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Watching the giant mediums
It is a Sunday evening and I am in a line that winds up stairs, around corners and nearly out the other side of a Scottsdale, fake fashion bangles bracelets Ariz., resort hotel. The indoor temperature is rising and some of us wish we had water bottles for the two hour wait before the event begins.
The following Saturday night, I am shivering with hundreds of others in a church parking lot in Tucson. A 16 passenger van that will transport us three miles to a resort is delayed in traffic.
Thousands of people who flock to similar sold out events across the country nearly every weekend would beg to differ. They endure crowds, traffic jams and scalpers prices for a chance to chat with dead people. More specifically, for an opportunity to be in the same room with someone who might help them do that.
James Van Praagh and John Edward the two psychics who went to Scottsdale and Tucson, respectively are appealing to a burgeoning population of fans. Public opinion polls show a dramatic increase in the number of Americans who think it possible to communicate with the dead. And it easier than ever to become a believer.
No longer the stuff of gauzy curtains and Ouija boards, chatting with the dead has become mainstream. You can learn about it from a host of hot selling books, you can grab your remote to surf for new shows on the topic, or you can dig into your wallet and fight the crowds to see a real life pop medium in person. Van Praagh says none of this would have been possible five or 10 years ago.
talking to the dead is the in thing, he says. Having given up individual readings, he concentrates on maintaining his interactive Web site (featuring live prayer sessions every Tuesday), conducting seminars, and co hosting psychic tropical cruises he calls of enlightenment.
Edward, 32, a white hot New York medium with a hit TV show ( Over With John Edward and bestselling books of his own ( Last Time and Over: The Stories Behind the Stories might be even bigger than Van Praagh. Edward groundbreaking psychic talk show (on the Sci Fi channel and in daytime syndication) has received rave reviews and impressive ratings. Over reaches more than 3 million viewers each weekday. The show has been spoofed on Night Live, it earned Edward a designation as one of People magazine Intriguing People of 2001, and it is spawning a number of copycat shows. Edward is also developing a dramatic television series based loosely on his life scheduled for release this fall.
Van Praagh own hour long daytime talk show, With James Van Praagh, will begin in September on the WB network. With the Dead, a two part miniseries based on Van Praagh life, aired on CBS in April it was the network most successful Sunday in months.
Fueling the interest in after death communication these days is a new book called Afterlife Experiments: Breakthrough Scientific Evidence of Life After Death, in which University of Arizona professor Gary Schwartz recaps scientific studies of a team of mediums (including Edward) to see whether they can really do what they claim. The answer, according to the book, is yes.
Schwartz, a Harvard educated former Yale professor, says some colleagues think he crazy for studying such a taboo topic. I remind myself that we used to think the Earth was flat, the sun revolved around the Earth, and all objects were solid, he says.
He says mediums provided consistently accurate information in his tests with minimal or no contact with the person they were asked to Lucky guesses? copy mens gold bracelet Unlikely. After one exercise in which all the mediums in separate settings got similar, specific information about a woman dead son and his dog, Schwartz calculated the probability of getting such results: less than 1 in 2.5 billion. Schwartz, who has been appearing before standing room only bookstore crowds, says people today are receptive to the possibility that consciousness survives death.
is a theoretical, conceptual openness that hasn existed at any other time in history, he says.
Why? Thanks to a knowledge about things like cellphones and the light from distant stars, Schwartz says, people have a new understanding of the power of energy. And, he says, there is a pressing interest to find the meaning and purpose of life the events of Sept. 11 have only served to deepen that yearning.
Michael F. Brown, a Williams College anthropology professor who wrote a book titled Channeling Zone: American Spirituality in an Anxious Age, says an interest in the afterlife is nothing new. Since the 1850s, when two sisters in New York wowed crowds with their purported ability to communicate with the dead via mysterious tapping noises, Americans have been fascinated, on and off, with spiritualism.
Brown says interest in the phenomenon (which counted a million followers in the 1850s) has coincided with struggles for individualism. During the 1980s and he says, fascination with after death communication moved from ashrams into homes and offices. Today, it has become even more commonplace, courtesy of television and the Internet.
The Britney Spears and Christina Aguilera of the psychic world, Edward and Van Praagh have different styles and fan bases, but their talents and their tales of how they came to realize and develop their gifts are quite similar.
Both were raised Catholic in New York. The youngest of four children, Van Praagh had a carpenter stagehand father and an alcoholic mother. Edward was the only child born to a police officer father and an executive secretary mother. Both say they experienced psychic phenomena premonitions, visions of dead people, out of body experiences as young as 4 and 6 years old. Both tried to ignore those things, which frightened and puzzled them. Both claim to have been uninterested in the paranormal until psychics told them (Van Praagh at age 24 and Edward at age 15) that they had unique gifts and would work to help people make connections with the spiritual world.
