Posted on 12/01/2008 8:02:14 PM PST by Brian_Baldwin
This is a “guru” who wrote the book “Golf for Enlightenment” - pathetic. I didn’t know that gurus and enlightened ones such as the Buddha were interested in playing games like golf. In addition to an essay he has written “Does God Have Orgasms?”, his message on golf as a Bhagavad Gita is “I nourish my relationship with the ball by saying, `You're part of me ... When you soar, I will soar with you."'
He lives the high life, he lives a rich lifestyle certainly beyond my means, and certainly beyond the life of the average Hindu in India – in fact, he is a disgrace among Hindus, though I would think he imagines he is fashionable to claim he is not a Hindu and throw in the word Buddha here and there to try and make himself sound sophisticated. Siddhartha the Buddha has no resemblance whatsoever to this money making fraud, who found himself in the court system on a sexual harassment suit by a former co-worker. The jury ruled in his favor, and we all know about a California jury. His HQ is in Carlsbad, California, and among the enlightened who are his followers and devotees there are the saints such as Bill Clinton, Madonna, and Michael Jackson. Here is some of the idiocies he publishes on his website:
“The emergence of Gov. Palin wasn’t simply startling — it was inexplicable. How could 20% of women voters suddenly turn toward her when Palin stands for erasing forty years of feminism? How could the mentality of a small-town mayor morph into a potential President making global decisions? To explain her meteoric rise, I offered the idea that each of us harbors a shadow, a place where our hidden impulses live. By appealing to fear, resentment, hostility to change, suspicion of “the other,” and similar dark impulses, the Republicans have been the shadow’s party for a long time. Sarah Palin put a smiling face on feelings that normally we feel ashamed of.”
So now in the face of terrorism, once again, the murder of Jews and Hindus in Mumbai by the fascism of politicized Islamic terror, he comes on Fox Cable (H&C) and essentially blames America and the “disaster of the Iraq war” …
So let me understand – the Night of Death in Calcutta in August of 1946, which started after the Muslim League passed the “Direct Action” resolution the month just prior, this was the fault of America, right? So when the Islamic terrorists kill yet another Jew in India or Israel or all over the world, this is the fault of the Iraq War, right?
When the Islamic terrorists kill yet another Hindu child in India in the name of jihad, this is the fault of America, Mr. Chopra? 1809, Banaras, India. That was the fault of America, right?
Oh, I guess you want to sound haughty and say, “no, it is the fault of fear”.
Mr. Chopra, even I the non-sectarian that I am, I am a better Hindu then you or whatever you want to call yourself. I do not live in an expensive house as you do so I may not be able to afford to be your “devotee”, but one day let me take you down Kyd Street in Calcutta India and then in the next couple hours I will walk you through some streets that will take us into the chicken market and then into the Muslim area, I will show you Islam and introduce you to some people who would be curious to met you. If you are so brave. If you can put down your golf club. I don’t play golf, Mr. Chopra. There are some people in Calcutta who would agree with you that it is all America’s fault, and the Iraq War was a disaster. You can tell them all about “fear”. But, don’t tell them what you are, don’t tell them you are a “guru”. Don’t do that. They will not like you at all. But, you can talk to them directly, and let us see how much of a guru you are. But no! . . . when you go to Calcutta, you go the Park Street Round Table and later the Oberoi Grand. You know, the Park Street Hotel, right? You say Calcutta has a soul. Yes it does. Many souls, many ghosts, time is waiting there for you. There are stones there that talk, and walls that if you listen very well you can hear them scream. Want to go? You don’t understand anything about life, and certainly about death. You claim you are fighting fear, and I suppose you like to bring up Gandhi in your talks – do you think you are like a Gandhi?
You are like Madonna, not Gandhi my phony friend. All the money you have, doesn’t change that. All the fools who would follow you, doesn’t change that.
Tonight, again, you prove what a little mind you have.
http://www.spokesmanreview.com/allstories-news-story.asp?date=060703&ID=s1363119
Deepak is not Hindi, he is more of a new age humanist. Basically, he makes his own religion as he goes along.
WSJ: Advocate of regular enemas and happy thoughts blames America for Mumbai massacre.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122809544395968075.html?mod=rss_opinion_main
I tried golf. Twice. Really. Twice was enough because I learned the True Nature of Golf: Golf is five miserable hours of allergy snots running down your face and hives covering your entire body combined with a chance of serious injury.
Today, the Maoists are trying to take over Nepal, the home of Prince Siddartha. They also murder and kill, just like the Islamic terrorists, in the name of a Chinese man called Mao. A disgrace. Will Mr. Chopra go there, and tell the Maoists to their face to stop?
He would blame the Royal Family of Nepal, instead.
And then, throw in a little UFO-ology to boot.
Excellant writing!!
