Authors

Talking with Deepak Chopra, M.D.

One of the world’s best-known teachers of mind-body medicine and the author of more than one hundred audio, video, and CD-ROM titles, Deepak Chopra, M.D., has an approach to life that spans many realms. His audio programs encourage that we be guided by the accumulated intelligence in our bodies and a loving connection with the entire fabric of human consciousness. Starting out as an endocrinologist, he saw how consciousness-based living influences illness and so began a transition from being a physician to being primarily a spiritual teacher and humanitarian. “In many ways it was an integration of what I was already doing.”

In addition to lecturing worldwide and being involved with the Soul of Leadership program at the Kellogg School of Management, Chopra is busy teaching and caring for the many guests, clients, and patients who come to the Chopra Center for Well Being in Carlsbad, California. From the Center, which just relocated to the La Costa Resort and Spa, he spoke with AUDIOFILE about leadership, his audios, and golf.

“We get the leaders we deserve because they are expressions of our collective soul; they represent our collective thinking, aspirations, and confusion. It’s how we each define ourselves and connect with others that determines how creative organizations can be in solving difficult conflicts. Ultimately relationships include your adversaries, your competitors, and your so-called enemies. They’re all part of the web of relationships.”

Almost all of Chopra’s books are available in audio, along with recordings by Hay House of the wonderful lectures he hosts with authors like Michael Gelb. (See review opposite.) There’s a reason Chopra’s voice has an uncanny resonance with his listeners’ deepest sensibilities. “I’m pretty much a sound person. When I’m here, I lecture every day, and my office transcribes the material. I let the audience evoke what needs to be said, and I’ll realize afterward that it’s material I’ve never expressed before. From there I get the seed idea of a book, so in many cases the audio version starts there.”

And what about Chopra’s new audio, GOLF FOR ENLIGHTMENT? “Golf is a microcosm of life. You see people getting things they don’t deserve or being robbed of success after doing everything they should.” He became interested in golf after helping a professional with her migraine headaches by applying spiritual practices to her game: “focused attention; stillness of mind...effortlessness; life-centered, present-moment awareness. I found this is what makes life easier; this is how you really navigate the storms of life...through these principles.” It’s working for him (he has a 10 handicap after playing only a year) and giving him a wider audience for his spiritual teaching. “I was trying to tell golfers that it’s a spiritual practice. Then I saw a lot of other people who were deeply into spiritual practice, and I said, ‘Well, you can try golf.’ So I was trying to get the golfers to be spiritual and the spiritual people to be golfers. I ended up finding myself in the midst of professional golfers…speaking to them and exchanging ideas with them. It’s a pleasant surprise for a fellow who’s not really a professional sports person.”—Thomas Walken

JUN/JUL03
©AudioFile 2003, Portland, Maine

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