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Alternative Medicine | |
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Deepak Chopra (Hindi: दीपक चोपड़ा; born October 22, 1946), an Indian medical doctor and writer, has written extensively on spirituality and diverse topics in mind-body medicine. He states that he has been influenced by the teachings of Vedanta and the Bhagavad Gita from his native India, the teachings of J Krishnamurti, as well as quantum physics. Krishnamurti 100 years, p 233. Deepak Chopra has had a profound influence on the The New Thought Movement that has embraced him in the U.S.
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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. His father, Krishna Chopra, was a cardiologist in India and served as a lieutenant in the British army. Chopra\'s grandfather practiced Ayurveda.Deepak Chopra WebIndia123.com
Having graduated from AIIMS in 1969, Chopra emigrated to the U.S. in 1970 with his newly-wedded wife, Rita, to do his clinical internship at a New Jersey hospital, followed by residency training for several more years at the Lahey Clinic in Burlington, Massachusetts and at the University of Virginia Hospital. He became board-certified in internal medicine and endocrinology.[1] [2]
Chopra has two children, Mallika Chopra and Gotham Chopra.
Chopra taught at Tufts University and Boston University Schools of Medicine, and became the Chief of Staff at the New England Memorial Hospital (later the Boston Regional Medical Center) in Stoneham, Massachusetts. [3]. Chopra also established a large private practice.
Inspired after meeting New Delhi Ayurvedic physician Dr. Vaidya Brihaspati Dev Triguna [4][5] in 1981, Chopra became a leader in the Transcendental Meditation movement. Later, Chopra branched off on his own to pursue broader aims in mind-body treatment including, in 1993, the position of executive director of the Sharp Institute for Human Potential and Mind–Body Medicine, affiliated with Sharp Healthcare, in San Diego.[6][7]
Chopra is the co-founder of The Chopra Center, which he founded in 1996 in La Jolla with Dr. David Simon. In 2002 the Center moved its official headquarters to La Costa Resort & Spa in Carlsbad, California with a branch in New York City, and plans for other centers as well.
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, Mallika Chopra, Deepak\'s daughter, launched a discussion blog Chopra and Kapur\'s discussion blog www.intentblog.com with Deepak, Kapur, and other well known voices. 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 South Asian themes and culture through the use of the traditional comic book medium. [8] Deepak co-authored \'Ask the Kabala\' with Mike \'Zappy\' Zapolin and Alys Yablon in 2006, which is a set of 22 cards, each one representing a story or character from the Old Testament and a life lesson based on that story from a Kabalistic perspective. \'Ask the Kabala\' website\' [9]
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.
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.Chopra D, Intelligent Design Without the Bible Huffington Post August 23, 2005.
In the article, Chopra states:
Chopra also offers a series of questions about evolution he believes cannot be answered by science alone. Chopra D, Rescuing Intelligent Design — But from Whom? Huffington Post August 24, 2005. Science writer Michael Shermer, founder of The Skeptics Society and long-time critic of Chopra, posted a response. Shermer, Michael Huffington Post.com
Additionally, Chopra has strong beliefs that Jesus was thought of as having a higher knowledge than most, and that he may have studied Kabala.http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1198517221907&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull <http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1198517221907&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull>
Chopra has been criticized for his frequent references to the relationship of quantum mechanics to healing processes, a connection that has drawn skepticism from physicists because it can be considered as possibly contributing to the general confusion in the popular press regarding quantum measurement, decoherence and the Heisenberg uncertainty principle.Quantum quackery Article discussing quantum mechanics and new age medicine by Stenger in Skeptical Inquirer magazine.
Biologist PZ Myers has also criticized these claims in depth. [10] In October 2006, Myers again criticized a blog post by Chopra [11] for displaying a lack of understanding of genetics. [12] Fellow science blogger Orac has also criticized Chopra\'s views. [13] Additionally, neurologist Steven Novella, has criticized his dualist views as "deep nonsense"[14].
In 1998, Chopra was awarded the Ig Nobel Prize in physics for "his unique interpretation of quantum physics as it applies to life, liberty, and the pursuit of economic happiness." [15]
In its May 22/29, 1991 issue, the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) published an article by Sharma, Triguna and Chopra: Maharishi Ayur-Veda: Modern Insights Into Ancient Medicine.Sharma, Triguna and Chopra. Maharishi Ayur-Veda: Modern Insights Into Ancient Medicine. JAMA. 1991 May 22-29;265(20):2633-4, 2637 This article was represented as discussing traditional Indian medicine (Ayurveda). Upon investigation, JAMA editors found that the coauthors had financial interests in "Maharishi Vedic Medicine" products and services. In the August 14, 1991 edition of JAMA, the editors published a financial disclosure correctionJAMA: Erratum in: JAMA 1991 Aug 14;266(6):798 and followed up in October 2, 1991 with a six-page Medical News and Perspectives exposé.JAMA. 1991 Oct 2;266(13):1769-74. The series of events was reviewed by Skolnick in the Newsletter of the National Association of Science Writers.Andrew Skolnick. The Maharhish Caper: Or How to Hoodwink Top Medical Journals ScienceWriters, Fall 1991 In response to the JAMA exposé, two Transcendental Meditation groups and Chopra sued the author, Andrew Skolnick, JAMAs editor Dr. George Lundberg, and the AMA for $194 million in July 1992. Pursuant to a settlement agreement, in 1993 the suit was dimissed by the judge at the request of the plaintiffs, with the option of reinstating pending completion of the settlement.The Lancaster Foundation, Inc., The American Association for Ayur-Vedic Medicine, Inc. vs. Andrew A. Skolnick, George D. Lundberg, M.D.,; in the United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, Eastern Division, No. 82 C 4175; Judge Kocoras
Chopra has cast himself as a critic but not an enemy of conventional medicine. He teaches an annual update in Internal Medicine at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, a teaching hospital of Harvard Medical School, where his younger brother, Sanjiv, is Professor of Medicine and Faculty Dean for Continuing Medical Education.[16][17][18] Physicians\' continuing medical education through the Chopra Center has been certified by the American Medical Association.
Chopra has written more than 40 books. They range broadly across spiritual and health topics; including 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.
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