Deepak Chopra

All Music Guide:

Dubbed "the poet-prophet of alternative medicine" in the pages of Time, Deepak Chopra vaulted to international fame at the vanguard of the self-help publishing explosion, later expanding his multimedia empire to include a series of new age-themed albums recorded in collaboration with musicians including Eurythmics' Dave Stewart. Born in New Delhi in 1947, Chopra was the son of leading Indian cardiologist Krishran Chopra. He inevitably followed his father's footsteps and graduated from the All India Institute of Medical Sciences in 1968. Upon relocating to the U.S. two years later, Chopra interned at a New Jersey hospital before continuing his studies at Burlington, MA's Lahey Clinic and the University of Virginia Hospital. A board-certified practitioner of internal medicine and endocrinology, Chopra taught at Tufts University and Boston University Schools of Medicine before he was appointed chief of staff at the New England Memorial Hospital. He also established his own private endocrinology practice, but following a return trip to New Delhi he found himself increasingly at odds with the guiding principles of Western medicine, embracing instead the paradigm that good health represents more than the mere absence of physical disease. In 1985, after meeting transcendental meditation founder and guru Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, Chopra resigned his NEMH position to focus on holistic medicine, casting his lot with Ayurveda, an ancient Indian system of natural healing, and founding the Massachusetts-based American Association of Ayurvedic Medicine.

In 1989, Chopra published his first book, Quantum Healing: Exploring the Frontiers of Mind/Body Medicine, combining elements of Hinduism and Western science to posit the body as a "network of intelligence" that can fight off disease and aging via meditation and clean living founded the American Association of Ayurvedic Medicine. After splitting with the transcendental meditation faction in 1993 amid allegations the Maharishi was attempting to control his writing and speaking engagements, Chopra published his breakthrough effort, Ageless Body, Timeless Mind: The Quantum Alternative to Growing Old, selling more than 100,000 copies the day after his appearance on television's Oprah Winfrey Show. More than a dozen like-minded self-help bestsellers followed, among them The Seven Spiritual Laws of Success and The Path to Love: Spiritual Strategies for Healing. In 1995 Chopra founded the California-based Chopra Center for Well Being, essentially abandoning all pretense of clinical practice by declining to even apply for a state medical license. Despite pointed criticisms of his beliefs and practices -- as well as the hypocrisy of admonishing materialism while living in a multi-million-dollar mansion and driving a Jaguar -- Chopra remained an immensely popular figure, and after releasing a series of lucrative audiobooks, in 1998 he issued the album A Gift of Love, recruiting celebrity pals like Madonna and Goldie Hawn to read classical Indian poetry over Middle Eastern-inspired backing tracks. Three years later Chopra teamed with longtime friend Dave Stewart for Grow Younger, Live Longer.

Wikipedia:

Deepak Chopra (Hindi: दीपक चोपड़ा; born October 22, 1946) is an Indian-born, American physician, public speaker, and writer. He is generally specialized in subjects such as spirituality, Ayurveda and mind-body medicine. Chopra began his career as an endocrinologist and later shifted his focus to alternative medicine. He now runs his own medical center with a focus on mind-body connections. He is also a lecturer at the Update in Internal Medicine event.

Chopra was an assistant to Maharishi Mahesh Yogi before starting his own career in the late 1980s by publishing self-help books on New Age spirituality and alternative medicine. A friend of Michael Jackson for 20 years, Chopra criticized the "cult of drug-pushing doctors, with their co-dependent relationships with addicted celebrities", saying that he hoped Jackson's death, attributed to an overdose of a prescription drug, would be a call to action.

Early life and education

Chopra was born in New Delhi, India. His father, Krishan Chopra (1919–2001) was a prominent Indian cardiologist, and head of the department of medicine and cardiology at Mool Chand Khairati Ram Hospital, New Delhi, for over 25 years, He was also a lieutenant in the British army. His paternal grandfather was a sergeant in the British Army, who looked to Ayurveda for treatment for a heart condition when the condition did not improve with Western medicine.

Chopra's younger brother, Sanjiv, is a professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School and staff at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center.

As a young man, Chopra's desire was to become an actor or journalist, but he reports that he was inspired by a character in Arrowsmith by Sinclair Lewis and became a doctor.

