The Royal Ontario Museum (ROM) is sponsoring a lecture by Deepak Chopra. You can see for yourself on the ROM website: An Evening with Deepak Chopra.Here's the blurb ...
An Evening with Deepak Chopra
Wednesday, June 23, 7:00 - 8:00 pm (Doors Open 6:00 pm)
Status: Registration Starts May 14!
Director's Signature Series
The Warrior Emperor and China's Terracotta Army
World renowned teacher, author and philosopher Deepak Chopra presents his latest concepts in the field of mind-body medicine bridging the technological miracles of the West with the wisdom of the East. He will show you how your highest vision of yourself can be turned into physical reality and discuss how you can become a living cell within the body of a living universe. You don't join the cosmic dance - you become the dance. Deepak will address the deeper meaning of our existence including: What is our true nature? What is the meaning and purpose of our existence? How can I transform myself? How can I make a better world? Deepak explains how the greatest spiritual secrets are tied up in this simple answer: You can't change the body without changing the self, and you can't change the self without bringing in the soul. He explains, "It's all one process, and it begins with knowing that your body exists to mirror who you are and who you want to be."
Deepak Chopra is the author of more than 56 books translated into over 35 languages, including numerous New York Times bestsellers in both the fiction and non-fiction categories. He is a fellow of the American College of Physicians, a member of the American Association of Clinical Endocrinologists, Adjunct Professor at Kellogg School of Management and Senior Scientist with The Gallup Organization. Time magazine heralds Deepak Chopra as one of the top 100 heroes and icons of the century and credits him as "the poet-prophet of alternative medicine." For more information visit: www.deepakchopra.com
Location: Convocation Hall, 31 King’s College Circle, University of Toronto
Cost: Price: Ground VIP: $175, Rise Area: $89, 1st Balcony: $69, 2nd Balcony: $49, Behind Stage: $25
Tickets are non-refundable.
Jeez, that's expensive for that quack.
ReplyDeleteI heard him speak at Caltech in the duel with Michael Shermer and Sam Harris. It was embarrassing to hear him waffle about GOD (it's an acronym: Generation, Organization, and Delivery), and especially about the moon: "In the absence of a conscious entity, the moon remains a radically ambiguous and ceaselessly flowing quantum soup."
Chopra has burnt his bridges with mainstream Hindus in a debate over yoga. So while you dump on him, spare him the monikker of "Hindu this, Hindu that" If you want to criticise Hindus and Hinduism find some other ridicululous practitioner pleeeease!
ReplyDeleteAlso, shame on the University of Toronto! Why on earth we are allowing this charlatan to speak in Con Hall is beyond me.
ReplyDeleteUofT routinely rents out large venues like Con Hall for lots of talks. It isn't their purview to censor things. On a related note, the ROM is somewhat affiliated with UofT, as it was once administered by UofT. That might explain why someone as bizarre as Mr. Chopra is talking at Con Hall. We usually get politicians, real scholars, that sort of thing.
ReplyDeleteTo amend my previous comment, the fault for inviting Mr. Chopra to speak lies with the ROM, not UofT.
ReplyDeleteMy feelings about this are best expressed by a quote from the immortal Bill the Cat:
ReplyDelete"Ack!"
Aside from all the other stupid dripping from this thing, I wann know: what the hell does ChopraWoo have to do with the terra cotta army? Is this some hook he's using on which to hang his crap?
ReplyDeleteI *was* going to renew my ROM membership. Great place to go and sketch. However...
ReplyDeleteI just canceled my ROM membership to protest the "Evening with Deepak".
ReplyDeleteI also find it reprehensible of the ROM to give this crackpot a ROM sponsored platform to add respectability to his brand of woo.
What is this travesty? Disinformation is being handed a microphone, in a royal museum of all places!
ReplyDeleteSorry, I've never heard of this guy before and reading his wiki article, it sounds like he's qualified to talk about this subject. I don't necessarily think that everything he might say is true, but as scientists, shouldn't we be open to discussion about any subject? If you are the rational objectors to religion, etc that you seem to be, shouldn't you be open to listening to what he has to say and then making your arguments afterward? I'm just a bit confused about why people seem to be upset about this.
ReplyDeleteSonny: You have answered your own question. Whereas you have never heard of Chopra before, we have, and know that he peddles a mish-mash of newage pseudo-medical crap, liberally sprinkled with buzzwords about quantum mechanics (a subject about which he knows nothing recognizable to physicists who actually do QM stuff). Chopra is one of those cases where familiarity breeds contempt.
ReplyDeleteFor some data, hop over to Orac's place and enter "chopra" in the search box.
Re: Sunny
ReplyDeletePlease google 'concern troll' and get back to us, thanks.
And as scientists, aren't we supposed to let discarded hypotheses die? Half the point is figuring out what doesn't seem to be correct - this accounts for the majority of the words Mr. Chopra speaks.
How could the ROM do this? i.e. what were they thinking?
ReplyDeleteWhy anyone would actually pay to hear this quack, boggles my mind. I can only hope that ticket sales will be low enough that the talk will be cancelled. Chopra's nonsense is very popular, yes, but only to the uninformed who look at the number of books he's sold, not the quality of what he preaches. He's a remnant of medieval times, preaching ayurvedic notions and tossing in cutesy quasi-scientific terms: "vibrations" and "quantum" are his favorite drop-in qualifiers. If I had a membership in the ROM, I'd cancel it. Since I now live in the USA, I can only rant from a distance. As someone who has previously spoken both at the ROM and the UofT, I am embarrassed.
ReplyDeleteI can no longer find a listing for his talk. Did the ROM actually listen for a change and cancel this night of anti-science?
ReplyDeleteDeepak is full of crap.....he claims to have caused earthquakes based on his meditation? So he kills people with his thoughts? All he cares about is getting money from anyone willing to listen, biggest crook out there. Anyone who believes in him should be locked up. Idiot celebrities think the world of him because they don't have a mind of their own (Lady Gag Gag, Oprah Winfall). Deepak is TRASH!
ReplyDelete