00:00:00
we've created a world that's very dangerous right now I think we are on the brink of a possible Extinction deep
00:00:07
October right here one of the world's biggest experts on health Wellness Time magazine's one of the top 100 icons of
00:00:14
the centuries also written 93 books when you look at the direction of travel as a civilization what advice do we need now
00:00:22
what agree stress Humanities problems come from our inability to sit quietly
00:00:28
and do nothing you're always doing doing doing we have human doings we're not human beings
00:00:33
anymore take some time every day to be unoccupied ask yourself who am I what do
00:00:39
I want and what is my purpose people don't ask these questions they only know
00:00:44
that they suffer and they want an immediate solution which is you know something like a antidepressant and
00:00:50
that's what we've created every experience shapes our biology when
00:00:56
you look at the situation do you see an adversity or an opportunity how is this
00:01:01
determined by your childhood if your parents were complaining condemning criticizing playing the victim you will
00:01:07
see every situation as an adversity can be changed yes how there are actually
00:01:13
many studies on what is called the happiness equation number one is
00:01:18
this is your 93rd book if you were to write one last book what would be the
00:01:24
Top Line message I hate to use this word it's misinterpreted but the title would be
00:01:31
before this episode starts I have a small favor to ask from you two months ago 74 of people that watch this channel
00:01:37
didn't subscribe we're now down to 69 my goal is 50 so if you've ever liked any
00:01:44
of the videos we've posted if you like this channel can you do me a quick favor and hit the Subscribe button it helps this channel more than you know and the
00:01:50
bigger the channel gets as you've seen the bigger the guests get thank you and enjoy this episode
00:01:56
[Music]
00:02:04
as I was reading through your work a certain word came up over and over again and it was the word
00:02:10
purpose um so I wanted to start this really by asking you
00:02:15
what is your purpose what mission are you on you've written I'm hearing this is your 93rd book
00:02:22
if there is an umbrella that one could call your purpose what would it be
00:02:28
for the last uh 35 years I've used our non-profit
00:02:37
Foundation Chopra foundation with the the mission statement of reaching a
00:02:44
critical mass of people in my mind a billion people per personal and social transformation
00:02:52
for a more peaceful just sustainable healthier and joyful world so those
00:02:58
words are very carefully chosen peaceful sustainable healthier
00:03:04
just and joyful so everything
00:03:11
is under that umbrella going back to the start of your story
00:03:16
um what do I need to you know that profound
00:03:22
purpose that mission you've been on for the last 30 plus years where does that stem from what's the
00:03:28
earliest sort of domino that fell to put you on course to to pursue that as your life's work
00:03:37
i s I trained in Internal Medicine and then Endocrinology which is a study of
00:03:44
hormones and then I went on to study neuroscience and
00:03:51
neuroendocrinology I saw the relationship between what happens in our
00:03:56
consciousness and particularly emotions
00:04:02
and how that affects our biology as a physician I was always impressed by how giving
00:04:09
information to a patient affected their metabolism you know if I told somebody you had
00:04:15
cancer just the word cancer you could see immediately their blood pressure go up
00:04:21
the heart rate speed up their platelets get sticky and you know a whole Cascade of events
00:04:29
in their biology which was essentially inflammation and propensity to disease just hearing bad news and
00:04:37
interpreting it and having an emotional response to it I remember giving that nurse to a
00:04:44
patient and then immediately realizing that I'd made a mistake I was reading the wrong chart
00:04:50
so I immediately apologized and I saw his biology changed in a moment
00:04:56
and now you know 40 years later we realized that every experience you have every
00:05:03
experience doesn't matter what the experiences could be emotional but it could be food it could
00:05:09
be sleep it could be exercise it could be breathing or yoga but right now this
00:05:16
conversation you know we're having this conversation and you and I
00:05:21
are exchanging information in our frontal cortex of the brain and
00:05:28
genes are going on to facilitate the neural networks
00:05:34
that make this happen but then there are people listening to us maybe hundreds of
00:05:39
thousands their brains are being activated so I realized that you know you couldn't
00:05:45
localize the mind you know if you ask a neuroscientist conventional neuroscientists where is
00:05:52
the mind they'll point to their brain but the brain only has the neural correlates of
00:05:59
the Mind the Mind itself you can't localize it's both embodied it's a relational and embodied process
00:06:07
so you know the mind doesn't exist by itself it exists in relationship to
00:06:12
other Minds so it's relational and embodied in the brain but in your
00:06:19
biology and it regulates the flow of energy and information in our bodies and
00:06:26
in the ecosystem of relationships now if
00:06:33
our identity fundamental identity which is
00:06:38
that of the separate self is which is a socially induced
00:06:44
hallucination in my opinion because the separate self doesn't exist period
00:06:50
but that hallucination or that idea of the
00:06:56
separate self creates anxiety it also creates anger because of trauma
00:07:03
in the past so anger is nothing but remembering the memory of trauma
00:07:10
hostility is the desire to get even anxieties the anticipation of trauma
00:07:15
again in the future blaming yourself is guilt and guilt leads to humiliation humiliation and the
00:07:22
combination of everything I've said leads to depression which is the number one pandemic of our time not kovid
00:07:29
depression stress hostility resentment that causes inflammation so you know
00:07:36
suddenly I had this idea that if we went back to some of the wisdom traditions of the world
00:07:42
that said our essential nature is as the Buddhists say inter beingness
00:07:49
we are you know famous statement of technotron we are inter beings that
00:07:55
interrise in the inter isness there's no isolated self
00:08:01
and but that isolated fearful self has created the trauma that we see in the world that that
00:08:08
actually manifests as War terrorism ego destruction greed leaders who are only
00:08:15
interested in power mongering influence peddling cronyism corruption and their
00:08:21
own self-interest so we've created a world that's that's actually
00:08:27
um pretty dangerous right now and I thought in my naive Day about
00:08:36
35 40 years ago if we had something that could actually
00:08:41
collectively shift Consciousness and actually I was one of the founders of an association
00:08:48
called Alliance for a new Humanity and we had people from Civil Society
00:08:55
lawyers attorneys people from the United Nations with this
00:09:01
idea that we could reach a critical mass of people for a more peaceful just sustainable
00:09:07
healthier and joyful world but even the organization faltered
00:09:12
because there was Schism within the organization you know people
00:09:18
again power mongering and fighting within the organization for dominance or
00:09:27
or you know leadership in a very selfish way so the organization
00:09:34
folded it didn't go anywhere I decided to continue on my own
00:09:40
so when you talk about this separated self you're referring to Identity I'm referring to identity identity which is
00:09:47
you know I did our crisis today and has been of identity
00:09:53
an identity on a personal level is this the person you know this story that I tell myself about who I am and that I
00:09:59
accept about myself correct and for a country they have their own identity they accept that they are the United States of America and we are this and
00:10:05
this is who we are correct and then that causes separation and a disconnectedness you talked about how you created an
00:10:12
organization to try and combat this and get to that critical mass and then the organization itself failed which makes
00:10:17
me think is this not just innate in humans that we are greedy selfish powermongering corrupt
00:10:26
at our core it's been our Evolution since hunter-gatherer times
00:10:31
and it got worse in the Industrial Age and then I think
00:10:37
um it got even worse with within the wars you know the first world
00:10:45
war second world war but if you read history the history is one of violence
00:10:51
ever since human beings have existed other species are violin too but not
00:10:59
not in the way we are for power or for money or for
00:11:08
um this idea of uh you know extreme nationalism which is a form of tribalism
00:11:14
in my opinion or the whole history of colonialism is just that and now we've
00:11:20
reached a point with the information age where you know it's kind of
00:11:27
nothing is secret anymore and yet um
00:11:33
the intensity of what's happening in the world look what's happening in Ukraine or right now what's happening in
00:11:40
Pakistan or what's happening in India or what's happening in Korea look at any
00:11:46
place in the world maybe you live a few places like New Zealand or you know Bali
00:11:52
