Skeptical activists such as James Randi and Joe Nickell, organizations such as the Independent Investigations Group, and notable media personalities, including Barbara Walters and John Oliver, have attempted to counter the perception that what Van Praagh and other mediums do reflects reality.
He said that from an early age he experienced spiritual phenomena, including once when he was 8-year-old— while praying to God, a glowing open hand appeared through his ceiling, an experience which he described as peaceful.
[3] He graduated from San Francisco State University, where he majored in Broadcasting and Communications with the goal of becoming a screenwriter, then moved to Los Angeles in hopes of getting a job with the TV show Hill Street Blues.
Van Praagh began his early career by giving private readings for clients by allegedly communicating with the spirits of their deceased friends and relatives, and quickly graduated to wider audiences through the sale and distribution of a series of audiotapes and books.
[citation needed] His 1999 book Talking to Heaven, which recounts stories about his contact with the deceased, held the top slot on the New York Times Best Seller List for weeks.
In April 2002, CBS aired Living with the Dead (also known by the alternate title, Talking to Heaven), a four-hour miniseries based on Van Praagh and directed by Stephen Gyllenhaal, with the screenplay by John Pielmeier.
[8] Danson received praise from outlets like the Chicago Tribune and People for his portrayal of Van Praagh as a man anguished by his lifelong visions of the dead, including his mother.
[7][11] Beyond followed a similar format as Crossing Over, with Van Praagh giving audience members and celebrities readings, as well as field investigations into crimes and missing persons.
Anne Heche produced and starred in the film as Emily Parkes, a woman who receives an antique engagement ring from her fiancé and begins to have visions of its murdered previous owner.
The James Randi Educational Foundation made a public offer to Van Praagh through the Huffington Post to take the JREF One Million Dollar Paranormal Challenge to test his psychic abilities.
[19][20][21] In 2008, Barbara Walters called Van Praagh dangerous when, after he told her privately that she had an elevated white blood-cell count, test results showed no blood abnormalities.
Oliver said "...when psychic abilities are presented as authentic, it emboldens a vast underworld of unscrupulous vultures, more than happy to make money by offering an open line to the afterlife, as well as many other bullshit services.