The Goi Peace Foundation is an organization dedicated to promoting world peace, transcending all boundaries of race, religion, or politics, with a belief that peace begins in the mind of each individual.
Their 2010 peace award will go to our dear friend and colleague Deepak Chopra, M.D., a world authority in the field of mind-body medicine. The award is in recognition of Deepak’s visionary leadership in promoting global peace and wellbeing through human empowerment.
With his deep wisdom and wide outreach, Dr. Chopra has guided many people around the world toward understanding their true nature and achieving health and happiness in their lives. His initiative to inspire each of us to walk the way of peace is helping to create a critical mass of awakened global citizens that will facilitate the transformation of our cultures.
Dr. Chopra is the Founder and Chairman of the Chopra Foundation, dedicated to improving health and wellbeing, cultivating spiritual knowledge, expanding consciousness, and promoting world peace.
I was personally honored to be the recipient of the 2009 Goi Award. Margaret and I were invited to attend the ceremonies in Tokyo last November. At the time, we were profoundly moved by the proceedings, for the gathering revealed an enthusiastic readiness on the part of global citizens to evolve to a higher plane of life. Among the thousand guests in attendance were ambassadors from fifteen nations, which included representatives from New Zealand, Afghanistan, Lebanon, and Iran, though notably absent were participants from the U.S. Embassy.
Particularly delightful was the audience’s reception of my 30-minute award accepting address that focused on self-empowerment through raising consciousness. A video of that presentation can be seen at: http://www.goipeace.or.jp/english/activities/award/award2009_01.html
The forum’s participants were specifically responsive to the science of how parental dysfunctions, fears, and perceptions of violence and hate are passed on as subconscious programs to their children before they reach the age of six. As the realization of this important insight spread through the audience, the resultant personal enlightenment literally increased the illumination within the beautiful Ginza Blossom Hall.
My message simply stated that we must step outside the disempowering trance of childhood programming and recover our innate powers of creation. To further this end, Margaret and I have dedicated our efforts to informing the public about the empowering process of conscious parenting, a developmental head start that offers children an opportunity to experience enlightened, healthy and loving lives.
Consequently, upon our return from Japan, we were excited to read that nationally recognized Oprah superstar, Dr. Mehmet Oz, released a new book entitled, YOU: Having a Baby, a parental guide based on epigenetics and conscious parenting.
Two years ago, I had the opportunity of being a guest on Dr. Oz’s Oprah Network radio show. During that interview, which was replayed several times in response to audience demand, I introduced Dr. Oz to the new awareness offered by the science of epigenetics. Our conversation specifically emphasized the process by which environment and perception dynamically influence an individual’s genetic code. The discussion further focused on the mechanisms by which parents serve as genetic engineers through their ability to regulate the readout of their children’s genomes.
Dr. Oz has incorporated that information and the message about conscious parenting into his new book. The following is an excerpt from Dr. Oz’s article, Flicking The Switch: The Phenomenal Circuit Board Of The Epigenetic Frontier, in the Huffington Post (for the full article, visit: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/dr-mehmet-oz/flicking-the-switch-the-p_b_373026.html):
“There are many myths that surround procreation. Perhaps the biggest one is that a baby will inherit its genetic blend from its parents and whatever winds up in this software code of life is to be endured for better or worse. Nothing can be done to change it. We were taught that we are stuck with our genes, so thank your parents and grandparents for your athletic prowess, musical ability, diabetes or pear-like profile. Stop any ten people on the street and ask them what they can do about their genes and I bet all ten throw up their hands in surrender.
But in recent years a medical concept called epigenetics is turning this paradigm on its head. It’s the subject of my show on Tuesday and my new book with Dr. Michael Roizen “YOU: Having a Baby.” Epigenetics reveals how our ancestors developed tools to turn on or off our genes in order to give our species the ability to rapidly adapt to a changing environment. This means we have inherited the ability to control how our genes are used.
… We don’t know everything about how epigenetics works during pregnancy, but we do know that the foods you eat and the chemicals you ingest or inhale push a lot of circuit breakers on or off in your baby. We also know that this isn’t limited to a developing fetus – this continues throughout your life, your child’s life, and can be passed on from generation to generation. By taking proactive healthy steps, you are actually giving your great grandchildren an advantage and a better set of genetic circuit breakers!”
We are very thankful for Dr. Oz’s new direction, for with his public persona, his book is a powerful way to get this new information to the mainstream public! The evolution that lies before us requires our participation, and this is precisely the point Oz emphasizes in his new book.
Fortunately, almost all of you readers are already there … for you are the cultural creatives who are taking responsibility for your lives, and by doing so, helping us all evolve. Thank you for thinking “outside” the box, for that is where the answers are to be found!