or a couple of places like that the rest of the world is is actually in extreme
00:11:59
turmoil so we have medieval Minds and modern capacities now that is not a
00:12:07
good combination a medieval mind restricted to a little area in medieval
00:12:13
times caused Havoc there but now globally that medieval mind that tribal
00:12:20
mind and our modern capacities it's a terrible combination
00:12:26
everybody everybody listening to this now in some way is suffering yes in some way yes everyone's suffering is slightly
00:12:33
different but if you zoom out far enough it's pretty much all the same to some to some degree yeah um
00:12:38
if you had a you know a young person come to you and they were I don't know they don't even have to be young 16 years old maybe 30 maybe 45 and you had
00:12:46
to give them some broad advice on how to suffer less for the remainder of their
00:12:51
life what advice would you give them you know
00:12:57
we've reached a stage in our Evolution where people don't ask these questions
00:13:03
they only know that they suffer and they want an immediate solution which is you
00:13:09
know something like an antidepressant or whatever and that's what we've created with the
00:13:17
materialistic interpretation of the universe wisdom Traditions tell us we
00:13:22
suffer because in that fact in the Eastern wisdom tradition we serve five causes not knowing who we are number one
00:13:31
not knowing the nature of reality no isolated self clinging and grasping
00:13:37
at experience which is ephemeral you know experiences ephemeral it's transient it
00:13:44
you can't catch it like regret or it's experience you know if I ask you
00:13:50
you can't hold on to this experience if I asked you what happened to your childhood you say it's a dream but if I
00:13:56
asked you what happened to last night it's a dream what happened to this morning is a dream what happens to these
00:14:02
words by the time you hear them they don't exist and me trying to cling on to that so let me try juggling on that then we also
00:14:09
recoil from that if it's unpleasant we confuse ourselves with our ego identity which is socially induced and we fear
00:14:16
death those are the five causes of suffering so wisdom Traditions say you have to figure out what is reality and
00:14:23
when you figure out what is reality and you can't do that at 16 unless you're being groomed you know in in wisdom
00:14:30
Traditions you were groomed for wisdom and that started
00:14:37
what we call self-education which is what yoga is by the way yoga means Union
00:14:42
with the self misinterpretation of yoga as this is just the physical postures but the eight
00:14:49
limbs of yoga are all intended to find your true self so there are principles
00:14:54
of social intelligence emotional intelligence physical posture breathing techniques
00:15:01
withdrawal of the senses focused awareness meditation Transcendence
00:15:08
once you get to these last three aspects of yoga Transcendence is the key
00:15:16
you find out who you really are the self which knows the self not Bamboozled by
00:15:23
social constructs so let's go through those five things number one not doing reality reality is
00:15:31
not local it's infinite so so what do I need to understand then to avoid that form of suffering I need to understand
00:15:37
that it's not localized and therefore that means that you are infinite
00:15:42
you're at one level I'm everything and nothing and everything and nothing and
00:15:49
actually you experience love love not as a sentiment but the in ineffable
00:15:55
interconnectedness with all that exists people have those experiences with psychedelics these days or you can
00:16:01
actually give somebody an experience like that with even VR because we are already in a VR number
00:16:08
two number two clinging grasping that which is ungraspable every experience is
00:16:14
ungraspable so the awareness of an experience is not the experience the awareness of a thought is not a
00:16:21
thought the awareness of a thought is independent of the thought if you
00:16:27
identify with the awareness instead of the thought which is like a cloud going through the sky
00:16:33
you don't either attach yourself to it or you don't identify with it takes training
00:16:40
so you know and in the rig Veda let Noble thoughts come to me from every side because your thoughts are not your
00:16:47
production your thoughts are socially constructed and there's there's recycle
00:16:53
through you and yet we identify with them so number two is identifying with
00:16:59
that which is ephemeral transient ungraspable number three
00:17:05
on number two we so we need to not attach not associate with thoughts
00:17:11
not associate with experiences in order to be free you can associate with them
00:17:16
but you're not attached or identified to them you can
00:17:23
associate with thoughts so if you've had a trauma in your early life or something or you've been through something not so
00:17:28
good or you've been dumped by your boyfriend and then we would identify with that and actually that
00:17:34
epigenetically by the way that's intergenerational now we know that you know in the Holocaust for example during
00:17:40
the invasion of the Netherlands by Nazi Germany there were a lot of
00:17:47
there was famine amongst the Jews and now three generations four generations
00:17:53
after that the people's descendants who were traumatized they have diabetes because
00:18:00
somewhere in their body there's a memory of famine so they're holding on to
00:18:06
carbohydrates they have insulin resistance Etc if you take a mouse and
00:18:11
you expose it to a smell that it likes for example lavender and then you give it to my electrical
00:18:18
shock for Seven Generations the mice will be fearful
00:18:23
of that particular smell I've been to a cow Farm in Hawaii where they used to
00:18:29
have electrical wires as fences mild electrical shocks now they don't have
00:18:35
the wires but the descendants of those cows that were traumatized they won't
00:18:42
cross over that fence or they won't cross over where the Border was
00:18:48
so it's it's this is another mystery where is memory most people if you ask
00:18:54
them where is memory they'll point to the brain if I ask you what did you have for breakfast today
00:18:59
what did you have for breakfast uh that's a really good question I had a salad okay with some chicken so no where
00:19:07
was that memory before I asked you the question there's nowhere in the brain you can point out
00:19:13
that memory was but as soon as I ask you the question the neural networks go fire
00:19:19
but where is the memory Retreat from the only places Consciousness but
00:19:24
Consciousness can't be localized you know when people get brain injuries car crashes they lose their memory sometimes
00:19:29
yeah so radios damaged you don't listen to the music doesn't that prove that it's in the brain somewhere
00:19:36
is is the is Shakespeare in in on your movie screen or your television set
00:19:43
is is actually anything you read in the book is the author in the book
00:19:50
it's that you know you're confused the instrument with the user of the
00:19:55
instrument the fault of the instrument is not a reflection on the user of the instrument
00:20:01
Shakespeare nice would live on like the the CD or like these that's really okay
00:20:07
yeah but where is that mind that localized in the CD
00:20:16
in the brain somewhere isn't it no the brain is just like your CD said okay what happens in the brain is called the
00:20:21
neural correlates of experience nce this as I said earlier there's no experience
00:20:27
in the brain that's where you can put a knife through it the brain has no self-awareness
00:20:36
when you think about some of these um neurological diseases like dementia
00:20:42
Alzheimer's what does that present evidence for in
00:20:48
terms of I mean I guess a lot of people aren't really clear at the moment where where Alzheimer's and Dementia starts or
00:20:55
what's called Alzheimer's now we know is due to accumulation
00:21:00
of a substance called amyloid in the brain so about there are 40 genes that
00:21:07
predispose you to force Alzheimer's or which three are probably
00:21:12
fully penetrant which means they predict the disease because that's genetic determinism
00:21:19
the rest are related to things like lack of sleep or inflammation or stress or a diet that causes
00:21:28
inflammation or lack of unregulated biological rhythms
00:21:34
Etc so there are identifiable causes for Alzheimer's but again Alzheimer's is and
00:21:41
these neurological diseases all diseases like that we're talking about two different things
00:21:47
we're talking about Consciousness is a fundamental reality and then we're talking about the instrument that we
00:21:53
call the brain now I should say to you though that what I'm
00:21:58
saying is not necessarily accepted by mainstream science but
00:22:04
mainstream science cannot answer the hard problem of Consciousness or where experience happens and is not interested
00:22:11
you know right now the two most promising things in medical
00:22:17
science well there are three or four are you know one is what we call Gene
00:22:23
editing crispr so you'll be able to cut in base genes soon the way you cut and paste
00:22:29
emails but that'll affect maybe five six percent of genetic determinism the rest
00:22:35
is lifestyle epigenetics so that's where we are in medical
00:22:40
science and with machine learning in artificial intelligence I think we'll be able to predict disease and make it more
00:22:48
everything will be more personalized predictable preventable in the future
