In this episode, Chris Lippincott interviews Irene Weinberg, who shares her healing journey after a car accident took her husband’s life. She discusses receiving messages from her husband through mediums and her work in grief and trauma healing. Irene believes mediumship offers comfort from loved ones who have passed. She stresses self-care and being kind to oneself before helping others.
Irene highlights the importance of releasing past pain to find joy and navigate challenges. She discusses the afterlife, suggesting it’s a reflection of our life choices rather than a place of judgment. Irene believes everyone has a unique mission and that life’s challenges prepare us for our purpose. She encourages facing pain with courage, as the rewards of healing and personal growth are significant.
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Healing From Within: Unlocking The Power Of Love And Kindness With Irene Weinberg
Introduction and Background
I am so honored to have the wonderful Irene Weinberg with me. She is amazing. Irene is the author of one of the most amazing books They Serve Bagels in Heaven. She’s an author, a speaker, and a host of a top podcast worldwide. From what I understand, she got an incredible award which we’ll talk about. That podcast is also in the top 2% of 3 million podcasts in 84 countries and growing.
She is well renowned and I love having her on. Her podcast is called Grief and Rebirth: Finding the Joy in Life which is all about healing and it’s helping people. That’s what we’re all here to do. She’s also writing a book that’s about to come out called Good To The Last Drop, Embracing Your Life’s Third Chapter. She’s very active.
What a pleasure, Chris. It is fun to have the shoe on the other foot because I think I’ve interviewed you 2 or 3 times on my podcast.
Yes, it is fun to have the shoe on the other foot, isn’t it?
Embracing Your Life’s Third Chapter
Thank you for bringing me out, and telling everyone about what I’m doing. Good to the Last Drop was a message that I received to do this book, and it’s about people’s third chapters in life. The first chapter is when you’re growing up and you’re a kid. That’s your first chapter with your school and your home and your family and all. You have your second chapter, which you’re a second chapter guy, where you’re establishing your career and community and whatever you’re doing.
We then get to the third chapter, where we’re supposedly retired. I have a feeling you’ll be more of a retired guy like I am. Who wants to be retired? Some people in retirement don’t seem to be thinking, “It’s time for me to get sick and die.” Other people retire saying, “Now what legacy am I going to leave? What am I going to do for this last part? How can I take care of myself good to the last drop?” That’s the premise of that book that’s coming out soon.
Who wants to be retired? Some people in retirement don't seem to be thinking, “All right, it's time for me to get sick and die.” Share on XThat sounds great. It sounds very much like the culture of Japan and lots of it in Asia where that third chapter is often your best chapter. It’s that wisdom and ability that you have. That’s why you see the average age in Asia often is so high because they don’t give up. They don’t say, “Chapter is written, I’m gone. I’m off to the sunset.” No, it’s time to start again.
That’s right and you know what? It’s a different mentality than in this country, which is you retire, you’re over the hill, where those cultures respect the wisdom gained through age. Anyway, I have a bunch of stories, and every single person in this world, would think about their life journey, as you would know better than anyone, they’ve been through deaths, they’ve been through career changes. They’ve been through all different things.
How do these collective experiences add up for that third chapter? That’s what the book is about. Do you stay in the past? Don’t heal all your stuff, all your pain, all your wounds, and sit there and suffering through till you cross over, or do you heal and look at that as that’s fed my current present and take that wisdom and now what are you going to do with that for this remaining time? Are you going to be a role model? One guy I interviewed lost a child and went through all this stuff. Now, in his third chapter, he is leading grief support groups for men. What a wonderful thing for a third-chapter gig.
That’s amazing. I love your story, and I don’t want to spoil it yet because it is so beautiful, so amazing. Let’s understand where you came from. What was your childhood like? What was your upbringing like? Did you have religious exposure? How did your childhood begin? Let’s start there.
I had a very dysfunctional childhood. I had a very painful childhood. I had a father who had had polio when he was five years old and he had all kinds of physical problems. He was an angry guy. I found out later in life, I realized that my mother was a battered woman. I had a very tough childhood growing up and I was very controlled.
I was a people pleaser. I was trying to survive and all of that. I married my first husband, who was a little too much like my father, but I didn’t know how to discern or anything. Eventually, life did its thing, and then we divorced and I married my second husband, who was the love of my life. Without going into it, that’ll tell you a ton. We ended up getting custody of both of his teenage children, and we raised my son.
We were married for about eighteen years. We had a happy marriage, and we had both been very unhappily married before. We were not spiritual, Chris. We were very traditionally Jewish people. I learned that you go to a cemetery, you put a stone on the grave to mark the spot, you might say something to somebody, but who’s listening? Who hears you? I had no idea.
I had a sister-in-law who fancies herself to be spiritual, and we thought she was crazy. We thought she was woo-woo crazy. We weren’t talking to her particularly when this amazing thing happened to me. We were skiers. We had a ski house. You’ll know where this is, but for your audience who doesn’t know the New York, New Jersey area, we used to ski at Hunter Mountain in the Catskills, and we had a place there. That would be our thing to do in the wintertime. It was October, two months before ski season began.
One day, I’m washing dishes in my kitchen sink, and this kid who believes in none of this suddenly gets this message. This though is not my thought. It comes right into my head and it says, “Saul has to go, many lessons will be learned from his death.” I looked around with the glass. I was like, “What am I thinking?” It wasn’t my thought. I said, “This is nuts.” I brought him a glass of water. I kissed the top of his head. He was watching a Jets game on TV and I thought I put it out of my mind, but you never forget something like that.
What were you thinking when that happened? What did it feel like? Were you like, “My god, I’ve gone crazy? I got to go see a shrink?”
