Joe Dispenza - Breaking the Habit of Being Yourself

[BHelmet]

Yes, there are plenty of valid things Joe sez.
The same can be said of many narcissistic charlatans.
Go to his website. First page: 4 opportunities to buy stuff. 2nd Page and 3rd page = dozens and dozens of opportunities to buy expensive workshops, magic potions, meditations, books, CD's (at least he steers clear of amulets, I think).
Not one page without a sales pitch.

Where did Joe cut his teeth? JZ Knight and Ramtha School of Enlightenment. The C's had one thing to say of her: Greed.
When did Joe's career take off? After "What the Bleep do you Know". Who did that movie? JZ Knight.
Is R$E a cult? It could fit the definition.
Is JZ Knight a new age Tammy Faye Bakker?
(I don't know but it sounded funny to me.)
Is he massively popular and promoted in the public eye? Yes. (a black mark in my book)
Is he disingenuous about his "credentials"? You betcha.
Is he good at what he does? Obviously, YES!
Does he say some cool stuff - YES!
But, On balance he is Joe DiQuackza in my book.
STS Goo Roo Extraordinaire
Your Mileage May Vary

 

[BHelmet]

FYI Dec 94

Q: (L) J.Z. Knight supposedly channelled Ramtha. Who was Ramtha?

A: Originally valid source.

Q: (L) Did that change?

A: Greed.

Q: (T) So she faked it?

A: Yes.

 

[Turgon]

Where did Joe cut his teeth? JZ Knight and Ramtha School of Enlightenment. The C's had one thing to say of her: Greed.
When did Joe's career take off? After "What the Bleep do you Know". Who did that movie? JZ Knight.

Guilt by association, then?

Is he massively popular and promoted in the public eye? Yes. (a black mark in my book)

Depending on what circles you're in, he's not particularly well known. I don't know of a single person outside this forum that's heard of him before. But also, Jordan Peterson and Gabor Mate are famous but that doesn't take away from their body of work as much as it shows that what they are saying resonates and is understood by a lot of people.

Go to his website. First page: 4 opportunities to buy stuff. 2nd Page and 3rd page = dozens and dozens of opportunities to buy expensive workshops, magic potions, meditations, books, CD's (at least he steers clear of amulets, I think).

I visited his website and it is over the top with merchandise. He's branded himself in a lot of ways. Maybe even caught the bug of materialism that he claims his work and meditation is meant to rise above. But does that make him a full-blown narcissistic charlatan, though? There's also the fact that people in general often don't value something unless they have paid or sacrificed for it in some way. Maybe Dispenza knows that. Plus, at the end of the day if people are actually going through meaningful changes because of his books, meditations and workshops then isn't that what's most important?

 

[A Jay]

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...

Have you listened to the testimonials that are hosted on his site? He's apparently doing more good than you give him credit for.

Also, having an article on SOTT is not a ringing endorsement of everything a person says or does. An article is posted on its own merits. Did you even read it?

Yes, there are plenty of valid things Joe sez.
The same can be said of many narcissistic charlatans.

What you're really saying here is that what valid things Joe says don't really matter because he's a narcissistic charlatan and that's what's most important. I personally found some utility in Joe's book and ideas, so I disagree.

Go to his website. First page: 4 opportunities to buy stuff. 2nd Page and 3rd page = dozens and dozens of opportunities to buy expensive workshops, magic potions, meditations, books, CD's (at least he steers clear of amulets, I think).
Not one page without a sales pitch.

What exactly do you think personal websites are for? Have you been to the websites of other authors, speakers, teachers, etc? Everyone does this kind of marketing on their sites. In fact, those sites exist solely in order to sell the goods and services offered by a person to those looking to buy those goods and services from that person. Should an author not promote the sale of their books on their own website? Should a public speaker not promote the booking of their talks at one of their own events?

