JAMES VAN PRAAGH: “Learn about the many tools that non-mediums like you and I can use to communicate with our loved ones in spirit. James Van Praagh and I had recently spent some time in person together, so this interview has a wonderfully casual feel to it. Together we chat about using card decks and books for spirit communication, as well as inspired writing, Ouija boards, pendulums, scrying mirrors, and even the practice of having conversations in your head with your loved ones in spirit. This is my 5th interview with James since 2011, and as usual he shares with us his wisdom, humor, and wealth of experience as a 30-year medium. I think you’ll really enjoy this video Conversation about spirit communication for everyday people.” ~ Bob Olson, Afterlife TV
If you’d like to watch this video, The Blueprint of Your Soul’s Purpose, visit www.afterlifetv.com/?p=2071
Afterlife TV is presented by Afterlife Investigator & Psychic Medium Researcher Bob Olson, who is the author of Answers about the Afterlife: A Private Investigator’s 15-Year Research Unlocks the Mysteries of Life after Death.
Check out Bob Olson’s other sites: BestPsychicDirectory.com (a directory of hundreds of psychics & mediums by location with reviews & Instant Readings) & BestPsychicMediums.com (his personal recommended list of tested psychics and mediums) or visit Bob’s Facebook Page. Bob also has a popular workshop for psychics and mediums at PsychicMediumWorkshop.com.
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Bob Olson, Afterlife TV:Hey everybody, Bob Olson here with Afterlife TV. You can find us at www.afterlifetv.com. It’s where we search for evidence of life after death and ask the meaningful questions around that subject.
Today’s subject is, we’re going to talk about the tools that every day people like you and I, can use to communicate with our loved ones in spirit. We’re not talking about A, B, C’s here, we’re talking about tools that we can actually use to communicate with our loved ones.
Our guest today to help us with this is, who else but James Van Praagh. Hi James, thanks so much for joining us.
James Van Praagh:Hi Bob. Thank you. Thanks for having me.
Bob Olson, Afterlife TV:Well, I thought who better to talk to us about this particular subject than someone who’s been working as a medium for over 30 years, right?
James Van Praagh:After 30, it’s something. So 30-something years, yeah.
Bob Olson, Afterlife TV:I can remember very early in my journey – I should have the book here with me – but I’ve had it in past interviews that we’ve done together; Talking to Heaven.
I read Talking to Heaven in the late nineties, and it’s still one of my favorite books ‘til this day. There’s something about it. I think everybody should read that.
Then Ted Danson played you in the movie about your story, under the same name, right?
James Van Praagh:That’s right, he played me.
Bob Olson, Afterlife TV:Which I loved.
James Van Praagh:It was stage casting, but it worked.
Bob Olson, Afterlife TV:Well, that was a compliment to him, actually.
James Van Praagh:Thank you.
Bob Olson, Afterlife TV:Your work has just branched off from there. Until this day, people are enthralled, they’re educated, and they’re comforted by your work. Just this Saturday, I was so honored to be able to introduce you at an event that you did; what we call it, a Medium demonstration, in Manchester, New Hampshire. I had a lot of fun.
James Van Praagh:It was fun, thank you.
Bob Olson, Afterlife TV:They were a rowdy group, I will say.
James Van Praagh:They were. My first nose blower; that was really interesting.
Bob Olson, Afterlife TV:That’s right. There was a nose blower in the audience, in the middle of a reading.
James Van Praagh:Karen, the whistler.
Bob Olson, Afterlife TV:We had them all. We had all sorts there and it made it a lot of fun. I know I enjoyed it a lot. Melissa was there, and I know so many people around me were enjoying it. Some great readings. One I had to sort of turn away from because I was about to fall into tears.
James Van Praagh:It’s okay to cry, Bob.
Bob Olson, Afterlife TV:I cry enough as it is, I don’t need to be encouraged to do it anymore.
So today we’re going to talk about – if we’re not mediums – tools that we can use to communicate with our loved ones in spirit. I want to start by just talking about this. Early in my investigation of the afterlife – so this is probably late nineties – I ended up going to a tarot reader. Actually, I went to three tarot readers, and what started me thinking about this was, I had three tarot readings in a row and they were all similar.
Now those were not about spirit communication, because that’s before I met my first medium. But it amazed me that I had three tarot readings with three different people and they were all similar.
We’re going to talk about these tools, but when we have these tools – let’s just use that. Even though that was a psychic reading, how does that happen? Who’s influencing the cards as they’re being put down on the table? Is there some influence?
