Joe Dispenza - Breaking the Habit of Being Yourself

[987baz]

FYI there's also an app called change game that Dispenza made, which has shorter meditations on it (about 25 minutes each). One for morning and one for night and it kind of tracks how much you use it, for added incentive if that helps.

I have been doing these meditations for about 7 months along with EE and find them quite beneficial.

Also Dispenza is about to release another new book called becoming super human, if I'm not mistaken, so it may be worth checking out.

I have only read about half of The Placebo book so I can't really comment on it, but it seems to me that it is more of the same idea, just slanted a bit more towards health issues.

I would also recommend checking out Jordan Peterson's work as a place to change your life situation.

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good luck

 

[3DStudent]

I am just starting part 3 and want to know should I purchase the 2 MP3's for the meditation? Also, once I finish this book is it recommended to read the next book You Are the Placebo? I am not very good with meditation as I cannot quiet my mind for very long. I try to do it. For those that have the cd's how did you like it and is the sound quality and the voice soothing? Or can you recommend a different guided meditation?

I bought the MP3s and the music is pretty good, but I wouldn't call his voice soothing. But you get used to his voice though. I haven't read You Are The Placebo yet.

 

[sc00ter1808]

Hello all,
As I mentioned above, I new to DJ meditations and completely read Breaking the Habit of Being Yourself and started doing the meditations over a week now. For the 1st couple days I did the Water meditation to the 1st bell then went thru the second bell then as a curiosity I did the entire Body Space meditation. The first time, I did the entire time sitting but I had a problem being comfortable so I tried it lying down. The first time lying down I did the entire meditation, nothing special happened which I figured, however since then what surprised me was right after the introduction about "space" and right after the 1st bell, when he starts to speak of the "powerful intelligence within you that is giving you life, which loves you so much" my body tingles then gets really rigid to the point my back arches. But doesn't go any higher than mid spine and last about 15-20 seconds and then fades away and I am breathless for a moment. It did it again 3 more times during the rest of the meditation. During the episode which again last 15-20 seconds (which I think), I tell myself to "let go" a few times hoping it will flow up my spine but of the 3 times I decided to do the entire meditation it basically stops mid spine (which arches my back). A couple times it actually lifted my chest and head off the pillow. I let it happen but wonder why it only goes up to my mid-spine and doesn't flow any higher? I almost want it to "pop" and feel free maybe have an out of body experience??? Could it be a blocking in the chakra(s) in that area? If so, any recommendations on meditations to clear it? Or if there are another ideas what is going on. I don't fight it and I let it happen as far as I know. After each episode, I am winded then I catch my breath and continue on.

During the final part of the meditation I am still having problems I believe opening my heart and visualizing what future I am creating. I can visualize it but the emotion just doesn't hit me.

All I can say, since I decided to just do the entire meditation I get excited to want to do it again to experience these episodes hoping its a means of something great, but its tiring when it stops mid spine and my body arches and not sure if its supposed to flow up the rest of the spine to my head?

Any suggestions or ideas or advice is greatly appreciated!

Thank you in advance!
In blessing!
Scott

 

[Altair]

Hello I am new to this forum and to his book BTHOBY. A lot of books that I read just come to me and I start reading them. I just don't do research to find something to read. If it pops up then there is a reason I need to read it. I am facing some real difficulties at the moment, extended unemployment, financial hardship, need to change my life, etc.. (I am not looking to "win the lotto" with this book, although it would be nice to get out of this financial hardship we are in).

I am just starting part 3 and want to know should I purchase the 2 MP3's for the meditation? Also, once I finish this book is it recommended to read the next book You Are the Placebo? I am not very good with meditation as I cannot quiet my mind for very long. I try to do it. For those that have the cd's how did you like it and is the sound quality and the voice soothing? Or can you recommend a different guided meditation?

BTW what is EE and YCYOR?
Thank you in advance.

I read You Are the Placebo and highly recommend it. I never tried Dispenza's meditation program but if you have difficulties with quieting your mind I would just start with simple mindfulness meditation. Additionally, you can try Eriu Eolas meditation program. It's very good when dealing with stress and it has calming effect, too. You can read more about it in this thread.

