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Share Guide: Many spiritual traditions say
that the source of all disease, as well as the source of all healing,
is spiritual in nature. What do you think of this idea?
James Van Praagh:
I think that all things are
spirit and are derived from spirit. When you look at life from that
perspective, it takes on a whole new meaning. So, when you question
anything, first you have to begin with the core, which is your
spiritual self--whether that's disease, fear, or abundance.
Share Guide: I've been taught that the
individual spirit is a person's soul and the larger spirit, the Holy
Spirit, is the spirit of God. How do you define the terms Spirit and
Soul, and how do you describe God?
James Van Praagh:
It's a matter of semantics,
as far as I'm concerned. I think it's all one, to tell you the truth. I
think that God is imbued in all of us and God is spirit. I don't think
we should get caught up in the semantics of it. I also think that we
need to realize that there are different parts, different aspects of
who we are. There are many big parts of ourselves, many bodies, if you
will, of humankind. Higher selves, soul selves, ego selves, different
bodies of man. Those are involved also, but I think that the Spirit of
God is in all of those bodies, too-- the common thread in all.
Share Guide: In terms of the seven chakras
or seven centers in the body, are those linked up with the seven levels
or planes?
James Van Praagh:
I think there is a link
there, and I think each corresponds with the body. Each center
corresponds to various colors or modes of sound, called harmonics. I
think they are different levels of being within each center. I'm not an
expert or scholar in esoteric studies, but from what I've studied in a
lot of the Eastern philosophies, they all correspond with one another.
Share Guide: From what I have learned
about meditation, I believe the goal is to channel the energy up the
spine to the crown chakra in the head as much as you can, focusing on
your breathing exercises, mantras and yantras. If you focus at the top,
then you are entering the higher states of consciousness, referred to
as God Consciousness.
James Van Praagh:
The Buddhic Plane...
Share Guide: The Buddhic Plane, right. How
do you usually talk to people about reconnecting with their inner
spirit and God, to affect change in their health--spiritual, mental and
physical?
James Van Praagh:
It goes back to having a
relationship with our spiritual selves, which is knowing who you are.
With deep meditation, you are having a relationship with the inner part
of you instead of the outer part of you. So much of society in our
world is caught up with the outside, and what you see in the physical,
and disregarding what's on the inside. All things start from within.
All things start with thought and creativity. We are the ones who are
really responsible for creating our world, based upon our thoughts. So
once people get into silence and have a relationship with themselves
from the inner side of their being, they begin to see things in a much
clearer perspective. Choices can be made much easier, when you are
sitting in a position of balance and peacefulness in the heart rather
than just the head, from truth rather than from fear. The more you
meditate, that is how you are able to create choices, which I believe
comes from the right perspective and will bring about the change that
you want. I think all of life is balance, and I think that includes
health concerns. Disease is not being in balance, not being in harmony
with oneself, not being true to oneself, not being in harmony with who
you are. Therefore, if you are balanced, it helps defeat disease.
Share Guide: You mentioned in one of your
books that many people have unrealistic expectations about life. What
do you mean by this, in terms of spiritual health?
James Van Praagh:
Instead of making life
happen, we can easily get caught up in "victim consciousness." Many of
us find it much easier to say "Poor, pitiful me. How can these things
happen to me?" We blame others for our problems and don't take
responsibility. This is true not only with spiritual health, but in
many experiences in life. Even in many religions, people are encouraged
to give the responsibility to God or to Jesus or whatever, instead of
taking responsibility themselves. We have to learn to take
responsibility for our lives and our choices, and that comes as a very
hard lesson for some people. I think everyone is here to learn lessons
in life, at their own rate. This is our schoolroom. I think that there
are some lessons that are much more difficult than others. It's up to
the individual. Again, it comes down to choices. Are you going to use
the situation to better yourself, to learn, to evolve? Or are you going
to use it to hold back, to be a victim? It is up to you to make that
decision. That's my belief.
Share Guide: It does seem that if people
are happy with themselves and what they are doing with their life, then
they are less likely to be ill.
James Van Praagh:
I think people need to be
honest, but some people are very critical of themselves. It comes down
to love, as everything does. You have to love yourself enough to know
yourself. Many diseases and sickness come out of negative thought,
imbalances, impurity. If we are to be true to ourselves come from a
place of truth and of real love of ourselves, then we will be
generating loving thoughts, creative thoughts, and thoughts of balance,
peace and health.
Share Guide: One of the things that you've
talked about in your books is that when people cross over to the other
side, there is an earth-like heaven where we have youthful bodies. Is
that what you call the astral level?