00:22:54
but we are talking about two different things right now we're talking about biology
00:23:00
and we're talking about the heart problem of Consciousness we'll get on to the pillars of well-being um wanted to
00:23:06
finish those five points of suffering yes we can call the five clacias glacias
00:23:11
yeah in Sanskrit so that we were number three right recoiling from
00:23:17
experiences that we interpret as unpleasant
00:23:23
but see once again the awareness of the experience is not the experience so once you can observe the experience you're
00:23:29
free of the experience you don't identify with the experience oh that's an interesting thought passing
00:23:36
by the screen of my Consciousness like a cloud in the sky I'm not the cloud I'm
00:23:41
the sky I'm not this I'm not the play on the screen on the screen
00:23:48
so an example would be so the sentence is recoiling from experiences that
00:23:53
unpleasant they're unpleasant so give me an example someone in my life someone in my family dies yeah so you obviously are
00:24:00
scared right because you identify with the experience but everybody dies
00:24:06
I mean trillions of people have died you're not the only one who's going to
00:24:12
die and then what dies is another mystery the body dies
00:24:19
the seeds of memory recycle because what is memory but it's
00:24:26
information and that's recycled through Collective Consciousness as soon
00:24:32
as you're born you're already born into an interpreted world a world with memory a world with imagination a world with
00:24:41
non-local Consciousness that is now localizing through your brain as this
00:24:46
process that you call the body the body mind is a process in consciousness
00:24:52
Consciousness itself is not subject to time only you know time is an experience we
00:24:58
have as soon as we have subject objects split so as soon as there's subject object split which is artificial
00:25:06
in nature is the unified activity then time is Born the experience of time
00:25:14
is born so in your life if someone dies God forbid um do you suffer you grieve which is a
00:25:22
natural process and it has a life cycle you don't hold on to it in fact you embrace it
00:25:28
you embrace the anytime you recoil or deny
00:25:34
resistance creates even more stress so what we call stress is resistance to
00:25:41
existence in the moment okay if you don't resist experience in
00:25:47
the moment you know it's passing by so something really bad happens at work I get a really bad you know my boss
00:25:54
tells me I'm fired the mindset required to ever avoid suffering in that case is to
00:26:02
take the news it's not a mindset it's a it's a step in awareness
00:26:07
the awareness of the mind is not the mind
00:26:12
who is it that or what is it that knows a thought that is what you need to shift to okay
00:26:20
once you shift from the experience to the awareness in which
00:26:26
the experience is happening you're independent of it and that's what
00:26:31
actually those eight limbs of yoga are about it's a process
00:26:37
a shift in identity we started with that a shift in identity from your assumed self to your
00:26:46
fundamental self which is infinite which is without cause which is not subject to birth and death
00:26:54
which is spaceless timeless incomprehensible infinite irreducible
00:26:59
and fundamental it feels almost like I'm stepping out of
00:27:04
myself and looking at myself correct looking at the projection of projection
00:27:11
of myself we're looking at the projection of yourself she's really looking at your avatar and
00:27:18
it's very hard to do because we we are increasingly becoming avatars especially with things like social media yeah yeah
00:27:23
we've been we're being reinforced like you know I have two million followers or a million followers about 500 000
00:27:29
followers they're following my avatar so we don't know who we are you're confused yourself with the Avatar and the battle
00:27:35
is all between Avatar's wanting importance how does one
00:27:42
resign from that battle and take back my peace actually the opposite of that is
00:27:47
creativity the creativity is the opposite of
00:27:54
determinism if you don't want to be a biological robot or an algorithm which is what we
00:28:01
are now we are biological algorithms biological robots and that's by the way
00:28:07
part of our Evolution it's not something all animals but the animals have an advantage they
00:28:14
live in the present moment but you and I have an imagination that can see into the future that can even
00:28:21
look at death you know as the culmination of this life experience we regret the past we anticipate the future
00:28:29
we're never in the present when this is the only place we are right now is the
00:28:34
present there is no way to escape it but in our imagination we escape it so the
00:28:40
worst use of imagination is stress the best use of imagination is creativity
00:28:45
creativity is a disruption in the algorithm it's a discontinuity
00:28:50
fundamental creativity not you know usual Innovation like iPhone 13 instead
00:28:56
of iPhone 12 with a better camera that's not what creativity is creativity is a death and a resurrection it's a death of
00:29:03
context meaning relationship and story and a new
00:29:09
meaning relationship and story whether it's that's fundamental creativity that's
00:29:16
Einstein coming up with the theory of relativity or the Quantum physicists breaking every rule
00:29:24
that we knew in Newtonian physics or a great piece of art Beethoven Swift these
00:29:30
are original original creativity is a disruption in the algorithm to to decide
00:29:37
to provide Avatar my avatar getting into this sort of Avatar wall with a with
00:29:42
other avatars my antidote to that is my own creativity your own creativity you
00:29:49
know every moment you have a choice to repeat the past or be a pioneer of
00:29:56
creativity of the future and that happens by the way it happens individually it happens collectively we
00:30:04
change World Views you know the world is not flat anymore you know the ground is not stationary anymore you know the
00:30:11
world is not Material anymore every technology that you use is based on the new idea that the essential nature of
00:30:18
the physical world is it's not physical I could see you as you really are I'd
00:30:24
see a huge emptiness with a few scattered dots and spots and some random electrical discharges and at the most
00:30:31
fundamental level There Are No Boundaries boundaries are perceptual so when we experience the spiritual ecstasy
00:30:39
which is ineffable There Are No Boundaries that's why
00:30:44
people in near-death experience people with psychedelic experience people with
00:30:49
Peak experiences athletes musical performance
00:30:55
any any break from ordinary reality
00:31:00
is ineffable and healing actually that's why at the
00:31:06
recent Resurgence in psychedelics is very interesting because you know it it takes you away from
00:31:16
your identity of being squeezed into the volume of a body in the span of a lifetime
00:31:23
and point number four the five points of suffering Point number four point number four confusing your selfie with yourself
00:31:29
your ego identity we've talked about that and number five is death death but all of them have one solution
00:31:37
first one find out who you are how does one find out who they are Transcendence
00:31:44
there's no here's another thing there's no system of thought
00:31:49
no system of thought religion philosophy or science that will get you
00:31:54
into knowing true reality because systems of thought are just that systems
00:32:01
of thought what is it that gives rise to thought
00:32:07
that is what you won't do no and that's been the Eternal Quest in spiritual
00:32:13
Traditions I'm not talking about religious Dogma or ideology but there
00:32:18
you know these days is very fashionable for people to say I'm not religious but I'm spiritual it means the same thing
00:32:24
when you have a spiritual experience number one Transcendence you find your
00:32:29
identity beyond space and time number two emergence of platonic values
00:32:35
like truth goodness Beauty Harmony named after Plato or love compassion Joy
00:32:41
Equanimity and number three loss of the fear of death that's Jesus that's Muhammad that's Ruby that's Buddha
00:32:49
that's every luminary that you have can study since
00:32:55
people created systems of thought so how does what's the easiest way to
00:33:01
track you know there's someone listening to this right now they are driving up the motorway they're a lorry driver take
00:33:07
some time every day to be unoccupied even spiritual Pursuit
00:33:13
is an occupation so take a little bit of you know what I
00:33:18
think it was Kafka or somebody who said all of human problem Humanities problems
00:33:23
come from our inability to sit quietly and do nothing
00:33:28
we'd rather electrocute ourselves we're always doing doing doing we have human doings we're not human beings anymore
00:33:36
so if I take some I I pull over the the Lorry that I'm driving up the motorway and I said you know what Deepak told me
00:33:42
take some time for myself so I sit in the Lorry for 15 minutes every day how is that going to help me to
00:33:48
transcend it starts to process we begin to ask yourself
00:33:54
who am I reflect on this these questions every day who am I
00:34:00
what do I want what is my purpose what am I grateful for
00:34:05
and who am I without these constructs it's it's a big mystery right Who You
00:34:15
