Quantum intentions and prayers to deities: two sides of the same supernatural coin
by Perry Bulwer
Following my previous post on the BP environmental catastrophe and DreamHealer, the quantum quack who thinks that the collective, focused intentions of his followers will plug the hole and stop the oil gusher, I became aware of other supernatural wishful thinkers who similarly think that prayers, visualizations, intentions, thoughts, energy, light, love, etc., are what's needed to stop the oil. Here is a sample of some of the silliness I came across during the month of June.
On June 6 DreamHealer sent out another email in a series imploring his followers to focus their intentions on the gulf:
Let's optimize an extremely difficult situation in the Gulf. Change emotions of blame, fear and anger into healing intentions of light and love toward the recovery of our beautiful planet.
Visualize all of the healing energy in the Universe being pulled into the Gulf of Mexico. Saturate the waters with the healing energy of light and life.
Visualize your healing intentions rippling outward in all directions. Send streams of laser light to clean the water for sea-life to flourish again.
Remember the power of your own healing thoughts, as focused intention activates your thoughts. Assist in closing and healing Mother Earth's wound. Create a critical mass as we all send our healing intentions.
It didn't take long for Deepak Chopra to add his quantum nonsense to the mix. Thanks to PZ Meyers, the mind behind Pharyngula, who received an email from Evolutionary Leaders, a Chopra cult foundation, we get a glimpse at not only how these people think (or don't think) but also at how the words "intention" and "prayer" have become interchangeable to supernaturalists. Here's their email, without PZ's commentary, which you can read on his site at that link above:
Are you tired of sitting around while our environment is being destroyed?
Do you feel helpless, angry or powerless to make a difference as you watch millions of gallons of oil pouring into the Gulf every day with no end in sight and thousands losing their lives and their livelihoods?
Join The Gulf Call to Sacred Action!
The Evolutionary Leaders: In Service to Conscious Evolution have joined together to be a loud and important voice for all who feel powerless.
The People Need You ~ The Gulf Needs You
We begin by setting our collective intention. Join Deepak Chopra to set our powerful vision and participate in a worldwide Intention Experiment with renowned author and scientist Lynne McTaggart. Explore how our collective intention, our voice and our commitment can impact the cleanup of the oil spill. And then we will be graced by Jean Houston who will share with us why this time matters and why we matter.
Our collective prayers and thoughts have the power to cause a profound shift on the planet. Pray with some of the most powerful spiritual thought leaders -- Reverend Michael Bernard Beckwith, Joan Borysenko, James O'Dea and more. Together we discover that we have the power to change the world.
Open up and connect to the deeper heart of our planet where we hear our individual and collective call to action. Together with sacred activists Barbara Marx Hubbard, Gregg Braden, and Andrew Harvey, we will take back our power and move into powerful action that will forever change our lives and the lives of generations to come.
It is all just meaningless nonsense. In case you've forgotten, here is some of the craziness Chopra peddles:
Here is some of what Chopra, a former endocrinologist in Boston hospitals, believes and teaches.
That a person is a field of vibrating energy, information and intelligence connected to the entire cosmos.
That this view is substantiated by Ayruvedic medicine of ancient India as well as theories of quantum physics.
That all organs of the body are built up from a specific sequence of vibrations, and that when organs are sick they are vibrating improperly.
That certain herbs and aromas, when applied, can help restore proper vibrations to malfunctioning liver, heart, stomach, etc.
That certain gems and crystals can rejuvenate human skin.
That good thoughts can heal the body and reverse the aging process.
That people can levitate and that he, while sitting and meditating, has flown a distance of four feet.
That one can know God at seven different levels corresponding to physical and psychological reactions in the brain, and that miracles, including visits by angels and reincarnated relatives, occur when a person leaves the material level of existence and intersects a "transitional" level called the "quantum domain."
Chopra and DreamHealer ought to get along great, so I find it a bit curious that neither mentions the other since they both claim to be conducting scientific experiments on the power of intention, with DreamHealer going as far as claiming, on the basis of one flawed experiment, that "our intentions can change the physiology of others". Maybe DreamHealer wants to emulate Chopra's successful cult on his own terms.
Not to be out done by quantum kooks, or mere "mortals" who are actually attempting real-world solutions to the disaster, Christian politicians just had to get their two cents worth of supernaturalism into the act, blurring the already fuzzy line between church and state. On June 20, CNN reported that Louisiana lawmakers propose prayer to stop oil disaster:
While cleanup crews and technical teams continue efforts to stop crude gushing into the Gulf of Mexico, Louisiana lawmakers are proposing a different approach: prayer.
