M.J. Rose

Welcome back to the Reincarnationist Blog’s series of interviews. Today’s subject is Deepak Chopra. This particular Q&A was previously published on our blog back in ’07, so the questions are slightly different that what we’ve been publishing this past month. Enjoy! (…and stay tuned for the next several months for many, many more Q&As with authors and others whose perspectives you may find very interesting!)

THE QUESTIONS:

Title of your latest book as of Sept 1, 2007 –

Buddha: A Story of Enlightenment, HarperOne, May 2007

Do you believe that reincarnation is possible?

I think consciousness outlives the death of the physical body through which it expresses itself. Also, the universe is constantly recycling itself while evolving to higher levels of creativity. Because we are a part of the universe, we too recycle ourselves and continue to evolve to higher levels of creativity. As a result, there is no such thing as a person. What we call a person is a constantly evolving confluence of memories, desires, imagination, relationships, meanings, contexts, and archetypal stories.

What books on the subject have made an impression on you or do you recommend people who are interested in the subject read?

Life Before Life by Dr. Jim B. Tucker

Life After Death: The Burden of Proof

What is your most marked characteristic that you believe could be a hold over from a past life?

As I mentioned, I do not think of myself as a person. We are wisps of memory, and threads of desire latching on to chunks of consciousness and participating in a cosmic dance. The only solution to all of life’s conundrums is enlightenment – to move to a domain of awareness beyond the personal self to the universal self. Any holdovers that I have from the past are part of my collective karmic inheritance. These include attachment to outcome and need for approval.

What is your principle defect that you believe might be inherited from a previous incarnation?

As I mentioned, I do not think of myself as a person so I am unable to answer the question.

Which of your favorite heroes do you think you actually could have been and why?

I believe that we all have relationships with archetypes but since we do not have a separate self, our heroes are archetypal energies that we karmically resonate with. My heroes include Jesus, Buddha, Mahatma Gandhi, Martin Luther King, Mother Teresa, Krishna, amongst others. But I do not believe I was one of them because as I have shared before, there is no such thing as a separate self.

What three people from history would you like to have over to dinner for a discussion about reincarnation?

Jesus Christ, Buddha, Hitler not to discuss reincarnation but to understand what made them who they are.

What do you think happens when we die?

We upgrade or downgrade the illusion that we call reality as a result of the state of consciousness we are in.

When you come back next time, who would you like to be?

Don’t plan to return.

We would love to hear your responses to these questions. Please feel free to copy and paste the Questionnaire with your answers into a Comment for this post.

Reincarnation in the news

And some more

There is a recent study that suggests playing a bit of Mozart seems to help premature babies get a little bit stronger – here is an article that discusses it:

Mozart Effect Helps Premature Babies Get Stronger

Clara Moskowitz
LiveScience Staff Writer

Playing Mozart music to premature babies seems to help them gain weight faster and become stronger, new research found.

Once a day for two consecutive days, doctors played either 30 minutes of music by the 18th-century composer Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, or no music, to 20 pre-term babies at the Tel Aviv Medical Center in Israel. After listening to the music, the babies were calmer and so expended less energy than the no-music group. When babies’ energy expenditure is decreased, they don’t need as many calories to grow, so can gain weight and thrive more quickly – exactly what preemies need.

“It’s not exactly clear how the music is affecting them, but it makes them calmer and less likely to be agitated,” said researcher Dror Mandel, a lecturer at Tel Aviv University.

Though the sample size was small, the scientists said their findings were statistically significant.

Previous research has shown that music can reduce stress, decrease heart rate, and increase oxygen saturation in preterm infants. Oxygen saturation is a measure of the amount of oxygen carried in the blood relative to the maximum amount the blood could carry. When this number gets low it can be a sign of heart or lung problems…

For the complete article, click here.

(This research reminds me of Mr. Emoto’s work with water. Click here to start a very interesting trip down this particular rabbit hole…)