PDF Summary:Becoming Supernatural, by Joe Dispenza

Do you struggle with overcoming negative patterns of thought and emotion? In Becoming Supernatural, Joe Dispenza explains how you can break free from these destructive thought-feeling patterns by using meditation and visualization to create a new reality and manifest your dreams. He calls this “becoming supernatural” because using the power of your thoughts alone to transform your physical reality will appear to the average person as beyond human.

Joe Dispenza is a chiropractor, author, and self-help speaker with research interests in epigenetics, quantum physics, and neuroscience. Dispenza draws on this eclectic knowledge base to outline a powerful plan for personal transformation.

In this guide, we’ll explain Dispenza’s premise that our experiences are determined by deeply-embedded patterns of thought and emotion that can trap us in vicious cycles of negativity. As we explain Dispenza’s methods for overcoming these patterns, we’ll discuss related scientific research and explore the relationship between his ideas and certain Hindu and Buddhist concepts.

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Changing Your Brain Waves Changes Your Mind

Dispenza’s 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.

(Shortform note: Although Dispenza’s biographical information includes mention that he has research interests in neuroscience and quantum physics, his formal training is as a doctor of chiropractic. The brain research he describes was done in partnership with researchers at universities in the US and Australia.)

Dispenza explains that brainwave frequencies include the following:

• Beta waves: In your regular, waking consciousness your brain tends to be in a beta wave state most of the time. This can include:
  • Low-range beta waves: when you’re relaxed and not perceiving any threat in your environment, but you’re still alert—for example, when you’re chatting with a friend or playing with your child.
  • Mid-range beta waves: a more alert state when you’re slightly aroused but not terribly stressed—for example, when you’re driving in an unfamiliar city or doing a presentation at work.
  • High-range beta waves: when you’re in a high-stress state, such as road rage or in fear because you feel threatened.
• Alpha waves: Your brain is in an alpha wave state when you’re very relaxed, calm, and creative. You may slip into alpha-wave states throughout your day if you engage in meditative or creative practices that allow you to get out of your thoughts and into a calm “flow” state.
• Theta waves: your brain slips into a theta-wave state when you’re in that zone between waking and sleep—or when you’re in deep meditation.
• Delta waves: This is the brainwave state you’re in when you’re asleep, but very adept meditation practitioners can also go into delta-wave states while awake.
• Gamma waves: Dispenza calls this brainwave state a “superconscious” state. It’s a state associated with intense focus and transcendental and mystical experiences.

Dispenza explains that to tap into your subconscious mind, you must train your brain through meditative practices to drop into the lower-frequency brainwave states. This is because those are the states in which you access your deepest subconscious programming. He says when your brain waves change from beta to alpha, theta, and delta, your autonomic nervous system reacts differently to the world. Rather than responding to the world with stress and fear, it responds in a healthy way, which will keep you from responding to life through the lens of the past.

Additionally, Dispenza says that meditation improves the coherence of your brain waves, meaning they go from being disorganized and inconsistent to moving in a more smooth and harmonious pattern.

Meditation Can Be Transformational

In terms of frequency, gamma brain waves are the highest-frequency wave, followed by beta, alpha, theta, and delta (the lowest-frequency wave). Most people only ever experience brief fleeting moments of gamma waves, lasting less than a second—for example when you have a momentary experience of blissful surprise, like the first bite of a delicious food. But some very experienced meditators have been shown to stay in gamma-wave patterns throughout their whole day. This indicates that they exist perpetually in a different state of consciousness than the average person.

In their book Altered Traits, psychologist Daniel Goleman and neuroscientist Richard J. Davidson discuss their experimentation on what they call “Olympic-level meditators,” which shows that this kind of high-level meditation is fundamentally transformational. Such meditators show little experience of fear or pain and greatly increased levels of compassion and empathy. However, they also note that the meditative practices of most ordinary people, while still helpful for reducing stress and increasing compassion, have much less profound effects on the brain.

Meditation for Changing Your Brain Waves

To change your brain waves, Dispenza suggests a meditation that has you focus your attention on the various parts of your body, one at a time. Even more importantly, though, he says as you focus on each body part, you should also try to become aware of the space that surrounds those body parts. As your attention moves throughout your body, and to the space around it, you then start to become more aware of all the space surrounding you—from the space directly around your body, to the space of the whole room, and outward to the whole universe. This puts you in a mindset where you become aware of yourself as a part of the whole, and it will shift your brain waves from beta to alpha and theta-wave patterns. Dispenza offers the more detailed guided meditation on his website.