James Van Praagh:
Yes. The way I like to
explain it is that the astral level is an exact replica or counterpart
of the physical world. So you have a body that is very much like the
physical one only a pure body. The astral world is almost like a
temporary cross over station which has houses and trees and gardens and
so forth, which appear very solid and very real. I talk a lot about
this in my book Reaching to Heaven. This astral world is really there
to help the individual to realize that they are no longer part of the
physical world, yet they are still alive. This way it is not as
shocking to them when they go and it seems like a very real world. This
is my understanding, but of course I don't know anything for sure until
I pass over myself. This is what a spirit has told me.
Share Guide: It's my understanding that
people are reborn on this earth plane by and large because they have
more to learn. Is the astral plane like a waiting room in between
incarnations?
James Van Praagh:
That's a good way of putting
it. Although I think that there are other levels too, that we go to. So
once we've become adapted to ourselves in spirit form, then perhaps we
go to a higher level in the astral. We could say it's an in-between,
and of course we can stay there as long as we need to because there is
no such thing as time in spirit. We can't measure by years or months,
or whatever, because it doesn't work over there like that. There are no
clocks. So we stay there until another situation is set up on the earth
level. Then we come back to work out karmic obligations or to go
through various lessons. You have to remember that the earth isn't the
only place to learn lessons; there are other universes and other places
of life. This is not the only place. The earth is one of the places
that there is free will. Most lessons on earth have to do with love.
But we can't limit ourselves to thinking that this is the only place.
Share Guide: I have read that many of us
have karma unfulfilled, so we come back here, but that there are also
many other realms to learn in.
James Van Praagh:
I think we would be fooling
ourselves if we didn't think that there were other places in existence.
Share Guide: Ultimately, I think the
highest level is the clear white light or as you call it the Buddhic or
God conscious plane.
James Van Praagh:
Or Godhead...purity of love.
I think love is the thing. Once we get to the realization of loving
ourselves and breathing that love into every single experience of every
single day then you start to make a big progression at that point. But
we also have to be mindful of the fact that we have a physical body and
that we are on a physical earth right now. We are spirit encased in a
physical body. We have to feed ourselves spiritually every day, of
course, but we also have to mindful of our physical bodies. We have to
exercise, we have to eat right, sleep, rest, we have to treat our body
as if it is a temple of God. So many of us don't. I find that when
spirits come through, many times they talk about how they didn't take
care of themselves. That they weren't that health conscious or aware of
themselves, and they should have been. They regret that they didn't pay
more attention to their physical bodies as far as health and diet. I do
believe that there are some people that come back to this earth to
really learn about being in a physical body.
Share Guide: We can really focus more
spiritually if our bodies and mind are aligned.
James Van Praagh:
It is very true about being
aligned, because I know that in the readings that I do, I do a scan of
the body. I will actually see the force, the prana energy going up and
down the spine. I can see where it's blocked at certain parts of the
spine. I will say to that person, "You have trouble in your back here,
you have trouble in your neck here, you have trouble in your stomach
here." And they will say "Yes!" I see the blockage of that energy.
Share Guide: You see it on an energetic
level before it is descended into the physical?
James Van Praagh:
Exactly.
Share Guide: So we're celebrating our
daily life in the body we were given by taking care of it and
remembering these positive, united spiritual thoughts. It seems that
when we are old and on our death bed, that we should have the same goal
in mind remembering God and that would create the highest death,
leaving on the out breath and visualizing the light. Of course, I've
studied by I haven't applied these things that well, but intuitively
they make sense to me.
James Van Praagh:
I think that if we have that
awareness of our God selves or awareness of spirit, it certainly will
help with the transition. Death is a natural transition of life. It is
so natural, and so many of us don't know about it. Until we go through
it, we are fearful of it. It's a very natural state of being and in
many ways, we do this every night when we go to sleep and leave the
physical body. When it's the time of death when the silver cord is
severed, we know on a conscious level that we are leaving the body.
It's a very natural thing, and many spirits will say it was painless,
it was no big deal, it was very natural.
Share Guide: We can avoid a lot of the
pain while we are alive and in the transition by being aligned with
spiritual thoughts, but if people fear physical death for themselves
and their loved ones, then it makes the transition much harder. It
seems like if people think this life is the be-all-end-all that is
where all the fear comes from. What happens if you are in fear when you
die?
