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Conference hydra::dejavu

Title:Psychic Phenomena
Notice:Please read note 1.0-1.* before writing
Moderator:JARETH::PAINTER
Created:Wed Jan 22 1986
Last Modified:Tue May 27 1997
Last Successful Update:Fri Jun 06 1997
Number of topics:2143
Total number of notes:41773

1583.0. "Dr.Chopra, TM and Ayurveda" by TNPUBS::PAINTER (let there be music) Wed Nov 20 1991 13:25

    
    This note for discussing Deepak Chopra's works, TM and Ayurveda.
    They're all connected.
    
    Pointers to related notes:  467 - Ayurveda
                               1458 - Transcendental Meditation (TM)
    
    Cindy
T.RTitleUserPersonal
Name
DateLines
1583.1"Perfect Health" - Table of ContentsTNPUBS::PAINTERlet there be musicWed Nov 20 1991 13:26105
"Perfect Health - The Complete Mind/Body Guide", by Deepak Chopra, M.D.,1991

Table Of Contents

Part I - A PLACE CALLED PERFECT HEALTH

   1. Invitation to a Higher Reality

   2. Discovering Your Body Type

        - Maharishi Ayurveda Body-Type Test

        - Characteristics of the Body Types:

               Vata
               Pita
               Kapha

   3. The Three Doshas - Makers Of Reality

        - The Subdoshas

   4. A Blueprint from Nature

        - How the Doshas Get Unbalanced

   5. Restoring the Balance

        - The Balanced Life - General Points


Part II - THE QUANTUM MECHANICAL HUMAN BODY

   6. Quantum Medicine for a Quantum Body

   7. Opening the Channels of Healing

        - Panchakarma

        - Transcendental Meditation

        - Primordial Sound

        - Pulse Diagnosis

        - Marma Therapy

        - Bliss Technique

        - Aroma Therapy

        - Gandharva Music Therapy

   8. Freedom from Addictions

   9. Aging Is A Mistake

        - Rasayanas - Herbs for Longevity

        - Quiz: How Well Am I Aging?


Part III - LIVING IN TUNE WITH NATURE

   10. The Impulse to Evolve

   11. Daily Routine - Riding Nature's Wave

   12. Diet - Eating for Perfect Balance

        - Body-Type Diets:

            Vata-Pacifying Diet
            Pitta-Pacifying Diet
            Kapha-Pacifying Diet
            
        - The Six Tastes

        - Agni - The Digestive Fire

        - A Blissful Diet

   13. Exercise - The Myth of "No Pain, No Gain"

        - Body-Type Exercise

        - Three-Dosha Exercises:

            Sun Salute
            Yoga Positions
            Balanced Breathing (Pranayama)

   14. Seasonal Routine - Balancing The Whole Year

   Epilogue: Flowers in a Quantum Field

   Appendix A: Sources for Maharishi Ayurveda

   Appendix B: Glossary

   Bibliography

   Index
   
1583.2Brief biographyTNPUBS::PAINTERlet there be musicWed Nov 20 1991 13:3112
    
    Deepak Chopra, M.D., who has practiced endocrinology since 1971, is the
    former chief of staff of New England Memorial Hospital in Stoneham,
    Mass.  He is a Fellow of the American College of Physicians.  He is
    also the president of the American Association for Ayurvedic Medicine
    and the medical director of the Maharishi Ayurveda Health Center for
    Stress Management and Behavioral Medicine in Lancaster, Massachusetts.
     
    Dr. Chopra is the author of "Creating Health, Return of the Rishi", and
    "Quantum Healing".  He lectures around the world and his work has been
    published in twenty languages.  He lives in Lincoln, Massachusetts,
    with his wife, Rita, and their children, Mallika and Gautama.
1583.3Addictions - smokingTNPUBS::PAINTERlet there be musicWed Nov 20 1991 14:21146
Before Dr.Chopra came upon TM and Ayurveda, he smoked, so this is his 
own approach to quitting.

Cindy

----------------------------------------------------------------------

{From: "Perfect Health", by Deepak Chopra, M.D."

Chapter 8 - Freedom From Additions

Giving Up Cigarettes
--------------------

In the case of cigarette smoking, coaxing your body to give up its 
addiction makes much more sense than forcing it to.  People who manage 
to quit by going "cold turkey", but the sudden withdrawal of nicotine 
precipitates a lot of stress.  The story is told that Sigmund Freud 
smoked twenty cigars a day for many years, until he began to suffer 
heart palpitations as a result.  He tried to quit smoking, on his 
doctor's advice, but the palpitations returned with doubled force as 
soon as he stopped, driving him back to his habit.  Freud told his 
biographer that trying not to smoke was "torture beyond human power to 
bear."

In Maharishi Ayurveda, we tell smokers to keep sending signals to the 
quantum mechanical body telling it that they want to quit.  These 
signals can be of various kinds.  Laying off cigarettes for a day at a 
time is one way - many if not most of the people who successfully quit 
do so by temporarily stopping a dozen or more times.  A more powerful 
message is sent to the quantum mechanical body with TM (Transcendental 
Meditation).  Even if you are a heavy smoker, this may be all you need.  
One retrospective study based on five thousand meditators showed that 
only 1 percent of the men and 4 percent of the women were smokers, even 
though before starting TM, a whopping 34 percent said that they smoked 
at least occasionally.

There are additional ways to help you quit.  When patients come to 
Maharishi Ayurveda clinics and ask how they can stop smoking as 
painlessly as possible, here is what we tell them.  Three ground rules 
are laid down in advance.

1. Do not try to give up smoking - hard-minded determination just sets
   you up for failure.  Nicotine is addictive, as is the habit of 
   reaching for a cigarette.  To end these habits you have to retrain
   yourself as unconsciously as you started.

2. Keep your cigarettes with you - the strategy of throwing cigarettes
   away seems to make sense, but it only leads to panicked trips for
   more and the embarrassment of begging them from friends and 
   strangers.

3. Notice the automatic cues that make you reach for a cigarette and 
   dissociate yourself from them.

The third point is the key one and requires explanation.  All smokers 
light up automatically on cue.  For some the cue is picking up the 
phone, for others it is turning on the TV, starting a conversation, or 
ending a meal.  You probably know your own cues; if not, take a day to 
observe them.  These cues are the signals to Vata that make you act on 
impulse.  You do not notice that you are lighting up because in fact 
your mind has gone blank for that instant.  Vata has taken over.

You need to switch off this automatic pilot.  The way to do that is 
surprisingly simple: smoke consciously and pay attention to the act of 
smoking.  The best method, which has helped many of our patients to quit 
in a short period of time, is as follows:

o  When you catch yourself lighting up, stop for a second and ask if
   you really want this cigarette.

o  If so, go outside and sit quietly by yourself.  Smoke the cigarette
   without distractions.

o  As you are smoking, pay attention to your body.  Feel the smoke in
   your lungs; feel any sensations in your mouth, nose, throat, stomach,
   or anywhere else.

o  Take out a piece of paper or a small diary and immediately record
   what you felt and the time you smoked the cigarette.  Keep a record 
   of each cigarette, whether it was conscious or automatic, and how
   it felt.

Do not worry about how much you are smoking; just record each cigarette, 
even if you find that at the end of a phone call you don't know how 
those three butts in the ashtray got there.  If you follow this 
procedure faithfully, you will become a conscious smoker instead of a 
smoking machine.  We have found that many patients cut down their daily 
intake from two packs to four or five cigarettes - this reflects how much 
they actually want to smoke.  Cutting back is almost as important as 
stopping; it prepares the way for quitting and also reduces the direct 
health risk of your habit.

Curing An Addiction At Home
---------------------------

In the past, many addicted people have preferred to live with their 
problem, no matter how tormenting, than to reveal it to outsiders.  This 
feeling is entirely understandable, and I always feel it should be 
respected as long as you are also taking productive steps to quit.  A 
complete course of home treatment would include:

   - Learning to meditate (TM)

   - Detoxifying the system, either at home or under a doctor's care

   - Body-type diet (beginning with Vata-pacifying foods until the
        signs of Vata imbalance are gone)

   - Regular Ayurvedic exercise

   - Daily routine with oil massage (abhyanga) to settle disturbed Vata

[*** All these methods are explained in detail in the book. ***]

...We feel that no addiction treatment can succeed in the long run
without compassion and understanding.  If you decide to seek counseling,
look for these qualities in a psychologist, pastor, doctor, or just a
good friend.  One crippling drawback of conventional rehabilitation is
the constant vigilance means constant stress.  The monkey never does get
off your back.  We feel instead that addicted people have to learn to
trust themselves and be comfortable with their lifestyles.  Any increase
in fear and anxiety is totally unproductive, even if the stress is
supposed to end a habit.  The rationale behind our hands-off approach is
that nature can be trusted.  An addicts body will return to balance if
treated correctly. 

...The measure of your success is not how many days you go without a 
relapse.  Rather, you should look for signs of self-acceptance; 
happiness, moments of joy and pleasure; return of a good appetite and 
love of food; better sleep, calmer dreams; lack of bad odors in the 
mouth and skin, less sweating; increased physical strength and 
endurance; and regular physical functioning (digestion, respiration, 
motor coordination, and so on.)

All of these will come in time.  The great joy of getting clean is that 
the body loves to be that way.  I do not even favor the term 
rehabilitation.  What you are doing is washing yourself off, inside and 
out.  It is a natural process that will bring greater results the longer 
it continues.  Temporary relapses are little more than minor obstacles, 
as long as you are willing to get back up and try again.  A healthy, 
beautiful world is waiting for you and gets nearer with every step you 
take.

