James Van Praagh: The Power Of Love
An Interview with James Van Praagh: The Power Of Love
Why are we here, and what is our purpose, and can we move beyond fear to live a life of love? To address these questions and much more is world-renowned spiritual medium and No. 1 New York Times best-selling author. James Van Praagh is a survival- evidence medium with more than 30 years of experience, providing evidential proof of life after death via highly-detailed messages from the spirit realm. A regular guest on National Radio and television shows, including Oprah, The View and 48 Hours, James Van Praagh was the creator and Executive Producer of CBS television’s long-running series The Ghost Whisperer.
Recently, he launched the James Van Praagh School of Mystical Arts, an online academy where students can explore a wide range of spiritual topics from mindfulness to mediumship, and you will find more about that on his website by visiting: http://www.vanpraagh.com.
He joins us to discuss his latest book, The Power of Love Connecting to the Oneness.
To listen to the full audio interview of James Van Praagh by Victor Fuhrman, click the player below.
VICTOR FUHRMAN: “James Van Praagh , before we start the interview, I just want to share something with you. My wife, Laurie Sue, and I had the pleasure of witnessing what you did at the Manhattan Centre Hammerstein Ballroom in New York City about 15 or 16 years ago. It was a capacity crowd of more than 2,000 people, and you were bringing wonderful messages through for random members of the audience. Now, my wife and I are both blessed with the gift of sensing the energy, and every time you brought a message through I saw something happening around you. After the event, I asked my wife if she noticed anything when you were delivering messages, and she smiled and said yes. I said write it down, do not tell me, and I wrote down what I saw, and then we swapped notes. No surprise, we witnessed the same thing. As you connect with Spirit a beautiful, purple colored field appeared around you and, when the communication was flowing, golden sparks filled the field.
Each time you stopped, the field would close, and then reopen when you started again.
What a blessing to witness this. Has anyone shared that with you before?
I just wanted to mention that you had talked about how we interpret love and how we interpret what we have to do for love, and I remember as a young man – my Father was sick when I was young – I never felt loved by him until I became part of his healing and caretaking team. That wired in my young mind that when we help each other and we help others and care for each other and heal each other, that is when we receive love. It took me a long time to internalize and love myself and to re-emerge with the understanding that that is not necessarily so. That it has to start within, and then it can come without.
JAMES VAN PRAAGH: That is right. You cannot look to another person to receive that love because, as with your Father, this happens quite often. In generations, the past and many times, this is very interesting because as you know I receive hundreds of thousands of these messages, and many times a parent will come through, and they will say: “I am sorry I did not say I loved you when I was alive. I am very, very sorry.” The person receiving the message would say: “Why couldn’t they?” and the Spirit would say: “I never learned how to love. My parents never taught me about love, so how would I know to give to you something I did not know about?” – which is very true.
I remember with my Father we never said I love you until after my Mother passed away first, and I would make sure my Father knew we said I love you. So, after my Mum passed, I said: “Dad, I just want you to know I love you, and for two men it was a hard thing in those days. He said: “I love you, too” and then the whole family started saying I love you and it was important, but we can never force other people to love us. We have to live by example. We have to show them, love. We have to act a certain way, and they will say that you behave a certain way, I like how you are. What is that? Oh, I am just loving; I am loving life, I love myself, I am loving people I interact with. So, maybe we can teach people by the way we behave instead of forcing people to be a certain way.
VICTOR FUHRMAN: Now, if we operate from the soul, from our soul essence, we are doing OK. In the physical world, the three-dimensional world we also operate from ego. How can we go from ego to soul, and don’t we need our egos from time to time?
JAMES VAN PRAAGH: I think ego is great. I think ego is fine, but we have to make sure it is in proportion as to who we are, and we use it properly. We do not want ego to drive our life, we want our soul to drive our life. We want a soul-filled life, not an ego-filled life. Ego is important to get you out of the house, to get you to do certain things, have a career or business. That is fine, but everything needs to be in the balance. If you are an ego and you are just ego-driven, you are going to be out of balance. You have to make sure it is properly balanced with the amount of compassion that you give and receive, and that you treat another person as you want to be treated. The golden rule is very, very important and the energy that you give out is exactly what you are going to get back. So, that is really what it is.
If you are an ego and you are just ego-driven, you are going to be out of balance. You have to make sure it is properly balanced with the amount of compassion that you give and receive, and that you treat another person as you want to be treated. The golden rule is very, very important and the energy that you give out is exactly what you are going to get back. So, that is really what it is.
Also, in the book, I talk about the oneness. We are all connected to that one energy. In the three-dimensional world, the greatest illusions that we have are 1) death. We think there is an end. There is no end; it is just stepping out of the suitcase. Separation, and when you pass out of this three-dimensional world and into the other dimensions, one of the first realizations you have is that “Oh, well, I am connected to everyone and everything. I am not separate, I am actually connected”. So, if we have that realization while we are still here in a three-dimensional world, in a physical body, we will behave differently.
We will treat people differently.
When you look at someone and realize that they are an extension of ourselves, how do you treat them to make their lives better?
I believe that every single person that comes upon our path is either our teacher or our student. They are there to teach us, or we are to teach them. We are here to help each other out, not to judge someone. A lot of people will jump at the judgment first, and I believe that judgment is fear-based because I am judging another because I feel that I might lose control. There is no control; that is an illusion.
You cannot control another person. You cannot control a situation, but what you can control is your reaction to that.
So, if someone does something, or says something, you can have a certain reaction to how you are going to feel about that, but you cannot control another person. So, why judge them? We are all the same. We are not better or worse.
I believe when we meet people we have to meet them for where they are at that moment. What level are they at? Good, bad or indifferent? See them for who they are at. If there are certain behaviors that they live by, ask yourself where they are coming from. What is their stuff? If they yell at you or behave badly many times, it is a projection. It is something from their own lives that is not in the wholeness of being, so they throw it out there, just trying to get validation in a way. So, that is really where I think we have to change our perspective and realize that we are all connected. What lessons are they teaching you? How can I make their lives better?
VICTOR FUHRMAN: That connection, that recognition of that oneness, can be derived from a regular practice of mindfulness and meditation, can it not?