You said exactly what I have been feeling and thinking, but much more eloquently than I could.
thank you.
I wouldn’t even go so far as to say he uses Hindu verses or the words of Siddhartha. Deepak is the McDonald’s of religion(for lack of a better term for him). Reading his works, it almost seems he just repeats the simplest, marketing tested, feel-good quotes as some sort of ‘enlightenment’.
"SEE the ball. BE the ball."
Good article, but under the right conditions, golf can be a mystical game. I dont play too often anymore as the courses have become too crowded and I dislike waiting to hit each shot, but I have often referred to playing in inclement weather as “Zen Golf”.
:)
Tupac Chokra.
This guy is so stunningly stupid and quite frankly a product of Satan.
He's found it's easy to accuse Americans of all the sins of the Islamofascists he runs with.
Eloquently said by both of you. Bravo.
“Deepak is not Hindi, he is more of a new age humanist. Basically, he makes his own religion as he goes along.” ~ mnehrling
Exactly.
The Maharishi Caper: Or How to Hoodwink Top Medical Journals
by Andrew A. Skolnick
..The TM movement widely uses deception to promote its $3000 courses in TM-Sidhi or “yogic flying.” TM promoters claim that, by mastering this technique, people can develop the ability to walk through walls, make themselves invisible, develop the “strength of an elephant,” reverse the aging process, and fly through the air without the benefit of machines.
In addition, TM promoters claim that by yogic flying in large groups they can prevent bad weather, traffic fatalities, and even war.
Former members of the movement say that the practice of TM- Sidhi involves repeating a series of Hindu mantras during meditation followed by several minutes of hopping up and down in the crossed-legged “lotus” position. Adherents claim that they are not hopping but levitating and that they have hundreds of scientific studies to prove it.
I called Stephen Barrett, MD, and William Jarvis, PhD, of the National Council Against Health Fraud and asked what information they had about Maharishi Ayur-Veda. What they told me made it clear that JAMA had been duped. After poring through the promotional TM materials they sent and talking with several former TMers, I reported my findings to George Lundberg, MD, editor of JAMA and suggested that we expose the authors and the movement they represent in a JAMA Medical News & Perspectives story. I was given the assignment, which took me almost 3 months to complete. The resulting article, “Maharishi Ayur-Veda: Guru’s Marketing Scheme Promises World Eternal `Perfect Health’,” was published on October 2.
Unusually long for Medical News & Perspectives, the expose on the marketing of Maharishi Ayur-Veda documents a widespread pattern of misinformation, deception, and manipulation of lay and scientific news media. This campaign appears to be aimed at earning at least the look of scientific respectability for the TM movement, while boosting the sales of their extremely lucrative products and services. (One example is the herbal elixir known as Maharishi Amrish Kalash, which costs $1000 for a year’s supply.
Chopra says everyone should take the cure/prevent-all twice a day. Chopra claims their health care is far more cost-effective than conventional medicine. However, the annual cost of just this one Maharishi Ayur-Veda product is equivalent to 40% of the average per-capita expenditure on all health care in the United States in 1989. The other products and services he recommends just to maintain health would cost thousands of dollars more each year. However, this pales compared with the cost of Maharishi Ayur-Veda treatments in case of actual illness, which can exceed $10,000 for the performance of a ceremony to appease the gods or or for the purchase of Jyotish gems to restore their health.
Upon discovering the deception, JAMA requested from the authors a full account of their connections to TM organizations. The confusing statement they provided was published as a financial disclosure correction on August 14 and represents only what the authors admitted. While it appears to hold the record in terms of length for a financial disclosure correction in the journal, the account is still incomplete. Among other things, Chopra did not acknowledge that he collects hundreds of thousands of dollars from his seminars on Maharishi Ayur-Veda and by providing Maharishi Ayur-Veda treatments. (According to David Perlman’s October 2 San Francisco Chronicle article, Chopra claims he gives 50% to 70% of his fees to the movement.) He also did not report that he had been the sole stock holder, president, treasurer, and clerk of Maharishi Ayur-Veda Products International, Inc (MAPI), the sole distributor of Maharishi Ayur-Veda products. Although he no longer holds these titles, Chopra still has the same office address and phone number as MAPI.
Peer Review Not Foolproof
JAMA’s publication of the Maharishi Ayur-Veda article brought a hail of angry letters from readers (also published in the October 2 issue) along with some snickers from other publications. In its November 11 issue, Physician’s Weekly published an account of JAMA getting “flimflammed by a swami.” The October 11 issue of Science knocked JAMA for publishing “shoddy science” and getting itself into an “Indian herbal jam.”