The weirdest thing is that at that moment, I thought, “This is nuts, what am I thinking?” I then had a second thought and I said, “If something ever did happen to Saul, he’s impacted so many lives. A lot of lessons would be learned.” I agreed with it and then I thought that it was nuts. I put it out of my head. To give everyone a background, he was a very beloved real estate developer.
You would know the town he did a lot of development, at Hoboken, in Jersey City, Bayonne, and all of that area. He had a very charismatic loving personality. The investors that he worked with and sold condos to because he was taking factory buildings and converting them to condos and all, they called him Uncle Saul Z, and I’ll tell you that for a reason during the interview, but they called him Uncle Saul Z.
He even had Saul Z on his license plate for his car because he was so beloved for what he did and all of that. I helped him, and I used to be a buyer for Macy’s, and I grew up being a violinist and all of that. I had two children’s stores and all that, but then I started when we married, I helped him in his real estate business.
We were a great couple. We had a great time together. He was the love of my life. We had such a good relationship. We faced a lot of challenges, like bringing up these kids and all these different things that had happened to us. We had a real bond. We had an understanding. I grew up as a violinist. I was very into culture and he was a jock.
He loved skiing, he loved baseball, he loved football, and all that. When we were dating, he said to me, “You’re perfect for me, but you don’t ski.” I said to him, “You know what? You’re perfect for me, but you have no class.” He said, “What does that mean?” I said, “I’ll make you a deal, Saul. I come from Florida. I’ll put those two sticks of wood on my feet. I’ll take a trillion lessons. I will be skiing with you on those slopes and I will go with you to your football games.” I didn’t even know what a down was yet. “But you have to go with me if you’re willing to do this to ballet, symphony concerts, theater, and all that.”
I said, “Your part’s easier. I risk my life on a mountain and you get to sit in an audience and I’ll nudge you if you’re falling asleep.” He grew to love the music. He started identifying composers. It was fantastic and I became an expert skier. We blended our worlds. We had a blast. When this happened, we had finished up my end of the bargain. We were done with the culture of the summer and we were gearing up for ski season.
I’m doing my thing and I get this message and I put it out of my mind, I think. Two months later, it’s the week before Christmas. We’re on our way to the ski house for another lovely skiing weekend where we meet a lot of our ski friends and all. At the end of the weekend, it was interesting, I’m going to tell you what happened to us, the night before the accident happened, he said to me, “I’m so lucky and thankful to have you in my life.”
It was really interesting. I didn’t realize at that time that maybe that was his soul or his something making sure to give me that message because the next day, it was what I was told. Saul has to go. Many lessons will be learned from his death. We’re driving home from the ski house and we’re on the New York State Thruway.
We were on the Thruway for about an hour and a half. Suddenly, I felt the car go into a huge swerve. I looked over at Saul and he was sound asleep at the wheel. We were going 72 miles an hour on the Thruway. I called out to him, “Saul.” He woke up and he saw what was happening and he went to pull the car out of the swerve.
As he did, we rose into the air for the first of four flips, Chris. I will never forget it. I was conscious through everything and I pulled myself together. I’m a petite short person, so I pulled myself together and I remember taking off into the air and we hit hard four times on the right side. I had four serious operations all up and down the right side of my body from the accident, but I was conscious of everything.
Messages from Beyond: Channeling Loved Ones
As we hit the first time and took off the second time, I got another message that came into my head and it said, “He’s not going to make it. You are.” In this second flip, when we got to what you would look at as a clock-like, as we were flipping from the 10 of the moment to the 10 after, I suddenly left my body. I suddenly found myself surrounded by black. I didn’t know what was going on, but I was still here.
In this second flip, I suddenly left my body. Share on XI didn’t know what was going on. I said, “What’s going on?” I was all encased in black and then suddenly, I felt myself go back into my body for the rest of that flip. We took off a third time flip. We took off a fourth time, and we landed upside down in a ravine. Before I tell you this part of the story, I must say we held up traffic on that New York State Thruway for 2 and 1 half hours. It was that bad an accident.
There were still pieces of my car on the road six months later. We slide into this ravine. I’m all scrunched up in a ball and I’m in my seatbelt and I’m upside down and I look over at my husband and ask, “Saul, are you okay?” Indeed what I was told had happened. I’m next to the shell of my husband and I can see that he’s gone.
Today I would say his beautiful persona and his personality were gone, but he wasn’t gone. I got in that moment and we went on. I got these messages. He must still be with me. All of this was coming in at me and I saw a helicopter land. These three EMTs jumped out of the helicopter, and they began rocking my car back and forth to get it right side up onto the road.
Once they accomplished that, one of them came to my car and stuck his hands through my shattered window. I will never forget it, Chris. He undid my seatbelt, turned me around, and started pulling me by my shoulders through the shattered window of my car. Maybe you can fill in some blanks for me about this, Chris. I don’t know, but as this was going on, a male voice trumpeted into my head and said, “Be loving and kind to everyone,” as they laid me on the side of the road.
I’ve been told that could have been Archangel Gabriel. I don’t know. My husband is gone next to me and they’re telling me to be loving and kind to everyone. I don’t know about you, but that would tend to change you as they’re multiplying. In my view, all of a sudden, I was not consumed with myself. I knew that Saul had left his body. All of a sudden, my focus on everything was being loving. It was like I got a directive from heaven.
I’m saying to these EMTs, “Thank you for coming out. It’s a weekend before Christmas. I appreciate it.” They’re saying, “You have a real problem.” I had a torn artery in the bottom of my foot. He said, “We’re going to wrap a tourniquet around your foot.” We’re having this conversation and they load me in a helicopter to take me to an emergency trauma center.
I continued, “I’m so grateful for your help.” I was told to be loving and kind to everybody. Instead of screaming for myself, “I lost the love of my life, what is going on.” I’m saying, “Thank you so much, what’s your name?” They take me to the emergency trauma center and I say to the nurses, “Thank you so much for helping me.” The surgeon who’s going to stitch up the bottom of my right foot came over and said to me, “I need to tell you that your husband is gone.”
