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- [00:01]
Narrator
This is the story of the 1. As a procurement manager for a hospital system, she keeps every facility in her network stocked and ready. That's why she counts on Grainger to be her single source for thousands of products, from disinfectants to lighting, air filters, and more. And with fast, dependable delivery, Grainger helps her keep every facility stocked, safe, and running smoothly. Call 1-800-GRAINGER click granger.com or just stop by Granger for the ones who get it done.
- [00:30]
Sherry Lynch
Hey, true weirdos, we're going to do something a little bit different with today's episode. So when this show first launched, we didn't include like, the. What we call it the postmortem, the. The discussion after the story. That was something we added later. Right, Max?
- [00:44]
James Van Praagh
Right. Yeah.
- [00:46]
Sherry Lynch
Wow. Very early in the life of True Weird Stuff, we had a chance to create an episode with a medium named James Van Praagh. You may have seen him on tv. He's written a book called Talking to Heaven. And we didn't know what to expect. We didn't know what we believed or didn't believe. But we were both pretty well blown away, were we not?
- [01:06]
Max Sweeten
We were. I mean, it was. It was uplifting and positive. And actually we've had people talk to us about this particular episode. So we decided, hey, let's play this again.
- [01:17]
Sherry Lynch
And. Yeah, and. And there are so many people that even people of strong, strong religious faith are afraid to die. But here's a man who says, well, we'll let you hear it on the episode. Maybe there's nothing to be afraid of. Maybe there's actually something to look forward to. So we've had so many requests that we're re releasing Talking to Heaven. What happens when we die? Are you a person who believes that this is it? That we flicker into and out of existence like earthbound fireflies, here and then gone? That we're nothing more than a brief and random collision of chemicals and molecules and atoms? Or do you believe that humans are gifted with something eternal, Something we call a soul? Do you believe that your choices in this world determine your place in the next world? An afterlife of paradise for the righteous, infinite fire and torment for the rest? Or maybe you believe in an eternal soul that recycles itself. Lifetime after lifetime hard experience polishing away our very human imperfections until we achieve enlightenment and are at last ready to rejoin the eternal flame that is the creator. What if you could know? What if you did know what happens when we die? Would that change the way you live
- [02:53]
James Van Praagh
and make out a small Beam of light against the mirror.
- [03:10]
Max Sweeten
True weird stuff.
- [03:17]
Sherry Lynch
James Man Prague is a best selling author, television producer and personality. He's a native of Queens, he's a Virgo. But beyond all of that everyday kind of stuff, James is a clairvoyant and a medium. So what does that mean really? James joined us to talk about some big ideas, what this human life is truly all about, what happens when we die and how all of us have the ability to tap into so much more than our limited senses can show us.
- [03:49]
James Van Praagh
Everybody is psychic or intuitive from one degree or another. So that's the sixth sense. We're all born with six senses, not five. And that's if you want to say it's our instinct as babies with their mothers. There's a connection, there's a telepathic, instinctual connection between the two. So it's a very early age, is that survival instinct as well? So, and as babies, that's how we survive. And we, I think young children, toddlers, they get probably around the age of seven or eight, are very, very open, they're very innocent, they use their intuition, they feel things, have imagination and so forth. And then I believe around the age 7, 8, they kind of get shut down a little bit by the adults, by the parents or the teachers or say you have to behave this way in order to get it, you know, to get this or get an A in your test to be accepted or whatever that might be. And for the child, I bet that means, oh, they might see it as if I do the right thing, I'll be loved or they'll love me more. So I think we become people pleasers and we let go of what we're feeling and we get more to our head. So we become critical thinkers because we got to figure out what they want us to do. And we let go of that kind of that innocence of that, of that intuition, if you will. Most people, I never did, thank goodness, but so we all have that. And it can be developed if you've closed it down, it certainly can be developed and opened up again. No doubt about it. A medium is someone who has a very strong sense of that psychic foundation, a very strong intuitive grounding, grounding foundation. But they're also able to bring up their vibrational frequency and energy, if you will, that the power within their being, their soul power, I call it many things, to a higher level of momentum, of movement, and it's a higher level of movement, of frequency, if you will. And the spirit levels, the spirit worlds are on a higher level of frequency now just around us, we have all around us here in this human world there are different microwaves, gamma rays, X rays, television waves, radio waves. And we don't see them. We don't see them, but we know they exist because they have televisions, radio, computers. Here we are. But they're on another level. They're outside the human spectrum. So a medium is someone who's able to raise their frequency outside that human spectrum and able to receive, if you will, impressions, feelings, thoughts, memories, personalities of those who have passed over and bring through information. I'm a survival evidence medium, which means I bring through evidential details that the sitter, the recipient would know and the spirit would know. And that's what I do. Survival evidence medium. So very different than psychic. Everybody is psychic. Psychic is you're able to read energy at the moment. If you meet somebody or go to a certain place, you can feel this energy right there at that time from the past, present and future. And that's really what a psychic is, a psychic reading as someone who reads you at that moment. And it's interesting because I believe that a psychic perceives and a medium receives.
- [06:53]
Sherry Lynch
You guys. I am not 100% clear on how a combustion engine works. I'm not totally sure what a spleen does or what a touchback is in football or how the power grid functions. And these are all tangible things in our chaotic physical world. So like you, I'm just as much confused as I am curious about the metaphysical world. We humans are sentient creatures, aware that we are alive in this moment. And the flip side of that awareness of life is the knowledge of death. Our mortality stalks us every hour of our brief time here. In this world. We may hold faith that there is something more than this physical slog, but there are times when that faith is threadbare, non existent. Times when the knowledge and fear of our own end can blot out the light and the joy of being alive. Times when we lie in the dark with racing hearts, pleading for a sign, asking for proof. And if that proof appeared, would you accept it? Could you accept it? For James Van Praagh, there was never much of a choice.
