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| 1583.1 | "Perfect Health" - Table of Contents | TNPUBS::PAINTER | let there be music | Wed Nov 20 1991 11:26 | 105 |
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"Perfect Health - The Complete Mind/Body Guide", by Deepak Chopra, M.D.,1991
Table Of Contents
Part I - A PLACE CALLED PERFECT HEALTH
1. Invitation to a Higher Reality
2. Discovering Your Body Type
- Maharishi Ayurveda Body-Type Test
- Characteristics of the Body Types:
Vata
Pita
Kapha
3. The Three Doshas - Makers Of Reality
- The Subdoshas
4. A Blueprint from Nature
- How the Doshas Get Unbalanced
5. Restoring the Balance
- The Balanced Life - General Points
Part II - THE QUANTUM MECHANICAL HUMAN BODY
6. Quantum Medicine for a Quantum Body
7. Opening the Channels of Healing
- Panchakarma
- Transcendental Meditation
- Primordial Sound
- Pulse Diagnosis
- Marma Therapy
- Bliss Technique
- Aroma Therapy
- Gandharva Music Therapy
8. Freedom from Addictions
9. Aging Is A Mistake
- Rasayanas - Herbs for Longevity
- Quiz: How Well Am I Aging?
Part III - LIVING IN TUNE WITH NATURE
10. The Impulse to Evolve
11. Daily Routine - Riding Nature's Wave
12. Diet - Eating for Perfect Balance
- Body-Type Diets:
Vata-Pacifying Diet
Pitta-Pacifying Diet
Kapha-Pacifying Diet
- The Six Tastes
- Agni - The Digestive Fire
- A Blissful Diet
13. Exercise - The Myth of "No Pain, No Gain"
- Body-Type Exercise
- Three-Dosha Exercises:
Sun Salute
Yoga Positions
Balanced Breathing (Pranayama)
14. Seasonal Routine - Balancing The Whole Year
Epilogue: Flowers in a Quantum Field
Appendix A: Sources for Maharishi Ayurveda
Appendix B: Glossary
Bibliography
Index
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| 1583.2 | Brief biography | TNPUBS::PAINTER | let there be music | Wed Nov 20 1991 11:31 | 12 |
|
Deepak Chopra, M.D., who has practiced endocrinology since 1971, is the
former chief of staff of New England Memorial Hospital in Stoneham,
Mass. He is a Fellow of the American College of Physicians. He is
also the president of the American Association for Ayurvedic Medicine
and the medical director of the Maharishi Ayurveda Health Center for
Stress Management and Behavioral Medicine in Lancaster, Massachusetts.
Dr. Chopra is the author of "Creating Health, Return of the Rishi", and
"Quantum Healing". He lectures around the world and his work has been
published in twenty languages. He lives in Lincoln, Massachusetts,
with his wife, Rita, and their children, Mallika and Gautama.
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| 1583.3 | Addictions - smoking | TNPUBS::PAINTER | let there be music | Wed Nov 20 1991 12:21 | 146 |
|
Before Dr.Chopra came upon TM and Ayurveda, he smoked, so this is his
own approach to quitting.
Cindy
----------------------------------------------------------------------
{From: "Perfect Health", by Deepak Chopra, M.D."
Chapter 8 - Freedom From Additions
Giving Up Cigarettes
--------------------
In the case of cigarette smoking, coaxing your body to give up its
addiction makes much more sense than forcing it to. People who manage
to quit by going "cold turkey", but the sudden withdrawal of nicotine
precipitates a lot of stress. The story is told that Sigmund Freud
smoked twenty cigars a day for many years, until he began to suffer
heart palpitations as a result. He tried to quit smoking, on his
doctor's advice, but the palpitations returned with doubled force as
soon as he stopped, driving him back to his habit. Freud told his
biographer that trying not to smoke was "torture beyond human power to
bear."
In Maharishi Ayurveda, we tell smokers to keep sending signals to the
quantum mechanical body telling it that they want to quit. These
signals can be of various kinds. Laying off cigarettes for a day at a
time is one way - many if not most of the people who successfully quit
do so by temporarily stopping a dozen or more times. A more powerful
message is sent to the quantum mechanical body with TM (Transcendental
Meditation). Even if you are a heavy smoker, this may be all you need.
One retrospective study based on five thousand meditators showed that
only 1 percent of the men and 4 percent of the women were smokers, even
though before starting TM, a whopping 34 percent said that they smoked
at least occasionally.
There are additional ways to help you quit. When patients come to
Maharishi Ayurveda clinics and ask how they can stop smoking as
painlessly as possible, here is what we tell them. Three ground rules
are laid down in advance.
1. Do not try to give up smoking - hard-minded determination just sets
you up for failure. Nicotine is addictive, as is the habit of
reaching for a cigarette. To end these habits you have to retrain
yourself as unconsciously as you started.
2. Keep your cigarettes with you - the strategy of throwing cigarettes
away seems to make sense, but it only leads to panicked trips for
more and the embarrassment of begging them from friends and
strangers.
3. Notice the automatic cues that make you reach for a cigarette and
dissociate yourself from them.
The third point is the key one and requires explanation. All smokers
light up automatically on cue. For some the cue is picking up the
phone, for others it is turning on the TV, starting a conversation, or
ending a meal. You probably know your own cues; if not, take a day to
observe them. These cues are the signals to Vata that make you act on
impulse. You do not notice that you are lighting up because in fact
your mind has gone blank for that instant. Vata has taken over.
You need to switch off this automatic pilot. The way to do that is
surprisingly simple: smoke consciously and pay attention to the act of
smoking. The best method, which has helped many of our patients to quit
in a short period of time, is as follows:
o When you catch yourself lighting up, stop for a second and ask if
you really want this cigarette.
o If so, go outside and sit quietly by yourself. Smoke the cigarette
without distractions.
o As you are smoking, pay attention to your body. Feel the smoke in
your lungs; feel any sensations in your mouth, nose, throat, stomach,
or anywhere else.
o Take out a piece of paper or a small diary and immediately record
what you felt and the time you smoked the cigarette. Keep a record
of each cigarette, whether it was conscious or automatic, and how
it felt.
Do not worry about how much you are smoking; just record each cigarette,
even if you find that at the end of a phone call you don't know how
those three butts in the ashtray got there. If you follow this
procedure faithfully, you will become a conscious smoker instead of a
smoking machine. We have found that many patients cut down their daily
intake from two packs to four or five cigarettes - this reflects how much
they actually want to smoke. Cutting back is almost as important as
stopping; it prepares the way for quitting and also reduces the direct
health risk of your habit.
Curing An Addiction At Home
---------------------------
In the past, many addicted people have preferred to live with their
problem, no matter how tormenting, than to reveal it to outsiders. This
feeling is entirely understandable, and I always feel it should be
respected as long as you are also taking productive steps to quit. A
complete course of home treatment would include:
- Learning to meditate (TM)
- Detoxifying the system, either at home or under a doctor's care
- Body-type diet (beginning with Vata-pacifying foods until the
signs of Vata imbalance are gone)
- Regular Ayurvedic exercise
- Daily routine with oil massage (abhyanga) to settle disturbed Vata
[*** All these methods are explained in detail in the book. ***]
...We feel that no addiction treatment can succeed in the long run
without compassion and understanding. If you decide to seek counseling,
look for these qualities in a psychologist, pastor, doctor, or just a
good friend. One crippling drawback of conventional rehabilitation is
the constant vigilance means constant stress. The monkey never does get
off your back. We feel instead that addicted people have to learn to
trust themselves and be comfortable with their lifestyles. Any increase
in fear and anxiety is totally unproductive, even if the stress is
supposed to end a habit. The rationale behind our hands-off approach is
that nature can be trusted. An addicts body will return to balance if
treated correctly.
...The measure of your success is not how many days you go without a
relapse. Rather, you should look for signs of self-acceptance;
happiness, moments of joy and pleasure; return of a good appetite and
love of food; better sleep, calmer dreams; lack of bad odors in the
mouth and skin, less sweating; increased physical strength and
endurance; and regular physical functioning (digestion, respiration,
motor coordination, and so on.)
All of these will come in time. The great joy of getting clean is that
the body loves to be that way. I do not even favor the term
rehabilitation. What you are doing is washing yourself off, inside and
out. It is a natural process that will bring greater results the longer
it continues. Temporary relapses are little more than minor obstacles,
as long as you are willing to get back up and try again. A healthy,
beautiful world is waiting for you and gets nearer with every step you
take.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
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| 1583.4 | add'l info | TNPUBS::PAINTER | let there be music | Fri Nov 22 1991 15:05 | 140 |
|
From: "Yoga Journal", July/August 1989, p.48
Quantum Healing, by Craig A. Lambert
Interview With Deepak Chopra, M.D.
----------------------------------
It seemed like an insignificant event to have the impact that it did:
while browsing in a used bookstore one Sunday afternoon in 1980, Deepak
Chopra, an endocrinologist with a burgeoning practice in Boston,
stumbled upon a small volume entitled "Transcendental Meditation", by
Jack Forem. He brought it home along with several other titles. As far
as he can recall, none of the other books permanently changed the course
of his life.
Chopra had been born into an "extremely Westernized" family in New
Delhi, India, in 1947. His father, Krishnan Chopra, is one of India's
preeminent cardiologists and currently chairs the cardiology department
of a large hospital in New Delhi. Like his father, Deepak received a
thoroughly Western training in medicine, attending India's most
prestigious medical school, the All India Institute of Medical Sciences.