------------------------------------------------------------------------
1583.4add'l infoTNPUBS::PAINTERlet there be musicFri Nov 22 1991 17:05140
                                    
From: "Yoga Journal", July/August 1989, p.48
    
Quantum Healing, by Craig A. Lambert
    
Interview With Deepak Chopra, M.D.
----------------------------------

It seemed like an insignificant event to have the impact that it did: 
while browsing in a used bookstore one Sunday afternoon in 1980, Deepak 
Chopra, an endocrinologist with a burgeoning practice in Boston, 
stumbled upon a small volume entitled "Transcendental Meditation", by 
Jack Forem.  He brought it home along with several other titles.  As far 
as he can recall, none of the other books permanently changed the course 
of his life.

Chopra had been born into an "extremely Westernized" family in New 
Delhi, India, in 1947.  His father, Krishnan Chopra, is one of India's 
preeminent cardiologists and currently chairs the cardiology department 
of a large hospital in New Delhi.  Like his father, Deepak received a 
thoroughly Western training in medicine, attending India's most 
prestigious medical school, the All India Institute of Medical Sciences. 

After graduating in 1969, Chopra emigrated to the US with his new wife, 
Rita, and interned at Muhlenbert Hospital in Plainfield, New Jersey. ...
[Eventually] he taught at the medical schools of Boston University and 
Tufts, and eventually became chief of staff at New England Memorial 
Hospital in Stoneham, Massachusetts.  He and Rita started a family and 
bought a home in Lincoln, Mass.

By this point, Rita recalls, Deepak Chopra had "done it all".  "He's 
always worked twice as hard as anyone else," she explains.  "He puts his 
heart and soul into anything he does.  And he's always had a gift with 
people."

Yet Chopra was getting restless.  [At age 33] he smoked cigarettes, drank 
alcohol, and consumed plenty of coffee on his way through long work 
days.  He was counseling his patients to change their self-destructive 
habits, but he began to recognize that he could not make such changes in 
his own life.

Furthermore, Chopra felt frustrated in his attempts to fulfill one of 
his cherished inner motives for pursuing medicine: to penetrate the 
"essense of life." "I had read everything I could find on all spiritual 
traditions - Buddhism, Taoism, Confucianism.  I've read maybe 600 books 
on spirituality," he says.  But his high-powered career and his 
relentless combining of spiritual literature had not satisfied Chopra's 
appetite for higher consciousness.

Then came that fateful Sunday in the bookstore when he encountered 
Forem's "Transcendental Meditation".  Chopra read the book that evening 
and said to Rita, "This looks fantastic!"  The following day they went 
to an introductory TM lecture, and received instruction in meditation 
the day after that.  Two months later they took the advanced TM-Sidhi 
program, which involves techniques for deeper integration of mind-body 
consciousness.  "At first I did TM mainly to relax, but it changed my 
whole life - my diet, my work, my relationships with patients and other 
people," he says.  "I became 10 times more efficient in my work."  He 
soon lost his taste for alcohol, and other self-imparing habits 
spontaneously fell away.

Another turning point came in 1985 when Dr. Chopra met Maharishi Mahesh 
Yogi, the founder of the Transcendental Meditation movement, who had 
come to Washington, D.C., for the inauguration of the Maharishi Vedic 
University.  Chopra and Rita were emerging from a dining room when they 
saw Maharishi, who walked straight up to them and asked them to come to 
his room.  The Chopras were somewhat taken aback; they were scheduled to 
catch a plane in 15 minutes, and tried to beg off.  But at Maharishi's 
insistence they went upstairs, forgot all about their flight, and spent 
an hour talking with him.

"I was impressed by his and my total comfort and lack of formality.  
There was no pretentiousness, a lot of jokes and laughter.  It was a 
lighthearted meeting," Chopra recalls.  "And I was completely taken by 
his sincerity, his almost childish enthusiasm...for lack of a better 
word, his bliss."  Rita says, "Maharishi was the sweetest, easiest 
person in the world to talk to, so warm and friendly, so loving and 
happy.  It was a most joyous experience."

Maharishi spoke to Chopra about ayurveda, the 7,000-year-old Indian 
"science of life," which Maharishi was reviving and purifying as an 
approach to perfecting health in the modern world.  He told Chopra that 
he should study ayurveda, understand it, and explain it in scientific 
terms.  In essense, he was suggesting that Chopra change the direction 
of his career, and idea that momentarily made Rita uneasy.  She told 
Maharishi that it was not practical for Deepak to devote himself to 
ayurveda; he had to make a living.  Maharishi simply laughed and, eyes 
twinkling, assured them both that Deepak would be very successful with 
ayurveda.

That prediction has proven accurate.  Dr. Chopra has become an important 
link between the ancient science of ayurveda and modern Western 
medicine.  As president of the American Association of Ayurvedic 
Medicine, he has traveled around the US and the world speaking about 
Maharishi Ayurveda, the Maharishi's revitalized version of the ancient 
healing tradition.

Chopra has lectured on ayurveda at Johns Hopkins, Harvard, UCLA, Yale, 
and the National Institutes of Health.  He has addressed the World 
Health Organization in Geneva and the United Nations in New York, and 
has appeared on dozens of television and radio shows. ...  Although he 
continues his clinical work as medical director of the Maharishi 
Ayurveda Health Center in Lancaster, Massachusetts, Chopra's medical 
practice is actually a global one, with patients in Holland, Hollywood 
and Japan, among other places.  Every two or three months he punctuates 
his busy travel schedule with more travel, visiting India to meet with 
Maharishi Mahesh Yogi.

Book Reviews
------------

Chopra's first book, "Creating Health: Beyond Prevention, Toward
Perfection" (Houghton Mifflin, 1987), discusses a wide range of diseases 
and a panorama of strategies for creating health, returning again and 
again to "the psychophysicolgical connection" - Chopra's term for the 
intimate relationship of human consciousness and human physiology.  The 
book has gone through five printings, and has been published in England, 
Japan, South America, Europe, Israel, Canada, South Africa, India, and 
Australia.

His second book, "The Return Of The Rishi: A Doctor's Search for the 
Ultimate Healer" (Houghton Mifflin, 1988), is an autobiographical tour 
through rural Indian villages and urban American emergency rooms, filled 
with thought-provoking stories of encounters with the extremes of health 
and illness.  "Witnessing Dr. Chopra's transformation into a 
compassionate ayurvedic healer with an impeccable credentials in 
endocrinology," wrote a 'New York Times' reviewer, "we can't help 
wishing he lived close enough to make house calls."

This spring [of 1989], Bantam published Chopra's third book, "Quantum 
Healing: Exploring the Frontiers of Mind/Body Medicine", a profound 
investigation of consciousness and health that takes the reader on a 
highly readable journey through the most provocative recent findings in 
neuroimmunology, molecular biology, cerebral function, cellular 
physiology, and other biological sciences.  

------------------------------------------------------------------------

This latest book, "Perfect Health - The Complete Mind/Body Guide" was 
published earlier this year, in 1991.
1583.5Alternate alternative medicine?CADSYS::COOPERTopher CooperFri Nov 22 1991 18:0017
    I guess its worth pointing out that at least some apparently
    traditional practitioners of Ayurvedic medicine claim that the TM
    organization in general and Chopra in particular are putting out
    a cheap, inauthentic imitation of the real thing for purposes of
    profit.

    I wish to emphasize that I have no expertise here with which to
    evalutate these claims.  It may well be that these nay-sayers are
    simply follow an alternate version of Ayurvedic medicine and have
    been saying the same thing for the last 2000 years.  Or they may
    find that the slick merchandising by the TM organization of an
    essentially identical "product" may be cutting into their own business.
    Or lots of other possibilities.

    Caveat Emptor for both sides.

					Topher
1583.6Well, as luck with have it...]B^}TNPUBS::PAINTERlet there be musicFri Nov 22 1991 18:559
    
    I'm crossposting these notes in the VAXWRK::INDIA conference, 
    for those who are interested.
    
    It's note 666.  
    
    [There *must* be some deep significance to this...]
    
    Cindy
1583.7A money-making concernSHIRE::PHILIPPhil Ward Mgmt. Sci. Geneva-EtangSun Nov 24 1991 11:2322
       	Two Indian doctors I know who practise in Delhi and who have
   quite some knowledge of Ayurveda share the same dim view of TM's
   "Ayurveda". It is very much a profit-making enterprise, which goes
   against the spirit of traditional Indian medicine, and one which
   seeks to add credibility to the teachings and practices of TM
   which themselves have no basis at all in any traditional Indian
   teaching.

       	Some friends of mine were TM teachers for several years
   before leaving the organisation in disgust after realising what
   they had become entangled with. They were teaching the so-called
   advanced "Sidhi" techniques, in which you allegedly learn to fly
   during a residential course lasting a number of weeks. The greater
   part of the price (several thousand pounds in the UK) goes straight
   to one of Maharishi's Swiss bank accounts, as does much of the
   other income of the TM organisation. Many participants suffered
   serious physical and mental health problems after taking "Sidhi"
   courses, and although several reported various strange experiences,
   none finished up able to fly under their own control.
   
   	Phil
1583.8just in it for the $$$$$$$MARVIN::MARSHThe dolphins have the answerMon Nov 25 1991 05:3117
    
    Two British "Ayurvedic" doctors who have worked with Chopra in the past
    were recently brought to court by two patients who had had their
    "cures" tested by a chemist. They had paid hundreds of pounds for
    tablets and other "Ayurvedic" tonics which in one case was found to be 
    nothing more than horse manure. The TM clinic in London had "promised"
    hope to suffers of serious illnesses including cancer, I just hope the
    court case has halted this scam.
    
    I learnt TM as a relaxation technique about 4 years ago during a very
    stressful time in my life. I treated it much the same as any course I
    would take for my job. Payment for the course was the one and only time
    the TM enterprise will see money from me.
    
    seals
    
     
1583.9SHALOT::LACKEYBirth...the leading cause of deathMon Nov 25 1991 12:2555
Re: .7 (Phil)

>  It is very much a profit-making enterprise,

Profit-making and money-making can be very different things.  A 
judgement here might be hasty without evidence to support the claim.  
After all, that organization must have evidence to support their 
non-profit or not-for-profit status, whichever status applies.