James Van Praagh:There’s a difference between the two. There’s a psychic and there’s a mediumship. A psychic is tuning into energy, so whenever that tarot card is being turned over, that psychic is able to tune into the energy of the card, and that person. And really, I think it comes from the psychic. That psychic knows exactly what that means for that person that they’re reading, and they’re able to tune in psychically, what that card is and how to interpret that card properly for the customer, for the person of the reading.
It’s different with each person and different with each card. I do tarot card readings with regular decks of cards. So I use a regular deck of cards and it’s just tuning to the knowingness. I’ll get a 2 of Clubs, or I’ll get a 3 of Hearts, or I’ll get a King of Spades. Am I going to look at the value of that card? Not necessarily, for me. It’s different for each person.
When the psychics do it, they will interpret what’s on that card. For me, it’s almost like opening up a book on a significant page and a flash of what that energy is like for the person that I’m reading on a psychic level. “Oh I feel that, oh I see a marriage over here. I might see trouble with a child in your life right now,” and it’s all very psychic. So I don’t think we’re being influenced by spirit. I don’t think so on a psychic level.
Now there are other tools that we use for mediumship, which you can use for mediumship. Number one, there’s one with inspiration. Inspiration means in spirit. So there are mediums that will go into a light trance, if you will. Most creative people, without even knowing it, go into a light trance and receive communication via music, whether it’s design, painting, an inspirational writing.
Many times, I’ll have people go into a light trance state and their guides will come through and write prayers or poems or letters to them. So that’s another way. Automatic writing is another way of doing it with tools for you to use to contact the spirit world.
Another way you can do it as well, you have to remember that the spirit world is a greater intelligence. It’s really they’re more of the great intelligence. So if you have a desire to contact the spirit world, in some ways, you can do it any way you want, but the tools, for instance, say psychometry – you hold an object of somebody.
The first thing you’ll do is tune in on a psychic level and on a knowingness level. That gets people in. That gets people into that center of knowingness, the trust level has opened up, they feel they can do this. They have the ability, the fear is taken away, the limitations are taken away, and then I bring up the next step of a mediumship. So they don’t necessarily need then, to tune in holding an object; they can really use the mind.
The mind is part of the soul, and the spirit world is the great mind and that mind-to-mind communication; that’s what happens with that. So the subconscious is part of the soul. So I do believe that we’re being influenced, with the mediumship of the subconscious. That’s what I think happens with the spirit world.
Bob Olson, Afterlife TV:So how does that differ? You have a new deck.
James Van Praagh:A great segway.
Bob Olson, Afterlife TV:No, I meant to talk about this, but that isn’t the reason I brought it up. Talking to Heaven Mediumship Cards. You did that with Doreen Virtue.
James Van Praagh:Oh my goodness!
Bob Olson, Afterlife TV:Let me just open up the deck here.
James Van Praagh:They’re really pretty amazing, if I do say so myself. Doreen Virtue, who you know and everyone knows as the Angel Lady. She’s a good, good friend of mine for many, many years and her and I wanted to work together for a long, long time. We thought what would help people the most? Both of us were going through a grief; we’d both lost someone in our lives around the same time.
It’s very funny because things happen to her and then they happen to me or vice-versa, within two weeks. It’s very, very interesting.
We thought, number one, there’d be a book we would write about grief, and that’s called, “How to Heal a Grieving Heart,” which I know you have that.
Bob Olson, Afterlife TV:I have there here and I can show it.
James Van Praagh:And that’s really just our own very personal views about tools we can use to help heal when we go through grief. Because grief is a very, very hard emotion to go through and not everybody grieves the same. So it’s really a wonderful tool to use for that.
Then many, many people have said to me, “I myself, would like to contact a spirit. Is there a way of doing that?” I know that there is. Spirit is always around us, so it’s allowing oneself to open up the higher mind and to connect with spirit, and that’s when we created these cards, the Talking to Heaven cards. These are mediumship cards. These are very, very different than tarot cards. They’re not the same, and they’re not the same as angel cards, they’re very, very different. These are message cards.
And what it is is really – I got this also from a lot of British mediums who use these types of techniques of tuning into spirit with the subconscious, of course, and knowing that the intelligence of the spirit world is really influencing you in your subconscious mind, right.
So we have the cards and people take them. I have the instructions on the box. But really what they’re doing is when they’re holding the cards, they’re really using them with their energy. They’re filling up every one of those cards with their own energy, and at the same time they’re sending out a thought to a loved one they want to contact. Get one person; don’t think of several people. And that’s all it is.
Just let your higher self lead you; your spirit self, your soul self lead you to the cards, you’re shuffling the cards. And then I tell people to ask the question. Send a question out to the spirit world, and when you feel that you are correct to the right answer; when you’re ready to receive, then you pick up whatever card you feel, and you get your answer.
