it's a scientific fact that the hormones
of stress down regulate genes and create
disease long-term effects human beings
because of the size of the neocortex we
can turn on the stress response just by
thought alone as I think about our
problems and turn on those chemicals
that means then our thoughts could make
us sick so if it's possible that Ott's
could make us sick is it possible then
our thoughts could make us well the
answer is absolutely yes everybody
welcome to impact Theory our goal with
this show and company is to introduce
you to the people and ideas that will
help you actually execute on your dreams
alright today's guest is a New York
Times bestselling author and one of the
most sought-after speakers in the world
he's lectured and given advanced
workshops in more than 30 countries
across five continents all with the aim
of helping people better understand and
unlock the power of their mind his
expertise is the intersection of the
fields of neuroscience epigenetics and
quantum physics and he's partnered with
other scientists across multiple
disciplines to perform extensive
research on the effects of meditation
using advanced technologies such as
epigenetic testing brain mapping with
EEG s and gas-discharge visualization
technology through his work he is
endeavouring to help advance both the
scientific community and the public at
large as understanding of mind derived
health optimization a topic he covered
extensively in his groundbreaking book
you are the placebo his teaching has had
such a profound impact on the way that
people perceive a wide range of brain
related topics around mindfulness and
well-being that he's a faculty member at
the quantum University in Hawaii the
Omega Institute for holistic studies in
New York and the Kerr Paulo Centre for
yoga and health in Stockbridge
Massachusetts
he's also an invited chair of the
research committee at life University in
Atlanta as well as a corporate
consultant where he delivers his
lectures and workshops for businesses so
please help me in welcoming the man who
has appeared in such films as heal
people versus the state of illusion and
unleashing creativity the author of the
recent book becoming supernatural dr.
Joe Dispenza
thanks for being here so diving into
your world and how you perceive the
sense of self and the way that you marry
science - the way that we form memories
the way that we live in a perpetual
state of reliving our past and things
like that it's really really incredible
and I want to dive into the whole notion
of you sort of being a habitual
construct like what what is that what is
the habit of you well a habit is a
redundant set of automatic unconscious
thoughts behaviors and emotions that's
acquired through repetition the habit is
when you've done done something so many
times that your body now knows how to do
it better than your mind so if you think
about it people wake up in the morning
they begin to think about their problems
those problems are circuits memories in
the brain each one of those memories are
connected to people and things at
certain times and places and if the
brain is a record of the past the moment
they start their day they're already
thinking in the past each one of those
memories has an emotion emotions are the
end product of past experiences so the
moment they recall those memories of
their problems they all of a sudden feel
unhappy they feel sad they feel pain now
how you think and how you feel creates
your state of being so the person's
entire state of being when they start
their day is in the past so what does
that mean the familiar past will sooner
or later be predictable future so if you
believe that your thoughts have
something to do with your destiny and
you can't think greater than how you
feel or feelings have become the means
of thinking by very definition of
emotions your thinking in the past and
for the most part you're going to keep
creating the same life so then people
grab their cell phone they check their
what's up they check their texts they
check their emails they check facebook
they take a picture of their feet they
post it on Facebook they tweet something
they do Instagram they check the news
and now they feel really connected to
everything that's known in their life
and then they go through a series of
routine behaviors they get out of bed on
the same side they go to the toilet they
get a cup of coffee they take
our they can't trust they drive to work
the same way they do the same things
they see the same people that pushed the
same emotional buttons and that becomes
the routine and it becomes like a
program so now they've lost their free
will to a program and there's no unseen
hand doing it to them so when it comes
time to change the redundancy of that
cycle becomes a subconscious program so
now 95% of who we are by the time we're
35 years old is a memorized set of
behaviors emotional reactions
unconscious habits hardwired attitudes
beliefs and perceptions that function
like a computer program so then person
can say with their five percent of their
conscious mind I want to be healthy I
want to be happy I want to be free but
the body's on a whole different program
so then how do you begin to make those
changes well you have to get beyond the
analytical mind because what separates
the conscious mind from the subconscious
mind is the analytical mind and that's
where meditation comes in because you
can teach people through practice how to
change their brainwaves slow them down
