James Van Praagh On The Psychic Medium
What do people want to know when they come to you?
People come to see me for different reasons, a medium, or reader. Let's say they lost someone, they've lost their loved one, they want to contact their loved one, make sure life continues on, that they're around them, they're looking after them. That's like the number one reason really, I find. And that's really the number one reason I work with, that's really it. But I have worked with the police department early in my career, finding missing children, kidnapping cases, I've done all that sort of stuff too. So some people might want to come for that sort of thing. Some people go to readers for missing objects, a missing will, whatever it is, jewelry object, whatever it is. They come for that sometimes too, love life, they want to find out if they're going to get married, if they're going to find love in their lives, what gifts they have within themselves, all these different reasons
Why do people want to communicate with the dead?
Number one, it's a continuation of life. They want to know that love bond remains there, that they're going to see them again, that they're going to see them again. That's very very important. We miss that physicality. That's the thing we miss is that physicalness. They always will see them again. They haven't gone anywhere really. They've just stepped out of this room into the other room. The spiritual dimension is connected within this, it's an interdimensional reality. So it's right here, really. So they just want to know that they're going to continue on. That's really the one reason, the number one reason.
What can I learn from speaking to the dead?
You know you have to remember something; that the dead, they are not all off in a wonderfully evolved state when they pass over. There is a misconception that just because they are dead, they know everything. Not true. Not true at all. You can learn more from yourself by going within. The answers are right inside yourself. You can learn from your loved ones who have passed over, they are sorry for doing certain things, "Please forgive me. I did not mean to call you this name. I wish I had done certain things." These are the basic things you can learn about. It is also very difficult I find, because being in a three-dimensional physical world, it is hard for us to fully understand that other dimension, because we are limited. Let us say there is something they can describe as the color blue in their world. We know what blue is like here. But in their world, it can be a whole different color. So it is hard to describe that. So we are looking at a spiritual dimension with physical eyes. You can not carbon test another reality. It just does not happen. So it is hard to put physical laws and properties on that dimension.
How rare is the ability to communicate with the dead?
I think it's like when someone has a really good voice. Some really good people out there, but it's rare you'll find good singers. I think mediums are just that: mediums are people that are rare. Usually creative people, I just put it into that category. Let's say, a really great singer, or a musician, someone who has ability. I don't think it's rare, per se. I think there are many mediums. I don't think they're recognized in the public eye, like myself, and other people are in the public eye, but there are a lot of mediums out there who people don't even know about, because they don't advertise, they don't promote anything. So there are many people out there. I find that people are mediums that don't realize it. Just like there are a lot of people are healers and don't realize it. I just finished doing a television show, and the producer of that show, he said, "What am I going to do with my life?" I said, "You're a healer. You're a healer. That's the energy that you have." He goes, "I know, I know." But it's up to him whether he's going to use it or not. I think many mediums have lifetimes preparing for this one lifetime. I've spent many lifetimes preparing, as far as religious lifetimes, as far as philosophical lifetimes, as far as living alternate experiences to prepare for this one lifetime. So the impact would be very strong, between millions and millions of people. Because this work changes people's minds.
How do I know if a medium or psychic is legitimate?
When I suggest people go to see a psychic or medium, I personally, like on my website, I have a resources page. My work as a teacher is I am a conduit of energy. I am conduit for this work. I really do believe that I am helping people, other mediums to come up and to get this word out about life after death. I find that if someone seeks someone they should go on referral. They really should. I know personally on my own website, the mediums I have listed are people I have tested personally and I am not an easy judge. They have to get specific details that I know bring evidential details of life after death to me. Those are the ones I put on my site. So there are not many people on there. I mean there are twenty people on there but they are the ones I have tested personally. So you go by referral, if they charge a fee, which I think everybody should charge a fee because guess what- it's an exchange of energy and I think that is what money it is, it's an energy. And I think that if it is balanced. I think if someone charges an exorbitant amount of money it's wrong, run away. I mean I have seen some people out there who are just abusive with that and they should not go to anybody like that, okay. Really be careful. And unfortunately there are people out there who do that and make it look bad for everyone else and that's wrong. There is no integrity. And so you are going to look for referral and the average amount of money. And also, you want to see when you are having the reading if you are giving information and they aren't asking a lot of questions but they are giving information, which is truthful, which is what you're hearing. Not generalities, as specific as they possibly can be. It's not always easy. I mean sometimes I will get through messages which sound so general but that's how I will be given the information, that's how it is to be interpreted. Like your mother is here and she is talking about the plates with the pink flowers on them. Well that sounds general but to that person that sounds specific. But you have got to listen to what they are saying and if it sounds right, fine. If it doesn't sound right within the first half hour, leave, end it. You'll know. You'll know inside.
How do fraudulent or unreliable psychics take advantage of people?
