The Teachers: Deepak Chopra and Neale Donald Walsch

I owe an extreme debt to both Deepak Chopra and Neale Donald Walsch for the magical gift of words, of vocabulary, that they have bestowed upon me.
     Words have always been a source of endless fascination for me--even, or perhaps, especially, words in foreign languages and the etymologies of words that we use in the English language. In fact, I believe that a vocation as a linguist could very easily have been my own had I chosen so. My discovery of the writing of Deepak Chopra came at a time in my life in which writing and wordsmithing had taken a primary in my life. In fact, I had interrupted a two year hike across Europe to assuage the creative Muse within me that had awakened during my physical wanderings. Post cards turned into pages of journalling until one night I was awakened in the middle of the night by the clamoring chorus of characters of my first novel, demanding that I write down their story. It was wonderful! Writing, creating life on paper from the characters and scenery living within my being was so invigorating! But then, my writing and voracious reading habits turned on the insatiable curiosity. The meaning of life, the meaning of my existence, the meaning of all being drove me to further and further, broader and deeper explorations. Which soon led me to the inspirational, informative and comprehensible publications of Deepak Chopra.
     In the 1980s I became quite a devotee of the writings of Deepak Chopra. I was there buying hardcover copies of his book publications as they hit the bookstores. Perfect Health:  The Complete Mind/Body Guide, Quantum Healing: Exploring the Frontiers of Mind Body Medicine, Perfect Life, The Seven Spiritual Laws of Success, Ageless Body, Timeless Mind, The Seven Spiritual Laws for Parents: Guiding Your Children Success and Fulfillment and, later, his monthly newsletter to which I subscribed, Infinite Possibilities, were all instrumental to my growth and awakening. But more, they help give me words; they helped me to create the language that I needed at that time (and now) in order to to adequately and comfortably express myself--to express my Truth, to reveal my Self to my Self and the world.
     Deepak was a continuation of my need to have science-speak validate some of the mystical ideas and beliefs I was revealing from within myself. I had been through the mystical writings of Christian writers like Augustine, Plutarch, Vico, Thomas à Kempis, and Thomas More, the psychology of Dostoevesky and Alice Miller, the inspiration of Herman Hesse and Thomas Mann, and of Richard Bach and Dan Millman. Perfect Health arrived on the heels of my first exposures to both Theosophical and Jungian writings. The writings and speeches of Deepak Chopra came as a way to validate my unfolding understanding of the world and my Self in terms of science.
     I must here acknowledge the important influence that Gary Zukov's The Dancing Wu Li  Masters had had. It was my first foray into the links being made between Eastern mysticism and Western science--specifically, quantum physics. You might say, then, that The Dancing Wu Li  Masters primed me for the East-meets-West integration that Deepak provided. However, the science in The Dancing Wu Li Masters was still a bit too dense for my wee little brain. Deepak was the one who really helped bring it all into comprehension and utility for me.
     After the two Seven Spiritual Laws books found their way to me--and became guides to a period of very serious and focused commitment to the practice of their principles and standards--I gradually lost connection to Deepak's work. This was partly due to the feeling that I was outgrowing his approach, his style, or it was as if the information Deepak provided began to feel as if it was on a continuous loop, repeating what I had heard before, reiterating that which I already remembered or felt I had internalized and put into practice as best I could. But, more the truth of the matter--of my 'molting' beyond Deepak--was the appearance of the work of other teachers one of which was Neale Donald Walsch.
     Somewhere in the mid-1990s I was sucked into the magical and empowering world of my own inner Truth thanks to the Conversations with God series of books that Neale Donald Walsch and his Nonmaterial Informant revealed to the world. The opening chapters of each of these books--the opening paragraphs!--were revelatory and transformational in the way they helped me to see, understand, and believe that everything we encounter, everything we choose to give our attention to, is exactly that which we need, is exactly a form of something that we have asked for in order to grow, in order to awaken new comprehension and definition of our selves and of our place in the world (in the Cosmos). And the books kept coming, the next building upon the others in ways that fed my still starving soul! I read and reread them, bought them on tape and CD, listened to them at home or in the car, posted the phrases and sayings that resonated most deeply with me around my house and in my own writings. "Can't is never true," and "We evolve through pain and suffering until we learn to choose to evolve through Joy and Love," and "There is no coincidence, nothing happens by 'accident'" and "Cultivate the technique of seeing all problems as opportunities--and recognize that all opportunities exist to help you to decide Who You Really Are" and I could go on and on. But I won't. I'd rather that you pick up your own copies and discover your own latest and greatest version of Who You Really Are.
     Truly, the Conversations with God series provided me with some of the best, most nourishing, food that my soul has acquired while in this Drew Fisher vehicle--food that has been comforting in a way that has only been topped by the works of Michael Newton and my past-life and Life-Between-Life experiences. Conversations with God helped me achieve understanding and acceptance of the fact that there is no right or wrong, no better or worse, no good or evil, that there is just experience and information. They also helped me further validate the truth that a nonmaterial, spiritual world was alive, real, and actively engaged in our own world--actively engaged in my own growth and progress, health and well-being. It also helped me to understand that everything is ongoing, that nothing is ever finished, that my unveiling of my own latest and greatest version of Who I Really Am is still just a version, just a snapshot, just a silly attempt to assess something that is always in flux, always in progress, always in process. Amazing.
     Anyway. I, Drew Fisher, have achieved the state of awareness and confidence I possess today in no small part through the information disseminated by these two Bringers of Light; it is through the words and language of the publications attributed to Deepak Chopra and Neale Donald Walsch that I possess the tools and the desire and motivation to express myself--to express my Self--to the world in the forms that I do: through massage and healing work, through parenting and close interpersonal relationships, through writing, podcasting, and social networking. Infinite possibilities and the God within me, the God that is me, allow me to be who I am, allow me to choose joy over suffering, to choose love over fear, to choose perspectives of infinite possibilities instead of those of limitation and impossibility. The information I assimilated and accommodated from their work has enabled me, Drew Fisher, to recognize truths that have helped to reveal my own ever-evolving concepts and definitions of Who I Really Am and Who I Want to Be. What more can one ask of a teacher? I am forever grateful for the gifts of Deepak Chopra and Neale Donald Walsch.