Appearing just weeks before the world began to move into an international health emergency, Deepak Chopra’s latest book, Meta Human, may come to the spiritual rescue of many readers.

Deepak Chopra

Because of my interest in alternative medicine and the spiritual factor in healing, I had engaged with the writings of Deepak Chopra decades ago. However, he was not on my mind when he suddenly appeared in a lecture I received online. The subject was synchronicity, a meaningful coincidence. Since I had been in the mode of searching for a new topic, here was an example.

This event also related to the role of consciousness that Chopra proposes in his book. He sees it as a presence that manifests and is developed in the living through awareness. However, it also exists in the world at large. It is the source of imagination, intuition, and creativity, and it can invoke experience. In fact, it may be what we have known as God, the creator of the universe.

Chopra believes that we can draw closer to that presence by cultivating higher consciousness. Through that effort we may become “meta” humans. Meta means “beyond.” The subtitle of Chopra’s book is “Unleashing Your Infinite Potential.” By cultivating awareness and thus higher consciousness, one can unleash potential that takes us “beyond human.”

THE RELEVANCE TO CORONAVIRUS

Chopra might want to edit what I have written, but I am looking at the content of his book in light of the current coronavirus crisis. His book was published last year in October, and the World Health Organization did not declare a world health emergency until January 30. In spite of the fact that the ideas in Chopra’s book seem extremely pertinent to the moment, he could not have known that an international health crisis was pending. On the other hand, he meditates many hours every day in the pursuit of higher consciousness, so he may have sensed an urgency about publishing.

I realize that this thinking pushes the envelope of the familiar, but so does the impact of the coronavirus. And the question arises: Is it possible that human consciousness was aware at some level that we had hit the wall and needed a crisis in order to get beyond it?

THE WALL

So what is the wall that seems to threaten our survival? Climate change could be a factor but also perpetual warfare, the abuse of power through wealth and force, overpopulation, the extinction of countless species of wildlife, and the pillaging that has created an increasingly toxic environment.

Another problem lies in the limitations we have imposed on ourselves through our cultures. There are our roles assigned by sex; the requirements established here, there, and everywhere about how to “belong”; all the “thou shalts” imposed by infinite layers of authority; and on top of that, the requirements established by one’s own ego to create a reassuring sense of self-worth.

And then there is the way humans have of damning the “Other,” of enforcing separation through differences in race, education and income, religion, country of origin, ideology, and on and on. We’re much more focused on cultivating our differences than our commonalities.

In all these ways, humans may have actually created the wall we seem to have hit.  A fantasy intrudes. Perhaps an invasion of aliens would wake us up, make us more present in the moment and more observant, engaging with our fellow humans to see how we could all collaborate on survival, dismissing the differences that had once made us enemies and seeking the ways in which we might become allies.

Instead of relying on an alien invasion to wake us up, has consciousness invoked a viral invasion? In a way, it has revealed Earth as a living organism in which all of life is connected, and that realization could be transformative.

Chopra may have anticipated such an effect. He promised that a collective awakening would be wonderful: “In the end, waking up leads to absolute freedom. We don’t just lead our everyday lives. We navigate the field of infinite possibilities.”

CONCLUSION

In Meta Human, Deepak Chopra has seeded an idea that may give us comfort in the moment. It is that the larger consciousness that created the universe may have registered our despair over the human condition, and that despair has served to invoke the crisis we are now facing. It may in turn be creating an unprecedented opportunity for humanity first to awaken and then to change. Perhaps it will inspire us also to choose a rising path of evolution.

Whatever the truth of the moment, there is work we may all do to enhance the awareness that leads to higher consciousness  In fact, many of us may already have made some progress in this regard. There is a test on page 24 of the book to tell us where we are on the spectrum. And then at the end are 31 daily lessons to facilitate awakening. I plan to begin the day I post this blog.

Perhaps I’ll have something interesting to share in a month that will serve slightly to increase sales of Meta Human.