State senators designated Sunday as a day for citizens to ask for God's help dealing with the oil disaster.
"Thus far efforts made by mortals to try to solve the crisis have been to no avail," state Sen. Robert Adley said in a statement released after last week's unanimous vote for the day of prayer. "It is clearly time for a miracle for us."
The resolution names Sunday as a statewide day of prayer in Louisiana and calls on people of all religions throughout the Gulf Coast "to pray for an end to this environmental emergency, sparing us all from the destruction of both culture and livelihood."
And on June 27, the New York Times reported:
The wall between church and state came a-tumbling down on Sunday, as elected leaders from the five states on the Gulf of Mexico issued proclamations declaring it to be a day of prayer. Although days of prayer are not uncommon here — Governor Riley declared one asking for rain to relieve a drought a few years ago — these proclamations conveyed the sense that at this late date, salvation from the spill all but requires divine intervention.
In the two months since the deadly Deepwater Horizon explosion began a ceaseless leak of oil into the gulf, damaging the ecosystem and disrupting the economy, the efforts by mortals to stem the flow have failed. Robots and golf balls and even the massive capping dome all seem small in retrospect.
So, then, a supplementary method was attempted: coordinated prayer.
In Texas, Gov. Rick Perry encouraged Texans to ask God “for his merciful intervention and healing in this time of crisis.” In Mississippi, Gov. Haley Barbour declared that prayer “allows us an opportunity to reflect and to seek guidance, strength, comfort and inspiration from Almighty God.” In Louisiana, Gov. Bobby Jindal invoked the word “whereas” a dozen times — as well as the state bird, the brown pelican — but made no direct mention of God. In Florida, Lt. Gov. Jeff Kottkamp asked people to pray that God “would guide and direct our civil leaders and provide them with wisdom and divinely inspired solutions.”
As I mentioned, the words "intention" and "prayer" have become interchangeable. The "coordinated prayer" referred to in that NYT article, is what people who believe in prayers do. They want as many people as possible to pray for the same thing, and even at the same time, if possible, and to continue praying. I guess their god is hard of hearing. But that is really no different than what those who believe in intentions do. They also want as many people as possible focusing their coordinated intentions. Collective prayers, collective intentions. Two sides of the same coin.
Another good example of that blurring of the distinction between intentions and prayers comes courtesy of Masaru Emoto, the Japanese 'scientist' who appeared in the film What The Bleep Do We Know?, promoting his belief in the supernatural properties of water. The Colorado newspaper, Post Independent, published a letter to the editor which included an email message from Emoto:
Yesterday we received a letter from Dr. Masaru Emoto, who many of you will recognize as the scientist from Japan who has done research and publications about the characteristics of water. Among other things, his research reveals that water physically responds to emotions.
Right now, most of us have the predominantly angry emotion when we consider what is happening in the Gulf. And while certainly we are justified in that emotion, we may be of greater assistance to our planet and its life forms, if we sincerely, powerfully and humbly pray the prayer that Dr. Emoto himself has proposed.
“I send the energy of love and gratitude to the water and all the living creatures in the Gulf of Mexico and its surroundings. To the whales, dolphins, pelicans, fish, shellfish, plankton, coral, algae, and all living creatures . . . I am sorry. Please forgive us. Thank you. I love you. “
We are passing this request to people who we believe might be willing to participate in this prayer, to set an intention of love and healing that is so large, so overwhelming that we can perform a miracle in the Gulf of Mexico.
We are not powerless. We are powerful. Our united energy, speaking this prayer daily ... multiple times daily ... can literally shift the balance of destruction that is happening. We don't have to know how, we just have to recognize that the power of love is greater than any power active in the Universe today.
Please join us in often repeating this healing prayer of Dr. Emoto's. And feel free to copy and send it around the planet. Let's take charge, and do our own clean up!
There is one way in which the quantum believers and the religious believers differ regarding the oil spill. The quantum believers do not appear to assign supernatural causes to the oil spill, at least not that I could find. Religious believers, on the other hand, are quick to claim that the oil spill is predicted in the book of Revelation, and that God, for various reasons, caused the oil spill as a punishment. For example, here's what the Christian conspiracy website, The World's Prophecy, has to say about it:
Is the oil spill in the bible? Yes it is:
Before you continue reading the verse below where it predicts the oil spill, keep in mind that the Book of Revelations are full of symbolism. One example would be the great whore “Babylon” is definitely not talking about an actual “whore” or “prostitute”. The beast in Revelation 13 is not exactly talking about an actual monster, but a representation of a man with the “number” 666. So when the oil spill in the verse below talks about an angel pouring it out, do not just swallow it in a dumb way interpreting the angel as BP. As you already know, it is not only BP that has the oil spill problem, but also Chevron. The “angel” is only used as symbolism.
