Joe Dispenza ✓ 6 Summary
WALL STREET JOURNAL BESTSELLER
The author of the New York Times bestseller You Are the Placebo, as well as Breaking the Habit of Being Yourself and Evolve Your Brain, draws on research conducted at his advanced workshops since 2012 to explore how common people are doing the uncommon to transform themselves and their lives.
Becoming Supernatural marries the some of the most profound scientific information with ancient wisdom to show how people like you and me can experience a more mystical life.
Readers will learn that we are, quite literally supernatural by nature if given the proper knowledge and instruction, and when we learn how to apply that information through various meditations, we should experience a greater expression of our creative abilities; that we have the capacity to tune in to frequencies beyond our material world and receive more orderly coherent streams of consciousness and energy; that we can intentionally change our brain chemistry to initiate profoundly mystical transcendental experiences; and how, if we do this enough times, we can develop the skill of creating a more efficient, balanced, healthy body, a more unlimited mind, and greater access to the realms of spiritual truth. Topics include:
• Demystifying the body’s 7 energy centers and how you can balance them to heal
• How to free yourself from the past by reconditioning your body to a new mind
• How you can create reality in the generous present moment by changing your energy
• The difference between third-dimension creation and fifth-dimension creation
• The secret science of the pineal gland and its role in accessing mystical realms of reality
• The distinction between Space-Time vs. Time-Space realities
And much more... Becoming Supernatural: How Common People Are Doing the Uncommon
A new coat of paint on a very old pseudoscience, but there are worthwhile nuggets concerning some advanced meditation techniques if you are willing to stomach the self promotion. The text is sprinkled with emotional triggers for those who are already primed to receive them, but they will illicit warning klaxons in the skeptic. Dr. Dispenza is the latest in a long line of clinically trained positive thinking gurus promoting wholeness, well being, and world peace using science out of context as fuel for epistemological prestidigitation. Taken as the ravings of a well meaning soul, this book is a fine example of many logical fallacies, and makes a valuable exhibit toward that end. 413 Just finishing the book now, and I have some very mixed feelings about it so far. I have one of the doc's other books, and I do love how he tackles each subject with such focus and detail, and backs it up with science whenever possible. And he does have a lot of data to support his claims, as well as citing some very interesting studies.
First off, I'm surprised to see so many glowing, 5-star reviews. I know a lot of people who've attended his seminars are reviewing the book, but this whole process takes a lot of time and practice. In the book, he makes it sound like this will be a relatively quick, easy process, and I think he is setting up people for frustration and failure. As an experienced meditator myself, I can say I've only achieved the state he says you need to be in to do most of this work, a few times ever. And I've been meditating seriously for 10 years. He says we need to become pure consciousness. No thing, no one, no where, no time. Completely take our awareness out of our physical bodies. Ohhhh no problem! Sure, I'll do a four day seminar and do that, or I'll read the book and do that. He also says you need to be able to think greater than you feel. which in context means that, when you are visualizing the future you want, you have to be able to create great feelings of joy, gratitude, etc. which are more powerful than whatever limiting belief or horrible body sensation you may currently be feeling due to disease, depression, etc. Again, WOW. This is a HUGE, HUGE task, and will take a LOT of time to achieve.
In addition, his whole process is very focused on the outcome. You will achieve this or that if you do this meditation or that one. He spends almost no time in the book on talking about the importance of general mindfulness, or meditating just for the process itself, and exploring your own mind. He has, of course, stories of people who've cured themselves of all sorts of horrid illnesses. So how could we, the reader, not be focused on the outcome when he's shoving the outcome down our throats on every page? This is why they rarely talk about stuff like this in buddhism, because then you will be focused on that, and not the process itself. You will get distracted by your new abilities, or frustrated when you don't acquire them.
