Deepak Chopra - The Chopra Foundation

What Is Consciousness & Where Is It?

[youtube]http://youtu.be/vXC0RUH1axE[/youtube]

What is the fundamental activity in the universe? Although neuroscience has made enormous progress in looking at the brain correlates of subjective and objective experience, there is still no theory on how we experience mental or perceptual reality.

This is known as the “hard problem” in consciousness research.

• Is there a scientifically viable way to explain consciousness?
• Does mainstream science have the methodologies to address this question?
• How do we explain intention, insight, intuition, imagination, creativity, or free will?
• Is free will an illusion?
• Are there states of consciousness that go beyond waking, dreaming and sleeping?

Wisdom traditions speak of higher states of consciousness such as soul consciousness, cosmic consciousness, divine consciousness, and unity consciousness. Is there a way of understanding these states or validating them scientifically? Is our current science which is based on a subject/object split equipped to answer these mysteries? What is the nature of the universe? What is the of nature awareness that makes it possible for us to experience the universe?

Deepak is addressing in this talk these questions as well as others cosmic riddles.

A Better Answer to “Who Am I?”

By Deepak Chopra, MD, FACP

image credit: h.koppdelaney

It’s strange that we use the word “I” more often in a day than any other word except “a” and “the” without really knowing who “I” is. Ancient thinkers, both East and West, considered the self to be the highest mystery. The ultimate question, then, is “Who am I?” For most people, however, the question isn’t something they dwell on. But think of the bedtime prayer that every child learns, the one that begins “Now I lay me down to sleep.”

When you get to the phrase “if I should die before I wake,” you’ve hit upon something incredibly urgent. Your “I” arrived on the scene when you were born, but will “I” disappear when you die? In the Indian tradition nothing is more urgent than to reverse the wording. “If I wake before I die” is all-important. It expresses the state of enlightenment, and with it the assurance that “I” is more permanent than death.

The issue isn’t just Indian but universal. Let’s see if we can get the experience of intellectual enlightenment right this minute, simply by redefining “I.”

The casual belief that “I” is very easy to define comes from everyday life. Everyone uses the word all the time, which gives a false sense of security. “I” is the first person, the experiencer. We hang all kinds of labels on it: I am Indian, a doctor, a male, a father, husband, and brother. But in times of personal crisis, such as severe grief or depression, these labels become hollow. “I” feels desolate and alone, owning nothing but a handful of ashes. (more…)

Health Tip: Get checked for Colon Cancer!

By Sanjiv Chopra, M.D., MACP, Professor of Medicine, Harvard Medical School and Frank J. Domino, M.D., Professor of Family Medicine, University of Massachusetts Medical School

Colon cancer is the 3^rd most common cancer in men and women in the US, and the 3^rd in causing cancer death. This last statistic is sad, as colon cancer screening works; it prevents death from cancer, and is the most effective of all screening tests. Colon cancer screening should be initiated at age 50 years in both men and women.

Colonoscopy is the most effective method to address colon cancer. The bowel is prepared by taking some liquid and laxative to cleanse the colon. The patient is given gentle sedation administered intravenously, a fiber optic scope is inserted and the entire colon (large intestine) is examined thoroughly. It is usually performed by an experienced gastroenterologist. Another form of screening, called the “FIT” test, has the patient collect a small amount of stool. If positive, it could signal bleeding from a polyp or a cancer, and leads to a colonoscopy.

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Happiness for the Holidays? Try an Experiment

By Deepak Chopra, MD, FACP

The holidays, officially a time of good cheer, have become instead a byword for stress, overeating, running up bills, and enduring one’s relatives. This falls in line with the last two posts on happiness and our dubious relationship to it. It’s hard to find to define a greater goal in life than lasting happiness, yet modern psychology, with its notions about happiness being incidental and unpredictable, discourages us form believing in lasting happiness.

What’s the solution? Let me suggest returning to a simple but profound idea that has endured in every spiritual tradition. Unhappiness means that you are not being yourself. When you are being yourself, happiness is permanent because the “true self” is by nature at peace, blissful, and undisturbed by the ups and downs of daily life. (more…)