Now I said that one to my mother. When you passed over what happened? And there’s a card for that. “I was met by so many people.” I mean it works. I do this on stage with people. I have a good home, I’ve had a lot of incredible reviews. I was [showing McClain-00:09:38.8] the other day doing these. She was very skeptical, extremely skeptical, and she was blown away and I was blown away. I mean it works. It’s a tool, another way to tune in with mediumship.
Now, I think you can take a message card like that; you get the message, and then you’re kind of in that state of receptivity. If you stay there and you sustain that energetic level, you then can get more mediumship information, more evidence coming through and so forth. So it’s a good way of practicing also.
Bob Olson, Afterlife TV:Yeah, it is. It is. Beautiful. I just opened this one. Look at that, isn’t that beautiful.
James Van Praagh:Wow.
Bob Olson, Afterlife TV:They’re gorgeous, just gorgeous. They’re beautiful to look at, never mind to read.
Melissa and I were messing around yesterday and I don’t remember what cards we picked, but we each picked cards. Her card, she was thinking, it could’ve meant two different things to her. I said, “Well pick another card, pick another card.” I shuffled them and she picks the exact same card.
James Van Praagh:It happens. It really happens. It’s a greater intelligence, I mean it really is. It’s a greater intelligence doing it. It works with the same principle that you give people coupons in the audience – about 500 people – and you have a jar of coupons on the stage. You pick out the number, and you’re not looking at the audience, and you’re just reading the number.
You tune into that number and you start bringing the spirit in based on that piece of coupon, and the person in the audience has a corresponding number. You really connect with spirit and make your link based on that, and that gets you in.
You don’t have to do that. I mean you could easily turn around and just do a link in, but it shows people that there’s more to it than just anybody in the physical. You’re not looking at them, they have no influence on it. You’re really being influenced by the higher intelligence. That’s really what that proves and that’s what these cards prove.
Bob Olson, Afterlife TV:Beautiful. I love people having the ability to have tools that they can use, and you can see. I mean we were talking about mediums earlier and psychics, and you can recognize – and certainly I’ve seen this in my work with them – especially at the beginning, if they’re doing a medium demonstration at the beginning, they’re sort of warming up, but with each person it’s the same.
They start off, and you know there’s a connection, and then the more messages they give, you can see the connection getting stronger and stronger and stronger. I mean I know a lot of people give half-hour readings, but for me, I always recommend to mediums to give one-hour readings. If you’re the type of person that just keeps getting better and better and better. Because there’s a lot of people who, if they’re a beginner, it might take them awhile before they actually get deep.
If you’ve been doing it for 30 years, bam, you’re right there, and you show that in your demonstrations. But even in your own demonstrations, I recognize and I feel like you just learn more and more and more about that spirit and from that spirit, as each minute goes on.
James Van Praagh:As you know, I warm up the crowd. I have to get to a certain space as I’m speaking to the audience. I’m also a teacher, so I teach a little bit. I’ll often talk a good 10-15 minutes beforehand, because what I’m doing is many things.
One, I’m taking away the fear that some people come in with. I’m also letting the spirit world work with the audience members to clear a way in the auric fields, any energies they bring in, which is not conducive for connections right, communication. I also really want to teach them about the foundation of spirituality, of spiritualism, of connection and communication on the other side.
It also gives the spirit world a way to work with the energy in the room. Just because they’re dead, doesn’t mean they don’t know how to communicate. There are some good communicators and there are some very bad communicators, just like on the earth. So they have to learn what the proper process is.
It’s very much like a radio and they have to tune into a certain station, a certain frequency. There are some spirits that have to concentrate, concentrate, concentrate, in order to project that thought into the medium’s mind, to project the feeling, to project the image. It takes a lot of energy and they’re not sure how to do that. But there are other spirits that are very good at that.
And I think for me, the ones who have more emotion are always the best ones to come through because they’ve got that energy of emotion to bring them through. And also, you have to remember that the spirit has to match the makeup, the design of the medium themselves. The closer they are to the medium’s makeup…
For instance, I have a very good sense of humor, as you know, and if I get a spirit coming through with a good sense of humor, I’m in, and it’s a great message, a great message, great connection and I love that. But someone who comes in who was a scientist, it might be a little harder for the medium, and for me, because that’s not my background.
Remember, the spirit can only work with the medium’s reference points. So the best mediums of the world is really the mediums who have had the best life experiences. If they’ve traveled all over the world, different cultures and so forth, that spirit will have a lot of reference points to use when they come into communication.
Bob Olson, Afterlife TV:And if that’s true for mediums, I’m sure for us non-mediums, it’s even more difficult for them to be able to try to communicate with us. But they try, do they not?