Now, is everything he's saying in this book possible? Sure, it's POSSIBLE. I can't prove it isn't. And I do believe humans are divine at our core. But is it PROBABLE that it will happen? Not without SERIOUS commitment, time, and determination. For every person who says they achieved amazing results after only one meditation or one weekend seminar, there are probably at least a hundred who didn't.
After spending some time on Joe's forums and his Facebook group, I can see other people agree with me that parts of the book are a little confusing or difficult. I see numerous questions being asked about one of the meditations, alone. I also see a lot of people are frustrated with the process, because it's not working like he says it should. I'm only mentioning all of this because I feel the reviews currently are very one-sided. If you go into this without any perspective, you will be greatly frustrated and disappointed.
With all my doubts and skepticism, I truly hope I am wrong, and I am forced to eat some serious crow. I welcome it. I have a lot of health issues, both mental and physical, that I'm dealing with, so there's plenty of opportunity to use these methods. I will attack this with patience and determination, and will update my review at a later date if appropriate. 413 There are parts of me that really want to buy into Joe’s philosophy which appear to me to claim the ability to control outcomes over life beyond what is realistic or healthy I think. However, no matter how much I’ve tried to entertain it, I always come back to some of same points.
1) The point of life is not to control outcomes but to evolve, awaken, grow and develop more consciousness, compassion, understanding, patience and humility as we are shaped by the outcomes and circumstances of life we cannot control.
2) Thus, to focus on the outcome rather than on being mindful and compassionate on all parts of ourselves that are stimulated or agitated by our circumstances is to miss the point and set ourselves up for disappointment, frustration and disillusionment - not to mention, more likelihood that we’ll repeat the same patterns in our lives until we integrate the parts of ourselves that are unconsciously creating them rather than just focusing on using the subconscious to manipulate and control outcomes.
3) To meditate with the intention to create a certain circumstance in ones life I think promotes and propagates spiritual immaturity and attachment - things that meditation is actually supposed to help remedy ironically. As some have said, “what’s in the way *is* the way.”
So that’s where I get severely tripped up when trying to honestly digest Joe’s philosophy. At the very least, I think Joe’s work serves as a potential bridge from the scientific community to the spiritual community and introduces some of the potential benefits of meditations in a scientific way. However, I think his philosophy overextended itself and actually weakens the message by over-promising and focusing too much on outcomes rather than the process. It thus reads more like an infomercial for meditation than a time-tested spiritual path that can work for many rather than for the few miracle story people whom the stars happen to align for (and may have regardless of their application of Joe’s methods) and all is (of course) reductively attributed their application of Joe’s philosophy and methods. 413 Summary: You will either love or hate this book, depending on your existing belief system. The title is a bit off, as it talks more about mind healing and mind power vs. just flat out supernatural.
Right off the bat, either you will buy into his concept of energy vs. matter or you will not. I absolutely do, but I know from experience a huge portion of the population will not. If that's not your deal, you can just cross this book off your list until you are more open to the concept.
Now, related to this energy power, it's the idea that we have an energy field. Our minds control that. That vibration is something we can effect and in doing so it affects our reality. Higher vibration/greater control people can do a host of crazy-cool things with that energy power. They can attract the resources they need for sure. This is not so much what this book focuses on, as I think it's attempting to attract those that already believe that and are trying to understand what to do about it, i.e. how would you then given that learn to heal your physical body (Think in terms of how your immune system is impacted by stress... and you have considerably less stressed when you're happy vs miserable).
Lower vibration people are not only going to be unable to do that, but they will be sick b/c they are stuck in the matter world drawing more and more negativity to them. Think about people that are working so hard in unhappy jobs and thereby doing a whole host of activities (poor habits) and non-activities (stressing out) that lead to poor health.
The kicker is that everyone has the ability to change their energy vibration. If you do it, it might take time, it might be difficult, but ultimately, you will be able to have the world you want around you. From there, meditation is a core component/facilitator to learning how to gain this better relationship with your energy.
So all that should be where your head is at in order to understand what Dispenza is saying. And in fairness, if your head is around the things above, it wouldn't even occur to you some of the comments that people have by not understanding the above.