Chopra completed his primary education at St. Columba's School in New Delhi and graduated from the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS). After immigrating to the US in 1968, Chopra began his clinical internship and residency training at Muhlenberg Hospital in Plainfield, New Jersey. He had residency terms at the Lahey Clinic in Burlington, Massachusetts, and at the University of Virginia Hospital.

He earned his license to practice medicine in the state of Massachusetts in 1973 and received a California medical license in 2004. Chopra is board-certified in internal medicine and specialized in endocrinology. He is also a member of the American Medical Association (AMA),

Career

Chopra taught at the medical schools of Tufts University, Boston University and Harvard University. He became Chief of Staff at the New England Memorial Hospital in Stoneham, Massachusetts, later known as Boston Regional Medical Center, before establishing a private practice.

After reading about the Transcendental Meditation technique (TM), Chopra and his wife learned the practice in 1981, and two months later they went on to learn the advanced TM-Sidhi program. Sources also describe a 1981 meeting between Chopra and Ayurvedic physician Brihaspati Dev Triguna in Delhi, India, in which Triguna advised Chopra to learn the TM technique.

In 1985, Chopra met Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, who invited him to study Ayurveda. In that same year, Chopra left his position at the New England Memorial Hospital and became the founding president of the American Association of Ayurvedic Medicine, and was later named medical director of the Maharishi Ayurveda Health Center for Stress Management and Behavioral Medicine. He was initially the sole stockholder of Maharishi Ayurveda Products International, but divested after three months. He has been called the TM movement's "poster boy" and "its leading Ayurvedic physician". In 1989, the Maharishi awarded him with the title "Dhanvantari (Lord of Immortality), the keeper of perfect health for the world".

In its May 22/29, 1991 issue, the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) published an article coauthored by Chopra: "Letter from New Delhi: Maharishi Ayur-Veda: Modern Insights Into Ancient Medicine". JAMA editors claimed that Chopra and his co-authors had financial interests in "Maharishi Vedic Medicine" products and services. In the August 14, 1991 edition of JAMA, the editors published a financial disclosure correction and followed up on October 2, 1991 with a six-page Medical News and Perspectives exposé. An article discussing this chain of events was authored by Andrew A. Skolnick in the Newsletter of the National Association of Science Writers. A 1992 defamation lawsuit brought against the article's author and the editor of JAMA was dismissed in 1993. Media reports published four years later saying that there had been a monetary settlement of the case were later withdrawn as untrue.

By 1992, Chopra was serving on the National Institutes of Health ad hoc panel on alternative medicine. In 1993, Chopra became executive director of the Sharp Institute for Human Potential and Mind–Body Medicine with a $30,000 grant from the Office of Alternative Medicine in the National Institutes to study Ayurvedic medicine. Chopra's institute also maintained affiliation with Sharp Healthcare, in San Diego. That same year Chopra moved with his family to Southern California where he lives with his wife and near his two adult children, Gotham and Mallika.

Chopra left the Transcendental Meditation movement in January 1994. According to his own account, Chopra was accused by Maharishi Mahesh Yogi of attempting to compete with the Maharishi's position as guru. Author Todd Carroll said Chopra left the TM organization when it “became too stressful” and was a “hindrance to his success”.

In 1995, Chopra was the recipient of the Toastmasters "International Top Five Outstanding Speakers" award. In 1997, Chopra was given the Golden Gavel Award by Toastmasters.

He was presented the Medal of the Presidency of the Italian Republic awarded by the Pio Manzu International Scientific Committee. In the citation committee chairman and former Soviet premier Mikhail Gorbachev referred to Chopra as "one of the most lucid and inspired philosophers of our time". Esquire magazine designated him as one of the "top ten motivational speakers in the country". He is the recipient of the 2002 Einstein Award through Albert Einstein College of Medicine in collaboration with the American Journal of Psychotherapy.

In 1996, Chopra parted company with the Sharp Institute. That same year, Chopra and neurologist David Simon founded the Chopra Center for Wellbeing, which incorporated Ayurveda in its regimen, and was located in La Jolla, California. The University of California, San Diego, School of Medicine and American Medical Association have granted continuing medical education credits for some programs offered to physicians at the Chopra Center. In 2002, Chopra and Simon relocated the Chopra Center to the grounds of La Costa Resort and Spa in Carlsbad, California, continuing to offer mind-body wellness programs, medical consultations, and instruction in meditation, yoga, and Ayurveda.