James Van Praagh:Bob, they try every day. They’re trying us every day. Another tool people could use is really dreams, so if they keep a dream journal next to their bed, and at night before they go to sleep say, “Spirit please come through. Whatever message you have come into my dream state.” That way it’s much easier for people because they’re not in that conscious limitation, human form trying to criticize the judgment, the left brain, they’re not there. So that’s another way of them coming in.
I also want to touch briefly on mediumship, that I’ve noticed also. Mediums, for insecurity of whatever it might be, there are some mediums that ask a lot of questions and they shouldn’t ask questions. They should state facts and not ask questions. So I see a lot of that and that’s lazy mediumship, to me.
I ask questions, too. I find myself doing that, but I try not to. I try to bring as many facts as I possibly can in order to establish a contact. I think that kind of proves a mediumship, and you’re also respecting the spirit world.
They’re trying to come through, you’re trying to project who they are; that’s really what you should be and a medium, you know, you’ve really got to be secure within yourself. Because you’re out there, you’re vulnerable, and you’ve got to be willing to be completely vulnerable and stripped of everything to let the spirit come through.
Bob Olson, Afterlife TV:You talked about inspired writing and early in my career, I did a lot of inspired writing myself, as practice. Now I more communicated with my spirit guides in asking questions. But what was interesting is I felt like I had success with it. I had more success when I was asking a question and then I quickly wrote down whatever came to my head, and then I would read it later.
I wasn’t worried about misspellings, grammar, or anything; I just would ask a question, then I would write it down, then I would ask another question. But it became a conversation. I would start with that first question and it sort of became this conversation that went back and forth. Then I would read it later. A lot of times I would just walk away from it and two days later I’d read it and go, “Wow, I don’t know where that came from.”
I mean obviously I do, but it didn’t come from me, and there seemed to be a different personality in the writing, and wisdom that I didn’t feel like I had.
James Van Praagh:Well, that’s from your ego self and not from the human self. You know the ego, e-g-o, edging got out; we’re all God. But when that ego gets in the way the humanness of us, it blocks that God source, so it might be your higher self coming through, it might be a spirit guide coming through or higher intelligence. When we try to critique something or judge something, it shuts it down, doesn’t it? So we have to be open to that.
If you get to that receptive state where you can just sit and you can just write as fast as you can, you don’t think about if it’s right. Like you said, two days later you look at it and it’s like, “Wow, where did that come from?”
Another tool Bob, that people can use to recognize their guides – I learned this from Tony Stockwell, who I work with a lot and who worked with me on this one – where you really get to a receptive state, but it’s a meditative state. You center yourself, ground yourself, and I always take it back to the heart space, that sense of love of self.
Just the state right there; be aware of the atmosphere all around you, and then you send out a thought to the spirit world. “May one of the guides come behind me, stand behind me,” and you just tune into the energy that’s behind you and sense the difference in how it feels. Then you ask it to come close to you, place the hand upon your shoulder, and feel what’s that like. And every step of the way, you just feel how the energy shifts.
Once you’ve established that the guide has put the hand on your shoulder, gives you a sign. What sign do you know when your spirit guide is around you? Is it a bit of cold fresh air? Is it a tap on the head? Is it a thought about love? Is it a picture of a rose? Whatever it might be for you, that’s what you want to establish. So it’s a tool that one can use to establish a guide or work with their guides.
Bob Olson, Afterlife TV:I’m going to try that myself, actually. I was at a family friend’s party once, and it was more of a test than anything else, but I got everybody to sort of play this game with me, which was to do inspired writing for this other person. And of course, we all knew something about each other. I mean there were some strangers in there, but everybody paired up with someone that they didn’t know that much about and I had them sort of do inspired writing. Whatever they would get was a short brief message for the other person.
Oh wow, I mean it was powerful. It was powerful what came. And the focus, the intent was loved ones on the other side. Not spirit guides, but loved ones on the other side. I was blown away by what happened.
Is there any danger to doing that sort of exercise with people?
James Van Praagh:I don’t know about danger. I don’t believe in evils, but I think that you have to have somebody who’s very well grounded and kind of understands the work in some respects. So other times they’ll know nothing and sometimes it works really well, too.
As long as the intent is proper, the motivation is proper, I think that in the right conditions, it’s fine. It’s really interesting because when you get out of your way, it’s a soul to soul communication and things can really come through that way.
And again, like everything, the more practice one does and proves themselves to that space of receptivity, the more they honor that space and know that space, the more they’re able to receive spirit.
Bob Olson, Afterlife TV:Definitely, and I think that was one of the things that people walked away from this more open-minded about the possibilities and their possibilities in spirit communication.
