The MeidasTouch Podcast - Deepak Chopra on Navigating Uncertain Times

Episode Date: April 20, 2025

MeidasTouch host Ben Meiselas reports on Donald Trump’s voters and supporters losing it as their lives get destroyed by Trump and Meiselas then switches things up by speaking with Deepak Chopra about how we can all navigate these uncertain times. Visit https://meidasplus.com for more! Remember to subscribe to ALL the MeidasTouch Network Podcasts: MeidasTouch: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/meidastouch-podcast Legal AF: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/legal-af MissTrial: https://meidasnews.com/tag/miss-trial The PoliticsGirl Podcast: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/the-politicsgirl-podcast The Influence Continuum: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/the-influence-continuum-with-dr-steven-hassan Mea Culpa with Michael Cohen: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/mea-culpa-with-michael-cohen The Weekend Show: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/the-weekend-show Burn the Boats: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/burn-the-boats Majority 54: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/majority-54 Political Beatdown: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/political-beatdown On Democracy with FP Wellman: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/on-democracy-with-fpwellman Uncovered: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/maga-uncovered Coalition of the Sane: https://meidasnews.com/tag/coalition-of-the-sane Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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who are being sent to these camps in El Salvador. Andrew Romero, a gay makeup artist sent to El Salvador, sobbing and praying as guards shave his head. And the United States government is making videos gloating over the people suffering. And, you know, when you go back to Trump's speeches, we tried to point this out as well during the campaign, you know, when Donald Trump would continually echo the types of language that we heard from authoritarian leaders of the past. I mean, take a look at this video that we did. Here's Trump echoing what sounded like Adolf Hitler during his rally during the campaign. Play this clip. Today, especially in honor of our great veterans on Veterans Day, we pledge to you that we will root out the communists, Marxists, fascists,

and the radical left thugs that live like vermin within the confines of our country that lie and steal and cheat on elections and will do anything possible. They'll do anything, whether legally or illegally, to destroy America and to destroy the American dream. The real. Legally or illegally, when they do things legally, you're going to do. I mean, he was saying that during the campaign. I mean, now you're seeing right-wing papers like the New York Post say, Mr. Trump, save my business. Small companies plead for relief from crushing tariff costs. We see this Trump, this is from a right-wing writer, Rich Lowry, who would post things during the election like Joe Biden will never be normal

again. And on August 26, 2024, this guy wrote wrote Trump can win on character. This right wing writer goes, Trump will destroy a world economy that has us at the apex and only getting stronger. We see Trump denying FEMA aid in North Carolina from hurricane Helene. He did the same thing in Georgia. Farmers are suffering. You get it. There's, there's a lot of suffering taking place. So I want to do this differently right now because we all know the suffering taking place. I want to talk about the mindset right now, though, about moving outside of this pain and suffering and resisting in a mindful way. Let's bring in Deepak Chopra right here. Deepak, they used to be bringing in politicians. You're not a politician. You're not a political guy. But you're someone

who certainly doesn't like to see people suffering. That's not a political thing. So, you know, just people who are going through this, what are you seeing right now? What's your guidance to people? Well, first

of all, thanks for acknowledging that I'm not a political guy, even though I've had and continue to have political opinions. And I am enormously affected by the suffering that's happening. And I have great empathy for people who are suffering. Empathy simply means you feel what they feel. And when you feel what they feel, and empathy is a natural human response to suffering, every child reacts viscerally.

Even if you hurt an animal, you hurt a pet dog or a cat, the child will start to cry because it feels viscerally the suffering of the other. And that suffering leads to compassion, which is the desire to alleviate that suffering because when you alleviate the suffering of another person, you feel better. And then that compassion ultimately leads to love and kindness and joy and peace and equanimity and healing for yourself and for the other. So that's been my life's goal. I would say mission, pursuit, whatever you can. Now, having said that, looking at the current situation in the world and in America, but also in the world, and having, you know, I'm 78 years

old now, plus, how old are you, by the way? I am 39. Okay, so when I was 39 I was actually even ahead of where you are now so when I came to this country I was 22 I'm now 78 so you know I came to the United States when I was 22 at the in 1970 in the midst of Watergate in the midst of the women's movement in the midst of Watergate, in the midst of the women's movement, in the midst of Greenpeace, in the midst of the anti-Vietnam War. And I participated in all of that. I was the most ardent activist at the age of 22, 23, and I marched the streets of Cambridge, Massachusetts. I campaigned for Governor Dukakis. The only state he won was in Massachusetts. And

lost in every other state. And I went through all that where you are, angry activism. But I used to talk to my dad and my dad was a very well-known cardiologist from England before he came back to India and he used to talk about the Holocaust. He used to talk about the Second World War. He used to talk about the immense suffering that was happening. My grandfather used to talk about World War I,

the pandemic, the Great Depression. And so I realized this is part of humanity. We have not moved from being medieval minds. And now we have modern capacities. Our minds are still medieval, which means driven by fear by fear greed the need for revelance power influence peddling corruption cronyism and money and it hasn't changed but what has changed is modern capacities we have nuclear weapons we have biological warfare we have internet cyber warfare the hooties have the same capacities almost as we have and soon everybody will have so those medieval emotional and lack of spiritual development coupled with modern capacities for destruction, we are sleepwalking to extinction.