and when they do that properly they do
enter the operating system where they
can begin to make some really important
changes so most people then wait for
crisis or trauma or disease or diagnosis
you know they wait for loss some tragedy
to make up their mind to change and my
message is why wait and and you can
learn and change in a state of pain and
suffering or you can learn and change in
a state of joy and inspiration I think
right now the cool thing is that people
are waking up that's really interesting
and where I found the the deepest hooks
into how powerful this can be for
somebody is when you talk about trauma
and you've talked about how people
experience a traumatic event but they
then basically rehearse it and how that
then has this knock-on effect so what is
that why do people find it so hard to
get past trauma well the the stronger
the emotional reaction you have to some
experience in your life the higher the
emotional quotient the more you pay
attention to the cause and the moment
the brain puts all of its attention on
the cause it takes a snapshot and that's
called a memory so long-term memories
are
created from very highly emotional
experiences so what happens then is that
people think neurologically within the
circuitry of that experience and they
feel chemically within the boundaries of
those emotions and so when you have an
emotional reaction to someone or
something most people think that they
can't control their emotional reaction
well it turns out if you allow that
emotional reaction it's called a
refractory period to last for hours or
days that's called the mood I say to
someone hey what's up think so I'm gonna
move well why are you in a mood well I
had this thing happen to me five days
ago and I'm having one long emotional
reaction if you keep that same emotional
reaction going on for weeks or months
that's called temperament why is he so
bitter I don't know let's ask him why is
he so bitter why are you bitter well I
had this thing happened to me nine
months ago and if you keep that same
emotional reaction going on for years on
end
that's called a personality trait and so
learning how to shorten your refractory
period of emotional reactions is really
where that work starts so then people
when they have an event what they do is
they keep recalling the event because
the emotions of stress hormones the
survival emotions are saying pay
attention to what happened because you
want to be prepared if it happens again
turns out most people spend 70% of their
life living in survival and living in
stress so they're they're always
anticipating the worst-case scenario
based on a past experience and they're
literally out of the infinite potentials
in the quantum field they're selecting
the worst possible outcome and they're
beginning to emotionally embrace it with
fear and their conditioning their body
into a state of fear do that enough
times body has a panic attack without
you you you can't even predict it
because it's programmed subconsciously
so then you say to the person why are
you this way and they'll say I am this
way because of this event that happened
to me 15 or 20 years ago and what that
means from biological standpoint is that
they haven't been able to change since
that event
so then the emotions from the experience
tend to give the body and the brain a
rush of energy so people become addicted
to the rush of those emotions and they
use the problems and conditions in their
life to reaffirm their limitation so at
least they can feel something so now
when it comes time to change you say the
person why are you this way well every
time they recall the event they're
producing the same chemistry in their
brain and body as if the event is
occurring firing and wiring the same
circuits and settings the same emotional
signature to the body well what's the
revelant behind that well your body is
the unconscious mind it doesn't know the
difference between the experience that's
creating the emotion and the emotion
that you're creating by thought alone so
the body's believing it's living in the
same past experience 24 hours a day
seven days a week 365 days a year
and so then when those emotions
influence certain thoughts and they do
and then those thoughts create the same
emotions and those same emotions
influence the same thoughts now the
entire person's state of being is in the
past so then the hardest part about
change is not making the same choice as
you did the day before a period and the
moment you decide to make a different
choice get ready because it's going to
feel uncomfortable it's going to feel
unfamiliar it's there's gonna be
something so why does it feel so
uncomfortable is it because of the the
neurons that fire together wire together
so I've there's like an easiness to that
loop just because literally and you've
talked very eloquently about this the
way that the neurons connect in the
brain how rapidly I've seen you show
footage of how rapidly those connections
happen which is pretty incredible is is
that what makes it so discomforting for
people I think that I think that the
bigger thing is that we we keep firing
and wiring those circuits they become
more hardwired so there you have a
thought and then the program runs but
it's the emotion that follows the
thought if you have a if you have a
fearful thought you're gonna feel
anxiety the moment you feel anxiety your
brains checking in with your body and
saying yeah you're pretty anxious so
then you start thinking more
corresponding thoughts equaled how you