I replied, “Doc, I’m the luckiest woman in the world that I had this man in my life. I’m so blessed.” He said, “Would you like me to tell your children when they come? The police are calling your kids.” I said, “I’d rather tell them.” I said, “I could stand by my side,” because I’m Jewish, “I could use a rabbi right now.” He said, “I happen to be the assistant rabbi in my synagogue.” Look at how spirit works with us. Look at that. I said, “Would you hold my hand as I tell each of the kids?”
Can I ask you a question? Can I stop you there?
Sure.
The thing that fascinates me is when you hear that trumpeting voice or that booming voice, A) What was going through your mind? B) What made you follow this imperative when you’re in the middle of massive trauma and distress? What was it that made you follow this 2 or 3-word phrase? You’re like, “I can do that.” What made you go in that direction?
They talk about our spiritual world, and I’m sure you’ve experienced this, Chris, if you are intuitive. If something in your body feels right and this was before I was spiritual and had this experience, but everything coming in, because they prepared me. “Saul has to go, many lessons will be learned from his death.” Here it’s happening.
I was like in the moment, it felt right. Something was up, something was going on. When I heard, “Be loving and kind to everyone,” I thought, “My God, I’m getting a directive.” It somehow felt right. I’ll tell you how I knew later on it was validated. The other thing that I did that was momentous for me was I got this message, “Be loving and kind to everyone,” which was life-changing but at the same time, I was on the earth plane, I said to myself as I was being pulled out of the car, “I will get through this somehow because I have to show my son, I have to role model for my son that you can get hit by a grenade in life and still keep going.”
Saul was buried on my son’s 21st birthday. My son was 21 years old and now I realized he had lost his father. At that moment, if I had to change myself one by one, somehow I was going to get through this because I was not going to give him the message that your life can get ruined in a moment. I wanted him to know that stuff was going to happen in his life too, and there are ways to get through it.
I didn’t know how I was going to do it yet, but I thought that somehow I would get through this. I guess the voice in my head reinforced that. There was something up. We have to go to the hospital and all of that. Now I’m in grieving hell, Chris. I’m home. I’m in a wheelchair. I have people coming from the memorial services and all that jazz.
There were a thousand people at his funeral. He was very loved. I’m going through all that and I’m in grieving hell. I get stuck with all these business problems, all these things going on, family issues because we’ve got stepchildren and all that thing. What was this all about? It’s amazing how spirit works. I’m out of my wheelchair and I’m starting to drive Saul’s car because mine was completely totaled.
I get a call from my dry cleaner. You know me by now, I talk to everybody. I’m very friendly and every time I used to bring in my dry cleaning, we’d have a chat or whatever, “What’s going on with your kids and your grandkids?” He called me and said, “Irene, I don’t tell this to a lot of people, but I feel like you’re very open-minded.” Of course, now I’m much more open-minded about what was going on with me.
I want to share something with you. He said, “My wife and I don’t share this with a lot of people. Eight years ago, my wife and I lost our oldest son to a drug overdose. We were beside ourselves, and we went to grief therapists and counselors and all kinds of people, and no one could help us. Someone told us that the soul goes on to the other side.”
He said, “We have communicated with our son through,” and he named a bunch at the time. The accident happened in 1997. He told me about a lot of these people he had communicated with his son through. He said, “A new guy is coming up who’s going to be very famous one day. He has a gallery for your viewers.” I’m sure you’ve done many of them, Chris, where people get together. You’ve done one for me on my podcast where people get together to hopefully get a message from their deceased loved ones and then they’re in a group.
He said, “I’m going to go to a gallery with this guy in two weeks. Would you like to come to me?” His home was like about five counts for me. He said, “This gallery is going to be in Secaucus.” That was another 5 or 6 towns away. Leave your car at my house and then I’ll come into my car and I’ll drive us to this gallery. This famous medium one day was John Edward. Before he was famous, there were only 35 people in the room. It was before voice recorders. People would bring someone to take notes.
I had no idea what this was about, but I knew something was up. I went and left my car at his house. I got in his car, and we went to the gallery. John Edward greeted them, saw me, and said, “I don’t even want to know your name. Go upstairs with all these people who were waiting.” There were 35 people, half of them were what they call sitters and the other ones were taking notes for them.
I was very nervous. I didn’t know what to expect. It was like Saul purposely gave me time to watch other messages coming through from other people. I’m getting a message from someone who says he shot himself in the head. “That’s my father.” Hanging pictures for Christmas. “That’s my mother.” All of a sudden, John Edwards said, I’m getting a message from a guy and he’s talking about Dr. Pepper.”
I went to my dry cleaner. “Joel. My God! Start writing.” Fifteen years before he met me. Saul’s brother who was an advertising executive on Madison Avenue in New York City Put Saul’s name in a Dr. Pepper commercial. The commercial is like, “Dr. Pepper is coming East from California. Let’s talk to the man of the street, Saul Weinberg, about Dr. Pepper.” It’s not John Doe or Joe Smith. His brother had put his name in the commercial.
How did John Edward possibly know that? It had happened fifteen years before Saul even met me. Now, for 40 minutes in this gallery with other people, Saul takes the stand and the messages. He’s telling me he died in a different state from where you live. He died in New York. We lived in New Jersey. Who’s Matt? That was my son. Who’s Bruce? That was his son, on and on for 40 minutes.
John Edward even said to me, “This is an old soul, this guy.” I don’t know if he would say that today. He said, “This guy has been around for a long time.” I didn’t even know what that meant at the time, but the thing that knocked it out of the park for me, Chris, was he’s telling me, “You’re driving his car with Saul Z on the license plate.”