 

[Turgon]

Dispenza has a free 20 minute guided meditation that's very similar to the first part of his guided meditations on the CD. You can try it out and if it's something that can help you quiet your mind and rest your awareness, then maybe it might be worth purchasing. _https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9h4GiblYrPk

 

[3DStudent]

During the final part of the meditation I am still having problems I believe opening my heart and visualizing what future I am creating. I can visualize it but the emotion just doesn't hit me.

I have a hard time feeling emotions on command these days too. It seems like that's something that is easy in childhood and adolescence. Like when you could make yourself cry on command. But this is a more positive emotion to try to "activate". Maybe try smiling, as there are studies where just doing the motion that the muscles take when you have an emotion, actually produces that emotion after making the motion. Thinking about gratitude and what I'm thankful for usually makes me smile. Just try to really push toward that emotion in the present and feel it in the now, really feel that you are experiencing it now. I think that's the idea.

 

[Turgon]

I let it happen but wonder why it only goes up to my mid-spine and doesn't flow any higher? I almost want it to "pop" and feel free maybe have an out of body experience??? Could it be a blocking in the chakra(s) in that area? If so, any recommendations on meditations to clear it? Or if there are another ideas what is going on. I don't fight it and I let it happen as far as I know. After each episode, I am winded then I catch my breath and continue on.

During the final part of the meditation I am still having problems I believe opening my heart and visualizing what future I am creating. I can visualize it but the emotion just doesn't hit me.

All I can say, since I decided to just do the entire meditation I get excited to want to do it again to experience these episodes hoping its a means of something great, but its tiring when it stops mid spine and my body arches and not sure if its supposed to flow up the rest of the spine to my head?

If you observe what's happening, it may dissolve or circulate of it's own accord simply by you giving attention while working towards letting go of any expectations of what you think should happen during the meditation or whether that energy is supposed to move up to your head. Just some thoughts.

 

[987baz]

During the final part of the meditation I am still having problems I believe opening my heart and visualizing what future I am creating. I can visualize it but the emotion just doesn't hit me.

I have a hard time feeling emotions on command these days too. It seems like that's something that is easy in childhood and adolescence. Like when you could make yourself cry on command. But this is a more positive emotion to try to "activate". Maybe try smiling, as there are studies where just doing the motion that the muscles take when you have an emotion, actually produces that emotion after making the motion. Thinking about gratitude and what I'm thankful for usually makes me smile. Just try to really push toward that emotion in the present and feel it in the now, really feel that you are experiencing it now. I think that's the idea.

I agree, the idea IMO is exactly this, to feel like you have what ever it is you are trying to "achieve" has already happened and you are feeling gratitude for it.

Sometimes it can help to think of something physical, like hugging a loved one etc, feel the embrace and the emotion that goes with it.

 

[Arwenn]

I quite like the music in the 20 minute Dispenza meditation that is on YouTube by HayHouse. I find it soothing and easy to meditate to. I wouldn't say his voice is soothing either, but the music helps. I have tried shortening the extended meditation, but I don't like the music as much and his talking often distracts me from meditating.

The Placebo Effect looks good, I haven't read it yet- from what I have on his interviews about it, the concept is the same but applied more to health as 987baz mentions above. One of the aspects of his program from BTHOBY that I found most beneficial was the journaling exercises, as it really helps one to drill down to the core of some of those deep subconscious programs that really run the show. It's funny that this thread has resurfaced, as I have recently started back on the meditations, having been busy to the point of exhaustion with very little time for anything else.

 

[Divide by Zero]

I heard an interview with Dispenza on coast to coast AM that made me look into his work. He was claiming supernatural things, such as instantaneous healing of tumors and so on in this show. I figured that I should read more and see where he is coming from.

I am about halfway through "You Are the Placebo" and it's interesting but my BS detector was going off.
I figured it might be because I am a natural skeptic (in the original meaning of the word). Instantaneous healing was not mentioned here unless it was originally a psychosomatic issue such as learned blindness.

I wondered about the auditory tumor that he claimed was instantly healed on the C to C show, not feeling that his description of being in a timeless zone allowing for instant healing as proof. Gimme data, not anecdotal stories as we know from other books, the brain is well capable of confirming!

