In an eerily quiet banquet room in a midtown Manhattan hotel, about 60 people are listening to James Van Praagh speak to the dead.
And if Van Praagh is to be believed, the dead have much to tell.
A self-proclaimed spiritualist medium, Van Praagh is the special guest at this evening’s meeting of The Compassionate Friends, or TCF, a support group for grief-stricken people whose children or siblings have “passed over,” as he puts it.
A medium, he explains to the group, is sensitive to the rapid vibrations of the spirit world and is able to see, hear or feel spirits.
“OK, so how many of you here think this is a bunch of crap?” asks Van Praagh. The crowd laughs, but no one raises his hand.
Whether or not they believe in life after death–or that Van Praagh can indeed communicate with the spirit world–many in the room nevertheless hope he will convey a message from their dearly departed.
Before the TCF meeting is over, Van Praagh will have supposedly communicated with several spirits related to people in the room, leaving many of them astonished–and in tears–after he mentions names, situations and minute details only the deceased would know.
“I have no doubt about James’ ability,” says TCF member Marie Levine, who is convinced Van Praagh has been in contact with her deceased son, Peter.
“I have had moments when I doubted,” adds Levine, who has known Van Praagh for two years. “But when I least expect it, James will just tell me something that completely throws me.”
Earlier in the day, on a gloomy, perfect afternoon for a seance, Van Praagh sits in his dimly lit hotel room and explains the virtues of his “gift” for contacting spirits.
“I provide information, evidential proof, that there is no such thing as death– there’s only life,” he says. “There are no endings, only beginnings.” His gift, he adds, “helps people who have lost loved ones get over the grieving process.”
Van Praagh, 39, says he is clairsentient and clairvoyant. “I can hear the spirits’ voices and I also see their forms, though some I see and some I don’t see. Bits and pieces of thought are sent to me, and behind that thought their personality comes through. I also feel their emotions.”
He puts it in layman’s terms: “I’m like Whoopi Goldberg in `Ghost.’ “
But his gift comes with a caveat.
Because the spirit world moves at a faster level of vibration than the physical world, he says he doesn’t “hear things as a simple sentence. I get bits of information I have to interpret using mental telepathy.” As a result, “some things hit and some things don’t. I’ve got an 85 percent margin where I’m right on,” he says. “But I am only as good as the spirit who is trying to communicate.”
For Carol Acker of Long Island, Van Praagh’s supposed communion with her late daughter left her “flabbergasted”–if a little skeptical.
Acker’s daughter, Nicole, died at 25 when she was hit by a car last August. At the CTF meeting, Van Praagh approached Acker and asked, “Do you have a daughter who passed over?”
When Acker nodded yes, Van Praagh said her daughter’s spirit was in the room and accurately described Nicole’s outgoing personality and sense of humor. He then stunned Acker with specific details–the fact that Acker was shopping for silk flowers that very day, trips to Italy that Nicole used to take, a book Acker was thinking of writing about her.
But what sold Acker on Van Praagh–almost–was his mention of “pantyhose.”
“Your daughter’s trying to embarrass you,” he told Acker. “Something about `pantyhose.’ Do you know what she’s talking about?”
A red-faced Acker wouldn’t explain the pantyhose reference in front of the group, but later admitted she was wearing Nicole’s panties that night.
“I want to think (Van Praagh) was talking to my daughter,” says Acker. “I’m flabbergasted by some of the things he said, but why wouldn’t she say things that are more urgent or important? It was a terribly tragic accident. Why would she joke around about pantyhose instead of saying something important like she’s missing us, or `Don’t be sad?’ “
“This is what’s bothering me,” says Acker.
The lack of specific details in what mediums divulge during a seance also bothers professional skeptics like Joe Nickell, a paranormal investigator for Skeptical Inquirer magazine.
He views self-proclaimed mediums and psychics as cunning con men who utilize specific tricks of the trade.
