Also at the Minneapolis Edge Life Expo you will be giving a Sunday address entitled, “An Afternoon of Spirit.” What can people expect during that presentation?
JVP: When I do an afternoon event, I call it a demonstration of what I do. I am very much a teacher. Now, there are mediums out there who are excellent technicians. They are able to bring through evidential details, and they are excellent technicians, but their work might not be spiritual. Let’s compare that with a great surgeon who is an incredible technician, but their bedside manner is horrible. Technically they are great, but they have no compassion. That’s true with mediumship.
I know that, for me, I am an ambassador of the spirit world. I present myself as an instrument of the spirit world. Many people who come to these events are brand new to this. They have never seen this before. So, first, I educate them as to what this is all about. The first thing I have to do is take away their fear, because a lot of people come a little fearful of the unknown. They are scared. They are not sure about this. “Is he going to spit out green soup? Is he going to float around the room?” So, I come in right away and disarm people right away, and I use my sense of humor and I tell some jokes, and they say, “Oh, he’s kind of a normal guy.”
And then I talk about the life review, about having a spiritual life while in the physical body. I want them to have a foundation, because the messages are just the by-product. I may give ten or twenty messages for 2,000 people in the room, so not everybody is going to get a message, but every single person will be able to relate to the messages that are given and use them for their own life. I’m also going to do a meditation just to relax people so they can go home with tools that they can use to become more aware, more sensitized and more healthy.
Where do you think the American public is now in terms of understanding mediumship and the psychic realm?
JVP: The various books and movies — and popularity of TV shows like “Medium” and “Ghost Whisperer” — really opened people up. Everybody has what I call psychic or intuition experiences, déjà vu. Maybe we will think about someone and five minutes later the phone rings and it’s that person. Everybody has those kinds of experiences, and now I think they’re able to talk about those things. Now it’s safe to express feelings you have about your insights, your visions, and people don’t look at you like you’re crazy. That’s really changed in thirty years.
Because of those shows and the success of them, it’s become much more mainstream than ever before. You have Theresa Caputo on “Long Island Medium,” and as much of a character she is, at least she’s getting the word out about mediumship. I had my experiences with “Ghost Whisperer,” so many fights with producers and other people because I told them they can’t portray this or that because they have a sense of responsibility. Stupid me for not realizing that it’s Hollywood.
The spirits, my guides, said to me, “James, you have to think of the bigger picture. It might look that way, but at least people at the end of the show are always questioning, “Is there life after death?” — and that is the goal of this show.”
And, I’m like, “Oh, my God, that’s exactly right.”
So, even though Theresa Caputo is a clown and a character, I think she has a really good heart, and I think people see the truth in it, I think they will recognize truth. So it is getting out there, and a lot more people are coming to these events than ever before — and a lot more men than ever before. It used to be just females and now the demographics have changed. A lot more men are coming by themselves, without the wives, so that change is pretty amazing.
You talk about the drama of “Ghost Whisperer,” but at the end of every episode there was always that touching moment when the soul was leaving the body. That was an interesting part of the show for me. A person died and then Melinda would get a tear in her eye and she confirmed that the person went to the light.
JVP: Thank you, that was my part. There’s healing that takes place. I put that into the pilot, and I told CBS that at the end there has to be a good resolve. I am a firm believer of what you put out there you create, so I did not want to leave people every week going through scary, scary horrific experiences and leave it like that. I wanted to end every show on a higher note of love. So if you look at that show, you will see at the end of every show that element of healing, that element of love.
You mentioned the book you’re working on about the voyage of the soul. Do you have any other projects coming soon?
JVP: The next one is coming in October, so when I go to Minneapolis I will be signing my brand new book called, How to Heal a Grieving Heart, which I wrote with Doreen Virtue. It’s a gift book in a way, because it’s full of insights into what you would tell somebody who is grieving, how you can help them through their grieving process. It’s really beautifully illustrated with colored butterflies. It’s gorgeous book. In November, a deck of mediumship cards that Doreen and I worked on together will come out. They are the first mediumship cards that I know of. You concentrate on a loved one who passed over and then you turn a certain card over and that will be the message for you.
Have you worked with them? Do they work well?
JVP: I didn’t know what it was going to be like, because I was not sure. I was with a friend of a friend, and I asked her to think of somebody who had passed. She turned the card around and she started crying. She said, “That’s what I was hoping.” And then yesterday, I was interviewed for a magazine and a lady came to my place. She looked at these cards and said, “Oh, these are beautiful.” And I said, “Yes, let me explain to you what they are, and let’s try to do them.” So she was thinking about somebody and turned over a card. She started crying, and said, “I was wondering about that.” So, it really does work. It’s pretty amazing. I think it will be great.
For more information on James Van Praagh, visit www.vanpraagh.com. For details on his upcoming keynote address and workshop at Minneapolis Edge Life Expo, visit www.edgelife.net.
Very interesting and insightful – I really enjoyed the article