Deepak Chopra: Your First Kiss Lives On

The renowned doctor talks about what happens after death and why everything--even your first kiss--has an afterlife.

BY: Interview by Laura Sheahen

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Your book in some places seems to seek to reconcile the Judeo-Christian and the Eastern versions of the afterlife. What do you see as the similarities? Do you think there are any irreconcilable differences between the two views?

They are not even differences or irreconcilable things. It's like you're listening to rock 'n’ roll, or you're listening to Beethoven.

Consciousness projects itself with all these realities, and they're equally valid. It's not this is true and that's not true. Think of consciousness as set up to manifest maximum diversity. Just like in the physical universe there's maximum diversity, so too in the afterlife.

Early in your book you say that “desire is crucial after death.” I know Buddhists often seek to leave desire behind. Is there any cessation of desire, of personality, and of the "I" in your belief system?

No. “I” never goes. Only “I am this or that” goes. Ultimately, enlightenment is for you to always be grounded in "I," but the limited, "I am this or that," goes.

You had a sense of "I" when you were a baby. You had a sense of "I" when you were a teenager. You have a sense of "I" now. You'll have a sense of "I" when you are an old person. But, in each of these cases that sense of "I" will be identifying itself with a different person. The baby's not the person you're in now. You have a different body, different ego, different personality, different thoughts, and a different way of looking at the world.

And can you talk about the role of desire in the afterlife?

It is the same as the role here. Desire is what causes potential consciousness to manifest as "this" or "that." Now, you cannot suppress desire, but you can come to a stage where you have fulfilled all your desires and, therefore, there's nothing more, or you can come to a stage where you transcend desire, or you can come to a stage where some desires are not important and others are, but desires are the mechanics of creation itself.

What experiences have you had in terms of being in the Akashic field or trying to contact it, even in your “skin-encapsulated” self, as you put it?

I very frequently see my body and my mind as separate from me. I see my body and my mind as the instruments through which I'm broadcasting myself, but, I'm not in it. It's something that I use to localize myself. And frequently, when I look at something, I see it from a more expanded point of view in that my eyes and my ears are the eyes and ears of the universe looking at itself.

Have you ever tried to reach out to another person's consciousness?

Many times, many times with my parents, with friends, with friends of friends.

What do you think the world would be like if everyone understood and believed that the afterlife will be how you describe it in this book?

The main thing would be first, less fear and, therefore, more compassion, understanding, and love. More creativity, less conflict. Because in the deeper reality we are all members of the same being. And when you really understand that, there's nothing to worry about, nothing to fight about, and nothing to really, ultimately suffer about because suffering is born of the illusion of separation.

Who We Really Are

In the end there's nothing other than your personal self, your collective self, and your universal self. And they're all you. Just like a drop of water or a wave in the ocean. They're all the same water. Water doesn't lose its wateriness before it arises as a wave or subsides as a wave. Nor does the water lose its wateriness as a raindrop or as a cloud or as part of a rainbow or as the rain or as a stream.