Van Praagh was born in Bayside, New York and is the youngest of four children. Raised Roman Catholic he attended seminary at the age of 14; however, he has described himself as experiencing spiritual phenomena from a young age that eventually drew him away from conventional religious practice.

He graduated from San Francisco State University, majoring in Broadcasting and Communications, and subsequently moved to Los Angeles. It was there that he first discovered an interest in metaphysics Welcome to the James Van Praagh Online Community ... Early Life and began working as a medium following a prediction by another medium who suggested it was his destiny. Welcome to the James Van Praagh Online Community ... Realizing the Gift

Van Praagh built his early career performing private readings and quickly graduated to wider audiences with a series of audiotapes, books, and eventually the television appearances that gave him national exposure.

On an episode of the radio show Loveline Van Praagh said his first reading came in first grade. He claims to have informed his teacher her son had been hit by a car, but it was not serious and he had only suffered a broken leg. The teacher told him to sit down, but a few minutes later the principal told her that her son had, in fact, been in an accident, and broken a leg. The teacher was shocked and asked how James knew that. Van Praagh's teacher has been dead long before Van Praagh made this claim, and it has not been verified.

Van Praagh claims that through his mediumistic abilities he receives messages from spirits and feelings about their presence that provide "detailed evidential proof that a loved one survived death."

In 2002, he hosted his own daytime talk show, Beyond with Van Praagh, Welcome to the James Van Praagh Online Community ... Beyond Talk Show in which he gave readings to audience members.

His work continued to inspire his own brand of successful television shows with CBS and produced the miniseries Living with the Dead and The Dead Will Tell, and the CBS drama Ghost Whisperer.

Van Praagh also hosts regular seminars and workshops to assist others in developing spiritual awareness.

On the Larry King Live episode on May 26, 2009, it was revealed that Van Praagh was in a same-sex marriage. He is openly gay.

Critics of Van Praagh accuse him of using the mentalism technique of cold reading to simulate psychic powers. They point to several incidents in which Van Praagh's claims have been wrong, such as when he suggested to the parents of the abducted Shawn Hornbeck that the boy's body might be found in a railroad car. Hornbeck was found alive four years later, having been abducted but not killed, and the kidnapper was not a railroad plant worker as Van Praagh had suggested. Van Praagh has responded by asserting that his messages are often vague and hard to interpret and sometimes he mistakes their meaning.

Senior Research Fellow at CSI (formally known as CSICOP), Joe Nickell reviews Van Praagh's February 26, 1999 appearance on Larry King Live with a detailed analysis of the phone readings given during the show. Nickell writes, "in no instance...did the purported medium reveal anything of a substantive, convincing nature. Instead he appeared to be practicing "cold reading"..."

Listed by versions most likely available, not original publication date.

• Talking to Heaven: A Medium's Message of Life After Death Published March 1999.

Signet Book ISBN 0451191722

• Reaching to Heaven: A Spiritual Journey Through Life & Death Published February 1999.

Button Books ISBN 0525944818

• Heaven & Earth: Making the Psychic Connection Published November 2002.

Pocket Books ISBN 0743227263

• Healing Grief: Reclaiming Life After Any Loss Published April 2001

New American Library ISBN 0451201698

• Meditation with James Van Praagh Published December 2003.

Fireside Books ISBN 0743229436

• Looking Beyond: A Teen's Guide to the Spiritual World Published Oct 2003.

Fireside Books ISBN 0743229428

• Ghosts Among Us Publisher HarperCollins June 2009.

HarperOne ISBN 0061553387

• Unfinished Business: What the Dead Can Teach Us about Life Published May 2009.

HarperOne ISBN 0061778141