What do you call a video game that isn’t really a game? Where there are no winners or losers, bad guys or good guys? Where the fun lies not in destroying anything, but in building mind/body coordination, raising consciousness, and developing increased brain functionality, all the while playing with gorgeously colored mystic universes and meditative dreamscapes?

If you are Dr. Deepak Chopra, the internationally renowned expert on mind-body wellness, whose world famous Chopra Center is headquartered at La Costa Resort and Spa in Carlsbad, you call it Leela™, an ancient Sanskrit word meaning “Play”. Come November, Dr. Chopra, the author of more than 60 books, will bring his creativity and vision to lead an interactive journey into the inner self, via Kinect™ Xbox 360® and Wii™. Leela is described not as a game, but as a groundbreaking experience, combining ancient relaxation and meditation techniques with technology to bring focus, energy and balance to one’s life.

According to the product’s developers, Leela is totally unlike anything previously created and stretches the boundaries of what is possible in video game creation, utilizing Kinect and Wii technology to relax, extend, control and explore both body and spirit, using a full range of images, sounds and motion-based systems found in today’s video-game consoles, in a brand new way. Fans of Kinect and Wii should find the play patterns familiar, yet excitingly fresh.

Leela allows players to utilize full body gestures to relax the entire body. The core lies in the concept of the Seven Chakras, which most people who have practiced yoga or meditation know to be the spiritual energy centers inside every human being. It is said that when these ever-spinning Chakras are aligned, the result is greater well-being, opening new avenues of possibility and personal fulfillment. Seven individual stages of Leela focus on these Chakras, with each offering successively more challenging experiences and using a different section of the body. As each section is mastered, players have a greater understanding of how to bring these energy centers into alignment. There is no traditional winning or losing in Leela, just as there really is no beginning and end - Leela moves at an individual’s pace, and its only aim is to instill an inner sense of harmony and accomplishment.

On Kinect for Xbox 360, Leela also incorporates "Stillness Meditation," utilizing Kinect technology for the first time ever to display a real-time graphical representation of breathing, offering gentle feedback and guidance for a number of deep-breathing exercises.

Not your run-of-the-mill self-help guru, Deepak Chopra is highly credentialed as a fellow of the American College of Physicians, member of the American Association of Clinical Endocrinologists, Adjunct Professor of Executive Programs at the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University, and Senior Scientist with The Gallup Organization. In creating Leela, he wanted to further explore the well-accepted scientific concept of neuroplasticity, the ability of the brain and nervous system to change structurally and functionally as a result of input from the environment.

“So much of our modern activity is connected to addictive behavior -- we are addicted to our smart phones, to the internet, to video games,” he postulates. “What I am interested in is, how do we use this addictive tendency to actually further brain development and allow people to grow in intelligence, awareness and consciousness? How can we use knowledge and experience from yoga and make it fun to accelerate brain evolution? I believe that this ‘Leela’, this ‘play’, can honestly help people raise their consciousness and rewire their brains. When Leela becomes available on November 8, players will enjoy using their own abilities to cultivate a healthier, harmonious and more balanced life.”

Video game technology that is mind-awakening instead of mind-numbing? This we gotta see!