It may have been 1999 when Haley Joel Osment uttered the now-famous four-word phrase "I see dead people" in The Sixth Sense, but James Van Praagh’s been saying it — or something like it — for decades. And despite the skepticism he often encounters, the self-proclaimed "spiritual medium" no longer feels the need to prove himself — not after a number-one New York Times bestseller, Talking to Heaven (Dutton, 1997), and appearances on such programs as Larry King Live and The Oprah Winfrey Show. Now, with Heaven and Earth: Making the Psychic Connection (Simon & Schuster, 2001), Van Praagh seeks to help others awaken their own psychic awareness.

(And, for the record, Van Praagh startled this skeptic when he predicted I’d soon be traveling to Texas — mere weeks after I’d booked a trip to Houston.)

Q: When did you first realize that you’re a psychic?

A: As a child, I used to see — well, now I know they were spirits — I used to see spirits around people, I used to see colors and lights around people. Of course, now I know it was the aura, so as a little boy, I was always very open to that, never knowing what it was, and thinking that every child had that ability, could see things, and I thought that was very normal and natural, and of course later on I realized that it wasn’t that way.

Q: Were you teased by other kids?

A: I was not teased, because I wouldn’t go around and say, "Oh, I see this, I see that." I would kind of keep it to myself. And I guess it was just a knowing kind of thing. With a child, there’s no judgment; they just accept things as they are, so that’s the way it was with me: I just accepted it. So then probably around the age of nine or 10, it sort of slowed down or closed down, and I didn’t see things as much as I used to. And then in my early 20s, a friend of mine brought me to this medium from London, and I only went to humor her, because she said, "Do you want to go see this guy?" and I said, "You know, I really don’t believe in that sort of thing, I don’t believe it’s real." And she said, "Well, just go with me." And as soon as we walked into the room, this man looked at me and he said, "You are a sensitive; you’re a medium." He goes, "You have beautiful lights around you." And the moment he said that, I was like, "Oh, my gosh." I recognized that theme of the lights, that phrase — that was what I used to say as a kid. And then he gave me a reading, and he said, "You’re going to be a messenger of spirit within two years’ time. You’re going to talk to the dead." And I said, "I have enough trouble with the living; why would I want to talk to the dead?" And he said, "That is your journey; that is what you’re going to do." And I thought, this guy is crazy, but he then proceeded to do a reading and brought through many details of my family members that had passed over, and things about myself that no one knew, and because he was so amazingly accurate with his details, I started reading up as much as I could on life after death and psychic phenomena and so forth.

Q: When was the first time you communicated with a spirit?

A: I was working at a studio in LA, and I was seeing things around people, not all the time, but every once in a while I would turn my head and there would be lights or something, and I met this one girl, and I felt very strongly impressed to say something to this girl in the office. And I said, "I have this feeling about someone named Helen, and the state of Idaho, and I don’t know if that makes sense to you, but a white house with yellow shutters, and a rose-petal footstool." And she went, "What?" And I said, "I know it sounds weird, but does that mean anything to you?" And she said, "I can’t believe you, I can’t believe you! My grandmother’s name was Helen, and she lived in a white house with yellow shutters in the state of Idaho, and when I was a little girl I used to spend every summer with her, and she taught me how to needlepoint, and she made a rose-petal footstool needlepoint cover. That makes total sense." And that was the beginning of it. And that was two years to the day that that medium had predicted I was going to do this.

Q: After that, did you have a list of people from your own life that you wanted to try and communicate with?

A: I really would’ve loved to, and I really tried to, but I could not do my own family. And even to this day, I mean, every once in a while I’ll feel my mom around me, or I’ll feel my grandmother, but I can’t — it’s a weird thing, because any psychic or medium, it’s hard for them to read themselves. Any legitimate one will tell you that.

Q: Aside from your own family members, are there other people you’ve tried to communicate with and haven’t been able to?

A: It doesn’t really work that way. What really works is, like, I’ll meet a person, and I will not know who they want to contact, and I will just tell them who’s around them, and that’s really how it works. That person that they desire to speak to may not show up. It might be someone else that they didn’t even expect. It’s whoever I can attune myself to, and the spirit can attune themselves to me.