Where did Joe cut his teeth? JZ Knight and Ramtha School of Enlightenment. The C's had one thing to say of her: Greed.
When did Joe's career take off? After "What the Bleep do you Know". Who did that movie? JZ Knight.
Is R$E a cult? It could fit the definition.
Is JZ Knight a new age Tammy Faye Bakker?
(I don't know but it sounded funny to me.)
Is he massively popular and promoted in the public eye? Yes. (a black mark in my book)
Is he disingenuous about his "credentials"? You betcha.
Is he good at what he does? Obviously, YES!
Does he say some cool stuff - YES!
But, On balance he is Joe DiQuackza in my book.
STS Goo Roo Extraordinaire
Your Mileage May Vary

In the words of Bruce Lee, “Absorb what is useful, discard what is useless and add what is specifically your own.”

I'm not sure why this has gotten you so riled up. Is it because you're disappointed in SOTT?

 

[BHelmet]

Like I said, your mileage may vary.

It’s easy to read emotion in comments in text boxes that is not there.

Why did I say anything at at all? Well what about giving the truth to a lie? As for SoTT, the quality of content is superb. I read it every day. I treasure it. I realize an article on SoTT does not mean it is endorsed by SoTT.

Guilt by association? He wasn’t at RSE for a few months or a year and suddenly realized he was part of what amounts to a cult and Then left. He was a top student/protege of JZKnight/ Ramtha and was a top teacher there. For years. But that has been all but scrubbed out of existence by his team. If it’s all good, why do that?

His whole business is built upon this story that he was hit by a Ford Bronco, suffered broken vertebrae, said no to surgery, went home and meditated and in 12 weeks was back training for a triathlon again, his back totally healed. If you want to believe that, go right ahead.

Narcissistic? He is all over YouTube yet has no comment I could find on Ramtha or the covid vaccines or anything other than Promoting his own song and dance.

Healing workshops in Cancun? What, none in Calcutta? How odd.

He makes many outrageous anecdotal claims With Little to no proof. “Neuroscientist “? Mmmmm, no.

That said, he is a seductive presenter who has honed his craft and that offers Many interesting ideas and positive vibes that could be beneficial. He totally sidesteps anything negative and sounds convincing. He is a confidence man. He is a hypnotic spell caster. That subtle music in the background of many of his videos is to put the listener into a receptive trance.

Believe what you wish. There is plenty of kool aide to go around. Watch his videos. Watch some Ramtha too. He sounds very believable and authentic, yes. Ramtha/JZ? Says many of the same things.

As for websites that offer tremendous value without over commercializing? How about this one?

 

[Tauriel]

Guilt by association? He wasn’t at RSE for a few months or a year and suddenly realized he was part of what amounts to a cult and Then left. He was a top student/protege of JZKnight/ Ramtha and was a top teacher there. For years. But that has been all but scrubbed out of existence by his team. If it’s all good, why do that?

I agree. Having been to R$E, having worked for them, knowing Joe personally, experiencing the immense programming happening there I don't want to take away the positive vibes a lot of people seem to get from him (he's a very charismatic speaker). My only advice would be to take anything he says with a grain of salt. I think he's out for the business. I didn't experience him as a particulary empathetic and giving' person.... but that's just my thoughts.

 

[Bluefyre]

In the words of Bruce Lee, “Absorb what is useful, discard what is useless and add what is specifically your own.”

Or in the words of the 12-step programs, "Take what you like and leave the rest."

BHelmet, I understand discernment is always a necessary component of any tool one tries out to further their healing. I can only speak from my own experience. For instance, Jordan Peterson has a lot to offer a lot of people and as the Cs have said, he is a great soul. I never personally found a lot of value in his talks. I never needed someone to tell me to clean my room, being conditioned to be overly-responsible.