Both spent years studying and developing their psychic abilities while pursuing mainstream careers. Edward has a degree in public health and administration (and a side passion for ballroom dancing) and Knockoff hermes bag styles after college went to work in a hospital. Both worked as mediums in their spare time until the demand for their psychic services became overwhelming and they dropped their day jobs.
Both men claim everyone has psychic abilities that can be honed. They say they merely tune in to the frequency at which fake black enamel jewelry the spirit world communicates, then try to interpret and pass on those messages to the person being read.
Critics who are just as vociferous on the Internet as the mediums supporters say Van Praagh and Edward are nothing but scam artists who take advantage of people grief. They claim the two can merely edit out their mistakes on TV, use hidden microphones or employ other methods to learn about audience members, and rely on reading techniques, which include talking fast, making safe guesses, and picking up on unwittingly offered clues. Worse, detractors say, the two are making millions of dollars using such fraudulent tactics. (Skeptics need only to point to those who lost gobs of money to Miss Cleo, the dial a psychic who advertised heavily on late night TV, to show the gullibility of the paranormal hungry public.)
And so when Edward and Van Praagh both went to Arizona in a rare confluence of their schedules it provided a chance to examine each man, his followers and his techniques in person. I hoped to see whether I could spot any trickery and in the process to learn whether either or both of them were for real.
my ticket to Van Praagh sold out seminar in Scottsdale I paid $45 a bargain compared to the hundreds of dollars charged for his weekend seminars around the country. I was joined by 1,300 others, about 90 percent female and 99 percent white. They were eager for an otherworldly contact. In line for the bathroom before the show, two ladies behind me leaned against a wall and chatted about why Van Praagh quit doing personal readings in favor of larger groups and cruises. where the big money is, one offered.
Suddenly, the restroom door swung open.
my God! Did that door just open by itself? one of them asked. Later, I spotted an earthly explanation a wall mounted door opening device for the handicapped.
Inside the ballroom, a heavenly mood was set by soft lights, candles and a beatific looking guy playing angelic keyboard music. On the sides of the room were water dispensers and tissue boxes. To the rear, a spiritual marketplace, offering spiritual CDs, angel paraphernalia, Godiva chocolate snacks, and stacks of Van Praagh books. Glossy brochures and a sign up sheet promoted his cruises to the Caribbean and South Pacific, costing from $1,850 to $5,550.
When Van Praagh entered, his fans went wild. Dressed in a purple shirt and tan slacks, with dramatically dark hair and triangle shaped eyebrows and mustache, he joked that cast tall when Ted Danson was tapped to play him in the TV miniseries.
It is a Sunday evening and I am in a line that winds up stairs, around corners and nearly out the other side of a Scottsdale, fake fashion bangles bracelets Ariz., resort hotel. The indoor temperature is rising and some of us wish we had water bottles for the two hour wait before the event begins.
The following Saturday night, I am shivering with hundreds of others in a church parking lot in Tucson. A 16 passenger van that will transport us three miles to a resort is delayed in traffic.
Thousands of people who flock to similar sold out events across the country nearly every weekend would beg to differ. They endure crowds, traffic jams and scalpers prices for a chance to chat with dead people. More specifically, for an opportunity to be in the same room with someone who might help them do that.
James Van Praagh and John Edward the two psychics who went to Scottsdale and Tucson, respectively are appealing to a burgeoning population of fans. Public opinion polls show a dramatic increase in the number of Americans who think it possible to communicate with the dead. And it easier than ever to become a believer.
No longer the stuff of gauzy curtains and Ouija boards, chatting with the dead has become mainstream. You can learn about it from a host of hot selling books, you can grab your remote to surf for new shows on the topic, or you can dig into your wallet and fight the crowds to see a real life pop medium in person. Van Praagh says none of this would have been possible five or 10 years ago.
talking to the dead is the in thing, he says. Having given up individual readings, he concentrates on maintaining his interactive Web site (featuring live prayer sessions every Tuesday), conducting seminars, and co hosting psychic tropical cruises he calls of enlightenment.
Edward, 32, a white hot New York medium with a hit TV show ( Over With John Edward and bestselling books of his own ( Last Time and Over: The Stories Behind the Stories might be even bigger than Van Praagh. Edward groundbreaking psychic talk show (on the Sci Fi channel and in daytime syndication) has received rave reviews and impressive ratings. Over reaches more than 3 million viewers each weekday. The show has been spoofed on Night Live, it earned Edward a designation as one of People magazine Intriguing People of 2001, and it is spawning a number of copycat shows. Edward is also developing a dramatic television series based loosely on his life scheduled for release this fall.
Van Praagh own hour long daytime talk show, With James Van Praagh, will begin in September on the WB network. With the Dead, a two part miniseries based on Van Praagh life, aired on CBS in April it was the network most successful Sunday in months.
Fueling the interest in after death communication these days is a new book called Afterlife Experiments: Breakthrough Scientific Evidence of Life After Death, in which University of Arizona professor Gary Schwartz recaps scientific studies of a team of mediums (including Edward) to see whether they can really do what they claim. The answer, according to the book, is yes.
