Actually, Chopra's first book was NOT _Return of the Rishi_ but but _Creating Health_, written before he had fully integrated with the TM organization.
Certainly, _Return of the Rishi_ mentioned TM, because it was about the journey of a young doctor discovering the revival of Vedic India in the form of Maharishi Mahesh Yogi's various projects. IN fact, _Return of the Rishi_ is the only one of Chopra's books to still have a dedication to Maharishi Mahesh Yogi. It is also the only one of his books he doesn't sell through his website, last I checked, though he does sell a selected readings audio version. L ---In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, <richard@...> wrote : According to what I've read, Chopra never said that "TM" was "the solution to all problems." In fact, Chopra doesn't even mention TM in his first book, "Return of the Rishi". It's just too bad Judy isn't here anymore to correct all these claims. We will ask Chopra about this when he gets to town. Go figure. San Antonio, TX - The Future of Wellbeing, The 13th Disciple Book Tour https://www.deepakchopra.com/event/article/362 https://www.deepakchopra.com/event/article/362 San Antonio, TX - The Future of Wellbeing, The 13th Disc... https://www.deepakchopra.com/event/article/362 San Antonio, TX April 8, 2015 The 13th Disciple Book Tour Join Deepak Chopra for a book signing! View on www.deepakchopra... https://www.deepakchopra.com/event/article/362 Preview by Yahoo ---In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, <anartaxius@...> wrote : This was in Washington D.C. Think it was about 1985, I do not recall exactly. His comments were specifically related to the claim that Ayurveda could cure diabetes. As you recall, there was a time that TM was supposed to cure everything, the solution to all problems. Non sequitur. Nobody ever claimed that TM could cure diabetes. At time went on, Chopra the MD became more and more Chopra the Woo Doctor. Non sequitur. He also had a wife who did not want to live within the movement's restrictions as far as income etc., and Chopra was concerned about this, he had had after all a good position at a hospital. Non sequitur. Apparently he got some financial concessions from Maharishi, but eventually Chopra wanted to go his own way more independently and Maharishi could not get his cut of the action, which as you know would ideally be all of it. My guess is Chopra was fairly rational until the movement got its claws into him, and like Hagelin, fell into a more irrational frame of mind. The movement seems to lack someone who could put the ideas about reality and consciousness into some kind of rational perspective that is also actually in tune with scientific principles rather than in tune with a parody of scientific principles. Non sequitur. Of course, Chopra, who is an M.D., couldn't begin to compare to all your scientific credentials. LoL! From: "Michael Jackson mjackson74@... [FairfieldLife]" <FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com> To: "FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com" <FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com> Sent: Friday, April 3, 2015 3:10 PM Subject: Re: [FairfieldLife] Re: TM reaches the Orient... "Interestingly, the first time I heard Chopra speak within the movement he was much more sceptical about such things as what Ayurveda could accomplish" You are kidding!!! When and where was this? This is the first time I have ever heard of that! From: "anartaxius@... [FairfieldLife]" <FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com> To: FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com Sent: Friday, April 3, 2015 11:07 AM Subject: Re: [FairfieldLife] Re: TM reaches the Orient... What I liked about the movie Bad Teacher, is while the character played by Diaz has to adjust to a new situation in her life that resulted from her 'badness', it is not a Cinderella, Disney kind of story where everything like her personality turns to gold. It has a more realistic arc that does not magically undo her 'morally bankrupt' characteristics. She adapts to the extent she has to and finds a modicum of satisfaction well below her original goals. I did see Chopra a few times within the movement. The last time I saw him he was coming out of the Twenty-First Century Bookstore in Fairfield, IA (the local Ru Woo bookstore which no longer exists I hear). Interestingly, the first time I heard Chopra speak within the movement he was much more sceptical about such things as what Ayurveda could accomplish, but I think once he got the idea he could make money selling nostrums, that scepticism was quietly put away. Those well inculcated by TM philosophy always seemed to feel that something was not quite right with him, that he was out for himself, which probably was true, as he did not turn out to be the tool Maharishi wanted for promoting the movement, which is of course someone who only promotes Maharishi's goals, financial and otherwise. The Chopra-Mlodinow book was one of the results after the following exchange occurred at the end of a panel debate (the future of God) at CalTech. This was the first time they encountered each other, and Mlodinow was in the audience. Physicist Leonard Mlodinow vs. Deepak Chopra.WMV https://youtu.be/Z17sIJyQ3oY https://youtu.be/Z17sIJyQ3oY Physicist Leonard Mlodinow vs. Deepak Chopra.WMV https://youtu.be/Z17sIJyQ3oY TrueSquimished View on youtu.be https://youtu.be/Z17sIJyQ3oY Preview by Yahoo ---In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, <turquoiseb@...