Revelation 16:3
The second angel poured out his bowl into the sea, and it became blood like that of a dead man; and every living thing in the sea died.
From Yahoo! Answers:
What color is the blood of a died man?
I’m doing a little research and I want to know what the color the blood of a died man has. sense it rots would it be black?
The colour of oxygenated blood is shiny red but after the death of a person oxygen supply will be stopped resulting de oxygenation of blood causing the colour changed to darker red and later on it will turn into brown and then black because of the absence of oxygen and due to decay.
So, there it is in black and white, or I should say, black and brown. Oil looks like a dead man's blood, so the Bible predicted the gulf oil spill. And not just the book of Revelation, but the book of Genesis too! The wing-nuts at World Net Daily are circulating a video that claims the gulf oil spill is a fulfillment of a prophecy in Genesis related to Israel:
Is there a spiritual, biblical connection to the BP oil catastrophe?
A new video on YouTube is suggesting a possible link to the disaster due to America's recent treatment of Israel, and at least one well-known Bible analyst, Hal Lindsey, thinks there's a valid correlation.
The video was produced and posted today by Carl Gallups of the Hickory Hammock Baptist Church in Milton, Fla.
"April the 19th, Israel celebrates its independence in 2010," Gallups says in narration on the video. "On April the 19th, Fox News reports that the U.S. will no longer automatically support Israel in the United Nations. The next day, on April the 20th, the Deepwater Horizon oil rig explodes. Coincidence? Or the hand and judgment of God?"
The minister cites an ancient promise God made to Abraham, the patriarch of the 12 tribes of Israel, one tribe of which is Judah, from which the Jews derive their name.
In the Book of Genesis, God told him, "I will make you into a great nation and I will bless you; I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse ... ."
...
Referring to Israel as a "prophetic signpost," Gallups said, "It seems to me we're turning our back on Israel, and that's a very dangerous biblical or spiritual place to be."
Gallups is not alone with the sentiment America could be under a curse from God.
"I believe this is evidence that when you turn your back on Israel, especially when you've been a supporter, you're gonna see judgments come from God," said Hal Lindsey, author of "The Late Great Planet Earth."
So, some Christians believe that coordinated prayers are required to implore God to intervene and stop the oil, while other Christians believe the Bible predicted the oil spill, which obviously means the oil spill is God's will, intended as punishment for the wicked people he created. Still other Christians believe God caused the oil spill specifically to punish one wicked nation. What's a God supposed to do?
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The Montreal Gazette - October 15, 2010
Desperate people blinded by online pseudo-science
By PEGGY CURRAN, The Gazette
MONTREAL - Joe Schwarcz is sick to death of coffee enemas, macrobiotic diets, Laetrile tablets, raw juices, megavitamins, salt-water cures and urine infusions.
The director of McGill University's Office of Science and Society, Schwarcz has had it up to the eyeballs with distance healers who claim they can treat what ails you by studying a photograph or looking at the whites of your eyes.
"When you are desperate, you will clutch at anything," Schwarcz says of cancer patients who find themselves "at the mercy of quacks and charlatans."
"Desperate people will do anything. So they wind up not just desperate but destitute as well, because these 'cures' don't come cheaply."
Schwarcz, known simply as "Dr. Joe" to the many Montrealers who read his Gazette column and follow his radio show on CJAD, says there's been an explosion in pseudo-science in recent years, as the snake oil salesmen of old give way to the mountebanks of cyberspace.
"There is such a proliferation of nonsense, aided and abetted by the Internet. There is so much quackery out there."
Schwarcz has been asked to be host of the Lorne Trottier Public Science Symposium at McGill, where this year's theme is Confronting Pseudo-science: A Call to Action -a fitting choice for someone who sees his mandate as "making sense out of nonsense."
The two-day forum, which is open to the public, takes place Monday and Tuesday at the Centre Mont Royal. Monday's panellists will be Ben Goldacre, the author of Bad Science and a columnist for the British newspaper the Guardian; Michael Shermer, the editor of Skeptic magazine; and David Gorski, a surgical oncologist in Detroit who has spent the last decade trying to decipher and dispense information about online remedies.
Closing things off Tuesday will be James Randi, also known as The Amazing Randi, a magician and escape artist who now devotes his time to unmasking faith healers and demystifying so-called paranormal events.
