WINFREY: One of the people who's worked with James is here with us today.
Cindy Cox, who lost her--Where's Cindy?
--Cindy lost her 16-year-old daughter Monica when
TWA Flight 800 exploded off of Long Island in 1996.
And, Cindy, were you at the session?
Ms. CINDY COX: Yes, I was.
WINFREY: OK. Let's take a look.
Ms. COX: Monica was one of the French club students
from Montoursville, Pennsylvania.
Beautiful on the inside and out is the best way to describe her--caring,
compassionate and she always had a smile on her face.
My reaction to hearing the news about it being Flight 800 was disbelief.
And then you fantasize.
Monica learned how to swim by the age of one.
She's going to be in the water,
she's treading water, they're going to find her.
And you want to hang on to that as long as possible.
We had gotten positive identification on Monica very early on.
And that pretty much puts a dead end to your denial in a real hurry.
Monica was only 16.
She didn't expect her life to end.
WINFREY: Well, we arranged for Cindy here to meet
with James just last week. We gave James, I swear to you,
no information about her, not even her name.
We did not tell him who had died.
Not everything he says was right on the money, as you will see,
but here are a few of the things that Cindy
--that Cindy says made her a believer.
Take a look at what happened in Cindy's session here with James.
Mr. VAN PRAAGH: OK.
I'm picking up someone here who's being a little bit
of a--emotional when they come in.
And it's a--I feel it's a child of yours?
That's right? You understand?
Ms. COX: Yes.
Mr. VAN PRAAGH: Because I feel like a child--this was a son that passed over?
Ms. COX: No.
Mr. VAN PRAAGH: A daughter--a daughter passed over.
This is a very excitable person when she speaks...
Ms. COX: Yes.
Mr. VAN PRAAGH: ...and she's like getting very,
very excited and very like, oh, my gosh,
`Mom, Mom, it's me, it's me, it's me, Mom.
Mom, it's me.'
Ms. COX: Yes. Yes.
Mr. VAN PRAAGH: This girl is showing me you were
at school talking to people. I would see teachers here.
I see there was some kind of a ceremony.
Do you understand about a ceremony, please?
Ms. COX: Yes.
Mr. VAN PRAAGH: Was there a tree, something planted, please...
Ms. COX: Yes.
Mr. VAN PRAAGH: In her name? Do you understand?
Ms. COX: Yes. Yes.
Mr. VAN PRAAGH: `Oh, I love the tree!' she said.
Ms. COX: Yes.
Mr. VAN PRAAGH: `I love the tree.'
She loves animals, by the way.
Ms. COX: Yes.
Mr. VAN PRAAGH: I think she might have had a pet at the home.
I don't know--was it a doggie or something that she had?
Ms. COX: Yes.
Mr. VAN PRAAGH: Now I'm just getting accident here.
I go over and over again with an accident of some type.
And I--I feel like it involves something bigger--big, big thing.
Ms. COX: Yes.
Mr. VAN PRAAGH: And I don't know what it means.
But it's a big thing.
Ms. COX: Yes.
Mr. VAN PRAAGH: Now I don't know--is--there was something--
was she ever around water also?
Because she shows me water here.
Ms. COX: Yes.
Mr. VAN PRAAGH: She keeps saying something about trying to stay alive.
Did she fall at all?
Ms. COX: Yes.
Mr. VAN PRAAGH: Was this a very high place?
Ms. COX: Yes.
Mr. VAN PRAAGH: She wa--she rolls down, goes down.
She goes down like this.
I almost feel her flipping over somewhat.
Yeah? Do you know about a balloon or letting off balloons, please?
Ms. COX: Yes.
Mr. VAN PRAAGH: Understand about the balloons?
Ms. COX: Yes.
Mr. VAN PRAAGH: And she sees you at night and you've had a dream.
She said, `You've had dreams of me, Mom.'
Ms. COX: Yes.
Mr. VAN PRAAGH: `Mom, I'm in the dreams. I'm in the dreams.'
Ms. COX: Yes, she is.
WINFREY: We'll talk to Cindy about that session when we come back.
We just saw a session he had
with Cindy whose daughter died in the crash of TWA Flight 800.
And you were--said you were a skeptic before?
Ms. COX: I can't say totally skeptical, but you do have your doubts.
WINFREY: Now may I ask you this, and this is true, I think,
of everybody who's lost a loved one,
and you can, you know, say what you want to say,
but is there a part of you that wants to believe?
