Conspirituality Podcast

Episode 296: The Chopra Files
Date: February 19, 2026
Hosts: Derek Beres, Matthew Remski, Julian Walker

Overview

Main Theme:
This episode critically investigates Deepak Chopra’s deep entanglement with Jeffrey Epstein as revealed in newly released DOJ files, examining what this relationship reveals about ethics, spiritual brand-building, and the cultic dynamics within the wellness and New Age spheres. The hosts discuss the implications for public health, spirituality, and politics, using Chopra and his network as a lens to expose the dangers of conspirituality—the fusion of conspiracism and New Age spirituality.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Deepak Chopra’s Place in Wellness Culture

[02:18–06:12]

• Chopra is described as a "saturated figure" in the wellness industry—a celebrity spiritualist who fades into the cultural background like a corporate brand.
• He built an empire off Oprah Winfrey's 1993 endorsement, selling hundreds of thousands of books in a single week after appearing on her show (“Ageless Body, Timeless Mind”).
• Oprah’s track record of boosting dubious spiritual gurus is highlighted, including figures later associated with scandals or harm (James Arthur Ray, John of God, Eckhart Tolle, Tony Robbins, etc.).
  • Quote:
    "Once again, we have Oprah making the career of a spiritual figure who turns out to be shady as hell." – Derek Barris [05:34]
• Chopra, despite his massive brand, is questioned: "Who does he actually influence? … He just kind of lost it for me." – Derek Barris [04:20]

2. Details of the Chopra-Epstein Relationship: Emails & Events

[08:45–17:17]

• Newly revealed DOJ files show Chopra’s name appearing in over 3,200 entries, far eclipsing his public claims of “limited contact” with Epstein.
  • Quote:
    "God is a construct. Cute girls are real." – Deepak Chopra in email to Epstein [02:47/11:30]
• Email exchanges between 2016–2019 expose overtly intimate, inappropriate banter, invitations to bring “your girls” to events, and exchanges that trivialize serious accusations against Epstein.
  • Quote:
    “Come to Israel with us. Relax and have fun with interesting people. … Use a fake name. Bring your girls.” – Deepak Chopra in a 2017 email [10:20]
• The hosts analyze a particularly notorious exchange:
  • Epstein: "Did you find me a cute Israeli?"
  • Chopra: "They are militant, aggressive, and V sexy." [12:26]
• Examples of locker-room banter, sexual objectification, and disturbing jokes, including discussions about picking up women, with redacted participants commenting:
  • Quote:
    "I liked watching you zero in on your prey. Made me smile." – Redacted [13:41]
    “I not a predator, just a lover.” – Deepak Chopra [13:53]
• In discussing the Katie Johnson civil suit (an accuser of Trump/Epstein), Chopra’s responses are disturbingly blasé:
  • Epstein: (Case dropped)
  • Chopra: "Good." [15:02]

3. The Non-Apology: Chopra’s Public “Statement”

[16:55]

• Chopra issued a bland, minimizing statement after the files became public, emphasizing limited contact and regretting “poor judgment in tone,” but not addressing the substance of accusations.
  • Quote:
    “Any contact I had was limited and unrelated to abusive activity. Some past email exchanges have surfaced that reflect poor judgment in tone. I regret that and understand how they read today given what was publicly known at the time.” – Deepak Chopra [16:55]

4. Consequences—Or Lack Thereof

[17:27–19:00]

• Despite the damning documents, Chopra faces minimal consequences:
  • Dropped by the Heart Mind Institute
  • Shut off all social media commenting ahead of the file release
  • No major cancellations or refunds for his $1000+ online courses
  • "He'll be fine." – repeated refrain on his brand's resilience [17:48]
• The hosts express frustration that other countries seem to take these revelations more seriously than the US.

5. Chopra’s Career, Brand Formation, and Pseudoscience

[19:39–27:26]

• Biographical sketch: Born into privilege in India, trained as a doctor, arrived in the US in 1973, attached to Transcendental Meditation (TM) and Ayurveda through Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, and swiftly commercialized both.
• Accused of “cutting the line” in Ayurveda, lacking deep traditional knowledge despite “selling” authenticity.
• Syncretized Western medical credentials, Indian spiritual flair, and quantum jargon:
  • "He gives outrageous, magical thinking, metaphorical whimsy about mind, body, relationships..."
  • The “Wisdom of Chopra” quote generator lampooned his pseudo-scientific, endlessly abstract pronouncements:
    • “Intuition creates unbridled reality.”
    • “Perception gives rise to boundless possibilities.” [28:31]
• Chopra’s philosophies enable wealth worship and victim blaming, framing all hardship as a failure of consciousness ("wealth is a state of consciousness").
  • Quote:
    "There is no external enemy ... No one realized how smart the ego is because it created the devil so you would have someone to blame." – Deepak Chopra [29:01]

6. “Spiritual Bypass,” Moral Relativism, and Enabling Abuse

[29:29–32:11]

• Chopra’s public statements and direct communications frequently use “spiritual bypass”—minimizing or denying real harms as illusions, and discrediting moral judgment as a sign of “confusion.”
  • Quote:
    “The play of these responses is a symptom of why the war between good and evil as a concept is at once never ending and futile.” – Deepak Chopra [30:26]
• His teachings, emails, and “selfie sermons” even sent directly to Epstein, repeatedly avoid acknowledging abuse or atrocities.
  • “The biggest obstacle to knowing yourself is to confuse yourself with your name and your current experience of that which you call your body mind.” – Deepak Chopra (to Epstein) [32:11]

