website?
The website is IreneWeinberg.com. You can go right on there. Of course, the podcast is all over social media and on YouTube and all that. You can also get the podcast through my website, IreneWeinberg.com. I’ve really made it a healing community. As I interview people, you want to read good books that are going to help you with your spiritual journey or give you clues into what it’s like. Many of these people are authors. I have their books on the site and all of that. It’s all about helping people not to suffer and to move. I know how hard it is. Believe me, I know how hard it is. I know how beautiful it is when you get to the other side of it.
That’s beautifully said. What a journey. I know this is inspiring to your audience because if you’re suffering right now, there is light at the end of the tunnel. Just trust your intuition. Trust what’s being received. Trust that you’re on the right path. Get the help you need and check out the podcast. Drench yourself in that, and you will be led. Irene, the book, then the podcast, what’s next? A movie?
Funny thing you say that, Carolyn, because since I wrote the book, I’ve been getting approached by people that they see the potential to turn They Serve Bagels in Heaven into a movie or a TV mini-series or something fast.
I could see that.
I just was approached by someone and the terms weren’t quite right, but I’m open. When people hear the story, this may be the next step.
Film directors and producers out there that are tuning in, if the time is right, the time is right for this story, for sure.
It’s got it all. Spirituality is very of interest these days. It’s got a lot of humor, pathos, and drama. It’s got the whole thing and it even has good sex in it. What more would they want?
I’ll go see the movie.
I’m putting that out there. For all of you who are tuning in, you may even see my story as a movie one day. Here’s to possibilities. What a rebirth that would be. I’ll write the second book about my wondrous rebirth and miracle.
As we conclude this journey together, and I’m so wonderful that we got it down for people to read, I want to ask you some final questions that I know you ask your guests. The first is, what would you like to tell your fans about the importance of healing in a person’s life?
This is my big thing because I ask it all the time because I want my audience to know you can heal and it is worth the effort to heal and not stay attached to your stories. I guess I would have to say my spark of inspiration for that is my son. When they pulled me out of the car, I had that other thought that I will get through this somehow because I have to teach my son, Matt. I have to teach him that you can get hit by a grenade in life and still keep going. That was my primary thought.
Irene Weinberg: It is worth the effort to heal and not stay attached to your stories.
About 3 or 4 years after the accident, when I was starting, I was healing, working with the life transition coach and with the energy healer, starting to peek out and create a new life for myself, my son, one day, said to me, “Mom, there has been nothing worse in my life than watching you in complete despair. There has been nothing better than seeing you being able to have joy again.” This is what I wish for every single person who tunes into Grief and Rebirth. I went through all this, and I’m fine.
For him to witness that too, what a lesson for him and his children and your grandkids.
I’m passing it forward always because he will always know to persevere and not to be ashamed to get help. In fact, I think the most courageous people in the world are the ones who go for help.
It takes a lot of courage to get help. You’re right. It takes courage to do this work. The second question is, what role does awareness of the bigger picture play when it comes to healing?
This applies to all the Grief and Rebirth audience who are tuning in to this because you’re being led to this so that you can read these interviews and make your choices about what you’re going to do. I want to tell you this story. After I started working with this woman and channeling the book, I also got involved with a medium. I was traveling with her, and I’m being her business manager. I got more and more into this world and was learning about it.
One day, we went to Vermont and we walked into a hotel room. I knew no one there. Someone had arranged this for us. As we walked into the hotel room, there were 30 people in the room. In the very first row, there was a young girl. She must have been 23 or 24 years old. She was screaming, sobbing, crying, hysterical in the front row.
As we walked in, the medium I was working with immediately said, “I’m getting a man.” As she walked to the front of the room, there’s a man, and she looked at this young man. She says, “He’s telling me he’s your father. He’s telling me that the two of you had a horrible, vicious fight the night before he unexpectedly died. You said things to each other that might never forgive each other for. He’s coming through to tell you how sorry he is and that he forgives you also.”
