Guru Ratings
Deepak Chopra
Bad.
Remember my ratings criteria. I’m not judging these gurus on “global” or moral values, but very specific criteria. Many of my favorite books would be rated “bad” by my criteria for self-help (probably, because they are not self-help books). My ratings don’t reflect how well an author met his own goals, but how well they met my criteria for useful, accurate self-help.
Chopra supports pseudoscience and intelligent design. He uses big words to say nothing at all. Chopra sells quantum gibberish.
Many scientists have debunked Chopra’s claims. For example, Michael Shermer and P.Z. Myers (and again).
In 1998, Chopra was awarded the Ig Nobel Prize for his laughably bad theories.
See his profile at Quackwatch.
Creating Health (1986)
Creating Health pretends to show how the mind-body connection can be used—along with meditation—to cure all ills.
Quantum Healing (1989)
Just reading the title should make you laugh. Chopra pretends that “new discoveries” in quantum mechanics give us psychic methods for healing our bodies. Basically, he says we can control quarks with our minds.
Perfect Health (1991)
Perfect Health offers yet another solution: ancient Indian medicine and mysticism.
The Seven Spiritual Laws of Success (1994)
This book transforms simple commands like “Know yourself” into unreadable spiritual nonsense.