The World In Crisis

Deepak Chopra

Deepak Chopra is one of the world’s great leaders in mind-body medicine, and an enormously successful popularizer of spiritual principles.

As a writer, speaker, teacher, and leader in the areas of health and spirituality, Deepak Chopra has become one of the most popular voices in the dialogue between ancient wisdom and modern science. His books, audios, and videos have sold millions, and he has assisted countless organizations and individuals to set themselves within a deeper, more holistic context.

In this dialogue, Deepak and Ken discuss the horror of the global crisis, and what a spiritually healthy response might be. War, poverty, ecological despoliation—what can we do to curb our self-destructive ways?

The dialogue begins with a discussion of Deepak's most recent writings. Like many of his books, How To Know God and The Book of Secrets focus on what an individual can do to cultivate deeper awareness. In essence, these books are about practice. How do we face tragedy, personal and global, in a way that helps us grow, become stronger and more conscious? The dimension most often ignored by the most well-meaning political activists is precisely this realm of interior practice and development.

"It follows, then, that by meditating you can help end famine...."

Ken highlights the importance of interior development by referring to the findings of Nobel Laureate economist Amartya Sen, who showed that famine has never occurred in a democratic nation. Sen found that, with its more efficient communication, open access to information, and distributed economic control, a democracy is simply better able to deliver valuable resources where they are needed. A democracy, however, doesn't come from nowhere. It can only be created by a collective of individuals functioning at a relatively high level of interior development.

Here's the fascinating twist: while there are many important and useful interior growth practices, it turns out that meditation is the only one empirically demonstrated to move an adult up an average of two levels of psychological development. This doesn't mean there aren't other ways to grow, but thus far, meditation is the most proven route. It follows that in order to end famine, an effective way to do so is to promote the practice of meditation.