Deepak Chopra

Or, as I prefer to refer to Public Broadcasting's favorite fundraiser, Choptank Sixpack. To be fair, and that is after all my mission, let's make that "favorite fundraiser other than the IRS." Chop-Chop is always in heavy rotation with the superannuated Peter, Paul, and Mary the Large, the toothy waltz-schmaltz guy from Vienna whose swaying, sing-along audience makes me wish I had a hammer, and one or another assemblage of ethereal, willowy Celti-Culti Enya knock-offs.

The Chopster has been described as a firehose of nonsense. But firehoses don't rake in mega-bucks from the gullible, who seem to be the same people who besides involuntarily supporting the Bill Moyers Network with their tax dollars also get a warm feeling from spending $300 for a CD and a tote bag that by chance (!) has just enough blank space for your "Free Tibet!" sticker. To be fair once again, that tote no doubt pays for itself when you walk it through Whole Foods, exchanging winks with other Carriers of the Bag. We are the world. And if the Chinese don't shape up and un-lasso Lhasa, we may just stop buying their menopause potions and prostate herbs over on Aisle Four.

See this link for Choppy's adventures with the the Journal of the American Medical Association, in which he displayed the ethics of the barker at a carnival geek show: http://www.aaskolnick.com/naswmav.htm The bits about flying yogis are especially entertaining, as the only thing that actually flew was his $194 million libel suit when it was tossed out.

Byron

P.S. Just as an aside, I have to say that when I happened to flip by the Choperino on a PBS Beg-a-Thon a few weeks ago his face seemed all purply and rubbery and bloated; the guy just didn't look at all healthy. But maybe he just ran into a bad quantum energy field that day.

Upon discovering the deception, JAMA requested from the authors a full account of their connections to TM organizations. The confusing statement they provided was published as a financial disclosure correction on August 14 and represents only what the authors admitted. While it appears to hold the record in terms of length for a financial disclosure correction in the journal, the account is still incomplete. Among other things, Chopra did not acknowledge that he collects hundreds of thousands of dollars from his seminars on Maharishi Ayur-Veda and by providing Maharishi Ayur-Veda treatments. (According to David Perlman's October 2 San Francisco Chronicle article, Chopra claims he gives 50% to 70% of his fees to the movement.) He also did not report that he had been the sole stock holder, president, treasurer, and clerk of Maharishi Ayur-Veda Products International, Inc (MAPI), the sole distributor of Maharishi Ayur-Veda products. Although he no longer holds these titles, Chopra still has the same office address and phone number as MAPI.