When I said danger, probably what I was thinking of was – I guess if I was to call out a danger, which is not a good word but it would be if someone misinterprets a message again, as I was talking about earlier. They misinterpret what they were getting and then they give some kind of a fearful message.
Fearful messages never come through, so that’s always a red flag for me.
James Van Praagh:That’s ego.
Bob Olson, Afterlife TV:If there’s fear coming through…
James Van Praagh:That’s ego.
Bob Olson, Afterlife TV:…question it. Yeah.
James Van Praagh:Yeah, that’s the ego coming through and fear messages come through the ego. It’s almost made up in the mind and I think that’s just ego based when it’s fear-based. And when it’s judgment. Judgment equals fear, so it’s fear-based there.
I think we’re perfect spirits, perfect beings of love. The human gets in the way every once in a while, so you have to be very careful. Here we go again, discernment, see.
Bob Olson, Afterlife TV:Yeah, discernment.
So the next tool I want to talk about; certainly…
James Van Praagh:I know what you want to talk about.
Bob Olson, Afterlife TV:I’ll bet you do. This spirit board. It’s also called a Planchette, I think, and most people know it as the Ouija board.
James Van Praagh:Yes, no, German, yes. That’s been around for years. It’s another tool, a divination tool, as you said. Now this is a good one because it’s based upon the psychic, first of all to get in there. But it also is a spirit communication. So spirit is influencing you in a subconscious to come through and point out those letters. So in a way, it is spirit communication, definitely. I definitely believe that.
I started with that, by the way. One of my tools for spirit communication was the board. You could feel the energy shift when spirit comes in. You’ll feel the very different spirits that have much more energy, some don’t; you’ll just feel it. It’s a really interesting way to discern the different energies and what they feel like when the personalities come through. I think it’s a great way of working.
It’s gotten such a bad rap in religion, misinformation, and ignorance. If used properly, it’s just another tool that is spirit communication. Again, it’s just another way of spirit communication, not psychic, and that is a good way if done properly in the right motivation. You’re not going to do it when you’re hanging out at a party, drinking, or something. No, because it’s disrespectful to you and the spirit world. But you can use it properly, a proper way of doing it for sure.
Bob Olson, Afterlife TV:For anybody has skepticism, of course, the spirit board it’s difficult for them because people are touching it. So they’re always worried about someone manipulating it. Of course, there is a little story to go with that because I think it explains how it works in a way.
We were kind of playing around with some friends. One of them had lost her husband and we were communicating with him. We were getting messages and that sort of thing. No evidence that it was something that none of us knew. So one of the last questions that was asked was, “Do you have a message? Do you have something you want to ask of anyone of us?” And immediately in my head, “be happy” popped into my head.
I walked away and I stood back. I took my fingers off of the – what’s that thing called?
James Van Praagh:Planchette.
Bob Olson, Afterlife TV:So I took my fingers off, because I didn’t want to influence it, because that was the message that I got. Now I’m no medium, but sure enough, what the rest of them did was B-E- and they ended up spelling out, “Be happy,” which was very cool. It was great for me to see that happen and even for me to feel like I got a message. I was like, “Whoa.”
James Van Praagh:It’s such a thing of interpreting it. Because my husband Brian and I, we were doing the Ouija board the first time years ago. He had never done it before. I had done it and our friend Kelly was with us. We were doing this and Brian’s grandmother came through, Mary. Mary is a common name. I said, “It was Mary.” “That’s my grandmother.” I had never given her a reading before, and she spelled out, “Your father has a good heart.” This was the father’s mother.
So I said, “That’s very nice, that’s very sweet, nice sentiment, great.” So about a week later the phone rings and it’s his mother who said, “Your father’s in the hospital.” So Brian went to the hospital and his father had cardiac arrest.” So afterwards he was fine, he was stabilized and everything was fine.
Brian’s walking out of the room with the cardiologist and the cardiologist looks at Brian and said, “Listen. You would’ve lost your father, but he has a good heart.” That was literal. It was literal. So you don’t know how the spirit is going to give it. Is it a literal meaning or is it a symbolic meaning. So you have to be able to, again, discern between what’s literal, what’s that feel like and what’s symbolic; what does that feel like?
Bob Olson, Afterlife TV:That’s where experience comes in. Experience and education from experienced people.
So we’re got the spirit board and the next one I want to bring up is because people are touching the spirit board, the next one is sort of similar. We have the pendulum. So you’ve got something like this that’s on a string or a chain or whatever.
James Van Praagh:You’re practicing; you just moved that. I saw that.
Bob Olson, Afterlife TV:I did. Talk about those. How does that work?