Schwarcz will offer a preview today at the Redpath Museum, where he'll discuss the growth of quackery as part of the Freaky Friday lecture series.
As someone who spends a lot of time monitoring cases of suspect science, Schwarcz is troubled by the deluge of email proclaiming that doctors at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore have found a cure for cancer (they haven't) or the influence of New Age gurus like Deepak Chopra and Adam Dreamhealer, who are "beguiling people" while "laughing all the way to the bank," Schwarcz says.
Increasingly, he believes it is important for consumers to do a little critical thinking - to read the fine print, become scientifically savvy and show a little healthy skepticism when faced with promises of miracle cures and dietary supplements that contain nothing more than water and sea salt.
Schwarcz has no time for purveyors of alternative medicines who try to brand scientists as hidebound.
"When scientists start raising eyebrows at such mindless twaddle, the pseudo-science champions unleash their usual attacks, claiming that scientists are closed-minded and can only think in terms of limited paradigms. Nonsense," Schwarcz says.
"Science will embrace new ideas when there is sufficient evidence. But if evidence shows that an idea is not tenable, it should be tossed onto the pseudo-scientific junk heap."
This article was found at:
http://www.montrealgazette.com/health/Blinded+online+pseudo+science/3674891/story.html
RELATED ARTICLES ON THIS BLOG:
Quakes, Quacks and Kidnappers: Baptists, Scientologists, DreamHealer and Bad Consequences of Good Intentions
Wishful Thinking Won't Stop The Oil Gusher But Nuking It Would
Taking a serious second look at work of Braco the Gazer
ReplyDeleteBy JOE SCHWARCZ, Freelance
Montreal Gazette February 25, 2012
What a clever scheme! There's no overt deception. You don't claim to be able to do anything. You don't preach. You don't offer any sort of philosophy. In fact, you don't even talk. You don't touch anyone. You don't sell any potions. You don't use any sleight of hand tricks. You don't use any sort of equipment. You don't wear strange clothes. However, you do grow your hair to project an image of a certain biblical figure associated with healing. But you don't call yourself a healer, although you do not object if others do. In fact, you do nothing but promise to gaze at people for about seven minutes if they plunk down $8. You are "Braco the Gazer." And you are a phenomenon!
Picture this. Thousands of people flood into an auditorium, many looking ill, some hobbling with canes, others in wheelchairs, reminiscent of crowds that flock to faith healers, ready to open up their pocketbooks in return for a few miracles. But in this case there are no promises of miracles. Not directly anyway. The proceedings begin with the session's host welcoming everyone to the meeting with "the healer who doesn't call himself a healer." A nice little legalistic "out." Everyone's experience will be different, the audience is told, and "skeptics will become believers." "There should be no specific expectations." But of course there are. People have heard that Braco's silent holistic gift can clarify the mind, vanish pain and wither tumours. It can also repair stalled cars and stop cats from vomiting.
There are a few instructions before the holy man, who does not claim to be one, appears. Cellphones and other electronic devices must be turned off because they may disrupt Braco's "energy," despite the fact that he himself makes no claim to projecting any such thing. Then a warning. The session is only for people over the age of 18, because for youngsters the gazing energy is too powerful. Ditto for women who are more than one trimester along in their pregnancy. That's a curious one, because developmental problems are most likely to be initiated in the first trimester. An exception is made on Nov. 23, Braco's birthday, when families can bring children. Perhaps on that day he tunes down the energy he makes no claim to have.
The host's introductory remarks are followed by a video of an unfortunate skeptic who had been diagnosed with "Agent Orange cancer virus" (a befuddling term) and had attended a previous event with the healer who does not claim to be a healer. The skeptic went home, his idea that this was all bunk confirmed. But two days later, a blood test declared him to be cured! Must be some blood test, capable of detecting a nonexistent virus. After a few more words about the importance of being skeptical, and instructions to hold up photos or X-rays of sick people to be cured in absentia by the man who claims no healing ability, the time arrives for the "Silent Gaze."
Braco, the Croatian nonhealing healer has been enthralling massive audiences in Europe for some 18 years, but only in 2010 did he discover the greenback pastures of America. In Europe, he usually limits himself to just one gazing session per day, but everything is bigger in America. Here visitors can cycle through the lines of "Braco Gazing" all day long, as long as they pay their entry fee each time. And for this all they get to do is gaze at the gazer.
