The Chopra Center Blog

War of the Worldviews

How did the universe emerge? What makes us human? Did Darwin go wrong? Is consciousness a function of the brain, or are we all waves in the cosmic ocean? What is life? What is God?

In their just released book, War of the Worldviews: Science vs Spirituality, Deepak Chopra, a leading figure in the field of emerging spirituality, and Leonard Mlodinow, a theoretical physicist who teaches at Caltech, offer an insightful  exploration of contemporary thoughts and theories of science and spirituality, expanding the discussion and propelling it into new directions.

Now available on Amazon.com.

What people are saying about this phenomenal contribution to the age-old debate:

“We need a worldview grounded in science that does not deny the richness of human nature and the validity of modes of knowing other than the scientific. If we can bring our spirituality, the richness and wholesomeness of our basic human values, to bear upon the course of science in human society, then the different approaches of science and spirituality will contribute together to the betterment of humanity. This book points the way to such a collaborative endeavor.”—His Holiness the Dalai Lama

“Leonard Mlodinow is a lucid thinker and engaging writer who excels in making science and the scientific method accessible.”—Stephen Hawking

“Whether you root for science or spirituality, you will find in these incisive, insightful essays more than enough ammunition to get you through your next debate over the two opposing ways of seeing the world. And you just may find that ‘the other side’ scores some points, too. A fascinating, thought-provoking tour through some of the deepest questions of existence.”—Sharon Begley, author of Change Your Mind, Train Your Brain

Watch a live debate between co-authors Deepak Chopra and Leonard Mlodinow today (Tuesday, October 4, at 1 p.m. (EST). You can send them your questions and comments.  Click here for more information and to watch the debate.

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Deepak will also be a guest on the Anderson Cooper show this Wednesday, October 5. Check your local listings for air times.

“In Live Like a Fruit Fly, Gabe Berman shares his recipe for living a more joyful,worthwhile, and abundant life in every way. A witty, entertaining, and insightful read.” ~Deepak Chopra

In his newly released book, native New Yorker Gabe Berman shares his engaging perspective about following our passions, staying present, and practicing active appreciation. Filled with insightful musings, humor, and stories everyone can relate to, Live Like a Fruit Fly will help you awaken to the joy and meaning available in every moment.

An interview with Gabe Berman

Why should we live like a fruit fly?
Gabe: Fruit flies usually die of old age within ten days of being born. Seizing the day is their
only option. Likewise, your tomorrows aren’t guaranteed either. You may have your
whole life ahead of you, but as you grow older, it seems as though less and less time
elapses between birthdays. If you haven’t felt this yet, you will.

Q: What prompted you to write the book?
Gabe: After college, I jumped from one sales job to another. Towards the end of my tenure of
trying to coax people into buying things they weren’t interested in, I hung up the phone
after a making a sales call and thought, “My life is too short for this. I can’t waste it. I
need to live like a fruit fly.”

Q: Your writing style is unusual for the self-help genre. It’s more conversational
and less dogmatic. Is there a reason for this?
Gabe: I’ve plowed through many books in the self-help, new age and eastern philosophy
sections and I don’t relate to writers who preach to me so I vowed not to do the same.
My goal was to sound like a trustworthy friend.

Q: Which authors have influenced you the most?
Gabe: On the spiritual side, there’s Neale Donald Walsch, Deepak Chopra, and U.S. Anderson.
I’ve also made plenty of room for J.D. Salinger, Kurt Vonnegut, and Hunter S.
Thompson. But it was a book I read as a kid that made me want to be a writer –The Spy
in the Ointment by Donald E. Westlake. In this spy novel, the main character speaks to
the reader in parenthesis as if he’s talking to the camera in a movie. My book is similar
but I’ve made myself the main character and all I do is talk to the camera.

Q: You sporadically quote others throughout your book. Can you pinpoint the one
that means the most to you?
Gabe: I used a quote from Man’s Search for Meaning by Victor E. Frankl. I believe life boils
down to the choices you make and I couldn’t have said it better than this, “We who lived
in concentration camps can remember the men who walked through the huts comforting
others, giving away their last piece of bread. They may have been few in number, but
they offer sufficient proof that everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the
last of all human freedoms – to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances,
to choose one’s own way.”

Q: Although you mock yourself for doing so, you make a few references to the Star
Wars movies. Care to comment on this?
Gabe: I grew up with Star Wars and thanks to the prequels, my young nephews are doing so as well.
As with Harry Potter, I believe people are so attracted to these stories because it shows how
one unassuming person can make such a difference. Luke Skywalker was just a farm
boy with a bad haircut who ends up saving the universe from evil. What’s there not to
love?