By practicing this meditation regularly, Dispenza says you’ll begin to feel all the potential that exists in the universe, and your energy becomes aligned with the universal energy. This means you’re tapping into and attracting that vast energetic potential in the universe, and you’ll begin to attract everything you desire.

(Shortform note: In his book Inner Engineering, yoga guru Sadhguru says everything in nature has the purpose of reaching its fullest potential, and all other life forms, from algae to spiders to ravens, do everything in their power to become the fullest expression of what they’re meant to be. Humans are the only creature that falls short of its potential. He says when you practice yoga, which is tightly connected to meditation, your body is like an antenna that can connect to the vast energy in the universe and is therefore the mechanism for giving that seed of potential within you the right conditions to grow into what you’re meant to be.)

The Heart Is Just as Important as the Brain

In addition to the brain, Dispenza says the heart is an essential piece of the puzzle because your heart is in constant communication with your brain and central nervous system. This means that, like your brain, your heart is also a source of knowledge and emotion, so it’s important that it’s in a coherent state.

Like our brain waves, our heartbeat can also be either inconsistent or coherent, Dispenza explains. A coherent heartbeat is more conducive to peaceful and positive emotions and raises your electromagnetic vibration. So your negative thought-feeling patterns are reflected in your heart as well. This means it’s important to activate your “heart center,” which means resting your attention on your heart in meditation in order to bring positive energy to it.

Dispenza illustrates the importance of the heart by describing some case studies of heart transplant patients who experienced subtle changes in their personalities after receiving a transplant. In one case, a woman who received a heart transplant from a young man developed cravings for specific foods that she had never craved before, and she later found out they were the favorite foods of the heart donor. According to Dispenza, this means there is knowledge stored in our hearts as well as our brains.

The Benefits of Heart-Brain Coherence

The Heartmath Institute has been leading research related to heart-brain coherence. According to Dr. Rollin McCraty, “Coherence is the state when the heart, mind, and emotions are in energetic alignment and cooperation.” In this state, there is a harmonious flow of energy and communication between these different aspects of ourselves, leading to a sense of wholeness and well-being.

When we experience heart-brain coherence, our thoughts, emotions, and physical sensations are in harmony, which can lead to a number of positive effects. For example, we may feel more centered, focused, and alert, with a greater sense of clarity and purpose. We may also feel more connected to others and the world around us, with a greater sense of empathy and compassion.

The Heartmath Institute offers resources for helping you attain better heart-brain coherence, including a video with a brief guided meditation, as well as a downloadable e-book with 12 different techniques you can learn.

Meditation for Heart Wisdom

To increase the energy in your heart center, Dispenza offers a meditation involving bringing your awareness to your heart as you breathe and set intentions. In this meditation, you’ll pay attention to your chest as it expands and contracts each time you take a breath. As you breathe like this, concentrating on your heart center, you’ll think about a positive intention for your life and try to generate a corresponding heartfelt positive emotion. (Shortform note: Dispenza’s website doesn’t include a guided version of this meditation, but you can find a version of it on the Insight Timer app.)

This exercise can be done for 10 minutes at first, and you can increase the time as you feel comfortable with it. Dispenza says this will create a more calm and coherent heart rate, relieving stress and anxiety, and conditioning your body and mind to feel love and compassion instead of fear and anxiety.

(Shortform note: In addition to meditation, another way you might try replacing fear and anxiety with love and compassion is through physical affection. In The Body Keeps the Score, Bessel van der Kolk says that physical touch, such as hugs, rocking, and massage, can create a sense of safety, protection, and trust that can relieve tension in our bodies and therefore create a calmer, more coherent brain and heart.)

Understanding Your Energy Centers

A third component to transforming your thought-feeling patterns is what Dispenza calls the body’s “energy centers.” These are what is known in yogic philosophy as “chakras.” He says the body stores emotions in the form of energy in the chakras, and the way that energy is stored, and in which chakras, will affect your physical and mental health. He provides a breathing technique designed to move your energy through the chakras, clearing away the negativity and increasing the flow of positive energy. Let's look at how this works.