Understanding that:
P. 41 After discussing the biochemistry of stress (a mental state that creates a physical state), he then describes how you can mentally undo all of that and in doing so epigenetically affect your immune system. In other words, he is saying, your mind can impact precisely what DNA is asserting itself. This is VERY profound and you either believe it or you don't. I do.
P. 54 He talks about the importance of moving from Beta to at least Alpha waves via meditation. His point is that you are making the mind stop taking in outside inputs. In context, the point is that if you're reacting to the outside world then you are not source to the thoughts that come into you. Just think about how powerful that is. Homo Sapiens are creatures of thoughts. You are a thought machine, but sometimes... when you are not thinking about it and purposeful, you let other people's thoughts override your thoughts and thereby take your power. You are not in touch with power. Later in the book, this makes more acute sense. We do not go into the meditative state for the sake of it. We go into it so that we can understand the nature of that power. It is a practice. In general, that brain vibration should be happening in waking state as well.
P. 91 This is spoken about in many places, but you get a bit more flavor on how dwelling builds up the stress reaction. The mind is worried and narrowly focused preparing for worst case scenario. But in this section he then talks about what it's not preparing for. The problem in other words is not that people dwell, but it shifts their focus from the world they want to have to the world they are afraid of having. This means the body also prepares for that, i.e. stress/adrenal reaction, etc. Hence, we over stimulate this response.
P. 172 - He talks about his particular meditation practices. There we see the heart and mind affect each other. The idea is that heart irregular or incorrect vibration can be controlled by the mind for the benefit of health.
P. 176 has the images of what he means by heart irregular. Fascinating as it makes so much more image sense what he's saying. It's those momentary stress ideas that come in unexpectedly or even dominate vs. the calm detached state of meditation that drive our bodies in a way that is abnormal. Even for those of us with nerves of steel, this is something we can't necessarily get out of.
P. 258 He describes the methylation process of how the body goes from melatonin to REM and also all the other hormones involved. To me this is where science needs to go, b/c these are the things that make us healthy/mentally able to impact our bodies. This additionally goes with the work I've been researching on sleep.
P. 276... very interesting study on the effect of oxytocin and stress. It's impact on the pituitary and amygdala. I did not know this. Interestingly, from my other research oxytocin is also produced by holding a baby, petting small animals, or also getting good sleep. He does a great job also describing vasopressin's release in similar fashion (also a sleep hormone).
Similarly, he talks about how this biochemistry changes our vibration and allows us to pick up on higher power, higher intelligence thinking. This in turn additionally changes our biochemistry. It's fascinating. I kinda love it.
P. 296 builds on this idea. It talks about this organization (need to investigate further) called the Heartmath Institute. He's been talking about this idea that the heart when it's in harmonious rhythm it sends out a signal that can be picked up by others even animals. I know from experience exactly what this is and it's true. But SOOO awesome, b/c now I know why it happens. His point however is that everyone can do this and if the vibration is awesome it can unify. We are all connected after all. This is very cool but I would start personally in smaller steps, which is just trying to surround myself within this sort of energy field.
P. 317 The afterward is highly relevant b/c I think some might stop and think he's only in the mind. In fact, no. This is reiterated in the afterwards that the point is to experience this in waking life and in our actions. He attempts in this section to tell you what that looks like and means.