while the redundancy of that cycle
conditions the body to become the minds
so now when it comes time to change
person's steps into that river of change
and they make a different choice in all
of a sudden they don't they don't feel
the same way so the body says well
you've been doing this for 35 years well
you're gonna just stop feel suffering
and stop feeling guilty and stop feeling
shameful and you're not gonna complain
or blame or make excuses or feel sorry
for yourself long the body's in the
unknown so the body says I want to
return back to familiar territory so the
body starts influencing the mind then it
says start tomorrow you're too much like
your mother you'll never change this
isn't gonna work for you this doesn't
feel right and so if you respond to that
thought as if it's true that same
thought will lead to the same choice
which will lead to the same behavior
which will create the same experience
which produce the same emotion I want to
talk about that notion of give me a
little more detail we mean by the body
becomes the mind or the unconscious mind
what do you mean by that exactly well
those are two different things your body
is your unconscious mind in a sense if
you're sitting down and you start
thinking about some future worst-case
scenario that you're conjuring up in
your mind and you begin to feel the
emotion of that event your body doesn't
know the difference between the event
that's taking place in your world outer
world and what you're creating by
emotion or thought alone so most people
then they're they're constantly
reaffirming their emotional states so
when it comes time to give up that
emotion they can say I really want to do
it but really the body is stronger than
the mind because it's been conditioned
that way so the servant now has become
the master and the person all of a
sudden once they step into that unknown
they'd rather feel guilt and suffering
because at least they can predict it
being in the unknown is a scary place
for most people because the unknown is
uncertain people say to me well I can't
predict my future I'm in the unknown and
I always say the best way to predict
your
futures have created not from the known
but from the unknown what thoughts do
you want to fire and wire in your brain
what behaviors do you want to
demonstrate in one day
the act of rehearsing the mentally
closing your eyes and rehearsing the
action the rehearsing the reaction of
what you want or the action of what you
want by closing your eyes and mentally
rehearsing some action if you're truly
present the brain does not know the
difference between what you're imaging
and what you're experiencing in 3d world
so then you begin to install the
neurological Hardware in your brain to
look like the event has already occurred
now your brain is no longer a record of
the past now it's a map to the future
and if you keep doing it priming it that
way the hardware becomes a software
program and who knows you just may start
acting like a happy person and then I
think the hardest part is to teach our
body emotionally what the future will
feel like ahead of the actual experience
so what does that mean you can't wait
for your success to feel empowered you
can't wait for your wealth to feel
abundant you can't wait for your your
new relationship to feel love or your
healing to feel whole I mean that's the
old model of reality of cause and effect
you know waiting for something outside
of us to change how we feel inside of us
and when we feel better inside of us we
pay attention to ever or whatever caused
it but what that means then is that from
the Newtonian world that most people
spend their whole life living in lack
will hitting through something to change
out their what do you mean the Newtonian
world Newtonian world is all about the
predictable it's all about predicting
the future but the quantum model of
reality isn't is about causing an effect
the moment you start feeling abundant
and worthy you are generating wealth the
moment you're empowered and feel it
you're beginning to step towards your
success
the moment you start feeling whole your
healing begins and when you love
yourself and you love all of life you'll
create an equal and now you're causing
an effect and I think that's that the
difference between living as a victim in
your world saying I am this way because
of this person or that thing or this
experience they made me think and feel
this way when you switch that around you
become a creator of your world and you
start
my thinking and my feeling is changing
an outcome in my life and now that's a
whole different game and we start
believing more that were creators of
reality so how do we go from okay I have
this negative emotion it's controlling
my life it's got me in this cycle of I
think about this emotion which triggers
a chemical reaction which trains my body
to feel that way which makes it easier
more likely I will do it again and so
now I'm in this vicious line unconscious
and it's unconscious right and you you
said does your thinking create your
environment orders your environment
create your thinking which I thought was
really really interesting so how do we
then go from that like mechanistically
to begin this visualization process of
something that's empowering its me in a
different state it's my future self is
it meditation is it what does that look
like if you're not being defined by a
vision of the future then you're left
with the old memories of the past and
you will be predictable in your life and
