The Medium Has a Message

 Despite murmurs of controversy surrounding his Annual Conference appearance Saturday afternoon, survival evidence medium James van Praagh had the undivided attention of several hundred truth seekers curious to hear about "what the dead can teach us," which serves as the subtitle of his latest book, Unfinished Business (HarperCollins). Even as a toddler, van Praagh said, he could see spirits and otherworldly lights around people. "When I was about two years old," he reminisced, "I remember being able to see a man with beautiful blue eyes smiling at me from a corner. It was only later that I found out from a family member that the description fit my grandfather who had died before I was born." He continues to be able to perceive and communicate with discarnate entities who reveal their presence in many ways — visually, electromagnetically, or through birds and animals. The Friday night CBS television series Ghost Whisperer, now in its fourth season (of which van Praagh is co-executive producer) is based partially on his work. Although he said he doesn't conduct personal readings anymore, van Praagh did seem sensitive to the private concerns of some of those who asked questions at the end of his talk. When one woman mentioned her husband who had died seven years ago, he acted as if he sensed the man's presence around her, mentioning the significance of a toy that he and his brother had played with in Germany. Skeptics might say that this was an example of "cold reading" his audience (making high-probability guesses by picking up on personal cues), but whatever his technique was, it seemed to resonate with those willing to credit information apparently coming from the "other side." Much of van Praagh's outlook is standard spiritualist or New Age philosophy, as illustrated by many comments he made during his talk — during an out-of-body experience your "spirit floats on a silver cord attached to your solar plexus," "this dimension is illusion," "we are outside of time," "we have several nonphysical bodies all attuned to different frequencies," our departed family members can "hear our thoughts and prayers," and "every single one of us is God." Van Praagh also believes that after death, our belief systems persist and "we go to a place that we believe in" and where similar believers also reside. "Mindset attracts mindset," he theorized. He also believes in reincarnation; but when a questioner asked how spirits can exist in the afterlife yet be reincarnated simultaneously, he answered that only an "aspect of the soul is reincarnated, so you'll still see your family." Spirits return to visit the living because they have "unfinished business," van Praagh concluded as he left for the Exhibit Hall to sign his book of the same title.