A Conversation with James Van Praagh

Conscious Life Journal: You are considered an Evidential Medium. What does that mean?

James Van Praagh: An Evidential Medium is able to bring through evidential details, such as names, places, and events from the spirit world to their loved ones on the earth to prove existence of life after death and that consciousness continues—there is no such thing as death.

CLJ: Your new book, The Power of Love, has the subtitle Connecting to the Oneness. What is Oneness and how do we connect to it?

JVP: Oneness is the core of 
who we are. It is the unity of 
all existence. It’s so much
more than we as humans 
can comprehend, but it’s the theme in all different 
religions and pillars of philosophies: that there is a source energy that connects everything—the planets, the stars, earth, nature, humans, and animals. This oneness that I call God energy is the life force that is in every thing from the ocean, trees, humans, and animals to even cockroaches. We all have that energy within us and we are all connected to all of that. And that is the oneness.

CLJ: How can we attract health, success, and happiness through the power of love?

JVP: I believe that life is a series of choices and they break down into either love or fear. I believe that we are indeed that loving energy (I call it God) and when we align ourselves to that source energy, we can manifest anything that we want in our lives, whether that’s happiness, a loving relationship, or abundance. To do that, you need to live in love and not in fear. When we, as humans, let fear take over, there is an illusion that this stuff is real. However, we are really just souls having a human experience, not the other way around. When you can align yourself with this truth—the oneness energy that I call LOVE, the pure loving energy that we are made of—I believe you can materialize and manifest with ease. It’s also a test of faith, having faith that the universe will give you exactly what you want. As humans, we are constantly being tested with “do we have the faith?” and “can we trust in that?” It’s interesting that there are all different lessons, but there are some lessons that we share and we have different degrees in those lessons. And a major lesson that people come back for is learning to love self. Learning that you are worthy to receive, that everything is meant to be, that it’s not a punishment, that you are not forgotten, that you are connected. For you to have that connection with Spirit is in itself a big lesson.

CLJ: How can we still love if we are hurt by someone or grieving? What role does forgiveness play?

JVP: Forgiveness is truly the key ingredient for love. Start living in a loving way. The first step is forgiveness, primarily forgiving self. It’s really a gift that we give ourselves. So often people find themselves replaying old grievances. Think about what you learned from having an experience. You must separate your ego from your soul. What are you learning from this situation? Once you determine what the learning situation may be, you can give yourself permission to grieve, forgive, and move on. Forgiveness is a gift we give ourselves.

If you hold onto past grievances, upsets, or grief, you hold yourself back and bring into the atmosphere a sense of toxicity. Life is about flowing—energy is always flowing and that is who we are. But when you hold onto the past, you are blocking the flow of energy. Give yourself the gift of forgiveness. Understand that everybody that crosses your path has a certain level of understanding. You have to meet them at their level. There will be people who are much more evolved or unevolved; they don’t see the things you do in your perspective. You have to be able to accept them for who they are at that moment. If someone hurts us, we don’t have to accept that, but forgive them by saying, “Well, from where they are at, perhaps they are projecting their stuff onto me.” The key is to forgive them for where they are at and be one step more aware, such as “Okay, what is this person teaching me? What am I learning?” I believe everyone who comes into your life is either your teacher or your student. They are either teaching you something about yourself or you are learning something about yourself. So step back and have that perspective—it makes forgiveness easier.

CLJ: You say “death is an illusion.” What does that mean?

JVP: Coming back to “souls having a human experience,” there is no such thing as death. Energy doesn’t die off. A great illusion that exists in the three-dimensional world is that we are separate from each other when really we are not. We feel separated by language, culture, or background, but when you pass into the spirit world, the first thing you will realize is “Wow, we really are connected!” We have the same energy—oneness—and we are connected to that same oneness. Some people think that they won’t exist after physical death, but it’s just a change, like leaving the suitcase of the body and realizing that you are home. You leave your school or your temporary post when the soul leaves the physical body. You do this every night when you go to sleep; you go to the spirit world and see your loved ones, your guides, your teachers. It’s just all an illusion. You positively don’t end—you change; you walk into a different dimension.

CLJ: What is in the future for James Van Praagh? More TV shows? Books?

JVP: My life’s work is to educate and to train people to open to the awareness that they are souls having a human experience and to bring them back to their own power of love. I want everyone to have the realization that you are indeed loving beings. This is done through mediumship or through my online school, James Van Praagh School of Mystical Arts, where I teach on many different levels of healing, psychic phenomena, past life regression, and more. What my future holds is to illuminate peoples’ hearts and minds about who they truly are.

James Van Praagh is a pioneer in the field of mediumship and one of the most celebrated and respected spiritual teachers working today. He has brought mind-full awareness to the subject of “communication with the dead” for more than thirty years. Van Praagh is known as a “survival evidence medium,” providing evidential proof of life after death via detailed messages from the spiritual realms. He is also a New York Times best-selling author of more than ten books, including Talking To Heaven and his latest, The Power of Love: Connecting to the Oneness. Visit his online school, the James Van Praagh School of Mystical Arts.