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ReplyDeleteBraco struts onto the stage, long hair flowing, face expressionless. You wouldn't be surprised to hear "Jesus Christ Superstar" bursting from the loudspeakers, but all you hear is some New Age music. Body almost motionless, he - well - gazes. That's what gazers do. They gaze. And gaze. Some of the "gazees" snicker, others revel in rapture, curiously with their eyes closed. Maybe the magical gaze penetrates eyelids.
After about seven minutes, it's over. He glides off the stage, the room empties, ready to be refilled by a new throng, along with some repeaters who feel they need another dose of healing energy from the man who makes no claim to have any. In the lobby, there are testimonials galore about toothaches disappearing, back problems vanishing and bodies being filled with intense heat. But those who came in wheelchairs leave in them. One lady claims to have been overcome by a "big bubble of love." It is not exactly clear what this means, but she seems to have been "satisfied." There are books and DVDs to buy, as well as jewellery that features a 13-pronged star. Again, no claims are made other than that the Sun is the symbol of life and the Sun is the source, which gives us life, light and energy. Can't argue with that.
Of course, not everyone can get to one of Braco's events. That's no problem, though, because thanks to modern technology you can experience the gaze through live streaming. At $3 per session it seems a bargain. That's a lot less than what one might spend on various dietary supplements, magnets, crystals, pendulums, power bracelets, aerobic oxygen solutions or homeopathic preparations that are marketed with testimonials virtually identical to those heard from people who have been gazed at by Braco.
I thought I'd give the silent gazer a look. He is a good gazer, I'll give him that. But there was no heat, no infusion of vitality, no sensations of inner peace, no awakenings of consciousness, just some thoughts about what he was thinking about as his gaze delivered its dose of placebo. Maybe I should have stuck with it for the full 20 minutes I paid for. Maybe it's a dose dependent thing. I can't complain though. Unlike detox foot pads, Kangen water, or zero energy healing wands that do not live up to their lofty promises, Braco gives you exactly what you paid for. He will gaze at you for the period of time you purchased. A clever man. A lot more clever than the folks he gazes at.
Joe Schwarcz is director of McGill University's Office for Science and Society (OSS.McGill.ca). He can be heard every Sunday from 3-4 p.m. on CJAD radio. joe.schwarcz@mcgill.ca
http://www.montrealgazette.com/news/todays-paper/Taking+serious+second+look+work+Braco+Gazer/6208613/story.html
How Spiritual Is Deepak Chopra?
ReplyDeleteSusan Blackmore
SKEPTICAL INQUIRIER
From: Volume 47, No. 2
March/April 2023
Deepak Chopra, Ayurvedic practitioner and famous promoter of mind-body medicine, is among the richest spiritual leaders in the world with ninety-five books to his name and a thriving, and very lucrative, alternative therapy business. He has millions of followers on social media and says his goal is to reach at least a billion people. In other words, he is extremely influential and wants to become even more so.
There are many reasons to worry about his powerful influence, from his misuse of science and philosophy to his extreme health and medical claims. On science, he sprinkles his books and lectures with such terms as epigenetics, neuroplasticity, homeostasis, and quantum superposition yet twists them to fit in with his extravagant claims. He talks much about evolution but sneakily twists the idea from talking about the undirected Darwinian process that explains the evolution of life on earth to praising the ever-popular (and long discredited) idea that consciousness is driving human evolution toward ever-higher states.
As for his philosophy, Chopra claims that everything is consciousness and matter does not exist. He says there are no objects, no sounds, no bodies, and no minds—only consciousness having experiences. He happily pounces on the difficulty materialism has in explaining consciousness—a problem that numerous scientists recognize and are working on—but seems completely oblivious to the fact that idealism confronts the opposite problem in explaining the appearance of matter. Saying “matter does not exist” is his glib (non-)solution.
Turning to health, he claims that “quantum healing” can banish illness, end aging, and overcome death. He says that through meditation and insight people jump to a new level of consciousness and so attain perfect health. And, being perfectly consistent, he has never been ill and claims he will live, wealthy and healthy, well beyond a hundred years. That’s a strong claim for someone now in his mid-seventies.
I don’t wish to add more to the many scathing criticisms that have been made of these ideas; I want to ask a question: As, arguably, the most influential spiritual teacher around, does Deepak Chopra practice what he preaches?
Chopra’s books are full of sound spiritual teachings on meditation, compassion, and kindness. His teachings on the nature of self and transcendence chime with those of the no-self concept found in Buddhism and Hinduism. He has a beautiful, gently soothing voice, and I have found some of his early-morning guided meditation sessions truly helpful. But the spiritual life is not only about meditation, and in The Ultimate Happiness Prescription Chopra urges his followers to “live for enlightenment” (Chopra 2009a). Does he do this himself? Is he a shining example of someone seeking enlightenment and living by his own spiritual principles? This is the question that has been bothering me, and I recently had the opportunity to find out.