Are ultimately you realize you're the awareness in which all experience happens
00:34:21
but you're not the experience the experiences in time you are not in time and that this requires a different kind
00:34:29
of education it's not part of our culture it used to be part of cultures you know
00:34:35
if you read Plato and the Republic and you'll see that you know this was part of every culture
00:34:44
but it was a few luminaries people romanticize even about this in India's
00:34:50
spiritual country well India's been violent forever a few luminaries the sages of the
00:34:56
upanishad and we have romance around the Greek culture you know Bob you know the
00:35:02
Greeks were the most civilized in the world well yes Socrates and permanent
00:35:07
ideas and you know Pythagoras and I can name a few but the rest of the country
00:35:14
even in those times you know they had slavery they had
00:35:21
sexism they had these the the source of the Olympics
00:35:27
where they used to sacrifice humans and you know we're still performing it even in our days we're
00:35:34
still repeating that cycle with the what do you call cheerleaders the the Virgin vessels of the past
00:35:42
we haven't changed actually much what else in terms of starting your day like daily habits so you talk about
00:35:48
sleep as being incredibly important here are the the daily habits um number one
00:35:55
is sleep now we know by the way that lack of sleep is the number one predictor of premature death from
00:36:01
cardiovascular disease lack of sleep is also predictor of Alzheimer's lack of
00:36:07
sleep interferes with their creativity lack of sleep causes inflammation so that's for sure
00:36:14
number one number two uh I think is any practice that quietens the Mind
00:36:20
meditation reflection contemplation sitting quietly watching your breath ETC
00:36:27
number three is exercise number four is Mind Body coordination as in that's
00:36:33
different than regular exercise yoga practice and martial arts breathing practices Tai
00:36:41
Chi Qigong they actually activate a different part of your nervous system which is the parasympathetic nervous
00:36:47
system which it causes self-regulation in the body so it's not just exercise it's you know
00:36:54
something that puts mind and body together even gymnastics or
00:37:00
things like Judo and I mentioned martial arts but yoga is my practice
00:37:08
uh then emotionals your emotional and physical environment your social
00:37:14
environment because we live as social beings so you know if you're if you're
00:37:20
you have toxic relationships it's going to cause physical toxicity
00:37:25
um then nutrition we now know that you know that food that causes inflammation
00:37:31
refined manufactured processed food with chemicals antibiotics hormones
00:37:37
insecticides pesticides it's poison it's like putting poison day putting Agent
00:37:43
Orange in your body so organic food farm to table maximum diversity or
00:37:50
plant-based Foods now we know a lot about micronutrients we know about biological rhythms
00:37:57
But ultimately I think spiritual experience is very important because no
00:38:02
matter what you do no matter what you do no matter how healthy you are there is old age
00:38:08
there is infirmity and there is death so unless you face those bright head-on
00:38:15
when you are healthy not when you're in a crisis not when somebody dies in your family then everybody panics
00:38:22
okay I had a crisis in my life when I was six years old you know my
00:38:28
father was in England he was training to be a cardiologist I was living in my grandfather
00:38:35
and one day we got a telegram that my father had passed all his exams he was
00:38:41
now a fellow of the Royal College of Physicians big deal in those days we got
00:38:46
a telegram my grandfather wanted to celebrate so he took me and my little
00:38:51
brother to a carnival then to a to a movie I even remembered the movie
00:38:57
Alibaba and the 40 thieves and then we went to a fancy restaurant and then in
00:39:02
the middle of the night he died and they took him to for cremation
00:39:08
brought his ashes back in a little jar about the size of this coffee cup a
00:39:14
little bigger and one of my uncles said what happened yesterday he was taking
00:39:19
the kids to a carnival and today is a bunch of Ashes
00:39:25
my little brother who'd later became the dean of education at Harvard Medical School he was four years old he started
00:39:31
to lose his skin his skin started peeling off I went into a panic and you
00:39:38
know my uncles took my brother to every position they couldn't find the
00:39:44
diagnosis till somebody said you know he's missing his parents he's feeling vulnerable he's losing his skin
00:39:52
shedding his skin because he's that's a metaphor for his vulnerability he'll be fine when his parents come back
00:39:58
and sure enough as soon as they came my brother was healed so at six years I had
00:40:04
a crisis existential crisis went on to become a doctor
00:40:09
but what happens you go to medical school the first thing you see is is uh is a corpse you're supposed to
00:40:16
understand Life by dissecting a body you know it's the way we are trained you've
00:40:21
started off by looking at a human being as an anatomical structure rather than a
00:40:27
process in consciousness so it took me a long time you know going
00:40:32
through medical school training myself going through crises smoking addictive
00:40:39
behavior alcohol I remember um res resuscitating a patient putting a
00:40:46
pacemaker putting him on a respirator and then going outside to smoke a cigarette
00:40:52
and then you know I was disgusted with myself
00:40:58
I threw away my cigarette that evening I threw away the scotch
00:41:04
and I decided that I want to understand who am I
00:41:10
it's almost like in that moment you observed someone that was so full of life just moments earlier
00:41:16
turn into as you said Ash is in a jar scattered in the Wind
00:41:23
and you go where is the where is my granddad yeah
00:41:28
he's not local no look right which is our essential nature
00:41:34
actually to be non-localists to be connected with all that is
00:41:40
an Indian poetry and Poets in general John William Blake you know we are led
00:41:48
to believe a lie when we see with and not through the eye that was born in the
00:41:53
night to perish in the night while the soul slept in beams of light so when we
00:41:58
looked through the conditioned mind that's a lie when you look beyond the conditioned mind
00:42:04
that is light do you think you'd be doing the work you are today if your granddad hadn't passed away when you were six in their
00:42:10
circumstances I think that was a very pivotal moment at six years of age existential crisis
00:42:18
most people don't have that at the age of six because it brought you a bunch of questions didn't it really profound
00:42:23
questions about the nature of life and existence existence and and love and
00:42:31
tigor Indian poet love is not a sentiment it's the ultimate truth at the heart of creation
00:42:39
that you and the other are the same being in different uniforms
00:42:44
is it do you have a Ponder if some of your beliefs are if that moment really was pivotal that
00:42:52
some of your beliefs might have been a way to justify your sadness
00:42:58
yeah denial is a way of justifying sadness I don't think belief is
00:43:04
belief in many ways is a cover-up for insecurity you know if I say do you
00:43:10
believe in electricity he said no I see that device that transistor that TV set
00:43:16
electricity gravity is my experience so I don't believe in belief
00:43:25
but faith is something else faith is the knowingness of the invisible
00:43:31
without which there is nothing visible the invisible is the source of all
00:43:37
things visible so when you when your day comes when my day comes when we're no longer I'm
00:43:44
preparing for it right now you're preparing for this in my tradition there are four stages of Life first 25 years
00:43:50
they're called ashrams ashram is a place to rest or that which you identify as
00:43:55
your home first 25 years education second 25 years family
00:44:02
children Fame Fortune if you want third 25 years giving back and now I'm fourth
00:44:09
self-realization preparation for death how does one prepare for death by
00:44:16
knowing and experiencing your non-local self
00:44:22
what people would call spirituality or death spiritual but authentic experience I'm not talking about
00:44:28
Dogma or self-righteous morality or jealousy with the Halo or cunning
00:44:34
hypocrisy we can all pretend to be spiritual but if you've had the experience when
00:44:40
you know yourself as non-local then the unknown is the only place to be
00:44:46
the known as already happened it's a prison and what do you believe happens once you
00:44:51
die I think the dream continues the dream continues in a different
00:44:57
frequency domain of Consciousness these days actually if you look at some of the
00:45:03
theories of the universe mathematical theories
00:45:08
current materialistic view is that the visible universe is about 2 trillion
00:45:16
galaxies 706 trillion Stars uncountable trillions
00:45:21
of planets based on that current estimate with the James Webb Telescope and all this
00:45:28
our planet is not even a spec one grain of sand in all the beaches of the world so the other day I went to a beach
00:45:35
picked up a grain of sand and a breeze game he drifted off and the beach didn't
00:45:42
notice that one grain was missing that's planet Earth 2 trillion galaxies but I
