{"id":100848,"date":"2023-04-26T08:28:00","date_gmt":"2023-04-26T12:28:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/?p=100848"},"modified":"2023-05-02T14:01:51","modified_gmt":"2023-05-02T18:01:51","slug":"becoming-supernatural-book","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/becoming-supernatural-book\/","title":{"rendered":"Joe Dispenza: Becoming Supernatural (Book Overview)"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

What is Joe Dispenza’s Becoming Supernatural<\/em> about? What is the key message to take away from the book?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In his book Becoming Supernatural<\/em>, Joe Dispenza outlines a powerful plan for personal transformation. He says our subconscious mind<\/a> is the most powerful aspect of our being, and we can use it to create the life we desire if we become aware of the power of our own thoughts. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Below is a brief overview of Becoming Supernatural<\/em> by Joe Dispenza.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

Becoming Supernatural<\/strong><\/em><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

In his book Becoming Supernatural<\/em><\/a>, Joe Dispenza explains how our thoughts and the resulting emotions create our reality<\/strong> and how we can use this knowledge to change our life to one of abundance and joy. He explains that this involves breaking free from old patterns of thinking by using meditation<\/a> and visualization techniques to create a new reality and manifest your dreams<\/a>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

He calls this \u201cbecoming supernatural\u201d because you\u2019re using the power of your thoughts alone to transform your physical reality<\/a>. It\u2019s a process of recognizing that you are more than your body and tapping into a power beyond what most people are able to access.<\/strong> This will make you appear to the average person to be achieving something supernatural.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Joe Dispenza is a chiropractor, author, and self-help speaker. His research interests include epigenetics, quantum physics, and neuroscience. Dispenza is also the author of Breaking The Habit of Being Yourself<\/em><\/a> (2012) and You Are The Placebo<\/em><\/a> (2014), both of which discuss the power of your mind for healing and changing your life<\/a>. He is also featured in the 2004 documentary What The Bleep Do We Know!<\/em>?<\/a>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

This guide is organized into two parts. In Part 1 we\u2019ll explain Dispenza\u2019s premise that your experience of life is determined by deeply-embedded patterns of thought and emotion that can trap you in a vicious cycle of negativity. Then in Part 2, we\u2019ll turn to an explanation of Dispenza\u2019s methods for overcoming those patterns and creating a new reality for yourself. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Throughout the guide, we\u2019ll compare some of Dispenza\u2019s ideas to concepts and practices in long-established Buddhist and Hindu traditions, as well as their connection to the more historically recent New Thought movement<\/a>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Part 1: Your Thought-Feeling Patterns Create Your Life Experience<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Dispenza begins by explaining that our whole experience of life is created by feedback loops<\/a> between our thoughts and emotions\u2014which we\u2019ll call thought-feeling patterns<\/em>. <\/strong>He says these thought-feeling patterns underlie all of your experiences and behaviors, so if you want to change your life<\/a>, you must begin by changing your thoughts.<\/strong> This means you also need to get out of some of your habits and do things differently\u2014which he describes as shifting to the \u201cunknown.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The thought-feeling pattern works like this:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

  1. Your brain processes information and experiences in the form of thoughts<\/em> which generate an electrical charge.<\/li>
  2. That electrically-charged thought causes the brain to secrete chemicals.<\/li>
  3. Those chemicals create the emotions<\/em> you feel.<\/li>
  4. The emotions become stored in your memories. <\/li>
  5. Those emotionally-laden memories then affect how you\u2019ll perceive, interpret, and respond to every subsequent experience you have.<\/li>
  6. This means your thoughts<\/em> will be influenced, and the cycle starts all over again.<\/li><\/ol>\n\n\n\n

    So, Dispenza argues, when you experience something very negative or traumatic, as many people do, you can get stuck in a pattern where that memory and the bad feelings associated with it continue to influence your thoughts<\/em> in the future. Your brain will interpret future information and experiences more negatively, resulting in further negative emotions, and so on in an endless loop. So to make your life better, you must learn to interrupt those negative thought-feeling patterns so you can begin to think and feel more positively<\/strong>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Trauma Keeps You Stuck in the Past<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