And that's a fact. We can't deny it. Either we jumpstart into a new mindset, be the change we want to see in the world, or, you know, we can walk to extinction we are now told there are two trillion galaxies seven hundred six trillion stars uncountable trillions of planets our planet is not even a grain of sand in all the beaches of the world so maybe nature might say to itself the human species was an interesting experiment in evolution. Didn't work.

Let's try something else. Dinosaurs were wiped out. We emerged and we might get wiped out. Something maybe better will emerge. I don't know. Well, let's see if something better will emerge. You know, it's interesting because when we built this network, we actually didn't build the Midas Touch network on politics, which is a surprise for a lot of people.

We built it on values and principles. And in the hierarchy of values and principles, empathy, respect, equality, decency, compassion was number one. My philosophy was always, if you start from there, the politics then fall in place because you go, who's fighting more for those things and who's fighting against those things? And people can decide. So when people see my perspectives, they'll go, well, you seem to be supporting certain types of candidates. And I go, well, because they seem to be the most aligned with the hierarchy of values that this network stands for versus us kind of chasing politicians. So look, you've had an incredible career.

I mean, 95 books that you've written. Time magazine named you one of the top 100 influencers over the past century. Your latest book, Digital Dharma, analyzing how AI can actually revolutionize spirituality and vice versa. Tell us for people, though, who are struggling in this moment right now, who are scared. What do you suggest people do? I mean, it's rare that they get to ask Deepak Chopra, what should I do right now? I'm scared. I'm nervous. I don't know what this guy is going to post on any given day and if that's going to impact me. What do I do in my day? It's a big existential question, but what do I do? So, you know, I'm a fan of your show. I enjoy your show. I enjoy your perspective.

And I share your values. Now, having said that, does activism, particularly strident activism, or what I should say, angry activism, even for peace. You know, it's kind of a contradiction, angry peace activists, and they end up getting Nobel Prizes. The angry peace activists end up getting Nobel Prizes for peace, and they are totally not at peace with themselves. So I question whether that kind of activism actually works. And I'm not sure it does, to some extent. I mean, had we not had the anti-Vietnam War movement, the peace movement, the green movement, and all of that, we would not be in the place we are now, notwithstanding all the, you know, the backward trend we've taken recently.

So it does work. It does bring more awareness. But in the long term, for those who are listening, I'm not at peace. Okay. And I will share with them this very simple idea that you will never be at peace if you are wedded to your ideology as the only right thing. Because we are all part of a conditioned mind. And we are conditioned by religion.

We are conditioned by politics. We are conditioned by our parents, we are conditioned by economics, we are conditioned by our tribe. And it's very difficult to get past that conditioning to a creative solution. I don't even like the phrase, how do we fight? Because, you know, that's another phrase that's very common in our society the fight against war the war against war the war against cancer the war against uh you know whatever it's always a war star wars now why don't we engage in creative solutions and that's why today i think we have an opportunity and that's why i'm such a big fan of what we call artificial intelligence. So actually I, as you just mentioned the book, AI for Spiritual Intelligence and Personal Well-Being, I frequently go and use AI which has access to all the creativity of humanity.

In fact, AI has more access to the knowledge and database and information and even wisdom of the ages than any single human being can ever access. So why not access our current technologies for creative solutions? Instead of saying, we have to fight this, what is a creative solution for Gaza? What is a creative solution for climate change? What is a creative solution for social economic justice? I believe that if we are creative as a collective with shared vision, maximum diversity, I know diversity is not a good word these days, but shared vision, maximum diversity, ethnic diversity, racial diversity, gender diversity, diversity of talent, diversity of storytellers. And then if we complement each other's strengths and we create a spiritual or emotional connection with each other, we can solve any problem.

And it's always been my dream to see a world that is more peaceful, more just, more sustainable, and more healthy and more joyful. And I think we have creative solutions for all of that. But the problem is that those that we call leaders in the world today, without naming any names, but those that we call leaders in the world are basically interested in their power and cronyism and influence peddling and enrichment monetarily. So you want to know what's going on, follow the money.

