Deepak Chopra

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Deepak Chopra (born October 22, 1946) is an Indian medical doctor and writer extensively on spirituality and diverse topics in mind-body medicine. He claims to be influenced by the teachings of Vedanta and the Bhagavad Gita from his native India, and quantum physics.


Image:Chopra.jpg


Contents


[edit] Background

Chopra was born in New Delhi and educated in India. He completed his primary education at St. Columba's School in New Delhi and eventually graduated from the prestigious All India Institute of Medical Sciences in 1968. He emigrated to the U.S. in 1970, becoming board-certified in internal medicine and endocrinology , and after interning at a New Jersey hospital, trained for several more years at the Lahey Clinic in Burlington, Massachusetts and at the University of Virginia Hospital. He taught at Tufts University and Boston University Schools of Medicine, became the chief of staff at the New England Memorial Hospital and established a large private practice. He became a leader in the Transcendental Meditation movement, but later branched off on his own to pursue broader aims in mind-body treatment.

Chopra is Chief Executive Officer and Medical Director of The Chopra Center, which he founded in 1992 in San Diego; it is currently located at La Costa Resort & Spa in Carlsbad, California with branches in New York City and elsewhere.

In 2004, Chopra was recruited to co-write a script with Indian film director Shekhar Kapur on a proposed film to be made about the life of Siddhartha Gautama, the Buddha.

In June, 2005, Chopra and Kapur launched a discussion blog [1] with a select group of Indian colleagues, friends, and family. The stated purpose of the blog is to present original voices from South Asia (particularly India) and discuss a variety of topics.

In 2006, Chopra launched Virgin Comics LLC alongside his son, Gotham Chopra, and Richard Branson, famed entrepreneur and thrill-seeker. The aim of the company is to promote and examine Southeast Asian themes and culture through the use of the traditional comic book medium. [1]


[edit] Writings

Chopra has written more than 40 books. They range broadly across spiritual and health topics — his original interests — and now include bestsellers on aging, the "Seven spiritual laws of success," the existence of God, arguments for the afterlife and world peace. He has also written novels and edited collections of spiritual poetry from India and Persia.


[edit] Principal themes

Many of Chopra's themes and beliefs are stated in his first book, "Creating Health" in 1986. He launched himself as a staunch advocate of the interconnection between mind and body, advocating meditation and self-awareness as primary factors in both illness and healing. He deepened these themes in "Quantum Healing" (1989), where he examined the mysterious phenomenon of spontaneous healing of cancer. Here he introduced quantum physics as a means of understanding the mind-body connection, arguing — as he would in many other books — that consciousness is the basic foundation of nature and the universe.

In "Perfect Health" (1991) Chopra authored the first widely read book on Ayurveda, the traditional system of Indian medicine. Besides outlining the Ayurvedic concept of body types (Prakriti), Chopra emphasizes that the roots of Indian healing lie in changing the holistic balance of mind and body.

Subsequent books have turned toward larger spiritual questions. In "How to Know God" (2000) and "The Book of Secrets" (2004) an argument is made for an all-pervasive intelligence that unites every living thing rather than the traditional Western concept of God as a person, "a venerable white male sitting on a throne in the sky." Chopra sees God as a projection of human awareness who becomes more expansive and universal as individual consciousness expands.

In his book "Life After Death: The Burden of Proof" (2006) he extends personal consciousness beyond the "artificial boundary that separates the living from the departed." Assessing the seven varieties of the afterlife espoused in world religions, Chopra offers the startling proposal that a person's awareness in the present shapes existence after death; that is, the afterlife is created uniquely for each of us by our present level of consciousness.

In 2005 Chopra became a staunch advocate for disarmament and international peace in "Peace Is the Way," where he argues that a "critical mass" of people who band together in their spiritual worldview can defeat the age-old "addiction to war" that continues to create mass suffering. In the same regard he became president of a broad-based organization, Alliance of a New Humanity, that seeks to form "peace cells" around the world and to foster such related goals as environmental healing and sustainable economies in developing nations.


[edit] Intelligent design and religion

In August 2005, Chopra posted a series of articles on the blog The Huffington Post (to which he is a frequent contributor) in which he offers his solution to the creation-evolution controversy. In doing so he expressed support for Intelligent Design without the Bible or the politics of religion. According to Chopra, Nature displays intelligence.[2]

In the article, Chopra states:

"To say that Nature displays intelligence doesn't make you a Christian fundamentalist. Einstein said as much, and a fascinating theory called the anthropic principle has been seriously considered by Stephen Hawking, among others."
"“It’s time to rescue "intelligent design" from the politics of religion. There are too many riddles not yet answered by either biology or the Bible, and by asking them honestly, without foregone conclusions, science could take a huge leap forward.”

