Thou Shall Chill Instead of Kill!

There have been countless celebrities that have appear as themselves in various video games.  Celebrities such as Bruce Lee, Mike Tyson, Tiger Woods, Michael Jackson, and Kiss have all had video games designed and created based around their profession. Enter Deepak Chopra, regarded by Time Magazine as the "poet-prophet of alternative medicine.” Chopra has quite the resume.  He is a well known and practiced Indian medical doctor, public speaker, author, spiritualist, and alternative-medicine guru who hosts the popular weekly Wellness Radio program on Sirius/XM Stars, and his latest venture includes joining forces with THQ to create the game "Leela." Leela is a concept within Hinduism, which "pastime", "sport" or "play". Within the non-dualistic school of thought, Leela is a way to describe all reality including the cosmos. How do alternative medicine, spirituality and the cosmos all tie in to a video game? I am asking myself the very same question! The game, Leela is to be launched via Xbox 360 and Wii and will use the Xbox 360 Kinect motion sensor or, the Wii Remote controller to guide players through seven interactive meditation exercises based on the seven "chakras," in the body and challenge players to move their bodies to control the graphics onscreen accompanied by a soothing soundtrack. The root chakra exercise, for example, directs players to tilt their hips to seed a virtual planet, while the heart chakra exercise uses players hands to harness fireballs that release gems imbedded in descending rocks.  Although the exercises increase in difficulty, there is no importance to complete all of the exercises or achieve a high score. According to Chopra, video games have been creating addictions to violence, adrenaline and mindlessness, rather than being used for a high purpose such as accelerating neural development and biological evolution.  The Leela video game has been designed to emphasize meditation and relaxation.  Chopra hopes that by playing the game one will continue to experience overall well being, even when not playing the game. Using game consoles for relaxation first came to play in the 1980’s when Amiga developers created an in-house game called "Guru Meditation" that required users to sit completely still on a balance board controller.  As I am a product child of the 1980’s and have never heard of the game, my guess is that it had very little success.  Today however, in the age of Yoga, discovering your chakras and visiting ashrams, perhaps Chopras video game will be a success on the spiritually inclined.  What do you think?

For all of your gaming needs both for your computer or video game console be sure to shop using the beruby links found

in the Computers and Electronics section and in the Games section!