An Interview with James Van Praagh

James Van Praagh is considered a spiritual pioneer and one of the most well-know spiritual teachers in the world today. He has been bringing awareness to the public psyche for the past thirty years.

Through his work, Van Praagh shares his life experiences and insights so that others will benefit in opening up their hearts and gain a connection with their own spiritual self.

 

Hello. It’s a pleasure to be connecting with you again. I hear you have moved to San Diego since we last spoke. Welcome!

Thanks, I love it! And I am excited to be coming back to Seaside again, this time with Lynn Porpert, a medium from England. This is our third year working together. She is excellent!

Great! Let’s start with some basics for people who may not know you. How would you describe the soul?

I like to keep things as simple as possible. We get caught up in the complexity instead of the simplicity.

We try to make things more than they are; and it is really simple. I wrote a book about the difference between the Spirit and the Soul. The soul to me is the essence, part of you, of us. Each person has a soul, and I think it is a container of the spirit. So, if we think of the glass as a soul, then the water is the spirit, the essence. The spirit gives breath, life, to the soul to express itself.

The soul has been through many experiences, whether it is this life or others. The Earth is like a grain of sand on a beach. World within worlds and dimensions: That is the immensity of the Universe.

I know, this is very complex. When you try to describe a multi-dimensional Universe in three-dimensional terms, it just doesn’t work.

It is really hard to translate esoteric concepts or articulate a personal experience. The human body is only 20% & 80% is outside the body on different levels.

There is so much more to it. People are waking up, don’t you think? Mindfulness and meditation is getting to the broader masses.

Yes, I definitely agree there is a shift occurring. A name I have heard mentioned recently is Edgar Cayce. He channeled into the Akashic Record (or the Unified Field of Intelligence) while in a transcendental state. Is that what you tap into as well?

It’s different: He was a trance medium. While in a light stage of consciousness, he was able to tap into the souls history, or library. The Universal Catalog of all their experiences through lifettimes: Likes/dislikes, personalities and so forth. He would tap into their past life to get a remedy for the patient’s ailment, tell his secretary and it would heal people. The commonality is that while I am doing mediumship, I put the ego part of myself aside and surrender my mind.

The mind is the soul and they are eternal. Always has been, always will be. All the memories or experiences we have ever had, communicate with my mind. They use soul-to-soul communication by dropping memories.

So it is more of a mental telepathy?

Yes, I see memories and visions they show me and can be over-shadowed by their emotions. It is a total experience when they come close to me.

What is the message do you receive most often from loved ones trying to relay from the other side?

They keep reminding people that we are all connected, not separate. There is no death and everything is energy. They see auric fields and know holidays are coming up based on our emotions. This idea of separation (like race) is an illusion. One of the first things we realize when crossing over is the power of thoughts and actions. Prepare to see all the people that we have  wronged. Be mindful of thoughts: they are seeds. Let’s live by the Golden Rule.

The mind is very powerful. I am researching the mindbody connection (aka neuro-psycho-immunology). Everything physical manifests from an energetic level. Do you feel that changing our thinking can help prevent dis-ease?

Thoughts are things and affect the body. I do soul-to-soul readings and scan the body. Mindset affects the cellular level. Fear is the lowest, densest energy that blocks the flow and love is the opposite that helps it flow. I can see a color when I scan them and tell them an issue they need to heal.

I was watching them analyze my blood once, and due to my blood-type, the doctor says that I should not eat chicken. I thought how much I love chicken and immediately the cells began clumping together when I became fearful. I then thought, “love, love, love”. I looked up at the screen and the cells opened and lit up, and started to flow individually. The doctor then said, “It’s the most sophisticated communication system we have.” If you can hold a thought in your mind for three seconds, it is yours. I write all the time, we are what we think.

This reminds me of Dr. Emoto’s research on water. If people understood they have power over their cells in real-time, it could help prevent disease.

Dis–ease is when energy is not easily fl owing. Fear may be blocking the energy. I will take clients back to childhood; they may have had an issue with forgiveness, they are wondering why they don’t have abundance or prosperity, or love themselves. If they forgive, (like writing a card or sending an email) it will open up the energy around them and allow more things to come in.

I know we come back to learn, forgive karmic lessons, and move beyond ego. Why is it that we are tied to Earth if there are so many other dimensions?

There are restrictions of human understanding. As a soul, we exist on many levels. The Earth is one of billions of places to go, among many other schools.

Souls are trying to get back to learn, because on Earth we have freewill. It is a University with a lot of different types of classes, and a multitude of scenarios will present themselves. Before we come back to this incarnation, we sit with our guides and teachers, and go through our soul destiny points, or our class blueprint of what we are going to come back to learn. What are the various lessons?

Whether it is karmicly obligated to, or whether they are lessons to expand the soul’s consciousness. We aren’t just coming back for the individual expansion, but for the family or group soul expansion. Then even further, because every city and country has karmic obligations, we will chose to come to a place where it is the most optimum activity for our souls growth.

Baby souls think war, violence, pain, hatred is the way to get ahead in life. At the opposite side of the spectrum are souls that are light workers here to expand awareness, love, compassion, kindness, and forgiveness. Then you have the souls in the middle, grade school. All those different levels of souls’ understandings, presents us with a lot of different scenarios. If everyone were the same, there would not be challenges, obstacles, or adversity.

It is an incredible opportunity for growth. The only way to get through this is with the soul’s language of intuition, or GPS of the soul. It forces us to go inside to ask what feels right. Let our soul self to decide.

That answers why there is a dichotomy in life (yingyang).We are all acting from pure source, or oneness, I guess it would encompass all hate as well?

I like to look at it as a mandala made with all the different viewpoints, belief systems, soul experiences and levels of awareness. I think it is all about love, although there are all different aspects of love. We have to find out the various degrees of love though each situation in our lives.

And I think that every single day is rich for the soul either. Every person is a teacher or a student there to share with you. If we looked at it this way, we would learn and understand things a lot more.

We are also here to separate the ego. We are all source energy, but the analogy I like to use is through the chakra system. It shows you there are different levels of evolution and awareness.

Energy is everything. We just need to tap in.

It is there, energy that we always use. The Light illuminates the darkness, it to the forefront. I think there is a rippling effect and we will see it more, because people down at the core are love and they will get it. We have to continue to do our work.

Is there a difference in time between incarnations?

It is really interesting. This gets into quantum physics, and I will be the first one to admit I don’t know much about that. People live parallel lives, so I think the thoughts we have now affects our past and will affect the future. I just have a feeling that if we do something positive now it affects certain situations in the past. It is hard to explain it, but I believe it is true.

What is your definition of spirituality and are there any practices that you use to balance?

To me, we are spiritual beings having a human experience. And I think that the path that your soul is a pathway to source, or whatever you want to call it. It is being mindful or  aware of our spirit, our essence. I think that my practice is mindfulness on a daily basis. I have programmed myself to wake up every morning and become mindful every time that I look at the wall, or a color while gardening. I connect to the Prana that goes through the plants, flowers and trees.

You talk to everything, because we are all connected to that one source. If I go into store, I am going to have an affect on every single person I interact with and try to make it the best that I can. If someone needs help, make it a game and have fun with it. There is a rippling affect.

We are all connected. Our thoughts and actions are powerful enough to make the world a much better place. You realize when you cross over: All the things they did, negative or positive. It makes you think about how you treat people, because they will be waiting for me.

A simple act of kindness goes a long way. Let that be our natural vibration.

Exactly. There is also the whole law of attraction thing, like attracts like. Your soul is a magnet and attracts the vibration you are living on. It is really true.