Chopra and Simon also revived an ancient mantra-based meditation practice, traveling to India to study the origins of this technique, known as Primordial Sound Meditation. This form of meditation is now taught at the Chopra Center and by certified instructors who receive their training through Chopra Center University.

Since 2000 Chopra has sat as an advisor for the National Ayurvedic Medical Association.

In 2005 Chopra was made a Senior Scientist at The Gallup Organization. He currently serves as an Adjunct Professor of Executive Programs at the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University.

He is also a weekly columnist for the San Francisco Chronicle, a regular contributor to The Washington Post's "On Faith" section and a prolific contributor to The Huffington Post.

Chopra is also a monthly contributor to The Times of India Speaking Tree.

In 2006, Chopra launched Virgin Comics LLC with his son Gotham Chopra and entrepreneur Richard Branson. The company's purpose is to "spread peace and awareness through comics and trading cards that display traditional Kabalistic characters and stories." Chopra was awarded the 2006 Ellis Island Medal of Honor by the National Ethnic Coalition of Organizations.

He was the recipient in 2009 of the Oceana Award. Also in 2009, Chopra established the Chopra Foundation with a mission to advance the cause of mind/body spiritual healing, education, and research through fundraising for selected projects. In 2010 the Chopra Foundation sponsored the first Sages and Scientists Symposium, attended by a number of scientists, social scientists and artists from around the world, with a second symposium hosted in February 2011. The third symposium is scheduled for March 2012 with seminars relating to Alzheimer's Disease and "Past Life Memories" amongst others.

In 2010, Chopra received the Cinequest Life of a Maverick Award for his collaborations with filmmakers Shekhar Kapur and his son, Gotham Chopra. The award goes to "inspirational individuals who touch the world of film while their greater lives exemplify the Maverick spirit."

Chopra is heavily featured in UniGlobe Entertainment's cancer docudrama titled 1 a Minute talking about mind, body, spirit and the mystery of life and death. The documentary is directed by actress Namrata Singh Gujral and also features cancer survivors Olivia Newton-John, Diahann Carroll, Melissa Etheridge, Mumtaz and Jaclyn Smith.

He received the 2010 Humanitarian Starlite Award "for his global force of human empowerment, well-being and for bringing light to the world." Chopra is the recipient of the 2010 GOI Peace Award.

In September 2010, Chopra published a criticism of Stephen Hawking's book The Grand Design.

In conjunction with Menas Kafatos and Rudolph E. Tanzi, Chopra published a paper in the Journal of Cosmology Vol. 14 April–May 2011, titled "How Consciousness Becomes the Physical Universe".

In June 2011, Chopra wrote an op-ed for the American Medical Association Journal of Ethics titled "Medicine’s Great Divide—The View from the Alternative Side".

In 2011, Chopra was ranked the Number 1 influencer of all Indians in the world, both resident and non-resident.

In October 2011, Chopra wrote a critical review of Richard Dawkins' book The Magic of Reality in the Huffington Post.

In 2011 and 2012, Chopra partnered with Alexander Tsiaras, founder of TheVisualMD on an online program called "The 9 Visual Rules of Wellness".

In May of 2012 Chopra co-authored a paper entitled "The Zinc Dyshomeostasis Hypothesis of Alzheimer’s Disease" along with Travis J. A. Craddock, Jack A. Tuszynski, Noel Case, Lee E. Goldstein, Stuart R. Hameroff, and Rudolph E. Tanzi in the PLoS ONE Journal

Criticism

According to a 2008 article in Time magazine, Chopra is “a magnet for criticism”, primarily from those involved in science and medicine. Some critics say that Chopra creates a false sense of hope in sick individuals which may keep them away from effective medical care. The Time article summarized Chopra's reception and popularity thus: "Of all the Asian gurus…, Chopra has arguably been the most successful at erasing apparent differences between East and West by packaging Eastern mystique in credible Western garb. …His quest to construct a pleasing and seamless model of the universe tends to jump to easy conclusions and to spackle over problematic gaps and inconsistencies in the ideas he presents — is obvious to all but his most starry-eyed fans. But grousing about such crimes — as many do — does little to explain his enormous popularity. Chopra is as rich as he is today not because he has been dishonest with anyone, but because his basic message — that love, health and happiness are possible, that mystery is real and that the universe is ultimately a friendly and benevolent place where orthodoxies old and new can meet and make peace with one another — is one that he wants to believe in just as sincerely as his readers do."

