Durham, NC. An interesting chain of events led me to meet Deepak Chopra eventually.
Around 1993, as a sophomore in Duke University, I founded a mind-body medicine studies group. This founding was publicized by a reporter from the Chronicle, the Duke University campus newspaper. At the time I was a pre-medicine student, and took intensive demanding classes involving hard sciences: physics, chemistry, biology, organic chemistry...although I wanted to become a physician, I found something lacking in the soul of my education. This inspired my reaching out for alternatives, as I found no organized group providing integrative medical approaches that complement the hard sciences.
To get started, I made some inquiries starting during my first year of college about who was most actively involved in these activities--apparently there was a Mind-Body Medicine Studies Group at Duke University Medical Center; I was directed to contact Larry Burk, M.D., a Radiologist at Duke University Medical Center. His secretary Mirjana Cudic first answered. I indicated my interest in integrative medicine, and she told me I came to the right place.
We hit it off immediately. I introduced myself by telling him that I began my "field research" in alternative and complementary medicine by writing to all the integrative health centers in the back of the book "SuperLearning" and "SuperMemory: The Revolution" a revolutionary book by Ostrander and Schroeder about how to accelerate learning and retention by over 30% simply by listening to baroque music in a light alpha-state, breathing rhythmically. They listed fascinating resources in the back of the book. This was a revolutionary book for me that I read in high school because it indicated the vast underutilized potential of the mind, perhaps accessed by only a few.
So I wrote to all the resources in the back of the book, and heard about the Monroe Institute, which I eventually landed the first intern position ever offered.
Larry was impressed by my unusual initiative, and after a few discussions, agreed to serve as my faculty sponsor for this study group. I also enlisted the help of a colleague to co-found the organization with me, Ali Zomorodi, now a full fledged neurosurgeon at Duke.
On a monthly basis I began inviting community practitioners from the local community. For example, Carol Sanks, RN, an integrative nurse and bodyworker, who discussed an integrative model of the human by overlaying transparencies, one over the other; Jon Seskevich, nurse clinician at DUMC, who taught simple energy work and therapeutic touch; Jim Spira, tai chi; Mark Eisen, M.D., to discuss anthroposophical medicine; Larry Burk to discuss peak performance through anodyne imagery, a special visualization protocol to minimize chronic pain and enable peak performance, and Jon DiJianne (sp?) offering an acupuncture demonstration.
The study group took a peak when I participated in the promotion of Deepak Chopra came to speak at a large auditorium on West Campus. I landed several free tickets, and invited Ali Zomorodi, Ally McCoy, and Leila, and my girlfriend at the time, Emilie Slechta to attend.
From the vantage point of the upper balcony, I watched and listen as the internationally renowned Ayurvedic physician Dr. Chopra spelled out the concepts of integrative medicine, and the quantum physics behind the concept of "ageless body, timeless mind" which is also the topic of his latest book.
In one of the most influential (and prophetically accurate) intuitive reading of my life, Tomiko Smith, elaborated in a reading Chopra's concepts: although our cells atoms and subatomic particles are comprised mostly of empty space, this so-called empty space is teeming, vibrant with energy particles. This energy responds to our consciousness, in fact, it IS our consciousness. Through an awareness of our ageless nature, we regain a quantum awareness of our timelessness, as the concept of time as a human construct.
Hearing Chopra's concepts rang true to me; the vast, incredible success he experienced sharing his integrative medical concepts, bringing the ancient wisdom of Ayurvedic medicine from the East to the West indicated to me how hungry the public was for this type of knowledge. Instead of becoming a neurosurgeon, I decided that I wanted to become a doctor but not not in the conventional sense of a diagnostician who is attempting to label and identify disease, but rather as a creative practitioner who looks deeply to the root cause of an ailment, and doing so systemically, not simply looking at the physical body.
Following the speech I attended Chopra's book signing, and introduced myself. I shared with him how inspired I felt by his words, that it was a privilege for my group to promote his appearance. He autographed his book Ageless Body Timeless Mind, which I displayed proudly on my bookshelf of autographed books.
Chopra serves an excellent role model for what it takes to pioneer a field and the enormous success that can come to someone who is a leader in a new field.
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