After graduating in 1969, Chopra emigrated to the US with his new wife,
Rita, and interned at Muhlenbert Hospital in Plainfield, New Jersey. ...
[Eventually] he taught at the medical schools of Boston University and
Tufts, and eventually became chief of staff at New England Memorial
Hospital in Stoneham, Massachusetts. He and Rita started a family and
bought a home in Lincoln, Mass.
By this point, Rita recalls, Deepak Chopra had "done it all". "He's
always worked twice as hard as anyone else," she explains. "He puts his
heart and soul into anything he does. And he's always had a gift with
people."
Yet Chopra was getting restless. [At age 33] he smoked cigarettes, drank
alcohol, and consumed plenty of coffee on his way through long work
days. He was counseling his patients to change their self-destructive
habits, but he began to recognize that he could not make such changes in
his own life.
Furthermore, Chopra felt frustrated in his attempts to fulfill one of
his cherished inner motives for pursuing medicine: to penetrate the
"essense of life." "I had read everything I could find on all spiritual
traditions - Buddhism, Taoism, Confucianism. I've read maybe 600 books
on spirituality," he says. But his high-powered career and his
relentless combining of spiritual literature had not satisfied Chopra's
appetite for higher consciousness.
Then came that fateful Sunday in the bookstore when he encountered
Forem's "Transcendental Meditation". Chopra read the book that evening
and said to Rita, "This looks fantastic!" The following day they went
to an introductory TM lecture, and received instruction in meditation
the day after that. Two months later they took the advanced TM-Sidhi
program, which involves techniques for deeper integration of mind-body
consciousness. "At first I did TM mainly to relax, but it changed my
whole life - my diet, my work, my relationships with patients and other
people," he says. "I became 10 times more efficient in my work." He
soon lost his taste for alcohol, and other self-imparing habits
spontaneously fell away.
Another turning point came in 1985 when Dr. Chopra met Maharishi Mahesh
Yogi, the founder of the Transcendental Meditation movement, who had
come to Washington, D.C., for the inauguration of the Maharishi Vedic
University. Chopra and Rita were emerging from a dining room when they
saw Maharishi, who walked straight up to them and asked them to come to
his room. The Chopras were somewhat taken aback; they were scheduled to
catch a plane in 15 minutes, and tried to beg off. But at Maharishi's
insistence they went upstairs, forgot all about their flight, and spent
an hour talking with him.
"I was impressed by his and my total comfort and lack of formality.
There was no pretentiousness, a lot of jokes and laughter. It was a
lighthearted meeting," Chopra recalls. "And I was completely taken by
his sincerity, his almost childish enthusiasm...for lack of a better
word, his bliss." Rita says, "Maharishi was the sweetest, easiest
person in the world to talk to, so warm and friendly, so loving and
happy. It was a most joyous experience."
Maharishi spoke to Chopra about ayurveda, the 7,000-year-old Indian
"science of life," which Maharishi was reviving and purifying as an
approach to perfecting health in the modern world. He told Chopra that
he should study ayurveda, understand it, and explain it in scientific
terms. In essense, he was suggesting that Chopra change the direction
of his career, and idea that momentarily made Rita uneasy. She told
Maharishi that it was not practical for Deepak to devote himself to
ayurveda; he had to make a living. Maharishi simply laughed and, eyes
twinkling, assured them both that Deepak would be very successful with
ayurveda.
That prediction has proven accurate. Dr. Chopra has become an important
link between the ancient science of ayurveda and modern Western
medicine. As president of the American Association of Ayurvedic
Medicine, he has traveled around the US and the world speaking about
Maharishi Ayurveda, the Maharishi's revitalized version of the ancient
healing tradition.
Chopra has lectured on ayurveda at Johns Hopkins, Harvard, UCLA, Yale,
and the National Institutes of Health. He has addressed the World
Health Organization in Geneva and the United Nations in New York, and
has appeared on dozens of television and radio shows. ... Although he
continues his clinical work as medical director of the Maharishi
Ayurveda Health Center in Lancaster, Massachusetts, Chopra's medical
practice is actually a global one, with patients in Holland, Hollywood
and Japan, among other places. Every two or three months he punctuates
his busy travel schedule with more travel, visiting India to meet with
Maharishi Mahesh Yogi.
Book Reviews
------------
Chopra's first book, "Creating Health: Beyond Prevention, Toward
Perfection" (Houghton Mifflin, 1987), discusses a wide range of diseases
and a panorama of strategies for creating health, returning again and
again to "the psychophysicolgical connection" - Chopra's term for the
intimate relationship of human consciousness and human physiology. The
book has gone through five printings, and has been published in England,
Japan, South America, Europe, Israel, Canada, South Africa, India, and
Australia.
His second book, "The Return Of The Rishi: A Doctor's Search for the
Ultimate Healer" (Houghton Mifflin, 1988), is an autobiographical tour
through rural Indian villages and urban American emergency rooms, filled
with thought-provoking stories of encounters with the extremes of health
and illness. "Witnessing Dr. Chopra's transformation into a
compassionate ayurvedic healer with an impeccable credentials in
endocrinology," wrote a 'New York Times' reviewer, "we can't help
wishing he lived close enough to make house calls."
This spring [of 1989], Bantam published Chopra's third book, "Quantum
Healing: Exploring the Frontiers of Mind/Body Medicine", a profound
investigation of consciousness and health that takes the reader on a
highly readable journey through the most provocative recent findings in
neuroimmunology, molecular biology, cerebral function, cellular
physiology, and other biological sciences.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
This latest book, "Perfect Health - The Complete Mind/Body Guide" was
published earlier this year, in 1991.
|
| 1583.5 | Alternate alternative medicine? | CADSYS::COOPER | Topher Cooper | Fri Nov 22 1991 16:00 | 17 |
| I guess its worth pointing out that at least some apparently
traditional practitioners of Ayurvedic medicine claim that the TM
organization in general and Chopra in particular are putting out
a cheap, inauthentic imitation of the real thing for purposes of
profit.
I wish to emphasize that I have no expertise here with which to
evalutate these claims. It may well be that these nay-sayers are
simply follow an alternate version of Ayurvedic medicine and have
been saying the same thing for the last 2000 years. Or they may
find that the slick merchandising by the TM organization of an
essentially identical "product" may be cutting into their own business.
Or lots of other possibilities.
Caveat Emptor for both sides.
Topher
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| 1583.6 | Well, as luck with have it...]B^} | TNPUBS::PAINTER | let there be music | Fri Nov 22 1991 16:55 | 9 |
|
I'm crossposting these notes in the VAXWRK::INDIA conference,
for those who are interested.
It's note 666.
[There *must* be some deep significance to this...]
Cindy
|
| 1583.7 | A money-making concern | SHIRE::PHILIP | Phil Ward Mgmt. Sci. Geneva-Etang | Sun Nov 24 1991 09:23 | 22 |
|
Two Indian doctors I know who practise in Delhi and who have
quite some knowledge of Ayurveda share the same dim view of TM's
"Ayurveda". It is very much a profit-making enterprise, which goes
against the spirit of traditional Indian medicine, and one which
seeks to add credibility to the teachings and practices of TM
which themselves have no basis at all in any traditional Indian
teaching.
Some friends of mine were TM teachers for several years
before leaving the organisation in disgust after realising what
they had become entangled with. They were teaching the so-called
advanced "Sidhi" techniques, in which you allegedly learn to fly
during a residential course lasting a number of weeks. The greater
part of the price (several thousand pounds in the UK) goes straight
to one of Maharishi's Swiss bank accounts, as does much of the
other income of the TM organisation. Many participants suffered
serious physical and mental health problems after taking "Sidhi"
courses, and although several reported various strange experiences,
none finished up able to fly under their own control.
Phil
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| 1583.8 | just in it for the $$$$$$$ | MARVIN::MARSH | The dolphins have the answer | Mon Nov 25 1991 03:31 | 17 |
|
Two British "Ayurvedic" doctors who have worked with Chopra in the past
were recently brought to court by two patients who had had their
"cures" tested by a chemist. They had paid hundreds of pounds for
tablets and other "Ayurvedic" tonics which in one case was found to be
nothing more than horse manure. The TM clinic in London had "promised"
hope to suffers of serious illnesses including cancer, I just hope the
court case has halted this scam.
I learnt TM as a relaxation technique about 4 years ago during a very
stressful time in my life. I treated it much the same as any course I
would take for my job. Payment for the course was the one and only time
the TM enterprise will see money from me.
seals
|
| 1583.9 | | SHALOT::LACKEY | Birth...the leading cause of death | Mon Nov 25 1991 10:25 | 55 |
| Re: .7 (Phil)
> It is very much a profit-making enterprise,
Profit-making and money-making can be very different things. A
judgement here might be hasty without evidence to support the claim.
After all, that organization must have evidence to support their
non-profit or not-for-profit status, whichever status applies.
> and one which
> seeks to add credibility to the teachings and practices of TM
> which themselves have no basis at all in any traditional Indian
> teaching.
I'm not sure what you mean by this. Meditation is part of innumerable
Indian traditions, and the techniques are as varied as the teachers.