I cannot even begin to tell you the change in this girl from the hysterical, screaming, crying person to the smile, joy, and relief when she walked out of the room that night. The thing that got to me was, “Everything we do travels to the other side.” You’re going to have to experience that. Be accountable for it. Be aware of it. What choices are you making? Are you going to stay stuck or do you want to evolve and move forward? This man relieved a lot from his soul’s burden by apologizing to her and did that for her too.
Healing could happen even though someone passes. You can have it on both sides of the fence. You can have healing. That’s remarkable. I hope everyone read that. Maybe there’s someone you need to be reaching out to.
I had a very tough dad. I never look for him to come through. Of course, I’m always looking for Saul to come through if someone happens something. A few times, healers or mediums have said to me, “Your father’s here.” I will say, “Dad, what do you want?” He always comes through to say, “I’m hanging around you. I’m learning a lot. I’m healing and I’m so sorry.” Yes, as we heal, they’re around us and they are also healing on the other side. That is another wonderful reason to pay attention to the bigger picture and be conscious about what you say, how you treat people, and how you respond to things.
Beautifully said. Last words or last inspirations before we conclude this journey we took on.
As a person who has experienced a healing and transformative rebirth of my own, I now know that the darkest night can lead to the most profound dawn in a person’s life. By choosing to allow myself to heal, the grief and intense suffering I experienced has led to a rebirth and a life filled with meaning, joy, happiness, and wonder.
This is quite a new adventure and quite amazing that I would’ve never ever been open to at one time. It’s brought me so many rewards because, through the book and the show, I now find myself being a role model to others that they, too, can rebirth their lives and move on. For this, Carolyn, I am so grateful. It is such a blessing.
No wonder people say, “You’ve got the greatest attitude,” or, “You’re so different than so many people.” I live my life in gratitude. I started getting emails from people saying, “Please keep going with this show. It is keeping me going. I’m learning so much from it.” Every time I get that, I go, “What a blessing. I’m so grateful.”
I’m grateful for you.
Thank you. The feeling is mutual. This all came from a message. “Saul has to go. Many lessons will be learned from his death.” Do you think that was true? I would say.
So true. Be loving and kind to everyone. Lessons to live by, for sure.
Let me just say before we go, everyone, if you want the book, you can get it on Amazon. They Serve Bagels in Heaven: One Couple’s Story Of Love, Eternity, and the Cosmic Importance of Everyday Life. The show, we’re all over social media. You can go to IreneWeinberg.com. Drop me a line. Say hello. I love hearing from you. Carolyn, tell them one more time about your website so they can get ahold of you if they want to work with you.
Mind Over Markets is my company. We help game changers and change makers get their message right so they can have the impact they want in the world. I am launching a podcast too. Thanks for the inspiration you’ve given me. It’s called Sustainability Superstars. I’ll be interviewing leaders who are changing the world one bagel at a time, whatever else they’re making. They’re the leaders in sustainability and mission-driven businesses. It’s to help others that are doing the same to give them inspiration and know that they can do it too.
They’re not alone. They’re in this community.
Keep the faith, one step in front of the other. Click To Tweet
Watch out for that. If you go to MindOverMarkets.com, you can sign up to get access to that as we start promoting it.
Carolyn, what can I say? Loving thanks to you.
Right back at you, Irene.
This was great for teaming with me to share this story to all my cherished Grief and Rebirth audience.
I want to tell your audience to reach out to Irene. If this moved you in any way, you got inspired, or maybe something arose for you that you had some clarity, let her know. I think she would love to share some of that in her conversations and her writings. Reach out because I think this is the beginning of something even more budding for you.
Keep the faith. One step in front of the other. As I like to say to you and to all of our audience, to be continued, many blessings, and bye for now with much love.
Guest’s Links:
Host’s Links:
- @IreneSWeinberg on Instagram
- Irene Weinberg on Facebook
- Irene Weinberg on Twitter
- Irene Weinberg – Grief, Rebirth + Healing Podcast on YouTube
- Irene Weinberg’s book: They Serve Bagels In Heaven: One Couple’s Story Of Love, Eternity, and the Cosmic Importance of Everyday Life
