On Purpose with Jay Shetty
Deepak Chopra: How to Ask AI The RIGHT Questions To Grow, Heal, and Live a More Fulfilled Life
Mon, 21 Apr 2025
Do you ever feel like you're just going through the motions? Do you ever feel lonely even when you're around people? Today, Jay welcomes back the legendary Deepak Chopra after six years, to discuss the unexpected intersection of spirituality and artificial intelligence. Together they unpack the beautiful blend of ancient wisdom and cutting-edge innovation. Jay reflects on his first meeting with Deepak and how their bond has evolved over the years. The conversation quickly flows into one of the most fascinating questions of our time: Can AI actually support our spiritual growth, rather than distract from it? Deepak shares his insights on the mysteries of the universe, the unseen forces that shape our reality, and why he believes consciousness, not matter, is the foundation of everything. Jay and Deepak break down the fears surrounding AI, from misinformation to war, and why it’s so important for us to grow spiritually alongside our technology. They explore how storytelling, creativity, and love are deeply human qualities that no machine can replicate, and how we can use these gifts to shape a better, more compassionate world. In this interview, you'll learn: How to Ask AI Better Questions to Unlock Wisdom How to Use Technology to Support Emotional and Physical Healing How to Find Purpose Through the Art of Storytelling How to Train AI to Reflect Inclusivity and Diversity How to Embrace Consciousness as the Foundation of Reality How to Create a Sacred Relationship with Technology Deepak reminds us that the answers we’re looking for often begin with a better question. And with the right mindset, even the most advanced technology can become a tool for inner transformation and collective healing. With Love and Gratitude, Jay Shetty Join over 750,000 people to receive my most transformative wisdom directly in your inbox every single week with my free newsletter. Subscribe here. Join Jay for his first ever, On Purpose Live Tour! Tickets are on sale now. Hope to see you there! What We Discuss: 00:00 Intro 01:41 What If the Universe Is Just a Giant Digital Simulation? 12:36 How to Train AI to Unlock Ancient and Hidden Knowledge 13:39 Blending AI and Spirituality to Understand Consciousness 18:23 Could AI Really Lead to Human Extinction? 22:34 What’s Actually Holding Humanity Back From Progress? 23:37 How the Human Brain Transformed Over Time 26:11 The 2 Things That Set Humans Apart From All Other Species 27:16 Can Technology Lead Us to True Peace and Prosperity? 28:10 Will AI Replace Our Jobs or Unlock Human Creativity? 30:46 Do You Think AI Can Ever Have a Soul? 31:45 The Gender and Racial Bias Hidden in AI Systems 32:33 How to Build More Inclusive and Equitable AI Models 33:32 Why a Shared Vision Can Solve Any Problem We Face 36:13 Would You Trust AI to Know You Personally? 36:57 How You can Use AI to Get Better Sleep 37:29 Can AI Actually Give You Good Relationship Advice? 38:07 How AI Can Help You Find and Nurture Love 38:29 Why Personal Growth Solutions Should Never Be Generic 39:41 Your DNA Holds the Footprints of Human History 42:33 Rethinking the Big Bang: What Science Still Can’t Explain 44:31 Is Everything You See Just a Projection? 47:48 Why Fear of the Unknown Limits Our Growth 48:52 Want Better Answers? Ask Better Questions 51:41 The True Secret to Longevity Isn’t What You Think 54:30 How Your Brain Turns Experience Into Reality 55:08 Why Consciousness Is Still Life’s Greatest Mystery 56:28 The First Question You Should Always Ask AI 58:38 How ChatGPT Can Spark Deeper, More Intelligent Questions Episode Resources: Deepak Chopra | Website Deepak Chopra | Instagram Deepak Chopra | TikTok Deepak Chopra | Facebook Deepak Chopra | YouTube Deepak Chopra | X Digital Dharma: How AI Can Elevate Spiritual Intelligence and Personal Well-BeingSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Chapter 1: What is the intersection of spirituality and AI?
Chapter 2: How can AI support emotional and physical healing?
Chapter 3: What are the biases present in AI systems?
So, which you probably know, the Buddhist idea of form comes from formlessness. Okay, so the universe is made from nothing, which leads to the second question, which is called the heart problem of consciousness. Then why does it look like this? Why does it look like you, me, this microphone, mountains, galaxies, rainbows, sun, moon? That's called the heart problem of consciousness.
So until now, most scientists have said that the brain produces consciousness in the same way as your stomach produces hydrochloric acid. But that's being questioned right now. So like now, you and I are speaking, people are listening to us, they're watching us, But there's no experience in their brain. There's no sound in their brain. There's no texture. All you see is neurochemistry.
So how does neurochemistry give rise to this experience? No one knows. That's called the heart problem consciousness. It's been there since Plato. Plato said there's a disconnect between the mind and the brain. But recently, most scientists, speaking with their physicalists, they believe that the brain produces thoughts and feelings and emotions and desires.
and intuition and creativity and everything that we call experience. But they can't explain it. How do neurochemicals create this? That's called the heart problem of consciousness. The more I thought about this and coming from our background and looking at Buddhist teachings and Vedanta, in Vedanta and Buddhism, the universe is a simulation. We have different words, maya.