- [08:06]
James Van Praagh
As a little boy, I used to spirit quite a bit. I used to see as a baby or a toddler, I guess maybe I was, I don't know, 18 months old. I'll never forget. I mean, I was in my crib in the back. My father brought me to the crib and I sat with the night owl then because I wanted to stay up. And I remember I was Prying my eyes out because I wanted to be in the living room with the rest of the people. And every evening there'd be a white haired gentleman in the corner of the room and. And he'd come over to this crib or the bedding thing, whatever they had. And he would. Had a toy in his hands and I'd play with that. And years later, I'm sitting with my grandmother and she's going through a photograph album. And I said, wait a minute, who's that man with the white hair? I said, oh, that's your grandfather. He died before you were born. I said, he used to come to me every night. And that was really what it was. And it wasn't all the time. It was. I'd go out and play with friends, like on a Saturday morning. And I'd see their loved ones behind them. Not all of them, some of them. I'd see loved ones. But I thought everybody could see that. I thought everybody could see colors around people and, you know, auras and know things about people. That was what I thought. And my mother said to me one night for saying prayers, I was always very Catholic and didn't leave him per se. But I leave the Catholic thing, I guess. The angels. One night, I'm going to the bed. She was saying prayers and kneeling down by the side of the bed. And I looked at my mom. I said, mom, who are those people at the end of the bed with the lights around them? And said, oh, them, They're God's angels. I used to see them too, when I was a little girl. They'll never hurt you. They always take care of you. And that was the beginning. That was really the validation from my mom.
- [09:32]
Sherry Lynch
Growing up, James didn't really think that his psychic gifts were all that unusual. After all, this was the only way of being in the world that he'd ever known. What he wanted to do with his life was become a writer. But not just any old kind of writer. He wanted to be a TV sitcom writer.
- [09:50]
James Van Praagh
There's a lot of temp jobs to get into show business, sitcom writing. And I remember I was working there and a friend of mine said, or I worked at a talent agency. I'm sorry, William Morris Agency. And it was there that my coordinator. I was putting contra. I was pulling staples out of contracts, eight hours a week preparing it for microfiche. That's how long ago this was. And I never thought anything. The spirit world psychic. And this lady came to me and the supervisor and she said, you want to see a medium And I said, what's that? She said, he's someone who talks to dead people. Oh, you know, I don't really believe in that. I don't. You know, it's nothing I'm really into. I didn't. I didn't have any real belief system. But to humor her, I went to see this gentleman, Brian Hurst, went to his place in Manhattan Beach, California, his apartment there. And I walked in with this, my friend Carol. And he looked at me and he said, you're a medium. I said, oh, okay. I guess. Kind of crazy, but okay. You know, the spirit. People want to use her in two years time as a. Oh, okay. And I just moved from the East Coast. It was a cynical New York. Okay. Landed land of fruit nuts in California. Okay, here we go. And anyway, he did break through some incredible information of people that have passed over names and details. So it got me, just opened me up a little bit to think, maybe there's something to this. And I used to go to a bookstore in LA called the Bodhi Tree Bookstore on Melrose Avenue was like the number one New age bookstore, really big bookstore. And you were able to sit down in different areas. They had shares there and read. And every weekend I would go there and read everything about astral projectors and psychic phenomena, auras, Edgar Casey and all these different topics. And I found it was food to my soul. I thought, this is so interesting. I would be a sponge. I couldn't take it. So I started meditating and I meditated really to visualize my future. I'm going to be a producer. I'd be well known as a producer, and that's really what it was. Or as a writer, but that's what I did. And at the time I did temporary jobs. I was working on Paramount Studios then a little while later, and I remember a young lady came into the next cubicle over. Her name was Joe, Joe Dallas. And I said, joe, there's a lady behind you. My God, there's like this woman behind you. And the lady looked at me and it was a grandmother. She looked right at me and she telepathically connected with me. She said, this is my granddaughter. Tell her about the house in Idaho, the yellow house with white shutters and the footstool cover. And I said, joe, would you mind if I share this information? There's a lady here and she's saying all these things. And Joe very calmly said, oh, yeah, that's my grandmama. We made a pact before she died that she come back and let me know she was in heaven and she mentioned the house and that this is her. And I freaked out. I freaked out completely because I'm thinking, oh my God, I'm crazy, I'm nuts. I can't relate to the world. Because in those days there was no one that was out there as a medium, really. That was what well known. And mediumship wasn't really well known, per se at that time. I ran back to my small apartment I had in Hollywood and I was freaking out because how could I tell anyone this, you know, they locked me up or what? I didn't know what, what is going to do with my life? So I called that man, Brian Hurst, that. That man, the original medium. And I told him that my predicament. And he said, James, don't you remember the prediction from the spirit world said, huh? That you're going to be a medium in two years time? I said, yes. But he said, james, it's two years exactly today. It was two years to the day when that happened. So that was the beginning. That was the very beginning of it. And he took me under his wing and he helped me to learn how to develop properly as a medium. And thank God for Brian. And yeah, the rest is history, as they say.
- [13:13]
Sherry Lynch
Despite a lifetime of otherworldly experiences, at this point, James was, as he said, freaked out. So I asked him before this incident, what did he think happened to people when they died.
- [13:26]
James Van Praagh
I was raised Irish Catholic, of course, and my mother came from a big family and so I'd go to funerals all the time as a kid. I mean, I'd call for the principles. Your aunt died, okay, you gotta go home three or four times. That would happen within two years. So I'd go to funerals a lot. And I'll never forget that one of my aunts was laid out with the viewing, of course, in those days. And the prudence crying. I'd say, what are you crying about? She's standing right next to the box. What are you crying about? And to this day, my sister passed over two or three weeks ago. And it's so funny because she did some mediumship too. And we're at her lake of viewing and she came to me and she said, oh my God, this is not what it's like. She goes, this should not be done. She goes, I feel I've wasted everybody's time. She goes, oh my gosh. She goes, that's, you know that's not me, James. I said, I know that's not you. That's the meat suit. She goes, oh, I don't like their physical world anymore. Oh, thank God. And I've never had one person who I've communicated with the spirit world ever say, boy, I really miss that physical human body. Oh, I miss that world. Oh, I miss that disease. I miss, I've never had that. Because this is not our natural world. This is our school. You know, the spirit realm is our natural place of life. That's really where life comes from.
