UC Researchers' Ties To Epstein Started With Telepathy. They Couldn't Foresee What Would Come Next.

SAN DIEGO, CA — The fallout over the release of declassified files connected to the Jeffrey Epstein investigation continues to reverberate beyond Washington D.C., ensnaring state and private colleges, including, most recently, a pair of well-known researchers connected with University of California, San Diego.

Author and self-help guru Deepak Chopra, and neuroscientist Vilayanur Subramanian "V.S." Ramachandran who led a lab at UCSD, were named in emails connected to the federal investigation into Epstein, according to files released by the DOJ as recently as Jan. 30.

Emails between Chopra touched on everything from philosophy to "cute girls" and invitations Chopra extended to Epstein and his "girls" to visit him.

The controversial connections between Chopra, Ramachandran and Epstein reached the UCSD campus, with interest swelling after a story was published Feb. 17 on UCSD's student-run newspaper, which shared details from the Epstein files. As of Friday, it was still the newspaper's top trending story online.

In a statement to CBS News, Chopra said, "Jeffrey Epstein was introduced to me by Barnaby Marsh, former CEO of the Templeton Foundation, as someone who could potentially fund research on the brain and consciousness."

Chopra also said in his statement that Epstein struggled with sleep.

"After meeting, he shared he suffered from insomnia and expressed interest in learning meditation, which I taught him. Our meetings, focused solely on practicing meditation, lasted about 30 minutes each," he said. "At my suggestion, he also visited Dr. V.S. Ramachandran's lab at [the University of California San Diego] to learn about ongoing brain research, according to CBS News.

Jail records showed Epstein had difficulty sleeping weeks before he died.

A History Of Connection

Documents showed a history of emails between both researchers, and Ramachandran expressing no "problem" with his lab being funded by Epstein. The communication was found in an email on Sept. 25, 2017 between Ramachandran and Chopra with the subject line: "Cost to study the autistic savant who displays telepathy."

In the email, Ramachandran wrote "pal [Epstein] is serious about setting in motion a lab for the study of extraordinary brain potential ... something like 500,000 to 3 million would get the administrators excited."

Documents showed Epstein's interest in Ramachandran goes as far back as April 17, 2009, when Epstein emailed someone about "smart" people to invite to his home in Florida one day. Ramachandran's name was included in Epstein's list of names, which was among people he described as "good friends of mine for years."

The documents revealed a sprawling network of powerful and influential people in government, business, and academia who communicated with Epstein after he was convicted of sex charges, which he plead guilty to on June 30, 2008, including two state prostitution charges, one involving a minor. He was sentenced to 18 months in prison with work-release privileges and released in 2009.

In lawsuits, Virginia Giuffre, one of the women who accused Epstein, said when she was 17, Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell arranged sexual encounters with the teen and influential people, including former Prince Andrew, who had denied the allegations.

The DOJ files indicate Epstein, who founded a company in 1988 that managed the wealth of billionaires, kept a busy schedule years after his release from prison, including a lunch with Chopra in April 2019.

In 2019, Epstein's appointment calendars showed several meetings with Chopra. The appointments also showed Epstein also kept a steady stream of meetings with powerful people, including political strategist Steve Bannon.

Epstein was arrested again on July 6, 2019 at Teterboro Airport on federal sex trafficking charges.

Chopra and Ramachandran could not be reached for comment.

Researchers Reflect And Assess

In a statement released Feb. 4 on X, formerly Twitter, which said Chopra was never involved in "any criminal or exploitative conduct."

"I am deeply saddened by the suffering of the victims in this case, and I unequivocally condemn abuse and exploitation in all forms.

I want to be clear: I was never involved in, nor did I participate in, any criminal or exploitative conduct. Any contact I had was limited and unrelated to abusive activity.

Some past email exchanges have surfaced that reflect poor judgment in tone. I regret that and understand how they read today, given what was publicly known at the time.

My focus remains on supporting accountability, prevention, and efforts that protect and support survivors."

UCSD responded to the Epstein investigation in a statement emailed to Patch on March 12, which read:

"Faculty are expected to adhere to UC San Diego’s official policy on Solicitation, Acceptance, and Administration of Gifts to the University. In addition, UC San Diego Advancement, which is responsible for processing and accepting gifts to the university, maintains systems to ensure due diligence. These systems are regularly reviewed for areas of improvement and enhanced on an ongoing basis..."

"While we are not able to comment further on personnel matters, the crimes Jeffrey Epstein committed were horrific, and any association with him is regrettable."

Epstein's connections in academia were widespread, including researchers and experts at Harvard, which he donated $9 million to between 1998 and 2008, and MIT, which he donated about $850,000.

Researchers like Dr. Monica Gandhi, a leading expert on infectious diseases at San Francisco State University, believes professors at academic institutions should act within ethical boundaries when it comes to how they receive funding for research.

"University professors should be held to high standards when it comes to funding of their research work," she said. "Professors are often responsible for teaching students and have an obligation as being part of a University to conduct research ethically with human subjects research going through Committees on Human Research."

"Jeffrey Epstein’s criminal and deplorable activities were known prior to the date that some of the professors at California-based Universities accepted donations from him for their research. I believe that academicians should uphold high ethical standards in University based systems and agree that they should not have accepted donations from Jeffrey Epstein for their research after his conviction."