Nothing seems to be further apart: Spirituality as the gateway to the highest and purest form of human consciousness, and sexual abuse as cruel inhumanity. But on this dark earth, there is nothing that cannot be related to each other, as evidenced by the years of correspondence between Jeffrey Epstein, the twice-convicted abuser and trafficker of girls, and Deepak Chopra, the renowned spiritual teacher and author. In 3,466 documented messages, the two men communicated between 2016 and 2019, at a time when Epstein had already been convicted as a sex offender. The spiritual teacher knew with whom he was chatting in an extremely friendly manner about various topics—and all too often about the “girls.”
Links to the sources with the original documents as published by the US Department of Justice can be looked up at the end of this article. Reading the various email messages is truly horrifying. The spiritual teacher responds to his friend's salacious jokes with platitudes from non-dualistic knowledge. It seems as if a student is complaining about his girlfriend's quirks and the master explains that all human suffering arises only from attachment to a construct:
Epstein: „Yes but I prefer my characters to have good bodies.“
Chopra: „Images and sounds are in awareness… As is the cringe! Nothing is outside of awareness.“ „Whenever the cringe occurs ask ‘Who or what is having this experience?’ … the person also is just a construct.“
Without context, Chopra's answer would be a harmless piece of spiritual advice. But since both knew that crime was involved, the interspersed spiritual wisdom shamelessly served to whitewash and justify abuse.
Fun and girls
Here are a few more examples of the exchange:
Chopra shared a video of an actress and author with Epstein: “She's good.” Epstein: “Is she in New York?” Chopra told him she was in California. She had visited him for a weekend. And he had “invited again in future.” He described her as “innocent and smart at the same time.” Epstein replied: “Secondary to cute.”
The abuse is not addressed directly, not even by the “teacher” who knows about this dark side of his “student,” but it always resonates in the background, obviously on both sides. It is as if the two older gentlemen talk about their secret passions (young girls) in a seemingly harmless and trivializing way, completely avoiding and ignoring the criminal dimensions of these urges.
Chopra invited Epstein to Israel: “Come to Israel with us. Relax and have fun with interesting people. If you want use a fake name. Bring your girls. It will be fun to have you. Love.” Epstein declined. Chopra urged: “Your girls would love it as would you.”
Chopra invited Epstein to his workshop in Zurich: “You should come to my 2 day workshop with your girls in Switzerland in Zurich—a small village in the suburbs. Will be fun.”
Epstein offered to “send two girls” to Chopra’s Wall Street speaking event. Chopra: “Please send their names to me and I will put their names as my guests.” He CC’d Epstein’s assistant on logistics.
It's all about fun and girls, and no one asks how old the girls are, what their names are, or whether they are coming voluntarily. They are sent around like surprise parcels for the pleasure of ageing men. They have to serve as vehicles that make the fun possible, objects for the men’s needs. This is the nature of sexual offenders. In addition, these young women were abused by Chopra as objects for his pseudo-spiritual games.
This strange duo was bound by a deep friendship for over four years: “I am deeply grateful for our friendship.” (Chopra to Epstein, July 11, 2017) Chopra: “Will miss you then. Hope to see you in May.” They had a pact of secrecy as offenders need: Chopra to Epstein: “Anything we share is between us. I share nothing with anyone but trust you.” Epstein: “I share nothing with anyone but trust you.”
However, one of them was already registered as a sex offender, while the other is still walking around freely, writing spiritual books and cleaning himself up. Chopra's wife, to whom he has been married for 56 years, was mentioned only once in the thousands of messages exchanged. She was obviously not welcome on the playground where the two of them acted out their adolescent fantasies, both in real life and virtually.
Consequential pre-transpersonal confusions
To say that these events were pre-transpersonal confusions according to Ken Wilber is the least that can be said. Transpersonal insights are used to justify pre-personal actions and to evade personal responsibility. In this twisted view, the abuse of minors is no longer a crime, but the product of illusions. People are only seen as fictional characters, so you are free to do whatever you want with them, according to the logic of this momentous and far-reaching confusion of levels.
Spiritually (and thus usually also financially) successful people in particular quickly fall into the trap of their egos, as can be seen in many of the messages Chopra sent to Epstein. This is an abuse of spirituality for ego purposes, which is unfortunately widespread in the scene.
People who are unable to understand the difference between the pre- and transpersonal levels due to their unresolved traumas fall prey to these machinations, while their teachers assure them that they no longer need to worry about it because “everything is fine as it is,” “what's past is past, and only the present counts,” “because everything is an illusion,” etc., and all false teachings come from a position of authority with the undeniable power of wisdom and enlightenment.
The trap often lies in the fact that people in such powerful positions have no one beside them or tolerate no one who could point out their dark sides.
In consequence, all kinds of confusion ensue because their ego believes that they are revered for their grandeur and deserve a lofty position above all others who are not as spiritually advanced because of their spiritual achievements. Deepak can impress the cynic Epstein with his spiritual twists and turns and he receives recognition (also financial) from him, obviously for relieving him of moral pressure.
Where there are only illusions of people, there is also no personal responsibility and no guilt—an ideal concept for a criminal and a permission to continue following one's own perverse urges without any pressure from one's conscience.
Toxic Enlightenment
Günter Enzi writes in his commentary on this topic, with the title: “When ‘enlightenment’ becomes toxic: The danger of disembodied non-duality”: ”A mature, embodied non-duality could have said to Epstein: 'Even if, on an absolute level, everything is consciousness—on a relative level, you acted. And your actions have hurt real bodies. Before we talk about illusion, you need to physically feel what you have done. Non-duality is not an escape from responsibility. It deepens it.' That would have been an imposition. No de-realization – but confrontation in contact."
The repression of guilt in the case of sex offender Epstein and his accomplice Chopra was made possible by escaping from the physical level to a mental one, from which Chopra, who is up to every trick of spiritual manipulation, was able to issue Epstein, the cynical bon vivant, a clean bill of sanity for his misdeeds instead of confronting him with the suffering he had caused.
The body is the seat of feelings of shame that arise with every inhuman act we commit, and its unpleasant messages must be suppressed so that evil deeds can continue. One of the most perfidious ways of justifying such actions is to abuse the exquisite and, in a deep sense, sacred knowledge gained from the experience of non-duality for the purposes of shameless ego gratification.
Ethics of integrity have their place in the whole human being, in body, soul, and spirit. Those who act in accordance with these areas act well. Evil arises when one of these areas asserts itself against the others, with the imperative of survival impulses.
Likewise, integrity and integral spirituality are supported by the whole human being, not just his spirit. Our body contains the sensors for the good, the true, and the beauty. Spirit alone is helpless when it comes to issues of relative reality. It is capable of advancing into the spheres of absolute knowledge. However, what it finds there is usually not useful for everyday issues. We have other coping mechanisms for that.
The boundary between the absolute and the relative must remain clear. If boundaries are crossed here, which happens through unconscious mechanisms, abuse can easily occur, whether sexual, physical, or spiritual.
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