>  and one which
>  seeks to add credibility to the teachings and practices of TM
>  which themselves have no basis at all in any traditional Indian
>  teaching.

I'm not sure what you mean by this.  Meditation is part of innumerable 
Indian traditions, and the techniques are as varied as the teachers. 
The Sidhis (The TM Movements's trademarked name for the traditional word 
spelled "Siddhis") are based on Patanjali's Yoga Sutras which are Indian 
in origin since Patanjali was Indian.  There are also many different 
interpretations and practices of these Sutras.  So "no basis at all in 
any traditional Indian teaching" seems like a stretch.

>   part of the price (several thousand pounds in the UK) goes straight
>   to one of Maharishi's Swiss bank accounts, as does much of the
>   other income of the TM organisation. 

I would imagine that the bank accounts are in the name of the TM 
organization, and since that organization has been based in Switzerland 
for many years, it would seem a logical place to have bank accounts.

I am not for or against the TM Movement, but I think that such 
assertions and connotations should not be made without first-hand 
knowledge or supporting evidence, unless they are strictly your opinion.

Regarding the legitimacy of their ayurvedic practices (from an earlier 
reply), it would seem to me to be a fairly easy thing to verify.  I know 
nothing of the TM Movement's ayurvedic practices.  But it would seem to 
me that they should be judged by their fruit.  If ayurvedic medicine 
prescribes certain treatments for certain illnesses with predictable 
results, and the TM group is prescribing those treatments for those 
illnesses and getting the results, then in all fairness they would have 
to be considered valid.  If they are not doing this, then someone with 
extensive ayurvedic knowledge should be able to show this quite easily.  
I do know that quality and accuracy are important to the this 
organization, so I would assume that when they began their ayurvedic 
endeavors they probably pulled from what they considered to be the most 
knowledgeable in the field.

I can see how many traditional ayurvedic practitioners might become 
disgruntled with the wide public use and demonstration of such practices, 
just as some Indian teachers criticized Maharishi's wide distribution of 
meditation techniques; but this doesn't mean that the practices are 
necessarily invalid.  

Jeff
1583.10What is ayurveda?TNPUBS::PAINTERlet there be musicMon Nov 25 1991 13:28103
From "Yoga Journal", July/August 1989, p.49

Quantum Healing - Interview with Deepak Chopra, by Craig A. Lambert
---------------

Ayurveda - the ancient Indian science teaches that consciousness - 
           what we think, feel, desire, intend - shapes and controls 
           our physical bodies.


Question:  

Dr. Chopra, what are the basic ideas underlying ayurvedic medicine?

Answer:  

The basic premise of ayurveda is that consciousness is primary, matter 
is secondary - that consciousness conceives, governs, constructs, and 
becomes physical matter.  The human body is actually an expression, an 
epiphenomenon, you might say, of consciousness.  Most thinkers in the 
Western medical tradition hold the opposite view, defining consciousness 
as an epiphenomenon of matter.

Right now as I speak to you, I cause fluctuations in the field of 
consciousness.  These are non-material; you can't touch them, taste 
them, smell them, see them, because they are quantum-mechanical events.  
Just as an electron is a quantum of light, a thought, a flicker of 
intention, is a quantum of consciousness.  These quantum-mechanical 
events in consciousness become the flux of neuro-transmitters in my 
brain.  They cause hormonal changes, they result in the transmission of 
neural impulses.  They result in the vibration of vocal cords, the 
production of sound.  All my feelings, all my emotions, all my desires, 
all my instincts, all my drives, every thought or urge I have, literally 
becomes a molecule.  And that's how I construct my body, from 
consciousness.

But ayurveda goes beyond that.  It says that the whole body of the 
universe is constructed from consciousness in like manner.  In Sanskrit, 
we say, "As is the human body, so is the cosmic body.  As is the human 
mind, so is the cosmic mind.  As in human physiology, so is cosmic 
physiology.  As is the atom, so is the universe."  The human being is 
just a fluctuation or, you might say, a wiggle or a crease in a more 
universal field.

There are no well-defined edges to the body, either.  It is part of that 
continuum of nature which is one universal field.  That universal field 
breaks up, or appears to break up, into electromagnetism, weak and 
strong interactions, gravity, etc.  These energy fields are then decoded 
by the senses as the objects of perception.  But the fact is that if we 
see the universe as separate bits and pieces, it is because sensory 
experience creates that artifact.

Now, take a simple experiment.  Bring up kittens in a horizontal 
environment, where nothing but horizontal stripes are available in their 
visual field.  Bring up other kittens in a vertical environment, nothing 
but vertical stripes.  It has been demonstrated that when these kittens 
grow up to be cats, the first group can see only horizontal stimuli.  
They will actually bump into chair legs and table legs because they 
literally cannot see them.  The second group can see only vertical 
stimuli.  The kittens, out of their interaction with their environment, 
develop interneural connections only for those stimuli.  Their 
experience determines the physical anatomy of their brains.

Based on their history of sensory experience, they develop a belief 
system.  And their senses allow only those stimuli which reinforce their 
belief system to enter the brain.  Conflicting stimuli are screened out, 
and in fact are not even perceived.

We human beings are essentially like those kittens.  We are offered a 
certain set of sensory stimuli when we are born.  This set of stimuli is 
determined by the belief system of society; it's our cultural 
indoctrination.  In a sense this is how a society's belief system 
replicates itself, perpetuates itself.  It creates in us a certain set 
of interneural connections that reinforce that particular belief system. 
We not only don't 'believe' anything else, we don't 'perceive' anything 
else.

Question:

So that's an example of how experiences, intangible awarenesses, 
actually create corresponding physical structures in the body.  Is this 
what you mean by consciousness constructing the body?

Answer:

To explain it, let's say that the human body is something like the 
printout of a computer.  The hardware is the human nervous system, the 
nerve pathways, the neuro-transmitter molecules, etc.  And behind the 
hardware is the software, the program - your feelings, thoughts, 
instincts, desires, your belief systems.  Behind it all is a programmer. 
 And who's the programmer?  The programmer in ayurveda would be the 
Self.  But that Self, that Programmer, is the ground of everything else 
in the universe.  It's consciousness in its pure state.  We access that 
consciousness through meditation, and that new form of awareness can 
change our belief systems.

I have practiced Transcendental Meditation for several years, and we 
speak of TM as a technique for transcendence.  The goal of all 
meditation techniques is, in fact, to transcend.  It's not to evoke the 
relaxation response.  It's to transcend, to experience that pure 
awareness, that pure consciousness that is the source of the first 
fluctuation of thought, the first fluctuation of intelligence.
1583.11photon meditationADVLSI::SHUMAKERWayne ShumakerMon Nov 25 1991 16:3112
    thanks Cindy, 
    
>... The goal of all 
>meditation techniques is, in fact, to transcend.  It's not to evoke the 
>relaxation response.  It's to transcend, to experience that pure 
>awareness, that pure consciousness that is the source of the first 
>fluctuation of thought, the first fluctuation of intelligence.
    
    Probably the most mis-understood point of about meditation that people
    have. (Even though a photon is a quantum of light, not the electron.:-)
    
    Wayne
1583.12cont'dTNPUBS::PAINTERlet there be musicTue Nov 26 1991 14:1990
From "Yoga Journal", July/August 1989, p.49

Quantum Healing - Interview with Deepak Chopra, by Craig A. Lambert
---------------

Continued...

Question:  

Are you saying that authors like Dr. Herbert Benson, who popularized the 
notion of the 'relaxation response,' are missing something important in 
the meditation experience?

Answer:  

Researchers like Dr. Benson are so programmed by scientific convention, 
so socially indoctrinated, that they perceive only one level of reality. 
 They view the scientific method as a means of exploring reality, 
whereas in fact, it is a means of exploring our current 'framework' of 
reality.  It's mistaking the map for the territory.

They see the relaxation response, which is an epiphenomenon, one aspect 
of the meditation process on the way to transcendence, and since they 
can measure it objectively, they focus all their energy and all their 
scientific studies on that epiphenomenon.  Whereas the goal really is to 
experience the source of thought, not just to relax.

Question:

Are you saying that meditation is the primary experience, and that 
ayurveda emerges from that experience of meditative awareness?

Answer:

Absolutely.  The experience of transcendence, the experience of 
consciousness as the primary reality, comes first, and from that come 
all the therapeutic strategies of ayurveda.  You see, a person who 
transcends feels at one with nature.  In fact, he feels that he 'is' 
nature, that his intelligence is the intelligence of nature, that his 
physiology is the physiology of nature.  When he realizes that - and 
it's not an intellectual realization - he ways, "Aha!  As is the atom, 
so is the universe; as is the human mind, so is the cosmic mind."  So, 
OK, I am the source of all creation, I am also the creator of my body.  
I am the programmer.  I can write any program I want.  Now I'll start 
writing my own program.  This is the key realization.

Question:

You write that "when we think, we are practicing brain chemistry," and 
you assert that "when you have a thought, you make a molecule," and 
"there is no twisted thought without a twisted molecule."  All this 
would imply that the mind and body are inextricably one, inseparable.  
How then can we step out of the system to change or heal it?

Answer:

You step out of it by becoming the silent witness to your thought 
process in a non-judgmental manner.  And that witnessing of our 
emotions, of our feelings, leads to the automatic dissolution of 
impulses that are self-destructive.  Meditation leads to this silent 
witnessing.

Question:

What about people who operate from this transcendent state?  How do 
people who are experiencing higher states of consciousness help the rest 
of us?