I have met Deepak Chopra several times, having quiet meals with him away from busy conferences or just snatching a few minutes’ chat when we had the chance. In private, I have found him attentive, interested, willing to engage in all sorts of topics—and, above all, open and friendly. He is not always this way in public.
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My first, and rather dramatic, encounter with him took place ten years ago in a debate titled “The War of the World Views” with Menas Kafatos, Leonard Mlodinow, Chopra, and me (UofAConsciousness 2012). This was at the 2012 “Toward a Science of Consciousness” conference held every two years in Tucson, Arizona. Each of us began with a short lecture (UofAConsciousness 2013). I disagreed with Chopra’s “consciousness only” theory, and although I agreed with many of his spiritual ideas, I pointed out how he diverts his popular seven spiritual laws into ways of making money. The most popular of his books was then The Seven Spiritual Laws of Success (Chopra 2009b); recently it’s been followed by Abundance: The Inner Path to Wealth (Chopra 2022). In both, it is neither “inner wealth” nor spiritual gifts and abilities he is talking about but plain old money and power. Should a spiritual path be aimed at getting rich?
ReplyDeleteAs soon as I finished my talk, Chopra leapt out of his armchair, stood over me, and lectured me on the four principles of Vedanta (a school of Hindu spiritual philosophy): Artha, Kama, Dharma, and Moksha (UofAConsciousness 2012). Moksha, he explained, means money or wealth, and spiritual people should not be ashamed of being wealthy. “And I am very wealthy,” he added. Then, coming closer and jabbing his finger aggressively at me, he explained the four stages of the Vedanta life.
In the tradition I come from, the first twenty-five years of your life is spent in education and knowledge. The second twenty-five years of your life is spent in making money and achieving success. The third twenty-five years of your life, which is where I am now, is spent in giving it back. And I have a foundation that feeds 1.5 million children every day. And the fourth phase of life is giving it all up and trying to achieve transcendence, enlightenment. So, I am very well on the path that I started out on. And I’m not ashamed of it.
Afterward I felt flattened. He had been aggressive both verbally and in his manner; he had hardly let me get a word in edgeways, and I wished I had found the strength to stand up to him. I blamed myself for being so submissive.
Later, I began to wonder. Chopra was then sixty-five years old, with just ten more years of the third phase ahead of him. What would he do at seventy-five? Would he give up flying first class around the world giving lectures, selling alternative therapies, leading retreats, promoting his Center for Wellbeing, and getting even richer? Would he really follow what he claimed was his spiritual path and give it all up “trying to achieve transcendence, enlightenment”?
I confess that these questions stayed with me all those ten years. Is Chopra really following the Vedanta path he so loudly and proudly proclaimed? Does he live by the values he espouses of love, compassion, and inner peace? When his time comes, will he move into that final phase of life and use all his own spiritual teachings to fall into enlightenment? Might I even meet him again in 2022, when he would be seventy-five, and ask him myself?
My opportunity came when I learned that in 2022 he was, once again, to be at the Tucson conference, now having been upgraded to “The Science of Consciousness” (toward apparently no longer needed!). I contacted an organizer, and she immediately suggested that Chopra and I could have a return match and arranged a public dialogue for us after the opening reception. She even made sure that the previous evening Chopra and I had a private dinner together. I had come to the conference with my daughter and coauthor, Emily Troscianko, who found us a quiet table, got us drinks, and left us to it.
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As ever, we got on well, talking about our lives, our meditation practice, our thoughts about consciousness, and our plans for the following evening. He said he was “done with debates,” and I didn’t mind that; I didn’t want to turn our event into a fight any more than he did. So, I suggested I might open with just a couple of minutes saying that I agreed with much of his spiritual teachings but not with his theories of consciousness or quantum healing, and then we could just have a conversation about the agreed topic, which, after much discussion over email, was to be “Mystery of Existence: Why Is There Sentience?”
ReplyDeleteWe even talked about aging, both of us being in our seventies, and Chopra said he was now meditating more and working less. Maybe, I thought, he really is gently winding down from his frenetic working life toward his search for enlightenment. After all, I don’t suppose the Vedanta way means you have to go into solitary retreat on your seventy-fifth birthday. So maybe he is following the Vedanta path after all. Maybe he would talk about this tomorrow and answer my question.
