I have a BIG problem with con artists who treat those people like sheep to be shorn. I mean that in the broadest sense, down through history.

when they try to use their magic sky dweller to legislate how I can run my life.

run

they are hardly preaching

it was more of OMG moments

I didn't watch the video because I know its BS (religion is BS)...not to mention Dr. Oz will say whatever he gets paid for.
When I see a headline confirming the existence of heaven...I do consider that a form of preaching. Actually, it is the worst kind of preaching because it is deceptive in nature and reaches millions of gullible people and innocent children that might consider this validation and then choose religion over science.
So why should I run if a medical doctor is preaching religion to me?
Because that doctor either forgot a good portion of medical school or just doesn't believe it. Either way, I'm running.

I've been reading them since at least the mid-1960s.

I once watched one of his shows where the whole show was about vitamins that would dramatically improve your health.
I looked each vitamin up online and they were useless.

I 'googled' him and i found this:

The James Randi Educational Foundation has awarded Oz with their Pigasus Award, an award intended "to expose parapsychological, paranormal or psychic frauds that Randi has noted over the previous year."

The award consists of a silver flying pig and refers to claiming something so doubtful that it will only happen "when pigs fly".

Oz has been given this award on three separate occasions, more than any other recipient.

(Believe what you want, but Dr Oz is not a good source)

anyone who is filled with grief and looking for something that might give them hope in the idea of one day reuniting with their loved one

as i had intended

since this is the bereavement group

and something i so desperately needed to hear when i lost my mother eight years ago

keep in mind i did not post this in "skeptics, science or pseudoscience"

thanks for your analytical run-down on something that was meant to give a little hope and comfort to someone who is heartbroken

(maybe you'd like to explain how, in actuality, our hearts do not "literally" break when a child, spouse, parent, or friend dies)

btw, the video isn't about dr. oz -- it was about his two guests who are doctors

I for one truly appreciate your posting this.

aA
kesha

Third Easter alone.

holidays tend to be difficult, and so does being alone.
i hope this group helped a bit.

on by emotional shock and stress. Thanks very much for your post.

Your post is probably helpful to religious types and I'm sure they are getting something from the video you posted. But I don't need fairytales to mourn or come to grips with the death of both my mother and my wife within 2 months of each other.

There are a lot of nonreligious types here that maybe why you are getting some flak about your post. There is a ton of religious based grief information out there. It is more difficult to find nonreligious grief information. Some of us resent that fact.

i'm very sorry you lost your mom and your wife in such a short period of time.

i agree that it is difficult to find nonreligious grief information.

and for the record, i am not "religious" in the traditional sense.
i don't believe in god. i don't believe in heaven. i am not a participant of any organized religion and i certainly don't go to church.

i do, however, believe in an afterlife, and believe people can communicate with us (in various ways) after they die. i believe we see/reunite with those we love after we die. i guess i'm a "spiritualist" if i need to put a label on it. i saw my first and only ghost (a relative who appeared as she had when living, and talked to me just as she always had, although she'd been dead for about a year) when i was six years old. she scared the crap out of me.

and in spite of that rather traumatizing experience, for years as an adult i was far more comfortable with the concept of: "when you're dead, you're dead." it was logical, so rational, so plain and simple.

eventually i had to come to terms with the fact that it (the ghost thing) happened to me and that i saw it firsthand and couldn't excuse it or rationalize it away. (no, it didn't happen at night, no i wasn't dreaming, no i wasn't even close to or attached to this woman.) so between that (and other various "woo woo" things throughout the years) i had to tweek my belief system.

obviously we all have our own experiences--just thought i'd share a bit of mine with you.

i hope you're doing okay farmer-rick

If I had such an experience, it would change my outlook on life after death too.

But I haven't and after seeing animals and people die, I have a tough time distinguishing the difference between their deaths. All life seems to die the same way.

I'm always fascinated by these stories, many different but often with similar core elements. This is a global experience and seems to cut across cultural and ethnic lines. In my mind, we're tied more closely than we think through our biology and mental processes.

Could it be real or merely the brain's chemical reaction to death, a way to prepare us for own demise?

I have no idea but if it provides comfort to people in times of loss then these stories are beneficial. Until they're supplanted by something else, something equally comforting and healing. Because human beings need that, a sense that life has a rhyme and reason to it, that death--as painful as it often is--also has purpose.

Btw, I stumbled across this room just today. I was happy to find it. I lost my younger sister recently. In fact my husband and I only returned from a dual memorial a week ago, a 2700-mile trip that was exhausting but worthwhile. I wrote my sister's eulogy which was also hard but worthwhile because it made me concentrate on the years we had together, the shared memories, some funny, some not. It also made me realize that though my kid sister and I were very different, our lives had always been intertwined, even when we were apart.

For me the greatest comfort was knowing she was well-loved and had loved well over the years. In the end, what better legacy can any of us leave behind?

We all have our own ways of sorting through death and loss. Whatever eases the journey and the darkness is okay by me.

i'm sorry about the loss of your sister.

glad you found this group here. i was on du for five years and never knew about it until after my mom died--i stumbled upon it too, at just the right time.

take care.