Answer:

Just by being.  I think they help the rest of us by being who they are.  
They don't really have to do anything.  They don't really have to 
interact with the rest of society to improve society.  If we believe 
that consciousness is a field, if we believe that our ultimate ground is 
the ultimate ground of everything else in nature, then just by being in 
a state of unity, these people increase the experience of unity amongst 
the rest of us.  Consciousness is a field.  And since it is a field, 
where there is perturbation in part of that field, the whole field is 
affected.

And beings in a higher state of consciousness, just by being who they 
are, elevate us toward their level to some extent.  Of course, once we 
interact with them, we want to be like that, too; we want to be happy, 
fulfilled.  And very spontaneously the collective psyche, the collective 
thinking of society, changes.  I think that's the only way to solve the 
world's problems.  Whether they're economic or political, the only 
solution to the world's problems is changing the collective 
consciousness of society.  And we can change it only by changing 
ourselves.
1583.13TNPUBS::PAINTERlet there be musicMon Dec 02 1991 19:01124
From "Yoga Journal", July/August 1989, p.49

Quantum Healing - Interview with Deepak Chopra, by Craig A. Lambert
---------------

Continued...


Question:

To change ourselves toward greater health, you speak of activating the 
"healing system" in the human body.  Is that another term for the immune 
system?

Answer:

The healing system affects the immune system, the circulatory system, 
the endocrine system, all bodily systems.  All systems are subservient 
to the healing system.  To heal is a spontaneous thing in nature.  There 
are no dogs with M.D. degrees, there are no otters or trees who are 
physicians with special knowledge of how to cure sick otters or trees.  
There is no art of healing in nature, there is only the fact of healing.

The goal of the healing system is to bring back consciousness to the 
awareness of man's natural state, happiness.  The Vedic literature says 
that to be healthy is to be happy.  The essense of the brain chemistry 
of perfect health is, therefore, happiness.

Question:

So it sounds as if the best thing we can do for our physical health is 
to find ways to be happy.

Answer:

Yes, happy people are healthier than unhappy people, and the reason for 
unhappiness - again going back to the ayurvedic tradition - is loss of 
contact with the source of happiness, which is yourself.  It also means 
loss of contact with the source of everything else in nature.  It's not 
really even the loss of contact, if you understand it well, because the 
contact is never lost, the contact with your own source is always there 
- otherwise you wouldn't be around.  It's the memory that's lost.  

When you lose the memory that you are the Programmer who writes the
program for the whole universe, including yourself and all your
feelings, you become insecure.  With that comes separation, 
fragmentation, hostility, anxiety, fear.  And the brain chemistry 
corresponding to all this translates into a bad immune system, high 
blood pressure, inappropriate cortisol responses from the adrenal 
glands.  We can see how losing unity consciousness, losing the memory of 
who we really are, can bring about disease, since the impulses of 
intelligence and consciousness translate into physiological responses.

Question:

What you are saying brings to mind the fact that most medical research 
has focused on negative emotions and their effects on health - 
psychosomatic conditions like ulcers aggravated by stress and anxiety.  
Why has there been so little study of the impact of positive emotions on 
the physiology?

Answer:

It's true, most research has concentrated on the implications of things 
like the type A personality, or hostility in relation to the 
pathogenesis of cancer and cardiovascular disease.  Very little research 
examines the effects of positive emotions.  And that is because the 
whole fascination of Western medicine has been with disease.


Question:

Dr. Chopra, virtually every physician in his or her practice has 
witnessed the effect of mind on matter - the impact of prolonged stress 
on the immune system, or the results of self-destructive behavior 
patterns, to take a couple of examples.  Why then do physicians seem so 
slow to embrace the idea of consciousness as the causal factor in 
disease, since they see it operating every day?

Answer:

Physicians are uncomfortable with accepting that the mind comes first 
and the body comes second, because their whole training is with the 
body.  And it is part of their cultural indoctrination, as it is 
everyone else's .  Just like the kittens spoke of earlier.  You practice 
what you believe in, and then all stimuli which don't reinforce that 
belief system don't really get into your nervous system.

But that is changing.  I think we are shifting from the "magic bullet" 
approach of Western medicine - the desperate, endless search for a 
specific 'cure' for every disease - to a more holistic approach, where 
physicians recognize that to be really effective, they have to focus on 
process, on interaction, on behavior, nutrition, life-style, and on 
biological rhythms.

If we keep looking for magic bullets, we'll never get anywhere.  We have 
a new antibiotic today, we have a resistant staphylococcus bacteria 
tomorrow.  We create another antibiotic, but we destroy the organisms in 
the body that help keep us alive.  The biggest contributors to 
infections in this country are in hospitals.  And the worst infections 
are those that are produced by antibiotic-resistant organisms in 
hospitals - they are called nosocomical infections.  The biggest 
destroyer of the immune system is not AIDS, but chemotherapy and 
radiation, which make us susceptible to other types of malignancies.  
Not that these modalities don't work, but we have invested all our faith 
in them.  Now we're looking for another magic bullet for AIDS.  If we 
really understood the basis of holistic medicine, the basis of ayurveda, 
we'd see the AIDS virus as a precipitating agent in the 
disease-susceptible host.

Question:

Perhaps it is psychologically more comfortable for patients to see the 
cause of their illness as being outside themselves.

Answer:

Yes, it's easier for patients to believe forces outside themselves are 
responsible for their illnesses.  But as long as they remain entrenched 
in that belief system, then the solution to cancer and heart disease and 
degenerative disorders is not going to be forthcoming.  You can bypass 
the coronary artery only so many times; it keeps getting blocked because 
the source of the illness is within yourself.
1583.14cont'dTNPUBS::PAINTERlet there be musicTue Dec 03 1991 18:22117
From "Yoga Journal", July/August 1989, p.49

Quantum Healing - Interview with Deepak Chopra, by Craig A. Lambert
---------------

Continued...


Question:

Yet how can the physician be compassionate and at the same time hold 
patients responsible for the diseases they suffer from?

Answer:

At the level of unity consciousness, the patient is myself, and if we 
are moving toward that level, of course the patient is responsible, but 
so am I.  The patient and I are part of the same organism.  It's like 
saying my left toe is responsible for an attack of gout.  Yes, it 
participated in the attack of gout, but so did the rest of my body.  So 
it's more complex than just putting blame on the patient.  It's not 
blaming the patient.  We are talking about a level of consciousness 
where we feel compassion because we are really part of the same 
organism.  And we must feel that.  It's part of the healing process.

Question:

We're starting to talk here about the relationship between doctor and 
patient and its effect on healing.  When Western medicine investigates 
the patient's belief in the doctor in his or her treatment, it often 
uses the model of the "placebo effect" - a factor to be ruled out in 
clinical trials and experiments.  Can medicine use the placebo effect in 
a positive way?

Answer:

We know that the placebo effect is a factor - favorable or unfavorable - 
in the outcome of disease.  When the first experiments were done on 
placebos, we found that when you gave certain people things that were 
supposed to be painrelieving medicines, but were not, they were 
experiencing relief of pain anyway.  We also found that you could block 
this placebo effect by giving them a narcotic antagonist - a drug that 
blocks the action of painkillers.

So the theory was propounded, and it's now well accepted, that the 
painrelieving effects of a placebo are mediated through the generation 
of the body's own natural pain-relieving substances, endorphins, which 
are many times more potent than any heroin you can buy on the street.

So the person ingests a pill in the belief that it's going to relieve 
pain.  What's a belief?  It's an abstract level of thought.  It's an 
impulse in consciousness.  And he transforms that inpulse in 
consciousness into the endorphin molecule.  Now this is fascinating in 
itself.  But it becomes more fascinating when you find that placebos 
work in other ailments besides pain.  They work in ulcers.  They work in 
angina.  They work sometimes in cancer, causing spontaneous remissions.  
So in all these instances, if the endorphin model is correct, the person 
takes an abstract level of thought and turns that into a very specific 
molecule: endorphins in one case, H2 receptor blockers in another 
instance, perhaps a vasodilator in a third instance, perhaps an 
immunoglobulin in a fourth instance.  So the placebo offers us insight 
into the translation of consciousness into matter.

The nocebo is also a profound insight.  The nocebo is the opposite of 
the placebo.  "Mrs. Smith, you have breast cancer.  In my experience 
only one out of 10 women will live with this disease.  And the 
statistics show that there is a 95 percent mortality in the first six 
months."  Poor Mrs. Smith, if she plays the odds, she's dead in six 
months.  This is the nocebo effect.

Many years ago I used to moonlight as an emergency room doctor.  I was 
working with another emergency room doctor who smoked heavily.  He 
worked 22 hours a day, great surgeon, fantastic guy, but he used to 
cough all the time, and one day I said, Let's get an X ray, and he said, 
No, there's no need, I've had this cough for 5 years.  But I finally 
forced him to have the X ray, and we looked at it together, and he had a 
lung lesion.  We both knew it was cancer, and he was dead in three 
months.  After his death, I looked at his X rays from three years 
earlier, and somebody had missed the lung lesion.  He didn't know about 
it.  This was my first insight into what we are now calling the nocebo.  
I said to myself, Did this fellow die of lung cancer, or of the 
diagnosis of lung cancer?

Since I first read about the nocebo effect in the "Noetic Sciences 
Review" [a non-profit organization founded by astronaut Ed Mitchell for 
the study of consciousness], it has troubled me very much.  Are we 
doctors creating diseases?  Is the collective consciousness of doctors 
creating the diseases we see?  There's no interaction between doctor and 
patient without the flow of consciousness.

Question:

How might physicians' state of consciousness create disease?

Answer:

Let's say the National Institutes of Health did a study of lung cancer 
patients that showed a 90 percent mortality rate within six months.  The 
study gets published in the "New England Journal of Medicine"; it's now 
in the doctor's office and the next time a patient walks in with lung 
cancer, this is what he tells the patient.  Or at the very least it 
shapes what the doctor believes and what he is thinking as he interacts 
with the patient.  This study influences the collective consciousness of 
doctors, who now influence the outcome of the disease.  We start 
reinforcing those statistics, and we make them our so-called objective 
reality, namely a 90 percent mortality from lung cancer within six 
months.  We create the morbidity and mortality of the disease through 
the collective nocebo effect.

