Integrative health and wellbeing icon Deepak Chopra has staked his claim in the metaverse by launching his own platform focused on delivering a “peaceful, just, sustainable, healthier and joyful world”.

The metaverse, a 3D arena where people can interact with each other in virtual landscapes via VR goggles, is today mostly about gaming, retail and fitness. But Chopra’s creation – called ChopraVerse (www.chopraverse.io) – is a virtual world which has been built with the purpose of enhancing people’s wellbeing. This is one of the first businesses in our industry to take steps into the metaverse.

At the heart of ChopraVerse is The House of Enlightenment, Chopra’s personal home in the metaverse which has been designed by wellness architect Veronica Schreibeis Smith, founding principal of Vera Iconica Architecture.

The House of Enlightenment has been designed using eastern and wellness design principles such as vastu, sacred geometry and biophilia and was originally created by Schreibeis Smith for the physical as well as the digital world.

She says: “It optimises health and wellbeing in harmony with nature. It is an education and awareness tool that anyone can go into to learn meditation or how your surroundings are impacting your health and behaviour and what you can do to elevate your state of being.”

Chopra says a digital twin is being made available to everyone to experience in the metaverse. Downloadable blueprints of the house are also enabled so it can also be built in the physical world.

The blueprints can be purchased via non-fungible tokens (NFTs) – virtual tokens which allow you to own digital goods in the virtual world.

He elaborates: “ChopraVerse is creating homes for multidimensional living, nourishing the body, mind, spirit and environment as a unified experience in awareness. It will give everyone an opportunity to generate their own abode for the return to wholeness and healing.”

Schreibeis Smith adds: “The goal is to build 100 homes across the world with appropriate local materials, systems and craftsmanship.

“Supported by our firm and The Chopra Foundation, the idea is to incite a grassroots movement where these homes become case studies to share and empower regenerative design and building practices.”

Virtually, Chopra envisions the House of Enlightenment as a community for philanthropists, brands and businesses to gather where they can learn about building a more ethical and transparent world “spreading kindness fast to where it’s needed”.

He also hints at using it as a platform to deliver “curated wellbeing experiences”.

ChopraVerse has been launched by Seva.Love, a metaverse for wellbeing, which has been founded by Chopra himself and tech entrepreneur Pooancha Machaiah. It’s been created in collaboration with Utopia, a Web3 ecosystem which includes actress Eva Longoria as one of its four founders.