The Sidhis (The TM Movements's trademarked name for the traditional word
spelled "Siddhis") are based on Patanjali's Yoga Sutras which are Indian
in origin since Patanjali was Indian. There are also many different
interpretations and practices of these Sutras. So "no basis at all in
any traditional Indian teaching" seems like a stretch.
> part of the price (several thousand pounds in the UK) goes straight
> to one of Maharishi's Swiss bank accounts, as does much of the
> other income of the TM organisation.
I would imagine that the bank accounts are in the name of the TM
organization, and since that organization has been based in Switzerland
for many years, it would seem a logical place to have bank accounts.
I am not for or against the TM Movement, but I think that such
assertions and connotations should not be made without first-hand
knowledge or supporting evidence, unless they are strictly your opinion.
Regarding the legitimacy of their ayurvedic practices (from an earlier
reply), it would seem to me to be a fairly easy thing to verify. I know
nothing of the TM Movement's ayurvedic practices. But it would seem to
me that they should be judged by their fruit. If ayurvedic medicine
prescribes certain treatments for certain illnesses with predictable
results, and the TM group is prescribing those treatments for those
illnesses and getting the results, then in all fairness they would have
to be considered valid. If they are not doing this, then someone with
extensive ayurvedic knowledge should be able to show this quite easily.
I do know that quality and accuracy are important to the this
organization, so I would assume that when they began their ayurvedic
endeavors they probably pulled from what they considered to be the most
knowledgeable in the field.
I can see how many traditional ayurvedic practitioners might become
disgruntled with the wide public use and demonstration of such practices,
just as some Indian teachers criticized Maharishi's wide distribution of
meditation techniques; but this doesn't mean that the practices are
necessarily invalid.
Jeff
|
| 1583.10 | What is ayurveda? | TNPUBS::PAINTER | let there be music | Mon Nov 25 1991 11:28 | 103 |
|
From "Yoga Journal", July/August 1989, p.49
Quantum Healing - Interview with Deepak Chopra, by Craig A. Lambert
---------------
Ayurveda - the ancient Indian science teaches that consciousness -
what we think, feel, desire, intend - shapes and controls
our physical bodies.
Question:
Dr. Chopra, what are the basic ideas underlying ayurvedic medicine?
Answer:
The basic premise of ayurveda is that consciousness is primary, matter
is secondary - that consciousness conceives, governs, constructs, and
becomes physical matter. The human body is actually an expression, an
epiphenomenon, you might say, of consciousness. Most thinkers in the
Western medical tradition hold the opposite view, defining consciousness
as an epiphenomenon of matter.
Right now as I speak to you, I cause fluctuations in the field of
consciousness. These are non-material; you can't touch them, taste
them, smell them, see them, because they are quantum-mechanical events.
Just as an electron is a quantum of light, a thought, a flicker of
intention, is a quantum of consciousness. These quantum-mechanical
events in consciousness become the flux of neuro-transmitters in my
brain. They cause hormonal changes, they result in the transmission of
neural impulses. They result in the vibration of vocal cords, the
production of sound. All my feelings, all my emotions, all my desires,
all my instincts, all my drives, every thought or urge I have, literally
becomes a molecule. And that's how I construct my body, from
consciousness.
But ayurveda goes beyond that. It says that the whole body of the
universe is constructed from consciousness in like manner. In Sanskrit,
we say, "As is the human body, so is the cosmic body. As is the human
mind, so is the cosmic mind. As in human physiology, so is cosmic
physiology. As is the atom, so is the universe." The human being is
just a fluctuation or, you might say, a wiggle or a crease in a more
universal field.
There are no well-defined edges to the body, either. It is part of that
continuum of nature which is one universal field. That universal field
breaks up, or appears to break up, into electromagnetism, weak and
strong interactions, gravity, etc. These energy fields are then decoded
by the senses as the objects of perception. But the fact is that if we
see the universe as separate bits and pieces, it is because sensory
experience creates that artifact.
Now, take a simple experiment. Bring up kittens in a horizontal
environment, where nothing but horizontal stripes are available in their
visual field. Bring up other kittens in a vertical environment, nothing
but vertical stripes. It has been demonstrated that when these kittens
grow up to be cats, the first group can see only horizontal stimuli.
They will actually bump into chair legs and table legs because they
literally cannot see them. The second group can see only vertical
stimuli. The kittens, out of their interaction with their environment,
develop interneural connections only for those stimuli. Their
experience determines the physical anatomy of their brains.
Based on their history of sensory experience, they develop a belief
system. And their senses allow only those stimuli which reinforce their
belief system to enter the brain. Conflicting stimuli are screened out,
and in fact are not even perceived.
We human beings are essentially like those kittens. We are offered a
certain set of sensory stimuli when we are born. This set of stimuli is
determined by the belief system of society; it's our cultural
indoctrination. In a sense this is how a society's belief system
replicates itself, perpetuates itself. It creates in us a certain set
of interneural connections that reinforce that particular belief system.
We not only don't 'believe' anything else, we don't 'perceive' anything
else.
Question:
So that's an example of how experiences, intangible awarenesses,
actually create corresponding physical structures in the body. Is this
what you mean by consciousness constructing the body?
Answer:
To explain it, let's say that the human body is something like the
printout of a computer. The hardware is the human nervous system, the
nerve pathways, the neuro-transmitter molecules, etc. And behind the
hardware is the software, the program - your feelings, thoughts,
instincts, desires, your belief systems. Behind it all is a programmer.
And who's the programmer? The programmer in ayurveda would be the
Self. But that Self, that Programmer, is the ground of everything else
in the universe. It's consciousness in its pure state. We access that
consciousness through meditation, and that new form of awareness can
change our belief systems.
I have practiced Transcendental Meditation for several years, and we
speak of TM as a technique for transcendence. The goal of all
meditation techniques is, in fact, to transcend. It's not to evoke the
relaxation response. It's to transcend, to experience that pure
awareness, that pure consciousness that is the source of the first
fluctuation of thought, the first fluctuation of intelligence.
|
| 1583.11 | photon meditation | ADVLSI::SHUMAKER | Wayne Shumaker | Mon Nov 25 1991 14:31 | 12 |
| thanks Cindy,
>... The goal of all
>meditation techniques is, in fact, to transcend. It's not to evoke the
>relaxation response. It's to transcend, to experience that pure
>awareness, that pure consciousness that is the source of the first
>fluctuation of thought, the first fluctuation of intelligence.
Probably the most mis-understood point of about meditation that people
have. (Even though a photon is a quantum of light, not the electron.:-)
Wayne
|
| 1583.12 | cont'd | TNPUBS::PAINTER | let there be music | Tue Nov 26 1991 12:19 | 90 |
|
From "Yoga Journal", July/August 1989, p.49
Quantum Healing - Interview with Deepak Chopra, by Craig A. Lambert
---------------
Continued...
Question:
Are you saying that authors like Dr. Herbert Benson, who popularized the
notion of the 'relaxation response,' are missing something important in
the meditation experience?
Answer:
Researchers like Dr. Benson are so programmed by scientific convention,
so socially indoctrinated, that they perceive only one level of reality.
They view the scientific method as a means of exploring reality,
whereas in fact, it is a means of exploring our current 'framework' of
reality. It's mistaking the map for the territory.
They see the relaxation response, which is an epiphenomenon, one aspect
of the meditation process on the way to transcendence, and since they
can measure it objectively, they focus all their energy and all their
scientific studies on that epiphenomenon. Whereas the goal really is to
experience the source of thought, not just to relax.
Question:
Are you saying that meditation is the primary experience, and that
ayurveda emerges from that experience of meditative awareness?
Answer:
Absolutely. The experience of transcendence, the experience of
consciousness as the primary reality, comes first, and from that come
all the therapeutic strategies of ayurveda. You see, a person who
transcends feels at one with nature. In fact, he feels that he 'is'
nature, that his intelligence is the intelligence of nature, that his
physiology is the physiology of nature. When he realizes that - and
it's not an intellectual realization - he ways, "Aha! As is the atom,
so is the universe; as is the human mind, so is the cosmic mind." So,
OK, I am the source of all creation, I am also the creator of my body.
I am the programmer. I can write any program I want. Now I'll start
writing my own program. This is the key realization.
Question:
You write that "when we think, we are practicing brain chemistry," and
you assert that "when you have a thought, you make a molecule," and
"there is no twisted thought without a twisted molecule." All this
would imply that the mind and body are inextricably one, inseparable.
How then can we step out of the system to change or heal it?
Answer:
You step out of it by becoming the silent witness to your thought
process in a non-judgmental manner. And that witnessing of our
emotions, of our feelings, leads to the automatic dissolution of
impulses that are self-destructive. Meditation leads to this silent
witnessing.
Question:
What about people who operate from this transcendent state? How do
people who are experiencing higher states of consciousness help the rest
of us?
Answer:
Just by being. I think they help the rest of us by being who they are.
They don't really have to do anything. They don't really have to
interact with the rest of society to improve society. If we believe
that consciousness is a field, if we believe that our ultimate ground is
the ultimate ground of everything else in nature, then just by being in
a state of unity, these people increase the experience of unity amongst
the rest of us. Consciousness is a field. And since it is a field,
where there is perturbation in part of that field, the whole field is
affected.
