# Deepak Chopra is a Moron **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [July 14, 2005, 5:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/deepak-chopra-is-a-moron/312472 "2005-07-14T05:19:26Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![cosmosdan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/a6a055/32.png) [@cosmosdan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cosmosdan)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2005, 1:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/deepak-chopra-is-a-moron/312472/21 "2005-07-14T13:25:29Z")
> [@Mac Guffin](#): > > Damn my scruples. I could be rich offa morons, but Nooooo. I gotta be all moral and crap. Yeah …thats the reason…uh huh… :rolleyes: ---
**Author:** ![eleanorigby](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ee7513/32.png) [@eleanorigby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eleanorigby)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2005, 1:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/deepak-chopra-is-a-moron/312472/22 "2005-07-14T13:30:10Z")
I picked up a novel by him to read–I am interested in Arthurian stuff this summer. So, I get _The Return of Merlin_ --and I look at the author’s name and think, “isn’t that that guy?” and shrug. So, this morning, looking at this thread, I decide to open the book. I will read almost anything once, but tutorials where the author explains his use of symbolism and advises the reader to pay attention to what each symbol means piss me off. It’s like Cliff notes, self-help and fantasy all in one…maybe he’s trying to open a new market? Therapy via the Lady of the Lake? Moron. :rolleyes: ---
**Author:** ![Guinastasia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guinastasia/32/5751_2.png) [@Guinastasia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guinastasia)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2005, 4:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/deepak-chopra-is-a-moron/312472/23 "2005-07-14T16:11:23Z")
> [@monavis](#): > > I am not a follower of Deepak Chopra, but he is far from being a Moron. He has several degrees. > > Monavis Since when does having a degree prevent someone from being a moron? You can be educated and still be stupid. Stupid != ignorant. ---
**Author:** ![Liberal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/848f3c/32.png) [@Liberal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Liberal)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2005, 4:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/deepak-chopra-is-a-moron/312472/24 "2005-07-14T16:16:40Z")
> [@Eve](#): > > Some of us also have . . . _BROADWAY RHYTHM!!!_ Who could ask for anything more? 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Binarydrone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/3da27b/32.png) [@Binarydrone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Binarydrone)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2005, 4:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/deepak-chopra-is-a-moron/312472/25 "2005-07-14T16:21:59Z")
> [@cosmosdan](#): > > … He repackages what he gathers and adds his own touch and sells a bunch of it. … So, he’s sort of like the P-Diddy of the New Age scene? ---
**Author:** ![tdn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/94ad74/32.png) [@tdn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tdn)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2005, 4:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/deepak-chopra-is-a-moron/312472/26 "2005-07-14T16:26:21Z")
> [@Shodan](#): > > I suspect part of the problem is that none of Chopra’s advanced degrees had a physics 101 component. > If he thinks the sun and the distant galaxies have much role in the tides of Earth, he needs to be a lot less in touch with his Inner Idiot. The inverse square law, ya know. The sun does have a role in tides, and a significant one at that. But only the one sun. ---
**Author:** ![Shodan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9f8e36/32.png) [@Shodan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shodan)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2005, 4:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/deepak-chopra-is-a-moron/312472/27 "2005-07-14T16:33:50Z")
> [@tdn](#): > > The sun does have a role in tides, and a significant one at that. But only the one sun. I thought it was almost entirely the moon. Is this incorrect? Obviously this has nothing to do with the water in our bodies, but fight my ignorance, if you will. Regards, Shodan ---
**Author:** ![Bosstone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/22d042/32.png) [@Bosstone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosstone)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2005, 4:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/deepak-chopra-is-a-moron/312472/28 "2005-07-14T16:35:37Z")
> [@Guinastasia](#): > > Since when does having a degree prevent someone from being a moron? You can be educated and still be stupid. > > Stupid != ignorant. Indeed, one can be [educated stupid](http://www.timecube.com/). ---