I had a pretty much broken brain/body/spirit when I came to this forum. It took years to fully realize just how broken. It has been a journey of years to rebuild and remember who I am and who I can be. There have been many tools I have acquired. For instance when I started doing Neuroptimal, it took 20 session before I could even close my eyes. The soup of hypervigilance I lived in was all I knew. I have a very knowledgeable practitioner I worked with, after 3 years of intense therapy and was familiar with my "issues". I read several books on neuroplasticity and it was JD's meditations that opened me in a practical way to the possibility that I COULD rebuild circuits, or in my case even grow circuits in my brain that had never had a chance to develop. (Read Healing Developmental Trauma). JD's induction, even more so than doing EE, was the only thing initially that calmed my body and brain. It was like water to someone dying of thirst, to start to quiet the noise and turmoil enough to start to connect with and hear that faint, weak part of me that was/is my connection with the divine.

So it's been eight years(?!) since I first posted this thread and I am still working on it. There is no free lunch. What comes to mind is Barbara Marciniak and the Pleiedians. Initially the information was mostly true and accurate and was corrupted in later books due to ego taking over. Do you throw out the information in Bringers of the Dawn, or use discernment to use the truth that is in that book?

I knew when I started this journey that I might not succeed, but I was willing to give it a go and see how much I could accomplish. I couldn't see any other options. I could not continue as I had lived my life. It felt like the Vikings who burned their ships when they landed on a shore they intended to conquer. No turning back, only forward. Those tiny islands of peace and clarity became treasures. The islands have grown and perhaps some day I will find myself more consistently on firm, dry land as I continue to work. Yes, there is a form of hypnosis, especially the part of the meditation where he "programs" you to pay attention during your day and say "change". For me it's a powerful form of self-remembering.

I'm not defending JD in any way, only sharing my experience.

Incidentally, as I've posted elsewhere, it took three years of doing EE and asking, "What is blocking me?" before traumatic memories started to bubble up to the surface and after ending up in hospital with missing time, I was ready to deal with "stuff". A person can feel they are a total nut job, but if we're willing to Work, there is gold under all the piles of manure we find ourselves buried under! Wouldn't change my journey of discovery for anything. All there is, is lessons. I can't in honesty say it always feel that learning is fun in the moment, but coming out the other side with more awareness is a gift of discovery about what life can be and how precious the gift of Life truly is. It might sound trite, but that's where I'm at most of the 'time' now.

 

[Bluefyre]

Addition to my post: the most value part for me of the JD meditation is that it is active. The NO therapy is more passive, it mirrors for the brain the pathways that are not working and the self-correcting is done by the brain whereas the JD meditation is an exercise in making active choices during the meditation and carrying those active choices into the day, self-remembering, making different choices, strengthening new neuropathways.

 

[Redrock12]

Or in the words of the 12-step programs, "Take what you like and leave the rest."

BHelmet, I understand discernment is always a necessary component of any tool one tries out to further their healing. I can only speak from my own experience. For instance, Jordan Peterson has a lot to offer a lot of people and as the Cs have said, he is a great soul. I never personally found a lot of value in his talks. I never needed someone to tell me to clean my room, being conditioned to be overly-responsible.

I had a pretty much broken brain/body/spirit when I came to this forum. It took years to fully realize just how broken. It has been a journey of years to rebuild and remember who I am and who I can be. There have been many tools I have acquired. For instance when I started doing Neuroptimal, it took 20 session before I could even close my eyes. The soup of hypervigilance I lived in was all I knew. I have a very knowledgeable practitioner I worked with, after 3 years of intense therapy and was familiar with my "issues". I read several books on neuroplasticity and it was JD's meditations that opened me in a practical way to the possibility that I COULD rebuild circuits, or in my case even grow circuits in my brain that had never had a chance to develop. (Read Healing Developmental Trauma). JD's induction, even more so than doing EE, was the only thing initially that calmed my body and brain. It was like water to someone dying of thirst, to start to quiet the noise and turmoil enough to start to connect with and hear that faint, weak part of me that was/is my connection with the divine.