Ms. COX: Definitely.
WINFREY: You go wanting to hear...
Ms. COX: You want the connection to continue.
WINFREY: ...to hear something.
Ms. COX: Yeah.
WINFREY: So doesn't that somewhat color what you hear?
Ms. COX: I don't think so.
WINFREY: Mm-hmm.
Ms. COX: I...
WINFREY: What made you--
how were you a not-believer and now you believe
that this man talked to your daughter?
Ms. COX: Well, like I said, I can't--I can't say that
I totally didn't believe because my daughter
and I had a very strong connection.
And when you lose somebody close, a lot of people say,
`Hey, you know, I'm looking for signs.'
And you wonder--I joked with my sister.
The lights in my room flickered.
And she says, `Hey, your lamp is broken.'
I said, `No, that's Monica.'
And during the reading, that did come through.
But there was nobody there but my sister and I.
WINFREY: Uh-huh.
Ms. COX: You want to look for those little connections--
for them to say, `Hey, you know,
I'm still around, I'm still looking in on you.'
WINFREY: OK. This is what I don't
understand and what makes a skeptic out of me.
I--I think I kind of get it
because it's like sometimes with--you-all do this yourselves.
Some people can walk into a room,
you have a visceral reaction to them.
You know automatically, stay away from this person.
Ms. COX: Right.
Mr. VAN PRAAGH: Mm-hmm.
WINFREY: You get evil vibrations.
Mr. VAN PRAAGH: Mm-hmm.
Ms. COX: Yes.
WINFREY: I've had that feeling a couple of times, you hear?
But--so you get that.
And then other times you don't sense it,
you don't get it because some things are stronger than others.
So is that what you're saying to us?
Mr. VAN PRAAGH: That's right. Exactly.
WINFREY: Because my question then is when
you're sitting there and--and you're having this
session with this mother who's lost her child,
why doesn't--you just--why doesn't it
just come through clear?
`It was Flight 800'?
Mr. VAN PRAAGH: Right.
I'll--I wish it could.
But a lot of things that-- it's hard
to get things in details like that.
Some things come through so deep and so detailed
and it depends on my--on the spirit
who's communicating and how.
They might not know how to communicate.
WINFREY: Mm-hmm.
Mr. VAN PRAAGH: The person receiving the information
might not know how to receive it, how to be open to it.
WINFREY: I will have to say for the Flight 800
which was--was an accident that seared
all of our hearts, it is still difficult for me,
just as a person from the outside,
to understand how you ever reckon with that.
Ms. COX: Day by day.
WINFREY: Day by--it's every day?
Ms. COX: Yeah. Some days are better than others.
WINFREY: Uh-huh.
Ms. COX: But I've got--you know, as you saw, a
son who is surviving...
WINFREY: Mm-hmm.
Ms. COX: ...who is still very young, very impressionable.
WINFREY: Does this make it better for you somehow?
Ms. COX: Oh, my son went ballistic.
`Oh, my God, Mom,' she said, he loo--he says,
`Monica says she loves and misses me.'
He believes in this. He tells me of dreams.
I have dreams of her.
Mr. VAN PRAAGH: And there are things I can't explain
in that details come through speak for themselves.
I mean, I don't know how I do this stuff,
but details come through I can't explain which...
WINFREY: Mm-hmm.
Mr. VAN PRAAGH: ...it's indescribable, certain details.
WINFREY: OK.
Ms. COX: Yeah. And, you know, I would have much appreciated
if she had just said, `TWA 800.'
I really didn't need to sit there
and listen to him describing a fall off of something
as high as a mountain or the tumbling or because...
WINFREY: Because you get a sensation?
Mr. VAN PRAAGH: I get a sensation.
WINFREY: Sometimes you get a sensation,
sometimes you get a clear picture?
Mr. VAN PRAAGH: Depending on how the spirit wants to communicate.
WINFREY: Uh-huh.
Mr. VAN PRAAGH: Yeah. You see?
WINFREY: OK.
Mr. VAN PRAAGH: And I got a feeling this time.
WINFREY: And spirits don't always communicate the same?
Mr. VAN PRAAGH: And sometimes spirits don't come through
who you want to speak to.
Someone else will show up.
Because if they don't--if they don't want to come
through, they won't.
Just because you want--you want to speak with
them doesn't mean they'll show up.
It could be someone else.
WINFREY: OK. That's another thing I always wondered about.