Q: You mention the events of 9/11 in the beginning of the book. It’s a significant
day for everyone but what does it mean to you?
Gabe: If 9/11 doesn’t show you how unpredictable life is, nothing will. All the planning and
all the worrying ended up meaning nothing for those people caught in the buildings that
day. We need to worry less and live more. We need to live for today.

Q: Do you have advice for aspiring writers?
Gabe: It’s the same advice I’d give to anyone who’s aspiring to do anything bold. You must
kick the first door open to have other doors open for you. It’s rare that the first door
opens without a bit of force. People are always telling me that they’d like to write a
book. But how many of them have actually started writing? Almost none. You need to
start writing if you want to be a writer. You need to start juggling if you want to be a
clown in the circus. It seems as if the Universe doesn’t budge from your desire alone.
It needs to see some action.

Q: Are you working on a new book?
Gabe: Yes, you can see it unfold at blog.livelikeafruitfly.com.

Read reviews of Live Like a Fruit Fly and order your copy at Amazon.

Relationships as a Spiritual Adventure: A Three-Part Teleclass Series with Marianne Williamson

Beginning August 17, renowned spiritual teacher and best-selling author Marianne Williamson will be offering a special, live teleclass series.

A Message from Marianne:

Dear Friends,

According to A Course in Miracles, relationships are “assignments” in which people are brought together for maximal and mutual growth opportunity. Our relationships can be trips to heaven or trips to hell, depending on how we ourselves choose to interact with another person. Knowing the principles of loving relationship — recognizing the spiritual lessons afforded us by each encounter — gives us skill and even mastery at this basic human experience.

It is through relationships that we either rise to our most creative possibilities in life, or fall into the patterns of fear that would consistently hold us back. In this three part series of ninety minute calls, I will reflect on the spiritual and psychological principles that give us the light and understanding to emotionally soar.

Register for Relationships as a Spiritual Adventure here.

Teleclass Schedule:
Wednesday, August 17th: Relationships as Holy Encounters
Wednesday, August 24th: Intimate Love as a Calling of the Soul
Wednesday, August 31st: Forgiveness and the Power of Starting Over

Time:
6-7:30 p.m. (PST)

Playback of Teleclass:
The teleclasses will be recorded and available to all registered participants for playback. If you are unable to listen to the teleclass live due to schedule conflicts or time zone differences, you can still listen to this teleclass series. Access to listen will be emailed to you within 48 hours of the completion of each teleclass.

Cost: $55

Learn more about Marianne’s other events and lectures here.

Asking “What is spirit?” is another way of asking “Who am I?” Your true Self is pure, infinite spirit. Spirit isn’t something outside you, but is intertwined in everything you feel, think and do. Looking for spirit, the Vedic sages observed, is like a thirsty fish looking for water.

Even when you know that your essential nature is spirit, you can easily be deluded by the incessant activity of your mind and ego . . . the continuous cascade of thoughts, sensations and emotions. The mind can get mired in a conditioned pattern of thinking, returning again and again to thoughts of anxiety, stress, depression and limitation.

In truth, you are always free. You can go beyond mental conditioning by using the timeless tool of meditation to expand your consciousness and access the field of pure potentiality. Meditation allows the mind to become quiet and experience the silence and peace of pure awareness. Numerous studies also show the many health benefits of meditation, including lowered blood pressure, stress reduction and increased immune function.

Expanding Your Spiritual Awareness
With a regular practice, the expansive awareness you enter during meditation begins to permeate your life outside of your meditation sessions. You might experience flashes of elation and notice feelings of well-being sweeping over you at unexpected moments. You will begin to walk with more buoyancy and feel a warmth and peace in your heart. These are all signs that you are opening to spirit.

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To experience the benefits of meditation firsthand, we encourage you to join us for the Chopra Center’s 21-Day Meditation Challenge. The Summer Challenge begins August 15.  Register for free here.

Dear Deepak:

I was just reading the April Chopra Center newsletter and came across your entry on SynchroDestiny. I was quite responsive to this, as I especially feel lately my life has been guided by the universal consciousness, however there is a part of my rational mind that is frustrated in trying to make sense of life’s occurrences.

On March 2, I arrived in Tokyo on a performance contract for one year. After being there for just 9 days, Japan was with the tragic earthquake/tsunami which put many people’s lives on a 180 degree turn. As performers, we were given the choice to go home for a few weeks until the atmosphere supposedly calmed down a bit, and were to return at the beginning of April if we chose to. I was pondering this decision to go back to Japan, meditating, researching, discussing with family and friends, and finally decided that I would head back to Japan on April 7.