**Author:** ![Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e99b99/32.png) [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diogenes_the_Cynic)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2005, 4:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/deepak-chopra-is-a-moron/312472/29 "2005-07-14T16:40:05Z")
I agree that Chopra is essentially a marketer. His “philosophy,” such as it is, is not partcularly original but is just a modfied mishmash of ideas from Indian guru traditions and a touch of Buddhism. His talent lies in his ability to modify this stuff so that it sounds more palatable (and less heathen) to a Christian western audience. He does this by such techniques as changing the language so that “Eastern” ideas and terms are changed to non-threatening analogies. For instance, I once saw a video-taped lecture in which he was talking about how to access and “awaken” the “dragon within.” The lecture sounded like any number of discourses I’d read from Eastern religious literature about awakening the “Buddha” within. It was pretty much just Buddhist boilerplate, but by changing the word “Buddha” to “dragon,” he had the housewives entranced. If they had known he was teaching Buddhism, they probably would have been scared off. I agree that Chopra is a complete hack and is especially fraudulent when he pretends to know anything about medicine but he has a certain genius in the way he is able to market standard Eastern religious ideas to Christian Peoria. ---
**Author:** ![tdn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/94ad74/32.png) [@tdn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tdn)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2005, 4:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/deepak-chopra-is-a-moron/312472/30 "2005-07-14T16:47:17Z")
> [@Shodan](#): > > I thought it was almost entirely the moon. Is this incorrect? As I understand it (and I’ll try to find a cite later) the sun accounts for about 1/3 of the tidal effect. Sometimes this partially cancels the tide (neap tide), and sometimes it magnifies it (spring tide). ---
**Author:** ![tomndebb](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/b9e5f3/32.png) [@tomndebb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tomndebb)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2005, 4:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/deepak-chopra-is-a-moron/312472/31 "2005-07-14T16:56:24Z")
I _really_ hope that this was not a new revelation to you. (OTOH, I would also not that he is a “moron” only in the sense of a Hubbard or any number of other fabulously wealthy “morons” who know pretty much nothing–except how to fleece the gullible.) ---
**Author:** ![tdn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/94ad74/32.png) [@tdn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tdn)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2005, 4:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/deepak-chopra-is-a-moron/312472/32 "2005-07-14T16:58:07Z")
> **[What Are Spring Tides & Neap Tides?](https://www.almanac.com/content/what-are-spring-tides-neap-tides)** > > Learn about spring tides and neap tides and the Moon's role. Since antiquity, people have noticed that oceans exhibit a much greater tidal range around the time of the full and new Moon. This is when the Moon and Sun are either together in the sky or are on opposite sides of the heavens. Higher tides occur during these Moon phases because the Sun also exerts a gravitational pull on our oceans, although it is only 46 percent as strong as the Moon’s. When the gravitational effects of the Sun and the Moon combine, we get spring tides, which have nothing to do with the season of spring. The term refers to the action of the seas springing out and then springing back. These are times of high high tides and low low tides. A week later, during either of the two quarter Moon phases, when the Sun and Moon are at right angles to each other and their tidal influences partially cancel each other out, neap tides occur, and the tidal range is minimal. In fact, because the oceans take a bit of time to catch up to the geometry of the Moon, spring and neap tides usually occur about a day after the respective lunar cycles. ---
**Author:** ![Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e99b99/32.png) [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diogenes_the_Cynic)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2005, 4:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/deepak-chopra-is-a-moron/312472/33 "2005-07-14T16:58:48Z")
It’s not that Chopra is stupid, it’s that he’s completely full of shit. ---
**Author:** ![Trunk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/87869e/32.png) [@Trunk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trunk)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2005, 5:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/deepak-chopra-is-a-moron/312472/34 "2005-07-14T17:00:31Z")
I blame people from California. There’s no bullshit so offensive that they won’t stick their collective tanned noses in a take a huge friggin’ whiff. ---