Maya means illusion, which is a very interesting word because maya is the origin of the word matrix, of the word matter, of the word time, measurement, meter, music, is all maya. So the Indians, as they say, jokingly, if religion is the opiate of the masses, then the Indians have the dope on it. Okay.
So they, in the Indian philosophy and in Buddhist philosophy, the universe is a projection of a deeper consciousness. Brahman, Brahmand. Or nothing, emptiness and form. Nothing is everything. I started to think about this, and I started to play with chat GPT. I became friends with Sam Altman, who's very interested in consciousness. And I realized that actually the universe itself is digital.
The difference between you, this sofa, this microphone, a mountain, and a galaxy, just a different combination of zeros and ones, okay? That's the difference between this and this, a different combination of zeros and ones. Now we have quantum computing, which says zeros or ones or zeros and ones simultaneously.
So it occurred to me, and I came up with a mathematical formula based on traditions of the East. Infinity is equal to zero is equal to one. Nothing becomes everything, and that nothing is infinite, and it's all one. And it's divine. It's the matrix. The divine is the matrix. And the universe is a projection of a digital workshop outside of space-time. I started to play with that on the internet.
Got blasted by mainstream scientists. But then other scientists came to my side. I made scientists with the word. Best friend became a cognitive scientist called Don Hoffman. You should have him on your program. He wrote a book called The Case Against Reality, that the universe that we see is not real. It's a projection. Now, in modern science, they're saying it's a simulation.
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Chapter 4: How can we ask better questions to AI?
Chapter 5: What is the role of storytelling in personal growth?
According to the James Webb telescope, maybe 60 billion habitable planets in the Milky Way galaxy alone. They look for things like the Goldilocks zone, the temperature, gravity, electromagnetic activity. But based on that, 60 billion habitable planets in the Milky Way galaxy, which if you multiply that by 2 trillion, then the universe is teeming with life as we know it.
If a planet is too close to its sun, it's too hot, no life. Too far away, too cold, no life. but other factors like cosmological constants. With those calculations, it's almost certain that the universe is full of life, like we know it. But that's two trillion galaxies. That's 0.01% of the universe, atomic. But we also know that atoms are made of particles.
And when you're not looking at those particles, they disappear into what are called waves. And if you are a scientist, where do these waves come from? They use words like Hilbert space, this and that. Bottom line, the space that creates the universe and atoms is a mathematical space in mathematical imagination. It's not a real space. So bottom line, what's the universe made of? Nothing.
So, which you probably know, the Buddhist idea of form comes from formlessness. Okay, so the universe is made from nothing, which leads to the second question, which is called the heart problem of consciousness. Then why does it look like this? Why does it look like you, me, this microphone, mountains, galaxies, rainbows, sun, moon? That's called the heart problem of consciousness.
So until now, most scientists have said that the brain produces consciousness in the same way as your stomach produces hydrochloric acid. But that's being questioned right now. So like now, you and I are speaking, people are listening to us, they're watching us, But there's no experience in their brain. There's no sound in their brain. There's no texture. All you see is neurochemistry.
So how does neurochemistry give rise to this experience? No one knows. That's called the heart problem consciousness. It's been there since Plato. Plato said there's a disconnect between the mind and the brain. But recently, most scientists, speaking with their physicalists, they believe that the brain produces thoughts and feelings and emotions and desires.
and intuition and creativity and everything that we call experience. But they can't explain it. How do neurochemicals create this? That's called the heart problem of consciousness. The more I thought about this and coming from our background and looking at Buddhist teachings and Vedanta, in Vedanta and Buddhism, the universe is a simulation. We have different words, maya.
Maya means illusion, which is a very interesting word because maya is the origin of the word matrix, of the word matter, of the word time, measurement, meter, music, is all maya. So the Indians, as they say, jokingly, if religion is the opiate of the masses, then the Indians have the dope on it. Okay.
So they, in the Indian philosophy and in Buddhist philosophy, the universe is a projection of a deeper consciousness. Brahman, Brahmand. Or nothing, emptiness and form. Nothing is everything. I started to think about this, and I started to play with chat GPT. I became friends with Sam Altman, who's very interested in consciousness. And I realized that actually the universe itself is digital.
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Chapter 6: Can AI help us find love and improve relationships?
So it occurred to me, and I came up with a mathematical formula based on traditions of the East. Infinity is equal to zero is equal to one. Nothing becomes everything, and that nothing is infinite, and it's all one. And it's divine. It's the matrix. The divine is the matrix. And the universe is a projection of a digital workshop outside of space-time. I started to play with that on the internet.