That was parked six towns away at my dry cleaner’s house. I know you get these messages also. How could he possibly know that? Now, from being nuts and this world is crazy, there’s only one person I can call. My sister-in-law. I called her up and I said, “My God, I heard from Saul.” She said, “Thank God because two weeks after the accident, he came through to me.”
I said, “Why are you talking to me, Saul? We weren’t talking when you died.” He said, “Because I thought you were crazy, but you’re not, and I’m on the other side, and I have to get some messages through to Irene.” He said, “She inherited four business deals, three will work out, one won’t, and there was a message about each of the kids.” Now, I have started to open up to other mediums and other people and all this. I can’t tell my world because they would think I’m cuckoo for cocoa puffs as I did.
When you were going to this initial gallery reading, were you going in there skeptical? What were you initially thinking when you were going in there? This is a bunch of malarkey. What was your initial perception?
The interesting thing about it was I knew something was up with what this was. When he called me, there was a spiritual bookstore that I had never gone into in my town. As I walked into the bookstore, facing me right was James Van Praagh, who had come out with his new book, Talking to Heaven. I said, “What is this?” I felt compelled to get the book. One of the messages that John Edwards said to me was, “He’s telling me that you read a special book to prepare for this evening.”
Isn’t it amazing? How could he know that? Saul knew that, of course. I didn’t know what I was in for, but at least I opened my mind to reading this book and about what this was. When I got to John Edward, I was nervous. I dressed more like I thought I had a date coming up. I did not know what this was about but I had read enough of the book to say, “I’m going to try to be open-minded to this experience whatever it will be.”
The book opens your mind to the possibility that something’s out there. That’s interesting.
You’re right. That’s why these books are so important that we write because as you’ve done, people can learn so much about this world even before they experience it or validate their experience. Now I start opening up and all these people are telling me this other thing. I keep getting these messages, the same message from different people.
He’s telling me there’s a divine plan and that you two have been soulmates and you have a lot to do together and you’re going to work together from across the veil. I’m like, “Huh,” but it was him. Do you know how I knew it was him? He described his toes through someone. He described the first meal we had together through someone. He described the outfit he was wearing the night he died through someone.
He described his toes through someone. He described the first meal we had together through someone. Share on XHealing and Finding Joy After Trauma
He was giving me such undeniable proof of, “Honey, I’m here.” I would do anything for him. Now I start getting a message, “You’re supposed to write a book.” I ask, “Book? What book? I played the violin. I was a buyer for Macy’s. I helped him in his real estate business. I took English in high school, but what book?” I don’t know what to do, but it’s him and one thing leads to another as you know in this world.
My sister-in-law introduced me to a woman who can channel from the other side, and she started channeling Saul, and I started asking him questions for this book. I asked him what it was like when he crossed over, and what they do about evil on the other side. I was learning all these things as I was asking him these questions. The book is a love story. He channels some of our past lives.
How I knew this was real because I always had a healthy skepticism through everything. She was a Methodist. She had never heard a word of Hebrew in her life. One day I’m sitting with her and she’d be channeling and she’d ask Saul the questions. All of a sudden, she started typing on her computer. Did I know all this was real?
One day she said to me, “Irene, I’m asking him about if in past lives you’ve shared. He’s telling me that you’ve been many different things in different lives. You’ve been Jewish in some lives, and Christian in other lives. You’ve had all these experiences, but in one of your first lives together, he was a rabbi in ancient Israel, and they had schools there called yeshivas, and you were a little boy in this yeshiva.” She says, “I’m asking him your name, and I’m getting the weirdest name. I don’t get it for this little boy in this yeshiva.”
She said, “It sounds like a yellow toe.” We keep saying you were such a good little boy and it sounds like yellow toe. I said, “My God, yeled tov is Hebrew for a good little boy.” I was like, “Okay, Saul, I believe you. I know it’s you.” She doesn’t even know what she’s saying and she gives me that clue, that validation.
Now, we start writing the book. I come out with the book and I think this is all that I have to do. At the same time, I was working and now I’m getting into this world for a while. I was a business manager for a Medium and I started getting into this world. I also helped to found a philanthropy for children in grief and things like that. All of this is happening, I’m out there with my book and I think, “That’s it.”
One day, I’m sitting right where you see me and I get the message “Podcast” that comes into my head. I said, “Podcast. What’s a podcast?” I’m thinking, “They’re telling me I’m supposed to have a podcast. It’s my next step. Now, I’m open to this world.” I said, “Who am I supposed to interview?” I thought about it and when the accident happened, I made this vow to myself, which I had mentioned to you that as they were pulling me out of the car, I also thought to myself, “I will get through this and role model for my son that you can get hit by a grenade in life and still keep going.”
One of the things that I did was I started working with a life transition coach. Now, I opened up to energy healing. I was working with an energy healer because I was in tremendous pain. When I tell you kicking and screaming on the floor from grief. My god, I was with the ways of grief and everything, but I was on some level with the mediumship, how he kept coming through. It gave me comfort that it was not all over, that I was going to be with him again, that he was aware of what was going on in my life, and that I was getting help in some way.
Even though on the physical plane, I feel griefed in my way. I call it like you’ve had this person swimming through your cells. All these lives. It’s like a withdrawal because they’re not physically in your presence anymore. It’s so painful. On an emotional level, I did have some comfort from the mediumship readings that I was getting where he kept coming through, “Honey, it’s me. Do you want to know about my toes? “Honey, do you want to know about that last meal you made me?” All of this is going on. The bagels in heaven thing, he channeled that. You know this better than anyone, you get a life review when you cross over.
Tell me about that.