Schwartz, a Harvard educated former Yale professor, says some colleagues think he crazy for studying such a taboo topic. I remind myself that we used to think the Earth was flat, the sun revolved around the Earth, and all objects were solid, he says.
He says mediums provided consistently accurate information in his tests with minimal or no contact with the person they were asked to Lucky guesses? copy mens gold bracelet Unlikely. After one exercise in which all the mediums in separate settings got similar, specific information about a woman dead son and his dog, Schwartz calculated the probability of getting such results: less than 1 in 2.5 billion. Schwartz, who has been appearing before standing room only bookstore crowds, says people today are receptive to the possibility that consciousness survives death.
is a theoretical, conceptual openness that hasn existed at any other time in history, he says.
Why? Thanks to a knowledge about things like cellphones and the light from distant stars, Schwartz says, people have a new understanding of the power of energy. And, he says, there is a pressing interest to find the meaning and purpose of life the events of Sept. 11 have only served to deepen that yearning.
Michael F. Brown, a Williams College anthropology professor who wrote a book titled Channeling Zone: American Spirituality in an Anxious Age, says an interest in the afterlife is nothing new. Since the 1850s, when two sisters in New York wowed crowds with their purported ability to communicate with the dead via mysterious tapping noises, Americans have been fascinated, on and off, with spiritualism.
Brown says interest in the phenomenon (which counted a million followers in the 1850s) has coincided with struggles for individualism. During the 1980s and he says, fascination with after death communication moved from ashrams into homes and offices. Today, it has become even more commonplace, courtesy of television and the Internet.
The Britney Spears and Christina Aguilera of the psychic world, Edward and Van Praagh have different styles and fan bases, but their talents and their tales of how they came to realize and develop their gifts are quite similar.
Both were raised Catholic in New York. The youngest of four children, Van Praagh had a carpenter stagehand father and an alcoholic mother. Edward was the only child born to a police officer father and an executive secretary mother. Both say they experienced psychic phenomena premonitions, visions of dead people, out of body experiences as young as 4 and 6 years old. Both tried to ignore those things, which frightened and puzzled them. Both claim to have been uninterested in the paranormal until psychics told them (Van Praagh at age 24 and Edward at age 15) that they had unique gifts and would work to help people make connections with the spiritual world.
Both spent years studying and developing their psychic abilities while pursuing mainstream careers. Edward has a degree in public health and administration (and a side passion for ballroom dancing) and Knockoff hermes bag styles after college went to work in a hospital. Both worked as mediums in their spare time until the demand for their psychic services became overwhelming and they dropped their day jobs.
Both men claim everyone has psychic abilities that can be honed. They say they merely tune in to the frequency at which fake black enamel jewelry the spirit world communicates, then try to interpret and pass on those messages to the person being read.
Critics who are just as vociferous on the Internet as the mediums supporters say Van Praagh and Edward are nothing but scam artists who take advantage of people grief. They claim the two can merely edit out their mistakes on TV, use hidden microphones or employ other methods to learn about audience members, and rely on reading techniques, which include talking fast, making safe guesses, and picking up on unwittingly offered clues. Worse, detractors say, the two are making millions of dollars using such fraudulent tactics. (Skeptics need only to point to those who lost gobs of money to Miss Cleo, the dial a psychic who advertised heavily on late night TV, to show the gullibility of the paranormal hungry public.)
And so when Edward and Van Praagh both went to Arizona in a rare confluence of their schedules it provided a chance to examine each man, his followers and his techniques in person. I hoped to see whether I could spot any trickery and in the process to learn whether either or both of them were for real.
my ticket to Van Praagh sold out seminar in Scottsdale I paid $45 a bargain compared to the hundreds of dollars charged for his weekend seminars around the country. I was joined by 1,300 others, about 90 percent female and 99 percent white. They were eager for an otherworldly contact. In line for the bathroom before the show, two ladies behind me leaned against a wall and chatted about why Van Praagh quit doing personal readings in favor of larger groups and cruises. where the big money is, one offered.
Suddenly, the restroom door swung open.
my God! Did that door just open by itself? one of them asked. Later, I spotted an earthly explanation a wall mounted door opening device for the handicapped.
Inside the ballroom, a heavenly mood was set by soft lights, candles and a beatific looking guy playing angelic keyboard music. On the sides of the room were water dispensers and tissue boxes. To the rear, a spiritual marketplace, offering spiritual CDs, angel paraphernalia, Godiva chocolate snacks, and stacks of Van Praagh books. Glossy brochures and a sign up sheet promoted his cruises to the Caribbean and South Pacific, costing from $1,850 to $5,550.
When Van Praagh entered, his fans went wild. Dressed in a purple shirt and tan slacks, with dramatically dark hair and triangle shaped eyebrows and mustache, he joked that cast tall when Ted Danson was tapped to play him in the TV miniseries.
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