So it's been eight years(?!) since I first posted this thread and I am still working on it. There is no free lunch. What comes to mind is Barbara Marciniak and the Pleiedians. Initially the information was mostly true and accurate and was corrupted in later books due to ego taking over. Do you throw out the information in Bringers of the Dawn, or use discernment to use the truth that is in that book?

I knew when I started this journey that I might not succeed, but I was willing to give it a go and see how much I could accomplish. I couldn't see any other options. I could not continue as I had lived my life. It felt like the Vikings who burned their ships when they landed on a shore they intended to conquer. No turning back, only forward. Those tiny islands of peace and clarity became treasures. The islands have grown and perhaps some day I will find myself more consistently on firm, dry land as I continue to work. Yes, there is a form of hypnosis, especially the part of the meditation where he "programs" you to pay attention during your day and say "change". For me it's a powerful form of self-remembering.

I'm not defending JD in any way, only sharing my experience.

Incidentally, as I've posted elsewhere, it took three years of doing EE and asking, "What is blocking me?" before traumatic memories started to bubble up to the surface and after ending up in hospital with missing time, I was ready to deal with "stuff". A person can feel they are a total nut job, but if we're willing to Work, there is gold under all the piles of manure we find ourselves buried under! Wouldn't change my journey of discovery for anything. All there is, is lessons. I can't in honesty say it always feel that learning is fun in the moment, but coming out the other side with more awareness is a gift of discovery about what life can be and how precious the gift of Life truly is. It might sound trite, but that's where I'm at most of the 'time' now.

What a journey of discovery to wholeness you've been on Blufyre. And it hasn't been an easy journey You are to be congratulated on your quest to finding your higher self.
From having known you these past few years thru the forum and the meetups, I would say you have accumulated a great deal of wisdom and caring for others. You have played a large part in my journey.
You are a blessing to all of us.
Thank you from the bottom of my heart.

 

[Ant22]

I agree. Having been to R$E, having worked for them, knowing Joe personally, experiencing the immense programming happening there I don't want to take away the positive vibes a lot of people seem to get from him (he's a very charismatic speaker). My only advice would be to take anything he says with a grain of salt. I think he's out for the business. I didn't experience him as a particulary empathetic and giving' person.... but that's just my thoughts.

You seem to have an issue with the author and it makes you reject the content of this specific book this thread is about. What specific aspects of Dispenza's Breaking the Habit of Being Yourself did you find useless, harmful or loaded with RSE / JZ Knight content?

Even a broken clock is right twice a day so I wouldn't be so quick to throw the baby out with the bath water. Note that in the current romantic fiction reading project members are advised to stick to specific books rather than specific authors as not everything an author writes is of the same quality. So I think it's fair to say we do we do our best to develop and maintain a habit of separating the wheat from the chaff. Maybe Breaking the Habit of Being Yourself is that grain of wheat.

Or maybe Dispenza came to the same realisation about RSE / JZ Knight as you did and that's why he chose to distance himself from that source? To use an analogy, Laura was once a committed mainstream Christian who truly believed the biblical version of events was true. And look at her now, she has recently published a book on the history of Christianity proving the official version to be inaccurate.

 

[Tauriel]

What specific aspects of Dispenza's Breaking the Habit of Being Yourself did you find useless, harmful or loaded with RSE / JZ Knight content?

I admit I didn't read it and wouldn't touch it with a pole.
I might contemplate the core of the problem I have with him though and will refrain from stating my very subjective experiences I have with him.

 

[Pat]

Guilt by association, then?

Depending on what circles you're in, he's not particularly well known. I don't know of a single person outside this forum that's heard of him before. But also, Jordan Peterson and Gabor Mate are famous but that doesn't take away from their body of work as much as it shows that what they are saying resonates and is understood by a lot of people.