- [14:34]
Sherry Lynch
The idea of this world, this life as a school fits, doesn't it? All the tropes are there. The popular kids, the bullies, the geniuses, the cheaters, the misfits, hovering on the fringe, never quite able or willing to play by the rules and fit in. The tests, the drills, the hierarchies, the casual cruelties, the feeling that everyone else has it figured out and it's only you standing alone on the field, fearing that you'll never be picked up.
- [15:05]
James Van Praagh
Play every single day that we're given, everyone you meet on your path that day is either a student or a teacher. I think we live with that every day that someone's a student or a teacher. And even if they're in a really bad mood, they yell at you. Okay, what are they teaching about yourself? How do you respond to that? Are you going to go the emotional level, like knee jerk reaction? Are you going to sit and wait and then respond? So it's really good to look at it that way. It certainly helps life much easier, I'll say that much.
- [15:33]
Sherry Lynch
Oh, especially right now, like I'm by nature such an optimistic person and the world is, the world is just punching me in the face. Boom, boom. I feel like Rocky cut me, put me back in. Like I'm just overwhelmed and exhausted by it, you know. And I'm, I wrote that down. Get in observational mood. And I agree with you that what's the, what's the saying? When the student is ready, the teacher will appear. Yeah, we always think that that's going to be some wonderful positive lesson. But sometimes you need a good ass kicking and the teacher appears to give you that to get your head right.
- [16:11]
James Van Praagh
And a really a funny story. All is interesting story. A gentleman I know who's a spiritual teacher now, used to work on Wall street. And I remember that the day of the 9 11, he, he went to work, he went early and then he didn't stay at work, he went out and he walked to the corner. There's a homeless man with a sign and said, and the sign said, what are you going to do with the rest of your life at that moment. And then of course, the Trade Center Movement. But this man's life was spared, so. And he remembered that moment. So there was a teacher right there as a homeless person with a teacher of his. And of course, now he's teaching meditation throughout the world. So, I mean, you never know where those teachers are going to be in your life. The ones that. And the people that are interesting one too, the people in your life that cause you the most pain are your greatest teachers because really they were just reflection to yourself. So that outside world is really what's going on within you. So if something is bothering you from someone else, then I have to say, I have to look at myself and say, what's not whole within myself? That. That bothers me. What is it that's not connected there? Because they always come back to self. It's not someone else's fault. It's us. We're responsible for our own lives. And it's really. The inner world is a reflection of the outer world. You know what it is? Or the outer world, I'm sorry, the outer world reflection. I say it's that. That way. That's really what it is. But you have people in your life that you have the hardest times with. They're your teachers, your greatest teachers.
- [17:37]
Sherry Lynch
In 1997, James published the New York Times bestseller Talking to Heaven. In it, he shares some of the sessions he's done with people in deep grief. The death of someone you love is the most brutal assault on your heart and your mind. What could be of greater comfort than to know, to really know that this person, this beloved, isn't gone, that death isn't annihilation, but transition? That we are both flesh and. And spirit, that we are eternal. And if that's true, how is it that some of us like James can connect with that spirit world?
- [18:20]
James Van Praagh
As a medium, it's very, very different. And I have many, many students. And I will ask them, and I do psychic exercises with them, and I do mediumistic exercises with them, and I'll ask them, what do you like better? Do you feel more comfortable with it? Psychic work, the intuitive work, or the medium mystic? And it's interesting. Some love the psychic. It's easier, it's natural. And some just love the mediumship. Me personally, I prefer mediumship. It's harder. It's much harder than psychic, because a medium, you have to get to that point where you work with the. The fact that mediumship is a discipline where you raise, again, you raise that vibration and you. You're Raising vibration to a point where it's almost like this geyser of water. And you have to keep control of that, that vibration, that high vibration. You have to stay there with your mind. Because in the mind, as full as the mind, the mind is soul. You have to keep that going, that vibration. At the same time, listening to spirit come through. And the funny thing is, which not a lot of people realize that the spirit people have the same personalities they did on Earth. And if they weren't much of a talker on Earth, they certainly won't be in the spirit world. And sometimes you've got to stay with that. You got to be. You got to hold that space of the spirit who might not have ever done this before. It might be brand new for them as well. So you, being that medium, have to open up that space for them as well. And you're working with the recipient. So you have three things going on. The recipient's energy, who's not sure what's going on. They might be frightened. They're not aware of this. They have certain expectations. Then you have the medium, Then you have the spirit who's really trying to get through to the mind of the medium. And the way they do that is they create a thought in their minds and they send that thought to the medium's mind. So it's mind to mind communication. And then the medium hopefully will be able to pick up that personality and be in that frequency. So. And I've been doing it so many, many years. For me, it's just a switch that I know I have to go to and turn on and it happens. Not to say it doesn't always work. Doesn't always work. And, you know, just I'm human as well, but I've done so many, that pretty broad spectrum of all different types of personality.
- [20:20]
Sherry Lynch
So it's about energy, which, like matter, can only ever be transformed, not destroyed. That's straight up the law of thermodynamics. That's physics. It's the foundation of our understanding of the universe.
- [20:35]
James Van Praagh
Mediumship, if you will, psychic, we talk about earlier. It's more natural than people think. It's a very natural, instinctive thing like a medium. You know, what's the difference? Well, we're all mediums to a point, because what does the medium of soul. We're souls incarnate in this physical body, the meat suit. Right. The mind is a soul and the spirit people are souls outside the meat suit, but they still have the mind. So it's just mind to mind communication. And it's just letting that human instrument, that human vessel that meets the mind, the brain, part of ourselves, a critical mind. Just rest, be still. So you can receive those frequencies from the spirit world. There's no reason why people can't do that.