James Van Praagh:So that’s subconscious, so they can affect things subconsciously. I’m so skeptical, but you know, [00:25:55.3], and doing this for so many years. But I do believe that it’s another tool, a divination tool. I think it works more on the psychic level, so yes and no questions.
I do think this is the spirit part of ourselves and the subconscious is helping to let them know yes or no, so I think that is what’s happening. I think it’s another way of tuning in. And then I know another tool to talk about, which is really interesting.
Bob Olson, Afterlife TV:What?
James Van Praagh:Another tool that Raymond Moody used years ago.
Bob Olson, Afterlife TV:Oh yes. And I know he called it – I don’t even know if I’m saying it right – psychomanteum, is that it?
James Van Praagh:Psychomanteum, that’s correct.
Bob Olson, Afterlife TV:So this, from my understanding, is a mirror in a dark room; maybe a closet even. You sit in front of the mirror with the doors closed and no light, for God knows how long, and eventually what’s supposed to happen?
James Van Praagh:He wrote a book about it, and this goes back to Egyptian times, they used to do it. It’s called “scrying,” and scrying is where you can see images that will appear in, if you will, clairvoyance or the subconscious showing these images, and it will appear in the mirror. In that mirror, you’ll see a scrying.
Now is it being projected to your clairvoyance? I think so. So it would be projected to your subconscious and you’re seeing it that way. That’s a way of seeing it, yes, the projecting on you. So it’s called scrying and you can you it through a psychomanteum, which is a mirror and you can sit there and you can see the spirit.
You could also do this with a candle. So if you concentrate and look at the flame of a candle for a while, you’ll begin to get images as well. They’re projecting upon your subconscious, your clairvoyance.
Now another way of doing physical mediumship, which to me, it’s also showing you as you’re sitting there – it’s a little bit different than what you’re talking about. But if you sit in front of a mirror with a red light – it’s called transfiguration – where the spirit can actually transfix themselves upon your face, and you will begin to see the face molding and changing around.
You’ll begin to see the spirit face projected upon your face as you’re sitting in front of the mirror and you think your eyes are seeing optical illusions, but you will all see it. If three of four people are sitting, you will all see how the spirit is changing the face through transfiguration.
You can actually see the characteristics of that face of the spirit superimposed upon the other person’s face. You don’t have to be a medium. If you’re a medium great, it’s better energy that you can use, but it can happen to anybody and anybody can do that.
I do this in my classes. I do a transfiguration with a person. We have the students look at each other and see who comes through. The fun thing is then you get the spirit coming through on the partner’s face and then the person can ask them – there can be three or four pieces of evidence that I can give, please give… And you can do it in your mind, so without even saying anything, but as you see that spirit face on the person in front of you, the spirit can be three or four pieces of evidence that I’m able to relay to this person, that will know it’s you.
Bob Olson, Afterlife TV:Many of these things are fun. I say fun, but it might be more helpful when you do something with a partner, especially if you don’t know that much about the person. This is why these events are great because you can find complete strangers. If anybody has an opportunity to go to an event; I’ve been to one.
James Van Praagh:In October, I’m teaching a class for a week in Rhinebeck, New York. So I’m teaching all these techniques and exercises.
Bob Olson, Afterlife TV:People don’t have to be a psychic or medium to be able to attend.
James Van Praagh:No, they just have to be a soul. Everybody is a soul. There are certain levels, of course, of expertise and sensitivity, but everybody can definitely have an experience or experiences at the beginning, of course.
Bob Olson, Afterlife TV:I love it. I went to one early on in my career at a spiritualist church. Rita Berkowitz was there at that time, and they always had a lot of guests from England. The guest was Gordon Smith; very early on in his career.
James Van Praagh:A great medium.
Bob Olson, Afterlife TV:He was doing this. And he did the thing where we held an object from some stranger, you know their watch, right or whatever, and we would tell them something. That was more psychic work.
James Van Praagh:Psychometry, yeah.
Bob Olson, Afterlife TV:Then we did mediumship with people. I was not good at it, but the person that I had was really good at it. One of the things I will say that was really cool about that, was Melissa was there too and she had her own partner over here. When we did the mediumship, this guy, his name was Craig; my father was coming through. My father was coming through with messages of sort of remorse and guilt of things he thought he could’ve done better.
I was like, “Oh dad, whatever, I forgive you. Let’s get over it.” But Melissa was getting her reading with her partner and my father was coming through to her as well. He was coming through happy and joyful and telling her how much he loved her and how he was like a daughter to him. It was very interesting and it taught me so much about people in spirit in that depending on the person that they’re communicating with, they’re going to show themselves differently, depending on the message that they’re trying to get through.
