80 thoughts on “Give it a rest, Deepity”

  1. When where you ever intellectually challenged by Chopra?

    “Superstition of materialism”? I’m intellectually challenged by this phrase. I do not understand what it means. I haven’t been this confused in a while.

      1. I would define materialism as, among other things, a lack of superstition. So he seems to be saying that the lack of superstition is a superstition.

    2. Hmm… I though it was clear; that he regards materialism (naturalism) as a superstition, in the sense of a primitive, naïve belief.

      Only deep thinkers have the chops to understand that the world is fundamentally spiritual … there is a cosmic mind under matter …

      He’s so, so sophisticated; never interested in what Jerry would say.

      /@

    3. Here is a video of Deepak attemoting (from 2009) to explain what “superstition of materialism” means.

      I think I understand what he is trying to say. Sound, sight, touch and smell are translated in the brain by an “unknown mechanism” in our consciousness, which is somehow outside of space and time (he just asserts this, he may have explained it elsewhere), then “projected” back into space and time for us to perceive as sound, sight, touch and smell. Throw in some quotations from actual scientists to be repurposed, arguments from ignorance, some genuine ignorance and you have this video. It has some perverse logic that I think I was able to follow, but of course he has shown none of his assertions about consciousness to be true or reasonable.

      1. It’s Sastra’s supernatural Capital-M-Mind. Pick almost any post of hers that includes the word, “mind,” at random for a thorough take-down and shredding of it from the perspective of an escapee of that particular asylum. See Sean Carroll for why the physics doesn’t work as Deep Joker would have one believe, and see Church-Turing for why there’s not even any need of that hypothesis in the first place.

        b&

    4. The phrase “superstition of materialism” translates into “I know you are but what am I?” It’s like someone saying they don’t have enough “faith” to be an atheist. They’re just trying to hijack our not unreasonable accusations and turn them back on us.

      There are several definitions of “woo,” but it usually denotes supernatural beliefs which are not specifically attached to a religion. ESP is woo; prayer is religion. Energy healing is woo; faith healing is religion. Quantum Consciousness forming and molding the universe is woo; God is religion.

      It’s all basically the same crap. People who are ‘into’ woo like to flatter themselves that they’re in the moderate middle between the equally ridiculous extremes of authoritarian fundamentalism and materialistic atheism.

  2. Dear Mr, Deepak…

    Shouldn’t that be ‘challenged intellectually’?

    Two different meanings my dear Crown Prince of Quantum Woo.

    1. And there also seems to be a strange word construction in the his phrase ‘…response is to “Woo!”‘. For us old farts, to woo would be used in a context such as “pitching the woo” i.e. to try to induce a bit of romance. Generally, pitching the woo doesn’t involve spreading the woo 🙂

        1. ‘Spreading Santorum’? What a band they were!

          In my opinion, they were one of the very best of the mid to late 1970s pseudo-garage-acid-afrobeat-latin-funk-metal-psychedelic-ambient-roots-folk-neoclassical bands of the south-west Manchester area.

  4. I thought the whole concept behind, “Woo” was that you DIDN’T have to use your intellect to comprehend it.

    There’s “WOO”; and then, there’s “QUANTUM WOO”!

    Yeah, ol’ Deepockets is really an advanced, spiritual person- what a child! He is giving you lots of free publicity, though!

  5. I think you should write a Chopra style self-help book called The Woo Method. In it, you advocate education! You just have to mask the message with some 1,2,3 procedures and a few gimmicks.
    University could be the Woo method’s “secret”. Or perhaps the secret could be how people like Chopra use and abuse gimmicks to make themselves rich at the expense of the unsuspecting general public 🙂
    One little cat joke and I’ve been on probation for like 5 years. Is that really fair? Is there an end to it?

  6. This person is infatuated with you, I think. It is “pay attention to meeeeeee”; he can’t stand it that top scientists see him for what he is.

    1. Or it is, “love meeeee! Why won’t the scientists love meeeee?! I must have Jerry’s love!”

      1. We’re going snark hunting? Great! Just let me grab my vorpal sword…it’s around here somewhere — I think I last saw Baihu playing with it….

        b&

          1. 📦📦📦📦📦📦📦 📦📦📦📦📦📦📦 📦📦📦📦📦📦📦 📦📦📦📦📦📦📦 📦📦📦📦📦📦📦 📦📦📦📦📦📦📦

            /@

          1. Oh, good — I’ll just set Baihu after it. He’s been begging for a snicker-snack all evening — apparently, dinner wasn’t enough. Not that I can blame him; not much meat on a Jubjub bird.

            b&

  8. “superstition of materialism”; that borders on pathetic.

    I wonder if he’d like some empirical evidence of phenomena that can be tested and shown to occur through material means

    1. “superstition of materialism” resides in the capital of the pathetic territory.

    2. I wonder if he would test his hypothesis by walking in front of a bus. Just kidding! Just stick a toe in front of it. But seriously Dr Chopra, stop lying to people for profit. And don’t mess with Professor Ceiling Cat!

  9. I thought that Deepak was pawning off quantum woo as a path to spiritual peace – if so, his behavior isn’t much of an endorsement that it works.

  10. This is so embarrassing, Woomeister. Quit while you still have some dignity left.

  11. When we were kids, we would say ” woo woo” if we saw someone’s underwear ( or less). This woomeister has no clothes.

  12. Yeah, but the superstition of materialism heals an expression of joy as it nurtures unparalleled consciousness in the expansion of precious love only if it explores the doorway of quantum being.

