Dr. David DeSteno

And so when someone dies, yes,

They go to a different domain like heaven.

But there what they do is they keep the relationship going.

So there's something called, they call it, I don't know what the word in Chinese is, but it's called ghost money.

And so what you can do if you want to honor an ancestor and be in connection with them is you can go to the store and it's this paper money that looks like real money, but it's not real money.

It's a paper currency.

And you burn that.

And as the smoke rises, it goes to them where they are, and they can use it to buy stuff.

You can buy cell phones that are kind of origami-shaped as paper, burn that in, and it goes to them.

And that might sound strange, but what it really does, it's a way of keeping that relationship there, of not totally losing that person, of having that positive memory.

still feeling like you have them in your life.

Because one of the biggest difficulties of humans, you know, we're social creatures.

When we experience loneliness, when we lose someone, it is painful psychologically.

It's also bad for us physiologically if it goes on.

Well, anything that we can do to feel like that relationship is still maintained, as opposed to just loss, helps us avoid the stress and loneliness that comes with it.

And so that's another kind of grieving ritual I've seen.

No, there are parts of prayer that are just deep listening and sitting in silence.

There have been studies, as I've said, that look at prayer in general for formalized prayer.

I mean, there is a sense that... So two questions.

Let me deal with the first one first, which is, is there a difference between God and religion?