There's a war going on. Lots of people are going to make money. You know, climate change, the only reason we are against it is there are special interest groups that are making money without addressing these big issues. So without taking sides, and I know, you know, ideologically I'm on your side, but I think we need creative solutions, and conversations like this can help us say, how can I participate in a creative solution with me being the change that I want to see in the world?

If I want peace, how can I be peaceful? If I want to have a sustainable planet, how can i live sustainably myself i go to the world economic forum and people are discussing climate change and they all come on private planes to discuss like you know so i see a lot of cunning hypocrisy both both sides you know whether you're a democrat or you're you're a republican or you're independent you're a communist you're a socialist you're a Republican or you're independent, you're a communist, you're a socialist, you're an oligarch. It's all about you and it's not about the rest of the world. You know, what's interesting is you talk about still having a medieval mindset. What was interesting actually in medieval times with the medieval mindset is there was this great disparity in the access of information where the feudal lords would have

the information and the serfs would not have the information. That disparity of information also created some of the issues of subjugation. You fast forward to the future, the internet was supposed to be this great equalizer where everybody had access to all the world's knowledge. You can Google it. You can do all of these things. But what it ended up being used by the modern day versions of the oligarchs and feudal lords was a way to manipulate that. So they injected bad information in the veins of people. So more information actually led to less information. So if AI is going to be a path forward to actually help people, how do you ensure it?

And this may be another interview that we have, that it's not going to be abused, though, by the same bad actors who we see abuse this great information revolution with the Internet. So, you know, look at yourself. You have become a very powerful influence in the world because you have a podium now, and we're using it right now, and you can reach the globe. In those medieval times, or even later in times of colonialism and others there were a few people in the village square who had the loudspeaker but now you have the loudspeaker too so you can influence a very significant part of the world's population. So we have made progress, okay?

The internet has made progress, notwithstanding the special interest groups that control it. AI, very interesting. And just in historical context, you know, if you look at the period between 1887 and 1903, less than 20 years, humanity discovered four things that changed the world. The light bulb, the automobile, the airplane and the telephone in less than 20 years so had you been deserted or shipwrecked in an island say in 1885 and you were rescued in 1905 20 years later you would see a world that you wouldn't recognize you know when you left new york city perhaps all you saw was horses and carriages. And then 1905, you see these little boxes, iron boxes, people inside them pouring kerosene to make these boxes move. And a few years later, you know, people are flying planes and sophisticated automobiles.

And then now today we have, you know, all these probes going into outer space. Less than 20 years, the world leapfrogged into a new humanity. AI, as we know it as a large language model, is only available since 2012. We are in 2025. It's not even 15 years. And we are now leapfrogging into a new cultural and global civilization. And might I say a new biological evolution, because every time, you know, you gain new knowledge,

a new understanding of things neural networks in your brain reshape genes get activated even now as we are speaking the genes and people who are listening to our conversation in their frontal cortex if they're thinking about this are getting activated globally so we are leap leapfrogging not only to new cultural and biological evolution and social evolution, but a biological evolution, developing new capacities for creativity, insight, intuition, imagination, and problem solving. Now you say that AI is controlled by a few people, but right now, by the way, the way AI is programmed is even though it has selection bias, because after all it's programmed by human beings, it yet doesn't have political bias.

So you can go on Grok, Elon's AI, and ask Grok to create a personality profile of Elon. Or you can go on ChatGPT or any of the other AI platforms other than mine because I don't answer political questions. And you can say, give me a personality profile of Mr. Trump or, you know, whoever, Modi or Putin or anybody. And it will give you, at the moment, a very honest evaluation based on all the chatter on the internet, all the social platforms. And actually Elon's is even more neutral because it uses the chatter

on Twitter, his own business, to create these answers, much to the distress of the people who created these platforms. Where this is going to go in the future is that I think just like anything else, any technology can be used for what I call divine purposes, but also for diabolical purposes. You know, fire burns down a city, but had we not discovered fire, we wouldn't have the steam engine. Had we not discovered the steam engine, we wouldn't have the industrial age

and the age of technology and the age of today technology and AI so everything finds its own resolution here will be used for diabolical purposes but then there are people and I know enough people to know that they are using AI to actually bring about creative solutions for all the things that we're discussing, including racism and bigotry and hatred and prejudice and social injustice and all the things that are troubling you. But let's get rid of this idea. We have to fight. We have to fight. No, we have to find creative solutions fighting is a medieval mind there you have it we start with uh jupiter florida town hall we end

with ai deepak chopra i want to remind everybody your ai twin deepak chop Chopra.ai, DigitalDeepak.ai, and also your 95th book, Digital Dharma, came out in September on how AI can revolutionize spiritual well-being and open new horizons for personal development. Thanks, Deepak. Thank you for having me. Everybody hit subscribe. Let's get to 5 million subscribers. Can't get enough Midas?

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