Deepak Chopra – Consciousness Drives Evolution
Consciousness Drives Evolution – A Conversation with Dr. Deepak Chopra
Dr. Deepak Chopra is one of the major driving forces behind our ever-widening understanding of the nature of Consciousness. The discussion of Consciousness in the scientific community is tumultuous and with minimal consensus. Recently, it has recently become somewhat acrimonious as well, with the hypothesis advanced by Dr. Deepak Chopra that Consciousness, and not natural selection, is the true driving force of evolution. Questioning Darwinism has provoked the ire of traditional evolutionary biologists.
So who is right: Deepak or Darwin?
Christopher Buck, the Publisher of OMTimes Magazine, was fortunate to be able to connect with Dr. Deepak Chopra for a truly fascinating conversation about the evolving understanding of Consciousness in the scientific community and its implications for a new way to look at evolution.
Exclusive Interview with Dr. Deepak Chopra
Christopher Buck: Dr. Chopra, thank you for taking time to speak with us today.
Dr. Deepak Chopra: I’m delighted to be having this conversation.
Mr. Christopher Buck: You’re currently at the epicenter of a tempest in the scientific community, which started with a statement you made. And I quote, “An emerging view alternative to Darwin’s random mutations and natural selections is that consciousness may be the driver of complexity in evolution.”
You then followed this up with a statement from a recent conference in New Delhi where you said, “Charles Darwin was wrong. Consciousness is the key to evolution and we will soon prove that.” These two statements struck at the very heart of evolutionary biology and it’s started a very interesting debate among people.
Several of your critics claim that your use of the term consciousness is too vague. I’d like to start this conversation by asking you for your definition of consciousness.
Dr. Deepak Chopra: Okay, first of all you know I go to conferences on consciousness all the time and you can never get people to agree on what the definition of consciousness is. So, I’ll give you several and I’ll tell you where they come from. So, a lot of people would agree–and this includes mainstream people–mainstream scientists–and I’m using the word scientist now because science until the last decade or two has not really bothered with studying consciousness.
Christopher Buck is the co-founder of Humanity Healing in 2007, which rippled out into the 501c3 public charity, Humanity Healing International, and its subsidiary, OMTimes Media. He is the CEO of both companies. In addition, Christopher serves as the Chairman of the Board of the Saint Lazarus Relief Fund, the 501c3 public charity for the Hospitaller Order of Saint Lazarus of Jerusalem. Christopher had the honor of being Knighted in Malta in 2014.