I fear for what we are doing as doctors.  Are we creating mortality from 
AIDS, for example, with the national paranoia, the national fear and 
panic, about the disease?  Are people dying from AIDS, or are they dying 
from the diagnosis of AIDS?

Once you recognize that consciousness is primary, then your whole 
thinking about disease, about health, is going to change drastically. 
1583.15last one of seriesTNPUBS::PAINTERlet there be musicWed Dec 04 1991 16:2987
From "Yoga Journal", July/August 1989, p.49

Quantum Healing - Interview with Deepak Chopra, by Craig A. Lambert
---------------

Continued...


Question:

What attributes of a physician's consciousness could help to stimulate 
the patient's healing response?

Answer:

Truly, no doctor heals, he just sets into motion the healing mechanism 
within the patient.  If I had one criterion for a good doctor, and only 
one criterion, I would say he must love his patients.  That love will 
trigger the healing response.  His medical knowledge is very important, 
of course, but we all know that you can go to two doctors and get the 
same medicine, but get different results.  

So what makes one doctor better than the other?  It's the doctor who
cares.  Who holds the patients in his heart, who allows that flow of
consciousness between himself and the patient.  When a doctor adopts an
attitude that gives the patients insecurity, fear, anxiety, or
alienation, that translates into the nocebo response.  And if we 
understand that the nocebo response works, exactly like the placebo 
response but in the opposite direction, then we know that the doctor 
becomes as much an item to be feared as the disease itself.

Question:

Have you got a vision of the medicine of the future?

Answer:

We will see a medicine in the future which shifts from a materialistic 
view of people to a view of man as a beautiful river in the vast ocean 
of consciousness which we are part of.  Health will be seen as a 
positive state, something to be cultured, a higher state of 
consciousness.

Perfect health will be unity consciousness.  We will have therapeutic 
modalities which will include the teaching of meditation to everyone.  
People will be taught psychophysiological techniques to evoke different 
types of physiological responses.  Yogic techniques such as Hatha Yoga, 
neuromuscular integration, pranayama, neurorespiratory integration, the 
use of breath techniques, will become part of self-improvement.  

People will learn to recognize disease as a learning process, as a step
on the ladder of evolution.  Disease will be looked upon as an 
opportunity, a great opportunity to evolve to a higher state of 
consciousness.  And ultimately we will see the effects of the group 
dynamics of consciousness.  We will see how our selfish interest 
ultimately lies in the interest of the whole.  Compassion will replace 
hostility.  Love will replace anger.  It's very essential to have this 
growth toward a collective consciousness that supports healing as a 
recognizable therapeutic modality.

We have a type A individual, we have someone with fear, with anxiety, 
with anger, what do we do?  We tell him he's a type A, and he should see 
a doctor before he has a heart attack.  And yet, when we have whole 
societies behaving like that, what do we do?  We call them superpowers.  
And, you know, they're ready to have a heart attack!  It's time to 
change the system, and the only way we can change is to avoid becoming 
the next bullies on the block.  This is where I'd like to quote 
Maharishi's definition of power.  It's one of my favorites.  He said 
that real power does not come with arms, does not come even with wealth. 
 He said, "Real power does not allow the birth of an enemy."

Real power comes from love and compassion.  It comes from 'ahimsa'.  The 
word 'ahimsa' in India means non-violence.  But in India, unfortunately, 
it's become and intellectual concept.  Not felt at the level of the 
heart.

When I last talked to Maharishi about ahimsa, he said "Non-violence 
should cry out in joy from every cell in the body."  It's not an 
intellectual concept at all, it should be an experience.  Non-violence 
has infinite correlation in nature.  It's the stream of compassion that 
runs in nature.  And until we can make non-violence a living, 
physiological reality, we will have disease.  The medicine of the future 
has to make non-violence, has to make world peace, a living reality for 
all of us.

[end.]
1583.16Employment OpportunitiesMR4DEC::MALLENThu Dec 05 1991 18:2035
    		Excellant New Emplyment Opportunities
    
    	Bring Health, Vitality to Yourself & Others as a 
    Maharishi Ayur-Veda Health Center Manager or Technician
    
    Now you can bring health and vitality to yourself and others while
    working in an ideal environment in one of the Maharishi Ayur-Veda
    Health and Rejuvenation Centers that are planned for Massachusetts.
    
    As described in Dr. Deepak Chopra's bestselling books Quantum Healing
    and Perfect Health, Maharishi Ayur-Veda is the world's most ancient and
    complete system of natural health care.  It provides twenty time-tested,
    scientific approaches to prevent illness, preserve health, and promote
    longevity.
    
    Energetic, entrepreneurial managers are needed to set up, promote, and
    administer these new Centers.
    
    Health technicians are needed to administer the Maharishi Ayur-Veda
    Panchakarma program, which includes Abhyanga, Shirodhara, and other
    herbalized oil massage and purification treatments.
    
    If you would like additional information about training courses for
    either of these positions, please give us a call.  We'll be happy to
    tell you more about Maharishi Ayur-Veda and the opportunities now
    available in your area.
    
    
    Boston, Cambridge		Western Boston Suburbs	    Central and
    & Northeastern Mass.	& Southeastern Mass.	    Western Mass.
    
    Dan Collinsworth		Howard Chandler		    Dick Kaynor
    (914)439-3264		(914)439-3459		    (914)439-3417
    
    
1583.17:)TECRUS::DEMARSESeek-a-double, use-a-cozza roll to find meWed Mar 23 1994 12:3911
        Dr. Deepak Chopra will be conducting a seminar at SHR Auditorium
        for Digital employees.
    
        Dr. Deepak Chopra
        Friday, April 15, 1994
        12:30 -> 3:00 P.M.
    	SHR3 Auditorium
    
        Ageless Body, Timeless Mind - The Quantum Alternative
    
        Send your name, node, DTN, and organization to SHARE::SEMINARS
1583.18Any $$$ associated?DELNI::LAMONTWed Mar 23 1994 14:254
    Do you have any idea if there is a cost associated with this
    seminar?  And if so, how much? Thanks very much for the info.
    
    Rick
1583.19TECRUS::DEMARSESeek-a-double, use-a-cozza roll to find meWed Mar 23 1994 18:395
    I don't think so....it's part of the Women-at-Work series.  And the
    Women-at-Work series doesn't mean that it is limited to women.....anyone 
    can go.
    
    :), danielle
1583.20TNPUBS::PAINTERPlanet CrayonWed Mar 23 1994 20:0012
    
    Fabulous - thanks Danielle!  Do you by chance know who (name of person)
    brought him in?
    
    For those who can't attend the seminar, he will also be doing a seminar
    at Interface down in/near Boston in the evening, and he'll be doing a 
    weekend workshop as well.  
    
    My Interface brochure is at home, however if anyone would like the
    details, just reply here and I'll post the information.
    
    Cindy
1583.21:-)TECRUS::DEMARSESeek-a-double, use-a-cozza roll to find meWed Mar 23 1994 20:2911
    >> Do you by chance know who (name of person) brought him in?
    
    I'm not sure...the posters say that you can also contact Janet Barry at
    DTN 225-5536...
    
    I'm really excited that Digital is having Dr. Chopra conduct a seminar!
    
    If you're going to register, do it as soon as possible, space is
    limited.    
    
    :), danielle
1583.22TNPUBS::PAINTERPlanet CrayonFri Jun 10 1994 20:47174
 OM IS WHERE HIS HEART IS; FEELING DOWN? AUTHOR DEEPAK CHOPRA SAYS THE KEY
                                TO GOOD HEALTH IS ALL IN THE MIND

 By Tom Dunkel
 Washington Post Staff Writer

    When Deepak Chopra - endocrinologist turned best-selling author,
lecturer, Oprah Winfrey guest, Michael Jackson pal and all-around latest
rage of the new age - strode into Yes! Bookshop in Georgetown on Friday
night for a quickie publicity stop, more than a hundred fans were waiting.
Like circus clowns crammed into a teensy car, they had filled the store to
near-comic capacity.

    And why not? It's only natural folks would want to get a close-up peek
at the man who insists age is all in the mind, that the human body might be
as durable as a Japanese-made car and, therefore, quite capable of running
120 years or more.

    "He looks very healthy. Thank heavens!" said Karon Brashares, a smartly
dressed businesswoman pressed up against a bookcase with the rest of the
latecomers.

    Indeed, Chopra - who has said of himself, "I'm 47 chronologically and
25 biologically" - looked healthy and casually dapper in his dark suit and
open denim shirt. Thick black hair. Wrinkle-free skin. The relaxed,
what-me-worry demeanor of a guy whose stock portfolio just tripled in value
while he was off playing a round of golf.

    But don't thank heaven. Thank physics. Chopra does so repeatedly in his
current book, "Ageless Body, Timeless Mind: The Quantum Alternative to
Growing Old." It has sold 1 million hardcover copies and the audio version
is now on Publishers Weekly's bestseller list. In "Ageless Body", Chopra
uses Einstein's subatomic theories not to build bombs, but to blow up
actuarial tables.

    "We're coming into a new evolution of the body-mind," Chopra explained
during an impromptu mini-lecture at Yes! "In just the last three weeks a
quadrillion atoms have circulated through your body. ... The body is just
an instrument that traps you in space-time events."

    That may sound highfalutin, but, in general, Chopra has made his mark
as a plain-talking synthesizer of East-meets-West medicine and philosophy.
The son of  a    cardiologist, he went to conventional medical school in
India, then migrated to the United States with his wife in 1970. He taught
at Tufts University, became chief of staff at New England Memorial Hospital
and eventually opened a private practice outside Boston.