They acclimate you when you cross over. You get with whatever you’ve learned here that you’re comfortable with before you see the bigger picture. His mother met him on the other side. His mother had passed and transitioned when he was sixteen years old from cancer. He told the story. He channeled to me for the book that his mother met him when he crossed over. The first thing, the first visual, the first experience he had was his mother and he had bagels and coffee in heaven. Talk about touching base.
Touching about what you know. That’s acclimating.
People often ask me, “Did they come with lox and cream cheese?” I said, “Anything you want.” Of course, she changed it to the creator when he started getting acclimated and starting getting his life review and all of that. His mother greeted him. Now, I’m so open to all these things. I did the book and now I thought it was done.
The Power of Love and Kindness
I did my job. Now I get podcasts. I thought that I was going to interview. I worked with the life transition coach and spiritual healers. Mediums saved my life, honestly, with the knowledge that he was not gone from me. Also, because of all the trauma I’d been through and how I was working so hard to get to the other side of it for my son, who knows what else is coming down the pike?
I said that I was going to interview grief and trauma specialists, healers, and mediums, which is where you fit in big time, Chris. People who have been through traumatic, difficult experiences in their lives, healed them and moved through and transformed into the rest of their lives. I’m very passionate about healing because of this dysfunctional childhood that I had, where I carried this backpack of pain and my stories from all the injustices and things that had been done to me in my life.
When I healed, I was able to drop that backpack and it opened me up to being able to move forward because I’ve learned that if you’re grieving on a scale of 1 to 10 whatever it is for this person with your history, that’s in the appropriate arena. If your grief is over into the 15, 20, or 25, you’re over the top, mired in the swamp of it, you usually have issues from your past that are exacerbating.
It’s unresolved issues from your past that are exacerbating. If you were abandoned as a child, now you feel your deceased loved one has abandoned you. If you had a solid childhood and then you never had that issue, you’re grieving your deceased loved one, but if you’ve had all these unhealed things, now it’s multiplied with what you’re experiencing.
I said, “I’m going to do that.” I’m going to encourage people that they can drop their baggage of pain. Here are all these ways and all these people who can help them to drop that pain and to know that they can move on. You don’t have to stay stuck in that, even though you can’t even imagine how you’re ever going to move from it, but you can.
You can move on. You don't have to stay stuck in that, even though you can't even imagine how you're ever going to move from it, but you can. Share on XIt sounds like the knowledge not only that you can heal but you can move beyond it. You’ve been talking about healing so much that it sounds like that’s so critical to know that you can heal. There are ways to move beyond it.
You’re a big piece of a lot of people’s healing because of the validation, and then they can choose to look and deal with their other issues. I tell people all the time that one of the most amazing things in the story is how I vowed that somehow I would get through it. Four years after the accident, my son said to me, “Mom, there’s been nothing worse than seeing you in total despair, and nothing better than seeing you be able to have joy again.”
You can heal. You can experience joy again. You can also be loving and kind to everyone. Share on XThat’s profound. That’s very powerful.
Taking Care of Yourself
That has been the impetus for me to say to people that you’re in the depths of hell, the grief, everything you’re going through, but you can heal and you can experience joy again. You can also be loving and kind to everyone. I took that everyone was me too. I tell people that you’re not going to be good in the world for what you can do and any contributions you can make unless you’re also very loving to yourself.
That could mean healing your stuff and taking care of yourself physically, and emotionally. Many of us were people pleasers, especially when we’re empaths and all. We’re taking care of everyone in our lives, and we come last. What good are you for all the people in your life if you also don’t take care of yourself? What are you role modeling?
What good are you for all the people in your life if you don't take care of yourself? What are you role modeling? Share on XIt reminds me of when you’re in an airplane, and the flight attendants say before they take off, “If you get an oxygen mask, you put it over your mouth and nose first, then you give it to somebody else.”
Exactly, that’s what’s happened. I have to say that I’m having a blast. Here I am in the seventh decade of my life. I know I only look 22, but I’m in the seventh decade of my life. That was the impetus also for good to last drop because so many people will say to me, “You’re such a role model. You embrace life, you’re doing all these wonderful things, you’re taking good care of yourself. I want to get older like you.” I thought, let me bring out other people’s stories who are doing this and start to change the paradigm and the thought that just because you’re getting older doesn’t mean it’s over. You can still have an impact.
There are a lot of people who are hesitant or they have a fear of the great unknown. They’re not quite sure about the continuity of life. What would you say based on everything that you’ve learned about the great unknown? What’s out there? What would you say to people who are afraid of it, or concerned about it?
I’d say you’re going through a lot in your life because you chose to come in and learn lessons in this school and you’re going to go home. To be honest with you, I’m not afraid of dying anymore from what I’ve experienced. I’m afraid of not living life well to the last drop. What I would say to them is I had an experience at a gallery with a medium, and we were in Vermont. We were opening up a new territory in Vermont.
I had discovered this medium, and for a while, I represented her. We walked into a hotel room, and I know you’ve experienced this in your world, Chris. We walked into the hotel room. There were about 35 people there. It was in Vermont. I didn’t know a single person. We had been invited. As we walked in, a girl was sobbing. Maybe in her mid-20s. Loudly sobbing in the front row of this gallery.
As the medium walked to the front of the gallery, she said to the girl, “I see a father figure behind you and he’s telling me that the night before he unexpectedly died, the two of you had a horrible fight. You called each other terrible names and he is saying that he’s so glad you came to this. He is so sorry for what he said to you. He did not mean that. He got a life review and he is so sorry.”
This is why mediumship can be so healing. The difference between this young woman, before she got that message, and after she got that message was life-changing. I tell people how I know this is real, that imprint of how you treat people in your life, they don’t care how much money you made when you get to the other side. They want to know how you express love, what you did, how you impacted people in your life, and all that in this lifetime.
