This summer, I had the privilege of interviewing world-renowned scientists at the The Amazing Meeting in Las Vegas. I’ve followed the work of these people for years, so I was not surprised to hear this shared sentiment from so many of them: Deepak Chopra is full of crap.

Chopra is a sage of the New Age crowd, who insist on believing anything having to do with “vibrations.”

Chopra has made millions upon millions of dollars twisting science to mislead people about the nature of reality. He has written dozens of self-help books that are full of fluffy, meaningless claims about consciousness, ego and the universe.

The problem with Chopra is that he isn’t simply pushing vague spiritual nonsense. He is telling his followers that quantum physics has proven that people can change the world around them just by imagining it differently.

Here’s an utterly asinine line from a YouTube interview:

“Consciousness is a common ground of existence that ultimately differentiates into space-time, energy, information and matter.”

Don’t waste too much time rereading that bit. It is every bit as hollow as it first appears.

Chopra is one of many hucksters who con people into believing that reality depends upon our percieving it and, therefore, if we try to imagine the world differently, we actually change its physical composition. In 2006, a book called “The Secret” climbed to the top of the New York Times bestseller list pushing the same deluded dogma.

Among the scientists I talked to was Lawrence Krauss, theoretical physicist, best-selling author and Foundation Professor of the School of Earth and Space Exploration at Arizona State University.

Krauss knows a lot about quantum physics. Besides making major contributions to the field, he recently wrote the book on the guy who wrote the book on quantum physics, Richard Feynman.

“I think it’s easier for Deepak Chopra to misrepresent quantum mechanics because we don’t do a good job of teaching it to the public,” Krauss said. “Quantum mechanics is one of the most abused ideas in the world because all of these people-New Age people, Deepak Chopra and others-try to use it for their own agenda. And people say, ‘Wow, I know quantum mechanics is crazy and this is crazy too, so maybe quantum mechanics explains it.’ Quantum mechanics has been used because of its craziness to justify all sorts of other craziness.”

Feynman once famously said, “I think I can safely say that nobody understands quantum mechanics.” It is, well…weird stuff.

Said Krauss: “An electron can be spinning many different ways at the same time and be in many different places at the same time and interfere with itself. That is just the weirdest thing, right? It’s weird.”

But the idea that our imagination changes the physical world comes less from strange science than poor wording. The distortion often starts with a misrepresentation of what’s called the “observer effect.”

It’s not all that difficult to understand: If one is trying to measure the location of a particle, one must make it interact with another particle. We see the world around us by bouncing light off of it (photons are the basic unit of light and billions are bouncing off the page you are reading; the black text absorbs more light, the white page reflects more, and receptors in your eyes detect the difference). We can’t see an individual photon with our eyes because it is too small, so we have to bounce another photon off of it to know where it is and that changes the trajectory of the photon.

But once folks like Chopra heard the words “observer effect,” they stopped talking science and started talking woo-woo. They tell their trusting readers that quantum physics proves that we change particles just by observing them, which is still kind of true. The con comes in the convoluted conclusion. They use the word “observe” in its non-scientific definition of noticing or perceiving something with our eyes or minds.

But we don’t observe the world-much less imagine it-in the same way scientists observe photons. I ask every physicist and physics major I meet if Chopra’s observer effect makes any sense to them and always get some version of, “No. That’s ridiculous. Nothing in physics suggests that our thoughts change external reality.”

Krauss’ response was no different: “Quantum mechanics doesn’t justify the claim that thinking about the world suddenly changes external reality.”

The distortion of science for financial gain is nothing new. Quack doctors have a long and profitable history in this country selling useless, sometimes dangerous, tinctures while claiming their cure-all is the result of groundbreaking scientific developments.

But the claims made by most modern-day quacks don’t carry much weight outside the fringe community. (Though you can walk into a Whole Foods anywhere in this country and find an aisle devoted to homeopathic remedies-another New Age medical con based around an affinity for “vibrations”-full of rich dupes ready to shell out $20 for tiny bottles of water.)

Chopra, on the other hand, spreads bad science all over the mainstream media. He has been featured on Oprah Winfrey’s show, writes for the Huffington Post and is a frequent guest on MSNBC.

Selling a lot of books does not indicate scientific understanding, but it is enough to get major talk shows to promote your bologna. Here’s Chopra on Larry King explaining how physics proves the existence of an afterlife:

“Well, birth and death are space-time events in the continuum of life. So the opposite of life is not death. The opposite of death is birth. And the opposite of birth is death. And life is the continuum of birth and death, which goes on and on.”

Indeed.

I got a chance to talk to James “The Amazing” Randi, founder of the James Randi Educational Foundation, the organizing force behind The Amazing Meeting. Randi has spent more time debunking quackery than perhaps any person in history, which is why his description of Chopra is especially telling.

“Deepak Chopra is the biggest official quack the U.S. has ever turned out,” he said.

I always wonder whether purveyors of nonsense know they are selling snake oil, or if they truly believe what they are saying.

I think Chopra is fully aware of the con job he’s running. After all, it is one thing to believe whatever woo-woo comes your way, it is quite another to craft it yourself and become a millionaire in the process.

One way I know Chopra is wrong about the power of imagination to change external reality is that I’ve often imagined him admitting to being a charlatan.

Until Chopra fulfills my catch-22 fantasy, keep a skeptical eye out for anyone who wants to sell you comforting explanations of theoretical physics.

“Quantum vibrations, now that sounds powerful,” Randi said. “They have no idea what they’re talking about. If you gave them a basket full of vibrations, they wouldn’t know what they look like or what to do with them. They don’t know the definition, they just like to use the term.”

Dave Balson is a senior journalism major.

He can be reached at 581-7942 or DENopinions@gmail.com.