James Van Praagh:
I think that you go through
the natural transition. With fear, it seems that it is harder leading
up to the transition. One may go through a lot of pain, and it's a
shame because you don't have to do that. The fear unfortunately makes
you think death is going to be horrible and it is going to be painful,
and it isn't. Fear seems to make it longer for the transition to take
place. The transition is going to happen in God's time rather than our
time. It's going to happen when it's meant to happen. I think that it
would make the transition much easier if there is no fear involved. For
myself, I am fearful of the type of death I would have. I would not
want it to be a painful type of death, nor would anyone. Everyone would
like to die in a quick manner. I think that many times the type of
death we have is karmic. The most important thing to realize is that
the soul cannot be harmed, and that death itself is not painful.
Share Guide: If your mind is on the soul
carrying on, and you are in a spiritual place, then whether or not you
see it coming (like if a car hits you that you don't even see), if you
are in a spiritual mode, then you are ready for the transition any time.
James Van Praagh:
You are already over there. I
remember Yogananda, who was ready for his death, he got everyone in a
room and said something like "Okay, I am going to be leaving now." And
he left his body and that was it. That is possible to do.
Share Guide: He is one of my main
teachers; I studied Kriya Yoga with him. There were some insights in
your books about the physical seed atom and the silver cord, and I was
wondering how you would describe those. Did you say that the physical
seed atom is in the heart chakra?
James Van Praagh: Correct.
Share Guide: And the silver cord is
connected to the heart chakra?
James Van Praagh:
The silver cord is connected
to the solar plexus. That would be the chakra by the spleen. I think
that every single center has something connected to it, per se. The
main one that I know, is of course the silver cord.
Share Guide: I remember you saying that as
a person is leaving the physical body, the last strand of the silver
cord separates.
James Van Praagh:
What happens when people are
very ill (with something like cancer or AIDS or a disease that really
debilitates the body over a long period of time), is that several
months before the actual death the silver cord begins to wear down to
different levels, like a peeling off, if you will. The person that is
passing over will go in and out of the body on a conscious level,
almost like a dress rehearsal, and will become aware of leaving the
body. They are aware that they are outside of the body, and then when
it's time that the silver cord is finally severed, they are okay, they
are used to it, and it goes very naturally for them. This happens quite
often.
Share Guide: What is the physical seed
atom?
James Van Praagh:
The physical seed atom is the
core essence of who you are at the spirit level of being. Recorded in
this atom is every single experience that you have ever had. Here's an
interesting analogy. Right now I am planting bulbs in the ground. At
the bottom of the bulb there are roots. Out of that root, then the
bulb, comes a flower. So where the roots are, it is like the seed atom.
Through your lifetimes experiences are recorded there and you grow and
grow and grow, and you flourish. That is the root of who you are, the
seed of who you are.
Share Guide: So when you pass over to the
other side and you are in that astral state, which is linked with the
physical plane, there must be some residual seed atom there from which
you develop the next body later on.
James Van Praagh:
Oh yes, correct.
Share Guide: It's almost as if the karma
is information that is stored like on a zip disk. When you move into
your next life, this karmic information is downloaded through the life
cord into the seed atom.
James Van Praagh:
Correct. Wonderful
explanation.
Share Guide: And thus we have a link,
habits and patterns, even diseases, left over from the past lifetime
out of karma?
James Van Praagh:
Sure, there is the residual.
Share Guide: Is there a varying period of
time between physical incarnations?
James Van Praagh:
There is no such thing as
time. We have to say that the soul will come back when the soul needs
to come back. Now I have found through research that I have done, that
a soul that was in a person that died as a child, and in some suicide
cases, the soul tends to come back faster and won't be long in the
other world.
Share Guide: It's timeless on the other
side, but you do come back here sooner or later.
James Van Praagh:
From what I understand, we
come back in "soul groups." Those souls in the group like to come back
when the time is right for all of them. Not only are you as an
individual evolving, but you are connected to a soul group that is
evolving together as well, so as one develops, you all develop. Then
you move on together.
Share Guide: What if you are waiting to be
reunited with a loved one but they have already reincarnated as someone
else?
James Van Praagh:
Good question. I tell people
not to worry about this; you will always be with that person on one
level or another. You are thinking of it from a physical, linear point
of view. This is just this one personality you remember from the earth.
But the soul is so much bigger, grander than that. You will recognize
that soul when you pass over because there's a part that remains in the
spirit realm. There are ways of existence that we are not aware of in
the physical body; we are limited here.
Share Guide: What you said before about us
traveling in soul groups means that you may recognize the essence of
that person and say "Oh that's George or Norma!" even though that
person may look different.
James Van Praagh:
You'll know them.
Share Guide: So you're saying that there
are certain souls that go through many incarnations together, and
travel in soul groups. And relationships vary from one incarnation to
the next?
