FINDING THE MEANING OF IT ALL
Chopra getting deep with audiences
The true self offers the possibility of a life without struggle, the voice says, where desires are fulfilled effortlessly.
The voice belongs to Deepak Chopra, pitching a self-discovery workshop, and he will bring that voice and the promises it offers to the Vancouver Convention Centre on Wednesday to address the future of well-being.
“Everybody takes away different things,” said Chopra — the author of more than 85 books translated into 43 languages — over the phone from the Chopra Foundation in Carlsbad, Calif., of what to expect from the workshop.
He will start by talking about what we’re learning these days about neuroplasticity (the brain’s ability to reorganize itself throughout life), the microbiome (the body) and the second genome (sometimes called the blueprint to human biology).
“And how lifestyle and stress management can optimize the integration between our genes, microbiome, brain and our healing system,” Chopra said. “That’s based on my new book, The Healing Self.”
It’s more than a book tour, however.
Chopra said he’ll address existential issues like old age, infirmity, the meaning of death and ultimately our true identity beyond our provisional identity of body-mind.
“There’s something deeper, and why it is important to understand fundamental reality so that we can reframe our existence not as bodymind but as awareness in which body-mind is a process,” he said.
Chopra, whose father was a doctor and brother a former dean at Harvard Medical School, expanded his licensed physician’s practice in neurology and endocrinology three decades ago, he said, to better understand how the body and mind, our emotions and even our spiritual identity, help us in finding our own healing.
“Thirty years ago, that seemed kind of on the fringe, but now because everything is measurable — there’s no experience that is not measurable, whether it’s a mental experience or an emotional experience, a relationship experience or sleep or stress management, or nutrition or being grounded or optimizing your circadian rhythm — every experience leaves a footprint or, you might even say, a digital imprint that can be validated and quantified.”
The quantified-self movement, or self-knowledge through data, is no longer “fringe” or “hocuspocus,” Chopra said. “Right now, if you’re not understanding the quantified stuff, you’re out of date, you’re not current with your medical knowledge.”
But what about his critics in medical and scientific fields?
“There is none (criticism),” said Chopra. “The people who criticize these days are actually frozen in an old world view. The critics are either dying or they’re shutting up. Most of them are really old guys.”
At the end of the talk Wednesday, there will be an audience meditation.
“To give them an experience of not only restful alertness, but also insight into the nature of our existence, creativity, high purpose and identity beyond physical death,” Chopra said
“It will be a long evening.” Two hours straight, in fact, enough time to ...?
“I think it’s enough time to kind of figure out the meaning of the universe,” he said, sharing a laugh with his questioner. “Or at least give it a shot, right?”
Chopra was too young to remember the time, but his father, a prominent cardiologist in New Delhi, was the medical adviser to the viceroy of India, Lord Mountbatten. About to turn 72 on Oct. 22, Chopra said he grew up with many tales of his father’s service to the man who was Queen Elizabeth’s second cousin, Prince Philip’s uncle, Prince Charles’ mentor, Admiral of the Fleet, Earl of Burma and IRA bomb victim.
The point being, Chopra also has rock-star status now, akin to Mountbatten’s in the day. How does he handle the fame and fortune?
“I have a wife and kids who don’t take me seriously, that keeps me grounded,” he said.
His Vancouver trip comes amid tumultuous times. “I’ve been many times to Vancouver. Canada is my favourite country right now with all the mess we have in the United States,” he said.
“I’ve often considered immigrating to Canada and who knows, it may happen.
“It’s a nightmare, a total nightmare. You can’t even understand how this could happen in the 21st century to a country which was considered the example of everything we call freedom, democracy, decency. I don’t know what happened. Maybe it’s just a brief interlude, but it’s almost like if you’re a bully, you’re a hero.”