A guy I connected with recently in association with my “day job” and other endeavors recommended that I read Deepak Chopra’s book, “Metahuman“. My new friend is a very smart guy and is also a follower of Christ, so I took up his suggestion. I finished the book today, and immediately afterward, felt compelled (maybe called by God?) to write about it in my blog post for the week. So here I am. And I think there’s a reason why I felt compelled to write about, which I’ll explain in a little bit.

I found the book to be engaging and challenging (meaning, not for the faint of heart and not a light read to wrap up your summer reading list). Dr. Chopra’s basic assertion in the book is that whether we realize it or not, we are all part of a universal consciousness, which is responsible for the creation of actual reality. This is in contrast to what he refers to as the virtual reality in which we generally live and allow ourselves to accept as true reality. Dr. Chopra invites readers to awaken from our virtual reality, and in so doing, open the door to becoming “metahuman” (leveraging the Greek word, “meta,” which means “beyond”), which is to say that we tap into our unlimited potential via our connectedness to this universal consciousness.

As a child, Chopra attended Catholic school in New Delhi, India. Being in India, he also learned the Indian traditions and Hindu stories. And in the process of studying to become a medical doctor, he naturally engaged in a great deal of scientific learning and research. Interestingly, though, his mystical and metaphysical approach that led him to this idea of a universal consciousness flies in the face of Christianity, Hinduism, and even the modern-day religion of science.

For anyone who has seen the movie “The Matrix”, the journey to enlightenment Chopra describes in this book feels like the red pill/blue pill speech that Morpheus gives to Neo.

I actually think Chopra has a lot of great ideas in this book. I believe there is something like a universal consciousness that can help us live beyond ourselves and achieve great things we never thought possible. But here’s the thing: we call that God.

There have been countless documented cases of people tapping into God’s power through prayer and accomplishing supernatural outcomes, which we call miracles.

Chopra joins others from secular society who lump Christianity in with all other world religions, which they characterize using terms like old-fashioned, superstition, and mythology. But these are people who, if they have even bothered to investigate that which they seem to have all figured out, may have learned about God, which misses the mark entirely. It is less important to God that we know all about Him than it is that we know Him. Ours is not a God whom we use to magically explain all the things we don’t understand. In fact, anyone who knows Him knows that it’s not really important to Him that we understand the world or everything He is up to.

“For my thoughts are not your thoughts,
neither are your ways my ways,”
declares the Lord.
“As the heavens are higher than the earth,
so are my ways higher than your ways
and my thoughts than your thoughts.”

Isaiah 55:8-9 (NIV)

The previous paragraph sounds much more bitter than I had intended. I just can’t think of a good way to make my point without using such stark language. I have to confess, as a human being, I sometimes get frustrated with the way secular society characterizes followers of Christ as morons who are stuck in the dark ages. But this blog is not a place for me to express my grievances; it is meant only to be a place where I encourage Believers (including myself) with the messages God puts on my heart. So I am calling myself out here the way Jesus would, quoting the verses immediately preceding the one I just included above:

Seek the Lord
while he may be found;
call on him while he is near.
Let the wicked forsake their ways
and the unrighteous their thoughts.
Let them turn to the Lord, and he will have mercy on them,
and to our God, for he will freely pardon.

Isaiah 55:6-7 (NIV)

OK, so I am reminded that I need to pray for people who haven’t yet turned to God.

Returning to “Metahuman”, in my humble opinion, the biggest problem with this book is that Chopra is inviting people to tap into the spiritual power of the universal consciousness (God) without the knowledge of good and evil that only God possesses. The enlightenment one achieves in the process of becoming metahuman knows no morality since the concepts of good and evil are human constructs created to govern what he refers to as the virtual reality we all inhabit. This is scary.

It didn’t go so well for that last one who tried to call himself equal with God without being “weighed down” by morality. God changed his name from Lucifer to Satan and kicked him and his buddies out of heaven. Here is someone who had celebrated being in the presence of God with the other angels, but in the end he wanted the power of God more than he wanted to be in relationship with God.

That’s how strong the allure is of trying to achieve this god-like state.

But does this mean that God does not want us to tap into His great power? Certainly not!

He sent us His Son, the only true metahuman who is at the same time just human, to show us how to tap into God’s power simply by being in relationship with Him. Jesus didn’t use magic tricks–he used prayer to tap into the Father’s power. Here’s an example when he raised Lazarus from the dead:

Jesus looked up and said, “Father, I thank you that you have heard me. I knew that you always hear me, but I said this for the benefit of the people standing here, that they may believe that you sent me.”

Jesus, in John 11:41

And he told us that we can do the same thing:

“Truly I tell you, if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you.”

Jesus, in Matthew 17:20 (NIV)

“Very truly I tell you, whoever believes in me will do the works I have been doing, and they will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father. And I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. You may ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it.”

Jesus, in John 14:12-14 (NIV)

So that’s it. This is why I felt compelled to write this post today. Jesus is the only true metahuman, but he can guide us safely on the path toward a faith that enables us to tap into the power of God. That is awakening; it is the true enlightenment this world needs.

The question is, who will take the red pill so they can understand the Truth?