- [21:13]
Sherry Lynch
And it's always about what James feels he's called to do with this gift or ability of mediumship that he has.
- [21:21]
James Van Praagh
Being a medium, you feel. So I will say many times, they'll say, okay. And the spirit is sending it to me so strongly that I get it. So I feel sometimes the emotion behind it, and it's the emotion. Say, okay, hold on, hold on. I'm feeling it. And I gotta acknowledge from my audience, I am feeling this emotion. So I'll say, hold on a second. I just got to pause. Oh, I'm going to cry. And I have to. I have to honor that. But you have to get to a point where you can't let that overtake you because then you're not doing your job. And that comes years of work, really. And I remember there's another thing I just want to. If you don't mind me just sharing with you.
- [21:53]
Sherry Lynch
No, no.
- [21:55]
James Van Praagh
When I was teaching in Holland once in a school there, I remember I had a group of 10 students that I was working with, and they were doing some reading. And I said, okay, let's see how you bring them through. And how do you relate to the audience? And one man stood up. He said, I have a little boy here. He was hit by a car. It was terrible. His brains were splattered all over the street. And I said, stop. I said, stop right there. I said, how dare you do that? I said, that was a horrendous thing that happened, that this boy dead in a car accident. And the mother can be sitting right here, which, by the way, she was. I said, she went through that pain once. Why would you do that again to her? Because that then becomes more about the medium than the person. That medium just stood up and said, I have a young man here. He was hit by a vehicle, and that's how he died. Same thing could have come through. You don't have to be overdramatic. That shows me that that medium is not confident in their ability. See? So it's a very fine line. And a big part of mediumship for me and for people that I teach is integrity and responsibility. You have integrity. You must have integrity and responsibility because you have people's lives in your hands that matter. You can destroy someone's life or build them up, and that's up to you. And you're healed here. To heal, not to hurt. That's really, really important. And. And before we end, I want to say, if you don't mind, just. And jump off here, because people often ask me, and I know you're going to, because I'm psychic, they asked me, out of all the readings you've got, done thousands of readings, what's the most? And may I know, if you're going to ask this, what's the one that you remember the most? Which. 40 years of doing this, it's hard to remember one particular one, but I do remember this one, which is really set with me. And I was working at a demonstration show in Miami. Not Miami, sorry, Hawaii. It was Maui, Hawaii, with a performing arts center there, about 200 people. And I remember it was the end of the evening, the second hour, and there was a little spirit girl on the stage with me, jumping up and down in a pink dress, a blonde pigtails. And she tell me, she said, today's my birthday. Today's my birthday. And I said, oh, there's a young girl here. Today's her third or fourth birthday, pink dress. Described her. She wants to talk to her parents, who here for her birthday. And in the very back row is a couple. And they raise their hands, they stand up. I said, she wants a daddy. The thank you for the angel wings. I love my angel wings. I love my angel wings. Now, this guy's a big bruiser, a big gym guy and big bruiser. He takes off his T shirt, he turns around the audience, and his lats have two big angel wings that he had tattooed on there for his daughter's birthday that we were there celebrating that night. Now that.
- [24:32]
Sherry Lynch
Oh, I'm gonna cry.
- [24:34]
James Van Praagh
Right, exactly. Everybody. That was the last reading of the evening, because everybody felt that. And it goes to show that one reading can heal many.
- [24:43]
Sherry Lynch
One of the fascinating things you discover talking to James or reading his books or attending a sitting is this. We are who we are in this life and beyond. And I don't know if that's awesome or depressing, but it does look like we have the power to shape that. And it's up to us either way.
- [25:01]
James Van Praagh
One thing I found, if you don't mind me just telling the story, which is kind of interesting, I was doing. And it just demonstrates how people are very much the same as they were on the earth. They are in the spirit world with the same belief systems. So I was doing a message for a girl in an auditorium and probably a thousand people. I remember her aunt Came through, and it gave information about her aunt to her that she understood. And as I'm communicating with her, I'm very aware of the side of my. My. Out of my eyesight that there's a spirit man coming closer to me. And he had his arms folded. Now, I knew that that was this girl in the audience's father that had passed. I just knew it. And I said to him, telepathically, would you like to communicate with her? And this man said, telepathically, why would I believe in this? I didn't believe in this, in life. Why believe in it now? Isn't that interesting? So I said, that's okay. Just watch us, observe us, and if you would as well, you know, come in every once in a while, you can. He watched and he watched that the messages, the information made sense to the. To his daughter that the aunt was bringing through. And he found it more and more interesting that she was able to understand this. So he said, can I give it a shot? And I said, yes. And he started giving me information. She understood it. And to make a long story short, I cried because it was a father asking her forgiveness, because he said, please tell her I love her. I wasn't able to show love in life, and I want to give her my love. Now.
- [26:20]
Sherry Lynch
If the idea of hauling your baggage into the spirit realm isn't enough to make you rethink some choices, I don't know what it's going to take. I mean, I'm not sure I want to spend all of eternity as an anxious, spooky girl, you know, and this is one of the points James makes. We're here to figure it out, to get as much right as we can, to learn to grow, to do better and be better. I'm thinking about the story you just told about the. The father who came through, who didn't believe when he lived, and he certainly wasn't going to believe.
- [26:54]
James Van Praagh
Now, isn't that a trip that happens a lot by happen, you know, that he.
- [26:59]
Sherry Lynch
Well, he wanted his daughter to know that he did love her. And I'm wondering, was he. Was. Was fear the root of why he was unable to express that love? Did that fear. Did. Did he feel that that made him weaken somehow? I mean, do you. Do. Are you ever able to glean that?
