By Alec Hogg
It was ten years this week that my son Travis passed away. His death certificate says he died from SADS – the grown-up version of cot deaths called Sudden Adult Death Syndrome. One day he was vibrantly alive, the next he was gone. Medical science was unable to determine any reason. They might as well have said “unknown”.
On most of the anniversaries, I moped. But this year it was marked by my first direct exposure to Deepak Chopra who enthralled 2 900 of us in the Royal Festival Hall on London’s South Bank. His message is that humanity is being of a single whole. A bit like Ubuntu, hence something that resonates with many South Africans.
Chopra, a 71 year old who looks 20 years younger, is a best selling author whose books have made him a household name worldwide. A licensed physician, he has become a massively disruptive force in traditional medicine by preaching the benefits of meditation, sleep and reducing stress over pharmaceuticals.
Among his fiercest critics is evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins, an atheist who calls religious faith a delusion. He describes Chopra as a “quack”. After an absorbing two and a half hours, I now inhabit the other end of the spectrum. Not least because of Travis.
