Deepak Chopra

For other uses, see Deepak Chopra (disambiguation).

Deepak Chopra
File:Deepak Chopra MSPAC.jpg Speaking to the Microsoft PAC on January 15, 2011
Born	(1947-10-22) October 22, 1947 New Delhi, India
Nationality	American
Occupation(s)	Alternative medicine practitioner, physician, public speaker, writer
Spouse	Rita Chopra
Children	Mallika Chopra and Gotham Chopra
Parent(s)	K. L. Chopra, Pushpa Chopra
Website	www.deepakchopra.com

Deepak Chopra (/ˈdiːpɑːk ˈtʃoʊprə/; born October 22, 1947) is an Indian-American physician, a holistic health/New Age guru, and alternative medicine practitioner. Chopra has taught at the medical schools of Tufts University, Boston University and Harvard University. He became Chief of Staff at the New England Memorial Hospital (NEMH) in Massachusetts, before establishing a private practice. In 1985, Chopra met Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, who invited him to study Ayurveda. Chopra left his position at the NEMH and became the founding president of the American Association of Ayurvedic Medicine, and was later named medical director of the Maharishi Ayurveda Health Center.

In 1996, Chopra and neurologist David Simon founded the Chopra Center for Wellbeing, which incorporated Ayurveda in its regimen. The University of California, San Diego School of Medicine and the American Medical Association have granted continuing medical education credits for some programs offered to physicians at the Chopra Center. In 2009, Chopra established the Chopra Foundation to advance the cause of mind/body spiritual healing, education, and research through fundraising for selected projects.

Chopra has written more than 70 books, including 21 New York Times bestsellers. His books have been translated into 35 languages and sold more than 20 million copies worldwide. Chopra has received many awards, including the Oceana Award (2009), the Cinequest Life of a Maverick Award (2010), Humanitarian Starlite Award (2010), and the GOI Peace Award (2010).

Chopra is a controversial figure.

Early life and education

Chopra was born in New Delhi, India. His father, Krishan Chopra (1919–2001) was a prominent Indian cardiologist, 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. 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. His mother tongue is Punjabi.

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).

Career

Chopra's career falls into two parts. At first, Chopra adhered to mainstream medical practice; he then became an advocate of alternative medicine and a wealthy businessman – continuing the long tradition of entrepreneurialism in the American medical system.

Mainstream medicine

Chopra in November 2006, speaking at Yahoo!

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).

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.

As a practitioner of alternative medicine

Influence of transcendental meditation

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. In a 1981 meeting between Chopra and Ayurvedic physician Brihaspati Dev Triguna in Delhi, India, 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 the title "Dhanvantari (Lord of Immortality), the keeper of perfect health for the world".

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.

Break with transcendental meditation movement

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 Robert Todd Carroll said Chopra left the TM organization when it “became too stressful” and was a “hindrance to his success”.

Chopra acknowledges that his thought has been inspired by Jiddu Krishnamurti and others.

Private practice

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.

Chopra wrote about the contrast between spiritualism and science in his 2011 book War of the Worldviews - Science vs Spirituality, coauthored with CalTech Professor of Physics Leonard Mlodinow. In it he says he has a respect and admiration for the scientific method but he believes it has limitations and he contends there is a need for an expanded science that includes the reality and investigation of the observer, or consciousness.

Other activities

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 "On Faith" section, a prolific contributor to The Huffington Post, and is also a contributor to the LinkedIn Influencer program.

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.

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.

A friend of Michael Jackson for 20 years, Chopra has 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.

Since 2005, Chopra has been a board member of Men's Wearhouse, Inc., a men's clothing distributor and Fortune 1000 company.

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.

Reception

In academic journals

According to medical anthropologist Hans Baer (2003), Chopra – as a wealthy individual – is an example of the American success story, but one who has failed to explore some of the potential benefits of a truly alternative, holistic approach to health. Instead he merely offers an alternative form of medical hegemony, focused on the individual — particularly well-off members of the upper and middle-classes; the "worried well".

John Gamel (2008) also acknowledges Chopra's business success, thinking him "perhaps the wealthiest" of America's alternative medicine practitioners. Gamel places Chopra in a "placebo-dominated" tradition and writes that the complementary medicine profession "has moved backward by promoting remedies that are ancient and unproven – or, in some cases, ancient and proven to be worthless".

Reviewing Susan Jacoby's book, The Age of American Unreason, Wendy Kaminer sees Chopra's popular reception in America as being symptomatic of many Americans' historical inability (as Jacoby puts it) "to distinguish between real scientists and those who peddled theories in the guise of science". Chopra's "nonsensical references to quantum physics" are placed in a lineage of American religious pseudoscience, extending back through Scientology to Christian Science.

From skeptics

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.

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 2012, reviewing War of the Worldviews – a book co-authored by Chopra and Leonard Mlodinow – physics professor Mark Alford explains that the work is set out as a debate between the two authors, "[covering] all the big questions: cosmology, life and evolution, the mind and brain, and God." Alford considers the two sides of the debate a false opposition, and concludes that "Chopra and Mlodinow's book is a wide-ranging and stimulating read. ... But by framing the debate as 'Science vs. Spirituality,' I think the book blurs an essential point. The counterpoint to Chopra's speculations is not science, with its complicated structure of facts, theories, and hypotheses, but something much more basic. ..."

In popular media

According to a 2008 article in Time magazine, Chopra is "a magnet for criticism", primarily from those involved in science and medicine.

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, Aseem Shukla criticized Chopra for suggesting that yoga did not have origins in Hinduism but is an older Indian spiritual tradition which predated Hinduism.

According to Business Wire, 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 70 books with 21 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. Some of his recent books include The Seven Spiritual Laws of Superheroes (2011), The War of the Worldviews (2011), Spiritual Solutions (2011), God: A Story of Revelation (2012), and Super Brain (2012).

Legal actions

In its May 22/29, 1991 issue, the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) published an article coauthored by Chopra, Hari M. Sharma, and Brihaspati Dev Triguna: "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 and had failed to inform JAMA of this in a required financial disclosure form submitted with their manuscript. 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.

Chopra was sued for copyright infringement by Robert Sapolsky, for using a chart displaying information on the endocrinology of stress without proper attribution, after the publication of Chopra’s book Ageless Body, Timeless Mind. An out-of-court settlement resulted in Chopra correctly attributing material that was researched by Sapolsky.

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.

Awards

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 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, 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."

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.

See also

• List of people in alternative medicine
• Andrew Weil
• Alternative medicine
• Quantum mysticism
• Monistic idealism
• Spiritual Naturalism

Further reading

• Nacson, Leon (1998). Deepak Chopra: World of Infinite Possibilities. Random House. ISBN 0-09-183673-5.
• Butler-Bowdon, Tom (2003). 50 Self-Help Classics: 50 Inspirational Books to Transform Your Life. London & Boston: Nicholas Brealey. ISBN 978-1-85788-323-7. {{cite book}}: Unknown parameter |trans_title= ignored (|trans-title= suggested) (help)

External links

• Official website
• VYou
• The Chopra Center for Wellbeing

Template:Persondata