And beings in a higher state of consciousness, just by being who they
are, elevate us toward their level to some extent. Of course, once we
interact with them, we want to be like that, too; we want to be happy,
fulfilled. And very spontaneously the collective psyche, the collective
thinking of society, changes. I think that's the only way to solve the
world's problems. Whether they're economic or political, the only
solution to the world's problems is changing the collective
consciousness of society. And we can change it only by changing
ourselves.
|
| 1583.13 | | TNPUBS::PAINTER | let there be music | Mon Dec 02 1991 17:01 | 124 |
|
From "Yoga Journal", July/August 1989, p.49
Quantum Healing - Interview with Deepak Chopra, by Craig A. Lambert
---------------
Continued...
Question:
To change ourselves toward greater health, you speak of activating the
"healing system" in the human body. Is that another term for the immune
system?
Answer:
The healing system affects the immune system, the circulatory system,
the endocrine system, all bodily systems. All systems are subservient
to the healing system. To heal is a spontaneous thing in nature. There
are no dogs with M.D. degrees, there are no otters or trees who are
physicians with special knowledge of how to cure sick otters or trees.
There is no art of healing in nature, there is only the fact of healing.
The goal of the healing system is to bring back consciousness to the
awareness of man's natural state, happiness. The Vedic literature says
that to be healthy is to be happy. The essense of the brain chemistry
of perfect health is, therefore, happiness.
Question:
So it sounds as if the best thing we can do for our physical health is
to find ways to be happy.
Answer:
Yes, happy people are healthier than unhappy people, and the reason for
unhappiness - again going back to the ayurvedic tradition - is loss of
contact with the source of happiness, which is yourself. It also means
loss of contact with the source of everything else in nature. It's not
really even the loss of contact, if you understand it well, because the
contact is never lost, the contact with your own source is always there
- otherwise you wouldn't be around. It's the memory that's lost.
When you lose the memory that you are the Programmer who writes the
program for the whole universe, including yourself and all your
feelings, you become insecure. With that comes separation,
fragmentation, hostility, anxiety, fear. And the brain chemistry
corresponding to all this translates into a bad immune system, high
blood pressure, inappropriate cortisol responses from the adrenal
glands. We can see how losing unity consciousness, losing the memory of
who we really are, can bring about disease, since the impulses of
intelligence and consciousness translate into physiological responses.
Question:
What you are saying brings to mind the fact that most medical research
has focused on negative emotions and their effects on health -
psychosomatic conditions like ulcers aggravated by stress and anxiety.
Why has there been so little study of the impact of positive emotions on
the physiology?
Answer:
It's true, most research has concentrated on the implications of things
like the type A personality, or hostility in relation to the
pathogenesis of cancer and cardiovascular disease. Very little research
examines the effects of positive emotions. And that is because the
whole fascination of Western medicine has been with disease.
Question:
Dr. Chopra, virtually every physician in his or her practice has
witnessed the effect of mind on matter - the impact of prolonged stress
on the immune system, or the results of self-destructive behavior
patterns, to take a couple of examples. Why then do physicians seem so
slow to embrace the idea of consciousness as the causal factor in
disease, since they see it operating every day?
Answer:
Physicians are uncomfortable with accepting that the mind comes first
and the body comes second, because their whole training is with the
body. And it is part of their cultural indoctrination, as it is
everyone else's . Just like the kittens spoke of earlier. You practice
what you believe in, and then all stimuli which don't reinforce that
belief system don't really get into your nervous system.
But that is changing. I think we are shifting from the "magic bullet"
approach of Western medicine - the desperate, endless search for a
specific 'cure' for every disease - to a more holistic approach, where
physicians recognize that to be really effective, they have to focus on
process, on interaction, on behavior, nutrition, life-style, and on
biological rhythms.
If we keep looking for magic bullets, we'll never get anywhere. We have
a new antibiotic today, we have a resistant staphylococcus bacteria
tomorrow. We create another antibiotic, but we destroy the organisms in
the body that help keep us alive. The biggest contributors to
infections in this country are in hospitals. And the worst infections
are those that are produced by antibiotic-resistant organisms in
hospitals - they are called nosocomical infections. The biggest
destroyer of the immune system is not AIDS, but chemotherapy and
radiation, which make us susceptible to other types of malignancies.
Not that these modalities don't work, but we have invested all our faith
in them. Now we're looking for another magic bullet for AIDS. If we
really understood the basis of holistic medicine, the basis of ayurveda,
we'd see the AIDS virus as a precipitating agent in the
disease-susceptible host.
Question:
Perhaps it is psychologically more comfortable for patients to see the
cause of their illness as being outside themselves.
Answer:
Yes, it's easier for patients to believe forces outside themselves are
responsible for their illnesses. But as long as they remain entrenched
in that belief system, then the solution to cancer and heart disease and
degenerative disorders is not going to be forthcoming. You can bypass
the coronary artery only so many times; it keeps getting blocked because
the source of the illness is within yourself.
|
| 1583.14 | cont'd | TNPUBS::PAINTER | let there be music | Tue Dec 03 1991 16:22 | 117 |
|
From "Yoga Journal", July/August 1989, p.49
Quantum Healing - Interview with Deepak Chopra, by Craig A. Lambert
---------------
Continued...
Question:
Yet how can the physician be compassionate and at the same time hold
patients responsible for the diseases they suffer from?
Answer:
At the level of unity consciousness, the patient is myself, and if we
are moving toward that level, of course the patient is responsible, but
so am I. The patient and I are part of the same organism. It's like
saying my left toe is responsible for an attack of gout. Yes, it
participated in the attack of gout, but so did the rest of my body. So
it's more complex than just putting blame on the patient. It's not
blaming the patient. We are talking about a level of consciousness
where we feel compassion because we are really part of the same
organism. And we must feel that. It's part of the healing process.
Question:
We're starting to talk here about the relationship between doctor and
patient and its effect on healing. When Western medicine investigates
the patient's belief in the doctor in his or her treatment, it often
uses the model of the "placebo effect" - a factor to be ruled out in
clinical trials and experiments. Can medicine use the placebo effect in
a positive way?
Answer:
We know that the placebo effect is a factor - favorable or unfavorable -
in the outcome of disease. When the first experiments were done on
placebos, we found that when you gave certain people things that were
supposed to be painrelieving medicines, but were not, they were
experiencing relief of pain anyway. We also found that you could block
this placebo effect by giving them a narcotic antagonist - a drug that
blocks the action of painkillers.
So the theory was propounded, and it's now well accepted, that the
painrelieving effects of a placebo are mediated through the generation
of the body's own natural pain-relieving substances, endorphins, which
are many times more potent than any heroin you can buy on the street.
So the person ingests a pill in the belief that it's going to relieve
pain. What's a belief? It's an abstract level of thought. It's an
impulse in consciousness. And he transforms that inpulse in
consciousness into the endorphin molecule. Now this is fascinating in
itself. But it becomes more fascinating when you find that placebos
work in other ailments besides pain. They work in ulcers. They work in
angina. They work sometimes in cancer, causing spontaneous remissions.
So in all these instances, if the endorphin model is correct, the person
takes an abstract level of thought and turns that into a very specific
molecule: endorphins in one case, H2 receptor blockers in another
instance, perhaps a vasodilator in a third instance, perhaps an
immunoglobulin in a fourth instance. So the placebo offers us insight
into the translation of consciousness into matter.
The nocebo is also a profound insight. The nocebo is the opposite of
the placebo. "Mrs. Smith, you have breast cancer. In my experience
only one out of 10 women will live with this disease. And the
statistics show that there is a 95 percent mortality in the first six
months." Poor Mrs. Smith, if she plays the odds, she's dead in six
months. This is the nocebo effect.
Many years ago I used to moonlight as an emergency room doctor. I was
working with another emergency room doctor who smoked heavily. He
worked 22 hours a day, great surgeon, fantastic guy, but he used to
cough all the time, and one day I said, Let's get an X ray, and he said,
No, there's no need, I've had this cough for 5 years. But I finally
forced him to have the X ray, and we looked at it together, and he had a
lung lesion. We both knew it was cancer, and he was dead in three
months. After his death, I looked at his X rays from three years
earlier, and somebody had missed the lung lesion. He didn't know about
it. This was my first insight into what we are now calling the nocebo.
I said to myself, Did this fellow die of lung cancer, or of the
diagnosis of lung cancer?
Since I first read about the nocebo effect in the "Noetic Sciences
Review" [a non-profit organization founded by astronaut Ed Mitchell for
the study of consciousness], it has troubled me very much. Are we
doctors creating diseases? Is the collective consciousness of doctors
creating the diseases we see? There's no interaction between doctor and
patient without the flow of consciousness.
Question:
How might physicians' state of consciousness create disease?
Answer:
Let's say the National Institutes of Health did a study of lung cancer
patients that showed a 90 percent mortality rate within six months. The
study gets published in the "New England Journal of Medicine"; it's now
in the doctor's office and the next time a patient walks in with lung
cancer, this is what he tells the patient. Or at the very least it
shapes what the doctor believes and what he is thinking as he interacts
with the patient. This study influences the collective consciousness of
doctors, who now influence the outcome of the disease. We start
reinforcing those statistics, and we make them our so-called objective
reality, namely a 90 percent mortality from lung cancer within six
months. We create the morbidity and mortality of the disease through
the collective nocebo effect.
I fear for what we are doing as doctors. Are we creating mortality from
AIDS, for example, with the national paranoia, the national fear and
panic, about the disease? Are people dying from AIDS, or are they dying
from the diagnosis of AIDS?