In looking into Dispenza's claims, there have been quite a few annoyances that have not been properly addressed.

He claimed to have fractured his back and doctors said he would not recover. However, a man named Robert E. questioned his claims and asked for evidence. Quickly, he was told that scientific evidence instills doubt and weakening of so and so special powers. So be it. He did not get information from Dispenza, but found out that within 6 weeks fractured vertebrae can be healed. Dispenza took 9 weeks and claimed that his placebo effect is what healed him.

Robert E also pointed out that one of the placebo studies that Dispenza claimed as proof did not match up. The placebo was equivalent to the medicine in subjective results against asthma, but not actual chemical tests of asthma. Why would he omit this(perhaps unconsciously to confirm his beliefs)?

Fine, dug a little deeper. So Dispenza was a big part of the YCYOR crap show called "What the Bleep" which is a big "proof" for many new agers on how we can change physical reality by "quantum" effects of the brain.
What put the nail in the coffin for my ability to trust this guy is that he was part of the Ramtha cult for 15 years which pretty much seeded the story for "What the Bleep". Some of the stories claimed by the movie were made up and self-confirmed by people who later on were shown to be associated with such Ramtha.

I can only stand here and say that this guy gave me doubts in his extraordinary claims, though his basic idea of psychosomatically induced illness is sound, the other healings are not properly documented and only perpetuate his agenda of selling retreats. Just by him using What the Bleep as a source and claiming to be a neuroscientist (he is a doctor of chiropractic) when he is not makes me despise him, even when I feel that he is not malignant at heart. He still is misleading people by his Dunning-Kruger belief of being a neuroscientist.

What is also crazy is that we see in his placebo book that being suggestive means being less analytical. Sounds just like the new age hooplah that I tried to get into years before the C's and the excuses why I wasn't getting results: "I THINK TOO MUCH". Haha, what horse hockey!

The meditation also does not strike me well. While EE was difficult at first but grew on me, his meditation, even the music got on my nerves. It feels forced. Meanwhile EE has a more open, trusting feeling that lets me still keep my sanity while releasing tension.

Perhaps a way to judge a technique is whether it requires you to rid of your own mind in order to advance, versus you being able to see your own mind while you practice it. Maybe he preaches to his choir, who in the forum confronting "Robert E." tended to just be like brainwashed robots, claiming that doubt of the process is what invalidates it.

The work involves including both negative and positive emotions. New age sickens me with the idea that negative emotions are to be removed. It is the highest form of wishful thinking and a pill that I could not swallow even at times that I wanted to.

Joe Dispenza clearly has a business to push this, whether it be through his belief system of being from Ramtha or money. I don't trust him at all but I will keep reading the book to see if I can find more interesting information.

 

[3DStudent]

I was looking at his Coast to Coast show this afternoon too, because it was mentioned in one of his emails. There was also a youtube livestream with Lynne McTaggart (author of The Field). I only listened to a few minutes of the C2C and youtube livestream, so I don't know if they're worth listening to in full.

As I mentioned previously, I lied Breaking the Habit. I have You Are The Placebo unread on my bookshelf. I was thinking of unsubscribing to his emails, because it seems a few a week come out. :P

 

[Tauriel]

I know Joe Dispenza from our time at R$E (Ramtha's School of Enligthenment/Entitlement). He used to be one of Ramtha's so called appointed teachers and taught on brain chemistry and changing the neuropathways of thinking.
Basically he told the same stuff he is selling today. He also gave the story about his broken back without providing any evidence (a common thing at R$E- scientific proof is not so much on their schedule).
We all signed CoP's and when Dispenza left R$E they must have made a deal of some kind... like 'dog don't eat dog' ...

JZ Knight loves to put copyrights on all the so called disciplines she teaches and then sues everybody who would teach same disciplines to gain followers.
Yesterday she announced on FB that she is going to send a 'cease and desist' to Dispenza for teaching Ramtha's breathing technique. The technique is basically hyperventilation which naturally causes some chemical changes in the body. This is explained as raising the kundalini to get into the 'void' to create whatever you want in this state of chemically induced trance.

