Deepak Chopra seeks out higher state

Deepak Chopra doesn't get a day's rest. The New Age thinker, media gadfly and self-help guru is constantly on the move among talk shows, lectures, classes, book signings and conferences.

His whirlwind schedule brings him to Beth El Synagogue in St. Louis Park on Monday for a seminar.

But he found time to do an interview from California about Twitter, his new TV show, the viral video site Funny or Die, and his strange connection to Moammar Gadhafi.

Q The seminar you're giving at Beth El Synagogue is called "Healing, Transformation and Higher Consciousness." What's the central idea of the program?

A I'll explain how consciousness is the basis of everything that we call reality -- perception, cognition, speech, personal relationships. Healing is the natural state of our body and I'll show how to go there -- actually take people through an experience of meditation and allow them to experience what happens in the body. Finally, I'll talk about higher states of consciousness and what that does to human beings' ability to exercise intuition, insight, imagination and beyond. You know, do we have a soul? Does God exist? What is the meaning of death?

Q Midwesterners have a reputation for being reserved, careful, Christian. Do you find your message has an audience here, or is it too "different" for the Midwest?

A Not anymore! It used to be like that. I think America is quickly becoming more homogenized, despite the fact that we have more cultural mix in the U.S. than anywhere else. But because of the way the media operate and because of social networks now -- Twitter, Facebook, all that -- we can't make these generalizations anymore.

A I have a very disciplined life. I meditate 2 1/2 hours a day, I go to the gym every day, and I am in a sense obsessed with the material. And so the more I can express myself, the more clarity I get.

Q How did you come up with the idea for your most recent book, "The Soul of Leadership," which is a study in spirituality and business management?

A I just go with what seems to be the appropriate thing for me at that moment. I don't make long-term plans. When I sit down writing, I'm playing with some ideas in my head. With the business thing, I've been teaching at the Kellogg School of Management for the last eight years ... actually, Gadhafi's son [Hamesh] was in my course the last time I gave it, which was a month ago.

Q Really?

A Yeah! [He laughs.] I had no idea he would leave the course and go join his father and start killing people -- it was bizarre. Apparently, he's now leading some military operation against the rebels, and he was there for the course. He actually invited me to meet his father before he left, and I was planning to go and then all hell broke loose.

Now, actually, Random House, which is my publisher, is giving me an imprint where I can bring in other authors, because I do a lot of interaction with scientists. I decided that maybe I should bring attention to these guys -- they know so much, and yet outside of their academic field, very few people know them.

Q You've put out a lot of material -- books, music, seminars, even comics. What's your next big platform?

A I've just committed to SyFy to do a series called "Dinner With Deepak," where I'm going to be interviewing scientists and philosophers over dinner. It's going to be a new series that we're going to start filming very soon. People like Michio Kaku, Rudolph Tanzi, who's at Harvard doing research on Alzheimer's -- all sorts of things.

Q Your next book, "The War of the Worldviews," co-written with Leonard Mlodinow, is scheduled for October. Do you have the book written yet?

A I do! I was at a debate with a skeptics' society at Caltech, and there was [Mlodinow], and he commented that my physics was not accurate. I invited him to New York, and I said, "You explain physics to me, and I'll explain consciousness to you." And he did! We started agreeing on some things and disagreeing mostly -- it's about two worldviews. One is spiritual, and the other is scientific.

A For Funny or Die, my son [entertainment executive Gotham Chopra] basically called me and said, "You're in L.A. These guys want you to come over." And I just went over. I enjoy that. I think humor is a good way to express paradox, ambiguity, contradiction -- which is part of our spiritual growth.