Once you recognize that consciousness is primary, then your whole
thinking about disease, about health, is going to change drastically.
|
| 1583.15 | last one of series | TNPUBS::PAINTER | let there be music | Wed Dec 04 1991 14:29 | 87 |
|
From "Yoga Journal", July/August 1989, p.49
Quantum Healing - Interview with Deepak Chopra, by Craig A. Lambert
---------------
Continued...
Question:
What attributes of a physician's consciousness could help to stimulate
the patient's healing response?
Answer:
Truly, no doctor heals, he just sets into motion the healing mechanism
within the patient. If I had one criterion for a good doctor, and only
one criterion, I would say he must love his patients. That love will
trigger the healing response. His medical knowledge is very important,
of course, but we all know that you can go to two doctors and get the
same medicine, but get different results.
So what makes one doctor better than the other? It's the doctor who
cares. Who holds the patients in his heart, who allows that flow of
consciousness between himself and the patient. When a doctor adopts an
attitude that gives the patients insecurity, fear, anxiety, or
alienation, that translates into the nocebo response. And if we
understand that the nocebo response works, exactly like the placebo
response but in the opposite direction, then we know that the doctor
becomes as much an item to be feared as the disease itself.
Question:
Have you got a vision of the medicine of the future?
Answer:
We will see a medicine in the future which shifts from a materialistic
view of people to a view of man as a beautiful river in the vast ocean
of consciousness which we are part of. Health will be seen as a
positive state, something to be cultured, a higher state of
consciousness.
Perfect health will be unity consciousness. We will have therapeutic
modalities which will include the teaching of meditation to everyone.
People will be taught psychophysiological techniques to evoke different
types of physiological responses. Yogic techniques such as Hatha Yoga,
neuromuscular integration, pranayama, neurorespiratory integration, the
use of breath techniques, will become part of self-improvement.
People will learn to recognize disease as a learning process, as a step
on the ladder of evolution. Disease will be looked upon as an
opportunity, a great opportunity to evolve to a higher state of
consciousness. And ultimately we will see the effects of the group
dynamics of consciousness. We will see how our selfish interest
ultimately lies in the interest of the whole. Compassion will replace
hostility. Love will replace anger. It's very essential to have this
growth toward a collective consciousness that supports healing as a
recognizable therapeutic modality.
We have a type A individual, we have someone with fear, with anxiety,
with anger, what do we do? We tell him he's a type A, and he should see
a doctor before he has a heart attack. And yet, when we have whole
societies behaving like that, what do we do? We call them superpowers.
And, you know, they're ready to have a heart attack! It's time to
change the system, and the only way we can change is to avoid becoming
the next bullies on the block. This is where I'd like to quote
Maharishi's definition of power. It's one of my favorites. He said
that real power does not come with arms, does not come even with wealth.
He said, "Real power does not allow the birth of an enemy."
Real power comes from love and compassion. It comes from 'ahimsa'. The
word 'ahimsa' in India means non-violence. But in India, unfortunately,
it's become and intellectual concept. Not felt at the level of the
heart.
When I last talked to Maharishi about ahimsa, he said "Non-violence
should cry out in joy from every cell in the body." It's not an
intellectual concept at all, it should be an experience. Non-violence
has infinite correlation in nature. It's the stream of compassion that
runs in nature. And until we can make non-violence a living,
physiological reality, we will have disease. The medicine of the future
has to make non-violence, has to make world peace, a living reality for
all of us.
[end.]
|
| 1583.16 | Employment Opportunities | MR4DEC::MALLEN | | Thu Dec 05 1991 16:20 | 35 |
| Excellant New Emplyment Opportunities
Bring Health, Vitality to Yourself & Others as a
Maharishi Ayur-Veda Health Center Manager or Technician
Now you can bring health and vitality to yourself and others while
working in an ideal environment in one of the Maharishi Ayur-Veda
Health and Rejuvenation Centers that are planned for Massachusetts.
As described in Dr. Deepak Chopra's bestselling books Quantum Healing
and Perfect Health, Maharishi Ayur-Veda is the world's most ancient and
complete system of natural health care. It provides twenty time-tested,
scientific approaches to prevent illness, preserve health, and promote
longevity.
Energetic, entrepreneurial managers are needed to set up, promote, and
administer these new Centers.
Health technicians are needed to administer the Maharishi Ayur-Veda
Panchakarma program, which includes Abhyanga, Shirodhara, and other
herbalized oil massage and purification treatments.
If you would like additional information about training courses for
either of these positions, please give us a call. We'll be happy to
tell you more about Maharishi Ayur-Veda and the opportunities now
available in your area.
Boston, Cambridge Western Boston Suburbs Central and
& Northeastern Mass. & Southeastern Mass. Western Mass.
Dan Collinsworth Howard Chandler Dick Kaynor
(914)439-3264 (914)439-3459 (914)439-3417
|
| 1583.17 | :) | TECRUS::DEMARSE | Seek-a-double, use-a-cozza roll to find me | Wed Mar 23 1994 09:39 | 11 |
| Dr. Deepak Chopra will be conducting a seminar at SHR Auditorium
for Digital employees.
Dr. Deepak Chopra
Friday, April 15, 1994
12:30 -> 3:00 P.M.
SHR3 Auditorium
Ageless Body, Timeless Mind - The Quantum Alternative
Send your name, node, DTN, and organization to SHARE::SEMINARS
|
| 1583.18 | Any $$$ associated? | DELNI::LAMONT | | Wed Mar 23 1994 11:25 | 4 |
| Do you have any idea if there is a cost associated with this
seminar? And if so, how much? Thanks very much for the info.
Rick
|
| 1583.19 | | TECRUS::DEMARSE | Seek-a-double, use-a-cozza roll to find me | Wed Mar 23 1994 15:39 | 5 |
| I don't think so....it's part of the Women-at-Work series. And the
Women-at-Work series doesn't mean that it is limited to women.....anyone
can go.
:), danielle
|
| 1583.20 | | TNPUBS::PAINTER | Planet Crayon | Wed Mar 23 1994 17:00 | 12 |
|
Fabulous - thanks Danielle! Do you by chance know who (name of person)
brought him in?
For those who can't attend the seminar, he will also be doing a seminar
at Interface down in/near Boston in the evening, and he'll be doing a
weekend workshop as well.
My Interface brochure is at home, however if anyone would like the
details, just reply here and I'll post the information.
Cindy
|
| 1583.21 | :-) | TECRUS::DEMARSE | Seek-a-double, use-a-cozza roll to find me | Wed Mar 23 1994 17:29 | 11 |
| >> Do you by chance know who (name of person) brought him in?
I'm not sure...the posters say that you can also contact Janet Barry at
DTN 225-5536...
I'm really excited that Digital is having Dr. Chopra conduct a seminar!
If you're going to register, do it as soon as possible, space is
limited.
:), danielle
|
| 1583.22 | | TNPUBS::PAINTER | Planet Crayon | Fri Jun 10 1994 17:47 | 174 |
|
OM IS WHERE HIS HEART IS; FEELING DOWN? AUTHOR DEEPAK CHOPRA SAYS THE KEY
TO GOOD HEALTH IS ALL IN THE MIND
By Tom Dunkel
Washington Post Staff Writer
When Deepak Chopra - endocrinologist turned best-selling author,
lecturer, Oprah Winfrey guest, Michael Jackson pal and all-around latest
rage of the new age - strode into Yes! Bookshop in Georgetown on Friday
night for a quickie publicity stop, more than a hundred fans were waiting.
Like circus clowns crammed into a teensy car, they had filled the store to
near-comic capacity.
And why not? It's only natural folks would want to get a close-up peek
at the man who insists age is all in the mind, that the human body might be
as durable as a Japanese-made car and, therefore, quite capable of running
120 years or more.
"He looks very healthy. Thank heavens!" said Karon Brashares, a smartly
dressed businesswoman pressed up against a bookcase with the rest of the
latecomers.
Indeed, Chopra - who has said of himself, "I'm 47 chronologically and
25 biologically" - looked healthy and casually dapper in his dark suit and
open denim shirt. Thick black hair. Wrinkle-free skin. The relaxed,
what-me-worry demeanor of a guy whose stock portfolio just tripled in value
while he was off playing a round of golf.
But don't thank heaven. Thank physics. Chopra does so repeatedly in his
current book, "Ageless Body, Timeless Mind: The Quantum Alternative to
Growing Old." It has sold 1 million hardcover copies and the audio version
is now on Publishers Weekly's bestseller list. In "Ageless Body", Chopra
uses Einstein's subatomic theories not to build bombs, but to blow up
actuarial tables.
"We're coming into a new evolution of the body-mind," Chopra explained
during an impromptu mini-lecture at Yes! "In just the last three weeks a
quadrillion atoms have circulated through your body. ... The body is just
an instrument that traps you in space-time events."
That may sound highfalutin, but, in general, Chopra has made his mark
as a plain-talking synthesizer of East-meets-West medicine and philosophy.
The son of a cardiologist, he went to conventional medical school in
India, then migrated to the United States with his wife in 1970. He taught
at Tufts University, became chief of staff at New England Memorial Hospital
and eventually opened a private practice outside Boston.
