About James Van Praagh and Michael Newton, check out
Jenn and her website. She is a non-religious, critical, sceptical, open-minded free-thinker, who has made it her life mission (and have spent decades doing so) to critically (hence non-religiously) explore the truth of life-after-death and reincarnation.
https://thesearchforlifeafterdeath.com
My name is Jenn. When I was 16, I experienced an event that compelled me to discover the truth about life after death. I study the evidence in seven areas that pertain to the survival hypothesis: near-death experiences, deathbed visions, past-life memories, instrumental transcommunication, out-of-body experiences, after-death communications, and mediumship. Through this research, I am slowly developing a practical and appropriate spirituality. I call myself an Evidential Spiritualist and this is my Search For Life After Death.
I have no agenda other than sharing wisdom. I do not sell anything, nor am I any kind or guru, psychic or religious nut. In fact, I encourage leaving all of your beliefs behind and looking solely at the evidence for life after death.
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Her view on James Van Praagh.
She personally attended one of his reading sessions with a sceptical, critical but fair open-mind. Her analysis of James Van Praagh lets her conclude that he is a genuine psychic who genuinely wishes to help others, but when his psychic connection is weak due to circumstances beyond his control, he unconsciously resorts to cold reading and hot reading tactics to try to progress the session, and when he misses the mark and/or has bad days, prejudicial sceptics unfairly hate on him and wrongly accuse him of belonging to those fraudulent psychics exploiting families' grief for self-profit. This is unfortunate because such mob hate and prejudicially presuming all psychics as being frauds, further closes minds to the reality of life-after-death and reincarnation.
A Complete and Honest Account of The James Van Praagh Evening of Mediumship in Morristown, NJ
When I found out that James Van Praagh was coming to a town near me to do a large-audience mediumship demonstration, I jumped at the chance to see one of the most famous mediums (at least in the US) ply his trade. I made up my mind to go into the show as an investigator and an open-minded skeptic, well-aware that Mr. Van Praagh could employ some or all of the many tricks used by fraudulent mediums to convince audiences that they are speaking to the dead. On the other hand, I reserved some hope that James Van Praagh could wow the audience with hit after hit containing specific and detailed information that could not have been gained through hot or cold reading. My mother has a degree in psychology and agreed to accompany me to the show to help watch for any trickery and to also analyze the performance for cold reading techniques. This would be the first time either of us had attended a mediumship demonstration, and I could hardly contain my excitement. Before walking into the theatre that night, I resolved – no, promised – that whatever the outcome, I would be completely honest and unbiased in my assessment of the show and of the man himself. I prepared myself to take notes so that I could record the evidence that was being presented for later analysis. From the moment we arrived at the theatre, my mother and I were in investigative mode, looking for hidden microphones, watching for staff eavesdropping in on conversations and surveying the vestibule for impromptu interviews attempting to glean information from the sitters. Once the show started, we would be analyzing James for any evidence of cold reading which we prepared for in the days beforehand by studying videos of other mediums employing this trick.
Cold reading techniques are used to gain information through non-verbal clues and through generalizations based on the sitter’s clothes, jewelry, body language and with knowledge of human behavior and statistics. Generally, a medium will start by throwing out general and vague references that might apply to anyone. Then, when they catch a bite, the medium might begin by making assumptions about the person, changing up their guesses as the person’s facial expressions give hints to the medium if they are or aren’t on the right track. Cold reading also entails making rapid fire guesses until the medium gets a hit (shotgunning), or even asking the sitter direct questions to gain information. Many times in an effort to save the medium the embarrassment of being wrong, the sitter will even claim something as true when it wasn’t, or attempt to retrofit the guess. Mediums count on this technique when people don’t want to be seen as ‘being difficult’.
There’s also the concern that mediums, especially famous mediums who are wealthy enough to hire a huge staff, may employ hot reading techniques. One very famous female medium has been accused of googling her clients, buying information from databases and even hiring private detectives to gain information on her clients before readings. I cannot verify that this is true, but just think about how much personal information you share on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, etc. It’s probably enough for someone to construct a very decent reading of your life, no private investigator needed. In other cases, mediums who do large audience shows will have their staff mingle with the people who are waiting in the vestibule and listen into their conversations. Other techniques employed are direct interviews by the staff, or ruses to get people to sign up for things – which can give vital information to the medium before the show begins.
Armed with this information, we prepared to go into the theatre with an open mind and a critical eye.
The following is my reconstruction of the evening, complete with most of the evidence that James presented to the people he selected to read. Obviously, I am reconstructing this based on notes and our shared memory of the events, but I am very certain that what I have presented here is fair and accurate. I have left out some details but none that consisted of jaw-dropping evidence. I do apologize in advance that this post is very long and detailed, but I feel that it is important to include the evidence provided so that readers can truly get a sense of what was presented.
See the rest of Jenn's detailed review on James Van Praagh here :
https://thesearchforlifeafterdeath....raagh-evening-of-mediumship-in-morristown-nj/
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Her view on Michael Newton.
Michael Newton's books are among the 52 strongly recommended books on Reincarnation that she recommends on her website (she has read thousands of books on Reincarnation over the decades, and these are the top 52 she recommends to everybody).
Reading is a vital part of spiritual and afterlife research. There are books that detail compelling personal experiences such as near-death experiences, books claiming authorship directly from the world of spirit through automatic writing or the recorded words of trance channels, books about out-of body experiences, past-life research, consciousness studies, mediumship experiences and beautiful after-death communications as well as academic papers and scientific studies.
The following is a list with a short review of only the very best books in my spiritualism library. Each book listed here has something interesting, unusual or amazing to contribute to our understanding of afterlife research and I hope you find them as illuminating as I have.
Books that have follow-up volumes that further explore the same general topic are listed underneath the first or initial publication. Books by the same author that explore new or different topics are listed separately with their own review.
If you have a favorite afterlife or spiritualism book that you think should be on this list, please let me know in the comments!
Books you will NOT find on this list:
Unsubstantial new-age drivel, corruptions of other teachings, advertisements for the author’s own psychic or mediumship services, or outright deception or suspected deception. You will also not find books here with a religious perspective (aside from historical purposes or NDE reports) because I am committed to a secular, inclusive interpretation of the afterlife.
I am not a part of an affiliate program, nor am I paid or promoted for recommendations.
https://thesearchforlifeafterdeath.com/book-reviews/
