An Interview with James Van Praagh (Creator/Co-EP, Ghost Whisperer) Continued...

Q: Do you consider yourself both a psychic and a medium?

James: "That's a very interesting, good question. Let me tell you the difference -- I am a medium, but I'm also a psychic. Every medium is a psychic, but not every psychic is a medium. Everyone is able to tune into the energy where you can foresee the future, where you can read the energy of the future, the past and know things about people. That's psychism. Mediumship is not only when you have a psychic foundation, but you're able to tune into a higher vibration frequency, a higher energy. The spirit dimension is a higher dimension in a three-dimensional world, so you have to attune yourself into that higher vibration and the spirit people lower themselves down to our vibration so the medium can intercede between the spirit world and the physical world. There aren't as many mediums as there are psychics."

Q: When you were creating Ghost Whisperer, did you intend the lead role to be female? Isn't this show based on your life?

James: "It's partly based on my life. What happened is, I did a show called Beyond, it was a daytime show. I wanted to introduce to people other types of paranormal people who do different types of things. We had a remote viewer on, an animal communicator and one of the ladies we had on was a ghost buster. I had never seen a real life ghost buster. Her name was Mary Ann Wintkowski and she was someone who was born with the ability to speak with earthbound spirits. Her grandmother used to bring her to funerals to speak to the dead. So, I introduced her to the people at CBS and they thought it would make a great show and that was sort of the birth of it. The show is based on both of us. She sees the earthbound spirits that have not gone to the light yet and I can only communicate with the ones that have passed into the light."

Q: Are many of the stories on the show based on your/Mary Ann's experiences?

James: "I give them ideas. I gave them the idea for "Lost Boys," it was about a hotel with these boys that used to be in an orphanage and they were left behind - that was my story based on a reading I did. There are things within the stories that I help them out with all the time, different aspects. Like Dr. Payne, he's all about metaphysics. I read all the scripts and I give them notes on all the scripts. I give them the language for Dr. Payne to speak, whether it's reincarnation, past life regression, remote viewing or spirit communication, I'm the expert they go to."

Q: How do you get along with the cast?

James: "When I first started, I met Jennifer Love Hewitt (Melinda) and I didn't think she knew who I was, she wasn't looking at me and I thought there was something wrong. After the meeting, she went up to me and asked if we could have breakfast together. So, we had breakfast and I told her I could help her with her role if she wanted me to and I said, 'I don't know if you know about the type of work that I do.' She said, 'Oh, I'm a big fan of yours!' She's great, being a Pisces, she really took to this role and she loves the whole subject matter and is a total believer.

The first year David Conrad (Jim) wouldn't look at me, he was scared of me. Jennifer would say to him, 'David, be careful, James knows what you're thinking.' And I guess he really thought I knew what he was thinking and he wouldn't look at me, I guess he was afraid I was going to burn him up! So, I'd goof on him and say, 'Hi David.' After a while he realized he was being stupid and we became good friends."

Q: I've heard a lot of strange occurrences have happened on the set, have you been a witness to them?

James: "We've had a lot of experiences on the set, but the first one we had that I know of was with Jay Mohr's character Dr. Payne, he was just leaving his office on the set and a light fell and almost hit him. The second, we had Mary J. Blige on the show and there was a scene where we had a spirit show up on the film and it looked like the Virgin Mary. Jennifer was on the Ellen show recently and they showed the clip."

Q: What's ahead for Melinda?

James: "There's an ongoing mythology with the show, it's good vs. evil and the darker forces are coming closer and it's a very pivotal point. I think there's going to be a major event. There are five signs that death is coming very close to you. There's going to be a major catastrophe, I don't know what it is yet."

Q: Tell us about your special on CBS.com (airs on Wednesday, February 14).

James: "It's called Live Séance and people go on the Internet at the CBS.com Ghost Whisperer site and they can see a video feed of the actual séance. I tune into the person and I get through to the spirits, I do a reading right there. It's been so successful in the past, we've had calls for hours before waiting to get on and for hours after. A lot of it comes through my website: vanpraagh.com."

Q: What do you say to the skeptics?

James: "I just say that you have the right to believe what you want to believe, I can't force you to believe the way I believe and I can't help you to understand what you're not willing to understand. I find that most skeptics are cynics, which means they've closed their minds, they've pre-judged the situation before it's going to happen. It's like trying to teach a third grader trigonometry, they're just not going to get it. I said on Larry King one night, 'It's not up to me to prove it to them, they should have to prove me wrong.'"

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