7. Network & Complicity in Power Circles

[33:27–37:27]

• Confirmation of networking for profit and influence: e.g., Chopra pitching an ETF to Epstein, arranging intros for his VC son-in-law (with the parenthetical: “can’t talk about girls” [34:17]).
• Notable figures in Epstein-Chopra orbit: Paul Tudor Jones (financier, yoga funder), Woody Allen, Michael Jackson—each with allegations of abuse or pedophilia.
• Chopra is seen as “willing to be a participant in banter that objectified women and girls,” with none of the high-status men in Epstein’s circle challenging this culture.
  • Reflection:
    “Rather than just letting it slide or playing along with Epstein, it comes across to me as a form of grooming.” – Julian Walker [39:03]

8. Pseudoscience, Alt-Health, and Indian Politics

[41:41–48:29]

• Deep dive into Chopra’s—and broader India’s—role in COVID-19 denialism:
  • The Modi government’s use of Ayurvedic/alt-health at the height of the pandemic
  • Chopra’s collaboration with Sadhguru Vasudev to minimize COVID concerns, mock vaccines, and romanticize the protective power of Indian “spiritual” lifestyles
  • The dangerous consequences when metaphysical beliefs take precedence over empirical public health [46:14]
  • Quote (paraphrasing Sadhguru):
    “Poor people in the villages...are actually less vulnerable to disease because of their natural and simple lifestyles.” [49:07]
• Both Chopra and Sadhguru are described as “playing Vedic Liberace to Sadhguru's passive aggressive Santa Claus” [49:19].

9. The Philosophy Behind Chopra: Neo-Vedanta, Nonduality, and Class

[50:35–59:25]

• Analysis of how Chopra deploys Vedanta—stripped of context—for Western audiences, using ancient Indian texts to sound “scientific” while sidestepping caste, gender, and power inequalities.
• History: Vedanta was reworked by 19th-century Indian reformers to counter colonial stereotypes but also provided a “spiritual alibi” for class and caste hierarchies.
• Critique: Neo-Vedanta offers the perfect philosophical cover for spiritual capitalism and “regulatory freedom”—justifying wealth and status as marks of consciousness while dismissing real suffering as “illusion.”
  • Quote:
    "You always have the choice, Julian, to be a worker or an owner. Let's put it that way." – Matthew Remski [59:22]

Notable Quotes & Moments with Timestamps

• “[Oprah] sold a hundred thousand copies of his book...the day he was on.” – Derek Barris [04:20]
• “God is a construct. Cute girls are real.” – Deepak Chopra (email to Epstein) [11:30]
• "I liked watching you zero in on your prey. Made me smile." – Redacted [13:41]
• “I not a predator, just a lover.” – Deepak Chopra [13:53]
• "Any contact I had was limited and unrelated to abusive activity..." – Deepak Chopra (public statement) [16:55]
• “Intuition creates unbridled reality. The invisible is rooted in an abundance of reality. Perception gives rise to boundless possibilities.” – From the "Wisdom of Chopra" generator [28:31]
• "There is no external enemy... No one realized how smart the ego is because it created the devil so you would have someone to blame." – Deepak Chopra [29:01]
• “The play of these responses is a symptom of why the war between good and evil as a concept is at once never ending and futile.” – Deepak Chopra [30:26]
• “[Chopra’s] core message is that humans can transcend the material world through meditation, awareness and spiritual practice, which appears in part to be a role he was filling in Epstein's life.” – Derek Barris [08:45]
• "Mahesh really gave him an example of how to do that kind of smiling charlatan kind of doublespeak, probably." – Julian Walker [26:18]
• “Chopra has this kind of secret weapon, which is that he's able to, I would say strongly, but also vaguely appeal to this whole corpus of Indian philosophy we've touched on so far.” – Matthew Remski [50:35]
• "If you wanted to engineer the perfect ancient sounding philosophy for...the neoliberal age..., Neo Vedanta is really going to help you with that." – Matthew Remski [59:25]

Important Segment Timestamps

| Timestamp | Segment Focus | |---------------|-----------------------------------------------------------------------| | 02:18–06:12 | Chopra’s career arc; Oprah’s influence | | 08:45–17:17 | Diving into the Epstein files/emails and the nature of their rapport | | 19:39–27:26 | Chopra’s brand, pseudoscience, cultural whitening | | 29:29–32:11 | Spiritual bypass, minimization, and moral relativism | | 33:27–37:27 | Financial networking, complicity with celebrity abusers | | 41:41–50:00 | Chopra’s influence during COVID, alliance with Sadhguru, impact | | 50:35–59:25 | Roots and critique of Neo-Vedanta, spirituality as capitalist tool |

Tone and Style

• Witty, irreverent, and rigorous—hosts blend sharp analysis with humor, often using sarcasm or literary allusion to drive points home.
• Frequent references to pop culture, politics, and historical context.
• Critical but at times empathetic toward those drawn in by the pseudo-spiritual industry.

Conclusion

In this episode, the Conspirituality hosts lay bare Deepak Chopra’s complicity, hypocrisy, and willingness to cozy up to power—both spiritual and financial—at the expense of ethics, public health, and honest inquiry. They reveal how Chopra’s brand and teachings have been shaped by, and in turn help shape, the fusion of pseudoscience, Eastern mysticism, and capitalist self-actualization that define the current New Age landscape. The episode is a warning about the lure and damage of conspirituality, and a call for critical thinking, especially as more truth about wellness influencers and their enablers comes to light.