- [27:18]
James Van Praagh
All the time. And, and that, by the way, that's a common one. When they come through, when parents come through, or whoever, family members come through, many times they talk. Let's say parents will say, I didn't love you because I wasn't taught how to love or it might have been a generational thing where they weren't really, they didn't, they weren't very demonstrative. My mother was, my grandmother was from Britain and my father never really got the love that he wanted because he wasn't shown love, because she didn't know how to show love. So how could he give something, he didn't know what it was. So that's really what. And it's also, also sweetheart, a lot of like you know, should haves, would haves, could haves. When we first pass over, we all have a life review and we review everything that's happened to us with us, with other people and we feel it from the other person's point of view 10 times, 20 times, 30 times stronger. And we see the rippling effect that what we did, we thought and infected or affected that person and that person and that person. Oh my goodness. And it all came back to my one word, my one thought. And that's a tough one because you know, in this physical earth when you, we do something we don't feel good about, we go to the person. I'm sorry, I didn't mean it that way. But when the spirit world, when you have eternity and you don't have a chance to come back and say, you know, I'm sorry, you're living in a mental vibration in the spirit world, suddenly you live it over and over and over again in your head, heaven in your, in your head. And to me that could be hell. That can be your hell that you've created or your heaven. You've done things from a loving point of view and you tried to do the best you could. That to me is fine, but you can imagine. And that's why mediums are used or are needed so much more because of many people who have regrets when they pass over and they need to get back to loved ones and you know, apologize, say things to them. And that's why it's a much needed art.
- [29:01]
Sherry Lynch
And speaking of fear, I asked James if he thought fear might be what drives skeptics to shout him and others like him down. Fear of being tricked or made foolish by a belief in things unseen or unknowable. Nobody likes to be played. Me, I'm here to believe in everything. Why not keep an open mind?
- [29:23]
James Van Praagh
You know, they won't learn because they're closed minded, but a cynic is someone who might at least have open minded, might not believe in certain things, might be cynical, but they're open minded. Where A skeptic is closed minded. They won't learn. Well, they're just.
- [29:35]
Sherry Lynch
Sometimes these people are just so afraid. Like in the conversations that I've had with skeptics and debunkers and it really comes down to, well, I'm afraid of, you know, somebody making a fool out of me. Which I'm here to tell you, James, is the last of my fears. Like of all the things to be scared of on the planet Earth, being foolish seems low.
- [29:54]
James Van Praagh
I've already fallen out of myself so many times. I love making a fool out of myself. Makes people laugh.
- [29:58]
Sherry Lynch
Yeah, but this idea, you know, that you know someone, that someone might pull one over on you or someone might trick you or fool you. And I think that that, that fearfulness, that fearfulness drives like so much of our own suffering and pain and what
- [30:16]
James Van Praagh
I say, which I love. I'm going to kind of share this with you, which I'm sorry interrupt you, but I have to share this. I always say life is a series of choices and all choices are based upon two things, either love or fear. And that's all it is. So you'll get all these little complicated situations in your life. You can bring all the way down to its simplest equation, which is love or fear. And that goes all the way back to childhood love or fear and goes back to what we talked about earlier. When you get to that young age and start getting older and you people, please, that's all fear based. I'm afraid they won't love me. I'm afraid I won't fit in. I'm afraid society won't love me. So it's all fear based. You see the fear or love and fear is F E a R false ego appearing real. And that's really. And fear is the human emotion. It's a human emotion. It's not of the spirit world, the spirit world of pure love. We are loving beings. Our soul makeup, the property is love. So you have this foreign element of fear and it just gets into that whole pattern of fear and of control issues. Shoes I can't control myself. And the truth is we can never control other people. We can't control situations. All we can control is how we respond to various things that we can't control. But we can't control other people. We just be ourselves and again live by our examples and not make people right or wrong. Not judging because judgment is based on fear. And people judge others because they want to feel better than they want to feel in control. That's really what it's about hate cleaning,
- [31:46]
Sherry Lynch
hate scrubbing, hate dishwashing. Bro, we got you millions of videos about smart cleaning hacks will make your chores feel like a breeze. Download TikTok and check it out. This is deep stuff. Every answer just creates a gazillion more questions. And one of the biggest ones for me was this. So I want to ask you a question and you. If we get too far into the weeds, tell me. But something that I.
- [32:20]
James Van Praagh
Something that I think about such a big topic. I mean, when the subject is so broad.
- [32:24]
Sherry Lynch
So it's eternity. Yeah. In the soul. So it's hard.
- [32:27]
James Van Praagh
There you go.
- [32:28]
Sherry Lynch
It is. It is so hard. Like when I thought about like all the things I wanted to talk to you about, I'm like, all right, how do I wrestle the soul and eternal eternity down into something manageable?
- [32:39]
James Van Praagh
It's a limited. It's really hard. Right.
- [32:42]
Sherry Lynch
So, you know, I, I personally believe in some form or flavor of reincarnation. And, and, and I know that, you know, we, we have so many lessons to learn, but I'm. I guess what I'm wondering is how can I know your question?
- [32:58]
James Van Praagh
How do you communicate with them? They've reincarnated. That's request if they.
- [33:01]
Sherry Lynch
Yeah, like let's say that you've lost your. Like my mom is living. But let's say I've lost my mom and she's gone on to whatever is next and she's living out that next set of lessons. How can you find her for me? How can you. How do we do that? And I know also that I am a small hairless talking monkey and that my brain can't conceive of all the metaphysics involved. But how does that work?
