James Van Praagh (born August 23, 1958 in Bayside, New York) practices as a medium. Van Praagh is the author of several books dealing with the subject of parapsychology, and he is co-Executive Producer of the television series Ghost Whisperer on CBS. Van Praagh might be described as a "celebrity medium", in much the same vein as John Edward and the British medium Derek Acorah.

The validity of such psychic abilities has often been disputed, such as in Episode 1 of Penn & Teller: Bullshit! - Where Van Praagh and Edward were accused of using cold reading techniques and subterfuge to garner information from studio audiences, and use this information in supposed conversations with the dead.

Van Praagh was born in Bayside, New York, and is the youngest of four children. An average child, he remembers having a tremendous fascination with death. He was raised Catholic and served as an altar boy, entering the seminary at the age of fourteen. It was there that his interest in Catholicism ended and his sense of spirituality began. There are no schools or training that could prepare Van Praagh for his unusual vocation. Indeed, his ability to communicate with the dead arose out of his ... well ... life.