More Chopra drivel

Where does he get it from? It seems Deepak Chopra has an endless supply of meaningless drivel to churn out when anyone gives him a forum. His latest piece of verbal diarrhea can be found here on the Huffington Post blog, that haven for anti-science screed. Let’s dip in and see what gems he has to share with the unwashed:

Some concept of a "subtle body" is accepted widely throughout the East, but it hasn't made major headway in the West for one obvious reason: Whatever is invisible has little standing in a materialistic culture where reality is defined by science.

Yes, science has no time for invisible things like radio waves, atoms, MRIs etc. – all things discovered by science incidentally, not by drips like Chopra. Of course, what he means is that science is only interested in things that have a measurable effect – things that can be tested. If something has no measurable effect (for example, this "subtle body" he’s talking about), then it might just as well not exist. So does his "subtle body" have a measurable effect or is it just too damn subtle to measure?

This is really a fallacious appeal to other ways of knowing. Other ways than science, that is. But science has proven to be the most (only?) reliable method we know for evaluating claims and figuring out how the universe works. If Chopra is claiming that there is a better method, it is up to him to explain what that method would be: something he hasn’t done.

On the periphery of official wisdom, if we can use that term to describe orthodox ways of thinking, millions of people have experienced and believe in the following propositions:

(Snipped list of woo beliefs)

What these diverse things have in common -- besides being excluded from official wisdom -- is that they imply an invisible connection.

No, what most of them have in common is that there is no evidence that they are real.

By which I don't mean a mystical one. Just as the material world is connected invisibly at the quantum level, the subtle world is connected by a field of consciousness. A prayer, a desire to be healed, a wish for peace, hope for reassurance about the dead -- each impulse enters the field of consciousness and is responded to, just as every material event enters the quantum field and is responded to, down to the least quark and photon.

Meaningless gibberish with the word “quantum” thrown in (twice), as well as a quark and a photon for good measure. This is standard Chopra: he quotes quantum mechanics safe in the knowledge that that few people will know he’s talking garbage. In reality, he just wants to hijack the mantle of science to give this gibberish some respectability. It’s sold a lot of books.

So much evidence exists already about everything on the list

Yes, evidence that they are nonsense, don’t exist or don’t work.

that there is no longer a need to try and adapt to the scientific world view as if it were the only valid one.

Another appeal to other ways of knowing. He still hasn’t explained his better way though. Wonder why not?

Consciousness is still a cottage industry. As such, there is a wild mixture of truth and speculation, projection and verification. Anyone's experience could be real or imaginary. Anyone's explanation could be valid or eccentric.

I suppose that paragraph is technically correct. Meaningless though.

This is the best one of the lot:

For a new world view to emerge it must be coherent. It cannot be built up from entirely personal experiences, because sometimes these experiences are so intense that we can't see beyond them.

You know, he’s right. We need a method to evaluate the claims of this “new world view”, a way to objectively test these “experiences” so that we don’t fool ourselves into thinking something is true when it is not. A method where others replicate and confirm our results before they are accepted. A reliable method with a proven track record of success. If only we had such a method.

Imagine being in a room where a clairvoyant medium, a channeler, a faith healer, and an acupuncturist are trying to reach agreement while all around them radios blare messages about UFOs, alien abductions, reincarnation, near-death experiences, etc. The Babel of voices is so intense as to be unintelligible.

Yes, I imagine that a room with a clairvoyant medium, a channeler, a faith healer, and an acupuncturist all babbling together would be pretty unintelligible. Rather an obvious statement to make though.

The first steps have to be taken, however, despite this welter of confusion. A culture of consciousness is possible. In fact, present-day science is such a culture, although it is based, ironically enough, on the premise that consciousness has no validity except as an emergent property of matter. One can foresee the next culture of consciousness based on connections, which would overturn the whole scientific prejudice against the subtle body, invisible realities, and the primacy of consciousness in general.

Maybe. But I don’t foresee Chopra leading us there with this load of waffle.

Comments

[pvandck]

Ah, the stench of the post-modernist's verbal dysentry. The most sensible thing to do with Mr Chopra is to have his name printed on toilet paper.
We could of course use his name for anagrams. It can't be his real name, surely. It seems somehow fake-mystical, just like him.
How about he changes his name to something equally mystical but more appropriate - Hako Deepcrap?

[BronzeDog]

For a new world view to emerge it must be coherent. It cannot be built up from entirely personal experiences, because sometimes these experiences are so intense that we can't see beyond them.

Did Hako Deepcrap just give me some possible ammunition to use against Fore Sam, the guy who expects me to accept his chelation anecdote at face value?

Couldn't be.

[jre]

The temptation to post some rational reply to Chopra over at Hogwashington evaporated the instant I actually contemplated wading into that swamp.
So -- insisting that we all inhabit the same objective reality is a foible of scientists, and something to be overcome? A cheap poke, Doctor.
Hey, wait ... A CHEAP POKE DR is an anagram for Deepak Chopra.
!!!
Wow, is that heavy.
Everything happens for a reason, man.

[Stevel]

Scratch that; reverse that:

There are reasons for everything that happens.

I'm pretty sure there are an infinite number of reasons for each happening, so we're all living in a luxurious universe - which, by the way, is no accident, since such a luxury of reasons happens for a luxury of reasons...

[Jeff]

Chopra's pseudointellectual borrowing of scientific words to make his bullshit sound "authentic," along with his abysmally stupid "science is mean" kind of talk, reminds me of this gem from Ethan Allen (I remembered just reading it in Sagan's Demon-Haunted World):

Those who invalidate reason ought seriously to consider whether they argue against reason with or without reason; if with reason, then they establish the principle that they are laboring to dethrone: but if they argue without reason (which, in order to be consistent with themselves they must do), they are out of reach of rational conviction, nor do they deserve a rational argument.

[Mike Nilsen]

That Chopra guy really burns my ass. He's been spouting the same codswallop for twenty years now. Gee, I wonder how that 'not aging' thing is working out for him. He'll probably say that he chose to let his physical body grow old for some bogus reason.

'the Huffington Post blog, that haven for anti-science screed'
Apart from the Chopra article, there isn't any 'anti-science' that I can see, the vast majority of the stories dealing with political issues. Obviously the author of the anti-Chopra article above (where is his/her name, by the way?) is not very familiar with this site, and has pre-judged it.

[Skeptico]

To anonymous:

You obviously haven’t read the numerous vaccinations-cause-autism and other general anti-evidence based medicine posts. The majority is about politics, that is true, but when science is involved the huff post is pretty much in the woo camp.