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Chopra tells Whistler to take advantage of Olympics

About 1,000 people from as far as Mexico, the United Kingdom and the United States came to Whistler last week and packed into the Telus Conference Centre to hear Deepak Chopra's message of change.

About 1,000 people from as far as Mexico, the United Kingdom and the United States came to Whistler last week and packed into the Telus Conference Centre to hear Deepak Chopra's message of change.

The internationally renowned guru and author's talk on Thursday, Aug. 27 focused on "Celebrating Change in B.C." and drew heavily on the theme of Mahatma Gandhi's famous saying: "Be the change you want to see in the world."

The turnout was not as high as the 1,500 people organizers originally hoped would come to the talk, said Glenn Iles from Whistler Wellness. He said almost 50 per cent of attendees were from outside the Sea to Sky corridor.

Before the talk, Chopra said the message he wanted to send to Whistler was to take advantage of the upcoming Olympics.

"This is going to be an opportunity for Whistler to be highlighted around the world, and you have the opportunity to bring awareness to issues you want to like ecology and social justice in various forms," said Chopra, who also visited Whistler in 2007.

"The fact that Whistler has been chosen to be the centre piece of the Olympics is in itself a special indication of movement. It begins with this opportunity."

He told Mayor Ken Melamed that he would also like to present a "mind map" to Whistler that describes how different world issues are related to the international sporting event.

Chopra has been conducting workshops on spiritual and body-mind meditation across North America for over 10 years. He is also the founder of the Chopra Centre for Wellbeing in southern California and the author of more than 55 books.