Interview With Dr Lang

This is a very interesting article about an interview with the controlling guide of the famous and very good psychic surgeon George Chapman

"This interview took place in September, 1988, at the healer's home in Wales. George Chapman was in trance.

Joe Fisher was unable to be satisfied as to whether a medium's guides were real people. While much of the geographical and historical information supplied by the entities was amazingly accurate, the claimed identities did not stand up to scrutiny, in his view, [even though Silver Birch, for example, spoke in his native dialect to a compatriot attending a seance, a language unknown to his medium, Maurice Barbanell].

In reply, Dr. Lang said: - Well, I think entities can be traced if you can find first of all a medium who is making genuine contact. I know as much about my life as I did when I was on Earth. You don't forget. One has memory.

Fisher: - But it seems that a lot of information given by discarnate entities is plainly wrong.

Lang: - You see, it could be, as I say, that the medium's not so perfect as one would like the medium to be.

Fisher: - Or is it that some entities are closer to the earthbound plane than others?

Lang: - Well, when a person passes over, they are very close to the Earth for a while. Therefore, if they make contact with a medium, they can give all the evidence quite clearly. But they don't remain close to the Earth for very long. They start to move away, as it were.

Fisher: - But you have remained close - for a purpose, presumably.

Lang: - Well, yes. I'm linked with George. Spirits are about you all the time. It's just becoming sensitive enough to make contact with the spirit and, as I say, George and I have a closeness through our lives of being of one [soul] family, if you wish, and having worked through other lives in this way...I still blame a lot on [the quality of] mediumship. You find today that mediumship is not being practised enough and there are not enough trance mediums who, I would say, are so fully developed. People seem to want to put a collar and tie on and become a type of medical doctor, which they're not. I think if you say the healing's coming from spirit, you have to PROVE the healing's coming from spirit.

Fisher: - It's just that I feel the entities I have talked to are manipulative. Does that make sense to you?

Lang: - This makes sense. Yes. This can happen.

Fisher: - Do you see those sort of people from your vantage point?

Lang: - Yes, because in this world you have playboys just the same and people wanting to believe they are important, giving so much evidence. I know I get many incarnate people telling me of the great guides they are they have, and they all seem to want someone very important. They talk of their great guides, but when you ask them: "Did you trace your guide?" they say: "Oh, no, no, but he told me he was some famous surgeon. He's using a different name because you see, he doesn't want his family to become involved." Well, surely, when you've passed into this world, you want your family to know where you are. That's what I wanted right away - my daughter and my grandchildren all came to see me [a fact - as he manifested through George Chapman*(see note below)].

Fisher: - Do you see yourself as George's guide?

Lang: - Well I don't like the word guide. I fele that I am George's close friend nd I am here to help him and, if you wish, to guide him. When you come into the world you have a guide but it's not usually a Red Indian. It's usually a member of your family who loves you and wants to help you on the right road. If later on you develop a gift of mediumship, then, no doubt, someone will get connected with you to help you.

*Note:- Dr. Lang's daughter, Marie Lyndon Lang, was naturally sceptical when she heard in 1947 that her father had returned to inhabit, at intervals, the body of George Chapman. But after hearing his voice, observing his mannerisms and asking personal questions concerning events which only she and her father knew about, she made this declaration: "The person who speaks through George Chapman and claims to be William Lang is, without a doubt, my father." For thirty-one years until her death at the age of ninety-four in May, 1977, Marie Lyndon spoke regularly with her deceased father. At her request, however, both her intimate connection to the increasingly popular Dr. Lang and her consultations with him were kept secret until her passing.

Vowing "I am going to put this quack to confusion," Dr. Lang's granddaughter, Mrs. Susan Fairtlough, reacted with angry derision when she heard that a healer was "pretending" to be her grandfather. But after meeting George Chapman and Dr. Lang, Mrs Fairtlough had this to say: "To my great horror, or rather, stupefaction, the man who was in this room was indisputably my grandfather. It was not him physically, but it was his voice, his behaviour. It was unquestionable. He spoke to me and evoked precise events of my childhood. And I was so impressed that all I could say was, 'Yes, grandpapa. No, grandpapa.'"

Testimonials to Dr. Lang's brilliance have been furnished by a host of living doctors, few of whom wished to be named for fear of professional censure. After meeting Dr. Lang for the first time in December, 1969, Dr. Robert Laidlaw of New York told told how he discussed in a professional manner certain ophthalmological conditions and techniques, and added: "I fully believed them, and I believe now, that I was conversing with the surviving spirit of a doctor who had died some thirty years ago."

While by no means underestimating the importance of the healing accomplished by his spritual partnership, Chapman feels the main intent of the surgeon's return is to convince people of the reality of life after death. And he considers the authenticity of Dr. Lang's claim to having lived before as fundamental to this cause. In his book "Surgeon from Another World," Chapman stresses the importance of verifying sources of channelled communication:

"Too many alleged spirit guides do not stand up to critical examination. I believe it is essential for those who develop trance mediumship to ensure that their spirit controls are examined thoroughly to prove their indentities. The spirit communicator should speak as near as possible to the way he spoke on earth, using the same phrases and mannerisms and manifesting other personal characteristics. He should be able to give dates, names and details of his earthly experiences that can be verified, and be able to discusss intimate matters with relatives and colleagues still on earth. All to often, a 'spirit controls' claimed earthly existence is outside the memory of those living, while others deliberately cloak their identities in a shroud of mystery."

Material reviewed from Joe Fisher's book "Hungry Ghosts" published by McClelland & Stewart Inc. Toronto, 1991. "

I also interviewed Dr Lang when I was editor of the Ark Review.

He agreed to have his photograph taken with me even though he was in trance.

My questions were answered much as Joe Fisher's were - without hesitation and very courteously.

He arranged for me to visit George Chapman privately to have look at all the Lang memorabilia which George had collected over the years.

Thanks for posting that, Jim.

Very good evidence! Didn't Joe commit suicide? There seems to be a suggestion that it was related to his research. Anyone know anything about it?