This being Tucson in April, the welcome reception was outdoors in lovely desert surroundings under starry skies with delicious food and wine. I was enjoying myself. I was a little nervous about what was coming but well-prepared with my few opening words. Then, just before we went into the lecture theater, Chopra strode up to me and said, “I think we should each begin with ten minutes about our life journey.” I was thrown; that was not what we had agreed to the evening before. I didn’t think of my life as a journey; I had no time to prepare, yet I lamely agreed (The Science of Consciousness [TSC] – Conferences 2022). It was only much later that I wondered whether this was a deliberately manipulative move.
My next shock came from the moderator, Stuart Hameroff. He is one of the original founders of these conferences, the current co-chair, and a leading proponent of a quantum theory of consciousness. We’d long disagreed, and I knew he was annoyed with my daughter and me for including only a brief summary of his theory in our consciousness textbook (Blackmore and Troscianko 2018). He was only there to chair the event, so I was not worried. I should have been.
Struggling to pull together something about “my life journey,” I mentioned the dramatic out-of-body experience I had had as a teenager. I said how wonderful it has been, over my lifetime, that neuroscience has finally given us a thorough understanding of how and why these strange experiences happen (Blackmore 2020). Then after barely five minutes, Hameroff, although supposedly moderating, leapt in and demanded I provide evidence. I managed to stop him after two or three more interjections and carried on until, abruptly, he told me to stop. I was thrown by this, but, not having looked at my watch, I did as he said. I only discovered much later, when the video went online, that I had spoken for less than nine minutes.
Then began the weirdest “dialogue” I have ever had. Chopra made long speeches that changed topic so often that I could hardly follow him, let alone find a way to respond to one point before he’d moved on to the next. Meanwhile, Hameroff kept interrupting me whenever I tried to respond. I remember sitting there, flanked on either side by these two men, constantly interrupted and desperately trying to get the discussion back on topic.
After a while, I began to hear a kind of roaring sound from the audience. It was not so loud that I could hear what was going on and, in any case, I had to concentrate so hard to find any chance to speak that I had no spare brain power to listen. I saw a woman walk up toward Hameroff and disappear again, but I had no idea why and just kept trying to get a word in (I later learned that it was Hameroff’s wife).
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With only ten minutes to go, I realized it was now or never to ask my question. I grabbed the moment and jumped in with, “I would like, if it’s all right with you, to change the subject and ask a different question.” I reminded Chopra of our meeting ten years ago and then, to my own surprise and quite unplanned, I jumped up, leaned over him as he had done to me all those years ago, and repeated the four stages of the Vedanta life.
ReplyDelete“I would like to ask you, Deepak. Now you’ve come to this final stage in your life. What form is—” But Hameroff interrupted me again. I tried to ignore him and carry on, “What form is this stage of your life going to take? What form is your withdrawal from life and seeking enlightenment going to take?” I suggested that he might not choose the traditional route of life in a cave in the Himalayas with villagers bringing him food once a week but thought he might prefer a beautiful place on the California coast to meditate in solitary retreat. What is your withdrawal going to be like, Deepak?
And here’s his response:
I think at this stage, I surrender to the formless [laughter from the audience], and without that formless there is no form. And I go back to my tradition. Tagore says, in this infinite playhouse of forms I got sight of the formless. The formless is the only thing that’s timeless. Forms come and go, and if we surrender to that mystery of form, the formless, then that is what I call faith. Faith is surrendering to the invisible that makes the visible possible and when you understand that, in that invisible, we are all entangled then the ultimate message that comes from that is love.
“Good, very good,” said Hameroff.
What a master of deflection. Whatever I asked Chopra, he managed to squiggle away to some totally different topic, in this case “entanglement” and “love.” And how could I object to “love”? But I persevered: “I think it is possible, but difficult, to carry on with a life of writing lots of books, earning lots of money, coming to conferences, and flying around the world, but that’s not the point of this four-stage process—” Again Chopra interrupted, and again I persevered: “But here you are in Tucson, on an airplane from New York.”
All he said to that was, “It’s something to do, right?” I fought back.
“Seeking enlightenment is also something to do.” But he cleverly got out of that one.
“No,” he said, “You fall into it. You don’t seek it because that which you are seeking is the one that’s seeking.”
“Deepak gets the last word,” said Hameroff, and it was over.
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I staggered off the stage and found myself surrounded by people asking, “Are you all right? Do you feel okay?” and saying “You poor thing,” all of which baffled me. I guess I was still buzzing from the effort of concentrating and didn’t know what they meant. Then others started calling the men bullies, children, pathetic teen boys, and shouting about the outrage of two grown men turning on one woman. And only then did I begin to grasp how it must have seemed to the audience. One man even said, “I want to apologize on behalf of all men!” Some, I learned later, had simply walked out.