Q: Do people come to you with great expectations?

A: Oh, definitely, definitely.

Q: Does that feel like a burden?

A: Well, it feels like a lot of pressure, but when you go about this work, you go into it knowing that you are the instrument, and whatever comes through comes through, and you cannot guarantee them who exactly they want to speak to, because there are no guarantees. Just because you desire to speak to that one person, that person might not want to show up. And also I tell people, sometimes a spirit dies in a very devastating way, and when they come back on this earth level, and they’re back in the mindset of this earth consciousness, the first thing they pick up is the last memory they had on this earth, and for most people that’s the death condition, so if someone went through a real tragic condition, the spirit might think it’s very real and they’re going through it again, and they don’t want to. It’s just a memory, but to them it seems very real.

Q: Why did you write this book?

A: I’ve been doing this close to 20 years, and throughout my work, people have come up to me and said, "Are you the only one who can do this? Can I do this? How can I learn to be more intuitive, and to listen to my own intuition, and what is psychic ability, and do we all have it?" And I got tired of answering the questions, and I thought, I have to teach people how they themselves can start tuning into their voice. I give simple exercises in the book, down-to-earth, matter-of-fact, this is the way it is, and this is the way I’ve developed through these exercises, and if you use this, you too can begin to open yourself up to that part of yourself.

Q: Has your job as a medium changed since September 11? Are you being contacted by families of the victims?

A: A lot of people don’t know how to contact me, first of all, because I took my phone number off. But I would say there’s a renewed interest in things; everyone says, "Oh, are you being bombarded?" but I’m bombarded all the time. But I really felt like the energy in the country has changed, no doubt about it. When I was in Boston, a girl [spirit] came through from the World Trade Center who died. Her parents were from New Jersey. I said to the audience, "There’s a girl here who died in the World Trade Center," and her parents raised their hands and said, "That’s our daughter." And I gave them details about things, and we had a wonderful, wonderful reading.

Q: How much is psychic ability something you can learn, and how much is innate?

A: I think psychic ability is innate. I think every single person has it. I think intuition is the language of the soul, and I think we are born with this ability, we are born with a sixth sense, and it’s unfortunate that we become conditioned by our society not to listen to our hearts, but to listen to our heads. I think that, finally, more people are beginning to understand that intuition is something very real ... it happens all the time. If we would just acknowledge it and be aware of it, it would happen more often. So I think every single person has it, and it’s just a matter of opening themselves up to it and trusting it — trusting their gut, going with their gut.

Q: What do you say to people who don’t believe in psychic ability, who say what you’re doing is false? How do you challenge that?

A: I would say they need to get to know themselves better. That’s really what it is. I think people would be half dead if they didn’t believe in their own sixth sense. Then I would say, "Don’t you feel things? Don’t you have feelings?" So I think the person would need to get more in touch with their feelings; less into the head and more into the heart. It’s nothing new; this is just reminding people that they have that ability, that they’re all intuitive.

Q: Do you predict things?

A: I don’t do that a lot; my work is more mediumship. But with the mediumship will come information about events that might occur. For instance, I knew that this thing was going to happen. The way I picked up on it last year, and it was way before Bush was even in office, and I was on vacation in Europe at the time, and I turned to some friends, and I was very depressed and very down, and I never get that way, and I said, "There’s going to be a war." And they said, "What do you mean?" And I said, "I just feel so bad. After Bush gets into the White House — not because of him, but after he gets in there, there’s going to be lots and lots of death." And I felt so depressed. And they said, "Where?" And I said, "Well, there’s going to be a war, and it’s going to be on our shores — there’s going to be a lot of blood on our shores. And I see smoke, and I see glass. And it’s going to be on the East Coast; I don’t know where, but there’s going to be a lot of loss." And I felt really depressed. A year ago, before the thing happened!

Q: What’s the most rewarding part of your job, and what’s the most challenging?

A: Challenging is ignorance from people. And the most rewarding is to see people’s lives change, and for them to open up to spirit. I’ve seen people open up and become very spiritual and begin a spiritual journey from this work that I do. So that to me is incredible — it’s like you give someone their life back.

Tamara Wieder can be reached at twieder[a]phx.com