Deepak Chopra

This was an enjoyable listening experience. Most of the information was already something I had known deep inside, though I can see how this could be groundbreaking for others. It also felt like, while I agreed with much of what Deepak talked about, he didn't give me many ways to actually enact it, though I suppose there is no easy answer and that's the point. It sounds easy to be present and understand you and your body are already whole, but I suppose actually believing that and living show more with that truth everyday is a lot more difficult to actually do. Or maybe my ego is in the way, and I need to grapple with that for a while.

I did come away feeling like I have a lot to think about. I know I could slow down and be more present than I am. I've always believed that our brains are a lot more powerful than we give them credit for, though the 'we only use 98% of our brain' myth isn't quite what we're talking about here. Manifestation and creating your own reality are very true things and don't just belong in sci-fi novels, though it should still be grounded in what is reasonable. I believe that Western society has lost that inner connection (and even mocks it), and now that we are losing our communities at an alarming rate as well, this is even more true than ever. We need to be in touch with our body and soul to feel complete, to survive, and appreciate happiness while it's in our favor. I think many ancient civilizations, and many societies today that lay outside the Whiteness of the West, knew this to be true and live(d) their lives carrying that knowledge everyday.
We also need companionship. Going on this sort of journey alone can feel like you are breaking down all the walls, but when you don't have anyone to socialize with, it's so easy for the ego to be secretly hindering you. In other words, you may think you're growing, but if there's no one to test that growth on, you may simply be deceiving yourself. So, this book is about not only reinventing your mind and body, but also understanding that other people are crucial to help further that growth and break our walls down. We are whole as ourselves, but as a people we are so divided. Discourse, tech, pettiness- these things are so abundant in society today and they all, right now, are serving to alienate us from eachother when really we should be recognizing how we are all parts to one whole and could be working together for the amazing future we are capable of engineering.

I'm thankful that Deepak put words to something I already felt, and I would recommend this to anyone seeking to further their personal growth and bridge the divide between their soul and body. Be aware, there is a lot of religious talk, but it goes beyond just Christianity and I feel it was used as a tool to help the most faithful to incorporate it into their lives instead of fight against it as ungodly, so it didn't bother me too much as someone who is not religious at all.

I did struggle a bit with understanding him at times, but this has more with my APD and how it interacts with accents, than with Deepak Chopra's enunciation. show less

Boom! Creak! Splash! Crash! Those are the sounds of my brain reading this book. Deepak Chopra and computational physicist Menas Kafatos have written a book that aims to "not to put just another popular science book in the reader's hands. We have an agenda, which is to show that this is a participatory universe that depends upon its very existence on human beings."

That's a big claim. For two authors trained in science, their conclusions are far from scientific. But they are upfront about that show more from the beginning. Science, they point out, has found many answers to questions about our world. But on the big, important, metaphysical questions, science is coming up short because of the very methods that have served us so well over the past four centuries. Since science is based on observation and thus far answers to these questions are unobservable, maybe it is time to move on, they suggest, to other ways of viewing reality itself.

They examine eight mysteries: What came before the big bang? Why does the universe fit together so perfectly? Where did time come from? What is the universe made of? Is there design in the universe? Is the quantum world linked to everyday life? Do we live in a conscious universe? And finally, how did life first begin?

Do they answer these questions and meet the agenda they set out in the Preface? That depends, I suppose upon your own consciousness. I do not pretend to understand all the science in this book. But I gathered enough to know that we really don't understand a lot of things from dark energy to from whence our thoughts spring. The information I picked up in this book was astounding. Overall, I believe they made a good case for the need for a new scientific paradigm. The view of randomness is nearing its useful end, it is breaking down and failing to explain reality with any satisfaction.

I am a bit more hesitant to hang view of reality on their assertion that consciousness depends on humans. Our consciousness depends on humans, but if humans were wiped off the face of Earth and there were no other human beings in the cosmos, I think the universe would still be here. We may have a piece of cosmic consciousness, but is a very small picture of the whole. I don't believe in a human-centric universe but that the universe itself is conscious--that is an idea I can support. If for nothing else, I give this book five stars for entertainment. show less

I am glad I didn't try to read this book before I was ready to read it. This book is about finding yourself in the miasma of the world around us. It is about finding your place in "the field" that is the universe.

If I hadn't had a guide to help me find my first steps, I probably wouldn't have bought this book as anything but blather. However, because someone had started my feet in the proper direction, I can understand the significance of what the author says and why. I can see, and feel, show more what the words offer.

I could recommend this book to everyone, as it is an easy read. You have to be open to reading it, however, so I don't recommend just grabbing it to grab it. Take a little time to meditate on what you might learn, open your mind to new concepts... show less

People *believe* this crap?

"The universe has no fixed agenda. Once you make any decision, it works around that decision. There is no right or wrong, only a series of possibilities that shift with each thought, feeling, and action that you experience. " - because fuck personal responsibility, right?

"Evolution is win-win…life is self-correcting." Except evolution is the result of millions of mutations and NO mutation is ever a negative, right?

"Never forget that you are not in the world; the show more world is in you." What the fuck is this shit?

"Creation is set up to bring you constant hints and clues about your role as co-creator." Sorry, but the universe doesn't give a crap about you.

I would like to apologize to each and every braincell I felt dying as this garbage tried to convince its audience to abandon science and reason in favor of defeatism. show less