James Van Praagh:And the references of that medium. So if the medium is in a much more happy space, emotionally happy and connected, that spirit will use those aspects of that medium. Or if there is another medium who is a little bit more critique and there’s judgment or something, well they know they can get into that medium that way to express they are sorry or please forgive me, then they’ll try that as well.
It’s important to realize, Bob, that we live in a three-dimensional human world, we’re souls having this human experience. A soul can be in several places at once. It’s almost like water can be in several places at once. It’s not linear in the spirit world. So the soul can give you a thought, that person a thought, and that person a thought all at the same time. So it’s a different aspect of our being and a harder one to understand because we’re so locked into this three dimensional world.
I often say to people, just think of the sun. The sun is this wonderful light, but yet it has rays of it and can touch all different parts of the world at all different times at once. So it’s kind of like that. So yeah, different aspects of the medium are being used, charged or lit up. I like to say lit up, and no greater work can be done, I think than bringing love back to the earth to someone who didn’t receive it or the spirit needs to say something that was left unsaid.
Any time that a medium brings through a resolution for unfinished business, I think, that’s what it’s all about the healing.
Bob Olson, Afterlife TV:You’re right. Going back to that message you gave us earlier, that Mavis talked about, you know, “My father wanted to get that message through to me and wanted to get another message through to Melissa. There’s just so much going on there. People should go to that Omega event.
James Van Praagh:Yeah, they should, but also think Bob, that rippling effect of your father coming through and talking about how he’s sorry, please forgive him; that’s not only going to affect your forgiveness for your dad in his forgiveness, but him as well. And every other person who you talk to, every other person who you’re sending out a broadcast to and you share that story, they’re going to receive that message, as well.
Bob Olson, Afterlife TV:Well, what’s interesting, when I said get over it, I felt like I had forgiven him years prior, you know what I mean? So to me, I wasn’t really sure why that message was coming through again. Like you said, it might’ve had more to do with the guy who was delivering the message.
James Van Praagh:That’s true. He might’ve had a relationship with his father that he hadn’t forgiven, so that’s also another aspect of it that might’ve happened, too, for sure.
Bob Olson, Afterlife TV:Now you could say meditations is a tool, but I don’t even know that you need to use meditation.
So this same friend who had lost her husband, who we were using the Ouija board with. Right after her husband had died she was just walking along the road, just taking a walk.
She was having a conversation in her mind, with her husband who was in spirit. But she was hearing her own voice in her head, so it was difficult for her. She wasn’t really hearing his voice, she was hearing her own voice. She’s like, “Give me something to prove to me that I’m really communicating with you. Tell me something that I don’t know that I can confirm.” He said, “Your mother wants to buy a new blue dress.”
So the next time she saw her mother, she asked her mother, “Mom, are you thinking about buying a dress?” She says, “Oh yes, there’s this blue dress in this store and I keep going back to it, but I can’t bring myself to spend the money,” and that was perfect for her.
But the message here that I’m trying to teach is it’s not necessarily going to be a loved one’s voice that we hear in our head, it might be our own voice.
James Van Praagh:It’s also very subtle. It can come in very subtle, and it might be that it comes in the form of your voice, for sure.
When I receive messages, and it’s clairsentience; clairsentience is clear-feeling and clairaudience is clear-hearing. I will hear messages with my own voice many times, so that’s how they have to use that. They use the tool that way; they use the vessel that way.
Sometimes it will be you hearing your voice, it will be a thought. A spirit projected a thought to your mind; mind-to-mind communication, soul-to-soul communication. And once you get that feeling of, let’s say, okay mother wants to buy a blue dress, what does that feel like when you get that message? That’s mediumship, and if you can bring yourself back to that level of receptivity, what that feels like and use that over and over again, practice, practice, practice, practice and get that feeling, that same level, that’s the beginnings of mediumship.
Bob Olson, Afterlife TV:I love it. We’re kind of running out of time here, so there’s a couple of things I want to do. I want to remind people about your Talking to Heaven Mediumship cards. I have a link below here. You pick the cards and then if you want more explanation there’s a little book that comes with it.
James Van Praagh:We’ve got every single message on there and all the explanations on there.
Bob Olson, Afterlife TV:Also, very quickly I just want to say, How to Heal a Grieving Heart, this is the latest book that you did with Doreen Virtue. Same thing, like the cards; absolutely gorgeous graphics, just beautiful. And they’re the kind of messages that you can do one a day, you can pick – it’s one of those things…
James Van Praagh:Open it to any page and again, your higher self will bring you to the page that you need.
Bob Olson, Afterlife TV:So I love that.
James Van Praagh:I have a new TV show, Bob.
Bob Olson, Afterlife TV:Well, that was my next thing.