- [33:27]
James Van Praagh
Right? So, so we're. Remember, we're limited to our three dimensional laws, right? So we're really, really kind of in a box. And the truth of the matter is that this body that we have only like about 20%, 25% of the soul is in this 75% is outside the body. And there's other realm now we're just solely aware of the small part of 25%. But there's a lot, 75% out there in different levels and ethers and realms interacting. And I like the say for me, the analogy I try to understand is the sun. Like a sun. Each one of us is a sun. And the different rays of the sun kind of act out in other lifetimes. Right now we're in several different lifetimes necessarily in this planet could be other planets, other forms, other galaxies. There are millions of Galaxies. So we're part of. We can be all over the place. So you're thinking in linear time, human time. We're at when spirit is outside of linear your time. So when we pass out of this physical realm, the other realms. You become more aware of your soul self, if you will. And you become more aware of this one personality of this human existence. Right now you share that with those, those soul groups, those that personality, those personalities. And they come together back again on the spirit side. So the personality of this lifetime, those personalities of your current soul group meet up again in the spirit levels. And they, they'll work out what have to work out that on those levels there. Not to say that right now they're not in different places having other. What we call lives. Who knows that form that takes either could it be a liquid form, air form? You know, I'm saying there's so many other existences than just this physical one. This is the smallest part of the soul is the physical body. And I call the big toe to the soul. So in that respect, you know, it, it. We're everywhere all at once, if you will. And so the most important thing to remember is you we are. There's an attraction to each other as far as the soul personality of this lifetime. And they will, they are there with you throughout the lifetime. Like your dad or like whoever went on, you know, they're probably guiding from the other side. Because they're here to help us. Because we're helping each other. So that's nothing we ever have to worry about.
- [35:38]
Sherry Lynch
This idea of soul splitting, you'll see this a lot in the reincarnation literature. The idea that, that we are. And you're right, linear time.
- [35:48]
James Van Praagh
I mean we know that the sun is a great analogy, right? Because the sun. So that's parts of the soul, those can be all different lifetimes that we're having simultaneously all at once in different spaces and places. Not just the physical world, but the planets and the galaxies. So that's a possibility. And I believe in quantum physics. I'm not an expert in quantum physics, so I can't talk about it much. But I do believe in space time ratio. In that where you can live in several places at once. Things are moving all at the same time. I also believe, which is really interesting and part of my course in past life regression. I've done a lot of past life regression. And I do believe that we can live the moment. We live here now. And I don't know enough about it, which I wish I did. But as we act now, our thoughts, our words, our deeds can affect our past lifetimes and our future lifetimes. So there you go with that. Don't ask me any more about that. But I believe, I believe Max will,
- [36:39]
Sherry Lynch
Max will tell you, my director will tell you. Like I'm, I, I am so deep into quantum mechanics and quantum physics again, like a small curious monkey. But, you know, and I never, I always do.
- [36:52]
James Van Praagh
But it's, it's wild, isn't it?
- [36:54]
Sherry Lynch
It's elusive, you know, Like I feel like just as I'm about to understand it, it's like mercury, it squirts away and I'm still chasing it. But the idea of, you know, for us as, as organisms, the arrow of time moving in just the one direction, forward. But from a physics standpoint and a physical universe standpoint, the idea of time being circular and much more chaotic than our brains can understand, you know, and which brings us into like the multiverse.
- [37:26]
James Van Praagh
Einstein was all about energy, knew about these things really well, was just actually hitting it, tipping the iceberg. And then he passed, but he was very into it. Written a couple of books on the quantum, the quantum field. But I just, you know, this is a good one. Let me just make. Maybe this will help a little bit with the reference. I was doing an event in California once and one of the audience members asked, from a spiritual point of view, where is the level of the human being? What, what rung of the ladder are they on? And it's really interesting. These guides came to my side and they said, you human beings. And they didn't want, they weren't laughing, but, but there was an interesting thing. It said human beings are in the very lowest of the rank, one of the lowest rungs, because you still kill each other, you still don't use love and you still heal. You don't respect life. Which is interesting because we kill our own species. Now really we're all connected as one being. I really believe one. I had a near death experience and experienced that whole oneness that we're all connected. I gotta tell you, it's. Once we get the awareness that war, it doesn't help. It hurts us because we're hurting ourselves for it. We're really hurting ourselves. There's. I like one. The word one. Yeah, that word one. I use it when I books because someone said, what is love? And I said, well, love to me is one. What does that mean? Well, one is, oh, omnipresent, nurturing energy. And that's what I think love is. Love is one. And we're all one. And I think we come back with different nationalities and speak differently and live in different countries really, again, to learn from each other. And I believe in God. What about God? I said, well, I believe God is diversification. I believe God is everything. Everything and everyone. And that not one person, one religion, own God. We all own God. We're all part of God. We're all that part of that source energy, whatever you want to call that. But I think that's. We learn from diversity. We have so many opportunities to understand and learn and investigate. But we get so caught up in living in a box because we want to control our environment and living in fear. And that's the opposite of who we. That's, I think, why we don't feel healthy here or feel connected because we're living in an environment of fear, which is not our natural inclination. Our natural inclination is of love. And I think that's part of the problem right there. Wow.
- [39:44]
Sherry Lynch
It's a lot to think about. It's a lot to sit with, a lot to understand. But maybe understanding isn't the right goal. Maybe our effort to pin the ineffable down, to turn it into simple formulas and recipes is a distraction from the true work we're here to do. You know, the work of being decent, the work of compassion and empathy. The work of loving each other. Yeah, but loving ourselves too. The work of seeing our eternal souls as creation is itself and not just a byproduct. If we were able to see it that way, that might just change everything. Starting with how we think about death. I asked James if the experience of grief and loss is different for him since he knows and believes that there's a life beyond this one.