I visited his website and it is over the top with merchandise. He's branded himself in a lot of ways. Maybe even caught the bug of materialism that he claims his work and meditation is meant to rise above. But does that make him a full-blown narcissistic charlatan, though? There's also the fact that people in general often don't value something unless they have paid or sacrificed for it in some way. Maybe Dispenza knows that. Plus, at the end of the day if people are actually going through meaningful changes because of his books, meditations and workshops then isn't that what's most important?

I do agree with you @Turgon. He was part of my readings, and here I am today with the Cs and all of you today!

 

[iamthatis]

I've done the Breaking the Habit of Being Yourself meditation twice (full way through) and it was incredibly powerful. Since then, I've noticed something show up for me, and thought to put it to the network.

Now, almost every time I sit down to have a smoke, I get a strange but pleasant-feeling weight about my body, the sensation of my own occupation of space, and I go into what I describe to myself as 'alpha state'. A very deep grounding. It only happens when I don't have any other pressing task at hand (for instance, when I take a smoke break at work, I don't start gettin' all bodhisattva). But the surprising thing is its consistency. As I said - it's almost every time I sit down at home to have a smoke. Sometimes it's a no-mind kinda thing. Sometimes I reflect or contemplate, on Faith, for instance, or my next task of the day. Sometimes the sensation of weight is accompanies by other sensations, be it a slow and swirling pressure in the head (best way I can describe it) or a relaxation into a deep silence and stillness, and sometimes I drop off into a 'nap', although maybe ecstasy is a better word... ecstasy coming from Greek, ek + stasis, standing outside oneself (although in my case it's more like slouching outside oneself). Often I engage in the 'I am, I can, I am can' mantra detailed in Gurdjieff's final book. There are also other times where I begin to dissociate and go into chains of associations, but it's often easy enough to pull back to awareness.

At first when these sensations began, I felt fear. Swirling head pressures and all that is not something to be taken lightly. The close-to-involuntary nature of it was also a cause for concern. The cause of this fear can be understood in two ways - a genuine alarm that something is amiss and that I am being interfered with. Or it is fear of the unknown, fear of change, the fear of the false personality who wants to cling to its power. I am currently seeing this fear as the latter more than the former. I haven't noticed any evidence that I am being interfered with - in fact, I feel more grounded, capable of completing tasks, and also capable of relaxing when I need to. There are none of the hallmarks of interference, be it sudden changes in habit or demeanour, negativity. The only thing that I've noticed along these 'interference' lines is that the good ol' "speshul" voice shows up, but I'm kinda used to the guy now, and it's simpler now to see it, laugh at its ridiculous grandiosity, and move on.

There's been some other stuff, too. I got the 'impression' of the face of a smiling Gurdjieff outside my window one morning. I woke up in the middle of the night one night and there appeared to be a gold light shining into my room. And then, one night as I was reading Earth Changes, a whole bunch of dots connected in my head, and I had to write them out - leading to this post - the sensation that occurred was pretty powerful, not just a simple "aha!" of understanding, but lightning-bolt-of-understanding kinda thing, followed by a dizziness, a drunken kind of feeling, discombobulation, sort of the muscular fatigue you get from exercise, but this time it was in my brain. That swoon has since passed, once I published the post.

At any rate, I'm don't think all of this can be hung on the Joe Dispenza hook, but his meditation does have a role to play in what's transpiring over here. I know myself enough to slow down and not get lost in the ethers (again), so I don't think I'll be returning to his program until it's clear that it is a good idea to do so. I don't feel that this is the fear talking - but a more grounded sort of caution.