James Van Praagh:I’m psychic, I knew you were going to ask me that.
Bob Olson, Afterlife TV:That’s weird. Gaiam TV. Talk about your new TV show.
James Van Praagh:Sure. It’s called Spirit Talk. They approached me and they said, “We would like to do this show with you.” It’s a show where people subscribe once a month, it’s $9.95, and you get it on your computer or your television. It’s like a Netflix or Roku and you have to stream it live.
We film in Boulder, Colorado with a live audience, and if any of you want to go to the live audience, you’re welcome to. You can go on the website and find out.
I do two days of shooting, so I do two shows a day. I come out and I teach. I teach a little philosophy there, I talk about philosophy and then I’ll do an exercise, maybe a theme for the day, reincarnation, healing, or energy or whatever it might be for that day.
How about the spirit gives me it, by the way. I don’t know what I’m going to talk about. I swear to you something happens – something’s happening with this show.
You know I’m standing and I’m like, “Okay, what am I going to talk about today?” You can only practice and only know so much, and I’ll tell you when it comes to that curtain in there, they just give me it. So it’s really influenced by the spirit. Then I give readings, of course, messages from the spirit world, and I tie it up at the end with philosophy.
So it’s on every Thursday with a new episode. We’ve done eight episodes already. There are incredible messages from spirits. So it’s at Gaiam TV.
Bob Olson, Afterlife TV:This is professionally filmed. I mean it’s beautifully…
James Van Praagh:It’s phenomenal, it’s beautiful and the set it gorgeous, it’s like Star Trek. And it’s really done from love, because there’s not much of a budget and the people don’t have much of a budget.
But I’ve got to tell you, I actually met with the President of Gaiam and I said, “Listen, you have so much content, not only from me but from years of programming,” they’ve done documentaries, they’ve done original programming, they’ve actually bought some programs. It’s spiritual high-minded, consciousness programming.
I said to the President, “You need to get this to the mainstream; you need to bring it out to the mainstream. Is there some way you can get this to a network and so forth?” So I’m actually right now with trying to get this to a network and get it to a broader audience. Because people are ready for it, people are ready for this work.
Bob Olson, Afterlife TV:Oh people are ready for it, and for the $9.95 a month or whatever, it’s so worth it. There’s just so much there. You could give up your TV and just be filled with positive loving messages every single day.
James Van Praagh:And remember what you put out there, what you align yourself with, whether it’s like positive messages, positive television and music, positive energy; that’s what you’re going to get back. That’s where tuning into that level, and it’s very, very true. I want to be around positive things. A beautiful garden, beautiful people, you know, I like that in my life. Life’s too short.
Bob Olson, Afterlife TV:I’ll have links to that below the video. I’ll have links to your website where people can find out about all the events you’re doing. You’re selling out all over the country.
I’ve been to a few of yours now and I always have a blast. No matter how many times I see it, it’s always different because the readings that come through are different, and I know what you teach, you teach on whatever you’re feeling you should teach that night. I love that.
Some of the best speakers I’ve ever met, that’s what they do. They don’t plan it. They go on and whatever they’re supposed to teach they teach. And you can do that when you’re experienced like that.
Is there anything else that you wanted to say or mention?
James Van Praagh:No, I think that’s really it. I think that people are concerned about the consciousness of the planet and what’s going on on the planet at this time. I always say life is a series of choices; it’s either love or fear. And like we were just talking about, tune yourself to positive, to love because every single person matters. Every person is an intricate part into the tapestry of the world here, so what you think you become.
I just tell people to keep positive and things will play out as they’re meant to play out. But you certainly can help things with love and positivity.
Bob Olson, Afterlife TV:I love that. I know my audience resonates with that and that’s a great way to end. James, thank you so much.
James Van Praagh:Thank you, Bob. As always, I appreciate it. Thank you.
Bob Olson, Afterlife TV:So we’ll have you on again. I love to have you on every so often and we’ll just keep the conversation going, all right.
James Van Praagh:Perfect. It sounds good.
Bob Olson, Afterlife TV:You have my love, buddy.
James Van Praagh:Bye Bob, thanks.
[End]
Afterlife TV is presented by Afterlife Investigator & Psychic Medium Researcher Bob Olson, who is the author of Answers about the Afterlife: A Private Investigator’s 15-Year Research Unlocks the Mysteries of Life after Death.
Check out Bob Olson’s other sites: BestPsychicDirectory.com (a directory of hundreds of psychics & mediums by location with reviews & Instant Readings) & BestPsychicMediums.com (his personal recommended list of tested psychics and mediums) or visit Bob’s Facebook Page. Bob also has a popular workshop for psychics and mediums at PsychicMediumWorkshop.com.
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