Deepak Chopra Interview

DR: What led a western-trained medical physician such as yourself to pursue the ancient Indian practice of Ayurveda?

DEEPAK CHOPRA: Just an unhappiness with the mechanical approach of contemporary medicine, which says that there is a magic bullet in the form of a pill for everything we have. And the fact remains that none of our medical interventions either get to the root cause of disease, or make a significant difference in mortality or morbidity. They just alter its expression.

It's frustrating to see patients again and again, and to keep giving them sleeping pills, tranquilizers and antibiotics, for their hypertension or ulcers, when you know you're not getting rid of the problem or disease. The word "cure" is not even used. You are just treating the patient. "Curing" is a term that all physicians avoid. Our training is not oriented toward that.

DR: Can you explain what you mean by "quantum healing?"

DEEPAK CHOPRA: Quantum healing is healing the bodymind from a quantum level. That means from a level which is not manifest at a sensory level. Our bodies ultimately are fields of information, intelligence and energy. Quantum healing involves a shift in the fields of energy information, so as to bring about a correction in an idea that has gone wrong. So quantum healing involves healing one mode of consciousness, mind, to bring about changes in another mode of consciousness, body.

DR: How important is meditation in achieving and maintaining health?

DEEPAK CHOPRA: Meditation is a very important aspect of all the approaches that one can use in quantum healing, because it allows you to experience your own source. When you experience your own source, you realize that you are not the patterns and eddies of desire and memory that flow and swirl in your consciousness. Although these patterns of desire and memory are the field of your manifestation, you are in fact not these swirling fluctuations of thought.

You are the thinker behind the thought, the observer behind the observation, the flow of attention, the flow of awareness, the unbounded ocean of consciousness. When you have that on the experiential level, you spontaneously realize that you have choices, and that you can exercise these choices, not through some sheer will power but spontaneously.

DR: What aspects of contemporary lifestyles do you feel are most harmful to people's health?

DEEPAK CHOPRA: The most harmful is the loss of simplicity, and the loss of trust. The experience of alienation, fragmentation, isolation....this ultimately leads to all of the problems, like contamination of our environment, hostility towards each other, poor nutrition, and hard work, too much work . . . A work-oriented society, a success oriented society, in which we believe that somehow, material objects are the only source of our happiness.

DR: How do you find time for medical practice, writing, travel and family life, and still get to bed early, as you recommend in your books?

DEEPAK CHOPRA: That's a good question. I in fact don't believe in the existence of time. That's one thing I have to tell you, and the other is that I don't take myself or what I am doing seriously. I believe in the ancient saying that this is a recreational universe, for those who want to share God's one great passion, beauty. I feel that I'm having a wonderful time. I don't look upon any of this as work. It's a source of great joy and happiness for me.

I experience beauty in everything I do, and when I experience it emotionally, then I know intellectually that it must be the truth. So if I don't go to sleep by ten, it doesn't bother me, because I'm not tired. Most of my writing I do in planes, when I have plenty of time. I meditate whenever I have a chance, and that is actually more frequently than most of my patients meditate. I see patients about 50% of my time at this clinic. That too is a source of great joy to me, talking to people and interacting with people. In fact, I have learned more from my patients than from anybody else.

DR: What has surprised you most in your practice of Ayurvedic medicine?

DEEPAK CHOPRA: What has surprised me most is that when given insight, even a little bit of insight, patients find themselves empowered to do the impossible.

DR: Your father is a medical physician in India. How did his values influence you with regard to your choice of a career, and also regarding your outlook on western and eastern healing methods?

DEEPAK CHOPRA: My father was a great source of inspiration for me, because he was such a wonderful father, who never in his life have I heard raise his voice. He brought up his two children as princes, told them that their birthright was to have all their desires fulfilled. He was a very strongly western-oriented doctor, however. He is a cardiologist, very well-known in India. But he is also a very fun-loving person. I still remember going on vacations and picnics together, going to Shakespearian dramas together.

I never wanted to be a doctor. I always wanted to be a writer and journalist, but when I got to college, I felt that I also had to be a doctor, because that was a very important part of my childhood experience, watching my father heal people. He has that ability. Not only as a great, great cardiologist, but also as someone who cares about his patients. Even when he is not in the hospital or office, he cares about them, he thinks about them, he talks about them to his children and his wife. Not giving away any confidential information, but just wondering how he can help them. He has always been a great source of inspiration.

He was not, however, inclined very favorably toward Ayurvedic medicine until I introduced him to it. Now he is the most enthusiastic researcher on Ayurveda in India.

DR: What current research on Ayurveda interests you most?

DEEPAK CHOPRA: The research that interests me most is the research on Panchakarma, which is the procedure for removing toxins from the body, and how it affects biological aging. And of course the research on the herbal preparations, which yield very interesting and previously unthought of ways of healing. Herbs don't usually work the way pharmaceutical compounds do, binding to receptor sites. They seem to be evoking and amplifying the body's own healing processes. They are much more gentle. That means they probably take longer. It's a much more gentle, a much more holistic, and a much more complete effect.

DR: You said your father raised his sons to believe that their wishes could be granted. If you had one wish that you knew could be granted, what would it be?

DEEPAK CHOPRA: My wish would be for peace on the planet, and that we all fall in love with each other.