00:45:48
recently interviewed Caltech professor of physics Sean Carroll who sits on the desk of Richard
00:45:55
Feynman one of the greatest physicists of all time Einstein sat at that desk for a while
00:46:02
Sean Carroll believes there are infinite universes infinite universes
00:46:09
it's incomprehensible the idea that there are infinite universes
00:46:14
but I believe they are and that you and I have a a cosmic Journey
00:46:23
that is infinite and infinite means infinite infinite is incomprehensible it
00:46:29
never ends you change uniforms you change experiences hopefully you
00:46:35
evolve like a spiraled staircase but it's a never-ending Horizon does
00:46:42
that mean rank what people call Reincarnation of some sort or is it even people yeah but what is reincarnation
00:46:49
see everything recycles matter recycles we agree energy resize because we agree
00:46:55
information recycles we agree if Consciousness is what gives rise to
00:47:02
Energy Information and matter and energy information matter or human constructs
00:47:08
for modes of awareness and consciousness why would Consciousness not
00:47:14
recycle why would it be the only exception it wouldn't be the same Consciousness though would it it would
00:47:21
be bits of the No it's it's it's a Consciousness with seeds yeah of
00:47:30
potential manifestation seeds of Desire and seeds of memory
00:47:38
now if you want to be totally you know I want to use the spiritual
00:47:44
language which is not fashionable but is fashionable to Karma memory and desire
00:47:51
so karma is past experience an interpretation of past experience
00:47:57
if you go to Starbucks have a cup of coffee that's karma now depending on your experience
00:48:05
you like it or not you decide to go back to Starbucks or not to go to Starbucks
00:48:10
you go to whatever the other places and get a cappuccino so memory recycles as desire
00:48:17
and desire recycles as karma karma simply means experience don't think of
00:48:23
it good bad and this is the software or awareness that recycles and evolves in Cosmic time
00:48:32
now this is the theory but you have to experience it
00:48:37
so I asked you what did you have for breakfast but then I could ask you do you remember a happy episode from your
00:48:43
teenage years or your childhood and immediately the memory comes where was it not in your brain
00:48:50
you know I hadn't skated I learned skating when I was eight years ice
00:48:55
skating I didn't skate for 30 years at the age of 38 with my two little kids
00:49:02
Rockefeller Center Ice there picked up a pair of skates started to skate
00:49:09
every cell in my body including my brain had recycled
00:49:15
a few million times where was that memory of skating
00:49:21
big mystery quick word from one of our sponsors I have to say I've been on a bit of a journey with this brand because
00:49:28
when I started my business in new territories when we first moved social chain to the to New York City the first
00:49:34
place we went to was wework we moved four of our team members out to New York City and we built the business from
00:49:39
there um I have to say there's something magical about weworks I've spent the last two or three weeks in LA in a wee
00:49:46
work and as you walk in the front door every day it's almost like that sense of community that sense of magic excitement
00:49:52
camaraderie is tangible and you don't get that when you're working at home you don't get that often when you're sat in
00:49:59
your bed on your laptop there's something about getting out and getting into a wee work that makes me feel a
00:50:04
sense of Entrepreneurship and and creativity and building and the way that we work to design both both in the way
00:50:10
that they offer subscriptions so that you can work you know on demand but also the the flexibility of the contracts
00:50:16
means that it's just the perfect place for businesses to scale their companies and if you haven't checked out where you
00:50:22
work and you want to you can go to we.co CEO and there you can get 50 off
00:50:29
at trial Day At wework Close to You over the last couple of how long maybe four
00:50:34
months I've been changing my diet shall I say many of you have really been paying attention to this podcast will
00:50:40
know why I've sat here with some incredible Health experts and one of the things that's really come through for me which has caused a big change in my life
00:50:46
is the need for us to have these superfoods these green Foods these vegetables and then a company I love so
00:50:54
much and a company I'm an investor in and then a company that sponsors this podcast and I'm on the board of recently
00:51:00
announced a new product which absolutely spoke to exactly where I was in my life and that is heal and they announced
00:51:06
Daily Greens Daily Greens is a product that contains 91 superfoods nutrients
00:51:12
and plant-based ingredients which helps me meet that dietary requirement with the convenience that hewell always
00:51:18
offers unfortunately it's only currently available in the US but I hope
00:51:24
pray that it'll be with you guys in the UK too so if you're in the US check it out it's an incredible product I've been
00:51:29
having it here in La for the last couple of weeks and it's a game changer what is the thing that you believe to be true
00:51:35
that most people disagree with you on right now my interpretation of what I
00:51:42
call Quantum healing a quantum mechanics I wrote a book called Quantum healing in
00:51:47
1988 it was vilified I reissued it a few years ago because
00:51:53
now we have science and I'm doing a book with the quantum physicist at the moment
00:51:59
where I believe that our biology like everything else is
00:52:04
is quantum mechanical it's it's it goes every experience shapes uh our biology
00:52:11
and experience happens in the moment so your body is changing in the moment
00:52:17
depending on the experience you're having at a very fundamental level pleasure pain Joy sorrow eating
00:52:24
breathing digestion metabolism elimination thinking feeling aspiring
00:52:30
fearing all every experience shapes of biology we are the metabolic
00:52:37
product of experience and experience doesn't happen in isolation it happens
00:52:42
in The Matrix of relationship so what people disagree with me is this
00:52:50
whole interpretation I've been attacked by you know mainstream scientists
00:52:55
but I had been persistent because I'm a physician and I see people and you know
00:53:02
I'm not sitting in a lab dissecting rats or doing designing experiments
00:53:07
theoretically but you see people and as you said people suffer
00:53:13
and uh you know if you're a physician that should be your job to address suffering not be a technician who can
00:53:20
fix everything about the human body know nothing about the human soul or The
00:53:25
Human Experience this this morning I was at an event and I had a guy come up to me after and he said I'm 40 years old
00:53:31
now Stephen um I'm in a job and I don't like it it really doesn't like his job that he's
00:53:38
in um he's I'd say trapped as maybe a strong word but he
00:53:44
feels unable to take the leap towards a life that he feels will fulfill him
00:53:50
um he referenced being scared of what his friends might say um and he just there was this almost
00:53:56
this desperation in his face as he spoke to me he was seeking words of advice from me to him to help him out of that situation
00:54:02
of like I'm 40 years old I've got a partner I've built this life but it's not resonating with who I am and I just
00:54:08
I could feel the suffering that's a lot of people that are listening to this right now they are
00:54:13
that's that's that's so what our social structures have created and yet you know
00:54:19
the people like Joseph Campbell oh coined the expression follow your bliss uh follow your joy follow your
00:54:27
purpose follow your meaning follow your Dharma you know in Buddhism they said three things will save you one is
00:54:36
take refuge in the community of conscious beings take refuge in a higher purpose and take
00:54:44
refuge in Transcendence if you do that your life will be meaningful and meaning
00:54:52
is what drives us you know there are actually many Studies by the way recent
00:54:57
studies on what is called the happiness equation I'll give it to you
00:55:02
um H is equal to S Plus C plus b so H stands for happiness is equal to S set
00:55:11
point in the brain the set point in the brain is when you look at the situation do you
00:55:18
see an adversity or an opportunity how is the set point determined by your
00:55:26
childhood if your parents were complaining condemning criticizing playing the victim you will see every
00:55:32
problem every situation has an adversity condemn complain criticize and play the
00:55:38
victim on the other hand your parents or your caretakers or your ecosystem or
00:55:44
relationship when you were growing up first three four years of life they were looking at opportunities there were
00:55:51
always you know engaging in compassionate empathetic conversation
00:55:56
and joy and laughter and celebration then you'll have a set point for
00:56:01
happiness this set point determines 50 of our daily happiness experience can
00:56:07
this head point be changed yes by self-awareness by reflective inquiry by
00:56:13
mindfulness by actually knowing that you have a problem most people don't even know they have a problem so that's 50
00:56:19
percent so s plus C conditions of living
00:56:26
primarily material conditions of living money so if you have if you're extremely poor
