I do not like to be negative or put people down who are trying to make sense of life. In our present society, anyone who advocates a balanced and integrated lifestyle has to be lauded. That said, I couldn't help but hear the old cynical whisper when confronted with the New Age-Complementary movement.

Many New-Agers would, no doubt, attribute this to my bad karma, perhaps my past lives of disbelief and scepticism. Fundamentalists of all persuasions might say the same voice was the devil whispering in my ear; but there is cynicism, and then there is healthy scepticism.

If any one figure of the New Age movement gets the cynical whispers going in me, it is that of Dr. Deepak Chopra. Dr. Chopra is a qualified medical doctor, a graduate from no less than the All India Institute of Medical Sciences - a prestigious institution by all accounts. However, Dr. Chopra does not actually practice medicine. He heads up the Chopra Institute for Well-Being.

Their mission statement, to paraphrase, focuses on "enhancing health and the spirit". It does this by "bringing together the talents of a number of professionals in the conventional, complementary, and alternative medicine fields". It also offers, "health workshops, meditation instruction, hospital program development, and corporate training courses".

I have nothing against Dr. Chopra, personally. Perhaps he gets the cynical whispers going because I cannot so quickly dismiss him. He does not, for example, wave tarot cards in your face, advocate the properties of certain crystals, or claim to go into a trance from which he drags up vague bits of mumbo-jumbo that could mean anything.

My first encounter with Dr. Chopra came through a friend; might I say a good friend and a genuinely well-meaning person. "You must read this," she said. I suspended my "oh yeah" attitude, took the book she offered, and promised to read, The Seven Spiritual Laws of Success: A Pocketbook Guide to Fulfilling Your Dreams (One Hour of Wisdom). It did not take me long. I think I hoped it would take longer. I managed to go through it in a lunch break, in between sandwiches and Moroccan-Spice soup. The result? Well, I waited for the wisdom.

In his book, Dr. Chopra mixed a gentle dash of Indian mysticism into a generous soup of libertarianism and good business sense. As far as I understood, he claimed health and wealth depend very much on our attitudes and our openness to the Universal Life Force. If we thought positive thoughts, then positive things would come to us. If we were open to abundance, then abundance would find us. Ill health and poverty were of our own making, and not, to say, influenced by karma.