    Chopra says he was once the stereotypical hard-charging American:
smoked too much, drank too much, worked too hard, and his overtaxed nerve
endings hissed like firecracker fuses. In 1980, on a whim, he bought a used
book about transcendental meditation. Chopra promptly turned over a new
lifestyle leaf via TM and then began dipping into the assorted
holistic-healing pots of ayurvedic medicine, the ancient Indian folk
sciences that encompass everything from sesame oil massages and aroma
therapy to yoga and pulse diagnosis.

    Chopra eventually crossed paths with Maharishi Mahesh Yogi,  and the TM
guru took him under wing. In 1986 Chopra assumed the directorship of a new
alternative medicine clinic in Lancaster, Mass.: the Maharishi Ayur-Veda
Health Center for Stress Management and Behavioral Medicine.

    But unlike the maharishi, whose long robes and wowie-zowie image have
marked him as being of the fringe, Chopra has mainstream appeal. He owns -
and wears - actual suits and ties. He speaks listener-friendly English.
Plus, he doesn't flat-out reject high-tech Western medicine.

    "He's a doctor. That makes a difference," says Rajesh Kale, the
proprietor of the bookshop. "He's making (alternative medicine) very
accessible to people. America is teaching spirituality to the world now."

    Seven years ago Chopra began actively spreading his ayurvedic-enhanced
message. There have been seven seductively titled books ("Perfect Health:
The Complete Mind/Body Guide" of 1991 also became a bestseller), which have
given rise to a mail-order business of companion audiotapes, oils and
herbal preparations. According to Forbes magazine, those byproducts alone
have netted Chopra more than $3 million.

    Western doctors, Chopra tells his seminar audiences and readers, treat
patients like balky appliances. They replace a part, mend a wire, but
invariably focus more on symptoms than causes. They also rely too much on
prescription drugs. In actuality, each person is "more like a river of
energy and information," says Chopra. Hence, ayurvedic medicine
concentrates on marshaling natural defenses, viewing the human body as one
organic piece of nature's vast, ever-fluid puzzle.The body, he goes on, is
constantly regenerating itself on a microscopic level. Organs are replaced
faster than bad TV sitcoms: brand-new skin once a month, brand-new skeleton
every three months, and so on. As long as you're refurbishing the "house"
you inhabit, why not upgrade at the same time? Yes, it is possible to grow
young while you grow old.

    "Because the mind influences every cell in the body," Chopra  writes in
"Ageless Body, Timeless Mind," "human aging ... can speed up, slow down,
stop ... and even reverse itself."

   All in all, it's a crowd-pleasing proposition. Still, there are Chopra
skeptics. While meditation's stress-reducing benefits are well documented,
much of ayurvedic science is still considered specious. Readers of the
Journal of the American Medical Association responded with howls of
hucksterism when Chopra and two colleagues were permitted to write an
article for the magazine several years ago.

    Bill Taylor, who accompanied a Chopra-admiring friend to Yes!, wasn't
entirely convinced by what he heard either. "I'm an engineer and I look at
things logically. There's a part of me that says it's crap," admitted
Taylor, who nonetheless did buy a Chopra book and get it autographed.

    Taylor's doubts probably would  have been reinforced if he'd attended
the daylong seminar held at Falls Church High School on Saturday. Some 400
people paid $119 apiece to hear an in-depth discourse on quantum healing.
(Chopra's schedule is as manic as the  path of a subatomic particle: He
will speak in Syracuse, N.Y., tomorrow, Portland, Maine, on Wednesday,
return to Washington for a talk at the Smithsonian Thursday, and touch down
in New Orleans Monday.)

    Chopra has the polished stage presence of a good nightclub comic.
Microphone in hand, he can deliver a seamless two-hour-long monologue
without notes. He quotes old Vedic aphorisms, a Sufi poet, a German
philosopher, a Canadian neurosurgeon, Walt Whitman and Albert Einstein.
Plenty of provocative Chopra statements bob to the surface in his winding
river of thought: "It is my intuitive feeling a lot of inner-city crime is
formed in utero. ... If you selectively breathe through your left nostril,
you'll open up your right-brain thinking. ... The mind is in all the cells
of our body. You cannot localize it to the brain."

   Chopra demonstrated eye movement exercises and alternative nostril
breathing. He had his audience mooing like cows as they emulated  sounds
that are supposed to trigger the body's healing chemicals and hormones.
Sounds crazy to the uninitiated perhaps, but try cramming all of Western
medicine into a daylong lecture.

   Most of those believers who gravitated to Falls Church were decidedly
normal-looking folk. (Well, okay, one attendee did find time during lunch
to discuss her three past lives, "One as a female Eskimo, one as a Lakota
brave, and one as a black African hunting lions ...")

    "What he gives to you is the hope and belief in life, that longevity is
there," said Barbara Owens, a Washington real estate agent with an
infectious smile and downright girlish appearance. "Look at me, I'm almost
50 and I've got seven kids."

    "You have to look at alternative medicine," said Ronnie Watts,   who
once  backed up Bill Russell on the Boston Celtics  and has seven back
operations to show for it.

    "I don't believe he's a cynical man," observed Herb Nasdor, a Baltimore
gynecologist unperturbed by the books, tapes and OptiMan and OptiWoman
herbal supplements on sale in the lobby. "If the marketing thing is what he
has to do to fund his research, that's okay."

    In fact, Chopra has a new research home. Last fall, he relocated to
California to become executive director of the Institute for Human
Potential and Mind-Body Medicine, a division of Sharp HealthCare, the
reputable operator of six traditional-care hospitals in the San Diego area.
The institute recently received a modest $30,000 grant from the National
Institutes of Health to study ayurvedic medicine.

    Chopra seems to have redoubled his efforts to achieve wider mainstream
acceptance. He has 10 more books on the drawing board. Next up is his first
work of fiction: an updated twist on the legend of King Arthur.

    "More than anything else, as a child I wanted to be a writer," he said
during a seminar break.

    He also wants to make it clear that he has formally parted company with
the maharishi. Their association was giving him a bad-karma headache. Too
much controversy. Too many demands on his time.

    The "divorce," says Chopra, had "no negativity attached to it."

    Apparently not. These days, he finds himself in an almost blissful
state. "I have no tension in my life," says Deepak Chopra. "That's the nice
thing. I'm pretty carefree."

1583.23Part of Chopra's secretDWOVAX::STARKKnowledge is good.Mon Jun 13 1994 16:4256
|    Bill Taylor, who accompanied a Chopra-admiring friend to Yes!, wasn't
|entirely convinced by what he heard either. "I'm an engineer and I look at
|things logically. There's a part of me that says it's crap," admitted
|Taylor, who nonetheless did buy a Chopra book and get it autographed.
    
    This is the kind of response to clever use of marketing psychology that 
    has earned Chopra his fortune.  People who are influenced by these
    well known and mostly legal tactics generally are swayed to buy, and
    may even realize that they don't believe in the product, yet buy anyway for
    reasons they don't understand !
    
    A classic story is recounted in Robert Cialdini's book, _Influence_ :
    _The_Power_of_Persuasion_, now in its 15th printing.
    
    Cialdini and a friend, a fellow professor at his college, went to
    observe a TM recruiting seminar.  They listened attentively to the
    speakers discuss how their special form of meditation could not only
    promote the well known health benefits of relaxation, but also help
    virtually any known ailment, reverse aging, and enable adepts to
    fly without wings.  Every ill or hope that the people in the audience
    could present were solved by this health system.  
    
    At the end, questions were requested and Cialdini's friend, a professor of 
    logic and statistics, stood up and carefully and convincingly
    dissected every argument presented by the recruiters.  Every point
    they made was compared to the evidence and every last shred of
    information in favor of people believing the recruiting spiel was
    laid bare.   The expected result was of course that people would
    stroke their chins and begin to question the recruiters ideas.
    
    The result was completely unexpected, even to Cialdini, a social
    psychology professor.  Even though the recruiters were left dumbfounded
    saying "umm... I guess we'll have to do some more research to answer
    your points" the response from the crowd was immediate and
    enthusiastic, they all jumped up to sign up !
    
    Cialdini was astonished and so he asked the people why they chose
    that moment to sign up.  They all responded with the same basic
    answer.  "When your buddy there started to take apart the sales pitch,
    I knew I would start to get skeptical, so I knew I had to join up
    before I got cold feet !"
    
    Cialdini intererprets this as showing that the people had real
    problems which they came to believe could be resolved particularly by TM
    or only by TM.  They then exhibited an obvious fear of reason, since 
    rational argument could persuade them not to do what they already
    had decided was their only answer.  They were in effect exhibiting
    a clearly motivated flight from reason, though they didn't realize it.
    
    Cialdini't book is very highly recommended, along with Pratkanis and
    Aronson's _Age_of_Propaganda_.  The amount of this kind of unrealized
    manipulation around us is extraordinary.  
    
    						kind regards,
    
    						todd
1583.24Chopra and the JAMA article ...DWOVAX::STARKKnowledge is good.Mon Jun 13 1994 16:5742
    The story of Chopra and the JAMA article is worth persuing as well.
    
    The Ayurvedic advocates misrepresent it as if it were some sort of
    irrational prejudice against alternative medicine, which is _not_ the
    case.  The negative response to Chopra was the justified and 
    well-researched response of a group of experts who had discovered
    that they had been easily taken in by a confidence artist !
    This is clearly documented by a JAMA referee in a subsequent issue of the 
    JAMA.
    
    Chopra and two other Ayurvedic advocates with apparently good credentials 
    had presented an article to the JAMA ostensibly comparing ancient healing
    with modern medicine, a legitimate topic for publication.  They 
    represented themselves (as is required for publication in the JAMA) as 
    unbiased researchers who had no commercial interest in the subject of 
    inquiry.
    