Chopra also offers a series of questions about evolution he believes cannot be answered by science alone (thereby requiring an "intelligent designer").[2] [3] Science writer Michael Shermer, founder of The Skeptics Society and long-time critic of Chopra, posted a response. [4]


[edit] Quotes

  • Every person is a God in embryo. Its only desire is to be born.
  • Happiness is a continuation of happenings which are not resisted.
  • If you and I are having a single thought of violence or hatred against anyone in the world at this moment, we are contributing to the wounding of the world.
  • It is the nature of babies to be in bliss.
  • Our thinking and our behaviour are always in anticipation of a response. It is therefore fear-based.
  • The less you open your heart to others, the more your heart suffers.
  • The living body is the best pharmacy ever devised. It produces diuretics, painkillers, tranquilizers, sleeping pills and antibiotics. It applies the right dosages with minimal or no side effects, and the directions are inbuilt.
  • The physical world, including our bodies, is a response of the observer. We create our bodies as we create the experience of our world.
  • The way you think, the way you behave, the way you eat, can influence your life by 30 to 50 years.
  • There is always one moment in childhood when the door opens and lets the future in.
  • We are not victims of aging, sickness and death. These are part of scenery, not the seer, who is immune to any form of change. This seer is the spirit, the expression of eternal being.
  • You and I are essentially infinite choice-makers. In every moment of our existence, we are in that field of all possibilities where we have access to an infinity of choices.
  • You can free yourself from aging by reinterpreting your body and by grasping the link between belief and biology.


[edit] Self-Improvement Material

[edit] Books

  • 1987 Creating Health ISBN 0-395-75515-8
  • 1988 Return of the Rishi ISBN 0-395-57420-X
  • 1989 Quantum Healing: Exploring the Frontiers of Mind/Body Medicine ISBN 0-553-34869-8
  • 1991 Unconditional Life: Mastering the Forces That Shape Personal Reality
  • 1991 Perfect Health: The Complete Mind/Body Guide ISBN 0-517-58421-2
  • 1993 Ageless Body, Timeless Mind : The Quantum Alternative to Growing Old ISBN 0-517-59257-6
  • 1993 Creating Affluence: Wealth Consciousness in the Field of All Possibilities
  • 1994 The Seven Spiritual Laws of Success: A Practical Guide to the Fulfillment of Your Dreams
  • 1995 The Way of the Wizard: Twenty Spiritual Lessons in Creating the Life You Want ISBN 0-517-70434-X
  • 1995 The Path to Love: Spiritual Strategies for Healing
  • 1997 The Path to Love: Renewing the Power of Spirit in Your Life ISBN 0-517-70622-9
  • 1999 Everyday Immortality: A Concise Course in Spiritual Transformation ISBN 0-609-60484-8
  • 1999 Lords of Light: A Novel ISBN 0-312-96892-2
  • 2000 The Angel is Near: A Novel ISBN 0-312-97024-2
  • 2001 The Deeper Wound: Recovering the Soul from Fear and Suffering, 100 Days of Healing
  • 2001 Grow Younger, Live Longer: 10 Steps to Reverse Aging ISBN 0-609-60079-6
  • 2000 How to Know God : The Soul's Journey into the Mystery of Mysteries ISBN 0-609-60078-8
  • 2003 Golf for Enlightenment: The Seven Lessons for the Game of Life
  • 2003 The Spontaneous Fulfillment of Desire: Harnessing the Infinite Power of Coincidence ISBN 0-609-60042-7
  • 2003 Synchrodestiny: Harnessing the Infinite Power of Coincidence to Create Miracles ISBN 1-84413-221-8
  • 2004 The Book of Secrets: Unlocking the Hidden Dimensions of Your Life ISBN 0-517-70624-5
  • 2004 Fire in the Heart: A Spiritual Guide for Teens ISBN 0-689-86216-4
  • 2005 Peace Is the Way : Bringing War and Violence to an End ISBN 0-307-23607-2
  • 2006 Power Freedom and Grace: Living from the Source of Lasting Happiness ISBN 978-1-878424-81-5
  • 2006 Life After Death: The Burden of Proof ISBN 0-307-34578-5
  • 2006 Kama Sutra ISBN 9781852273859


[edit] Music CDs

  • 1998 A Gift of Love: Love poems inspired by Rumi
  • 2001 Soul of Healing Meditations - A Simple Approach to Growing Younger
  • 2002 A Gift of Love II: A Musical Valentine to Tagore
  • 2004 Chakra Balancing: Body, Mind, and Soul


[edit] Videos

  • 2004 Soul of Healing - Body, Mind, and Soul Vol. 1


[edit] References

  1. ↑ Chopra and Kapur's discussion blog www.intentblog.com
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 Chopra D, Intelligent Design Without the Bible Huffington Post August 23, 2005.
  3. ↑ Chopra D, Rescuing Intelligent Design — But from Whom? Huffington Post August 24, 2005.
  4. ↑ Shermer, Michael Huffington Post.com
  • Chopra, Deepak (2001). The Seven Spiritual Laws of Success: A Practical Guide to the Fulfillment of Your Dreams (paperback ed.). Crown Publishing. ISBN 0-609-80219-4.
  • Chopra, D., Skolnick, A.A., et. al. (1992). Letters to the Editor. JAMA. 1992 Mar 11;267(10):1337-1340.
  • Skolnick, A. A. (1991). Maharishi Ayur-Veda: Guru's marketing scheme promises the world eternal "perfect health". JAMA. 1991 Oct 2;266(13):1741-2, 1744-5.
  • Stenger, V. J. (1995). The Unconscious Quantum: Metaphysics in Modern Physics and Cosmology. Prometheus Books.


[edit] External links


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