A chakra video game?
Last week, Deepak Chopra released a new… nope, not a book. A video game for Xbox 360 and Wii! Bet you never thought you’d read that. Thing is, the gaming world isn’t convinced about the best-selling author and alternative medicine guru’s endeavours into their world, complaining it’s “less of a game and more of an experience”. Well, yuh. That’s OK though?!
Named “Leela” (Sanskrit for ‘play’), the game guides players through meditation exercises to send them on a ground-breaking journey of mind and body. Its chakra-based meditations are said to “combine physical activity and meditation to create a fully immersive experience”. From the official press release:
“Seven different interactive exercises based on the seven ‘chakras,’ the points along the body that Chopra says serve as energy centers, task players with moving their bodies to control graphics onscreen set to a soothing soundtrack … the root chakra exercise, for example, directs players to tilt their hips to seed a virtual planet. The mini-games increase in difficulty, but “Leela” places no importance on a final score or even finishing the exercises.”
Chopra joined forces with THQ to produce Leela, and more than 500 different prototypes were created in an attempt to properly encompass Chopra’s teachings into video game format. Says Chopra himself: “I personally believe that you can accelerate neural development and biological evolution through video games. Unfortunately, that’s not what we’re doing right now. What we’re doing is creating addictions to violence, adrenaline and mindlessness, rather than mindfulness. That was my personal motivation to get involved in this medium.”
Leela launched on November 8, 2011. Visit www.deepakchopraleela.com
Category: Cosmic gossip
Ooooo – something that might make me wrestle the Xbox back from the teenager!
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I notice the hard-core gamer geeks have been pretty vicious in their reviewing of Leela, but it hey — it wasn’t designed for them in the first place
Fantastic!! Can’t wait to play it!!