 

[Turgon]

Now, almost every time I sit down to have a smoke, I get a strange but pleasant-feeling weight about my body, the sensation of my own occupation of space, and I go into what I describe to myself as 'alpha state'. A very deep grounding. It only happens when I don't have any other pressing task at hand (for instance, when I take a smoke break at work, I don't start gettin' all bodhisattva). But the surprising thing is its consistency. As I said - it's almost every time I sit down at home to have a smoke. Sometimes it's a no-mind kinda thing. Sometimes I reflect or contemplate, on Faith, for instance, or my next task of the day. Sometimes the sensation of weight is accompanies by other sensations, be it a slow and swirling pressure in the head (best way I can describe it) or a relaxation into a deep silence and stillness

Sounds like you are going through an experience of getting out of the left-brain/male consciousness and delving into the right-brain/female consciousness, or at least a combination of the two where there's a temporary interaction between the two halves coming together for brief moments. I've had that happen a few times doing the Dispenza meditation. Particularly near the end of 2019/beginning of 2020 I was being diligent about it and thought that I really could change the way I feel and noticed this fear at the potential loss of the familiar and known. Namely, negative states and emotions that I had become used to as if they were a part of my identity that I couldn't let go of.

But what if I could be happier or let go of these negative states that have permeated my existence? Is it possible to live with joy and gratitude for life and everything that I have and expand from that into different directions? What about my suffering? What'll I do if I'm not suffering in some form or another that I'm used to? The very idea of that filled me with fear but also excitement at the prospect of the unknown and letting go of my assumptions that this unknown will end in loss. Maybe it was also part and parcel about having a little faith in the process and that the universe is actually on my side whether I believe it or not. So I decided to go ahead with it anyways. And that doesn't mean I'm encouraging you to. I respect your thoughts on having some caution and each of us has our own unique way and path towards 'god'.

The more I did the meditation (and I combined parts of it with Eiriu-Eolas as well depending on how much time I had) eventually started delving deep and could actually 'feel' what Castaneda talks about as a glowing coat of awareness that seems like a rod in the very center of myself, something very stable and present that activated a number of different nerve-center clusters that stemmed out and shifted my awareness out of my head and more embodied and grounded.

This was coupled with an ability to see all the thoughts passing through me as something inherently 'other' and not hold on to any of them as none of them were inherently me. I was not allowing myself to get hooked in. There was something inexpressibly freeing about it that led to a number of profound insights and temporary states of illumination and realizations. I found it easier and easier to get into this state where thoughts were occurring but they were slowed down and assessed without any excess of analysis. There was a 'presence' in the meditation.

There were some inspirational thoughts and ideas, threads that I needed to follow (and not really knowing why but deciding to trust the process) that came to me in those moments seemingly out of nowhere and sometimes even accompanied by flashes of light that eventually led to me travelling to Peru as something that I needed to do. And there, learning about what it means to have reverence for acts of creation and love. Which are what those particular ancient cities mean to me. I was in a sacred place and that deserved my respect.

Anyways, just some thoughts to share based on what you wrote. I can't say all the above was entirely because of Dispenza's work either, because I would often question, make fun of and disregard aspects of the guided meditation and what he was asking of the listener. I didn't want it to be a mechanical process but a conscious one where I was actively engaged and honest about it. If I couldn't feel the love from this universal force inside of me then I'm not going to pretend to but rather ask the questions as to what is preventing me from it, and what that even means or looks like, etc. This seemed to open doors in that realizing my limitations seemed to shift and change by the simple act of seeing and understanding them without judgment and with clarity and acceptance.

Left Hemisphere Consciousness	Right Hemisphere Consciousness
Conceptualization, imagination, dogma, time-future, time-past.	Sensing, perceiving directly via observation, empiricism, now (no time).
Theoretical imagination.	Physical connection.
Linear logic.	Nonlinear logic.
Ritual, habit, fixed roles, repetition, fixation.	Creativity, spontaneity.
Morality, judgment.	Compassion, acceptance.
Superstition derived from imagination; often misuses limited direct observation and experience.	Science based on collecting of data, direct observation; can create theories with proper use of theoretical imagination.
Asceticism, sense deprivation.	Celebration.
Theology: Confucianism, Hinduism, Buddhism, Greco-Roman Religion, Judaism, Christianity, Islam.	Mysticism: Taoism, Tantrism, Yoga, the “Mystery Traditions,” Gnosticism, Alchemy.