if you wake up in the morning and you're
not being defined by a vision in the
future as you see the same people and
you go to the same places and you do the
exact same thing at the exact same time
it's no longer that your personality is
creating your personal reality now your
personal reality is affecting or
creating your personality your
environment is really controlling how
you think and feel unconsciously because
every person every thing every place
every experience has a neurological
network in your brain every experience
that you have with every person produces
an emotion so some people will use their
boss to reaffirm their addiction to
judgment they'll use their enemy to
reaffirm their addiction to hatred to
use their friends that we affirm their
addiction to suffering so now they need
the outer world to feel something so to
change them is to be greater than your
environment to be greater than the
conditions in your world and the
environment is that seductive so then
why is meditation the tool well let's
sit down let's close our eyes let's
disconnect from your outer environment
so if you're seeing less things is less
stimulation going to your brain if
you're playing soft music or you have
earplugs in less sensory information
coming to your brain so you're
disconnecting from
environment if you can sit your body
down and tell it to stay like an animal
stay right here I'm gonna feed you when
we're done you can get up and check your
emails you can do all your texts but
right now you're gonna sit there and
obey me so then when you do that
properly and the you're not eating
anything or smelling anything or tasting
anything you're not up experiencing and
feeling anything you would have to agree
with me that you're being defined by a
thought right so when the body wants to
go back to its emotional past and you
become aware that your attention is on
that emotion and where you place your
attention is where you place your energy
you're siphoning your energy out of the
present moment into the past and you
become aware of that and you settle your
body back down in the present moment
because it's saying well it's eight
o'clock you normally get upset because
you're in traffic around this time and
here you are sitting and we're used to
feeling anger and you're off schedule oh
it's 11 o'clock and usually check your
emails and judge everybody well the body
is looking for that that predictable
chemical state every time you become
aware that you're doing that and your
body is craving those emotions and you
settle it back down into the present
moment you're telling the body it's no
longer the mind that you're the mind and
now your will is getting greater than
the program and if you keep doing this
over and over again over and over again
over and over again just like training a
stallion or a dog it's just gonna say
I'm gonna sit and the moment that
happens when the body's no longer the
mind when it finally surrenders there's
a liberation of energy we go from
particle to wave from matter to energy
and we free ourselves from the chains of
those emotions that keep us in the in
the familiar past and we've seen this
thousands of times in fact we can
actually predict it now on a brain scan
that's so interesting
let's go a little bit harder on
metacognition the notion that you don't
have to believe everything you think I
love the way that you talk about that
hmm yeah and we have a huge frontal lobe
it's 40% of our entire brain and most
people when they have a thought they
just think that that's the truth and I
think one of my greatest
realizations in my own journey was just
because you have a thought it doesn't
necessarily mean it's true so if you
think 60 to 70 thousand thoughts in one
day and we do and 90% of those thoughts
are the same thoughts as the day before
and you believe that your thoughts have
something to do with your destiny your
life's not gonna change very much
because the same thought leads to the
same choice the same choice leads to the
same behavior the same behavior creates
the same experience and the same
experience produces the same motion and
so then the act of becoming conscious of
this process to to begin to become more
aware of how you think how you act in
how you feel
it's called metacognition and so then
why is that important because the more
conscious you become of those
unconscious states of mind and body the
less likely you're gonna go unconscious
during the day and that thought is not
gonna slip by your awareness unchecked
because your it means to know thyself
and the word meditation means to become
familiar with so as you become familiar
with the thoughts the behaviors and the
emotions of the old self you're retiring
that old self as you fire and wire new
thoughts and condition the body into a
new emotional state if you do that
enough times it'll begin to become
familiar to you so it's so important
just like a garden if you're planting a
garden you've got to get rid of the
weeds you got to take the plants from
the past year and you got to pull them
out the rocks that sift to the top that
are like our emotional blocks they have
to be removed that soil has to be
tenderized and broken down we have to we
have to make room to plant the new
garden so primarily we learn the most
about ourselves and others when we're
uncomfortable because the moment you
move into that uncomfortable state
normally a program jumps in when that
program jumps ins because the person
doesn't want to be in the present moment