James Van Praagh:
That's right, depending on
what you have to learn from each other.
Share Guide: So our relationship with
others impacts our individual health because we are learning to share
and care beyond ourselves.
James Van Praagh:
Look at it as a ripple in the
water--you throw pebbles in the water and you have little waves that
branch out. What you create with your thought you are sending out the
same way. So if you think ill health, and if you think disease, you
will create that. Also, if you have negative thinking towards others it
ripples out. We are all connected. What goes around comes around. That
will come back to you, although it won't come back the way you think it
will.
Share Guide: I lived with Swami Muktananda
back in my college days. One day someone said he was very selfless. His
reply was that he was very selfish, which sort of stunned the audience,
until he elaborated that in his case the self he was thinking about was
the self of all of us. So in that case he was being selfish on behalf
of all of us. That really stuck with me.
James Van Praagh:
Part of my work is not only
to make people aware that they are spirit, but to let them know that
the spirit is eternal. You cannot kill spirit, you cannot kill energy.
I hope that part of my work is to illuminate people and I have seen it
happen. When you open yourself up to this awareness that you are
spirit, you then not only know that you are eternal, but that you can
create the world you want. Once you become aware that you are God, that
you are the creative force within you, and that you can create
everything-- whether it is health, abundance, happiness, love--you have
what's in you to do that. This is where I get so much out of my work,
to open people up to that so that we change lives. We are not living in
a limited point of view; we are now living in a limitless perspective.
Share Guide: That is exactly why I am
publishing too, because there are so many good things going on that
don't make it into print in the regular media. I think we can enlighten
people and make them happier, because there are a lot of good things
going on in the world.
James Van Praagh:
Unfortunately, we are
emphasizing negative in the news and other media. There's so much good
too. There is always a balance of the light and the dark.
Share Guide: That leads to another
question…why is there so much evil in this world?
James Van Praagh:
I don't know that there is so
much evil in this world. I think there is also a lot of light and a lot
of positive energy, which is not as played up as much as the negative,
unfortunately. Again it's a matter of balance.
Share Guide: Why is there evil in the
world at all when unity is really where it's at?
James Van Praagh:
You wouldn't appreciate the
positive without the negative. You wouldn't learn anything if it was
all love and bliss. Then you wouldn't have that perspective to
appreciate the other.
Share Guide: You can't see the yin without
the yang.
James Van Praagh:
That's right. Here we go
again with choices we have to make. We have opportunities…When you are
aware and you are in a state of mindfulness, you can make correct
choices.
Share Guide: So why would one chose to
incarnate as an evil entity, such as a serial killer?
James Van Praagh:
That is a hard question. I
don't think one is choosing that, per se. I think there might be
aspects to a personality which need to learn and evolve and grow and I
think that soul might have put themselves in a situation where they
could learn from it--or perhaps not learn this time. They might not
make the right choice because of some past incarnations or some
behavioral trait.
Share Guide: Like unfulfilled karma?
James Van Praagh:
Unfulfilled karma, prior
lifetimes…They might go into the same pattern again. Every single soul
is evolving, and that is why we are here. Some will evolve faster than
others. In the case of a serial killer, it might be very much about
lower animal instincts of their personality that have not evolved yet.
Share Guide: When we are in spirit, in
that so-called waiting room between physical lives, do we have some
memory of our past lives so that we can learn from our karma?
James Van Praagh:
Certainly. When you pass into
spirit, you have an awareness of all of the lives that you've lived,
and all the experiences. You see all the good and bad that you have
done. From this you set up new karma, or new situations to work out in
another lifetime. But while we are on this earth level, we go through
what is called the "Valley of Forgetfulness" where those lifetimes are
cut off from us on our conscious level.
Share Guide: That makes me think of Edgar
Cayce, and how he would tap into the Akashic records--the cosmic
library of all past experiences. While in states of deep meditation, I
have had a couple of brief past life flashbacks as to why things are
the way they are in my current life.
James Van Praagh:
I do a lot of work with Dr.
Brian Weiss, who wrote Many Lives, Many Masters. We do workshops
together, and we've seen many people go through experiences when they
were regressed back to remembering past lives. Prior to that
regression, there would be fears and anxieties about certain things.
Nine times out of ten, these fears or phobias are linked to a past life
experience, and that's why in this present situation there is still an
unconscious memory of that. After they go through a regression, and
discover the experiences that caused these anxieties and fears, they
are able to move past them.