The Afterlife and Choices
That’s why I say the last thing Saul said to me the night before he transitioned was, “I’m so lucky and thankful to have you in my life.” That was what he took to the other side. This man took to the other side these awful names he called his daughter, these horrible things he took called his daughter and he got the message and was able to come through and apologize to her and take care of it. A lot of people can’t do that or they don’t do that.
They take the pain that they’ve caused others or whatever, they take it to the other side. That’s why I want to tell people that I know for sure that we go to the other side. I know for sure that the imprint of your choices in this life, though there’s no judgment there, but your choices will follow you over. That’s why you’re here in school, to learn how to make different choices and to learn these lessons.
A lot of times I also get even for those people who do think about the afterlife or they think about the beyond, oftentimes, I’ll get questions about heaven or hell. What’s your understanding of that? Is that something that you’ve got a new perspective on? Is it there or is it more something that we create in our awareness as a result of it? What’s your thought?
I’ve learned a lot about that too. We land according to our vibration of how we lived our lives and what we did. There’s no hell. The hell is in your mind, you create it yourself. If that’s what you create, that’s where you go but it’s not real. We land on different planes according to what our vibration is. Saul, who was obviously like John Edwards said, “He’s been around the block a lot and a very evolved guy,” he landed on a higher plane than other people might, like this man who abused his daughter the night before he died.
He didn’t land on such a high plane, though he still got his life review. Maybe it helped him when he was able to say those things to his daughter but my favorite story about this, Chris, is my parents, as I’ve said, did not have a great marriage. My father was a control freak and my mother was a battered woman. She used to make a joke, “If your father’s meeting me when I cross over I’m not going.”
That was a family joke. Now, of course, I communicate with the medium after she transitions and I get the message, “Yehey, I made it.” I asked her through this medium, “Mom, did you see Dad?” I had been told through a medium that my grandfather, her father met her, not my father. She said, “He’s in a different place than I am.” In other words, he was in a few planes I guess below her she had landed in a higher plane and she said, “I’ll get to him when I’m ready.” Eventually, I understand that they did get together and reconcile.
The interesting thing was I never through any medium ever wanted to talk to my father. That was how painful my childhood was. Recently, he’s been coming through telling me that his life review was like he was getting pistol whipped when he had to experience what he did to my mother and his children. They have healing places there.
Letting Go of the Past
He had been healing, and he came through to apologize to me and say, “Irene, I’m so sorry. I understand now. Look at me as a stepping stone because you learned all this from what happened and now look what you’re doing. I’m proud of you. You’ve overcome every obstacle that I unconsciously put in your path.” I know that there’s no hell because my father didn’t go to hell. He landed on a lower plane. Eventually, he did enough healing to be able to come through and become accountable for what had happened. You know what that allowed me to do, Chris? It happened about two years ago.
What’s that?
My backpack slid right off my back. That was the end of that because now I let it go. I was able to forgive him not because what he did was okay, but because I could let go of the story of what had happened. It’s my story of what was, not what is.
It sounds like he helped you heal.
He did. I could not have done that without a medium communicating that to me. I’m at peace. That’s what I want for our audience. That’s our message. You don’t have to stay stuck.
Everyone is Precious and Important
That’s the big question. After everything that you’ve gone through. After everything you’ve experienced. All the challenges you’ve had. What would you say is the series of lessons that you’ve had? You’re saying that you don’t have to be stuck, you can heal, you can move on, you can be at peace. What are some of the biggest takeaways that you’ve had?
My biggest takeaway is that every single person tuning in to this on this planet is as precious and important as anyone else in your life. Whether they’ve achieved fame or not, we’re all part of a collective and we all have our mission and our job to do. The healthier you get, the more you work to unload and drop that backpack, the more you can be a role model for other people in this life to also enhance their vibration and to make it a better world and drop the pain. Be loving and kind to everyone. Be loving and kind to yourself. Take care of yourself. Take care of your issues. Find the right people to help you leave your swamp. You don’t have to stay in that drama.
Starting the Healing Journey
Exactly. It sounds like you’re talking about the purpose of your life, even the sole purpose. What would your understanding of a sole purpose be? It sounds like that is what your purpose is in life.
I see you as a healer. Many people come to you and they get this wonderful healing for what you do. I see my role, my sole purpose is I’m a bridge to you. I’m a bridge to healers. I’m a bridge to people who are giving the message. People tell me my presence is healing because of how I’ve healed and where I am, but I don’t see myself per se as a healer. I see myself as a messenger, as a bridge to healing. I think that is my sole purpose.
That’s great. That makes a lot of sense, a messenger to direct people where they need to go and to find what they need to find.
I get a lot of emails from people, “Who should I talk to about this? Who should I go to? What should I do about that?” I tell them, “Listen to AYXYZ Podcasts,” because they have to make their own choices but like with us, now people are finding out so much about me, they’re certainly going to listen to your podcast, which is wonderful and they may choose, “I’m going to add Grief and Rebirth to my list and I can read that too, however, they get the messages and however they can get enlightened and raise their vibration and start to learn and get those healing.
We’re telling them that they can change their story. You can heal. There are options for you. Your loved ones are still in your life. I love how you talk about spirits around us because I know they are all around us and they know everything going on. My mother and my husband have two different ways. They tell me with a pendulum that they love me. The pendulum swings differently from each of them. I know they’re around me all the time and part of my life, and I’m going to be with them again.
Very magnetic.
It’s a wonderful thing.
You and Saul had the most amazing relationship. It sounds like you two were the proverbial soulmates. Do you believe in soulmates? What do you think soulmates are? Do they exist?
Different Forms of Soulmates
I asked Saul about that in They Serve Bagels in Heaven. He said there are many different kinds of soulmates. That there are some soulmates like we were. First of all, we weren’t always married in every lifetime, and I had lifetimes that he was not with me. I had a lifetime when I was a little boy, and he was my teacher in ancient Israel.