There are seven major chakras in the body, in a straight line from the base of your spine to the crown of your head:

• The lowest three chakras, which are located in the lower half of your torso, are associated with survival—they contain energy related to sexuality and reproduction, digestion and elimination, and competition for survival. Emotions like anger, frustration, and guilt tend to get stored in these lower centers, particularly the third center, known as the “solar plexus.” This is why you often feel these emotions in your gut.
• The fourth chakra is located in the middle of your chest and is associated with your heart. This center generates the energy of love, compassion, and selflessness.
• The fifth chakra is located in the area of your throat and is associated with empowerment through language and expressions of truth.
• The sixth chakra is located in the middle of your head, behind the space between your eyebrows, and is sometimes called your “third eye.” This center is associated with higher states of consciousness.
• The seventh chakra is located at the top of your head and is associated with experiences of the divine or supernatural.

Dispenza says most people tend to hold the majority of their energy in the lower three chakras, and this keeps us mentally in survival mode. This means we go through life acting more on our instinctual drives than on our higher abilities. He explains that energy moves through your spinal cord via what he calls a “prana tube” and the goal of meditation is to move that energy from the lower chakras to the higher ones. Increasing energy in the higher chakras will shift your perspective from one of ego and survival to one of selflessness and connectedness. And he says breathwork can help you raise that energy, thereby increasing the power of your electromagnetic field and generating elevated emotions.

Awaken the Serpent Through Kundalini Yoga

In this portion of the book, Dispenza is essentially describing kundalini yoga, though he uses different terminology for some of the concepts. According to kundalini yoga—which has its origins in the ancient Vedic texts of India—there is a powerful energy that lies dormant at the base of the spine, which is characterized as a sleeping serpent (Dispenza refers to it as a dragon). Through yoga practices, the serpent can be awakened and the energy directed upward through the chakras—or, energy centers—to the crown of the head, allowing access to a higher state of consciousness.

Each chakra is associated with different aspects of our physical, emotional, and spiritual selves and represents a different level of consciousness. When your energy isn’t correctly flowing through the chakras, according to this system, you’ll experience imbalance in these centers, causing the following problems:

• Root chakra (Muladhara): An energy imbalance in the root chakra may cause you to feel a lack of purpose and ambition in life, causing feelings of stagnation and frustration.

• Sacral chakra (Svadhisthana): Too much energy being held in the sacral chakra can lead to emotional explosiveness and an excess of sexual energy, while too little can cause a lack of energy and creativity.

• Solar plexus chakra (Manipura): An imbalance in this area can lead to digestive issues, as well as anger, depression, and low self-worth.

• Heart chakra (Anahata): When your heart chakra is imbalanced you may experience problems relating to others, such as jealousy, insecurity, and trust issues.

• Throat chakra (Vishuddha): When this chakra is out of balance you’ll have problems with expressing yourself. This might manifest as a lack of confidence or timidness.

• Third eye chakra (Ajna): An imbalance in the third eye can cause you to become overly egocentric, or the opposite—fearful of success. It can also cause headaches and vision problems.

• Crown chakra (Sahasrara): Having an imbalance in the crown chakra can result in self-destructive behavior, thwarting your own progress toward enlightenment.

Chakra Meditation

To raise your energy from your lower chakras to your heart and beyond, Dispenza offers an energy center meditation. This involves placing your awareness on your lowest chakra, at the base of your spine, and then feeling the space around that area. You will then send positive thoughts and emotions into that chakra. Then, you’ll move upward, doing the same thing for each of the chakras one by one.

After you’ve focused on each chakra and the energy around them, you’ll visualize all the energy around your whole body. This meditation should calm down your autonomic nervous system and allow you to raise the vibration of the energy throughout and around your body, moving the lower-chakra energy upward to the higher chakras. Dispenza offers a more detailed guided version of this meditation on his website.

(Shortform note: Although there’s little scientific evidence to support the existence of chakras, medical research does show that breathwork can have a healing effect on your body by calming your autonomic nervous system (ANS). In The Body Keeps the Score, psychiatrist Bessel van der Kolk explains that your breathing pattern directly affects your heart rate variability (HRV), the balance between how your heart rate rises and falls. A healthy HRV indicates a healthy ANS, which allows you to stay calm in the face of challenges and also contributes to better physical health by keeping your stress hormones low.)