- [40:41]
James Van Praagh
It's a great question, number one, I gotta say, because. Because of my back background, like you mentioned, but also has some incredible experience, incredible life experiences where I was fortunate enough to sit with other mediums. And the last one, I sat with the physical medium, Leslie Flint, who was probably the best known physical medium, where there's actually. There's an actual substance called ectoplasm that exudes from the ears, the mouth. And Leslie, that's where they came from. And they would create the spirit people create an artificial voice box in the air. And the spirit would speak to that larynx. I. Artificial larynx. And it would sound just like they did on Earth. And you can go online to Leslie Flint, they have all of the transcripts because there was a lovely scientist couple, Betty. Betty woods and her husband. And they taped real to real. All these sessions, 1950s and 60s. And I was fortunate that my mother came through with her voice. And I still have the cassette. And I mean, there's no way. I mean, it was. It was life after death. That that's proved. And I. So I have that, that. And I've had some incredible experiences with mediums from Brazil and my own experiences, of course, too. So, yeah, I guess I know that's our home and I know that we are. We have to be in this human school, this physical school, for reasons to learn, to help other, teach other people, help other people to understand. But we can't take it all so seriously because it's just. It's just a school. And as I get older and I think this, maybe this comes as age, physical things don't matter as much to me anymore. Even like, you know, physical belongings, like clothes on articles and things like, it's nice. I appreciate it for what we're here. But I know there's so much more and I really want a part of that comes into. I use that in my daily life in that I know there's so much more. I know there's pure love over there. I know fear is a human emotion, but a lot of people live in fear. A lot of people walk unconsciously. A lot of people sleepwalk. And I find for me, as part of my goofy sense of humor and come attest whenever there's energy, you walk into, like a store or certain place and people are not there, they're not connected with you. There's not no empathy, there's not a smile. I'll look up differently. How are you today? And I'll change the energy because I want them to feel love. I want them to change that one word might change their whole day. And for me, I think that's important. So I do that now. And I have the perspective that, you know, tomorrow might be your last day, so do the best you can today.
- [43:07]
Sherry Lynch
And there was no way I wasn't going to ask the question that's always puzzled me when it comes to the idea of talking to heaven, of communicating with those we've lost. JAMES Something that I've always wondered about and struggled with, and I. I'm really anxious to hear your perspective on this. Some of the people that I know who profess the most profound faith in God and the soul and the hereafter are also the most skeptical and angry when confronted with a person like you. And it seems like, wait, wait, wait, y', all, Y' all telling me all the time Time about Father God. And here's. Here's somebody that's going to bring you the good news, literally, like the hope. And you're. You're telling me he's fake, he's fraud. It's. How do you, how do you reconcile that? Because it seems like what, like how do you hold these two opposing beliefs that there is more to it than the meat suit? And yet when someone brings you the news that there's more that can't be
- [44:09]
James Van Praagh
true, well, that's their truth, not my truth. So that's not. That's not my monkey.
- [44:16]
Sherry Lynch
Exactly.
- [44:18]
James Van Praagh
I was the first one. I was the very first one out there with all the skeptics. I really was. I was the very first one who took all those bullets from those skeptics because I didn't know what a skeptic was. I mean, I was doing. Gosh, what show was. It was Unsolved Mysteries. And I, I did this group reading. I knew nothing about it, and the girl just wanted me to do the group reading. Okay. So I sat there and there was like 10 people. I remember specifically there was a reading that came session. One person came through, was a young boy who was killed and he was shot up. And I said, oh, there are several bullets here. He's killed in the corner street corner, like a gang thing. And his name was Kevin. And he's saying to the mother and father, go, mother, you don't. Your. Your husband's sitting across from. You're not sitting. He wants to know why you're not sitting together. Anyway, after that they had a man by the Michael Shermer who's Skeptical Choir magazine, I guess. And they asked him, well, what do you think of. Oh, come on. She was wearing the letter K on her. Around her neck. And that of course could be her son's name would be Kevin. The more common. Really? Really. And what about. What about the bullets? Well, you know, nowadays kids means rational. These, these weird answers explain why that James Abel said they're sitting across from each other. That was good luck. Like what? So, you know, it's. It's so funny. You can't. You can't change people's minds. You just got to be who you are. I was once on Larry King or no, that was. Larry King was another show I was on with John Edward when John Edward of Crossing over, he first started. I asked John to be on a show with me with guests because it was a man by the name of Amazing Randy. And it was a magician, skeptical guy. And they asked John said John, what do you think of Amazing Randy? And John said, anybody who puts an adjective before the first name, I don't give a lot of credence to. So, you know, everybody has a right to believe. In the Bible, it says, my father has a house with many mansions. And what I believe that to be the many spiritual levels which exist of awareness. And remember on this earth world, the soul Earth world, the school Soul school. We are in a school of people that are very, very unenlightened. They're baby souls just starting out Nurtures Archery School. They believe in war and money and hate and power. And then you have the postgraduate souls that believe in healing and love, compassion, forgiveness. And then you have all the souls in the middle grades. You've all those. So that puts us all together in one place. So, of course, the reason why that is it really produces various scenarios for us to be involved in and to learn from, if you will. So you're always going to have those people, people that, you know, don't believe. Certainly you do, which is part of the world we're in right now. We're this human world, and that's okay. That's who they are.
- [46:54]
Sherry Lynch
From where James sits, there's no controversy. It's not even all that complicated.
- [46:59]
James Van Praagh
There is a right to believe the way you want to believe. But don't push your stuff on me. I'll push my stuff on you. You know, you just got to live by example. And. And also, this is interesting. Many of my clients have these wonderful experiences. Great readings on here. Oh, I got to go home and tell my husband. I gotta go. He won't believe it. I just gotta tell them, though, why they want to force their spirituality on them. I said, listen, they might not be ready for it. All you can do is say, you know, I had a dream of your dad last night, and this is what he said. Because everybody can relate to a dream, because we all have had that same experience of a dream. Or you could just plant little seeds. And when that soul is ready to let them fertilize and grow, they will. But we can't force it on people. We just gotta be ourselves and be the example of what we want in the world. I do believe that we should be the example of what we want in the world.
- [47:45]
Sherry Lynch
And if you've ever wondered what a guy who can talk to the dead thinks about his own mortality, when your own death draws near, do you have anything to do? Well, I'm looking forward to that.
