Thursday, June 21, 2007

Deepak Chopra, “quantum”, and Ig Nobel prizes


For all science fans out there who have not heard about the Ig Nobel prizes yet, I hereby order you to go and buy the book: The Ig Nobel Prizes: The Annals of Improbable Research! The Ig Nobel prizes are dealt out annually at Harvard University, for indisputably ingenious research. Forget stem cells and neutrinos, and instead read about how pigeons have been trained to discriminate between paintings by Picasso and Monet, how scientist have created a computer program that detects when your cat walks on your keyboard, the optimal way of dunking your biscuit, or about solid evidence for the already well known fact that if you drop your sandwich it will fall with the butter side down!

One man who has been honored with an Ig Nobel Prize is my great idol, Deepak Chopra. The official statement said the following: "Deepak Chopra of the Chopra center for well being, La Jolla, California, for his unique interpretation of quantum physics as it applies to life, liberty, and the pursuit of economic happiness".

Physicists stand beside with saliva dripping out of their mouths while Deepak take their theories to new unimaginable heights. Here are a few quotations that illustrate the creativity of Deepak Chopra when it comes to the implications of quantum physics.

(1) "The most important routine to follow is transcending: the act of getting in touch with the quantum level of yourself"

(2) "Quantum health is based on the idea that we are always, forever, in transition.

(3) "The universe consists of a "field of all possibilities" called the "field of pure potentiality", and also the "quantum soup"

Deepak Chopra has also founded the American academy of quantum medicine where he educates his victims in "quantum nutrition". On a blog to which he contributes Deepak himself has observed that "Skeptics generally leap to the conclusion that I am naive, self-deluded, or simply unread in the sciences", and that "Skeptics believe that doubt is a positive attribute". I would sign under to both of these statements. Doubt is a valuable virtue when people like Chopra are inventing (and earning tons of money on) concepts such as "quantum nutrition", "quantum health", or the "quantum level of yourself".


I find this to be an ideal place to quote Carl Sagan, a man who can hardly be accused of being narrow minded: "Be open-minded, but not so open minded that your brains fall out"

9 comments:

The Key Question said...

Ha ha ha!

Imagine an advertising pitch:

"Introducing quantum soup! Now available in 200ml and 300ml volumes only. Not available in any volume in between"

Heh.

Anonymous said...

Here's chopra's latest The Woo Woo Factor


and at huffingtonpost

Reactions from Dr. Myers at Pharyngula The Waa Waa Factor

from Orac at scienceblogsDeepak Chopra's woo-ful whine

from Skeptico
Even More Drivel from Deepak Chopra

Anonymous said...

Hooray for Deepak.

Whatever else he may be doing he is trying to get us to see that there is much more in heaven and earth than our normal, dreadfully sane, white coated scientists can even begin to imagine.

Hooray for a quantum world-view and all attempts to try to make sense of it and investigate its extraordinary possibilities.

These four references are about the universe (meaning one whole and indivisible) as a modification of the Divine Conscious Light.

Or about a multi-dimensional world full of space-time paradoxes in which everything is in one way or another inter-connected.

Or a world/universe best described by the equation C=E=MC2

C equals Consciousness

1. www.dabase.org/broken.htm
2. www.dabase.org/dht6.htm
3. www.adidabiennale.org
4. www.kneeoflistening.com

Anonymous said...

I think it's ironic that skeptics of Chopra are the same people who embrace string theory, multiverse theory and many other modern superstitions couched in science.

You might ask which superstition has the most evidence to support it.

rasmussenanders said...

Thank you for the comment anonymous,

Personally I remain sceptic to many of the new cosmological theories because they make my head spin, however they do have quite good predictive success which should be the measure of how good a theory is.

Chopra, by constrast, don't predict anything of any value...

Anonymous said...

"Thank you for the comment anonymous,"

Thank you for reading it.

"Personally I remain sceptic to many of the new cosmological theories because they make my head spin, however they do have quite good predictive success which should be the measure of how good a theory is."

It is my understanding that string theory has no testable hypothesis, and is considered more philosophy than science.

"Chopra, by constrast, don't predict anything of any value..."

Doesn't it depend on what you value? Imagine feeling high without the destructive effects of alchohol or drugs. He predicts that if you meditate, you will reach a higher state of consciousness. I have personally tried this experiment, and the prediction came true.

Leo degon said...

News flash-Meditation helps?
Wow never would have known. Sorry Vedic practicioners, you were beat to the punch. If it wasn't for the mangling of quantum theory, or a possible erronous use of the Copenhagen interpertation, I'd spend more time narrowing in on that.

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