Fifteen years after his #1 New York Times bestseller, Ageless Body, Timeless Mind, Deepak Chopra revisits "the forgotten miracle" - the body's infinite capacity for change and renewal. You cannot take advantage of this miracle, Chopra says, unless you are willing to completely reinvent your body, transforming it from a material object to a dynamic, flowing process. "Your physical body is a fiction," Chopra contends. Every cell is made up of two invisible ingredients: awareness and energy.

Using Chopra's ten steps to wholeness, you can harness those basic elements to change the distorted energy patterns that are the root cause of aging, infirmity, and disease.

Transformation can't stop with the body, however; it must involve the soul. The soul - seemingly invisible, aloof, and apart from the material world - actually creates the body. Only by going to the level of the soul will you access your full potential, bringing more intelligence, creativity, and awareness into every aspect of your life.

Reinventing the Body, Resurrecting the Soul delivers ten breakthroughs - five for the body, five for the soul - that lead to self-transformation. In clear, accessible terms, Chopra shows us how to commit ourselves to deeper awareness, focus on relationships instead of consumption, embrace every day as a new world, and transcend the obstacles that afflict body and mind.

Deepak Chopra has inspired millions with his profound teachings over the years. His bestselling books have explored the mind/body connection and the power of spirit. With his latest book, he invites you to experience with him the miracles that unfold when we connect the body directly to the awesome mysteries that give life meaning - directly to the soul. When you have completed this journey, after reinventing your body and resurrecting your soul, the ecstasy of true wholeness becomes possible for the very first time.

In my first semester in medical school, I walked into a stifling dissection room and laced a body lyine under a sheet. Pulling back that sheet was shocking - and definitely exciting as well. I took my scalpel and cut a fine line down the skin over the breastbone. The mystery of the human body was about to reveal itself.

At that moment I also stripped the body of its sacred nature. I crossed a line that is nearly impossible to recross ever gain. Thanks to science, a huge amount of factual knowledge has been gained, but at the same time a wealth of spiritual wisdom has been lost.

Why can't we have both?

It would take a leap of creative thinking, a breakthrough. I'm calling this breakthrough the reinvention of the body.

You may not realize it, but your body is an invention to begin with. Pick up any medical journal, and you come away with a host or concepts that are purely man-made. One day I sat down and listed the articles of faith I was taught in medical school. It came to a long list of dubious propositions, as follows:

The body is a machine assembled from moving parts, and like all machines it wears out over time.

The body is at constant risk for contamination and disease; a hostile environment teems with invading germs and viruses waiting to overwhelm the body's immune defenses.

Cells and organs are separate from each other and should be studied separately.

Random chemical reactions determine everything that happens in the body.

The brain creates the mind through a storm of electrical impulses combined with biochemical responses that can be manipulated to alter the mind.

Memories are stored in brain cells, even though no one has ever discovered how or where this occurs.

Nothing metaphysical is real; reality comes down to atoms and molecules.

Genes determine our behavior; like microchips, they are programmed to tell the body what to do.

Everything about the body evolved as a matter of survival, the ultimate goal being to rind a mate and reproduce.

I used to find this list very convincing. The bodies that I examined and treated in my medical practice conformed to it. Patients came to me with parts that were wearing out. I could pare their symptoms down to treatable problems - I prescribed antibiotics to fend off invading bacteria, and so on. And yet every one of these people lived lives that had nothing to do with machines breaking down and needing repair. These lives were full of meaning and hope, emotions and aspirations, love and suffering. Machines don't lead such lives. Neither do collections of organs. Before long I began to see that the body as seen through the lens of science was inadequate and artificial.

Without a doubt, the body needs reinventing. To have a meaningful life, you have to use your body - you can't experience anything without one - and so your body should be meaningful, too. What would give your body its highest meaning, purpose, intelligence, and creativity? Only the sacred side of our nature. This led me to the phrase "resurrecting the soul." I am hesitant to use religious terms because they are loaded with emotional baggage, but soul is unavoidable.

Copyright © 2009 by Deepak Chopra.

Tags: Healing

About the Author

Deepak Chopra is one of the world's bestselling spiritual authors and the founder of the Chopra Center in Carlsbad, California. If you would like to become part of a global community of conscious peace makers, please visit www.chopra.com and click under "News from Deepak."