Chopra says he was once the stereotypical hard-charging American:
smoked too much, drank too much, worked too hard, and his overtaxed nerve
endings hissed like firecracker fuses. In 1980, on a whim, he bought a used
book about transcendental meditation. Chopra promptly turned over a new
lifestyle leaf via TM and then began dipping into the assorted
holistic-healing pots of ayurvedic medicine, the ancient Indian folk
sciences that encompass everything from sesame oil massages and aroma
therapy to yoga and pulse diagnosis.
Chopra eventually crossed paths with Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, and the TM
guru took him under wing. In 1986 Chopra assumed the directorship of a new
alternative medicine clinic in Lancaster, Mass.: the Maharishi Ayur-Veda
Health Center for Stress Management and Behavioral Medicine.
But unlike the maharishi, whose long robes and wowie-zowie image have
marked him as being of the fringe, Chopra has mainstream appeal. He owns -
and wears - actual suits and ties. He speaks listener-friendly English.
Plus, he doesn't flat-out reject high-tech Western medicine.
"He's a doctor. That makes a difference," says Rajesh Kale, the
proprietor of the bookshop. "He's making (alternative medicine) very
accessible to people. America is teaching spirituality to the world now."
Seven years ago Chopra began actively spreading his ayurvedic-enhanced
message. There have been seven seductively titled books ("Perfect Health:
The Complete Mind/Body Guide" of 1991 also became a bestseller), which have
given rise to a mail-order business of companion audiotapes, oils and
herbal preparations. According to Forbes magazine, those byproducts alone
have netted Chopra more than $3 million.
Western doctors, Chopra tells his seminar audiences and readers, treat
patients like balky appliances. They replace a part, mend a wire, but
invariably focus more on symptoms than causes. They also rely too much on
prescription drugs. In actuality, each person is "more like a river of
energy and information," says Chopra. Hence, ayurvedic medicine
concentrates on marshaling natural defenses, viewing the human body as one
organic piece of nature's vast, ever-fluid puzzle.The body, he goes on, is
constantly regenerating itself on a microscopic level. Organs are replaced
faster than bad TV sitcoms: brand-new skin once a month, brand-new skeleton
every three months, and so on. As long as you're refurbishing the "house"
you inhabit, why not upgrade at the same time? Yes, it is possible to grow
young while you grow old.
"Because the mind influences every cell in the body," Chopra writes in
"Ageless Body, Timeless Mind," "human aging ... can speed up, slow down,
stop ... and even reverse itself."
All in all, it's a crowd-pleasing proposition. Still, there are Chopra
skeptics. While meditation's stress-reducing benefits are well documented,
much of ayurvedic science is still considered specious. Readers of the
Journal of the American Medical Association responded with howls of
hucksterism when Chopra and two colleagues were permitted to write an
article for the magazine several years ago.
Bill Taylor, who accompanied a Chopra-admiring friend to Yes!, wasn't
entirely convinced by what he heard either. "I'm an engineer and I look at
things logically. There's a part of me that says it's crap," admitted
Taylor, who nonetheless did buy a Chopra book and get it autographed.
Taylor's doubts probably would have been reinforced if he'd attended
the daylong seminar held at Falls Church High School on Saturday. Some 400
people paid $119 apiece to hear an in-depth discourse on quantum healing.
(Chopra's schedule is as manic as the path of a subatomic particle: He
will speak in Syracuse, N.Y., tomorrow, Portland, Maine, on Wednesday,
return to Washington for a talk at the Smithsonian Thursday, and touch down
in New Orleans Monday.)
Chopra has the polished stage presence of a good nightclub comic.
Microphone in hand, he can deliver a seamless two-hour-long monologue
without notes. He quotes old Vedic aphorisms, a Sufi poet, a German
philosopher, a Canadian neurosurgeon, Walt Whitman and Albert Einstein.
Plenty of provocative Chopra statements bob to the surface in his winding
river of thought: "It is my intuitive feeling a lot of inner-city crime is
formed in utero. ... If you selectively breathe through your left nostril,
you'll open up your right-brain thinking. ... The mind is in all the cells
of our body. You cannot localize it to the brain."
Chopra demonstrated eye movement exercises and alternative nostril
breathing. He had his audience mooing like cows as they emulated sounds
that are supposed to trigger the body's healing chemicals and hormones.
Sounds crazy to the uninitiated perhaps, but try cramming all of Western
medicine into a daylong lecture.
Most of those believers who gravitated to Falls Church were decidedly
normal-looking folk. (Well, okay, one attendee did find time during lunch
to discuss her three past lives, "One as a female Eskimo, one as a Lakota
brave, and one as a black African hunting lions ...")
"What he gives to you is the hope and belief in life, that longevity is
there," said Barbara Owens, a Washington real estate agent with an
infectious smile and downright girlish appearance. "Look at me, I'm almost
50 and I've got seven kids."
"You have to look at alternative medicine," said Ronnie Watts, who
once backed up Bill Russell on the Boston Celtics and has seven back
operations to show for it.
"I don't believe he's a cynical man," observed Herb Nasdor, a Baltimore
gynecologist unperturbed by the books, tapes and OptiMan and OptiWoman
herbal supplements on sale in the lobby. "If the marketing thing is what he
has to do to fund his research, that's okay."
In fact, Chopra has a new research home. Last fall, he relocated to
California to become executive director of the Institute for Human
Potential and Mind-Body Medicine, a division of Sharp HealthCare, the
reputable operator of six traditional-care hospitals in the San Diego area.
The institute recently received a modest $30,000 grant from the National
Institutes of Health to study ayurvedic medicine.
Chopra seems to have redoubled his efforts to achieve wider mainstream
acceptance. He has 10 more books on the drawing board. Next up is his first
work of fiction: an updated twist on the legend of King Arthur.
"More than anything else, as a child I wanted to be a writer," he said
during a seminar break.
He also wants to make it clear that he has formally parted company with
the maharishi. Their association was giving him a bad-karma headache. Too
much controversy. Too many demands on his time.
The "divorce," says Chopra, had "no negativity attached to it."
Apparently not. These days, he finds himself in an almost blissful
state. "I have no tension in my life," says Deepak Chopra. "That's the nice
thing. I'm pretty carefree."
|
| 1583.23 | Part of Chopra's secret | DWOVAX::STARK | Knowledge is good. | Mon Jun 13 1994 13:42 | 56 |
| | Bill Taylor, who accompanied a Chopra-admiring friend to Yes!, wasn't
|entirely convinced by what he heard either. "I'm an engineer and I look at
|things logically. There's a part of me that says it's crap," admitted
|Taylor, who nonetheless did buy a Chopra book and get it autographed.
This is the kind of response to clever use of marketing psychology that
has earned Chopra his fortune. People who are influenced by these
well known and mostly legal tactics generally are swayed to buy, and
may even realize that they don't believe in the product, yet buy anyway for
reasons they don't understand !
A classic story is recounted in Robert Cialdini's book, _Influence_ :
_The_Power_of_Persuasion_, now in its 15th printing.
Cialdini and a friend, a fellow professor at his college, went to
observe a TM recruiting seminar. They listened attentively to the
speakers discuss how their special form of meditation could not only
promote the well known health benefits of relaxation, but also help
virtually any known ailment, reverse aging, and enable adepts to
fly without wings. Every ill or hope that the people in the audience
could present were solved by this health system.
At the end, questions were requested and Cialdini's friend, a professor of
logic and statistics, stood up and carefully and convincingly
dissected every argument presented by the recruiters. Every point
they made was compared to the evidence and every last shred of
information in favor of people believing the recruiting spiel was
laid bare. The expected result was of course that people would
stroke their chins and begin to question the recruiters ideas.
The result was completely unexpected, even to Cialdini, a social
psychology professor. Even though the recruiters were left dumbfounded
saying "umm... I guess we'll have to do some more research to answer
your points" the response from the crowd was immediate and
enthusiastic, they all jumped up to sign up !
Cialdini was astonished and so he asked the people why they chose
that moment to sign up. They all responded with the same basic
answer. "When your buddy there started to take apart the sales pitch,
I knew I would start to get skeptical, so I knew I had to join up
before I got cold feet !"
Cialdini intererprets this as showing that the people had real
problems which they came to believe could be resolved particularly by TM
or only by TM. They then exhibited an obvious fear of reason, since
rational argument could persuade them not to do what they already
had decided was their only answer. They were in effect exhibiting
a clearly motivated flight from reason, though they didn't realize it.
Cialdini't book is very highly recommended, along with Pratkanis and
Aronson's _Age_of_Propaganda_. The amount of this kind of unrealized
manipulation around us is extraordinary.
kind regards,
todd
|
| 1583.24 | Chopra and the JAMA article ... | DWOVAX::STARK | Knowledge is good. | Mon Jun 13 1994 13:57 | 42 |
| The story of Chopra and the JAMA article is worth persuing as well.
The Ayurvedic advocates misrepresent it as if it were some sort of
irrational prejudice against alternative medicine, which is _not_ the
case. The negative response to Chopra was the justified and
well-researched response of a group of experts who had discovered
that they had been easily taken in by a confidence artist !
This is clearly documented by a JAMA referee in a subsequent issue of the
JAMA.
Chopra and two other Ayurvedic advocates with apparently good credentials
had presented an article to the JAMA ostensibly comparing ancient healing
with modern medicine, a legitimate topic for publication. They
represented themselves (as is required for publication in the JAMA) as
unbiased researchers who had no commercial interest in the subject of
inquiry.