Chopra was sued for plagiarism by Robert Sapolsky for using a stress endocrine chart without proper attribution, after the publication of Chopra’s book Ageless Body, Timeless Mind. An out-of-court settlement resulted in Chopra attributing material that was researched by Sapolsky. Chopra acknowledges that his thought has been inspired by Jiddu Krishnamurti and others.

In 1996, The Weekly Standard published an article which accused Chopra of "plagiarism and soliciting a prostitute"; however, Chopra sued and the paper withdrew its statements and published an apology.

Chopra has been criticized for his frequent references to the relationship of quantum mechanics to healing processes, a connection that has drawn skepticism from some physicists who say it can be considered as contributing to the general confusion in the popular press regarding quantum measurement, decoherence and the Heisenberg uncertainty principle. In 1998, Chopra was awarded the satirical Ig Nobel Prize in physics for "his unique interpretation of quantum physics as it applies to life, liberty, and the pursuit of economic happiness". According to the book Skeptics Dictionary, Chopra's "mind-body claims get even murkier as he tries to connect Ayurveda with quantum physics.” Chopra also participated in the Channel 4 (UK) documentary The Enemies of Reason, where, when interviewed by scientist Richard Dawkins, he admitted that the term "quantum theory" was being used as a metaphor and that it has little to do with the actual quantum theory in physics.

In August 2005, Chopra wrote a series of articles on the creation-evolution controversy and Intelligent design which were criticized by science writer Michael Shermer, founder of The Skeptics Society.

In March 2010, Chopra and Jean Houston debated Sam Harris and Michael Shermer at Caltech on the question "Does God Have a Future?" Shermer and Harris criticized Chopra's use of scientific terminology to expound unrelated spiritual concepts. Shermer has said that Chopra is "the very definition of what we mean by pseudoscience".

In April 2010, Hindu American Foundation co-founder Aseem Shukla, on a Washington Post-sponsored blog on faith and religion, criticized Chopra for suggesting that yoga did not have origins in Hinduism but is an older Indian spiritual tradition which predated Hinduism. Later on, Chopra explained yoga as rooted in "consciousness alone" which is a universal, non-sectarian eternal wisdom of life expounded by Vedic rishis long before historic Hinduism ever arose. He further accused Aseem Shukla of having a "fundamentalist agenda". Dr. Shukla in a rejoinder titled "Dr. Chopra: Honor thy heritage" termed Deepak Chopra as an exponent of the art of "How to Deconstruct, Repackage and Sell Hindu Philosophy Without Calling it Hindu!" and to the allegation of "fundamentalist" he responded by accusing Chopra of raising the "bogey of communalism" in frustration to divert the argument.

Chopra addresses these scientific criticisms in his 2011 book War of the Worldviews - Science vs Spirituality, coauthored with CalTech Professor of Physics Leonard Mlodinow. In it he explains his respect and admiration for the scientific method while pointing out its limitations and the need for an expanded science that includes the reality and investigation of the observer, or consciousness.

Message

According to Business Week, one of Chopra's main messages is that by ridding oneself of negative emotions and developing intuition by listening to signals from the body, health can be improved. According to Chopra, slowing down or reversing the aging of the mind through his methods can increase one's lifespan up to the age of 120 years. As a result of his writings and lectures in this area, he is thought by some to be "one of the pre-eminent leaders of the mind-body-spirit movement".

Publications

Chopra has written more than 65 books with 19 New York Times bestsellers. His books have been translated into 35 languages and sold more than 20 million copies worldwide. His book, Peace Is the Way won the Quill Awards and The Book of Secrets: Unlocking the Hidden Dimensions of your Life received the Nautilus Award. FINS - Wall Street Journal, mentioned his book, “The Soul of Leadership”, as one of five best business books of 2011 to read for your career. Chopra is represented in the United States by the literary agency, Trident Media Group. His first book, Creating Health, is credited with helping to create initial, international recognition for Chopra.

Music CDs/audio books

Videos

Other published work

Income

Chopra's net income for 2008 was $22 million, according to a Forbes online article written by Melanie Lindner. It included $1.3 million for book sales and speaking arrangements. According to Lindner's 2009 article, Chopra's work time is now spent with non profit endeavours.