Big Idea 2014: You Will Transform Your Own Biology

This post is part of a series in which LinkedIn Influencers pick one big idea that will shape 2014. See all the ideas here.

By Deepak Chopra, MD and  Rudolph E. Tanzi, Ph.D.

To date, one of biology’s greatest achievements, mapping the human genome, is only just beginning to translate into medical advances. But in 2014 there will likely be more headlines about another type of study in genetics that is already impacting everyone. (more…)

The Wisdom of Altruism

By Deepak Chopra, M.D., FACP

 

world-heart There are increasing signs that selfishness is winning out over altruism in this society. The trend isn’t hidden. The backlash over Obamacare comes down to the fully insured resenting the call to provide for the uninsured. The disparity between the wealthy 1% and the rest of society has widened so far that wealth has created its own separate enclaves. Who would guess, walking down Fifth Avenue, that 45% of New York City’s population lives at or below the poverty line?

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The Mystery of God and the Brain

By Deepak Chopra, M.D., FACP and Jordan Flesher, BA Psychology

 

As science has steadily undermined the long-held beliefs of religion, almost all that remains for people of faith is to say that God is and will forever be a mystery. Insofar as Einstein was religious, he possessed a feeling of awe and wonder at the mystery of the universe. But science hasn’t stopped chipping away at mystery, promising to reduce spiritual experience to measurable brain activity. It’s doubtful that belief in God, the soul, heaven and hell, and other tenets of faith will be drastically affected – polls continue to show that these things remain articles of belief for around 80-90% of responders.

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The Rise and Fall of Militant Skepticism (Part 4)

By Deepak Chopra, M.D., FACP and Jordan Flesher, BA Psychology

 

Most of us take perception for granted as a photograph – in five sensory dimensions – of the real world. If you walk past the house where you were born, however, you won’t see it the way a camera would. You can’t help but see it as a personal  part of your life. A termite inspector would see it a different way, as would a zoning official, an architect, a landscaper, and so on. The fact is that we can take any perspective we want on any object in the universe. No one disputes this fact, but it can’t be taken for granted, because there’s a deep mystery about how we apply mental models to the reality that spreads out before us.  The application of this mystery to the rise and fall of skepticism will become evident in a minute.

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The Rise and Fall of Militant Skepticism (Part 3)

By Deepak Chopra, M.D., FACP and Jordan Flesher, BA Psychology

 

The bond between militant atheism and militant skepticism has been unusually strong, to the point where attacks on religion are delivered as if no rational, science-mined person could object. In two posts the argument was laid out about how shaky militant skepticism really is in the light of current physics and cosmology. So that the discussion won’t seem too arcane and removed from everyday life, this post will examine the fallacies that undermine the skeptical position of two popular skeptics, Sam Harris and Richard Dawkins.

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