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For the past decade, Deepak
Chopra, M.D. has been at the forefront of a major trend in holistic
healing. Since the early 1980's Chopra has successfully combined
his impeccable credentials as a practicing endocrinologist with
his exploration of mind/body medicine. By doing so, he has dramatically
influenced many in traditional medical circles and helped bring
the enormous benefits of holistic medicine to the general public's
attention.
Chopra created a paradigm for exploring
the healing process - a model he calls Quantum Healing. He recalls,
"As doctors we are taught to prescribe tranquilizers for
people who are feeling anxious to promote tranquility. We give
sleeping pills to people with insomnia. Quantum Healing looks
past all the wonder drugs and modern technology to a natural
way of healing which speaks to an integration of mind and body."
Rather than turn his back on his
conventional training, he extended his practice to bring together
the best of ancient wisdom and modern science. In 1984, he helped
to introduce Ayurvedic medicine to the United States, and within
a year he established an Ayurvedic Health Centre of Stress Management
and Behavioral Medicine in Lancaster, Massachusetts. He was also
the founding President of the American Association of Ayurvedic
Medicine.
Since that time, he has emerged as
one of the world's leading proponents of this innovative combination
of Eastern and Western healing.
Chopra combines ancient mind/body
wisdom with current anti-aging research to show that the effects
of aging are largely preventable. By changing your perception
of aging and by being aware of your body and how it processes
intelligence and experience, you will change how you age.
Chopra lectures around the world
making presentations to major corporations and organizations
such as the World Health Organization in Geneva, the United Nations,
and London's Royal Society of Medicine, as well as a number of
major U.S. medical institutions.
THE INTERVIEW
Veronica: By
changing one's perception of aging, we can change our age. How?
Dr. Chopra:
Well, most people think that aging is fatal and scientific data
shows that that's not true. People don't die of old age, they
die of diseases that accompany old age, and they are preventable.
Most people think that aging is irreversible
and we know that there are mechanisms even in the human machinery
that allow for the reversal of aging, through correction of diet,
through anti-oxidants, through removal of toxins from the body,
through exercise, through yoga and breathing techniques, and
through meditation. Most people believe that aging is normal
but nobody defines what normal aging is. What we call normal
may be the psychopathology of the average. Most people think
that aging is genetic and yet if your parents lived to age 80+
that will add three years to your life.
The way you think, the way you behave,
the way you eat, can influence your life by 30 to 50 years. Most
people believe that aging is universal but there are biological
organisms that never age. Most people believe that aging is painful
and we know that pain is from diseases that are preventable,
not from aging.
People have to change their concepts
of aging and I am not asking them to do so based on some fanciful
notion, but on scientific fact. When they change that, then their
perception of aging will change and it will become clear to them
to grow old and to become wiser, to become more creative, to
become the springboard for creativity and affluence. Once your
perception of the whole phenomenom changes, your reality will
change, because reality is nothing other than your perception
of it.
Veronica:
You have stated that if we could effectively trigger the intention
not to age, the body would carry it out automatically. Could
you explain that?
Dr. Chopra:
Yes, because intentions are the triggers for transformation in
the body. If you want to wiggle your toes, you do it through
intention. There are two components to biological information
in the body, one is intention, the other is attention. So to
go back to the example I gave you, to wiggle your toes. The first
thing that happens is that your attention goes there and the
second thing is there is an intention, so this biological information
with attention and intention is what biological information is
given. Awareness that acts as biological information goes to
components, then an informational component, and then there's
a localizing component, and that's how the body behaves.
If you can wiggle your toes with
the mere flicker of an intention, why can't you reset your biological
clock? The reason most people can't do it is because, first,
they never thought of it and secondly, they think that certain
things are easier to do than other things. For example, it is
easier to wiggle the toes than reset the biological clock, but
that is just a belief that is rooted in superstition. If we could
understand that the human body is a network of information and
energy, then we would see that the same principles apply everywhere
in the body.
Veronica: That
is just what I was about to say, something as profound as stopping
the aging process, or actually reversing the aging process, one
would think would have to be implanted at a deep level for it
to work.
Dr. Chopra:
No, it's the same mechanism. It's just that we have been indoctrinated
into believing that some things are easier, some things are more
difficult. Expectations determine outcome, always!
Veronica:
You have also said that our bodies are our experiences transformed
into physical expression, in other words, our bodies are the
outpouring of our belief system?
Dr. Chopra:
And experiences, so if you are having the experience of anxiety,
your body is making adrenaline and cortisone, if you are having
the experience of tranquility, your body starts making valium,
if you are having the experience of exhilaration and joy, your
body makes interleukins and interferons which are powerful anti-cancer
drugs. So, your body is constantly converting your experiences
into molecules.
Veronica:
And we can change our interpretation or experience of the world
at any time.
Dr. Chopra:
That's right. One person's enemy is another person's best friend.
My favorite food might give you a rash, etc. Every experience
that we have is unique to us because at some deep level we make
an interpretation of it.
Veronica: You
go even further and suggest that when you see yourself in terms
of timeless, deathless being, every cell awakens to a new existence.
Dr. Chopra:
Because the body is the end product of intelligence and how that
intelligence shapes your reality will shape the reality of the
body. The body is a field of ideas and it is a field of interpretations
and when you change your experience of your own identity to a
spiritual being, the body expresses the physical manifestation
of that spiritual reality.
Veronica: You
go on to say, true immortality can be experienced here and now
in this living body. It comes about when you draw the infusion
of being into everything you think and do. This is the the experience
of timeless mind and ageless body.
Dr. Chopra:
Yes.