The morning of April 7 i felt quite uneasy about returning and still questioned if it was safe over there or not. Only one hour before I was supposed to board the plane, i received word of the 7.1 aftershock that hit northern Japan. As I was sitting in the airport, it felt as if my entire mind was going through an earthquake of thoughts and my immediate reaction was to not get on the plane to go back. I saw i had many missed phone calls and emails from concerned family/friends and that gave me the signal to pull my bags from the flight. In the end, I will not be traveling back to Japan for this performance contract.

Here is where my question lies in these messages from the universal consciousness. Was this big aftershock a sign from the universe or just a mere coincidence? My ego can’t justify why the universe would have me uproot my contented life in Florida, to then experience one of the most tragic earthquakes in history, to come back to my home in NY, decide to leave for Japan and then finally bring me right back to where I started.

If you could please share your insights on synchrodestiny in regards to signs from higher consciousness or intuition, I would greatly appreciate it. Thank you so much!

Deepak responds:
You said that your ego can’t justify why all this happened, but the whole point of synchrodestiny is that we are learning to guide our life from an intelligence that transcends the ego. That is our higher self, and while we may glimpse how it is orchestrating our life in concert with the universe, it is not something that our ego or individual mind can grasp.

As an exercise, instead of trying to figure out why your life had to be disrupted by these events, consider that perhaps all these changes in your plans have been useful in helping you break your dependence on your ego mind and its plans and expectations. By recognizing that there are larger factors involved in life’s outcomes beyond our individual goals, we are able to notice and take advantage of the other opportunities life is presenting that may be bring us something even better than what we had hoped for.

Love,
Deepak

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To learn more about harnessing the power of coincidence in your life, join Deepak at the SynchroDestiny workshop this September 6-10 in Carlsbad, CA. He will be joined by special guest Don Miguel Ruiz. Register and learn more here.

Question: How can you identify intuition from wishful thinking (hope) or fear? And what is the relationship between intuition, synchronicity and manifesting your desire in the presence of obstacles coming up?

Deepak’s response
Simple and accurate intuition is devoid of fear or hope. Intuition presents itself independent of our anxiety and anticipation. Synchronicity is a kind of external intuition where we glimpse the orchestrated workings of cosmic intelligence around us.

Manifesting our desires or intentions is a different phenomenon altogether. It involves sending a request to the universal intelligence in the silence of our awareness and then allowing it to fulfill that intention according to your highest purpose. Any obstacles in this process from the individual would involve blocks in awareness that prevent the experience of pure consciousness. Other obstacles would involve the proper timing for the fulfillment of the desire. But that isn’t really an obstacle as much as it is a lack of understanding of how our desires need to be coordinated with others in our environment.

Love,
Deepak

Experience Explore SynchroDestiny in Your Life

If you would like to deepen your ability to tap into your intuition, harness the power of coincidence, and manifest your desires, join Deepak for the SynchroDestiny workshop this September 6-10 in beautiful Carlsbad, California. The September event features special guests Don Miguel Ruiz, the author of the best-selling book The Four Agreements.

The Chopra Center will offer SynchroDestiny only two more times, so if you’ve been intending to experience this powerful event, now is the time! 

Learn more and enroll here.

Tune into today to the Dr. Oz Show and learn how meditation can help reverse aging.

Deepak will also discuss the other keys to growing younger, living longer . . . including the underestimated value of restful sleep!

**Check your local listings here to find out what time the Dr. Oz Show airs in your area.

The devastating wildfires that have swept through Arizona, New Mexico, and other regions of the U.S. this summer, have forced the evacuation of thousands of residents, as well as their cats, dogs, horses, and other cherished pets.

Animals are sentient beings that bring us boundless love, comfort and happiness, and the wildfires are a strong reminder that if we have pets, we need to have an emergency plan that includes their care. Here are a few ideas to get started.

1.)  Identify several possible locations where you can take your animals if you have to evacuate. Veterinarians will sometimes take in pets, or there may be shelters in your area that are equipped to accept animals during an emergency. For health and space reasons, animals usually aren’t allowed in public emergency shelters.

2.)  Create an emergency kit that includes the following:

• An extra supply of any medications your pets need
• An identification tag, extra collar and leash
• A copy of your pets’ medical records, including vaccinations, in a waterproof container. Most kennels won’t admit animals without proof of current rabies and other required shots.
• At least a week’s supply of water and food for your pets, including a water dish
• A favorite toy that can comfort your pet
• Plastic bags and other items for disposing of your pets’ waste
• Current photos of your pets in case they get lost during the disaster. Make sure that you’ve included in the photos for proof of guardianship.
• A durable harness, crate, or carrier. Even if your pets normally roam free, they may be scared during an emergency and need to be safely transported in a carrier.

3.)  Find a neighbor, friend, or relative who will agree to take care of your animals in the event that you’re unable to get home during an emergency. The person should be aware of any medical conditions and hiding places your pets may have, and have the contact information for your veterinarian.