    Dispenza says that the stronger an emotion, the stronger the memory associated with it, and this explains why it\u2019s so difficult to overcome thought and feeling patterns connected to trauma. Traumatic experiences evoke some of the strongest emotions we\u2019ll ever feel, so they become deeply ingrained in our brains.<\/strong> This means trauma keeps us stuck in the past<\/a> via our neural circuitry, causing us to get caught in vicious cycles of negative thought and emotion\u2014we\u2019re constantly perceiving the present in light of what happened to us in the past. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Dispenza also explains that our brains don\u2019t necessarily distinguish between an actual experience and a memory of one\u2014in other words, every time you remember an experience, your brain essentially re-lives it as if it were happening all over again. So, when you have a traumatizing experience, the memory of it can cause your autonomic nervous system to have a stress response<\/a>, and when your body is frequently in this stress-response mode, it can wreak havoc on your health.<\/strong> So overcoming these deeply-ingrained thought-emotion patterns is crucial for both your mental and physical health. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    One key to overcoming these trauma-induced stress responses is to recognize that your autonomic nervous system operates on a subconscious level. This means that any technique for interrupting and changing these patterns must act on a subconscious level<\/strong> as well. As we\u2019ll see in Part 2, that\u2019s what Dispenza\u2019s meditation techniques are designed to do. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Shift From the Known to the Unknown <\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

    Because of this thought-feeling cycle that becomes ingrained in our memories and our neural circuitry, Dispenza says our brains are quite literally living in the past<\/a>. Whether we have trauma or not, most of us are living in a state wherein our past constantly determines our present and our future. This means nothing in our life can change\u2014the status quo is just reinforced day after day. He says in order to make any life change, we must shift from the known to the unknown, thereby allowing for new possibilities. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Think about your daily routines. It may go something like this: you wake up, have coffee, check your email and social media notifications, take a shower, get dressed, and head to work. At your job, you probably have a regular daily routine, and then you\u2019ll go home and have your evening routine<\/a>. Dispenza says that by doing things the same way every day, we train our brains to always expect the same things<\/strong>, so the same things will continue to happen. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

    For example, if you expect your commute to work to be stressful, you\u2019ll create that stress by anticipating it. And your whole morning routine may be triggering that expectation in advance. By changing your morning routine, or taking a different route to work, you may be able to avoid some of that stressful experience by allowing for the possibility of something new. In other words, if you ever want something different to happen in your life, you\u2019ll need to interrupt those habitual patterns so your brain can start expecting something new. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Dispenza emphasizes, however, that changing your external circumstances and daily routines is only one step in the process\u2014a deeper internal shift also needs to happen to radically change your life. <\/strong>This is where meditation comes in. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Think Better Than You Feel to Improve Your Life <\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

    Because you can only ever create new possibilities for yourself when you are free from your familiar past and predictable future, Dispenza says you must learn to elevate<\/em> your thought patterns\u2014meaning, think more positive thoughts<\/a>. This will then create more positive emotions, and eventually, a better future will follow. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Dispenza draws on concepts from the law of attraction<\/a> <\/em>to explain that a positive life change requires positive intentions. He says your intentions (thoughts) and emotions generate electrical and magnetic charges in your brain. The combination of these, then, becomes your electromagnetic field. In order to attract better things into your life, you must raise the vibration of your electromagnetic field.<\/strong> When you do this, experiences, situations, and people with a similar electromagnetic frequency will gravitate toward you. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Dispenza stresses that just having the intention is not enough. To turn the unknown (a possibility) into material reality requires intention <\/strong>and sincerely felt emotion<\/em><\/strong>.<\/strong> So, if you want to create positive change in your life, you need to generate emotional states that are greater than the ones you typically feel. <\/strong>And you need to maintain those elevated emotional states as much as possible as you go through life. This, of course, is easier said than done. Some techniques for how to do this will be discussed in Part 2. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Part 2: Meditation Creates New Thought-Feeling Patterns<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

    Now that we know that our problems have negative thought-feeling patterns at their foundation, we need to understand what practical steps we can take to remedy these unhealthy feedback loops. Dispenza has developed specific meditation techniques designed to interrupt those cyclical patterns and generate higher-frequency and more harmonious mental activity.<\/strong> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    In this second half of the guide, we\u2019ll discuss some of Dispenza\u2019s research into brain waves and look at how changing your brain waves taps into your subconscious programming. Then we\u2019ll discuss why the heart is just as important as the brain, and how you can bring more energy into your heart center with breath work. Finally, we\u2019ll look at a unique meditation method Dispenza has developed to prime your brain to expect a brighter future.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Changing Your Brain Waves Changes Your Mind<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

    Dispenza\u2019s research includes monitoring the brainwave states of his meditation practitioners. In the book, he shares images from brain scans of his students to illustrate how dramatic the changes can be. He says that changing your life will mean changing your brain waves so that you have access to your subconscious mind<\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Dispenza explains that brainwave frequencies include the following:<\/p>\n\n\n\n