[casi] Guru would join Pope in front of bombs

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Guru would join Pope in front of bombs
By Michael Lollar
lollar@gomemphis.com
February 27, 2003

Deepak Chopra, the doctor who is bringing his brand of East-meets-West philosophy to Memphis, 
proposed Wednesday that the Pope, the Dalai Lama and himself serve as human shields to avoid 
bombing in Iraq and to rid the world of Saddam Hussein.

"There are creative solutions no matter what the problem is," said Chopra, the Indian-born 
physician and spiritualist who has become one of the world's best-selling authors as a proponent of 
holistic health and healing.

Chopra, an endocrinologist, blends Western medicine with Eastern mysticism and has sold more than 
10 million books through the Chopra Center for Well Being in La Jolla, Calif. He has become like a 
Western counterpart to Tibet's Dalai Lama, and a secular humanist with the kind of influence 
wielded in the religious world by evangelist Billy Graham. A Time magazine story in December called 
Chopra "arguably the world's most influential guru."

In his upcoming Memphis appearance (7:30 p.m. April 9 at the Orpheum), Chopra said he "will be 
talking in general about the evolution of consciousness."

As part of the concept, Chopra said even the most difficult problems can be solved by moving to a 
"higher level. If you go to the same level on which the problem was created then you can't (resolve 
it)."

In Iraq, Chopra said the "situation is really out of hand in the sense that everybody has become 
very self-righteous and committed to a violent solution. The creative solution now would be to get 
the Pope, the Dalai Lama, celebrities and a few who have a voice all over the world to sit and act 
as human shields so we can avoid a lot of death and destruction. I would love to go with them.

"If we bombed Baghdad tonight and thousands of children died, most people would be unaffected. But 
if the Pope was there we wouldn't do it. Isn't that funny?"

Chopra said he would hope to be joined by heads of state and "tens of thousands of people" from 
around the world as part of a human-shield movement. Once the threat of bombing subsided, he said 
the same peace contingent could turn its attention to "a total disarming of Saddam Hussein." The 
Iraqi leader should have no further say, but be given "asylum and a safe haven," Chopra said.

The human shield movement is a growing phenomenon with Iraq welcoming volunteers and putting them 
up in a dormlike facility in a Baghdad hotel. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld has warned that 
those serving as human shields in Iraq will be treated as war criminals. As of last week, more than 
130 volunteers, including about 18 Americans, had arrived in Baghdad to act as shields - some at 
specific sites such as the Baghdad South Power Plant.

The Dalai Lama's offices in the West are in London and could not be reached last night. In Memphis, 
Msgr. Peter Buchignani, vicar general of the Catholic Diocese of Memphis and pastor of St. Francis 
of Assisi Catholic Church, said he doubts the ailing Pope would become a human shield. "I certainly 
respect the idea, and, of course, I can't speak for the Pope, but, personally, I don't see that as 
a solution." Buchignani said the Catholic Church's position now is that a unilateral declaration of 
war against Iraq is not justified and should only be a last resort.

On his Web site (http://www.chopra.com), Chopra mentions a new Global Strategic Alliance for the 
New Humanity, where international issues from saving rain forests to war can be addressed. Groups 
ranging from orphanages to environmentalists are being organized under the alliance to serve as 
what Chopra calls "peace cells. Even in the West Bank, Gaza and Israel they have peace cells. You 
and I know more about what Winona Ryder stole from that stupid shop than what these people are 
doing in the world."

In Memphis, one of Chopra's former students, philanthropist Gayle Rose, once worked as president of 
Chopra Companies. Rose said she met Chopra in 1988 while being treated for heart ar rhythmia. She 
spent a week with Chopra in Boston before he moved to California. "The first thing he said to me is 
something I will never forget. He said, 'Gayle, are you happy?' "

Focusing on Chopra's mind-body techniques, including meditation, Rose said she eventually was able 
to give up 580 milligrams a day of heart medication. Her doctors told her the heart disorder 
"disappeared as mysteriously as it came."

- Michael Lollar: 529-2793

http://gomemphis.com/mca/america_at_war/article/0,1426,MCA_945_1774389,00.html


"For we battle not against flesh and blood, but against
principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of
this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places."
                   Eph. 6:12


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