Gas Station Angel

By James Van Praagh

One of my earliest encounters with the spiritual realm was when I was in my early twenties and my life was saved by spirit. This was long before I started doing the work I do now.

It was past midnight on a Saturday night when I left a party at a friend’s house. I was driving an old car—I think it was a 1967 Impala—because I had just moved to Los Angeles and I had no money. The gas gauge on the dashboard didn’t work so I had to go by mileage to estimate how much gas I had left. Sure enough, on my way home at one in the morning, I ran out of gas. Thank God it was at a busy intersection in Hollywood and there was a gas station right on the corner. I walked over to the station and they filled up a gas can for me.

Like a lot of older cars, the gas tank was under the license plate so I went around to the back of the car and kneeled down to open it. That’s when I found out that the gas can they had given me was leaking. Still, I was trying to make it work when, suddenly, I noticed an older man with snow-white hair standing to my right. I remember that he had very sweet eyes. He said, “You must go back to the service station and get another gas can right away.” I didn’t even question him. I don’t know why. I guess I was just in a really weird state because I had run out of gas in the middle of a busy intersection at one in the morning on a Saturday night in Hollywood.

So I got up and walked back over to the service station to get a new gas can. As I was knocking on the window, I heard a loud bang. I looked back and watched in shock as my car rolled down the street, onto a sidewalk, and into a lamp post. A car had plowed into mine from behind. I looked for the old man but he was nowhere to be found, even though only a half a minute had passed. I was so shaken that it didn’t dawn on me until the next morning that I could have easily been killed. If it wasn’t for that man, I would’ve been bent over putting gas in my tank and that car would’ve driven right into me. Looking back, I know he was an angel. I have no doubt about it.


James Van Praagh is a pioneer in the field of mediumship and one of the most celebrated and respected spiritual teachers working today. He has brought a mind-full awareness to the subject of “communication with the dead” into the public psyche for the past 30 years. He is known as a “survival evidence medium,” meaning that he provides evidential proof of life after death via detailed messages from the spiritual realms.

His work has brought spiritual insights to millions with his numerous guest appearances on such shows as Oprah, Dr. Phil, Larry King Live, 20/20, The View, The Today Show, Chelsea Lately, Beyond Belief, Biography, Coast to Coast, 48 Hours, and a multitude of others.

He is also the number-one New York Times-bestselling author of numerous books, including Talking To Heaven, Reaching To Heaven, and Healing Grief.

Click here to visit his website.
 

This story appears in Phil Bolsta’s book, Sixty Seconds: One Moment Changes Everything. To order your copy, click here.

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This article appears in: 2019 Catalyst, Issue 16: Kindness

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