and engage it consciously so when you
teach people how to do that with a
meditative process turns out that when
they're in their life they're less
likely to emotionally react they're less
likely to be so rigid and believe the
thoughts they were thinking they're more
aware of when they go unconscious back
into a habit and that
is what starts the process of change and
so we have to unlearn before we relearn
we have to break the habit of the old
self before we reinvent a new self we
have to pre synaptic connections and
sprout new connections we have to
unfired unwire and refire and rewire we
have to unmemorable body to a new mind
into a new emotion like the program and
reprogram that's the act and it's a
two-step process yeah I like the way
that you call that out as an action
there was another thing that you said
that I thought was really powerful about
how insights themselves are essentially
inert they don't do anything what what
then do we do with an insight how do we
take a breakthrough moment and make sure
that it's not just a breakthrough moment
like I guarantee people watching right
now are having like a hundred aha
moments for sure that was definitely the
case for me as I was researching you and
when you said that I was like and that's
the danger that you have the AHA and
then nothing yeah yeah and that's it's a
it is a danger because then people will
will shrink back into mediocracy and
they'll use the insight to excuse them
from taking a leap they'll say yeah you
know I have a chemical imbalance in my
brain yeah my father was really
overbearing he was a perfectionist
that's why I am the way I am you know
people they come up with stuff to to
excuse themselves the insight is
actually giving them permission to stay
limited and it's an amazing idea because
they'll say to you and they really want
to get over their anxiety but let's ok
let's take your ex-husband let's put him
in a straitjacket
let's duct tape them and shoot them to
the moon know what I mean what are you
gonna do now you still have to make
those changes and so then the person's
enemy dies or they're something shifts
in their life and that person's gone
they'll find another person to hate this
is just how we function as human beings
we just slide another reason to feel
those emotions so I think I think when
people start to understand this you know
I think knowledge is power but knowledge
about yourself is self empowerment so
how much of this is really learning to
just bifurcate the world into there's
negative emotions that have negative
neuro chemistry associated with
and you said that in those states if
you're living in a perpetual state of
stress hormones and things like that
illness is like a step away and then
just the other side of that is
understanding but there's this whole
other side of positive energy which
happiness joy empowerment whatever that
you know neurochemical cocktail is but
that when you're on that side your
immune system is more likely to function
well like is that just sort of bringing
it down to like a really basal yeah
that's sort of one of the biggies well
let's talk about it in terms of survival
or creation as I said 70% of the time
people live in stress and living in
stress is living in survival now all
organisms in nature can tolerate
short-term stress you know a deer gets
chased by a pack of coyotes when it out
runs the Coyotes it goes back to grazing
and the event is over and the definition
of stress is when your brain and body
are knocked out of balance out of
homeostasis the stress response is what
the body and Nate Lee does to return
itself back to order
so you're driving down the road someone
cuts you off you jam on the brakes you
may give them the finger and then you
settle back down and the event is over
and boom now everything's back back to
normal but what if it's not a predator
that's waiting for you outside the cave
but what if it's your coworker sitting
right next to you and all day long
you're turning on those chemicals
because they're pushing all your
emotional buttons when you turn on the
stress response and you can't turn it
off now you're headed for a disease
because no organism in nature can live
an emergency mode for that extended
period of time
it's a scientific fact that the hormones
of stress down regulate genes and create
disease long term affects human beings
because of the size of the neocortex we
can turn on the stress response just by
thought alone which I think about our
problems and turn on those chemicals
that means then our thoughts could make
us sick so if it's possible that our
thoughts could make us sick is it
possible that our thoughts could make us
well the answer is absolutely yes
so then what are the emotions that are
connected to survival let's name them
anger aggression hostility hatred
competition fear anxiety worry pain
suffering guilt shame unworthiness the
envy jealousy those are all created by
the hormones of stressin and psychology
calls them normal human states of
consciousness I call those altered
states of consciousness so then we tend
to remember those traumatic events more
because in survival you better be ready
if it happens again that's an and in
one's survival gene is switched on you
could have ten really great things that
happen to you in your day and you just
have one bad thing that happens and you
cannot take your attention off that bad
that that unhappy thing because the
survival gene is switched on it's really
interesting how does epigenetics come
