In conversation with DEEPAK CHOPRA

Fresh from his stint at The Conscious Festival, the quantum healing expert shares more on longevity, safeguarding against genetic damage and the beauty of just being.

- ALLI SIM

According to you, we don't know the difference between an actual experience versus an imagined one. How can we play a more conscious role in shaping our reality while being creative about it?

The only way you can play a conscious role in shaping your reality is through self-awareness. It is not through positive thinking, but by going beyond thinking. Every thought that you have is like a collective belief system. There is nothing absolutely true about any belief or any thought. So if you can cultivate silence in your mind, through practices like meditation, mindfulness, self-inquiry, taking time to be silent, breathing techniques or doing yoga, that's the best way to enhance your creativity.

It's creativity more than anything else. It's not positive thinking; not changing your mind. It's harnessing your creativity, which comes from breaking the algorithm that we call the mind. The mind is an algorithm, it's a social algorithm. It limits your possibilities. As far as imagination and perception are concerned, you perceive only what you think is there.

When you talk to people, sometimes you use the expression 'you're not listening' because they are not interested in listening to you or they're distracted. So looking and listening and perceiving are mental activities. There is no difference between perception and cognition, they're both activities of our consciousness.

According to you, "Time occurs when we have a thought." You encourage us to ask ourselves, "Am I at peace? Am I present?" Can you expand on that?