Great book. Really thankful it was recommended to me. 413 اول از همه بگم که خوندن این کتاب رو به هیچ کس توصیه نمی کنم! تجربه های این کتاب شاید اوایل کار کمی خوشایند و هیجان انگیز به نظر برسه اما رفته رفته تبدیل به یه کابوس وحشتناک در زندگی تون میشه
خوندن این کتاب رواز دو ماه پیش شروع کردم. اوایل از سر کنجکاوی شروع به خوندنش کردم. می خواستم ببینم این تجربه هایی که خواننده های این کتاب داشتن واقعی هست یا نه!؟ وقتی شروع به انجام مراقبه ها کردم و بیشتر و بیشتر درگیرش شدم یه چیزی رو متوجه شدم، اینکه اصلا دلم نمی خواد چنین تجربه هایی رو در واقعیت داشته باشم، اینکه شنیدن و خوندن تجربه هایی از این دست زمین تا آسمون با تجربه ی اون در واقعیت فرق میکنه و بیشتر ترسناکه و آزار دهنده ست تا جالب و هیجان انگیز
یه چیزی رو لازمه اینجا بگم چون نمی خوام فکر کنید من زیادی احساسی و عاطفی ی�� حتی خرافاتی هستم، من رشته ی مهندسی برق الکترونیک خوندم و تقریبا تمام عمرم با منطق و ریاضیات سر و کار داشتم و یادم نمی اد هیچ زمانی در زندگیم در مورد مساله ای احساسی عمل کرده باشم یا تصمیمی گرفته باشم، پس طبیعتا به چنین چیزهای خرافاتی باور ندارم، یا بهتره بگم نداشتم!! اما این مدت با تجربه های خوشایند و ناخوشایندی که داشتم چاره ای به جز باور نیست
امتیازی که به کتاب میدم صرفا به خاطر مطالب علمی ای هست که ساز و کار بدن رو و همین طور اتفاقاتی که دربدن در حالت های مختلف روحی و جسمی اتفاق میوفته رو به بهترین و جالب ترین شکل ممکن توضیح داده 413
No Goodreads review could've convinced me to pick this book up. And the title, becoming supernatural?! I mean give me a break.
Let's be clear, this book was shoved down my throat by a particularly obstinate friend. See I need to say this because I get it. The pseudoscience books that reek of an enlightened pile of motivation and you-can-do-it, because your brain is awesome, DO NOT get me going. I am not the TEDTalk kind. This is not that. Thank you, good friend, for the constant did-you-start-it-yet. I was unwilling only for the first 20 percent of the book, then I pushed him aside took the book to a corner and devoured it.
For the first 60 percent of the book, it told me nothing new. It was the same positivity spiel. However, it takes a talented man to put a different spin on that and make you sit up and nod obediently. Let's face it, positivity doesn't look the same on you after your early 20s, it starts to wear like delusion. But the real bang for your buck comes at you in the last 40 percent of the book. By the end, I was brimming with all this cool info I just had to keep spewing at unwary folks that crossed my path.
I was curious about what the 1 and 2-star folks didn't like here. Some pointed out that it took them over a decade to reach the supernatural meditative state he's talking about, others pointed out that life shouldn't be about chasing a goal of being supernatural but enjoying the journey and others said its regurgitated stuff. See, after I was done with the book I didn't sit down and meditate expecting to become supernatural over the course of the hour. I mean, I don't think I need that disclaimer. I'm in it for the long run. Secondly, if the book ended with screw supernatural, the climb is wonderful, I would pitch a fit. Lastly, he clearly mentions that a lot of it is pulled from Vedic sciences, vipassana meditation and everywhere else. I had none of these issues.
However, I didn't particularly enjoy reading this book because a lot of it felt like work, which is what it is. And some of it was repeated so much it got boring. But it deserves a 4 star because it delivers what it promises, which is a tall order in itself. So can this book really help you become supernatural? That depends on your definition of supernatural. Loki, no. A fancy you, yes. But allow me to get back to you in a year after I put this voodoo to practice. I might have a little Loki in me after all. 413 Profound and Poignant ancient wisdom juxtaposed with credible scientific hypotheses and meticulous logical explanations.
Read: December 3rd, 2022
Edit II: 01252023
This book in a nutshell teaches the concept that your belief systems create and manifest your individual reality.