into play and all this like what's
actually happening you've talked pretty
profoundly about proteins and like
really at a deep level how we're
signalling to our genetics to create
these kinds of changes what does that
actually look like
well epigenetics epi means above the
gene and many years ago after the DNA
helix was discovered by Watson and Crick
they said the blueprints of life you
know all diseases are created from genes
it turns out less than 5% more like 1%
of people on the planet are born with a
genetic condition like type 1 diabetes
or tay-sachs disease or sickle cell
anemia the other 95 to 99 percent are
created by lifestyle and by choices you
can take to identical twins exact same
genome one dies at 51 the other one dies
at 85 same gene different environment so
all of a sudden they said we lied that
was wrong it's not genes that create
disease it's the environment that
signals the gene that creates disease
well ok but that's not the whole truth
too because you could have two people
working side by side in the same factory
one gets cancer after being exposed to a
carcinogenic for 25 years both working
for 25 years the other one has no cancer
at all so there must be some
internal order that would cause one
person to not get it while another one
does so is it possible then if the
environment signals the gene and it does
and the end product of an experience in
the environment is called an emotion can
you signal the gene ahead of the
environment by embracing an elevated
emotion we've done the research on this
where we measured 7,500 different gene
expressions in a group of people it came
to an advanced event for four days and
we had them doing a seated meditation a
walking meditation a laying down
meditation a standing meditation and at
the end of four days just four days the
common eight genes that were upregulated
two genes to suppress cancer cells and
tumor growth two genes for neurogenesis
the growth of new neurons in response to
novel experiences and learning the gene
that signals stem cells to go to damaged
areas and repair them the gene for
oxidative stress was upregulated we
started seeing all these genes that are
very very healthy to cause the body to
flourish imagine if people were doing
that for three months we also measured
telomeres the little shoestrings on the
end of DNA that tell us our biological
age we asked people to do the work
meditation five out of seven days for 60
days measure their telomeres that
determine their biological age sixty
days later seventy four percent of the
people lengthen their telomeres 40
percent significant change twenty
percent a very remarkable change that
means that they got a little bit of
their life back if it lengthened by ten
percent they got 10% of their life back
that's incredible
before I ask my last question tell these
guys where they can find you online sure
my website is just dr. Joe Dispenza
dot-com you can follow us on Facebook
Twitter Instagram we're all over and
then my final question what's the impact
that you want to have on the world I
think that the end game for me is to
empower people to such a degree that
they realize that they need less things
outside of them to make them happy
less things outside of them to regulate
their moods and their behaviors and that
they begin to use the kind of the power
that we all have access to and into
really and to change the world to make a
difference so that there's more peace
there's more homeless there's more
connection that we support and love each
other and we serve better and and I
think that we have to start for the most
part if everybody's working on
themselves and and trying doing their
best to present the greatest ideal of
themselves to the world I think the
world would be a better place and so
that's my passion and I'm witnessing it
happening now the more than I ever
thought I would was incredible Joe thank
you so much for being here and amazing
having you guys go watch this man's
videos they are some of the best
explanations of what's going on inside
the mind that I've ever come across
there were of several that I literally
have people in my life that I'm going to
force to sit down and watch these things
it's just incredible explanations of how
you create yourself out of the things
you do habitually the way that you think
creates a feeling the way that you feel
creates thinking that matches that and
then you get in this cycle and that
coming down to that personality
ultimately being a finite set of
patterns in your brain I think is really
really illuminating in terms of how we
actually experience the world and I
think when people understand that that
it's within your control that you don't
have to believe every thought that you
think that you can step outside of that
that you can leverage metacognition to
think about your thinking and
deconstruct and decide what you want to
think about and start focusing on that
and create an entirely different version
of yourself that has new elevated
feelings that's over on the side of the
positivity empowering yourself I think
it's really incredible and he gets deep
into the mechanistic stuff which I love
you guys will not regret diving deep
into this man's world I think you will
get some incredible revelations all
right if you haven't already be sure to
subscribe and until next time my friends
be legendary
take care
thank you so much for being hired by the
incredible everybody thank you so much
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