We have different roles that we play. He told me that there are friend soulmates, that there are lover soulmates, and that there are all different kinds of soulmates. It’s not limited to one person, but we do have, we come in often with a family, like with a soul group and we take different roles. Saul and I have been lovers, married, and all in many different lifetimes.
We have this thread that has continued through our lives, but we have other people who are also soulmates in different ways to us. Through friendship or different ways, we connect with different people. Sometimes people come in and say, “I’ll play this role in this lifetime. ‘m going to take this part because this is the lesson that we’ve decided you need to learn or keep working on in this lifetime.”
Being a Bridge to Healing
One of the lifetimes that is in my book, They Serve Bagels in Heaven, I said, “Saul, I don’t want you in this lifetime. I need to have a lifetime where I am learning how to function and develop certain parts of my soul without you.” There are those kinds of things that happen. Now in this lifetime, think about this. He had to go. I’ve been told that I could have gone with him. The amazing thing was I mentioned to you before we started that when we were dating, an astrologer said we were going to die together in a car accident.
All those years later, I had that out-of-body thing that happened. I’ve been told I was given a choice. I could stay with him on the other side or there was work for me to do here. I chose to come back for my son. I knew there was work for me to do and all that. I’m experiencing this part of my lifetime solo. I mean, I’m together with him, but not in a physical way. He’s encouraged me that if another man came into my life and all, he would have no problem at all because it’s all about being loved and they’re not jealous over there. They’re not invested enough that way over there.
There’s no ego, so there’s no jealousy.
It’s about love. It’s about how you express love, and how you receive love. That’s the bottom line.
It’s amazing when you begin to think about how you express it. We’re trying to get the peace, understanding, healing, and then as we start to open up, we start to feel that connection. It sounds like you’ve been rapidly gaining more and more of the understanding to the point where it’s now overflowing from you that you can give that peace, understanding, and ability. Learn how to love and heal and give that knowledge to other people. That’s what you’ve got. You’ve got the knowledge.
I tell people there’s no judgment on the other side. That’s another thing that I’ve learned. You came here to learn lessons. Some of us flunked the course, you may end up in the lower plane, but there’s no judgment. There’s no hell. “You’ll have to come back to learn the lesson you didn’t master in this lifetime.” I always say, “Do your healing. Do you want to come through with the same turkeys over and over again?”
It’s like, “Do you want to fail and go back to kindergarten and do it all over again?” I’d rather go back and keep doing more.
Even though it takes a lot of courage to change and grow, the rewards are tremendous. I asked a therapist once, why don’t more people go to therapy? She said to me that it takes tremendous courage to face your pain and face your wounds and to change. Not everybody wants to do that.
It’s like that old joke, “How many psychiatrists does it take to change a light bulb? It’s one, but the light bulb has to really want to change.” That’s what it’s all about. It’s all about the intention. It’s all about the inside. We have to want it so badly that we’re willing to face it, that we’re willing to experience it, that we’re willing to feel that discomfort, that pain, that inner challenge. It’s hidden inside for a reason because we don’t want to face it. Once you get it out there, put it to the light of the day, you’re say, “Okay.” That’s when it starts to melt away.
It’s hard, but it’s so rewarding. For me, for the first time in my life, to be totally at peace with what happened with my father, to know my mother is fine, to know that I will be with Saul again, to have this connection, to know you. This is the other perk. To meet the most wonderful people in this world.
Just being able to learn them, find them, and direct others to them. That’s part of your journey.
It brings me a lot of joy, to be honest with you. I see people in my world who are so depressed. One man, I met in the elevator of my building recently said, “Life is hell and life is this.” I said to myself, “My goodness, he’s missing the whole point.” This is how he’s going out one day thinking about not being grateful for anything.
It’s like you almost want to reach out and say, “Let me help you.”
There was a part of me that wanted to reach out and say, “Let me help you.” There was another part of me that wanted to say, “Come on over here. Come on.”
“Let me slap you upside the head and wake you up. You need some help there. Maybe you need some coffee too.” That’s what it is. Bagel and coffee. That’s what you need. Saul would be right there. He’d be like, “Absolutely. I’ll help them with that.” Let me ask you, as you think about a person who might be in that state where they need healing or they feel like they need to either change their lives or improve their lives or they want to get to their best self. What would you say would be the single most important recommendation you could have for a person who may be listening to that?
I think that everyone has a different path. I think everyone is called differently. For me, I had to start by starting. When I started with therapy, with life transition coaching and all that, she helped me. She said, “I’m going to help you try to function in the world without Saul.” I’m crying and I don’t want to function in the world without Saul, but that was one piece.
I then went to mediums. That was another piece that helped me in such a huge way. I worked with the energy healer who was able to tell me, “You have this and this trauma from a past life that we can heal and help you with.” My thing is what is your intuition telling you? Where do you need to begin? Then you can begin.
That’s why for me, on my podcast, I have all these healing choices on my website. If they’re looking for a medium, they can read your interview, Chris. They can say, “This is the guy for me. This is who I need to see.” There are coaches and there are healers and different kinds of people. The big message I have for people also is if someone doesn’t feel right for you if it’s a medium, if it’s a therapist, if it’s a healer, go out the door and find someone else. You do not have to be wedded to that person.
One of the first things I was taught was that I want you to go in new doors, test your intuition, see how you feel about it, and give it a shot. If it doesn’t feel right for you, walk back out that door. Instead of going to someone, not having a good experience, and saying, “This thing is lousy. This is not for me.” You can say, “I think I need a second opinion. I think I need to try someone else. I’m going to go somewhere else or try a different modality.” As you seek it out and as you open up, I think a person gets led step by step to where they need to go but you have to open the door.
