Deepak Chopra () (born October 22, 1946) is an
Indian American public speaker, and writer on
Ayurveda,
spirituality and
mind-body medicine. Chopra began his career as an
endocrinologist and later shifted his focus to
alternative medicine. Chopra was a top assistant to
Maharishi Mahesh Yogi before launching 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 came to widespread public attention in July 2009 when he criticized the "cult of drug-pushing doctors, with their co-dependent relationships with addicted celebrities," saying he hoped Jackson's death, attributed to an overdose of a prescription drug, would be a call to action.
Family history
Chopra was born in
New Delhi, India. His father, Krishan Chopra, M.D. (1919–2001) was a prominent Indian cardiologist. He was head of the department of medicine and cardiology at Mool Chand Khairati Ram Hospital, New Delhi, for over 25 years, and a lieutenant in the British army.
Chopra's younger brother, Sanjiv, is a Professor of Medicine and Faculty Dean for Continuing Medical Education at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center.
Early life and education
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. 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. and received a California medical license in 2004. Chopra is board-certified in
internal medicine and specialized in
endocrinology. a Fellow of the
American College of Physicians and a member of the American Association of Clinical Endocrinologists.
Career
Chopra taught at the
Tufts University and
Boston University Schools of Medicine. He became Chief of Staff at the
New England Memorial Hospital in
Stoneham, Massachusetts 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 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 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. Todd Carroll said Chopra left the TM organization when it “became too stressful” and was a “hindrance to his success”. 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".
In 2005 Chopra was made a Senior Scientist at The Gallup Organization. He currently serves as an Adjunct Professor at Kellogg School of Management.
Chopra has a Sirius XM weekly radio show where he interviews prominent scientists and leaders in the development of human potential on Sirius//XM Stars Radio show Wellness Radio
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.
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".
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 with prominent scientists philosophers and artists from around the world.
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 in UniGlobe Entertainment's cancer docudrama titled 1 a Minute scheduled for release in 2010. The documentary is being made by Namrata Singh Gujral and will feature cancer survivors Olivia Newton-John, Diahann Carroll, Melissa Etheridge, Mumtaz (actress) 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, Deepak Chopra published a criticism of Stephen Hawking's book The Grand Design.
Criticism
According to a 2008 article in
Time (magazine), Chopra is “a magnet for criticism” primarily from the scientific and medical communities. Some critics say that Chopra creates a false sense of hope in sick individuals which may keep them away from traditional 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. …[H]is 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." The
Skeptics Dictionary, a book by
Robert Todd Carroll, says that Chopra is the "foremost advocate of Ayurvedic medicine in America".
In 1996, the Weekly Standard of London 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 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.”
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.
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 merely is an Indian spiritual tradition which predated Hinduism. Later on, Chopra tried to explain 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 Dr. Chopra of raising the "bogey of communalism" in frustration to divert the argument.
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". His first book,
Creating Health, is credited with helping to create initial, international recognition for Chopra.
Chopra co-authored
Ask the Kabala with Mike 'Zappy' Zapolin and Alys Yablon, 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.
See also
Alternative medicine
Quantum mysticism
References
Further reading
External links
Official Site
Category:1946 births
Category:Living people
Category:Indian immigrants to the United States
Category:American writers of Indian descent
Category:Indian doctors
Category:Indian self-help writers
Category:Indian spiritual writers
Category:Indian motivational speakers
Category:New Age authors
Category:People in alternative medicine
Category:Recipients of the Medal of the Presidency of the Italian Republic
Category:Transcendental Meditation practitioners
Category:Ayurvedacharyas
Category:Ig Nobel Prize winners
Category:American spiritual writers
Category:People from New Delhi
