http://www.skeptic.com/reading_room/debates/afterlife.html

... The following debate between Deepak Chopra and Michael Shermer came about after the widely read and referenced debate the two had last year on the virtues and value of skepticism. Deepak has a new book out on the subject, Life After Death: The Burden of Proof (Harmony, 2006 ISBN 0307345785), and Michael has written extensively about claims of evidence for the afterlife, so the two of them thought it would be stimulating to have a debate on the topic.

Specialty: Entertaining

* warning, this post is not all Love and Light, at least not the lovey dovey, touchy feely kind. 

  And... it is also quite off topic to the original post.  Well maybe not so much and i will explain--it does deal with skepticism, but on the other side of the fence from the original poster. 

   Curiously, said author Deepak Chopra came up before in a discussion here at AKDB before, and that conversation prompted me to look up his astro chart, which helps me to tune into people beyond purely just the astro tendency and probability stuff. 

  First off, I want to say that in general i'm skeptical of the sincerity or rather the degree of non materialism of spiritual authors like Sylvia Brown and Deepak Chopra who seem to bang out a book or two or three every year it seems,--often times books with highly dramatic, mainstream/catchy, or controversial (to the general public) titles. 

Interestingly, not that long after said above AKDB discussion about Deepak, and my spoken reservations about his spiritual authority as a spiritual teacher, leader, and outspoken proponent of all things metaphysical and spiritual..well i found out that an acquaintance/friend i know had a in physical run in with him some years ago. 

My friend was working in a prestigious library, was fairly new to the job (and still learning), and didn't know who Chopra was.   Chopra was to be doing a book signing at said library, and came in before the signing and approached my friend talk about it.  As my friend wasn't aware of either of him, or the book signing, Chopra became increasingly upset with him and displayed increasing frustration and anger towards him. 

  He started to get very bellicose, and say things like, "Don't you know who I am, I am a bestselling author on the New york times bestselling list, etc"  all in an angry, affronted tone.  He was getting incensed and demanding.  My friend was puzzled by the extreme reaction, and treated him respectfully as he would treat any other person, but it seemed that Mr. Chopra was used to and expected much more special treatment.  Eventually some higher ups came over and with due reverence mollified Chopras ego. 

  It seems that Mr. Chopra, had at least at the time, more than enough ego to go around.   

  This all came up because we watched a movie together, which started out really violent, like a mob/gangster type movie, but which towards the end had a Buddhist and New agey type message about the ego, and at the end of the movie they had various psychological and spiritual "experts" talking about the ego and the destructive and deluding nature of same and Chopra was one of the experts who talked about same.  My friend thought it was a bit ironic. 

Not to say that Mr. Chopra is the same as he was then, I'm sure like most of us he has improved some here and there, and perhaps he was just having a bad day then.  But yeah, I'm a bit skeptical of him and how many books he writes, of which so many seem to say the same things over and over again (I owned one, and have skimmed many others). 

  It's kind of like some posters here at the board, except that Chopra is expecting to and is getting paid for saying basically the same things over and over again for each book he writes and sells.   Well hell, why aren't we getting paid for it?  Shouldn't we expect it, and work towards that?  Many here would not even think of that, because they are less materialistic in nature.

  With all the above said, I do agree with and like much of what he writes that I have read, BUT it is perhaps important to note that depth of insight and perception, and actual true livingness of spirituality, don't always go hand in hand.   And it's important to keep some skepticism in relation to those in the spiritual world who constantly have something to sell you. 

  I'm not a big fan of the materialistic skeptics like Michael Shermer, but I have even less patience for those who know better (or speak like they should), and who are taking advantage of others on some level.  Unfortunately, too often the "pay" is too much of a motive to those on both sides of the fence.