As an aside, I picked this book up without reading anything on the author, reviews or anything related to the information contained within except for the title and cover. It came up as a recommendation while browsing for a book somewhere I don't even recall and it immediately grabbed my attention. Upon finishing, I delved into a text that at a glance one would be hesitant to link to this read, about the not new-to-me concept of Biocentricism and somewhat tangentially, Panpsychism [which is the view that all things have a mind or a mind-like quality. The word itself was coined by the Italian philosopher Francesco Patrizi in the sixteenth century, and derives from the two Greek words pan (all) and psyche (soul or mind), all exquisitely explained in Philip Goff's book, Galileo's Error (highly recommended too)] titled The Grand Biocentric Design by Robert Lanza.
Now, thinking back to Dr. Joe Dispenza's concepts within this text about the zero-point field (also refered to as the Unified Field by people like Dr. Haramain of the Resonance Institute, etc.) makes me feel that some of the more outré theories expounded within this book were not as woo woo as I initially thought.
I want you to understand that there is an invisible field of energy and information that exists beyond this three-dimensional realm of space and time—and that we have access to it. In fact, once you are in the present moment and you’ve entered this realm, which exists beyond your senses, you are now ready to create your intended reality. When you can take all your attention off your body, the people in your life, the objects you own, the places you go, and even time itself, you will literally forget about your identity that has been formed by living as a body in this space and time.Be it your personal finance, health (most especially), anything really, by practicing the meditations and developing the will to implement your belief system, [he] invites the individual to take charge and shape or design whatever the desired future state ought to be according to personal wishes.
It is in this moment that you, as pure consciousness, enter the realm called the quantum field—which exists beyond this space and time. You can’t enter this immaterial place with your problems, your name, your schedules and routines, your pain, or your emotions. You can’t enter as some body—you must enter as no body. In fact, once you know how to move your awareness from the known (the material physical world) to the unknown (the immaterial world of possibility) and you become comfortable there, you can change your energy to match the frequency of any potential in the quantum field that already exists there. (Spoiler alert: Actually, all potential futures exist there, so you can create whatever you want.) When a vibrational match occurs between your energy and the energy of that potential you select in the unified field, you will draw that experience to you.
--- Excerpt from the Introduction
The text I think strives hard to stay as objective as these types of truths can, while also providing a scientific fulcrum with which he raises his theories and hypotheses. It is well written with expansive case studies cited, step by step logical explanations given at all times. A very powerful book indeed for the mindful reader trying to open up the inner realm of the body and I'll highly recommend this to any reader of spirituality and ancient mysticism. 413 Oof. Where to start?
A friend recommended this book after I suggested she read Altered Traits, a brilliant account of the last 40 years of hard science surrounding meditation as a research topic within the fields of Psychology and Neuroscience. This book is, perhaps, almost the exact opposite.
Science takes time. It's often boring and unpleasant and particularly when it comes to a topic such as consciousness, the very nature of the research topic becomes an exercise in growing the scientific method to incorporate increasingly difficult material. The researchers referenced in Altered Traits have fought to win objective, scientific results. Dr. Joe Dispenza takes another approach in Becoming Supernatural: he weaves together legitimate meditation research, high school physics, chemistry, and biology, and his own direct experience... making up connections between the three as he goes along. I would have no objection to a book which tackled any one of these in isolation, but conflating them is at best disingenuous, at worst dangerous.
Here's why. Most of his meditation-focused writing is not too far off the mark and his book would actually be less dangerous if it seemed hokier. Much of what he says holds merit, in isolation. Meditation can help its practitioners lead healthier and happier lives and the strategies he discusses and the benefits he points out are entirely legitimate, to an extent. But he is clearly targeting an audience of beginners and someone beginning a meditation practice should work slowly, carefully, and skeptically. He is suggesting diving in headfirst, with the promise of massive physical and mental health benefits. This is unethical.
The meditation he suggests is a variation on Kundalini Yoga, which has widely-documented and discussed mental health risks. Attention placed on the nervous system can cause very serious trauma to surface in the psyche and the spinal cord is one of the last places a practitioner should choose to make use of attention in this way.