Share Guide: I've recently read a book by
a woman psychiatrist named Dr. Shakuntala Modi, entitled Memories of
God and Creation. She identified patterns like those you just
described, such as people being very claustrophobic for no apparent
reason. For instance, under regression one woman recalled having being
buried alive in a past lifetime. Dr. Modi did a lot of casework like
this, and then she went beyond that to say that you could trace back
not just to past lives but all the way back to the source.
James Van Praagh:
Definitely, I believe that.
When I was doing one of the workshops with Dr. Weiss, and he regressed
the audience, I was also regressed. I was sitting in the back of the
room. It was so strange…above each person, I began to see a quilt where
each square represented a lifetime that each person lived. They were
all connected and there were cords connected to each panel, to a
different part of their body. It was very interesting to see that,
because when I was seeing it, all those squares were moving. They were
like different scenes of lifetimes, of World War II over here, of the
Revolutionary War there, all different types of scenes and they were
all connected to individuals.
Share Guide: There are a lot of stories
about people having a close brush with death but then surviving, and
you often hear the phrase, "It wasn't his time to go." Do we have a
preset amount of time for each incarnation?
James Van Praagh:
Yes, I think so. Before we
come back there is a blueprint, and in the blueprint are the various
experiences that we set out to learn in this lifetime. I think that
there is a time when the spirit is done with those lessons and it's
time to go back home. I think that is predestined, and also the type of
death is predestined. But I do think that our free will is involved as
well. Or someone else's free will becomes involved in our termination.
For example, if someone robs you and shoots you, then you are dead, you
are gone. That might not have been the time you were set to go, because
that person's free will was involved in your path. This type of thing
can happen as well.
Share Guide: In your first book, Talking
to Heaven, the main focus was on communicating with loved ones who have
already passed on. With your second book, Reaching to Heaven, it seemed
that your goal was to guide us to rediscovering our own inner link. In
your latest book, Healing Grief, you focus completely on the subject of
grieving. I was wondering what led you to that.
James Van Praagh:
I wrote Healing Grief because
there are thousands and thousands of people from around the world who
get stuck in grief. It seems to be quite an obstacle. They don't know
what to do with their lives or how to move on. I just want to give them
a way out--a key, if you will, to a doorway to help them out and away
from the obstacles. I want people to learn how to live with grief and
to not let that hold them back in life. Instead, people can learn to
use the grief to help make them stronger, and as an opportunity for
growth.
Share Guide: In the book you talk about
moving through anger and denial, toward acceptance.
James Van Praagh:
There are many stages of
grief. The most important thing to realize is that people will grieve
differently at different times and in different ways. There is not just
one set way to grieve. Not one right way, not one wrong way. Each
situation is unique to that individual. So we cannot apply our own laws
and rules upon someone else's grief.
Share Guide: I think one of most
significant aspects of your work is that it does allow people to learn
to let go and move on with their lives. You have probably met many
people who had very difficult losses. Do you have difficulty in
avoiding taking in the intensity of other people's emotions? How do you
protect yourself?
James Van Praagh:
It's interesting, because I
am human. I feel for these people very much. In a way, it's similar to
a surgeon who is doing an operation. I could never operate on people.
The blood alone…I just couldn't do it! But surgeons are people that are
just doing their job, and in a way they are outside of what they are
doing. They get in and get out, and that's it. It is very similar for
me. I don't become attached to the work, because if I put myself in
there, that wouldn't do anyone any good. I just need to be a clear
channel and help them with the message--the realization that life is
eternal, that there is no such thing as death. If I got involved on an
emotional level (and to some degree I do anyway), I wouldn't be able to
do the work because I'd be so caught up in the emotion. I have to step
aside and look at it objectively. That makes it much easier for me to
do this work. And when you come to realize that life is eternal and
there is no such thing as death, it makes it easier to work that way.
When you are dealing with it from a spiritual perspective, then the
larger picture makes it much easier than looking at the smaller
picture. Even though some of the situations are horrendous that I deal
with--like the mother who loses her child in a horrific way--I still
know that those two souls will be together again one day. That is what
keeps me going and allows me be able to do the work, because I have
this awareness.
Share Guide: In closing, are there some
simple exercises or thoughts that you could give us for our own
spiritual healing?
James Van Praagh:
Definitely! I would say the
number one thing is to get involved with meditation, and go into the
silence. Work on the energetic level as well; learn how to balance your
energy levels by paying attention to the nuances around you. We need to
pay attention to the spiritual signs and symbols and signals around us,
because we have them every single day. Learn to listen to them. Learn
to see them, not from just a physical point of view but from a
spiritual point of view. Be aware, be mindful. That is the number one
path toward spiritual healing.
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