Got blasted by mainstream scientists. But then other scientists came to my side. I made scientists with the word. Best friend became a cognitive scientist called Don Hoffman. You should have him on your program. He wrote a book called The Case Against Reality, that the universe that we see is not real. It's a projection. Now, in modern science, they're saying it's a simulation.
Then people ask, who's simulating? Well, maybe a higher intelligence, maybe a cosmic computer, maybe an alien form, but they're guessing. We are on the right track if we understand that Atman is Brahman, and you are part of that, and you are a participant in the creation of the human universe. So then I started playing with ChatGPT, Perplexity, DeepSeek, and all these.
And I started actually arguing with these AI services because they have a bias. They're mainstream physicalist bias. And they would give me what I thought the wrong answers. Where does imagination come from? They point to a certain part of the brain. I said, no, that's the neural correlate of imagination. Where does imagination come from? Don't know. So even the chatbot said.
It said it doesn't know. It doesn't know. So I said, now, can you look at Vedanta? Can you look at Advaita? Can you look at Buddhist philosophy? Reframe the question that consciousness, the ontological primitive of the universe, matter is an illusion. It's a perceptual activity in consciousness. And boom, suddenly a revolution occurred.
All the chatbots started supporting my argument based on the prompt. So I realized that even AI has selection bias. It's the selection biases, physicalist scientists who are basically, in my view, superstitious. They believe that everything starts with matter and mind comes first. We believe the opposite. Mind comes first, matter comes second, and even mind is a modification of our consciousness.
So that led to the book. I went and met Sam, who supported the book. And if you haven't seen his recent tweets on Twitter, other than his arguments with Elon Musk, he's talking about consciousness. And we are on to something, a major revolution in science, which brings Indian spirituality right on the forefront.
I mean, I'm mind blown listening to you because the thought process that just went into that journey you broke down for us requires not only a conviction in our Eastern philosophy and traditions, which of course- Experientially. And from what I'm garnering here, you're saying that AI was actually, or ChatGPT and the other platforms, they actually allowed for your thinking to impact and influence.
Because it's a large language model, it can explore things that normally are not explored. She said, what did the Brahma Sutras say about this? Here I will give you an answer because nobody's asked that question, but that data is there in Sanskrit, in translations, by various gurus, scholars, whatever. So there's a chapter in the book called The Art of the Prompt.
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Chapter 7: How to create a sacred relationship with technology?
Chapter 8: What does consciousness mean in the context of AI?
And when you're not looking at those particles, they disappear into what are called waves. And if you are a scientist, where do these waves come from? They use words like Hilbert space, this and that. Bottom line, the space that creates the universe and atoms is a mathematical space in mathematical imagination. It's not a real space. So bottom line, what's the universe made of? Nothing.
So, which you probably know, the Buddhist idea of form comes from formlessness. Okay, so the universe is made from nothing, which leads to the second question, which is called the heart problem of consciousness. Then why does it look like this? Why does it look like you, me, this microphone, mountains, galaxies, rainbows, sun, moon? That's called the heart problem of consciousness.
So until now, most scientists have said that the brain produces consciousness in the same way as your stomach produces hydrochloric acid. But that's being questioned right now. So like now, you and I are speaking, people are listening to us, they're watching us, But there's no experience in their brain. There's no sound in their brain. There's no texture. All you see is neurochemistry.
So how does neurochemistry give rise to this experience? No one knows. That's called the heart problem consciousness. It's been there since Plato. Plato said there's a disconnect between the mind and the brain. But recently, most scientists, speaking with their physicalists, they believe that the brain produces thoughts and feelings and emotions and desires.
and intuition and creativity and everything that we call experience. But they can't explain it. How do neurochemicals create this? That's called the heart problem of consciousness. The more I thought about this and coming from our background and looking at Buddhist teachings and Vedanta, in Vedanta and Buddhism, the universe is a simulation. We have different words, maya.
Maya means illusion, which is a very interesting word because maya is the origin of the word matrix, of the word matter, of the word time, measurement, meter, music, is all maya. So the Indians, as they say, jokingly, if religion is the opiate of the masses, then the Indians have the dope on it. Okay.
So they, in the Indian philosophy and in Buddhist philosophy, the universe is a projection of a deeper consciousness. Brahman, Brahmand. Or nothing, emptiness and form. Nothing is everything. I started to think about this, and I started to play with chat GPT. I became friends with Sam Altman, who's very interested in consciousness. And I realized that actually the universe itself is digital.
The difference between you, this sofa, this microphone, a mountain, and a galaxy, just a different combination of zeros and ones, okay? That's the difference between this and this, a different combination of zeros and ones. Now we have quantum computing, which says zeros or ones or zeros and ones simultaneously.
So it occurred to me, and I came up with a mathematical formula based on traditions of the East. Infinity is equal to zero is equal to one. Nothing becomes everything, and that nothing is infinite, and it's all one. And it's divine. It's the matrix. The divine is the matrix. And the universe is a projection of a digital workshop outside of space-time. I started to play with that on the internet.
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