Chopra speaks at Salem State

SALEM – Salem State University drew a crowd of approximately 1,600 last night and welcomed world-renowned mind and body guru Dr. Deepak Chopra as the final speaker for the 2010 series.Chopra is a famed author, teacher, spiritual leader and co-founder of the Chopra Center for Wellbeing to help individuals seek emotional freedom through physical healing and higher states of consciousness.Born and raised in New Delhi, India, Chopra completed primary school and later graduated from the All India Institute of Medical Sciences.Without a dollar to his name, Chopra was recruited to the U.S. less than 40 years ago during the Vietnam War due to a shortage in medical doctors. After receiving his license to practice medicine in Massachusetts, Chopra specialized in endocrinology and taught at Tufts University and Boston University schools of medicine.After traveling the nation sharing his self-healing initiative, appearing on Oprah, publishing multiple best-selling books and gaining an impressive history of medical practice, Chopra began his speech with a simple question.”So how’s life?”Chopra spent many years studying the ins and outs of the human body but became fascinated with neuropeptides; tiny brain proteins that function as the molecules of your emotions. Treating your neuropeptides correctly, according to Chopra, may allow you to answer his simple question with a simple answer, “happy.””The human body behaves very unpredictably,” said Chopra. “Two patients with the same diagnoses can have completely different responses to treatment.” For Chopra, this alone led him to wonder if perhaps there was a missing element in the way patients are medically treated.Treating the body as a process rather than a structure, according to Chopra, can allow you to reinvent your body and resurrect your soul. “My suit has a longer shelf life than my body,” Chopra said. “This raises a very important dilemma.”Through the self-healing process, Chopra focuses on ancient wisdom traditions concerning your mind as a deep domain of consciousness. “Your mind is not confined to your body,” he says. “It extends beyond the edges of space.”Chopra’s goal is to guide individuals with timeless tools and healing principles that can help you restore balance, nurture your health and create greater joy and fulfillment in your life. Something that perhaps medication cannot fix. “Love awakens your soul,” he says. “If you want to get rid of suffering, than we need to re-look at ourselves and ask, ‘Who am I?'” he says. “You don’t need to know the answers but you need to ask the questions.”By taking a deeper look into your own consciousness, Chopra believes this can send you on a path that ultimately leads to freedom. “Surround yourself with happiness and happy people,” he says. “Self-inquiry is the first step.”More information about Dr. Deepak Chopra is available on his Web site for the Chopra Center for Wellbeing at www.chopra.comTo learn more about The Salem State University Series visit www.salemstate.edu.