Kaleidoscopes and Mind Movies

Finally, Dispenza has developed some unique methods for reprogramming the subconscious mind to overwrite the existing patterns of negative thought and emotion, using kaleidoscope imagery and what he calls “mind movies.” He says these techniques will affect you on a subconscious level by putting you into a trance-like state to make your mind more susceptible to the messaging.

According to Dispenza, you’re constantly being programmed unconsciously by the messaging around you via television, advertising, social media, and other inputs you encounter throughout the day. This messaging can deeply embed negative thought-feeling patterns into your brain. To undo the damage of that, his technique involves consciously choosing what messaging to put into your brain.

(Shortform note: There’s plenty of scientific support for the idea that we’re being unconsciously programmed by the messaging around us all the time. For example, social media algorithms prioritize content that generates strong emotions, such as outrage or fear, as these emotions tend to keep users engaged for longer periods of time. Studies have shown that this creates greater political polarization and more negative emotions that can lead to low self-worth, depression, and anxiety.)

The first tool in this method involves the use of kaleidoscope imagery. Dispenza noticed that when he goes into a deep meditative state, he tends to have visions that look like the colorful geometric patterns you see when you look through a kaleidoscope. He theorizes that something about this visual imagery is indicative of moving into a transcendental state. So, using actual kaleidoscopes and a video camera, he made recordings of the imagery for use in meditation. The idea is that by watching these videos, the viewer’s mind will be triggered into going into a trance state, which allows for the brain to become more open to suggestion.

Once the trance state is achieved, the viewer will then watch a self-created visualization video—called a “mind movie.” Participants in his workshops are instructed on how to create their own individual visualization videos beforehand. Using movie editing software, the participant chooses photos representing their dreams and goals. So, for example, if you want to increase wealth in your life, you might use photos of the material objects that represent that wealth to you. Or if you want to find a romantic relationship, you’d choose photos of happy couples or anything else that represents that ideal relationship for you. A video montage of these photos is created, set to music the participant chooses—this would be any song that creates a feeling of elevated emotion for you. This then becomes your visualization video.

The complete meditation method involves pairing the kaleidoscope video, which you watch first to get your mind into a suggestible state, with the visualization video, which will embed that imagery into your brain. This primes you to become more conducive to creating that future, as your brain will begin to behave as though it were already a reality. By repeating this activity regularly, any pre-existing patterns of trauma, fear, pessimism, and resistance will be gradually replaced with hope, optimism, and openness to a new reality. (Shortform note: Here is an example of a kaleidoscope meditation combined with a mind movie.)

Mandala Meditation as Kaleidoscopic Mind Movies

Dispenza’s use of kaleidoscope imagery is similar to the centuries-long Buddhist and Hindu tradition of using mandalas in meditation. A mandala is an intricate, colorful, symmetrical artwork that represents the universe. The word comes from Sanskrit, meaning "circle" or "center."

Michal Beaucaire, author of The Art of Mandala Meditation, says meditating on mandalas affects our brains like this:

• The designs and imagery create harmony between the left and right brain hemispheres.

• This harmonizing effect on the brain is conducive to entering alpha-wave states.

• Being in alpha-wave states can allow us to influence our bodies and minds to make positive changes.

But the mandalas in Beaucaire’s book, like many modern variations, tend to be composed of only geometric patterns (like this)—very much like kaleidoscope imagery. In addition to geometric patterns, traditional mandalas usually contain imagery of deities and other symbolism representing Buddhist or Hindu beliefs. These kinds of mandalas are used as a tool in meditation and prayer by providing a visual reference for the practitioner’s focus on core spiritual concepts.

For example, in the Buddhist tradition of tantra, the meditator focuses on each image in the mandala one at a time, envisioning themselves becoming that deity or symbol. In this way, they ideally visualize their own dissolution into the universe by imagining themselves as one with everything. This is a transformative practice geared toward the individual’s enlightenment. Because this practice utilizes geometric patterns to induce the trance-like state, and simultaneously uses specific images to imprint symbolic ideas and concepts into the meditator’s mind, this traditional use of mandala is very much like Dispenza’s combination of the kaleidoscope and the mind movie.