00:56:33
you will suffer if you're extremely rich that doesn't guarantee that you'll be
00:56:39
happy in fact what a lot of rich people do is they confuse their self-worth with their
00:56:45
net worth so I I wrote a book before this called abundance that was inspired by Bob
00:56:50
Marley one of his lyrics where he said some people are so poor all they have is
00:56:55
money so happiness when it pertains to money is 10 of your daily experience
00:57:02
if you win the lottery you'll be ecstatic in the beginning in six months
00:57:08
you'll plateau in one year you'll be back to your set point so even if you win the lottery in five
00:57:14
years you might be worse off because now you're worrying about taxes you want to put your money in the wherever you know
00:57:21
in the Bahamas or something and you're it's become your identity money if
00:57:27
you're you know all billionaires money is their identity they confuse self-worth with uh net worth
00:57:34
so that's ten percent now we have 40 remaining that's the
00:57:39
choices we make every day there are two kinds of choices we make every day once for personal pleasure
00:57:45
sex alcohol entertainment movies shopping shopping is the number
00:57:51
one choice for pleasure by the way in the world that's why we call people consumers a very ugly word to describe a
00:58:00
stardust being with self-awareness but does pleasure bring you happiness it
00:58:06
does but it's transient you know if you're and you have the danger of being addicted to pleasure if you have an
00:58:13
addictive personality as I did okay so uh
00:58:18
pleasure brings happiness transiently there's another choice you can make that
00:58:25
actually is called fulfillment when you have meaning purpose in your life and if
00:58:30
you know how to make other people happy by giving them attention which means listening appreciation noticing their
00:58:38
uniqueness affection letting them know you care and acceptance radical
00:58:43
acceptance you can't change another person so you feel better which is what we're trying to do all the time changing
00:58:49
other people so we feel better impossible you can't change yourself even if you try so acceptance
00:58:58
what would you what would you say to that guy what should I have said to him in terms of advice
00:59:03
because he did really actually have told him let's take a day off and let's go
00:59:09
fishing or let's go into you know have a picnic or let's go to see a comedy
00:59:15
let's go see it just stick discontinue and
00:59:21
try this a little moment of being not doing not thinking not
00:59:30
feeling not speaking I take a week of Silence every year now I'm taking even
00:59:36
longer so sometimes I'm thinking you know a month in silence but you know I'm
00:59:42
76 so that's my different stages of life too in the hope that that might help him
00:59:48
realize that he's playing the wrong game or he's thinking about the wrong in the hope that you know one thing you can do
00:59:54
to alleviate anybody's suffering to some extent is fully accept them and listen
00:59:59
to them don't give them advice you know people feel better if you just listen to
01:00:05
them and there's Neuroscience that their amygdala cools down if you just listen
01:00:11
with deep empathy which means you feel what another person feels there's some
01:00:17
biology around this you know when you feel what another person feels and you deeply listen there's a phenomenon
01:00:24
called limbic resonance your emotional brain resonates with their brain and then if you deeply listen to them and
01:00:31
you let them know you care for them there's another thing that happens it's called limbic regulation and then the
01:00:38
third step is limbic revision the neural networks rebuyer so acceptance affection
01:00:46
appreciation and attention that's what you do
01:00:52
don't give them advice people go to therapists to get advice therapists don't do that they listen
01:00:59
good therapists listen interesting and in the old traditions
01:01:05
you know that's why people went to confession they basically you know revealed their
01:01:10
so-called sins to the priest and they felt better one of the things I've read about um
01:01:16
I've heard you talk about is this the role that affirmations and positive self-talking um those kinds of things can have on our
01:01:26
healing to some extent anything mental is weak this is what I've wondered
01:01:32
because a lot of like you know books and like Instagram will say look in the mirror and say nice things yourself or
01:01:38
yeah it doesn't work it's mental mind is weak you have to go deeper
01:01:43
it's you know to say if you're trying to force yourself to be positive that's
01:01:50
exasperating that's very stressful but instead of forcing yourself to be
01:01:55
positive observe your thoughts you know observe both negative and positive thoughts and you see that all
01:02:00
experiences by contrast you can't have a one without the other you know it's like a pendulum can't swing only in One
01:02:07
Direction it has to swing in two directions hot doesn't is meaningless without cold
01:02:14
pleasure is meaningless without pain Joy is meaningless without suffering birth
01:02:20
and death are actually not even opposites
01:02:27
birth and death are opposites life is the Continuum of birth and death
01:02:33
you can't have one without the other in biology there's something called apoptosis program cellular death when
01:02:40
the cell forgets to die it becomes cancer that's what it is a cancer cell doesn't
01:02:47
die when it's supposed to normally our cells are dying constantly so you can be
01:02:53
born again that's the literal meaning of Born Again
01:02:59
what you think of them what do you think success is then if we're stepping away from
01:03:04
this identity which can cause so much suffering what is for me success is the
01:03:09
progressive realization of worthy goals number one and where they got that's a subjective measure so for me that's it
01:03:16
could be taking care of my dog yes taking care of your dog but if money
01:03:23
is your goal for the sake of making money then you'll never be happy but if
01:03:30
money is your goal so you can actually make a difference in people's lives including your own and your family but
01:03:37
also community in large that that's a really good
01:03:42
so it's number one Progressive realization of worthy goals number two the ability to love and have compassion
01:03:49
and number three actually which is for me the most important to always go back to your Creative
01:03:56
Source once you have this ability to go back to your Creative
01:04:03
Source you will be successful no matter what
01:04:09
don't be Bamboozled by the hypnosis of social conditioning don't be in a rush
01:04:14
to conform you know there's studies that if Gallup I'm on The Advisory Board of Gallup if you have a house that's fifty
01:04:22
thousand dollars and you're offered a house that's five hundred thousand dollars but your
01:04:27
neighbors have million dollar homes you won't move you're always comparing yourself to the
01:04:33
other person this is how we are socially programmed
01:04:38
rush to conform comparison with others
01:04:43
and you know if your child doesn't conform then he's not a good student
01:04:49
and I used to um but my son was growing up he always was reading comic books and
01:04:56
you know engaging in games and sports in my was very important mathematics and my
01:05:02
wife would constantly complain that he's not good at school I said wait a minute we'll he'll
01:05:09
he'll do what he's enjoying let him do what he's enjoying he ended up creating
01:05:16
a sports company a comic book company and now he has a very successful business called the religion of sport
01:05:23
with Tom Brady won five Emmys wasn't a good student so I said don't
01:05:30
focus on your weaknesses focus on your strengths and if you have a child who
01:05:35
loves to play tennis it's poor at math get him a tennis coach and one day he
01:05:41
might get a mathematician to be his accountant you when you look forward at the
01:05:47
direction of travel that we're on as a civilization what advice do we need now
01:05:56
the most don't get stuck in melodrama
01:06:02
this whole world is full of drama drama everything is that sells his drama news
01:06:08
is not news anymore it's opinion and drama and all the violence in the world is
01:06:14
drama and you know you read about drama shooting killing incest well crazy stuff
01:06:21
and we're addicted to trauma actually and then we complain about it
01:06:28
addicted to trauma or drama yeah but
01:06:33
and what's the cost of being addicted to trauma and drama suffering because
01:06:39
because you sacrifice yourself for the drama or being a conformist does this
01:06:47
mean we have we should like you know I'm thinking about really my relationship with technology and social media and news feeds and stuff well technology is
01:06:54
neutral you know and it's inescapable it's past part of a revolution if you
01:06:59
don't adapt to technology you'll become extinct well so it's part of our Evolution how do we use technology you
01:07:07
know in my field AI machine learning
01:07:12
Precision diagnosis and even intervention I believe Technologies so it's a great
01:07:19
gift but again technology can destroy the world too
01:07:24
this is what it means to be human be humans are very interesting species are
01:07:30
Fall From Grace is exactly what you know mythical Traditions tell us the
01:07:36
knowledge of Good and Evil we ate the fruit it's hard to go through life these days