Of course, their article was a disguised sales pitch for modern
and very profitable Ayurveda, and they had already made fortunes on what
they were slyly selling to the medical community in the article.
When the referee of the JAMA found this out, he wrote in the next issue a
scathing expose of Chopra. In their usual cleverness, and knowing that
most potential customers would never read the original JAMA article or the
expose, Chopra's cronies claimed that this was simply the expected
result of people's knee-jerk response to alternative medicine. Readers
of the JAMA of course knew that this was ridiculous, but it sounds
plausible outside of that circle, where most of Chopra's potential
income derives.
Caveat Emptor.
Chopra also denies the ten thousand dollar intercessionary prayers
done on behalf of Ayurveda 'patients,' which they are not even
permitted to observe. However, these have been carefully documented
in records obtained from the Ayurvedic organization.
Does any of this start to sound familiar ? Shades of Scientology,
perhaps, with an additional aura or authority and legitimacy added by
Chopra's perceived status as a doctor.
todd
|
| 1583.25 | | TNPUBS::PAINTER | Planet Crayon | Tue Jun 14 1994 00:22 | 24 |
|
Re.24
>Shades of Scientology...
Now that's really pushing it.
As for the ten-thousand dollar prayers and the 'group of experts',
can you be a bit more specific?
It's important not automatically link all of Ayurveda to Chopra,
because the system is actually thousands of years old. There are
many Ayurvedic doctors (M.D.-types) who also practice and are not
linked to Chopra/TM at all. I don't particularly care if Chopra is
legitimately criticized, but it would be unfortunate to criticize
all of Ayurveda as well at the same time, since it is quite an amazing
system. If anyone is interested in some in-depth information on
Ayurveda, I can highly recommend Dr. David Frawley's books - he's done
two books on Ayurveda, and through the Institute for Vedic Studies in
New Mexico that he is the director of, there is a correspondence course
on Ayurveda that I'm thinking about taking a look into. They also offer a
similar course on Vedic Astrology.
Cindy
|
| 1583.26 | Here's what I think I know ... | DWOVAX::STARK | Knowledge is good. | Tue Jun 14 1994 11:17 | 46 |
| | >Shades of Scientology...
|
| Now that's really pushing it.
Or maybe not. They don't use aggressive recruitment anymore because
they don't have to. But the rest is strikingly similar.
Listen to the story and then decide.
The information comes from the JAMA article on Chopra and from
an article from the Fall 1991 newsletter of the National Association
of Science Writers.
The prayers are called Yagyas. Chopra flatly denies recommending them
_at_all_, yet an associate editor for JAMA obtained a copy of a health
analysis from Chopra's own clinic in Lancaster,Mass. which recommends
several Yagyas.
In a fund-raising letter distributed within the TM
community, the medical directory of the Maharishi Ayur-Veda Medical
Center in Washington, D.C. recommends an $11,500 Yagya for a seriously
ill patient. This was while publically denying that she recommended
Yagyas at all. You could argue of course that these intercessionary
praryers for money are perfectly reasonable religous practice. But not
when the individuals deny doing them, then it becomes a con game.
So the Scientology comparison is a very accurate one in my opinion.
There are a great many significant parallels, including the strategic use
of an elaborate magico-religious worldview which borrows just enough
of the scientific worldview to lend apparent authority status and
lure scientifically oriented observers. Then, grandiose claims of healing
powers and psychic powers, and a special strategy for saving the world
through mystical means and also there are similar organizational dynamics.
All of this very well rationalized to the members, of course, so it even
appeals to experienced scientific and health-care professionals.
Intelligence and education alone are not adequate defenses from this
slickness. You also need a critical eye and the ability to trust
your gut feeling when you first feel the pull of their marketing
net. Most trained scientific observers immediately recognize that
something is wrong, as shown by several exemples in the previous news
story. They are drawn by emotional appeal and a growing sense of
modern uncertainty and anxiety rather than by evidence. But most are not
critical enough to stop it, any more than they can keep from buying a
product that is cleverly marketed by Madison Avenue.
todd
|
| 1583.27 | | TNPUBS::PAINTER | Planet Crayon | Tue Jun 14 1994 12:48 | 13 |
|
Asking money for such prayers is not acceptable, and any legit guru
would never do this.
As for Chopra and the center in Lancaster, at the end of the article in
.22, he has formally disassociated himself from both the center and
from the Maharishi. Just when he did that, or the details on why he
did that, I do not know. But - and this is my opinion only - it is
possible that he too was taken in by the Maharishi, and once he realized
it, he decided to put the distance between him and his (now former) guru.
Cindy
|
| 1583.28 | thx | DWOVAX::STARK | Knowledge is good. | Tue Jun 14 1994 12:55 | 4 |
| re: .27,
Thanks very much for the additional info, Cindy.
todd
|
| 1583.29 | | DSSDEV::LEMEN | | Tue Jun 14 1994 17:09 | 13 |
| The only thing that bothers me about this discussion of
Ayurveda (a subject at which I am, admittedly, a novice),
is the assumption that JAMA and the AMA are not profit-making
groups with their own agendas to push. If you want to read
some real horror stories about medicine, turn to this past
Sunday's New York Times stories on health care.
I think we here in the U.S. should be extremely careful about
what we have to say about other systems of medicine. Ours
is certainly not perfect, is quite invasive, and often goes
against people's wishes.
june
|
| 1583.30 | | TNPUBS::PAINTER | Planet Crayon | Tue Jun 14 1994 17:55 | 7 |
|
That's a very good point, June, and I agree.
Btw, I should have asked before - what does JAMA stand for?
Is it related to the AMA?
Cindy
|
| 1583.31 | False dilemma. | DWOVAX::STARK | Knowledge is good. | Tue Jun 14 1994 18:06 | 19 |
| re: .29, June,
| I think we here in the U.S. should be extremely careful about
| what we have to say about other systems of medicine. Ours
That's just the point most people miss in the critique of
Ayurvedic. Medicine is not a 'system,' it is an art and a science.
Anyone, including a doctor, who claims to have a cure-all system should be
brought under great scrutiny.
Rather, you should be careful of being sure that you insist
on the medical care you deserve from the most competent
practitioners you can find. Don't expect a 'system'
to simplify this for you. Health and disease simply don't
adhere to man-made systems as we would like them to.
kind regards,
todd
|
| 1583.32 | | DWOVAX::STARK | Knowledge is good. | Tue Jun 14 1994 18:08 | 1 |
| JAMA = Journal of the American Medical Association
|
| 1583.33 | | TNPUBS::PAINTER | Planet Crayon | Thu Jun 16 1994 18:20 | 15 |
| Re.32
Todd,
Thanks - I didn't realize that's what JAMA stood for.
In all honesty, I don't have much respect for what the AMA has to say.
Given their biases, I'm about as fond of them as you are of Ayurveda/TM.
Maybe it's good they are going after each other. (;^)
If you have copies of those articles you referred to earlier in your
possession, I'd be very interested in reading them. Then we can have
some discussions on them.
Cindy
|
| 1583.34 | Ayurveda as a system | TNPUBS::PAINTER | Planet Crayon | Fri Jun 17 1994 15:19 | 19 |
|
June is correct - Ayurveda is indeed a system.
From, "The River of Heaven - Hindu and Vedic Knowledge for the Modern
Age", by David Frawley, p.33
Chapter 3 - Nature's Medicine: Ayurveda
"Ayurveda is the knowledge or science, veda, of life or longevity,
ayur. It is the medical aspect of Vedic science and regarded as an
Upaveda, or secondary Vedic system.
Today it is perhaps the most commonly known of the Vedic sciences.
In the Vedic and Yogic system, health is seen as a basis for creative
and spiritual growth, and not as an end in itself. The goal of life
is not just to live but to find the meaning of life. Hence, we
should use the time and energy our health provides for developing our
higher nature. Thus Ayurveda naturally leads to the other and deeper
aspects of Vedic knowledge."
|
| 1583.35 | | TNPUBS::PAINTER | Planet Crayon | Fri Jun 17 1994 15:29 | 9 |
|
I'm going to begin a topic on what real Ayurveda is all about.
The TM/Ayurveda/Chopra/(J)AMA discussion can continue here, since
this discussion is more about (the problems of) these organizations
than the true system of Ayurveda which has been around for thousands
of years.
Cindy
|
| 1583.36 | The 'true' religion. | DWOVAX::STARK | Knowledge is good. | Fri Jun 17 1994 16:18 | 39 |
| | than the true system of Ayurveda which has been around for thousands
| of years.
Of course, virtually every modern religious organization claims its roots in
the venerable ancient past. That's a given. The degree to which it is
true in any given case is a matter of opinion and interpretation. As
is whether this gives it any special value.
In medical care, being ancient is no guarantee of being efficacious.
Exorcism is an ancient and long well-regarded treatment as well, and even
works in some cases today. One of the only cases on record where a
transsexual actually changed their sexual identity was a bizarre case
where they had a very religious upbringing and responded favorably to an
exorcism. Leeches and maggots are also used today for certain things.
And many medical cures came from what was originally considered
folklore. That doesn't mean that the entire 'system' they were packaged
in has value. In fact, that is very rarely if ever found to be the case.
On the other hand, modern medicine is based on things which can be
demonstrated in the here and now and by means of outcome studies
rather than relying on tradition.