> wrote : Great response. For the record, if I ever mention Deepak Chopra here, know that it is on the basis of the few -- VERY few -- net articles of his I have glanced at over the years. Color me not impressed. The analogy of "sponge mind" may be aiming too far up the evolutionary chain for me to agree with it. :-) I missed him entirely in the TMO, having bailed years before he appeared and did his cometary flame-out. So when I say I think he's a mental midget, it's NOT because I am compulsively trying to dump on all things TM. I don't even *know* him in relation to TM. I think he's a mental midget because he speaks and writes like a mental midget. The "Bad Teacher" thing is amusing, and I take it as a "writing prompt" cue and will duly download that movie and watch it. I missed it as if wafted through the mediaverse, and will try to catch up to it now. I've waxed forth on my underwhelmedness about David Lynch here before, and don't feel the need to do so extensively again. I think he's a guy who *could* have been a true creative force in the cinema, but instead decided to settle first for being a "critics' darling" and then later for a "guru's darling." Here's a prediction. No "seeing" involved, just watching trends and extrapolating from them. The much-discussed and in some circles much-anticipated followup to Lynch's "Twin Peaks" will never happen. The reason it will never happen is that Lynch will come up with excuse after excuse after excuse for why he can't supply the contracted-for scripts and will finally bail from the project. You heard it here first. :-) From: "anartaxius@... [FairfieldLife]" <FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com> To: FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com Sent: Friday, April 3, 2015 3:35 PM Subject: Re: [FairfieldLife] Re: TM reaches the Orient... I was just listening to an audio book version of War of the Worldviews in which Deepak Chopra and physicist Leaonard Mlodinow present essays of opposing viewpoints on various subjects such as science consciousness etc. I am surprised in a way that Chopra still sounds a lot like Maharishi, and has especially spongy thinking. Mlodinaw is sharp as a tack. In the audio book (which the authors are reading) you get a better idea of how they are regarding their subject matter. However which author's argument you prefer might be a function of how your brain has been preprogrammed. What is interesting in this exchange is Mlodinow is a real physicist and is not making any concessions to Woo and sloppy thinking. I heard that the Westchester TM in their Spring Celebration showed a video of Bobby Roth interviewing Cameron Diaz, a TM meditator. What I find interesting is I recently watched a movie with Diaz, Bad Teacher, in which her character displays most of the worst characteristics of a human being, things the TM org would not allow any of their members to display in public, but which behind the scenes they do as a matter of course. As long as it provides a means to advertise TM the org will go for it. One could take David Lynch's films, most of which are dark, weird, and murderous as an example of what TM does for the creative mind. I wonder how many in the TMO have watched Lynch's films. I once mentioned one of his films to the governors running one of the facilities, and I was told I shouldn't watch it. So of course I did. It was brilliantly sick, the product of a truly deviant but very creative mind. I loved the film, but I think a lot of meditators, if they saw these things, would crawl out of the room totally disgusted. Of course young people who have not practised TM but are familiar with Lynch would probably find it intriguing that he is promoting meditation, as they would not be familiar with the weird internal world of the TM org. ---In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, <turquoiseb@...> wrote : Another definition of "shill" -- a person who publicizes or praises something or someone for reasons of self-interest, personal profit, or friendship or loyalty. You have been conned into believing that Maharishi and the TMO deserve your loyalty. Now think this through. If you -- after spending the countless hours, days, weeks, and years you have spent shilling for TM on the Internet over the years -- were to admit to having visited another spiritual teacher, just out of curiosity, how long do you think it would take the organization you've been shilling for to throw you under the bus? The same length of time it took Maharishi to throw Jerry Jarvis under the bus when he refused MMY's orders to not pay the law firm that represented the TMO in the New Jersey court case, or shorter? The same length of time it took Maharishi to throw Chopra under the bus when *he* refused to do what MMY wanted him to do, or shorter? ---In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, <turquoiseb@...