01:07:42
and not be tempted by drama it's even someone who you know it's a process it's a process what is that
01:07:50
process growth you know people
01:07:56
some people do grow some people do evolve and I think
01:08:02
ultimately that is the purpose of our existence is to keep evolving
01:08:07
do you ever get tempted by drama or distracted not anymore I used to
01:08:12
I used to I used to engage in debates it was like you know big high for me to win a debate
01:08:21
how long ago well I started in school and I left debating only recently I was
01:08:28
just five years ago I was debating Richard Dawkins in in Mexico
01:08:34
and I felt foolish after that you know so you made the decision not to
01:08:39
debate anymore not to engage in debate anymore no because
01:08:45
nobody changes the Mind The Debaters don't change their mind the audience
01:08:50
doesn't change their mind they in fact they get reinforced by the opinions they
01:08:56
came with so if we do want to try and change people's mind
01:09:02
because see the change if you want peace in your life be peaceful if you want
01:09:07
love in your life Give Love whatever you want engage in that
01:09:14
I think that's the only thing you can't uh you have to be the change that you want
01:09:20
to see in others and then people respond not what do I just say not by what you
01:09:26
do but just by your presence you've written 93 books as I said
01:09:33
earlier I think this is your 93rd I've been told this book about living in the light new book yoga for self-realization
01:09:42
I guess my question you know I I can't comprehend the concept of writing so many books I've like I wrote my first
01:09:48
one and then I'm currently writing my second one and I've been it's just consuming all of my time and I'm I went
01:09:54
off to Bali if I spent a month there writing it in I'm sure you enjoyed that I love it I always get there to write
01:10:00
um it's amazing but my question to you you know I think this book is fantastic and I think that we'll talk a little bit about you're gonna SEC but
01:10:06
your 94th book it's coming this year it's called Quantum body with the
01:10:11
quantum physicists so I feel kind of uh good about that because I've been
01:10:18
talking about that for now since 1988 that's 12 plus 23 that's over 30 years
01:10:26
I've been vilified attacked everything about that and I realized that people
01:10:33
are territorial you know the physicists say who the heck is he talking about quantum physics
01:10:38
the biologists say he's not trained in biology he's a physician who the heck is he talking about biology
01:10:45
and yet my experience tells me that your body is non-local it follows
01:10:53
the principles of quantum mechanics and now found some some supporters who know the math
01:11:00
and you know even the body can be understood mathematically now I don't know if
01:11:06
you're familiar with this theorem called girdle's theorem which says it's very
01:11:13
famous theorem and you know girdle was a German mathematician who was Einstein's
01:11:18
favorite colleague when they they're both immigrants to America at Princeton
01:11:23
but he came up with the theorem which says there are theorems in math
01:11:29
that are true but you can't prove them and their disruptions their
01:11:35
their basically mathematics is platonic truth describes everything in the universe
01:11:41
and yet there are theorems that don't follow algorithms when a mathematician thinks
01:11:47
of them he said where did this come from they don't know they can't even prove it
01:11:54
but it seems intuitively true and if they follow the theorem it leads to new
01:11:59
creativity so I think creativity is inherent in the
01:12:06
universe where aspects of that creativity and with self-awareness we have sourced to that creativity but that
01:12:13
creativity will never happen if you don't take time
01:12:18
to actually incubate
01:12:24
in discontinuity in my life I figured it out nine steps intended outcome number
01:12:31
one information gathering number two information analysis number three
01:12:38
incubation taking time off go to Bali play golf if you're a republican that's
01:12:44
mystery school for Republicans or whatever so incubation and that is a
01:12:50
time you settle with uncertainty and then there's that Eureka experience Insight so incubation leads to Insight
01:12:58
which is a disruption it's something totally new new context new relationship
01:13:03
new story and then if the Insight is accurate then you're inspired not motivated motivation
01:13:10
is mental inspiration as the word says in spirit then you implement it then you integrate
01:13:17
it and then you are a death and a resurrection these are my nine steps to creativity I just made them up some
01:13:24
information for intended analysis information gathering information analysis incubation Insight inspiration
01:13:32
implementation integration incarnation I use that for writing my books I can
01:13:39
tell yeah and if you so if you were to write one last book if I said Deepak you could write one more book that's it you
01:13:46
can only write one it's going to be your last ever book which subject matter would you think was the most important subject matter to
01:13:52
write that last book about and what would be the Top Line message of that book
01:14:00
I hate to use this word it's misinterpreted but the title would be
01:14:05
enlightenment explain what do you mean like why would why
01:14:12
enlightenment what would the book be about the only solution ultimately
01:14:18
to know truth with the capital T you're not your body you're not your mind
01:14:24
you're not your emotions they're all um like clouds passing through the sky
01:14:32
you know when when I read some of the great luminaries
01:14:37
which can shine our life is a dream we are asleep but once in a while we wake up enough to
01:14:44
know that we were sleeping Buddha when he died he said this
01:14:50
lifetime of us as transient as Autumn clouds to watch the birth and death of beings is like looking at the movements
01:14:57
of a dance a lifetime is like a flash of lightning in the sky rushing by like a
01:15:05
torrent down a steep Mountain as I look back now my life 76 years it's a dream
01:15:12
but it's been a good dream with a few nightmares here and there but it's been
01:15:17
a dream and I feel the only solution is to wake up now you
01:15:24
know when the Buddha was dying people asked him who are you are you a messiah are you God your messenger he said none
01:15:31
of the above he said who are you he said I'm awake finally I think that's our
01:15:36
ultimate Destiny to wake up what do we need to do to wake up
01:15:42
we need to question our everyday reality and human constructs they're useful
01:15:48
money is a useful construct latitude longitude are useful constructs but
01:15:54
there's still constructs they're not reality what is the source of these constructs when you get to the source
01:16:01
you realize that your capacity for creativity is infinite your capacity for love is
01:16:07
infinite your capacity for compassion is infinite your capacity for healing is infinite and ultimately you are infinite
01:16:17
having a dream right now if I made you prime minister or president of the world you know if there was one significant
01:16:24
change you could make to lead us more towards that better future of Enlightenment I would say an education
01:16:30
that does not sacrifice self-awareness we
01:16:35
have information overload right now I don't need information overload I can
01:16:40
Google it or now go to chat GPT or something like that what I need to know
01:16:46
is who am I how do you feel about chat GTP chat it's good I think it's very good and I
01:16:53
think it's unavoidable also I actually went to a demonstration recently by
01:16:59
Microsoft on something that's coming soon it's called Prometheus it's Way
01:17:04
Beyond chat GPT it'll put most of us Physicians out of
01:17:12
business here because it makes the best diagnosis gives the best information what happens
01:17:18
then in terms of your purpose and your meaning well we have more time for
01:17:23
creativity fundamental creativity to create joy in the world I think the essential messages
01:17:32
if you're not joyful you wasted your life
01:17:38
I you know I see entrepreneurs all the time young guys coming up to me with amazing ideas but they're talking about
01:17:45
exit strategy before they've started the business it's like you know dividing the loot
01:17:53
before there's a train to Rob but they're already talking and we're living in a hustle culture you know I
01:17:59
have five exits you keep exiting exiting exiting and you're still hustling
01:18:05
and you're dying and that's the Final Exit you're still a hustler so I say make Joy
01:18:13
and self-understanding self-awareness the fundamental purpose of existence and
01:18:19
everything else will follow where's your joy what is that where do you drive it from
01:18:25
the fact that I exist and I'm aware of existence that's a Perpetual surprise to
01:18:32
me I was looking at emotions and what's the healthiest emotion you can have it's not love it's not compassion
01:18:40
it's not even Joy it's all
01:18:46
it's Wonder why do we exist
01:18:51
and why do we have the awareness that we exist if
01:18:57
you're perpetually surprised and full of wonder and joy
01:19:04
you return to innocence and what we've lost to this world today is the loss of Innocence
01:19:11
how do I get my innocence back are you married I'm in love okay if well when you have a
01:19:18
