Guest Furball Posted February 28, 2015 Share Posted February 28, 2015 I saw a lecture this morning on television by deepak chopra. It was my first encounter with his teachings and beliefs. He says that god is nothing more than a name given to what we know or think of as "the source." He doesn't believe god is a he/she/it. I picked up a couple of his books at the library book store and will check them out. Some of what he said made a lot of sense to me, as well as some of his experiences i too have experienced. I am just wondering if anyone on this forum has read any of his books or what your personal beliefs are on his teachings. Thank you. -Cat Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FreeThinkerNZ Posted February 28, 2015 Share Posted February 28, 2015 IMO he is a charlatan. http://skepdic.com/chopra.html 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ellinas Posted February 28, 2015 Share Posted February 28, 2015 I don't know enough about his basic beliefs to reach a conclusion. I agree that the physical/medical ideas suggested in FTNZ's link are nonsensical. Whether he is an out and out charlatan or honestly misguided I cannot say. However, people can talk a mixture of sense and nonsense, so there's no reason not to assess his ideas to see if there's anything worth thinking about. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moderator TrueFreedom Posted March 1, 2015 Moderator Share Posted March 1, 2015 I'm not a fan. He seems to draw metaphysical and mystical conclusions from a misunderstanding of physics. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moderator Joshpantera Posted March 3, 2015 Moderator Share Posted March 3, 2015 I used to speak with Deepak on Beliefnet around a decade ago. He seemed alright, although what he's doing is like a Hindu version of Christians trying to meld their religion with science. I didn't get the feeling that he's any type of threat through. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FreeThinkerNZ Posted March 3, 2015 Share Posted March 3, 2015 I used to speak with Deepak on Beliefnet around a decade ago. He seemed alright, although what he's doing is like a Hindu version of Christians trying to meld their religion with science. I didn't get the feeling that he's any type of threat through. He's a threat to the bank accounts of people who believe he has something to say. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Orbit Posted March 3, 2015 Share Posted March 3, 2015 He's ok when discussing Hinduism. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Super Moderator florduh Posted March 3, 2015 Super Moderator Share Posted March 3, 2015 I have read a few of his books and seen him in interviews. It boggles the mind that an actual trained medical doctor would stoop to this (much like Dr. Oz). This is a good summary: http://skepdic.com/chopra.html Keep in mind he promotes the ancient folk medicine of India, ayurveda, and claims all our physical maladies are "chosen" by us (makes me wonder why he needs glasses). Meanwhile, ranking by several measures of disease and average life expectancy, India is at number 103 among the health rankings while the USA with its horrible diet and evil Western medicine still comes in at 33. His brand of woo can kill you. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moderator Joshpantera Posted March 4, 2015 Moderator Share Posted March 4, 2015 He's ok when discussing Hinduism. That's all I discussed with him. In that department he seemed very knowledgeable. But apparently he's misappropriated the mysticism into some type of eastern based form of literalism in an attempt to try and support pseudo-science. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moderator Joshpantera Posted March 4, 2015 Moderator Share Posted March 4, 2015 I used to speak with Deepak on Beliefnet around a decade ago. He seemed alright, although what he's doing is like a Hindu version of Christians trying to meld their religion with science. I didn't get the feeling that he's any type of threat through. He's a threat to the bank accounts of people who believe he has something to say. Yeah, I guess some people pay in to that sort of thing. And that's too bad. It isn't any better than paying into Christianity. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Furball Posted March 4, 2015 Share Posted March 4, 2015 i read those 2 books and they are now residing in the dumpster, i guess i have my answer. thanks to all who gave their advice, i appreciate it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bhim Posted March 5, 2015 Share Posted March 5, 2015 More or less agreed with FTNZ. I don't know if he's malicious in the same way as many televangelists; perhaps he is a Hindu analogue to Joel Osteen. At best I find his ideas to be vacuous. If I'm going to practice a religion, I want it to be somewhat rigorous and well-defined, and from what I've read of Chopra he seems hesitant to provide a firm definition of anything. I was very pleased at the outcome of his debate with Mark Driscoll on the existence of Satan. And given that I was a Bible-believing Christian at the time, this is a bad thing. I took great note of the self-consistency of Driscoll's presentation of the Bible. One might disagree with the Calvinist's premise, but the internal logic was halfway decent. Chopra, on the other hand, contradicted himself within his presentation of his own beliefs. It should be noted that Chopra is a physician, not a scientist (not that the two are mutually exclusive). This is important because whereas scientists receive extensive training and practice in studying minute details of important problems and drawing unassailable conclusions, physicians receive a broader but shallower training in the sciences with an emphasis on application rather than discovery. He has quite an impressive career, to be sure, but as far as I know it's not in anything that would qualify him to draw the conclusions he does regarding science and spirituality. I'd trust the man to operate on my kidney, but not to tell me how the findings of quantum mechanics suggest any conclusions on the topic of mysticism. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FreeThinkerNZ Posted March 5, 2015 Share Posted March 5, 2015 I don't think I would trust Chopra to provide medical services to me because his embracing of alt med pseudoscience has shown he is not a science-based physician or a particularly ethical one. http://www.sciencebasedmedicine.org/chopra-and-weil-and-roy-oh-my/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moderator Joshpantera Posted March 6, 2015 Moderator Share Posted March 6, 2015 More or less agreed with FTNZ. I don't know if he's malicious in the same way as many televangelists; perhaps he is a Hindu analogue to Joel Osteen. At best I find his ideas to be vacuous. If I'm going to practice a religion, I want it to be somewhat rigorous and well-defined, and from what I've read of Chopra he seems hesitant to provide a firm definition of anything. I was very pleased at the outcome of his debate with Mark Driscoll on the existence of Satan. And given that I was a Bible-believing Christian at the time, this is a bad thing. I took great note of the self-consistency of Driscoll's presentation of the Bible. One might disagree with the Calvinist's premise, but the internal logic was halfway decent. Chopra, on the other hand, contradicted himself within his presentation of his own beliefs. It should be noted that Chopra is a physician, not a scientist (not that the two are mutually exclusive). This is important because whereas scientists receive extensive training and practice in studying minute details of important problems and drawing unassailable conclusions, physicians receive a broader but shallower training in the sciences with an emphasis on application rather than discovery. He has quite an impressive career, to be sure, but as far as I know it's not in anything that would qualify him to draw the conclusions he does regarding science and spirituality. I'd trust the man to operate on my kidney, but not to tell me how the findings of quantum mechanics suggest any conclusions on the topic of mysticism. I watched that debate too. I was disappointed in how Chopra handled himself. It just bolstered Christians into thinking the opposition is flimsy. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cousin Ricky Posted March 30, 2015 Share Posted March 30, 2015 Beware of anyone who sprinkles the word quantum liberally throughout his discourse, especially one who has had no physics training. Not really Deepak Chopra: the Random Deepak Chopra Quote Generator. Really Deepak Chopra: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qySx8tSs8BQ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bornagainathiest Posted March 30, 2015 Share Posted March 30, 2015 Sadly the seeds of Quantum Mysticism began to germinate as early as the 1920's... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quantum_mysticism Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moderator Joshpantera Posted April 1, 2015 Moderator Share Posted April 1, 2015 Oh BAA, that introduced a new can of worms tail ending with the Ramtha thing from what the bleep. I admittedly watched what the bleep several times when it came out, at first taken back by it and wondering why I didn't know this already. Then I started seeing the obvious holes. There's pseudo science flying around, but what really got my attention was how hey claimed that the native american's could not see the European ships sitting off the coast, because they had never seen ships like that before and so couldn't see them until they learned to see them. That's just stupid. So if you can see one thing, you'll be blind to a bigger version of the same thing? They could see their own boats, but somehow couldn't see the larger sailing ships? What happened when the Spruce Goose took flight? Did no one see it because it was a bigger plane than the planes everyone was used to seeing? What happened when they built the Sears Tower. No one could see it because it was a bigger sky scraper than the rest? This shit folds possibly quicker than even Christianity...... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bornagainathiest Posted April 1, 2015 Share Posted April 1, 2015 Ah Josh...it only folds if you've got your bs detector switched on! . . . Two points. First, a confession. I once (three decades ago?) owned a copy of Zukav's Dancing Wu-Li Masters. Couldn't get past the first chapter tho'. Is it possible that even then my bs detector was working - without me know it? Second, a gripe. Is it possible that most people have an in-built mistrust of reason? You'd think so, seeing as when it comes to understanding things most folks avoid using reason whenever possible. Anything but the r-word! They'll gladly accept (and pay out $$$'s for) stuff about ancient magic runestones, pyramid-building aliens, ghosts, time travel, the Illuminati, ufo conspiracy theories, Nessie, invisible rogue planets, a hollow Earth, Atlantis and Mu, Nazi moon bases and a shitload of other crapola. But, reason...? Nope! UNreason rulz! . . . (Ok, gripe over. Normal transmission will be resumed.) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moderator Joshpantera Posted April 1, 2015 Moderator Share Posted April 1, 2015 I didn't know that the woman was channeling a spirit during the interviews until later. WTF? People were apparently outraged about it when they found out. I guess some Christians had watched and then felt demoralized in some way for having been tricked into watching some channel at work. This is so absolutely stupid. Around 20 years later she was still doing it and shows up on what the bleep. I'm not sure how many people buy into this, but apparently enough to where she can run the Ramtha school of enlightenment. Looks to me like a split personality disorder or something similar. But this alternate personality is all about the "Quantum" world, and Atlantis, and Enlightenment, and basically all of the New Age material that would be floating around in this women's head. Deepok doesn't go this far, but he's not too far behind in terms of the pseudo science and blatant misrepresentation. Maybe some day a spirit will come to him too, that coincidentally validates his New Age views... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Furball Posted April 2, 2015 Share Posted April 2, 2015 Anything but the r-word! They'll gladly accept (and pay out $$$'s for) stuff about pyramid-building aliens, So wait, this guy is wrong?? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bornagainathiest Posted April 2, 2015 Share Posted April 2, 2015 Anything but the r-word! They'll gladly accept (and pay out $$$'s for) stuff about pyramid-building aliens, So wait, this guy is wrong?? Holy crap, CC! He must be right. How else did this pyramid get to be on the Moon... unless the aliens built it, right? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nKJqyoZx7JI They even got Stephen Hawking to do the voice over... so it must be authentic! (Ha! He's not fooling anyone, calling himself Mister Enigma.) We know it's you Stephen! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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