Dispenza is fishing in the same new age ponds a lot of other pawns do. I came to the conclusion that JZ Knight and her so called school are COINTELPRO and I think the same of Dizpenza.

 

[Turgon]

I thought this was a fascinating interview with Joe Dispenza. I haven't looked into any of these claims of his connections to Ramtha and his involvement in the YCYOR community, but thought a lot of what he talked about here was reasonable, breaks down what is in his books, and found at least some of it in alignment with what's been discussed on the forum about programs, doing what 'it' doesn't want to do and learning to master the body so that it serves the mind or consciousness - being aware of and learning to change the repeating emotional states people constantly find themselves in through meditation and actively creating a 'future' self of who and what you want to be by finding everything that you need in the present, which in essence, means letting go of those wants depending on what they are. And not anticipating the results but having faith and trust in the quantum field to answer the call if the person that is asking is sincere.

Like other's have mentioned, I'm skeptical of some of his claims about instantaneous healing, although that isn't impossible! He has of late had this Tony Robbins vibe to the way he markets himself and wonder where the catch is in his work, that he might be too focused on having an 'open heart' and eliciting elevated emotional responses could become similar to a 'high' of sorts depending on the kind of person you are. Also, it's important to have awareness that if you are tapping into the quantum field or universal consciousness, that knowledge of STS forces and how they can intercede and manipulate events and situations to their own ends is something to take into account, which is clearly missing from his work.

 

[BHelmet]

I am surprised to see Joe Dispenza on SoTT.net. This guy offers no proof of anything. It’s all anecdotal. Wishful thinking extraordinaire. His credentials are iffy at best and his former long association with JZ Knight and The Ramtha School of Enlightenment is a massive red flag. (Ramtha was basically a 2nd rate rip off of the RA material). His ability to yammer an incessant new age stream of consciousness Narrative that Is hypnotic is legit. What next, Eckart Tolle on The quantum Ecstasy of divine nothingness? C’mon man...

 

[Turgon]

I am surprised to see Joe Dispenza on SoTT.net. This guy offers no proof of anything. It’s all anecdotal. Wishful thinking extraordinaire. His credentials are iffy at best and his former long association with JZ Knight and The Ramtha School of Enlightenment is a massive red flag. (Ramtha was basically a 2nd rate rip off of the RA material). His ability to yammer an incessant new age stream of consciousness Narrative that Is hypnotic is legit. What next, Eckart Tolle on The quantum Ecstasy of divine nothingness? C’mon man...

Yeah, Dispenza has some questionable theories and makes a few leaps in assumptions. He certainly doesn't have the whole kitten caboodle. But what exactly do you take issue with in the article? The intro itself left a lot to the imagination, but when it comes to the meat of the article - he isn't wrong. Particularly how certain emotions and thought patterns can be become habituated and automatic over time and human beings will continuously feed into these negative loops for their entire lives, and that in some cases this can lead to disease. But that you can interrupt the programs and learn to 'change the script', and if done consistently and intentionally over time, that you can change the kind of personality or way you interact with the world.

I mean, Gabor Mate has talked about in When the Body Says no that a lot of emotional states, beliefs, attitudes about life can become so ingrained in a person that it leads to life-threatening illnesses and diseases. Jeff Schwartz in the Mind and the Brain has shown that people with compulsive tendencies, over time and with will-power can interrupt their 'programming' and change their brain and how they react and respond to OCD and other issues. In that way, some of Dispenza's concepts and ideas make sense and are grounded.

Are there some new-agey concepts in his work? Yup! I get a bit of that flavour and have a few of his earlier guided meditations that were totally fluff that I couldn't take seriously enough to sit through. His latest work, particularly BtHoBY, is a decent enough book and meditation, IMO, and figure he must've fine-tuned it a lot after receiving feedback and criticism from other people and possibly coming to a few realizations of his own in the process about how he comes across?

In other words, YES, you bring up some good points and JD shouldn't be given a free pass, but also don't think the baby should be thrown out with the bathwater and there's still value to his work if you have the wherewithal to discard the new-agey elements.