His descriptions of why and how meditation works are undefended by any objective research or reference beyond his own experience — he is within his right to describe the human body as a magnetic torus, if he must, but he should have clearly delineated that unverified idea from the neuroscience which is not his own. He doesn't. He simply flips between hard science and imaginative ideas at the drop of a hat, which makes the sum of the book hard to swallow.
Dispenza makes a final mistake throughout the book, in his delivery of meditation instructions. Meditation instructions such as this, from Chapter 9 (Walking Meditation):
Raise your energy to its zenith and feel gratitude, appreciation, and thankfulness.
Now acknowledge the divine within you—the energy that powers you and gives rise to all of life. Give thanks for a new life before it's made manifest. Acknowledging the power within you, ask that your life be filled with unexpected wonder, synchronicities, and coincidences that create a joy for existence. Radiate your love while loving your new life into existence.
These are barely sentences. They stand on the edge of meaningful grammar yet they are instructions. These are some of the worst meditation instructions I've ever read. What is the action or practice he is suggesting the reader attempt, here? Confusing, mystic, nonspecific, non-actionable, and highly subject to interpretation, such instruction serves little to no purpose. Meditation is serious work and instruction should be clear, unambiguous, and devoid of mysticism if it is to be considered ethical by a rational adult.
Last, but least harmful, we get a sense of how little thought Dispenza has applied in authoring the book when we come across imagery like crop circles in the shape of a melatonin molecule and Fibonacci's constant superimposed over the brain, pointing to the pineal gland (Chapter 12: The Pineal Gland). These images are squarely in Hokey Territory and provide ample warning to any sensible reader that perhaps the legitimate science and authentic spiritual experiences found elsewhere in the book are not to be trusted.
413 My wife got this book for me at Christmas. It sat on the shelf until it needed to be read.
Dr. Joe Dispenza is operating at his 10,000 hours of research in this book. While I’ve been a fan of his previous books this one shows the full breadth of his incredible work.
In this book you’ll learn:
How to break free from past limiting beliefs and recondition the brain into a new coherence.
Why changing that frequency creates a new reality in a present moment that most of us rarely see.
A deep dive into the pineal gland and a series of meditations that activate its potential. I did these meditations and during at least one session I had tears of joy running down my face. No joke.
How to unlock your awareness beyond our limited smartphone world. This area focuses on tapping into the quantum field.
Enjoying becoming supernatural! 413 This is a MUST READ
This book blew my mind over and over and over.
Plusses: as an avid reader of self help i appreciated that the message was very simple and promoted going within instead of DO-ing more and more. Technically yes going within is doing something but it is something that actually makes you feel amazing afterward instead of just more busy work to fill your schedule. He uses real scientific info to back up every single claim he makes and provides replicable practices to help you find the amazing results on your own.
Just doing his heart coherence meditation and the energy center blessings has changed my life in measurable ways. As the mom of two under six I am always looking for a way to calm down, relax and yell less. Making these simple meditations my priority helps me sleep better, feel more refreshed after sleeping, have a calmer response to the chaos having kids brings, and has actually made me feel more open to playing with my kids and paying attention to them instead of rushing off to the next thing i have to do in order to be a good mom. It feels incredible that doing less leads to more comfort, joy, feelings of satiation and wholeness.
My only complaint is the lengthy repetition of some concepts, because it gets a little tedious at times for us who don't quite care that much about the intricacies of the science behind it. But if you can get through all that it is so very worth it. I purchased the mind movie software after reading about it (and I've read about the influence of the subconscious in a bunch of other books too) and i love the software too. Maybe it's an upsell, but it's one I've been looking for a long time and i feel it already opening the doors of possibility. It all comes down to whether you're ready for such an incredible shift of daily narrative. Are you ready to stop being a victim of your life and start creating something you never even dreamed was possible? I believe its possible, and this is where you begin. 413