Daniel Redwood is a chiropractor, writer and musician who lives in Virginia Beach, Virginia. He is the author of A Time to Heal: How to Reap the Benefits of Holistic Health (A.R.E. Press), and is a member of the editorial board of the Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine. He can be reached by e-mail at redwoods@infi.net.

©1995 Daniel Redwood<B< span>

Reasons for becoming a vegetarian

Let us start with a brief background on some the reasons people have chosen a vegetarian diet in our history:

The idea of vegetarianism is not a new one, by any stretch of the imagination. Indeed man has in one way or another eaten vegetarian diets since his beginnings. Granted, the first vegetarians did so only out necessity. Meat may not have been available due to harsh winters, animal migrational patterns or even poor tribal leadership. Only foraged food would have been available under such circumstances.

As man evolved and became more able to manipulate his environment, so came the option to choose. Available facts point to the first vegetarian ideologies being practiced in Egypt around 3,200BC where some religious groups abstained from eating flesh, as they believed it produced bad karma with regards to their reincarnation.

Around 2000BC Hindus, on the Indian sub-continent, began practising vegetarianism in the belief that a vegetarian diet is needed to reach spiritual enlightenment. Even today, Hindus make up the largest percentage of vegetarians on the Earth.

Also from the Indian sub-continent, around 600BC, came the religion of Jainism. In its teachings, Jainism insists that we honor the spiritual nature of all life. Extemely dedicated Jainists go to the extent of straining insects from drinking water and even wearing masks to avoid inhaling small, airborne creatures. They will only eat fruits that have natually fallen from trees and are not supposed to eat honey or rooted plants.
Janism is the only religion requiring their monks to be vegetarian.

Vegetarianism was also popularised in Ancient Greece by many of the great philosophers including Plato, Socrates, and Aristotle. Indeed vegetarians in Europe were originally referred to as Pythagoreans, after the Greek Philosopher Pythagoras advocated a vegetarian diet for its nutritional and ethical values. He claimed,

"As long as Man continues to be the ruthless destroyer of lower living beings he will never know health or peace. For as long as men massacre animals, they will kill each other. Indeed, he who sows the seed of murder and pain cannot reap joy and love."

It was not until 1847, when the first vegetarian society was formed in Ramsgate, Kent UK, that the name Vegetarian was first conceived. Contrary to popular belief, the word Vegetarian arose from the Latin word `vegetus`, meaning `lively` which was how early vegetarians claimed their diet made them feel.

Many reason have been voiced in favour of vegetarianism in our history including the long held philosophy that vegetarians are living longer, healthier lives than their meat eating counter-parts. Much evidence has already been accumulated to support these claims.

Now let us look at some of the reasons that justify becoming vegetarian in our modern society.

Necessity
The case of necessity speaks for itself really; anyone unable to find a supply of meat sufficient to sustain life must find an alternative until such time that meat becomes available again.

Economic
An Economic Vegetarian is someone who practices vegetarianism either out of necessity, lack of funds for instance, or because of a conscious or philosophical viewpoint that the consumption of meat is economically unsound and that vegetarianism will help improve public health and curb many starvation issues.

Environmental
Environmental Vegetarians are similar to Economic Vegetarians. According to the United Nations, the livestock sector (cows, chickens, pigs, etc) is one of the three most significant contributors to our most serious environmental problems, at every scale from local to global. It is one of the largest sources of greenhouse gases. The use of feedlots, for cattle feeding, is one of the most inefficient and environmentally harmful ways of producing meat; yet they still remain widespread throughout cattle farming.

Religion
Many religions support vegetarianism including Buddhism, Hinduism, Jainism and Taoism. They offer similar teachings which stress the value of all life and forbids the act of destroying life simply for human gains.

Distaste
Some people genuinely do not enjoy the taste of meat, suggesting it tastes sweaty or fatty. Others choose to be vegetarian because they find meat products aesthetically unappetizing. An example being, the carcass of a herd animal lying in a field would attract real carnivores such as big cats or wolves, but the mere sight would disgust most humans.

Animal Welfare
Many vegetarians, especially western vegetarians, are motivated by animal welfare. They see animals as our friends, with whom we share the world and not as mere food. The fact that most parents actively encourage their children to love and appreciate animals is totally contradictory to the way in which humans really respect and treat animals.

Personal Health
Possibly the single most reason more and more people are turning to vegetarianism, current studies are showing that vegetarians are living longer and healthier. A study by the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition in 1999 found that the mortality ratio in fish eaters was lowest (0.82) then followed by vegetarians (0.84) occasional meat eaters also at (0.84) compared to regular meat eaters at (1.0).
A recent study shown in the British Medical Journal concluded that,

"Higher IQ at age 10 years was associated with an increased likelihood of being vegetarian at age 30...IQ remained a statistically significant predictor of being vegetarian as an adult..."

Conscience
Conscience is a conglomeration of all the other reasons. It is our moral conscience, which allows us to weigh up what we see, hear and know. It is our choice whether we allow it to influence out daily life. Those who are able to suppress their consciousness, deliberately or otherwise, will ultimately make a decision that will not favour the miss-fortunes of animals.

I hope, that in some way, this article will encourage people to explore vegetarianism as a real option. Whatever reasons for becoming vegetarian, one thing is not in doubt; vegetarianism is here to stay and it looks likely to become the preferred diet of choice for all humans in the not too distant future.

By Carol Crenna

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