Science writers know that the peer-review system of scientific publications is not foolproof. Drummond Rennie, MD, deputy editor (West) of JAMA has written: “There seems to be no study too fragmented, no hypothesis too trivial, no literature too biased or too egotistical, no design too warped, no methodology too bungled, no presentation of results too inaccurate, too obscure, and too contradictory, no analysis too self-serving, no argument too circular, no conclusions too trifling or too unjustified, and no grammar and syntax too offensive for a paper to end up in print.” Peer review determines where rather than whether a paper should be published, Rennie says. However, from time to time, “shoddy science” ends up in the most prestigious of journals.
It may be hard to understand how a system so effective in sifting out errors in experimental design, statistical analyses, and faulty conclusions could fail to catch blatant deceit.
However, errors are usually easier to spot than outright deceit. Journals do not have the staff and resources to investigate contributing authors and must rely in large part on trust. Obviously, failure to disclose their conflicts of interest is a serious betrayal of that trust.
The editors who handled the Maharishi Ayur-Veda manuscript did not know about the history of deception associated with the TM movement, but they did know that two of the three authors had excellent medical and academic credentials. In addition, the authors were able to cite studies that were published in peer- review journals to support their claims. (One study listed in their references was published in the prestigious Yale University publication, The Journal of Conflict Resolution [December 1988]. This study purported to show that a group of yogic fliers in Israel was able to reduce the level of violence in war-torn Lebanon.) They also could point to the National Cancer Institute research grants awarded Sharma and others to study the herbal elixir, Maharishi Amrit Kalash.
Few people are aware of how far the TM movement has been able to penetrate into the halls of medicine and academia. According to the letterhead for the American Association of Ayurvedic Medicine, its research council and advisory council include physicians at many prestigious medical schools and institutions. Sharma is professor of pathology and director of the Division of Cancer Prevention and Natural Products Research at Ohio State University College of Medicine. Others associated with Chopra include Steele Belok, MD, and Amy Silver, MD, both clinical instructors at Harvard Medical School; Agnes Lattimer, MD, medical director of Cook County Hospital in Chicago; Kelvin O. Lim, MD, assistant professor of psychiatry and behavioral science, Stanford University School of Medicine; Barry Marmorstein, MD, associate professor, University of Washington School of Medicine; S.M. Siram, MD, director of the Surgical Intensive Care Unit and Trauma at Howard University School of Medicine.
With the help of such well-placed physicians and academicians, the TM movement has been able to project a respectable front in its scheme to market Maharishi Ayur-Veda. In June, the American College of Preventive Medicine accredited Maharishi Ayur-Veda courses for Continuing Medical Education for physicians, for the second time. The National Cancer Institute is currently funding 11 studies testing the anti-cancer potential of the concoction of herbs and minerals called Maharishi Amrit Kalash — even though its exact composition has not been revealed. The National Institutes of Health allows its facilities to be used for monthly introductory seminars on Maharishi Ayur-Veda. And for years, U.S colleges and universities have allowed their facilities to be used by the TM movement to teach yogic flying.
JAMA’S Goof Not Unique
The TM movement has an extremely aggressive p.r. operation with a remarkable record in getting favorable reports in newspapers, magazines, and the broadcast media. Like mushrooms after a spring rain, articles on Chopra, TM, and the Maharishi’s medicines keep popping up in places like The Boston Globe, The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, and even American Medical News (also published by the American Medical Association). Favorable reviews of Chopra’s books on Maharishi Ayur-Veda have appeared in many leading medical journals. Joanne Silberner, medical reporter for U.S. News and World Report, says that Dean Draznin, former director of public affairs for Maharishi Ayur-Veda, used to call her about twice a month with another angle to pitch.
In August, Johns Hopkins Magazine published an uncritical profile on Nancy Lonsdorf, MD, medical director of the Maharishi Ayur-Veda Medical Center in Washington, DC. Lonsdorf is the physician who, in a fund-raising letter distributed to members of the TM community, is described as having recommended a $11,500 yagya for a patient with a serious health problem. The Maharishi’s yagyas are Hindu ceremonies to appease the gods and beseech their help for ailing followers.
Despite the extraordinary costs of these ceremonies, patients do not take part or even get to see them performed. (Chopra and Lonsdorf both deny that they recommend yagyas. Chopra insists that yagyas are not part of the Maharishi Ayur-Veda program. Nevertheless, I have a copy of another patient’s health analysis from Chopra’s center in Lancaster, Mass. that recommends the performance of not one but two different yagyas.)
In its 1989 September/October issue, Harvard Magazine published a cover story on Chopra by associate editor Craig Lambert that touted the Maharishi’s wares. Reprints of this article were widely circulated by the TM movement. The magazine’s readers were not informed that the author practices yogic flying.
