Articles - The Chopra Foundation

Is Physics the Next Guru?

By Deepak Chopra, MD

The worldview of modern physics teases us with spiritual suggestions like the discovery—premature it seems—of the “God particle.” That nickname embarrasses some in the field, but ever since Fritjof Capra’s book The Tao of Physics, the links between Eastern spiritual traditions and the findings of quantum physics have been tantalizing.

Now they are much more than that. In three previous posts I’ve argued that synchronicity, the experience of a meaningful coincidence, points toward a new way of life, one where the strange and spooky behavior of the quantum domain can be used to change our view of everyday reality. There is a staunch band of physicists and their skeptic hangers-on who erect a brick wall between the quantum and classical domains, but more and more they are in the minority.

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JUST Capital: The Next Revolution in Economic Wellbeing

Original Published on LinkedIn

By Deepak Chopra and Martin Whittaker[1]

Do you spend time socializing with people whose core values you question? Do you turn a blind eye when people you know act in ways you find fundamentally abhorrent? Probably not. Now, what if you knew a company was operating in a way that went against something you felt strongly about. Would you adjust your purchasing activity? Or would you prefer to buy from, or work for, or invest in those businesses operating in ways that align with your values? For us, the answer is yes – and that’s exactly how it should be. Companies should be rewarded for helping, not harming, our collective society.

Most of us think of corporations as our employers, or as the providers and manufacturers of countless products and services that we use to make our lives more convenient and comfortable. Often, we enjoy a transactional relationship with the brands we are loyal to, but in the rush of everyday routine we don’t stop to think about how these brands impact our society on a fundamental level.

Let’s say you are a self-identified environmentalist – someone who makes a conscious effort in your personal life to do things large and small that make a difference. Or maybe you care more about social issues, and are active in supporting underprivileged communities in your neighborhood. How do you know if you are making the right decisions as a consumer to buy products or services from corporations who share your concern for the environment? Likewise, how do you know if companies in your 401(k) retirement plan are paying a living wage to minority workers, or providing good benefits, or behaving in a manner consistent with your social values?

The truth is that outside of conducting extensive and time-consuming research, people do not know if corporations are acting in a way that aligns with their values – whatever they may be.

Recently, our friend, a devout capitalist and hedge fund scion Paul Tudor Jones announced the formation of JUST Capital[1], a new not-for-profit organization of which we are co-founder and Board member, and founding CEO, respectively. JUST Capital is dedicated to giving the American people a voice; to defining, measuring and ranking corporate behavior based on the preferences, attitudes and values of the public.

[youtube]https://youtu.be/GuyrJyyU3kQ[/youtube]

Paul Tudor Jones II: Why we need to rethink capitalism[3]

Courtesy of YouTube/JUSTCAPITAL

The ultimate goal is to drive more balanced and equitable company behavior using the power of the market. By creating a standard, transparent metric of just corporate practice – we’re calling it the JUST Index – we can empower consumers, employees, local citizens, investors, corporate leaders and other stakeholders to make decisions that better reflect their values, and in doing so drive prosperity and justness for us all.

[1] Deepak Chopra is co-founder and Board member of JUST Capital; Martin Whittaker is JUST Capital’s CEO.

[2] www.justcapital.com

[3] Originally Posted at TED.com. Interactive transcript can be found here.

TIME 100 PIONEERS – RUDY TANZI

Congrats to Rudy Tanzi who was recognized by TIME 100 Pioneers. Rudy is Co Chairman of the foundation’s SBTI research study and 2012 Recipient of the Rustum Roy Spirit Award acknowledged at Sages and Scientists Symposium 2012.

Alzheimer’s pioneer

I’m a child of Alzheimer’s, and I know firsthand how scary it is to watch the mind of someone you love get slowly erased. I also know that despite the fact that we’re in the middle of an epidemic, we simply don’t yet have the drive—or the drugs—to put an end to Alzheimer’s. But that doesn’t mean there’s no hope. Tanzi stands out as one of the few scientists who has committed his career to finding a cure for Alzheimer’s, and last year he brought us one step closer. In a truly remarkable feat, Tanzi created what’s been nicknamed “Alzheimer’s in a dish”—human brain cells that, in a petri dish, develop the markers of this terrible disease. This makes it possible for scientists to better study which of the countless drugs out there might actually slow or wipe out this mind-blowing disease.

Shriver is an author, the executive producer ofStill Alice and The Alzheimer’s Project and the founder of the Wipe Out Alzheimer’s Challenge

Illustration by Joel Kimmel for TIME

Originally posted on TIME – http://time.com/3823236/rudolph-tanzi-2015-time-100/?xid=emailshare

Synchronicity, Evolution, and Your Genes (Part 3)

By Deepak Chopra, MD, and Jordan Flesher, MA Psychology

Two views of the universe have been contending with each other to explain why human beings exist. The first view holds that human beings are not special in any way. We evolved through random events that have accumulated over time, taking 13.7 billion years since the big Bang to arrive at the most complex structure in creation, the human brain. This view, long established in physics and biology, constructs evolution in the absence of mind. Matter came first, and mind emerged very late in the game.

The contending view, held by every wisdom tradition, holds that mind came first. The universe is a field of consciousness, which made it inevitable that conscious creatures would evolve over time. Using our self-awareness, humans recognize order, harmony, beauty, truth, love, balance, equanimity, creativity, and the other qualities essential to consciousness. Over the course of our evolution as a species, we have come to embody these qualities. Therefore, the link between humanity and the universe is intimate, to the extent that the only creation we experience is the human cosmos.

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Why Does Richard Dawkins Keep Doing Me Favors?

By Deepak Chopra, MD

In a recent article on his website, Richard Dawkins spontaneously erupted, even though he and I haven’t had contact for many months. We debated once in Mexico City, and he erupted there, too. The ideas I put forth, such as the possibility that we live in a conscious universe, bring out the Scrooge in him.

Now he’s posted a real bah humbug: “Why Does Deepak Chopra Hate Me?” written by Steven Newton (Link: https://richarddawkins.net/2015/04/why-does-deepak-chopra-hate-me/) It’s mostly an ad hominem fulmination without basis in fact. Dawkins pastes the tag “anti-evolutionist” on me even though he was part of an e-mail discussion for a while that included top geneticists and other scientists along with me, in which we discussed where evolutionary theory might be heading in the future.

Dawkins bowed out with a surly growl. He doesn’t keep up with the new genetics, and so one can understand why it infuriates him that someone like me, lacking his academic credentials, knows something about the subject–enough to be writing a new book, Super Genes, with Dr. Rudy E. Tanzi, one of the world’s leading researchers on Alzheimer’s. Dawkins, despite his scientific background and air of complete authority, has written zero books with any prominent researcher, geneticist, or anyone else who might bring him up to date on his own field.

I can only shrug at his latest polemic, which is filled with stray arrows shot in the dark. Actually, he’s done me a favor. By airing the ideas he finds preposterous, such as flaws in Darwinian theory, the conscious universe, and the ontological problem of whether the moon exists without an observer (he seems unaware that this “crackpot” idea was discussed between Albert Einstein and Niels Bohr on a famous occasion), Dawkins is pointing his readers to some of the most exciting theory that is sure to impact the future of science.

Sadly, mocking these ideas is the closest he will ever come to grasping them.

Deepak Chopra, MD is the author of more than 80 books with twenty-two New York Times bestsellers. He serves as the founder of The Chopra Foundation and co-founder of The Chopra Center for Wellbeing. His latest book is The 13th Disciple: A Spiritual Adventure.