ReplyDeleteWhen the video was posted online some weeks later (The Science of Consciousness [TSC] – Conferences 2022), my instant reaction was deep disappointment—even shame. I was so feeble! I watched myself being gradually diminished and doing nothing to fight back. I should have jumped up and interrupted Chopra many times over. There were so many sensible points I could have made, and instead I just sat there putting up with it. Why didn’t I challenge him on claims such as that “matter doesn’t exist” or talk about the neuroscience that is changing the mystery of consciousness, about the new philosophy and science of how the self is constructed, or why illusionism means replacing false assumptions with a nondual view of consciousness (Blackmore 2016)—or any number of other things I had in mind? How could I have let them walk all over me?
My daughter Emily was upset by the event and shared with me some excerpts from the diary she had written the morning after. She said she had been moved by how people rallied to my defense, listing some of the comments people had made. One said it was like watching me being attacked by two bulldogs. Another said that it was depressing to see Chopra, someone they had respected, behave like this with claims of wisdom but ultimately just an enormous ego he was trying to defend. Three said how embarrassed or ashamed it made them feel as men. One even thought that it robbed the entire conference of its credibility, perhaps because people tend to think of the Tucson conferences as a space for openness, sharing very different ideas, and a general air of niceness. This certainly wasn’t nice.
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For my daughter and some, but not all, the most obvious interpretation was about gender. Here were two men ganging up on one woman whose lifelong coping strategy has been to ignore sexist treatment and whose response to this debacle was to blame herself. But in the end Emily concluded that “maybe what was under attack here was not in fact womankind but skepticism. And lots of people really dislike skepticism.”
ReplyDeleteShe wondered why these two “dislike skepticism so much they’d be willing to risk making themselves look like close-minded misogynists to attack it.” Answers are not hard to find. Hameroff was, as ever, pushing his quantum agenda, and Chopra was on brand with his blend of dubious science and banal but spiritually coated life advice and untestable but lucrative claims.
I still blame myself for not standing up to them, but I did get my answer. One enormous ego remains fully intact and, despite his many claims, Deepak Chopra shows no sign of stepping boldly into the fourth stage of the Vedanta life. While he tells the rest of us how to live for enlightenment, he is not willing to surrender his busy, powerful, and wealthy life just yet.
References
Blackmore, S. 2016. Delusions of consciousness. Journal of Consciousness Studies 23: 52–64. (Reprinted in K. Frankish [ed.]. 2017. Illusionism as a Theory of Consciousness. Exeter, UK: Imprint Academic.)
———. 2020. Seeing Myself: What Out-of-body Experiences Tell Us about Life, Death & the Mind. London, UK: Little, Brown.
Blackmore, S., and E. Troscianko. 2018. Consciousness: An Introduction, Third Edition. London, UK: Routledge.
Chopra, D. 2009a. The Ultimate Happiness Prescription: 7 Keys to Joy and Enlightenment. New York, NY: Harmony.
———. 2009b. The Seven Spiritual Laws of Success: A Practical Guide to the Fulfillment of Your Dreams. Novato, CA: New World Library.
———. 2022. Abundance: The Inner Path to Wealth. London, UK: Rider.
The Science of Consciousness (TSC) – Conferences. 2022. TSC 2022 – DIALOGUE v2 – FINAL. YouTube (May 25). Online at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JiMYe5tPFt8.
UofAConsciousness. 2012. PL1 – TSC12 Chopra, Blackmore, Mlodinow, Kafatos, War of the World Views – Panel Discussion. YouTube (May 1). Online at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_ZFGkqhNhgM.
———. 2013. PL1 – TSC12 Susan Blackmore, War of the World Views. YouTube (February 18). Online at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VZxVDHfi_YI.
Susan Blackmore
Susan Blackmore is a psychologist, lecturer, and writer researching consciousness, memes, and anomalous experiences and a visiting professor at the University of Plymouth, United Kingdom. She is a TED lecturer and often appears on radio, television, and podcasts. She practices Zen and plays in a samba band. She is author of about fifteen books, sixty academic articles, eighty book contributions, and many book reviews. The Meme Machine (1999) has been translated into nearly twenty other languages. Her most recent books are Seeing Myself: What Out-of-Body Experiences Tell Us about Life, Death & the Mind (2017) and Consciousness: An Introduction (3rd edition with Emily Troscianko, 2018).
https://skepticalinquirer.org/2023/02/how-spiritual-is-deepak-chopra/