You have to start somewhere. It’s like the saying, “Put the toe in the water and if the water feels good, put a second toe in the water, then a third, and so on, but if you feel the water is too cold, take it out.”
Exactly, but it’s a blessing. For me, my first step was that session with John Edward going to a medium. That opened me up, “My gosh. It’s Saul. My God, the license plate.” That opened the door and then I had some missteps and I learned lessons from it and I knew I could walk out that door.
There you go. That’s amazing. You’ve been doing so much good work, healing and helping other people and that’s been coming out on your podcast. Now you’ve got an incredible award in two categories or something. Tell me about what’s recently been awarded to you in your podcast.
Thank you for asking about that. I’m very humbled by it. There’s an international organization that is called Speak Up Talk Radio. They check out people’s podcasts and they listen to different episodes. It is a panel of six people and they listened to 2, 3, or 4 episodes, each one of them, from different podcasts that applied to have their podcasts considered for this award.
I was blown away because I was awarded first place in two categories. One was for motivation and inspiration, and the other was for spirituality. I thought, “My God,” and it was by all this panel of judges and it’s international. I guess my podcast was up against people and other podcasts from all over the world. I’m very honored to have received this recognition.
That’s wonderful. I knew your podcast was already in the top 2% or something in all 80 different countries. On top of that, you’re also getting these two awards or awards in two categories. That says a lot about the power that you’ve gotten, that Spirit truly was right, and that they were the ones getting behind you, poking you saying, “You’ve got to do this podcast because we want you to go help other people. You’re going to be our vessel for healing.”
Life Experiences and Purpose
When you look at your life, and I know that this is true for you too, if you look through the trajectory of your life, you see how the different things that happen to you seem to be part of a puzzle that fits together and bring you to the next step. Even the dysfunction and the things that I went through in my childhood, the tough first marriage, all these experiences that I’ve had, I realize, make me more able to relate to people as I interview them and relate to what they’re talking about. It’s almost like I see now from the beginning, assuming this was my sole purpose that I came in to, who knew? They knew that I was taken along and that I needed to have these experiences to wind up doing what I was doing.
The analogy I always use is like a defense attorney. A defense attorney cannot be a good defense attorney unless he’s first been a prosecutor because the defense attorney knows the direction that it’s going to take. The same thing as a doctor. A doctor can’t be a great doctor unless he’s already been through the pain and problems that all of his patients have been there because he’s already experienced it.
That’s so true, Chris.
It’s all about life experiences. This is wonderful, Irene. Thank you so much for coming on the episode today and sharing with us everything that you’ve gone through, all the bright stars that you’ve become, that you’re helping people. This is beautiful. I know a lot of people probably want to get in contact with you. How can someone get in contact with you if they’re either interested in learning more or for you to act as the bridge that you mentioned?
As I am. Get on my website, IreneWeinberg.com. It’s got everything there. I’m also on YouTube. I’m on Spotify. If you want to catch the podcast, wherever it is, I’m there. I’m on Facebook. I’m on Instagram. I’m everywhere but the main point you could start is to click right onto my website. I know that Chris will have links to make it easier for you. I want to thank you, Chris, because you’re such a great guy. I appreciate this opportunity to share with you and tell you my story.
Thank you. It’s truly an honor having a person like you who has written books, had all these awards, and had all these connections with so many people. I feel the old saying, “I’m not worthy.”
Recognizing Worthiness and Courage
You are worthy. That’s the whole message I have for them. You are worthy, clean up your stuff and start expressing what you’re supposed to do. Look at those people who are hurting you in your life as well. They’re not enlightened. They don’t understand. They’re not conscious.
Irene, thank you so much. I’m excited. Everything that we’ve been talking about, all of your links, and all of your books are going to be in the show notes. If you’re interested in seeing anything and getting more details and all the nitty-gritty, it’s definitely all in the show notes. Thank you for tuning in and I can’t wait to see you next week. With that, we’ll close the show. This is Chris Lippincott. I’m sending you love and light. Until next time, bye for now.
Important links
- Irene Weinberg
- LinkedIn – Irene Weinberg
- Instagram – Irene Weinberg
- Twitter – Irene Weinberg
- Facebook – Irene Weinberg
- YouTube – Grief and Rebirth
- TikTok – Irene Weinberg
- They Serve Bagels in Heaven
- Grief and Rebirth: Finding the Joy in Life
About the Guest
Irene Weinberg is the author of the 5 -star rated They Serve Bagels in Heaven, a loving and wise transcendental love story that begins with the amazing messages Irene received before, during and just after the tragic car accident when her husband Saul died next to her. Irene later segued into her inspiring and popular podcast called Grief and Rebirth: Finding the Joy in Life, which is currently in the top 2% of 3 million podcasts globally and in 84 countries and growing.
The podcast highlights interviews with grief and trauma specialists, healers, mediums, and people who have uplifting life stories to share. Both the book They Serve Bagels in Heaven and Grief and Rebirth podcast persuade people to see how each life matters, encouraging healing that contributes to fully engaged living with love and kindness at its core. Irene has a new book coming out very soon, titled Good To The Last Drop!: Embracing Your Life’s Third Chapter.
Our lives generally consist of three chapters, Chapter 1 being Youth to our formative years, Chapter 2 being Adulthood, consisting of work, family, and community, and Chapter 3 being our Senior years of retirement and legacy. Good To The Last Drop is an inspiring read that is filled with moving stories about great loss and life-altering challenges that have been transformed into a hopeful and positive legacy in the third, final chapter of life. It is a call to life and living, a time of renewed purpose and seeking out new challenges – and leaving a positive legacy. It’s never too late to live your life Good to the Last Drop! and engage in living each day with love, kindness, compassion, and respect for yourself and all life!