Lois Chan
Recommendation: 3/5
Description of author: Lois Chan is a professor and author
Comments: This book is the result of research done for a Ph.D. dissertation. Chan’s purpose is to compare the teachings of New Age channelers with both secular psychology and Christian psychology. In the opening chapter she explains her purpose and overviews her method. In the second chapter, Chan explains what channeling is. Although the term channeling is of fairly recent origin, the concept is ancient. It is simply receiving information from spirits. New Age channelers are nothing more than mediums who have contact with spirit guides (as they are now called). The channeler meets these spirit guides through meditation techniques. The spirit guide then literally talks and/or writes through the channeler. Books are now being written that are channeled material. The authorship of such books includes both the name of the spirit guide(s) and the channeler (e.g. Ashtar channeled by Tuella). Over the next five chapters Chan compares these channeled teachings with the teachings of psychologists and Christian psychologists in regard to theology, metaphysics, psychology, philosophy of life and other miscellaneous topics. Those who are familiar with the origin and teachings of psychology will not be surprised at her findings: that most of the New Age channeled (demonic) teachings appear in secular psychology, and over half of them appear in Christian psychology (p. 11). Some of the more significant teachings of the spirit guides that appear in psychology include (1) the denial of sin and guilt (p. 52 ff), (2) The denial of a final judgment or a God of wrath (p. 59 ff), mind over matter (p. 77 ff), the concept of the unconscious (p. 98 ff), self-love and self-esteem (p. 111 ff). In chapter 8, she discusses the ultimate origins of these teachings. She concludes that we can be quite sure that Satan is the real author of all the channeled teachings, including those taught by secular psychologists and Christian psychologists, but we cannot say it with absolute certainty on all occassions (p. 165). In the final chapter, Chan argues against integration (between psychology and the Bible) and calls for Christians to return to sola scriptura. She also includes an appendix with the statistics of her research.