  13. Making tea alleviates karmic belonging

    Courtesy of the Enigmatic Wisdom of Chopra, the random Deepak Chopra quote generator

  14. Why respond to him on these? Let him live in the dirt all by himself. He isn’t worth a response.

    1. Seems more like laughing at him than responding.

      I enjoy seeing it in any case because it’s kind of an interesting insight into the guy. You’d think that someone who is selling a path to peace and enlightenment of some sort would at least be able to fake equanimity in their twitter stream. It seems telling and interesting to me that apparently not.

    1. It’s obvious that Chopra wants to keep this “debate” on the level of twitter, as nothing is more persuasive or intellectually engaging as 140 character whinges. His last attempt at longer pieces were nothing but word salad tossed in snake-oil-n-vinegar; they didn’t sit so well and were promptly voided.

      This guy claims that he can cure numerous ailments via quantum healing. Accolades should be forthcoming but instead he’s chirping up a few tweets at Jerry Coyne, a biologist with a non-blog…Interesting priorities for someone with such knowledge. I pity his twitterpated flock of followers.

  17. A while back Orac at Respectful Insolence decided to do a summary of “almost any column Chopra’s written over the last couple of months.” I’d say it works over the years, though this particular translation was inspired by Chopra’s long and tedious multi-part rebuttal to Richard Dawkins’ The God Delusion, which seems to have really set him off.

    So here is Orac’s take:

    Woo woo woo woo woo Dawkins woo woo. Woo woo woo woo woo materialists don’t understand woo woo. Woo woo woo woo Materialists say evolution is random woo woo woo. Woo woo woo anthropic principle. Woo woo woo consciousness woo woo can’t be explained by DNA woo woo. Woo woo consciousness all around woo woo. Woo woo universe is conscious. Woo woo woo quantum theory woo woo. Woo woo woo evolution information theory. Woo woo. Woo woo universal consciousness intelligent design. Woo woo woo. Woo woo woo God woo woo field of consciousness woo woo pervades universe woo woo. Woo woo arrogant skeptics woo woo versus dogmatic fundamentalists woo woo. Woo woo Chopra find middle ground in woo. Woo universe experienced through consciousness woo woo consciousness is God woo woo woo.

    Continue on like this for about 1,100 words or so, and then do it six times, one for each part of Chopra’s “rebuttal” of Dawkins.

          12. Yeah — we wouldn’t want to badger our host unnecessarily. We should all gopher a walk rather than bear down further.

            b&

  19. Might bring you a lot of traffic. Here are a bunch of Deepak posts:

    http://whyevolutionistrue.wordpress.com/2010/03/23/tag-team-deepak-chopra-and-jean-houston-vs-michael-shermer-and-sam-harris/

    http://whyevolutionistrue.wordpress.com/2012/06/19/deepak-generator/

    http://whyevolutionistrue.wordpress.com/2013/11/18/the-deepak-part-i-chopra-goes-after-professor-ceiling-cat/

    http://whyevolutionistrue.wordpress.com/2013/11/18/the-deepak-part-ii-chopra-goes-after-militant-skeptics-like-dawkins-and-harris/

    http://whyevolutionistrue.wordpress.com/2013/11/21/the-deepak-shoots-but-doesnt-score/

    http://whyevolutionistrue.wordpress.com/2013/11/25/an-open-letter-to-deepak-chopra/

    http://whyevolutionistrue.wordpress.com/2013/11/27/happy-thanksgiving-from-deepak-to-the-gangbangers/

    http://whyevolutionistrue.wordpress.com/2013/11/30/skeptic-asks-deepak-how-to-distinguish-real-truth-from-that-garnered-by-other-ways-of-knowing/

    http://whyevolutionistrue.wordpress.com/2013/12/14/lol-deepak-has-more-bogus-science-for-me-to-read/

    http://whyevolutionistrue.wordpress.com/2014/03/26/deepak-chopra-still-peeved-tweets-about-a-comment-on-an-ancient-new-republic-piece/

    http://whyevolutionistrue.wordpress.com/2014/03/28/deepakity/

  20. Like the sign says, “If you can’t dazzle ’em with brilliance, baffle ’em with bullshit.”

  21. I wonder what the superstition of materialism is. Perhaps it’s the requiring of an active ingredient in our medicines, using telephones instead of telepathy to talk to another person, or weird rituals like wearing a helmet to protect one’s brain from injury. On all counts, guilty as charged!

  22. He’s got some cheek accusing you of going “woo” considering just about everything this shallow person does is “woo”.

  23. I keep hearing all of these woo woos! Yet have not seen a train…

    Funny that this quack has zeroed in on you. Perhaps it means you have reached some envious level of respect? No matter how deep this guys pockets may be, the respect he apparently desires comes only from his rubes, not professionals in their fields of choice.

  26. Chopra is a charlatan, plain and simple. And he has an incredibly devoted fan base that buys into his vacuous woo, which you can witness anytime anyone dare calls him out on his happy feely quantum garbage.

    He seems quite fond of trying to agitate skeptics and scientists. It’s because to his cult of followers, it makes him look like some persecuted trailblazing hero.

    He’s an example of the worst kind of solipsistic thinking. Everything in the universe is here for ME. My actions will change the entire universe. Me me me. It plays so well to the natural human tendency to want to think we’re literally the center of the universe. He tells people what they want to hear, using fancy verbiage, and has spiritually enlightened his way to the bank.

  27. “Superstition of materialism?”

    So when Mr. Word Salad eats (too bad he does not eat his own words) or has sex or wipes his arse, he is being superstitious? Oh what do to with that flesh that insists on following his pure consciousness! 🙂

Comments are closed.