In the first half, Veronica Varlow, the last daughter in a line of Bohemian witches, joined Lisa Garr (email) to share the knowledge handed down to her by her grandmother. By the time she was six years old, Varlow recalled, she was reading tarot cards and speaking with spirits. She noted that the days around Halloween are especially exciting, because it's a time when "the veil is thin" between the spirit world and our own.
In addition to a lifetime in the Czech-Romani magic tradition, Varlow explained, she's developed what she called her "sorcery signature," which involves mixing her own body's DNA into her rituals and spells. Depending on the need at hand, spells can be cast for love, prosperity, and even getting a particular job. Varlow also claimed that warding off trouble can be achieved through a "search and destroy" spell, whereby specific problems are written onto a dinner plate, which is then wrapped, pounded to bits, and thrown in the trash. Similarly, she went on, dark forces and evil intent can be repelled through a "return to sender" spell involving the melting of an inverted candle.
Varlow was careful to point out that her spells were not ever hexes or other types of harmful witchcraft. Engaging with evil in this way, she said, causes that negativity to come back on the person casting the spell.
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The latter half of the program featured medium James Van Praagh, who discussed his work in spirituality and mediumship. Although he said he wasn't sure that the veil between the spirit world and the physical world is necessarily thinner around Halloween, it is true that communication with the spirit world cycles through "seasons" corresponding to the movement of planets. Just as important for effective contact, Van Praagh continued, is that the parties involved—medium, spirit, and seeker—are receptive and open-minded to the interaction. For someone who's very in tune with the entity they're seeking, in fact, a medium isn't even always necessary: meditation alone could cause their spirit appear, he asserted.
Van Praagh also talked about the education he offers to prospective mediums. Topics he covers include protecting one's energy, claiming power, and meditation. He also addresses what he called our two most common delusions: that we're all separate beings, and that there's such a thing as death. But above all, he argued, mediumship is soul development—students start out as "babies" in their practice, working their way up as they grow in experience and awareness. For Van Praagh, a failure to nurture a student's talent in this way leads to "half-baked" results too often found among mediums offering their services to others.