child you'll see it you'll see it you know a child is
01:19:24
spontaneous is in the moment is joyful unless it's
01:19:29
way too hungry but that's a different situation but it's joyful it is looking
01:19:35
I was the other day I was in a in a train you know from
01:19:41
Orlando Airport to baggage claim everybody was stressed in the train
01:19:46
bearing masks Panic to mother on the phone and full of anxiety and she had a
01:19:53
little baby in the crib and this baby was looking around in total amazement
01:19:58
finally it caught my eyes and it gave the most amazing smile and
01:20:05
the whole the whole room lighted up just looking at that innocence
01:20:12
we have lost our innocence and we we take it away from our children
01:20:19
so you know when children love laughter they love stories
01:20:24
they love surprises you know they love to play peek-a-boo when's the last time you were surprised
01:20:36
I can't recall being surprised so when I feel when I
01:20:42
feel I want some Joy I just look at children playing is there a way to bring that Joy back into our lives as a
01:20:49
practice that innocence yes play um play
01:20:54
not drama as adults play is seen as a waste of time no please is when you find
01:21:00
creativity and joy I'm not talking about drama I'm talking about play
01:21:06
for the sake of play now even Sports has become competitive
01:21:12
but when you played because you were playing when a musician is playing
01:21:19
they're not thinking of the end when you're singing a song you're not thinking of the ending of the song
01:21:26
you're in the song when you become the song when you become
01:21:31
that which you're playing when the music and the musician become one when the nor and the known become
01:21:38
one when the Observer and the Observer come on when the lover and the Beloved
01:21:43
become one that's Transcendence that's Joy let's play
01:21:51
living in the light yoga for self-realization this is your fourth phase of life and you're into your
01:21:57
self-realization phase do you know the book The Body holds the score there's a lot of similarities between
01:22:03
obviously your philosophy and that yes that that book about how and I was Rick because you know I've I start I think
01:22:09
everything as a skeptic so breath work and a lot of spiritual things I start as an ultimate skeptic I need science I
01:22:16
need evidence I need proof and as I read through that book and watched some videos of that one of the things that
01:22:21
it's proven is phenomenal for your mental well-being is things like acting yoga they talk about psychedelics and
01:22:28
things like that as well but one wouldn't assume that there's a profound amount of scientific evidence that yoga
01:22:35
and acting have really positive mental health implications correct
01:22:41
why is Yoga so good for us as humans yoga means Union Union with yourself and
01:22:48
yoga has eight limbs as they're talking about in this book and ultimately all those book eight limbs are meant to
01:22:57
give you only one Insight you and the universe are made of awareness you're not made of
01:23:04
energy you're not made of matter you're not made of information you're
01:23:11
made of awareness awareness is non-local fundamental not subject to birth and
01:23:17
death infinite and formless so befriend your non-local formless self
01:23:26
you know again I go back to poetry acting is great poetry is even better
01:23:32
rabindranath tagore one of my favorite poets said in this Playhouse of infinite
01:23:37
forms I got sight of the formless and so my
01:23:43
life was blessed befriend the formless and then the forms will be seen as
01:23:51
expressions of the formless without the form list there is no form
01:23:58
is the morphing of the formless into space-time and causality this theater of
01:24:05
space time and causality where we are playing as avatars
01:24:11
that is something for me to think about tonight um
01:24:18
it's become abundantly clear to me over the last I don't know um over the last couple of years in
01:24:23
particular as um more people know who I am because of this podcast and I do teach them to stuff on TV that you can cause yourself
01:24:29
such a tremendous amount of suffering by getting more and more attached to your avatar and like your avatar becoming more of a defined thing and I think I've
01:24:36
spent a lot of my definitely the last two and a half years trying to resist as much as I can this temptation of
01:24:42
becoming my avatar and doing that on a practical level I thought you know well resist labels Steve so don't be anything
01:24:49
don't like in terms of your bio you know your your professional bio don't be
01:24:55
those things just you're 32 right 30 30. wow but that's pretty young to have that
01:25:03
awareness yeah because I could see how I could cause myself a ton of suffering and build a life which wasn't really Who I Am by being a social media CEO for
01:25:11
example success at an early age yeah you confuse your celebrity with yourself
01:25:17
yeah outside of me just like saying to myself okay I'm gonna write books and I'm gonna
01:25:23
do this theater and we do this music show and I DJ Now and I do all these other bits and pieces I was in psychedelics for a while with um a Thai
01:25:30
Life Sciences as a creative director and an investor and outside of me doing just doing lots of stuff which is I thought
01:25:35
was the antidote to not to resisting my label you're telling me that the real antidote
01:25:40
to resisting my label is like a higher sense of Enlightenment right I would suggest a book for you yeah at your
01:25:46
stage you're trying to be useful it's called the wisdom of insecurity interesting by Alan Watts the more you
01:25:54
embraced in security and unpredictability the more access you'll have to the unknown
01:26:01
and the unknown is the source of all creativity the known as the prison of the past
01:26:08
we have a closing tradition on this it's funny
01:26:15
we have a closing tradition on this podcast where the last guest asks a question for the next guest
01:26:22
because what the question is I'll show you you're the first person to ever see that question can you see it
01:26:30
what is my biggest insecurity
01:26:36
I'm reminded of a cartoon I saw
01:26:43
of a grave site and there was a sign on the grave site and said
01:26:50
to whoever was standing by the gravesite where you are I was
01:26:57
where I am you will be so embrace
01:27:04
the idea of death and if you do it you'll see it's death
01:27:10
that makes life possible because death is creativity have you
01:27:18
struggled with the idea of death all my life since six years and that reared its head to some degree
01:27:24
when your parents passed yes and now I'm a stage where I'm embracing it totally how did that impact you
01:27:32
losing your parents as someone that's been sensitive and insecure about it I would
01:27:37
say grief sadness longing
01:27:44
but our longing can be the way too how long ago was that that you lost your
01:27:49
parents oh my parents only in the last 20 years
01:27:55
but grandfather with whom I lived in the first few years of my life
01:28:01
he was like a parent my grandparents were my parents because my my parents were in England at that time and I was
01:28:09
I and my brother were left with our grandparents who brought us up and that by the way was a big that fear
01:28:17
of Abandonment also is a driver the fear of Abandonment is a driver and
01:28:24
there is no cure for that other than don't think about yourself all the time
01:28:30
anytime you by the way you are suffering ask yourself who am I thinking about if you're thinking about your avatar
01:28:41
it's very true Deepak thank you so much thank you for having me this was one of the best conversations I've had oh thank
01:28:47
you so much that's a huge honor you you really are um you've been a someone that I followed from from afar but have had
01:28:52
tremendous admiration for and everyone that I've encountered that's encountered you well has been so you know we have
01:28:58
mutual friends with yeah we're sort of in business together in many respects through the healing actually they're
01:29:03
lovely people yeah um and it's been an honor that you would come here and spend some time with me today and it's been my
01:29:09
privilege thank you thank you so much Deepak thank you as you might know the show's now
01:29:15
sponsored by Airbnb absolutely love Airbnb always have always been a you know saved my life on so many occasions
01:29:21
and my team when we first got in touch with Airbnb were talking about how most people don't realize that their place
01:29:26
where they currently live could become an Airbnb and I guess the second question there is how much could your
01:29:32
place be worth and it turns out you could be sitting on an Airbnb gold mine without even knowing it some people
01:29:38
Airbnb their entire homes when they're away that's what I did in New York whenever I left New York my place was on
01:29:43
Airbnb and people rented it out sometimes for a day sometimes for two days sometimes for a week and it's a great way to cover some of the bills
01:29:49
while you're away so whether you're looking to go on holiday or you just want some extra cash for bills or you want to buy something nice for a
01:29:55
valentine that you love whatever it might be head over to airbnb.com UK host
01:30:00
and you can find out how much your current property where you live can earn while you're not there I suspect it
01:30:07
might blow your mind because it certainly blew mine [Music]
01:30:13
oh [Music]
01:30:31
foreign