**Author:** ![Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/13edae/32.png) [@Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stranger_On_A_Train)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2005, 5:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/deepak-chopra-is-a-moron/312472/35 "2005-07-14T17:12:26Z")
> [@Diogenes the Cynic](#): > > It was pretty much just Buddhist boilerplate, but by changing the word “Buddha” to “dragon,” he had the housewives entranced. Judging by what (little) I’ve seen of daytime television, keeping “housewives entranced” isn’t much of a challenge. But I believe his audience ranges beyond the blithly fatuous and intractibly bored (qualities stereotypically, if perhaps not always accurately, associated with the demographic of housewives). I’ve known several PhDs–even a few with degrees in the hard sciences–who take internalize his “philosophy” into some kind of working method for dealing with life. I think this probably has more to do with the diuturnal dissatisfaction with life and the increasing gulf between traditional Western religious antiphons (in the Judeo-Christian-Islamic mold) and daily life in modern society. A more nebulous, but seemingly more applicable (read: mallable) philosophy, even one that is a Church of All Worlds-type kludge of beliefs, is a ripe opportunity for those who have no scruples about peddling semantic vapid emotional liberation. Personally, I find [Eckhart Tolle](http://www.eckharttolle.com/home.php?section=about&show=ABOUT%20-%20Eckhart%20Tolle) even creepier than Chopra. Chopra is more of a _USA Today_ school of existential philosophy. Tolle is about as close as you can come to being a cultist without drinking the almond-flavored Kool-Aid. For instance: > [@Eckhart Tolle](#): > > When you listen to these talks, please be aware that the informational content, helpful as it may be, is always of secondary importance. Beyond the information that is being conveyed, something deeper is happening. As you listen, a field of alert stillness arises where before there was mental noise. You enter the state of Presence. > > This becomes possible because words that are spoken from a state of Presence carry an energy frequency that can awaken that same dimension of consciousness in the listener. Herein lies the power of all true spiritual teachings. Wait up! What does that even mean? :rolleyes: Stranger ---
**Author:** ![QuickSilver](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/quicksilver/32/7832_2.png) [@QuickSilver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/QuickSilver)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2005, 5:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/deepak-chopra-is-a-moron/312472/36 "2005-07-14T17:15:29Z")
… and think it smells like roses. ---
**Author:** ![Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/13edae/32.png) [@Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stranger_On_A_Train)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2005, 5:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/deepak-chopra-is-a-moron/312472/37 "2005-07-14T17:16:53Z")
> [@Trunk](#): > > I blame people from California. There’s no bullshit so offensive that they won’t stick their collective tanned noses in a take a huge friggin’ whiff. You know, you gotta take the good with the bad. We gots our spiritual gurus and more astrologers per square mile than you can shake a dowsing rod at, but we gots our ocean, mountains, forests, and deserts, too, and without all that nasty humidity of the South and the reek of pig farms in the Midwest. FWIW, we have plenty of tight-assed, lilly white, straight party ticket capitalized Conservatives here, too. We just tend to concentrate them in Orange County and hope that the terrorists strike there first. 😉 Stranger ---
**Author:** ![Trunk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/87869e/32.png) [@Trunk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trunk)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2005, 5:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/deepak-chopra-is-a-moron/312472/38 "2005-07-14T17:17:33Z")
> [@Stranger On A Train](#): > > I’ve known several PhDs–even a few with degrees in the hard sciences–who take internalize his “philosophy” into some kind of working method for dealing with life. I knew a gifted mathematician with a PhD in astronomy who dropped out of post doc work to, basically, explore these physics/buddhist connections that Chopra blabs on about. Naturally, her advisor (or sponsor or whatever when you’re a post doc) was having none of it. She was from California. ---
**Author:** ![QuickSilver](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/quicksilver/32/7832_2.png) [@QuickSilver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/QuickSilver)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2005, 5:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/deepak-chopra-is-a-moron/312472/39 "2005-07-14T17:18:13Z")
> [@Stranger On A Train](#): > > Wait up! What does that even mean? :rolleyes: > > Stranger I believe you first require spiritual cleansing before you can achieve this state. To the enema station with you! ---
**Author:** ![Trunk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/87869e/32.png) [@Trunk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trunk)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2005, 5:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/deepak-chopra-is-a-moron/312472/40 "2005-07-14T17:19:27Z")
> [@QuickSilver](#): > > … and think it smells like roses. ding. . . .until the next bull comes down the pike to lay another steaming pile on top of it. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/deepak-chopra-is-a-moron/312472.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/deepak-chopra-is-a-moron/312472.md?page=3)