> wrote : Great response. For the record, if I ever mention Deepak Chopra here, know that it is on the basis of the few -- VERY few -- net articles of his I have glanced at over the years. Color me not impressed. The analogy of "sponge mind" may be aiming too far up the evolutionary chain for me to agree with it. :-) I missed him entirely in the TMO, having bailed years before he appeared and did his cometary flame-out. So when I say I think he's a mental midget, it's NOT because I am compulsively trying to dump on all things TM. I don't even *know* him in relation to TM. I think he's a mental midget because he speaks and writes like a mental midget. The "Bad Teacher" thing is amusing, and I take it as a "writing prompt" cue and will duly download that movie and watch it. I missed it as if wafted through the mediaverse, and will try to catch up to it now. I've waxed forth on my underwhelmedness about David Lynch here before, and don't feel the need to do so extensively again. I think he's a guy who *could* have been a true creative force in the cinema, but instead decided to settle first for being a "critics' darling" and then later for a "guru's darling." Here's a prediction. No "seeing" involved, just watching trends and extrapolating from them. The much-discussed and in some circles much-anticipated followup to Lynch's "Twin Peaks" will never happen. The reason it will never happen is that Lynch will come up with excuse after excuse after excuse for why he can't supply the contracted-for scripts and will finally bail from the project. You heard it here first. :-) From: "anartaxius@... [FairfieldLife]" <FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com> To: FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com Sent: Friday, April 3, 2015 3:35 PM Subject: Re: [FairfieldLife] Re: TM reaches the Orient... I was just listening to an audio book version of War of the Worldviews in which Deepak Chopra and physicist Leaonard Mlodinow present essays of opposing viewpoints on various subjects such as science consciousness etc. I am surprised in a way that Chopra still sounds a lot like Maharishi, and has especially spongy thinking. Mlodinaw is sharp as a tack. In the audio book (which the authors are reading) you get a better idea of how they are regarding their subject matter. However which author's argument you prefer might be a function of how your brain has been preprogrammed. What is interesting in this exchange is Mlodinow is a real physicist and is not making any concessions to Woo and sloppy thinking. I heard that the Westchester TM in their Spring Celebration showed a video of Bobby Roth interviewing Cameron Diaz, a TM meditator. What I find interesting is I recently watched a movie with Diaz, Bad Teacher, in which her character displays most of the worst characteristics of a human being, things the TM org would not allow any of their members to display in public, but which behind the scenes they do as a matter of course. As long as it provides a means to advertise TM the org will go for it. One could take David Lynch's films, most of which are dark, weird, and murderous as an example of what TM does for the creative mind. I wonder how many in the TMO have watched Lynch's films. I once mentioned one of his films to the governors running one of the facilities, and I was told I shouldn't watch it. So of course I did. It was brilliantly sick, the product of a truly deviant but very creative mind. I loved the film, but I think a lot of meditators, if they saw these things, would crawl out of the room totally disgusted. Of course young people who have not practised TM but are familiar with Lynch would probably find it intriguing that he is promoting meditation, as they would not be familiar with the weird internal world of the TM org. ---In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, <turquoiseb@...> wrote : Another definition of "shill" -- a person who publicizes or praises something or someone for reasons of self-interest, personal profit, or friendship or loyalty. You have been conned into believing that Maharishi and the TMO deserve your loyalty. Now think this through. If you -- after spending the countless hours, days, weeks, and years you have spent shilling for TM on the Internet over the years -- were to admit to having visited another spiritual teacher, just out of curiosity, how long do you think it would take the organization you've been shilling for to throw you under the bus? The same length of time it took Maharishi to throw Jerry Jarvis under the bus when he refused MMY's orders to not pay the law firm that represented the TMO in the New Jersey court case, or shorter? The same length of time it took Maharishi to throw Chopra under the bus when *he* refused to do what MMY wanted him to do, or shorter? (Message over 64 KB, truncated)