Veronica: Is
this why it is so important to live with passion, to have a dream,
a reason for living, even if that dream is only for our own joy?
Dr. Chopra: I
think that is a very important component, to have passion, to
have a dream, to have a purpose in life. And there are three
components to that purpose, one is to find out who you really
are, to discover God, the second is to serve other human beings,
because we are here to do that and the third is to express your
unique talents, and when you are expressing your unique talents,
you lose track of time.
Veronica: Most
people think of time as linear and some of us feel that there
is only so much of it, and that it is continuously running out.
Almost as though our entire life is like an hour glass and the
sand is running through, and we don't know how much sand we have
left so we'd better enjoy every single moment. This kind of thinking
is further reinforced every time we are faced with the death
of someone we know. How does this kind of motivation, of enjoying
every moment because time is running out, and we don't have forever,
compare with living joyfully without any kind of time anxiety
at all, as if we really did have forever?
Dr. Chopra:
The only way you can do that is when you know that part of yourself
that is in fact, forever. There is a part of yourself that is
not subject to change, it is the silent witness behind the scenes.
That is essentially your spirit, the spirit being an abstract
but real force. It is as real as gravity. It is as real as time.
It is incomprehensible. It is mysterious but it is powerful and
it is eternal. It is without beginning, without ending. It has
no dimensionality, it's spaceless, timeless, dimensionless, eternal,
forever. When you can get in touch with that part of yourself,
then you will in fact see that present moment existence, even
an entire lifetime is nothing other than a flicker in eternity,
a parenthesis in eternity, a little flash of a firefly in the
middle of the night in the context of eternity.
What happens with that knowledge,
with that experience, is that you begin to experience mortality
as quantified immortality, you begin to see time as quantified
eternity and when you see it against the backdrop of who you
really are, then the anxiety of daily existence disappears. So,
one ceases to be troubled by, as well as influenced by, the trivial
things of daily existence, the little hassles that create stress
in most people. So, it becomes much more joyful and you realize
that the present moment is as it should be, there is no other
way. It is the culmination of all other moments and it is the
center point of eternity. So, you pay attention to what is in
every moment. And when you do that, then you realize that the
presence of God is everywhere. You have only to consciously embrace
it in your attention. And that's what creates joyfulness. You
have to know the reality and the reality is that we are eternal.
Veronica: I
suppose then that the first way of looking at life is actually
unhealthy.
Dr. Chopra:
Right.
Veronica: The
new paradigm tells us that we are constantly making and unmaking
our bodies at the quantum level which means that we are constantly
unfolding hidden potential. Can you talk about this quantum level?
Dr. Chopra:
If you look at anything physical, you find out that at the quantum
level, it is non-physical. The body is made up of atoms and subatomic
particles that are moving at lightning speed around huge empty
spaces and the body gives off fluctuations of energy and information
in a huge void, so essentially your body is proportionately as
void as intergalactic space, made out of nothing, but the nothing
is actually the source of information and energy. If you'd approach
that level, then you would realize that the body is a print out
and by changing the software, by influencing the programming,
and by getting in touch with the program, you can create a new
body anytime you want.
Veronica: How
does living in the present moment contribute to agelessness?
Dr. Chopra:
Living in the present moment creates the experience of eternity.
It is like every drop of water in an ocean contains the flavor
of the whole ocean. So too, every moment in time contains the
flavor of eternity, if you could live in that moment, but most
people do not live in the moment which is the only time they
really have. They either live in the past or the future. If you
could live in the moment, you would see the flavor of eternity
and when you metabolize the experience of eternity, your body
doesn't age.
Veronica:
Meditation lowers biological age. How?
Dr. Chopra:
By quieting the mind, which then quiets the body, and the less
turbulent the body is, the more the self-repair, healing mechanisms
get amplified. In fact, scientists have shown that the better
your DNA, your genetic machinery is at healing itself, the longer
you live. That's how meditation lowers biological age.
Veronica:
What about the power of love in healing or agelessness,
someone else's love or the love of our own self?
Dr. Chopra:
Yes love, but in the true sense, not as a mere sentiment or an
emotion but love as the experience of unity consciousness, which
means to know that you are connected with everything in the universe.
Not only are you connected with everything in the universe, you
might be the same being in different disguises with everybody
else. So, when you have that experienced knowledge you lose the
ability to hurt people and you also lose the ability to be hurt
by people. That's love.
Veronica: Your
approach to medicine is based on Ayurveda, which comes from India.
How do you describe it?
Dr. Chopra:
Ayurveda is the science of life and it has a very basic, simple
kind of approach, which is that we are part of the universe and
the universe is intelligent and the human body is part of the
cosmic body, and the human mind is part of the cosmic mind, and
the atom and the universe are exactly the same thing, but with
different form, and the more we are in touch with this deeper
reality, from where everything comes, the more we will be able
to heal ourselves and at the same time heal our planet.
Veronica: What
will medicine look like in the future?
Dr. Chopra: Medicine
in the future will give everyone the ability to become their
own best healer.
Veronica: Thank
you Dr. Chopra, it has indeed been an enlightening conversation.
To learn more about Dr. Deepak Chopra
and his work, visit his website at www.chopra.com
Veronica Hay is the author
of "In a Dream, You Can Do Anything" - An extraordinary
collection of writings that will uplift you, motivate you, inspire
you, and gently guide you along the inner path of your life.
An inspirational cardshop in an E-book. One Price - One Time
Purchase - Unlimited Use. 40% DISCOUNT at the following link:
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Veronica's work inspires
others to be more of who they really are. Email: veronicahay@telus.net
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