    Of course, their article was a disguised sales pitch for modern
    and very profitable Ayurveda, and they had already made fortunes on what 
    they were slyly selling to the medical community in the article.
    
    When the referee of the JAMA found this out, he wrote in the next issue a 
    scathing expose of Chopra.  In their usual cleverness, and knowing that
    most potential customers would never read the original JAMA article or the
    expose, Chopra's cronies claimed that this was simply the expected 
    result of people's knee-jerk response to alternative medicine.  Readers
    of the JAMA of course knew that this was ridiculous, but it sounds
    plausible outside of that circle, where most of Chopra's potential
    income derives.  
    
    Caveat Emptor.
    
    Chopra also denies the ten thousand dollar intercessionary prayers
    done on behalf of Ayurveda 'patients,' which they are not even
    permitted to observe.  However, these have been carefully documented
    in records obtained from the Ayurvedic organization.  
    
    Does any of this start to sound familiar ?  Shades of Scientology,
    perhaps, with an additional aura or authority and legitimacy added by 
    Chopra's perceived status as a doctor.   
    
    							todd
1583.25TNPUBS::PAINTERPlanet CrayonTue Jun 14 1994 03:2224
                                      
    Re.24
    
    >Shades of Scientology...
    
    Now that's really pushing it. 
    
    As for the ten-thousand dollar prayers and the 'group of experts',
    can you be a bit more specific?
    
    It's important not automatically link all of Ayurveda to Chopra,
    because the system is actually thousands of years old.  There are
    many Ayurvedic doctors (M.D.-types) who also practice and are not
    linked to Chopra/TM at all.  I don't particularly care if Chopra is
    legitimately criticized, but it would be unfortunate to criticize
    all of Ayurveda as well at the same time, since it is quite an amazing 
    system.  If anyone is interested in some in-depth information on 
    Ayurveda, I can highly recommend Dr. David Frawley's books - he's done 
    two books on Ayurveda, and through the Institute for Vedic Studies in 
    New Mexico that he is the director of, there is a correspondence course 
    on Ayurveda that I'm thinking about taking a look into.  They also offer a
    similar course on Vedic Astrology.
    
    Cindy
1583.26Here's what I think I know ...DWOVAX::STARKKnowledge is good.Tue Jun 14 1994 14:1746
|    >Shades of Scientology...
|    
|    Now that's really pushing it. 
    
    Or maybe not.  They don't use aggressive recruitment anymore because
    they don't have to.  But the rest is strikingly similar.
    Listen to the story and then decide.
    
    The information comes from the JAMA article on Chopra and from 
    an article from the Fall 1991 newsletter of the National Association
    of Science Writers.
    
    The prayers are called Yagyas.  Chopra flatly denies recommending them 
    _at_all_, yet an associate editor for JAMA obtained a copy of a health 
    analysis from Chopra's own clinic in Lancaster,Mass. which recommends 
    several Yagyas.  
    
    In a fund-raising letter distributed within the TM
    community, the medical directory of the Maharishi Ayur-Veda Medical
    Center in Washington, D.C. recommends an $11,500 Yagya for a seriously
    ill patient.  This was while publically denying that she recommended
    Yagyas at all.   You could argue of course that these intercessionary
    praryers for money are perfectly reasonable religous practice.  But not
    when the individuals deny doing them, then it becomes a con game.
    
    So the Scientology comparison is a very accurate one in my opinion.  
    There are a great many significant parallels, including the strategic use 
    of an elaborate magico-religious worldview which borrows just enough
    of the scientific worldview to lend apparent authority status and
    lure scientifically oriented observers.  Then, grandiose claims of healing 
    powers and psychic powers, and a special strategy for saving the world 
    through mystical means and also there are similar organizational dynamics.  
    All of this very well rationalized to the members, of course, so it even 
    appeals to experienced scientific and health-care professionals.  
    
    Intelligence and education alone are not adequate defenses from this
    slickness.  You also need a critical eye and the ability to trust
    your gut feeling when you first feel the pull of their marketing
    net.  Most trained scientific observers immediately recognize that
    something is wrong, as shown by several exemples in the previous news 
    story.  They are drawn by emotional appeal and a growing sense of
    modern uncertainty and anxiety rather than by evidence.  But most are not 
    critical enough to stop it, any more than they can keep from buying a 
    product that is cleverly marketed by Madison Avenue.  
    
    						todd
1583.27TNPUBS::PAINTERPlanet CrayonTue Jun 14 1994 15:4813
    
    Asking money for such prayers is not acceptable, and any legit guru
    would never do this.
    
    As for Chopra and the center in Lancaster, at the end of the article in
    .22, he has formally disassociated himself from both the center and
    from the Maharishi.  Just when he did that, or the details on why he
    did that, I do not know.  But - and this is my opinion only - it is 
    possible that he too was taken in by the Maharishi, and once he realized 
    it, he decided to put the distance between him and his (now former) guru.  
    
    Cindy
                                                                             
1583.28thxDWOVAX::STARKKnowledge is good.Tue Jun 14 1994 15:554
    re: .27,
    Thanks very much for the additional info, Cindy.
    
    				todd
1583.29DSSDEV::LEMENTue Jun 14 1994 20:0913
    The only thing that bothers me about this discussion of
    Ayurveda (a subject at which I am, admittedly, a novice),
    is the assumption that JAMA and the AMA are not profit-making
    groups with their own agendas to push.  If you want to read
    some real horror stories about medicine, turn to this past
    Sunday's New York Times stories on health care.  
    
    I think we here in the U.S. should be extremely careful about
    what we have to say about other systems of medicine.  Ours
    is certainly not perfect, is quite invasive, and often goes
    against people's wishes.  
    
    	june  
1583.30TNPUBS::PAINTERPlanet CrayonTue Jun 14 1994 20:557
    
    That's a very good point, June, and I agree.
    
    Btw, I should have asked before - what does JAMA stand for?
    Is it related to the AMA?
    
    Cindy
1583.31False dilemma.DWOVAX::STARKKnowledge is good.Tue Jun 14 1994 21:0619
    re: .29, June,
    
|    I think we here in the U.S. should be extremely careful about
|    what we have to say about other systems of medicine.  Ours
    
    That's just the point most people miss in the critique of
    Ayurvedic.  Medicine is not a 'system,' it is an art and a science.
    Anyone, including a doctor, who claims to have a cure-all system should be 
    brought under great scrutiny.
    
    Rather, you should be careful of being sure that you insist
    on the medical care you deserve from the most competent
    practitioners you can find.  Don't expect a 'system'
    to simplify this for you.  Health and disease simply don't
    adhere to man-made systems as we would like them to.
    
    							kind regards,
    
    							todd
1583.32DWOVAX::STARKKnowledge is good.Tue Jun 14 1994 21:081
    JAMA = Journal of the American Medical Association
1583.33TNPUBS::PAINTERPlanet CrayonThu Jun 16 1994 21:2015
    Re.32                                        
    
    Todd,
    
    Thanks - I didn't realize that's what JAMA stood for.
    
    In all honesty, I don't have much respect for what the AMA has to say.
    Given their biases, I'm about as fond of them as you are of Ayurveda/TM.
    Maybe it's good they are going after each other.  (;^)  
    
    If you have copies of those articles you referred to earlier in your 
    possession, I'd be very interested in reading them.  Then we can have
    some discussions on them.
    
    Cindy
1583.34Ayurveda as a systemTNPUBS::PAINTERPlanet CrayonFri Jun 17 1994 18:1919
                                
    June is correct - Ayurveda is indeed a system.
    
    From, "The River of Heaven - Hindu and Vedic Knowledge for the Modern
           Age", by David Frawley, p.33
    
    Chapter 3 - Nature's Medicine: Ayurveda
    
    "Ayurveda is the knowledge or science, veda, of life or longevity,
    ayur.  It is the medical aspect of Vedic science and regarded as an
    Upaveda, or secondary Vedic system.  
    
    Today it is perhaps the most commonly known of the Vedic sciences.  
    In the Vedic and Yogic system, health is seen as a basis for creative 
    and spiritual growth, and not as an end in itself.  The goal of life 
    is not just to live but to find the meaning of life.  Hence, we 
    should use the time and energy our health provides for developing our
    higher nature.  Thus Ayurveda naturally leads to the other and deeper
    aspects of Vedic knowledge."
1583.35TNPUBS::PAINTERPlanet CrayonFri Jun 17 1994 18:299
    
    I'm going to begin a topic on what real Ayurveda is all about.
    
    The TM/Ayurveda/Chopra/(J)AMA discussion can continue here, since
    this discussion is more about (the problems of) these organizations 
    than the true system of Ayurveda which has been around for thousands 
    of years.
    
    Cindy
1583.36The 'true' religion.DWOVAX::STARKKnowledge is good.Fri Jun 17 1994 19:1839
|    than the true system of Ayurveda which has been around for thousands 
|    of years.
    
    Of course, virtually every modern religious organization claims its roots in
    the venerable ancient past.  That's a given.  The degree to which it is 
    true in any given case is a matter of opinion and interpretation.  As
    is whether this gives it any special value.  
    
    In medical care, being ancient is no guarantee of being efficacious.  
    Exorcism is an ancient and long well-regarded treatment as well, and even 
    works in some cases today.  One of the only cases on record where a 
    transsexual actually changed their sexual identity was a bizarre case 
    where they had a very religious upbringing and responded favorably to an 
    exorcism.  Leeches and maggots are also used today for certain things.  
    And many medical cures came from what was originally considered
    folklore.  That doesn't mean that the entire 'system' they were packaged 
    in has value.  In fact, that is very rarely if ever found to be the case.
    
    On the other hand, modern medicine is based on things which can be
    demonstrated in the here and now and by means of outcome studies
    rather than relying on tradition.  
    
