December 7th, 2021
Dr Joe Dispenza – Cuixmala, Mexico. Courtesy Davis Gerber
IS IT POSSIBLE TO REWIRE OUR BRAIN THROUGH MEDITATION?
Absolutely. There is a concept in neuroscience called neuroplasticity, which is the brain’s ability to create new synaptic connections every time you learn or experience something new. There is another methodology that we teach called mental rehearsal. Whenever we’ve prepared for something important in our lives, we might have closed our eyes and mentally reviewed what we were going to do in that future scenario. It turns out that when we are truly focused and present, our brain doesn’t know the difference between the real-life experience and the one we are imagining in our mind. The research shows that, if done properly, the brain looks like we’ve already done the task or experienced that future–before it happens. In a very real sense, we are installing new neurological hardware and priming the brain for the event. To perfect this requires practice.
We can think of the brain as an artifact of the past–a living record of everything we’ve learned and experienced up to the present moment. With mental rehearsal, the brain is no longer a record of the past, but it becomes a map for the future. So if people are given the proper instructions on how to meditate–and if they are truly present–they can change their brain and body by thinking differently, and there is evidence in our research to support this. That’s because the thought becomes the experience.
“The energy of your empowerment must be greater than your pain or sadness.”
DR JOE DISPENZA | RENOWNED RESEARCHER, LECTURER AND NEW YORK TIMES BEST-SELLING AUTHOR
Dr Joe Dispenza – Cuixmala, Mexico. Courtesy Davis Gerber
CAN YOU EXPLAIN THE FOUR TYPES OF MEDITATION THAT YOU TEACH?
During the seated meditation, we teach people how to slow down their brain waves, get beyond their analytical minds and then reprogram unwanted habits, self-limiting behaviors and subconscious beliefs about themselves or their lives.
Once you’ve practiced the seated meditation, you can progress to both standing and walking meditations. You are then able to practice staying conscious in movement with your eyes open. Through mental rehearsal and repetition, the process of staying conscious becomes a habit. As a result, you can biologically become that person.
The lying-down meditation is the last one we teach at our week-long events. We want the body to enter into a light state of sleep, but with the mind still awake. Right at that level, the door between the conscious mind and the subconscious mind opens and many people experience a transcendental moment.
It is possible to be defined by a vision of the future instead of the memories of the past. If you can combine a clear intention (that’s a function of the brain) with an elevated emotion (that’s a function of the heart), you can biologically change your brain and body. If you do it enough times, you can rewire your brain and condition your body to feel like your future has already happened. Our research shows that all kinds of wonderful changes can take place in the immune system, gene expression, brain function and cellular metabolism, to name a few.
By embodying the energy of the future that you envision for your life–through practicing these four types of meditation–you can become someone new.
“If you want to change something about yourself, you would have to evolve from just thinking about it, to doing something about it, to becoming it.”
DR JOE DISPENZA | RENOWNED RESEARCHER, LECTURER AND NEW YORK TIMES BEST-SELLING AUTHOR
A Week-Long Retreat Led by Dr Joe Dispenza. Courtesy Ronny Barthel
WHAT PREVENTS US FROM MOVING FORWARD IN LIFE?
I think there are two very important things that need to be considered. The first one is stress. Stress is when your brain and body are knocked out of homeostasis–it’s when we are out of balance. No organism in nature can sustain living in survival for extended periods of time.
We will tap the body’s resources to heal by using all of its energy for the imminent threat or danger (real or imagined), and as a consequence, there literally is no energy for growth and repair. We’ve seen dramatic improvements in people’s health when they overcome those emotional states.
Since emotions are a record of the past, when someone overcomes a certain emotional state that they live by every day (which is the result of some past event or trauma), the body believes it’s no longer living in the same environment. Since epigenetics states that the environment signals the gene, overcoming an emotion can change gene expression. I believe that when the memory of the past no longer has the emotional charge, it becomes wisdom. I think that’s the name of the game.
The second thing is that by the time we’re in our mid-thirties, we are hardwired with a set of neurological programs that are the result of thinking the same thoughts, making the same choices, doing the same things, creating the same experiences and embracing the same emotions every day. Over time, we go on habitual autopilot and our body is dragging us into the same predictable future based on what we have always done in the past. In a sense, we lose our freewill to a set of automatic programs.
In order to change, we have to execute a will that is greater than those subconscious automatic programs. When we can sit in meditation and become conscious of our unconscious thoughts, become aware of how we act or speak and notice our feelings, it’s very possible that we won’t fall back into the habit of being ourselves in our waking day. Now the programmed mind is no longer running the show, you are.
AS A COLLECTIVE, HOW CAN WE UNLIMIT OURSELVES? IS IT POSSIBLE TO DO IT TOGETHER?
When we live in the survival emotions of fear, anger, pain, competition, or frustration, we become divided because we don’t trust or communicate with each other. Our heart literally beats incoherently and our brain doesn’t work very well either. However, if you can teach people how to open their heart, self-regulate or change their emotional responses and not react in stress (and there’s a science to doing this), something amazing happens. We tend to be less selfish and more selfless.
During a live event a few years back, we had a group of 1,000 people in the audience move into an elevated heart-centered emotion. We had them focus on the intention that the lives of the people in a smaller group at the front of the room would be enriched. We measured the responses of the people receiving that intentional energy. What we found is that many of those people in the smaller group go into heart coherence, as shown from their heart monitors, because they were being swept up by a collective energy. The larger group was influencing the emotional states of the smaller group. We can change who we are right now and I believe it will change others.
Dr Joe Dispenza teaches us that nothing changes in our life until we change. Through many years of conducting research and leading live retreats, he has developed a formula for change that includes a consistent meditation practice, leading to brain and heart coherence.