- [47:55]
James Van Praagh
I can't. I can't wait. I Can't wait. I just can't wait. I'm looking really forward to the party to time, you know, and the funny thing is, is I feel like I've done. I feel at this moment I turned 60, 60 years old. I remember I was 40 years ago. And I felt. And it wasn't something I was looking for. It just naturally came through to me. I just felt I've accomplished what I came back for. I really do. I feel like I've accomplished what I came back for. And I. I just want to spend the rest of my life. I have a school online, the JP School, Mystical Arts, which is my legacy. Legacy. So I want to leave people with that. And also I just want, want, you know, to God for the rest of my life to bring love and happiness and joy. And I'll never get over changing people's lives. You know that, that little thing about the light bulb above people's head? They get it. When I do readings, I kind of see that it's not a light bulb, but it's a light. And it really gets. It's an aha moment for those people. And I love doing that. However, whatever medium that means, whether you're teaching or doing readings or writing books, working shows like yours, however, I can do that. That's my passion, to help people. To help people remember who they are.
- [49:03]
Sherry Lynch
I can't think of anything more delightful than to have someone tell me. I feel like my work here is done. It's kind of all gravy now. Having a good time, looking forward to what comes next. I mean, so many, so many people are burdened with this crushing fear of death. A fear of death so heavy that it, it drains the, the joy from life. I mean, so many people are grappling
- [49:25]
James Van Praagh
with that, but that there comes a secret to this in that everybody should live moment to moment. You know, the past has already happened, so don't look in the rearview mirror. That's already gone. The future is yet to be. So live fully in this moment now, because all we have, really, and if one lives like that and they have no shoulders, would haves or could haves, they've resolved things, they've told people, I love you, please forgive me, whatever that means. I, I think if one has, I, I believe the definition of a successful life is when someone leaves the body at the end of their life, physical life, and they can look back and the world is a better place than when they first found it. That, to me, is a successful life. And that's what I hope for everybody
- [50:03]
Sherry Lynch
I, you know, this is a weird moment because I'm like, on the one hand, like, I hope you have a really good long life. And on the other hand, like, I know you have other things to do in the next plane, so I don't know what to wish for here.
- [50:15]
James Van Praagh
Well, put it this way. I'm not looking. I mean, I'm not ready to go tomorrow. I have a lot of things I still got to, you know, unpack some clothes. No, but I'm content. I'll say I'm content. I, you know, I'm content and I guess with my sister's death, which is very interesting too, because there's a part of you, like, whoa, part of you as a sibling. I never lost a sibling. There's part of you which is, like, pulled out, which is really interesting. That was really interesting. And she was a mediumistic herself, so very, very interesting. But life, you know, if you live your life, realize that this is just the illusion and it doesn't matter what matters how you treat people, how you behave, how you make someone else's life better than they know it. You know, the hardest part of my job, I always say, is when I meet somebody and I see the abilities, their gifts, their abilities in their soul, and they want seed for them themselves. That's the hard thing. Talking to dead people is easy, but when getting through to people, but their own gifts, their own abilities, and they don't see it for themselves, that, to me, is the hardest thing.
- [51:14]
Sherry Lynch
If you're curious and want to know more, James is hosting an online workshop on May 30, 2023. It's a free video event. If you're all about uncovering the true essence of your soul, about exploring your capacity to communicate with souls on the other side, this might just blow your mind. James told us that we all have the innate instinctual gifts of intuition and psychic awareness and even mediumship. So why not take the journey, right? What do you have to lose other than, you know, that paralyzing fear of death? You can learn more about James and the work he does at www.theshiftnetwork.com Next time on True Weird Stuff. It's a cringe a thon. Maybe, Possibly. So there are many episodes of this podcast that we released before we began doing the postmortems. And one of them is an episode that we talk about a lot because it's part of the CIA's MK Ultra program. And so newer listeners to True Word Stuff who've heard episodes where we've talked about MK Ultra are like, you guys talk about the Trippin Johns, but you, you didn't do a postmortem. So we're gonna do something different next week. We are going to present Tripping John's with our live commentary. So we, we're gonna do a postmortem within the actual episode. And here's what we're hoping that we don't cringe from horror because, because that
- [52:46]
Max Sweeten
was an early episode that we did and we sort of not saying we didn't know what we were doing, but we didn't know what we were doing. We sort of did. And so both of us cringe at certain aspects of what it sounded like when we first started doing True Weird Stuff.
- [53:01]
Sherry Lynch
Well, and we didn't know what we were doing because we were waiting for this podcast to tell us what it wanted to be. And it did and it took time to do that and we had to figure out, well, how much can we experiment with? And well, you would think we were the Trippin Johns. So next time on True Weird Stuff, what happens when the CIA secretly doses men walking into a brothel and then watches them through a two way mirror? We're gonna, we're gonna live comment on that and we'll see you for the next True Weird Stuff.
- [53:36]
Max Sweeten
And if you listen to us on Apple Podcasts, hit the plus button in the top right corner. And now it helps an independent podcast like ours to get to discovered and we really appreciate it. If you subscribe, rate and review True
- [53:48]
Sherry Lynch
Weird Stuff, hit our website true weirdstuff.com for show notes and photos and videos when we have it, and bonus content. Everything True Weird is waiting for you@trueweirdstuff.com
- [54:01]
Max Sweeten
and follow true Weird Stuff on Instagram.
- [54:04]
Sherry Lynch
True Weird Stuff is in NOW Media production. Our executive producer is Anthony Garcia. The show is written and hosted by me, Sherry lynch, along with my deeply weird director, Max Sweeten. Our equally odd producer is Carrie Bowser. Additional production by the mysterious Stephen Call. Our digital witch and social media cult leader is Heather Fur. Original graphics by Kevin Nash. Original artworks by Olivia Axelin. True Weird original music composed and performed by Jack Griffin and zayn Nash.
- [54:36]
Max Sweeten
Copyright 2026 Now Media.
- [54:40]
Sherry Lynch
All rights reserved. All wrongs remembered.