[N.B.: After this article had been written for ScienceWriters Lambert informed me that, at the time he wrote his article for Harvard Magazine he had not yet started yogic flying although he was a TM practitioner. He also said that Harvard Magazine’s managing editor had misinformed me about the movement’s ordering/circulating reprints of his article. — AAS]
Lambert wrote JAMA a letter protesting my investigation and accusing me of “sleazy” and “deceptive” behavior. This letter was one of many sent to protest my inquiries. Among them were repeated requests from Chopra and his attorney that they be allowed to preview my article before publication, along with warnings that they may sue if defamed.
In the February 1984 NASW Newsletter, Patrick Young wrote, “Reporting any story that might prove embarrassing to a publication is filled with delightful irony. Editors, writers and others who believe in and argue the public’s right to know, suddenly react as any good group of company executives, government bureaucrats, or union officials would in a similar situation. They draw up the wagons in a tight circle.”
When I reported my findings to my editors, I feared that they too might choose to circle the wagons. Instead, they asked me to recount how the journal had been deceived and backed me against a stream of protests and threats from Maharishi’s followers and attorneys.
Andrew Skolnick is associate editor for the Journal of the American Medical Association’s Medical News & Perspectives Department.
[N.B.: In the summer of 1992, Deepak Chopra and two TM associations filed a $194 million libel suit against the AMA, JAMA’s editor, and me. The suit was dismissed without prejudice in March 1993. -AAS]
From the Fall 1991 issue of ScienceWriters:
The Newsletter of the National Association of Science Writers
http://www.aaskolnick.com/naswmav.htm
Deep, deep Deepak
http://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2004_04.php
Posted by Scott at 07:02 AM
I am unfamiliar with the phenomenon of Deepak Chopra, but I didn’t have to read more than a sentence or two into Kay Miller’s account of his recent visit to the Twin Cities to hear the echoes of the Confidence Man, of the Duke and the Dauphin, and of Elmer Gantry, all in a New Age guise.
We appear to have here the recurrenece of a classic American character in cosmopolitan form. Kay Miller’s profile of Chopra in this morning’s Star Tribune begins:
Gini Rackner waited in a line 50-deep to meet Deepak Chopra. He had changed her life. She wanted to thank him.
“He’s right up there with the Dalai Lama, Buddha and Jesus — the people on Earth who spread love, compassion and good health among other souls on Earth,” Rackner said.
She was one of nearly 1,000 people who heard Chopra speak at the Minneapolis Convention Center recently. For an hour before the speech, dozens of Golden Circle participants who paid $99 for premium seats and a private reception with Chopra sipped wine from plastic glasses and waited in a line that stretched to the door.
“This is so stupid. I feel like I’m meeting God,” one teary-eyed woman told him. “I have read so much of your stuff. Now I don’t know what to say.” Chopra gave her a beatific smile. “Shall I sign this ‘To the goddess?’”
At the end of the profile Miller highlights Chopra’s versatility:
On other nights in other places, Chopra will talk with corporations about maximizing profits or with golfers about improving their swings.
“When I speak to Kellogg Business School, it is about spiritual states, but it has more to do with ‘How do I make my shareholders happy?’ “ he said.
“This is most enjoyable, because these people are coming from simplicity, innocence and tender hearts. I want people to get to this larger domain. And it doesn’t matter where I bring them from.”
Mr. Chopra indeed appears to be the master of his domain, if not of the larger domain.
James Hansen, Deepak Chopra, and Algore plan to “End the war on Terra” http://www.championtrees.org/climate/WaketheFolkUp.htm
Deepak on his blog http://www.intentblog.com/archives/2005/10/dear_friends_i.html : “..trading emissions to reduce global warming ..” “The future is not built through events but through awareness.” “We believe that if enough people share the value of peace, war can be brought to an end. If enough people shift their awareness toward social justice, human rights, and environmental sustainability, the injustice, oppression, and destruction of the eco-system can be stopped. Every great change in the world requires a shift in awareness first. Such a shift is already occurring—now it needs critical mass, which in turn needs organization. The Alliance aims to connect caring communities and groups (what we wish to call “peace cells”) at a global level, and thus to promote understanding of humanity’s underlying unity.”
The NFTS Alliance for the New Humanity coverage ~ a ground breaking event with Deepak Chopra and Al Gore (and many more!) happened on Dec. 11-14, 2003 in Puerto Rico and News for the Soul was there to cover it - and will be there again! These are the people who are going to lead the rest of us in changing the world. HERE
Deepak even appears on Al Gore's cable TV venture Current TV: HERE, and "The young staff of reporters, producers and hosts includes Gotham Chopra, son of self-help guru Deepak Chopra and Laura Ling (Channel One News, MTV). HERE
Golf causes Tourettes
Who is this “Deepgrease Porkchop” guy?
And why do people listen to idiots? Oh, I forgot - the US educational system programs them this way. That is why we got Oprah and Obama.
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