Interview with James Van Praagh

Amelia Leigh: It is great to connect with you again. I look forward to working with you on energy research. We are going to prove that thoughts create your reality.

James Van Praagh: If people just understood the concept that thoughts are things. That alone will change the world; even if you cannot see energy. Imagine all possibilities just knowing that thoughts are real and affect people.

AL: We are here to help people think in a new way. I know you were once a skeptic. How did you awaken to this ability of connecting with Spirit?

JVP: As a young boy, I used to see colors around people and know things were going to happen. I was very intuitive. Most children are very psychic. They just came from the other side and their mindset is of that dimension. Around the age of 7-8, children become closed off again and must be reprogrammed.
In grade school I could see Spirits. My mother was very Irish Catholic, and I was raised in that doctrine. I remember going into this Chapel on Easter weekend, and

I heard a voice say, “You won’t find God here. You must find God outside of these four walls.” It was very clear. I never was a true Catholic, per se. I have always loved the ceremonies and ritual. I think from many lives, we were spiritual.

My friends dragged me to see a medium. I was a cynical New Yorker, and did not believe it. Yet, I was open. Then the medium began giving me messages that were very accurate. That clinched it for me. I thought there might be something to this.

I was working at Paramount Studios and had a vision of a grandmother behind a coworker in my cubicle. I gave her a message and the information made sense. So,

I totally freaked out and ran out of the studios. I did not know how to live my life normally anymore. I could not relate to people, because I was afraid to see dead people.

There are a lot of skeptics out there that say horrible things. It taught me to have thick skin. Everyone is different, and people have different belief systems. I realized it is a paradigm, and we all have something we believe. What I realized was that I wanted to change their consciousness about life after death. That there is no death, and we live on. My plan is to help shift the awareness. There is more than what we see.

AL: The shift is happening. It is great to see people waking up. As you know, everything is connected.

JVP: I think we are all shifting, and I do not think it is individual. Everyone is helping to move it along. Given the political arena we are in, we all need to wake up. That is probably why it is in place, because people need to wake up and be responsible. I think there is always Divine timing and Divine design. That is part of our reason as souls to be on Earth– to remember that we are part of that incredible Divine design, and not get so caught up in the human part of us. We must connect to the soul part of us.

AL: We know the brain dies at death, but do you feel the mind is part of the soul?

JVP: Yes. I believe the brain is a function of the physical. As you know, we are more than just this body. The mind is part of the soul. Not all of the soul, but a major part of it. Every experience that we have at a physical level creates an imprint, or memory, on the mind. I think that when you pass over, your mind and soul becomes aware of all those memories you had while on the physical plane. From my understanding, you have a life review. Some people think there is a God that says you go here, or you go there. I think you evaluate your progress and see the tests that your soul passed or did not pass. During the review, not only do you see the experience and memories, but you also relive them. Because you are outside of time, and not limited by linear time, you get to experience it from the other person’s point of view. You become all that energy, and realize that you are responsible for that action or thought. It is a wake-up-call. If we could realize that now in the physical world, as humans, we will meet up with all this later on. The people we have wronged in our lifetime will greet us when we pass over. I believe this would make people act more responsibly. It is really powerful to open up that awareness.

The mediumship for me is a way to get people to open up their mind. It is about integrating the spiritual teaching, the awareness, and the mindfulness. The phenomenon is the last part of it. I tell people that we are going to have a change in perspective. Be open minded to changing the way you are looking at things.

AL: It is all about perspective. Has finding out that you have this gift changed the way you live your life?

JVP: I see it as my soul characteristics. Our souls have spent eons of lifetimes perfecting that interest. All souls come back with different attributes. Over the years, we all change. I learn every day I do this work and never take it for granted. People who say they know it all, don’t. The more you know, the more you realize what you do not know.

Every day in our life we meet people (including strangers) that are either your student or your teacher. I am much more responsible for my thoughts and actions knowing that they will affect somebody. It is about bringing mindfulness into my work. I have to walk my talk. If I don’t, what good am I?

I teach people that everything is energy. If you are with someone and they are in a bad mood, I look to change or shift the energy to love. Show interest and recognize each other. That can make people so happy. Then they can affect others in a good way. There is the rippling effect. Life is too short. If we have love all around us, then why not use it? I do the best I can.

AL: When Spirit comes to you, what do you see, hear, or feel (via clairvoyance, clairaudience, clairsentience)?

JVP: It really depends upon on how the Spirit wants to communicate. In the Earth realm, individuals are very different. Some are more visual, some are auditory. It is the same in the Spirit world. Some are more emotional, so they project more clairsentience, or emotion to me. Every single person is clairsentient. It first comes as a feeling. Sometimes there is a blend. With clairaudience, I tell them to speak to me in my thoughts. Tell me their name, death condition or age they crossed over, or some specific information. I open up to what Spirit wants to communicate. They will use a blend of those three forms.

One spirit may come through to open up a space for another Spirit to speak. A grandmother might come in to open that space with love, but the father comes through to his daughter needing to speak forgiveness. Then, you might have the grandmother and the father both project one thought into my mind, called melding.

AL: What is the difference between being psychic and a medium?

JVP: Everyone is psychic and intuitive. Psychic means intuition, and intuition means into the soul. Every single person is born with that sense of knowingness. Some people have it stronger than others, although it can be developed in everyone.

Every medium is psychic; not every psychic is a medium. Mediums are also open to raising their energy to a certain level of awareness. They are able to raise their level of vibration, and pirit people are able to lower their vibration. Say they are on a higher level, or a mental dimension, trying to bring themselves down closer to the physical level. They have to slow -themselves down and come to the three-dimensional world. A thought, a feeling, a memory (just like mind-to-mind communication through telepathy) is placed into the mind of the medium. There are individuals who are more open to receiving at a higher level of awareness.

They are able to bring through messages from higher levels of Spirit.

AL: I know you will be bringing medium, Lynn Probert, to the event with you. How did you two meet?

JVP: She is fabulous. It is our third year in a row at Seaside. We met through Tony Stockwold, a very well-established medium in the UK. She has been demonstrating for a long time, and is one of the best mediums I have ever met. She is a great evidential medium and teacher.

AL: What is one piece of advice from the other side you would share with our readers?

JVP: Live in the present moment; not in the past – it has already happened. The future is yet to be. Make the most of the present moment, because that is all we have.

The Spirit people come back saying “Live this moment the best you can.” Be responsible for yourself.

 

James Van Praagh is a # 1 New York Times bestselling author and a pioneer in the field of mediumship.

He is one of the most celebrated and respected spiritual teachers working today. He has brought a mind-full awareness to the subject of “communication with the dead” into the public psyche for the past thirty years.

Mr. Van Praagh is known as a “survival evidence medium,” meaning that he provides evidential proof of life after death via detailed messages from the spiritual realms.

James Van Praagh and Lynn Probert will be at Seaside Center for Spiritual Living on June 30th, 2017 from 7-10pm. Visit seasidecenter.org to purchase tickets.

Go to jvpschoolofmysticalarts.com and lynnprobert.co.uk for more information on the speakers.