Deepak Chopra

This article is about the author and alternative medicine advocate. For the former director of Canada Post, see Deepak Chopra (Canada Post).

Deepak Chopra
Chopra in 2019
Born (1946-10-22) October 22, 1946 (age 78)[1]
New Delhi, British India[2]
CitizenshipUnited States[3]
Alma materAll India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi
Occupations
  • Alternative medicine advocate
  • public speaker
  • writer
Spouse
Rita Chopra
​
(m. 1970)​
Children
RelativesSanjiv Chopra (brother)
WebsiteOfficial website Edit this at Wikidata

Deepak Chopra (/ˈdiːpɑːk ˈtʃoʊprə/; Hindi: [diːpək tʃoːpɽa]; born October 22, 1946) is an Indian-American author, new age guru,[4][5] and alternative medicine advocate.[6][7] A prominent figure in the New Age movement,[8] his books and videos have made him one of the best-known and wealthiest figures in alternative medicine.[9] In the 1990s, Chopra, a physician by education, became a popular proponent of a holistic approach to well-being that includes yoga, meditation, and nutrition, among other new-age therapies.[4][10]

Chopra studied medicine in India before emigrating in 1970 to the United States, where he completed a residency in internal medicine and a fellowship in endocrinology. As a licensed physician, in 1980, he became chief of staff at the New England Memorial Hospital (NEMH).[4] In 1985, he met Maharishi Mahesh Yogi and became involved in the Transcendental Meditation (TM) movement. Shortly thereafter, Chopra resigned from his position at NEMH to establish the Maharishi Ayurveda Health Center.[5] In 1993, Chopra gained a following after he was interviewed about his books on The Oprah Winfrey Show.[11] He then left the TM movement to become the executive director of Sharp HealthCare's Center for Mind-Body Medicine. In 1996, he cofounded the Chopra Center for Wellbeing.[4][5][10]

Chopra claims that a person may attain "perfect health", a condition "that is free from disease, that never feels pain", and "that cannot age or die".[12][13] Seeing the human body as undergirded by a "quantum mechanical body" composed not of matter but energy and information, he believes that "human aging is fluid and changeable; it can speed up, slow down, stop for a time, and even reverse itself", as determined by one's state of mind.[12][14] He claims that his practices can also treat chronic disease.[15][16]

The ideas Chopra promotes have regularly been criticized by medical and scientific professionals as pseudoscience.[17][18][19][20] The criticism has been described as ranging "from the dismissive to...damning".[17] Philosopher Robert Carroll writes that Chopra, to justify his teachings, attempts to integrate Ayurveda with quantum mechanics.[21] Chopra says that what he calls "quantum healing" cures any manner of ailments, including cancer, through effects that he claims are literally based on the same principles as quantum mechanics.[16] This has led physicists to object to his use of the term "quantum" in reference to medical conditions and the human body.[16] His discussions of quantum healing have been characterized as technobabble – "incoherent babbling strewn with scientific terms"[22] by those proficient in physics.[23][24] Evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins has said that Chopra uses "quantum jargon as plausible-sounding hocus pocus".[25] Chopra's treatments generally elicit nothing but a placebo response,[9] and they have drawn criticism that the unwarranted claims made for them may raise "false hope" and lure sick people away from legitimate medical treatments.[17]

  1. ^ Chopra & Chopra 2013, pp. 5ff.
  2. ^ Encyclopaedia Britannica Almanac 2010. Encyclopaedia Britannica. 2010. p. 42. ISBN 978-1615353293.
  3. ^ Jeffrey Brown (May 13, 2013). "Chopra Brothers Tell Story of How They Became Americans and Doctors in Memoir". PBS NewsHour. Retrieved January 7, 2015.
    Chopra & Chopra 2013, p. 194
    Boye Lafayette De Mente (1976). Cultural Failures That Are Destroying the American Dream! – The Destructive Influence of Male Dominance & Religious Dogma!. Cultural-Insight Books. p. 42. ISBN 978-0-914778-17-2.
  4. ^ a b c d Cite error: The named reference restless was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  5. ^ a b c Cite error: The named reference baer2003 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  6. ^ "Deepak Chopra". The Huffington Post. Retrieved April 25, 2016.
  7. ^ Cite error: The named reference Kaufman2013 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  8. ^ Alter, Charlotte (November 26, 2014). "Deepak Chopra on Why Gratitude is Good For You". Time. Retrieved December 16, 2014.
  9. ^ a b Cite error: The named reference Gamel2008 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  10. ^ a b David Steele (2012). The Million Dollar Private Practice: Using Your Expertise to Build a Business That Makes a Difference. John Wiley & Sons. pp. 26–. ISBN 978-1-118-22081-8.
  11. ^ Dunkel, Tom (2005). "Inner Peacekeeper". The Baltimore Sun. Archived from the original on March 13, 2016. Retrieved April 25, 2016.
  12. ^ a b Cite error: The named reference baerp240 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  13. ^ Cite error: The named reference perfect was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  14. ^ Cite error: The named reference ageless was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  15. ^ Cite error: The named reference aids was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  16. ^ a b c Cite error: The named reference AshmanBarringer2005 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  17. ^ a b c Cite error: The named reference Tompkins2008 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  18. ^ Cite error: The named reference Nightline was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  19. ^ Cite error: The named reference Kaminer was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  20. ^ Cite error: The named reference Indie-Bullshit was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  21. ^ Cite error: The named reference skepdic-web was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  22. ^ Strauss, Valerie (May 15, 2015). "Scientist: Why Deepak Chopra is driving me crazy". The Washington Post. Retrieved May 19, 2018.
  23. ^ Plait, Phil (December 1, 2009). "Deepak Chopra: redefining "wrong"". Slate. Retrieved May 19, 2018.
  24. ^ Burkeman, Oliver (November 23, 2012). "This column will change your life: pseudoscience". Retrieved May 19, 2018. [Chopra]'s the guy behind Ask The Kabala and 'quantum healing', which involves 'healing the bodymind from a quantum level' by a 'shift in the fields of energy information', and which drives people who actually understand physics crazy; his critics accuse him of selling false hope to the sick.
  25. ^ Chopra, Deepak (June 19, 2013). "Richard Dawkins Plays God: The Video (Updated)". The Huffington Post. Retrieved October 7, 2017.