To me it matters if they're legitimate. You bet. Because someone who's doing this work, you know, it's like a counselor. To me it's almost like a medical person. They have this person's life in their hands, emotionally. You really do. You have to be very careful. You've got to be careful. It's another human being. So you have to go to someone with integrity. You have to. And I don't like it. I see people out there and they .... It's sad. It's sad. I think they take people and they play around with them. You've got to be careful. But that's true in life, too. It's in every single field in life -- lawyers, doctors, and so forth -- every field you go to.
Do all dead people become ghosts?
We are ghosts, first and foremost. Right now, as I'm sitting here, I'm a ghost. Everyone watching this, you're ghosts. You're a ghost in a physical shell. So the only thing that happens at death is the ghost comes out of the physical body. Okay? And you're a ghost or a spirit. There are different types of spirits, or ghosts. There are those who maybe want to stay close to the earth, because they maybe have not resolved certain issues they have, whether it's leaving their money to that person, or someone taking over their business, or they don't realize that they're dead. They don't know because it's such a natural experience. They think there's going to be a big hoopla when they die, when really it's a natural and easy-going process. They don't realize sometimes that they're dead. That is like an earth-bound spirit, we call them. Ghost Whisperer is based on earth-bound spirits. Those who have gone into that light, if you will. And the ones that have gone into the light are the ones I communicate with, the ones who have already passed over. But there are definitely earth-bound spirits, those who walk around the earth.
What force or energy is created by a spirit?
Love is the highest force there is. Love unifies; fear separates. Love brings together; fear pushes away. All life is really is a series of choices, and all the choices come out to love or fear. That's all it is. So let's say, you want a job. You've got your job and you say, "You know what? I really love this job, but it doesn't pay anything, but I love it." Well, you'll have a good time because you love it, and love will find you. It will sort of start building up. The energy will start building up. You'll have experiences that you love because it's all coming to you, and the money will come eventually, when you love something. If you do it out of fear, you're not going to be a happy person, because that's not your natural state of being. Our natural state of being is of love, fear is an illusion. When you live in fear, you're not living truth.
Why should a psychic or medium charge for a spiritual communication?
It depends, like if it's some person who is sitting in a corner with a sign that says psychic store and charges twenty-five bucks a reading. Guess what, you're going to get what you pay for and they're probably going to rip you right off. So it depends, you have to give it also the respect that it deserves. Listen, we're talking to dead people here, this isn't like AT & T, a long distance call here. You're talking to another dimension, hello! I find that you also have to value it. If you charge a certain amount of money, let's say it's five hundred dollars or six hundred dollars, for some people that's nothing but to other people that means a lot. For me personally I found, when I used to charge, you have to put a certain amount of money up to a level where people respect the work. They have to respect it and look at it that it's something special, but the medium, the reader does not take advantage of that situation.
How can a psychic or medium help people?
It depends; a medium's job is to provide evidence of life after death. That's a medium's job. A medium's job is to prove life after death through evidential details, whatever that might be: names, places of events, things only that person who would know and the spirit would know. That's a medium's job to prove the conscious survives death. That's it. Now as psychic or medium when we go into that field, with its little grey area there, personally speaking—because I only speak from my own personal experience—my job, what I do as a medium, I will bring through evidential detail, but I also read that person as a spiritual being and I tell them what I see as far as clairvoyantly I see, spiritually for them. My hardest job is not talking to dead people. That's easy! The hardest part of my work is I see the potential for that person sitting in front of me, they don't see it themselves. They don't see it themselves. That's the hard part. So, me as a teacher, as an instrument of spirit, as a spiritual being that someone is coming to me and giving me trust and respect, my job is not only to prove life after death, but also to give them information that they can help themselves with. Let's say you're a writer, you should be writing. You should write. These are you innate gifts, here they are. You have free will if you want to use them or not. Again, today I saw a gentleman and I said “You're a teacher. You're a good teacher, you teach children and you change their lives. It has a positive effect.” And you don't realize that the little things we do affect large quantities of people. It really does. It's a rippling effect. When I started this work 25 years ago and I told people I talk to the dead, they thought I was crazy. They thought I was a lunatic. They were like “Where are the guys with the white coats?” I didn't care because I knew my truth; I knew my truth inside me. I knew what my truth was, and I recognized that energy with the spirit, and that love was so strong that it could heal anything; I knew it could help people and heal them. And that was the most important work on this planet. When you can heal someone, when you can change someone's life, bring love to them, and change the condition in that life goes on. It's the best gift we can give somebody.
What are the best and worst things about speaking to the dead?
The best part about speaking to the dead Is how it change people's lives. You can completely change someone else's life. Someone who is depressed at the end of the rope. Cannot find how to go on, they who lost a child, lost a love one it gets to the end of their lives. When you give them hope, when you give them that connection with the people who passed on, it gives them renewal of life. That to me is the greatest possible thing to anybody; it is a gift of life. That to me, the way or anything, negative things really are physically human people here like people who expected you. They misunderstand what this work is about, ignorance. I think maybe you could just walk around the street all day and the spirits talk spirits, it does not work that way. It is a process you go through but I must say that the positive that way is does not hit really that way. It is incredible.
