"internal validation trumps external validation" - Deepak Chopra

[James Warren]

"internal validation trumps external validation" -Deepak Chopra

This is an argument I have seen often,

I can't remember where I read the following but it is a point well taken.

"I was watching BOLD TV a couple of nights ago when a show came on featuring
Mike Myers and Deepak Chopra, two great thinkers of our day. It was supposed
to about comedy but it wasn't funny. There were scenes from Myer's movies and
Chopra would contribute the odd "little gem" delivered in his best guru voice.
None was memorable except for one: 'internal validation trumps external validation'
which was dutifully repeated by Mike Myers. As soon as I heard that I switched the
channel.

This is nuts. He seems to be saying that if one's personal experience leads
on to believe X, then no amount of external scientific evidence to the contrary
is sufficient to invalidate one's personal conviction in X. This is crazy.
There are many ways that personal experience can lead one astry. External
evidence is frequently necessary to correct one's errors. To think that one's
personal experience trumps everything else is self centered and just wrong.
Its the path to delusion and paranoia.

Perhaps he didn't really mean it this way. Perhaps he meant: a proposition X has
greater validation if it is supported by the evidence of personal experience than
if it is supported only by science or external evidence. This make more sense but is
it what he meant?"

[Mike Small]

Post by James Warren
"internal validation trumps external validation" -Deepak Chopra
This is an argument I have seen often,
I can't remember where I read the following but it is a point well taken.
"I was watching BOLD TV a couple of nights ago when a show came on featuring
Mike Myers and Deepak Chopra, two great thinkers of our day. It was supposed
to about comedy but it wasn't funny. There were scenes from Myer's movies and
Chopra would contribute the odd "little gem" delivered in his best guru voice.
None was memorable except for one: 'internal validation trumps external validation'
which was dutifully repeated by Mike Myers. As soon as I heard that I switched the
channel.
This is nuts. He seems to be saying that if one's personal experience leads
on to believe X, then no amount of external scientific evidence to the contrary
is sufficient to invalidate one's personal conviction in X. This is crazy.
There are many ways that personal experience can lead one astry. External
evidence is frequently necessary to correct one's errors. To think that one's
personal experience trumps everything else is self centered and just wrong.
Its the path to delusion and paranoia.
Perhaps he didn't really mean it this way. Perhaps he meant: a proposition X has
greater validation if it is supported by the evidence of personal experience than
if it is supported only by science or external evidence. This make more sense but is
it what he meant?"

No, I think they're talking about "validation" in the sense that another
person validates that you're worthy of esteem or love, or that what you
do is good. I hear it sometimes in the context of relationships. E.g. so
and so gives me validation, to mean his or her sig. other makes them
feel okay about themself. So Mike Myers is probably saying he's going to
decide whether his act is good based on his own standards for its merits
rather than depending so much on studios or audiences to confirm that or
continue to confirm that by giving him work.

[James Warren]

Post by Mike Small

Post by James Warren
"internal validation trumps external validation" -Deepak Chopra
This is an argument I have seen often,
I can't remember where I read the following but it is a point well taken.
"I was watching BOLD TV a couple of nights ago when a show came on featuring
Mike Myers and Deepak Chopra, two great thinkers of our day. It was supposed
to about comedy but it wasn't funny. There were scenes from Myer's movies and
Chopra would contribute the odd "little gem" delivered in his best guru voice.
None was memorable except for one: 'internal validation trumps external validation'
which was dutifully repeated by Mike Myers. As soon as I heard that I switched the
channel.
This is nuts. He seems to be saying that if one's personal experience leads
on to believe X, then no amount of external scientific evidence to the contrary
is sufficient to invalidate one's personal conviction in X. This is crazy.
There are many ways that personal experience can lead one astry. External
evidence is frequently necessary to correct one's errors. To think that one's
personal experience trumps everything else is self centered and just wrong.
Its the path to delusion and paranoia.
Perhaps he didn't really mean it this way. Perhaps he meant: a proposition X has
greater validation if it is supported by the evidence of personal experience than
if it is supported only by science or external evidence. This make more sense but is
it what he meant?"

No, I think they're talking about "validation" in the sense that another
person validates that you're worthy of esteem or love, or that what you
do is good. I hear it sometimes in the context of relationships. E.g. so
and so gives me validation, to mean his or her sig. other makes them
feel okay about themself. So Mike Myers is probably saying he's going to
decide whether his act is good based on his own standards for its merits
rather than depending so much on studios or audiences to confirm that or
continue to confirm that by giving him work.

That is an interesting interpretation.

This is a Depak Chopra quote and knowing Chopra I don't think he meant it
that way. He meant it the way many mystics mean when they speak of their
personal experiences. They mean personal experience trumps external evidence.