    These demonstrate that some aspects of modern Ayurvedic claims,
    such as that health and disease are all in the mind, are simply not true.
    There is an influence of mental and emotional factors on health, but
    they are not all important.  And they are not unique to Ayurvedic.
    
    While the philosophy certainly may be similar or even the same, I tend to 
    doubt that much of the modern commercial aspects of Ayurveda are actually 
    as ancient or as venerable as all that anyway.  That's where some critical 
    evaluation is needed, imo, when people begin to let their feelings about 
    religion enter into evaluation of health practices.  
    
    "... feeling like a Christian Scientist with appendicitis ..."
    			(from a song by Tom Lehrer)
    
    							kind regards,
    
    							todd
1583.37AgreeDWOVAX::STARKKnowledge is good.Fri Jun 17 1994 19:207
|    June is correct - Ayurveda is indeed a system.
    
    Right, that's what I said.  Ayurveda is a system, and medicine is not.
    That's why comparing them as if they were somehow rivals is largely
    meaningless.
    
    							todd
1583.38TNPUBS::PAINTERPlanet CrayonFri Jun 17 1994 22:4678
    Re.36
    
    >>than the true system of Ayurveda which has been around for thousands
    >>of years.
     >Of course, virtually every modern religious organization claims its roots 
     >in the venerable ancient past.  That's a given.  The degree to which it 
     >is true in any given case is a matter of opinion and interpretation.  As
     >is whether this gives it any special value.  
    
    You completely misquoted me.  My point was that there is a system
    called Ayurveda which is thousands of years old.   Then there is this 
    modern organization called TM/Ayurveda (or whatever the correct name is) 
    which is only BASED ON the ancient Ayurvedic system, and is not THE 
    Ayurvedic system.
    
    Given your comments, I'm concerned that you are mixing the two up.
    
    
    >In medical care, being ancient is no guarantee of being efficacious.  
    
    (Hey, no kidding.)
    
    Being modern is no guarantee of being efficacious either.  
    

    >On the other hand, modern medicine is based on things which can be
    >demonstrated in the here and now and by means of outcome studies
    >rather than relying on tradition.  
    
    Tradition of what?  Who is talking about 'relying on tradition' when it
    comes to Ayurveda?  I'm certainly not.
    
    Modern medicine is hardly a panacea, by the way, even with its outcome
    studies.
    
    
    >These demonstrate that some aspects of modern Ayurvedic claims,
    >such as that health and disease are all in the mind, are simply not true.
    
    This is either a misconception on your part, or a claim you've heard/read 
    somewhere about Ayurveda that is just plain wrong.  
    
    At the same time though, I can recall a number of times that my GP told
    me that a few medical conditions I've experienced are 'in my head'. 
    Fortunately I found relief to what turned out to be very real conditions
    ...some were helped by a competent neurologist, and others by alternative 
    medicine. 
    
    
    >There is an influence of mental and emotional factors on health, but
    >they are not all important.  
    
    This is where you (and I) and Ayurveda differ.  
    
    
    >And they are not unique to Ayurvedic.
    
    I don't understand this statement.  What isn't unique to Ayurveda?
    
    
    >While the philosophy certainly may be similar or even the same, I tend to 
    >doubt that much of the modern commercial aspects of Ayurveda are actually 
    >as ancient or as venerable as all that anyway.  
    
    I have no idea what you're speaking of here.  Perhaps these things will
    be addressed in the entries I'm making in the other topic.
    
    
    >That's where some critical evaluation is needed, imo, when people begin 
    >to let their feelings about religion enter into evaluation of health 
    >practices.  
    
    I use a few Ayurvedic treatments and they work quite well.  Their
    effectiveness has absolutely nothing to do with my 'feelings about 
    religion' - whatever that is, anyway.
    
    Cindy
1583.39References for previous allusions.DWOVAX::STARKKnowledge is good.Thu Jun 23 1994 17:1514
    Thanks for clarifying your viewpoint, Cindy.
    
    I'm sorry I can't get a hold of an on-line copy of the articles
    we discussed previously, but for reference, the articles I mentioned may 
    be found in:
    
    Journal of the American Medical Association,
    	The May 22-29, 1991 issue contains the Chopra et. al article
    	The Aug 14, 1991 issue contains the "correction" by the editor,
    	The Oct 2, 1991 issue contains the 6 page "expose" on Chopra et al.
    
    						kind regards,
    
    						todd
1583.40TNPUBS::PAINTERPlanet CrayonThu Jun 23 1994 18:1731
    
    Thanks, Todd.  Especially...I was under the impression that these were
    recent articles, but 1991 is a bit old.  Not that they aren't correct -
    especially on the charging for prayers issue - but they are somewhat
    outdated.  A lot has changed since then.
    
    The other night while reading the last few months of Yoga Journals,
    there was a comment in one of the letters to the editor stating that
    the Lancaster center has always been TM-run and owned, which was kind
    of interesting.  Chopra has been an employee, and not the one
    ultimately in charge.  Apparently the high prices are part of the TM
    organization itself, and not things that Chopra set.  Overall, I would
    have to agree - my impression of the TM organization is not that all
    that great.  
    
    But, the practice of mantra chanting in general (which I do), and the 
    principles behind Ayurveda - I support these completely, and primarily 
    because they work in my life. I don't agree if Chopra did unethical 
    things while working for the TM organization - such things are 
    inexcusable - but for what he has to say in his lectures and in his 
    books about the principles and practices of the ancient science of 
    Ayurveda...these things I am in complete agreement on.  
    
    I have the price list from the Sharp center that he is now the director
    of out in California, and they seem to be much more reasonable than the
    TM center.  His lecture and workshop prices have also come down, and he
    actually did our conference for no compensation at all - we paid only his
    expenses.  So, I see a change in him from what has been described
    earlier. 
    
    Cindy 
1583.41Ok.DWOVAX::STARKKnowledge is good.Thu Jun 23 1994 19:225
    	Thanks for the perspective on Chopra.  Perhaps his only guilt
    	in the yagya issue was by association and he had no part in the
    	goings on.  That's entirely possible.  I appreciate your
    	patience and the additional information.
    							todd
1583.42allopathic medicine has its problems tooTNPUBS::PAINTERPlanet CrayonTue Jul 12 1994 16:3072
From: "Beyond Antibiotics - Healthier Options for Families", by 
       Schmidt, Smith, and Sehnert, pp.32-33

Science, Politics, or Economics?

Contrary to popularly held beliefs, modern medicine is often based as 
much on philosophy, beliefs, politics, and economics as it is on 
science.  Perhaps no story better illustrates the tapestry interwoven by 
science, politics, and economics than that of Dr. Erdem Cantekin, former 
director of a research center at the University of Pittsburg.  Dr. 
Cantekin, and international authority on ear disease, was 
co-investigator on a five-year National Institutes of Health study to 
evaluate the effectiveness of the antibiotic amoxicillin in the 
treatment of childrens' ear infections.  Americans spend over $500 
million annually to treat this one condition.

Cantekin's analysis of the date from this study showed that amoxicillin 
was ineffective and possibly harmful.  His findings were further 
analyzed and corroborated by a statistical analyst from Carnegie Mellon 
University.  But another researcher disagreed. According to an article 
entitled "Corporate-Funded Research May Be Hazardous To Your Health" 
published in the 'Bulletin of the Atomic Scientist, "the primary 
investigator on the $15 million federal grant, a colleague of Cantekin's 
at the medical school interpreted the data differently: 'after changing 
the study protocol', he determined that amoxicillin is effective against 
children's ear infections.  [emphasis added]

"The primary investigator had also, over the period when the government 
was paying for the research, accepted perquisites amounting to over 
$50,000 per year in lecture fees and travel money from drug companies 
that produce antibiotics.  Between 1981 and 1986, the ear center 
received more than $1.6 million in research grants from pharmaceutical 
companies to test the effectiveness of antibiotics on ear infections."

Dr. Cantekin wrote a paper arguing that amoxicillin "while appropriate 
for many uses, is not effective in the treatment of secretory otitis 
media [fluid behind the ear drum]."  He submitted his paper for 
publication in hopes that other physicians could view his interpretation 
of the research and compare it with that of his colleague.  But this was 
not to be.  Both the 'New England Journal of Medicine' and the 'Journal 
of the American Medical Association' rejected Dr. Cantekin's paper.  
Meanwhile, the paper presented by his colleague, which supported 
antibiotic use, was published in the 'New England Journal of Medicine' 
(1987).  Antibiotic sales soared following publication of this paper.

The case is filled with tragic irony.  As a result of Dr. Cantekin's 
efforts "his data tapes were erased, he was taken off all the 
department's grants, fired as director of the ear research clinic, and 
forbidden by the chairman to publish the paper....Because he has tenure 
the School of Medicine cannot fire Cantekin, but he has been stripped of 
the resources needed to conduct research." (footnotes appear here)  
Sadly, as a result of these actions physicians throughout the United 
States were deprived of the opportunity to base their judgment on 
conflicting viewpoints, and were left to ponder only that which 
supported the prevailing belief.

Nearly five years later, Dr. Cantekin's paper was finally published in 
the 'Journal of the American Medical Association' (December 1991).  The 
results have seriously challenged the prevailing belief about the value 
of antibiotics in treating ear infections, especially those that are 
chronic.  Cantekin's data showed that not only did children on 
amoxicillin fare no better than those taking placebo (sugar pill), but 
those on amoxicillin suffered from two to six times the rate of 
recurrent ear effusion.  Cantekin also remarked on two other popular 
antibiotics.  He wrote, "...those data indicate that amoxicillin was 
not effective and that two other antibiotics, Pediazole and cefaclor, 
also were not effective according to the method of analysis the OMRD 
[Otitis Media Research Center] had chosen to use."  (footnotes appear 
here)  It is interesting to note that the "negative" data regarding 
Pediazole and cefaclor was never published by the original 
investigators, but came out during a Congressional investigation.