These demonstrate that some aspects of modern Ayurvedic claims,
such as that health and disease are all in the mind, are simply not true.
There is an influence of mental and emotional factors on health, but
they are not all important. And they are not unique to Ayurvedic.
While the philosophy certainly may be similar or even the same, I tend to
doubt that much of the modern commercial aspects of Ayurveda are actually
as ancient or as venerable as all that anyway. That's where some critical
evaluation is needed, imo, when people begin to let their feelings about
religion enter into evaluation of health practices.
"... feeling like a Christian Scientist with appendicitis ..."
(from a song by Tom Lehrer)
kind regards,
todd
|
| 1583.37 | Agree | DWOVAX::STARK | Knowledge is good. | Fri Jun 17 1994 16:20 | 7 |
| | June is correct - Ayurveda is indeed a system.
Right, that's what I said. Ayurveda is a system, and medicine is not.
That's why comparing them as if they were somehow rivals is largely
meaningless.
todd
|
| 1583.38 | | TNPUBS::PAINTER | Planet Crayon | Fri Jun 17 1994 19:46 | 78 |
|
Re.36
>>than the true system of Ayurveda which has been around for thousands
>>of years.
>Of course, virtually every modern religious organization claims its roots
>in the venerable ancient past. That's a given. The degree to which it
>is true in any given case is a matter of opinion and interpretation. As
>is whether this gives it any special value.
You completely misquoted me. My point was that there is a system
called Ayurveda which is thousands of years old. Then there is this
modern organization called TM/Ayurveda (or whatever the correct name is)
which is only BASED ON the ancient Ayurvedic system, and is not THE
Ayurvedic system.
Given your comments, I'm concerned that you are mixing the two up.
>In medical care, being ancient is no guarantee of being efficacious.
(Hey, no kidding.)
Being modern is no guarantee of being efficacious either.
>On the other hand, modern medicine is based on things which can be
>demonstrated in the here and now and by means of outcome studies
>rather than relying on tradition.
Tradition of what? Who is talking about 'relying on tradition' when it
comes to Ayurveda? I'm certainly not.
Modern medicine is hardly a panacea, by the way, even with its outcome
studies.
>These demonstrate that some aspects of modern Ayurvedic claims,
>such as that health and disease are all in the mind, are simply not true.
This is either a misconception on your part, or a claim you've heard/read
somewhere about Ayurveda that is just plain wrong.
At the same time though, I can recall a number of times that my GP told
me that a few medical conditions I've experienced are 'in my head'.
Fortunately I found relief to what turned out to be very real conditions
...some were helped by a competent neurologist, and others by alternative
medicine.
>There is an influence of mental and emotional factors on health, but
>they are not all important.
This is where you (and I) and Ayurveda differ.
>And they are not unique to Ayurvedic.
I don't understand this statement. What isn't unique to Ayurveda?
>While the philosophy certainly may be similar or even the same, I tend to
>doubt that much of the modern commercial aspects of Ayurveda are actually
>as ancient or as venerable as all that anyway.
I have no idea what you're speaking of here. Perhaps these things will
be addressed in the entries I'm making in the other topic.
>That's where some critical evaluation is needed, imo, when people begin
>to let their feelings about religion enter into evaluation of health
>practices.
I use a few Ayurvedic treatments and they work quite well. Their
effectiveness has absolutely nothing to do with my 'feelings about
religion' - whatever that is, anyway.
Cindy
|
| 1583.39 | References for previous allusions. | DWOVAX::STARK | Knowledge is good. | Thu Jun 23 1994 14:15 | 14 |
| Thanks for clarifying your viewpoint, Cindy.
I'm sorry I can't get a hold of an on-line copy of the articles
we discussed previously, but for reference, the articles I mentioned may
be found in:
Journal of the American Medical Association,
The May 22-29, 1991 issue contains the Chopra et. al article
The Aug 14, 1991 issue contains the "correction" by the editor,
The Oct 2, 1991 issue contains the 6 page "expose" on Chopra et al.
kind regards,
todd
|
| 1583.40 | | TNPUBS::PAINTER | Planet Crayon | Thu Jun 23 1994 15:17 | 31 |
|
Thanks, Todd. Especially...I was under the impression that these were
recent articles, but 1991 is a bit old. Not that they aren't correct -
especially on the charging for prayers issue - but they are somewhat
outdated. A lot has changed since then.
The other night while reading the last few months of Yoga Journals,
there was a comment in one of the letters to the editor stating that
the Lancaster center has always been TM-run and owned, which was kind
of interesting. Chopra has been an employee, and not the one
ultimately in charge. Apparently the high prices are part of the TM
organization itself, and not things that Chopra set. Overall, I would
have to agree - my impression of the TM organization is not that all
that great.
But, the practice of mantra chanting in general (which I do), and the
principles behind Ayurveda - I support these completely, and primarily
because they work in my life. I don't agree if Chopra did unethical
things while working for the TM organization - such things are
inexcusable - but for what he has to say in his lectures and in his
books about the principles and practices of the ancient science of
Ayurveda...these things I am in complete agreement on.
I have the price list from the Sharp center that he is now the director
of out in California, and they seem to be much more reasonable than the
TM center. His lecture and workshop prices have also come down, and he
actually did our conference for no compensation at all - we paid only his
expenses. So, I see a change in him from what has been described
earlier.
Cindy
|
| 1583.41 | Ok. | DWOVAX::STARK | Knowledge is good. | Thu Jun 23 1994 16:22 | 5 |
| Thanks for the perspective on Chopra. Perhaps his only guilt
in the yagya issue was by association and he had no part in the
goings on. That's entirely possible. I appreciate your
patience and the additional information.
todd
|
| 1583.42 | allopathic medicine has its problems too | TNPUBS::PAINTER | Planet Crayon | Tue Jul 12 1994 13:30 | 72 |
|
From: "Beyond Antibiotics - Healthier Options for Families", by
Schmidt, Smith, and Sehnert, pp.32-33
Science, Politics, or Economics?
Contrary to popularly held beliefs, modern medicine is often based as
much on philosophy, beliefs, politics, and economics as it is on
science. Perhaps no story better illustrates the tapestry interwoven by
science, politics, and economics than that of Dr. Erdem Cantekin, former
director of a research center at the University of Pittsburg. Dr.
Cantekin, and international authority on ear disease, was
co-investigator on a five-year National Institutes of Health study to
evaluate the effectiveness of the antibiotic amoxicillin in the
treatment of childrens' ear infections. Americans spend over $500
million annually to treat this one condition.
Cantekin's analysis of the date from this study showed that amoxicillin
was ineffective and possibly harmful. His findings were further
analyzed and corroborated by a statistical analyst from Carnegie Mellon
University. But another researcher disagreed. According to an article
entitled "Corporate-Funded Research May Be Hazardous To Your Health"
published in the 'Bulletin of the Atomic Scientist, "the primary
investigator on the $15 million federal grant, a colleague of Cantekin's
at the medical school interpreted the data differently: 'after changing
the study protocol', he determined that amoxicillin is effective against
children's ear infections. [emphasis added]
"The primary investigator had also, over the period when the government
was paying for the research, accepted perquisites amounting to over
$50,000 per year in lecture fees and travel money from drug companies
that produce antibiotics. Between 1981 and 1986, the ear center
received more than $1.6 million in research grants from pharmaceutical
companies to test the effectiveness of antibiotics on ear infections."
Dr. Cantekin wrote a paper arguing that amoxicillin "while appropriate
for many uses, is not effective in the treatment of secretory otitis
media [fluid behind the ear drum]." He submitted his paper for
publication in hopes that other physicians could view his interpretation
of the research and compare it with that of his colleague. But this was
not to be. Both the 'New England Journal of Medicine' and the 'Journal
of the American Medical Association' rejected Dr. Cantekin's paper.
Meanwhile, the paper presented by his colleague, which supported
antibiotic use, was published in the 'New England Journal of Medicine'
(1987). Antibiotic sales soared following publication of this paper.
The case is filled with tragic irony. As a result of Dr. Cantekin's
efforts "his data tapes were erased, he was taken off all the
department's grants, fired as director of the ear research clinic, and
forbidden by the chairman to publish the paper....Because he has tenure
the School of Medicine cannot fire Cantekin, but he has been stripped of
the resources needed to conduct research." (footnotes appear here)
Sadly, as a result of these actions physicians throughout the United
States were deprived of the opportunity to base their judgment on
conflicting viewpoints, and were left to ponder only that which
supported the prevailing belief.
Nearly five years later, Dr. Cantekin's paper was finally published in
the 'Journal of the American Medical Association' (December 1991). The
results have seriously challenged the prevailing belief about the value
of antibiotics in treating ear infections, especially those that are
chronic. Cantekin's data showed that not only did children on
amoxicillin fare no better than those taking placebo (sugar pill), but
those on amoxicillin suffered from two to six times the rate of
recurrent ear effusion. Cantekin also remarked on two other popular
antibiotics. He wrote, "...those data indicate that amoxicillin was
not effective and that two other antibiotics, Pediazole and cefaclor,
also were not effective according to the method of analysis the OMRD
[Otitis Media Research Center] had chosen to use." (footnotes appear
here) It is interesting to note that the "negative" data regarding
Pediazole and cefaclor was never published by the original
investigators, but came out during a Congressional investigation.
|