Chopra, Spiritual Escapism & Fantasy-Charmed Myths & Feel-Good Prose Don't Lead to Enlightenment

Deepak Chopra’s original success stemmed from his
strong talent for creative writing and bringing together
Eastern philosophy and healing methods with Western
Medicine. Chopra’s work tends to be more appealing
to those who like their spiritual concepts to read in a
more obscure yet poetic fashion, including folk-tales
and fables.

We respect his early work and like that he has been
instrumental in introducing Eastern spirituality to many
Westerners, but feel he’s gone off on a totally different
path. We miss the old Chopra.

Chopra’s current approach appears to be targeting
an audience with a thirst for “spiritual romance” and
escapism, a lack of understanding of or a refusal to
acknowledge the dynamics of karma and personal fate,
and a distaste for reason and critical thinking in favor
of feel-good prose. This is a group that is easily led
in circles and guided into hungrily devouring
unsupported assertions and who will gladly embrace
fantasy and self-delusion, expecting (yet will be
forever denied) significant life-changes from magical
epiphanies through poetry and charmed myths.

Regarding the promotional material for his latest book,
we are disappointed with the way it reads and feel the
statements made contribute to the bad image the New
Age and metaphysical field has earned (yes, earned).
The following are select quotes from the promotional
email and our comments.

“In just one hour, you can learn what it takes to be
successful in all areas of your life.”

This statement is misleading. He may outline what
helps to be successful in all areas of life, but it would
be impossible to give a formula for everyone to follow
in order to be successful. Based on our experience and
research, “what it takes,” in addition to initiating the
right action at the right time, and having the right
supportive circumstances, is fate, and everyone’s
personal fate is different.

“You can have material wealth, as well as good
health, energy and enthusiasm for life, and fulfilling
relationships.”

This declaration is also misleading. It implies that
everyone is entitled to these things and they can have
them if they read this book. No amount of mediation,
praying, manipulating, affirmations, seminars, readings,
or focus on strengthening and magnetizing beliefs will
lead to those things if it’s not someone’s fate to have
them.

“This ‘One Hour of Wisdom’ edition of Chopra’s most
popular title offers powerful pearls of wisdom and a
life-altering perspective on the attainment of success.”

We give Chopra credit for how he helps to inspire
others through this book. This is what he’s good at.
However, whether or not the perspective offered is
“life-altering” is debatable.

“It shatters the myth that success is the result of hard
work, exacting plans, or driving ambition.”

Also misleading. For some it may be, for others it may
not be.

“Discover the natural laws that govern all of creation,
align with these laws, and success comes easily and
naturally. But first, these principles must become your
second nature, and repetition is the key to learning
them!”

This statement implies that if you follow his
recommendations, success will be yours, easily.
If this were true, anyone could have anything they
wanted, despite their personal fate and karma.
Through our extensive research, we’ve found this
belief to be false, no matter if they are beginners or
gurus who already practice such concepts. The
“second nature” emphasis is cleverly outlined to
allow the author some breathing room when his
readers don’t get what they want “easily and
naturally.”

“The ancient sages described the most effortless way
to bond with the universe and fulfill our desires. Their
guiding motto turns out to be exquisitely simple:
Act in accord with the laws of nature.” -Deepak
Chopra

Chopra is saying that if you act in accordance with
the “laws of nature,” you can have all you desire. He
peppers his books with spiritual principles to support
lofty promises, but what he fails to mention, or perhaps
doesn’t fully comprehend, is that there are additional
laws, some of which completely mitigate some of his
views.

Also, he erroneously groups select “sages” together
with the mystics and Gnostics (such as most respectable
ancient astrologers who regularly predicted personal
fate) who constantly refuted, through stellar predictive
work, the notion of anyone being able to “fulfill any
desire.”

We asked a friend of ours, a Chopra fan, for his
interpretation of a particular (cool-sounding, yet
erroneous) passage in the book: “The law of
intention and desire: Inherent in every intention and
desire is the mechanics for its fulfillment.” He
replied, “I don’t know what it means, man, it
just feels good!”

Truth be told, everyone has occasional (for some,
very regular) desires that aren’t rooted in reality
(thus, are unachievable), such as wanting to end
strife and war on Earth forever, or achieve major
career goals and become a multi-billionaire without
effort and the supportive good karma. Perhaps the
multitudes new to Eastern philosophy and metaphysical
thought don’t really care about truth at this point,
until they realize the emptiness of these supposed
fixes.

Thinking back to the early 1980’s when we first began
exploring non-traditional spiritual concepts, we had
to weed through a lot of books to begin to be able to
detect truth. At first, the superficial, sometimes
“channeled,” “spiritual” writings, the far-out, empty
rhetoric and gross generalizations lacking substance
did have some appeal, but it’s like a destructive,
sensually gratifying habit; it offers an escape from
reality, but ultimately leads you down the path of
illusion and distances you from “enlightenment.” If
you love inspirational poetry, fine, but it’s in your
best interest to avoid confusing it with spiritual
truth.

It’s disconcerting, to say the least, to have a very
commercially successful author imply that you can
have the success he has enjoyed ($20 million +
earnings in 2006, according to Forbes magazine) if
you would just take the hazy, feel-good approach he
promotes, when that author refuses to acknowledge
that everyone may not be fated for what he promises.
The laws of personal karma and fate dictate that you
can’t have what you want unless it’s predestined as part
of your destiny and you’ve earned it through current life
and especially past life actions. Unfortunately, many
may buy this book hoping to reach certain goals. If they
don’t reach those goals, they may end up feeling worse
than before.

We applaud Deepak Chopra for his intelligence and for
the success he’s had in reaching people all over the world
with inspiration and encouragement. We just would like
to see more plain truth and fewer false promises, even
though it may result in fewer book sales.

Copyright © 2007 Scott Petullo, Stephen Petullo