Joe Dispenza is a chiropractor, healer, and ascetic, and in “Becoming Supernatural” (2013) he teaches readers how to change their body by using their minds.
This article will provide you with a review and criticism of both the book, and Joe Dispenza’s general approach.
Contents
Bullet Summary
- We all have the ability to being supernatural
- By entering the quantum field of “unlimited possibilities” you can manifest the future you want
Full Summary
About the Author: there isn’t much biographical information about Joe Dispenza. We know though that he is a chiropractor, an influential self-help author, and he runs seminars to teach people how to self-heal. He is also the author of “You Are The Placebo“, and “Breaking the Habit of Being Yourself“.
Introduction
Joe Dispenza says that we all have in us the ability to be supernatural.
As a matter of fact, we are supernatural by nature, but we need to learn to unlock that power. Dispenza invokes meditation as his tool of choice for doing what he refers to as “the uncommon”.
He says that we have the capacity to tune into frequencies that takes us beyond the material world and hook us into streams of consciousness and energy.
Once you learn to make your mind work at that higher level of frequency, then you can intentionally change your body’s chemistry.
At that point, it’s possible that you can heal yourself.
Typical of Dispenza’s work, Becoming Supernatural purports to marry the mystical to science. The author says that changing our bodies with our minds is scientifically explained with quantum physics.
When we learn to access the quantum field, then we access a “field of unlimited possibilities”, as he calls it, because we leverage quantum physics. Quantum physics notoriously state that sub-particles are not in a defined spatial position but possess qualities of both matter and energy.
Becoming Supernatural also presents a lot of stories and anecdotes on the power of self-healing.
You Can Change Your Future
A topic central to Joe Dispenza is that we all live pains of the past by reliving them over and over in our, which bring upon us further pain.
Instead, he says we should do the opposite, and live in the present our future blessings.
Dispenza says that if you feel and embody into the present high-frequency emotions like gratitude and love for future events, then you are likely to live that future.
On top of envisioning a healthy body, Dispenza said that we can envision material possessions as well, which sounds a lot like the law of attraction.
For more on the law of attraction also read:
For more on the power of thinking also read:
Becoming Supernatural Criticism
There is little online on Joe Dispenza.
If you search for “is Joe Dispenza legit“, you will find a critical-sounding thread on his own forum’s website, but the page has been moved.
This website sounds aggressively disparaging, but offers little proof, and these days it’s way too easy to leave a smearing review against otherwise innocent people.
The Reddit community at “IsThisBullshit” is overall critical but, again, that doesn’t say much.
From what I gathered, much of the criticism to Becoming Supernatural echoes what I have already said in You Are The Placebo.
Joe Dispenza says that writing this book is a risk for him and his reputation.
He says that “certain people”, including people in the scientific community, might call his work pseudo-science.
He used to care about what those people would think, and he tried to have them approve of his work. Then, eventually, as he realized that his work was changing lives and that he could never win the approval of the scientific community
So he simply stopped caring.
In a way, it’s fair that someone stops pursuing the “approval” of a category that refuses to believe in his results.
I think Joe Dispenza shouldn’t stop or change the direction of his work and research to appease anyone.
I will go even further: we need people who don’t allow the rigidity of a given set of beliefs to shackle the human potential of finding new and better ways of doing things.
On the other hand, I can’t help but think that such a stance can also be an easy cop-out.
It could even be used as a ploy to point fingers against an out-group to further stoke the support of the in-group of followers (ingroup-ougroup is a well known sociological phenomenon which can be used to convince people and you can read here how Tai Lopez uses it).
The scientific community calls people who profess science but offer little proof “pseudo-science” (or pop-psychology in the social sciences).
Personally, I wouldn’t even call it pseudo-science. If you can’t offer proof that is replicable and falsifiable, then it’s not science at all. Simple.
The burden of proof lies on those who claim a scientific background to their theories. If you don’t provide scientifically falsifiable data, then you are not doing science and you should not call your work scientific.
I haven’t seen much scientifically falsifiable data in Becoming Supernatural.
The data has been proven in the author’s own (expensive) seminars.
If you can’t provide scientific backing, it doesn’t mean that your work is not good and it doesn’t mean that your work is not of high quality and life-changing.
It simply means that it’s not scientific.
BUT, if your work is helping people, then I believe that it should be in your best interest, in the interest of the people, and it should be your moral duty, to document and offer proof of your results so that more people can take advantage of it.
If you don’t and if you keep claiming scientific rigor, then it’s normal that some people will get suspicious.
The fact that those seminars are expensive, private endeavors, albeit not constituting any proof against Dispenza, have to make a critical mind seek even more solid proofs.
Overall, my opinion is that the science behind Becoming Supernatural is spotty. I leave instead an open mind and open heart on affecting -and changing- our physical bodies with our mind, but I don’t appreciate authors who try pitch scientific rigor when there is none (yet).
Big claims require big proofs
Real-Life Applications
I sounded very critical in this review, but there are still big takeaways for me that we could all heed more:
- We are often more powerful than we think we are
- Meditate is good (read: The Power of Now)
- Think positive and be grateful: it will do you a lot of good both mentally and physically
Becoming Supernatural Video Review
Here is a critical review of the book:
CONS
On top of the criticism offered above, here are some more relative to the text in itself:
Too Long & Repetitive
Becoming Supernatural could have been briefer.
Truisms
Dispenza says that he has proven that common people can do the uncommon. However, that doesn’t say anything. It’s a truism.
Big Words & Generic Statements
There are a lot of big words that sound profound and deep but end up leaving you with more confusion rather than more clarity.
Some generic expressions also don’t help to pinpoint what we’re talking about. Starting from the title for example, what’s “common” and what’s “uncommon”?
Upsell for Seminars
Sometimes I had the feeling that Becoming Supernatural pitched a bit too strongly the seminars and ended up being a teaser for booking a seminar’s seat or the meditations’ audio files.
Dispenza Review
I would give this book higher ratings and I would applaud Joe Dispenza’s work in exploring new paths.
IF he didn’t try to present his work within a scientific frame.
Giving a scientific label to something you are not proving scientifically and/or not allowing independent scientists to replicate must be, by definition, pseudo-science.
That’s NOT to say that what Dispenza teaches doesn’t work.
I do believe that what you think does shape you and there is much good you can take from Dispenza’s work.
But as of now, the way the author and the way Becoming Supernatural positions itself does not win my stamp of approval.
Check the best books collection or get the book on Amazon
When you spend a great deal of your spare time and read old books like Think and grow rich, surely you can rewrite just about anything and make it to a 2017 blockbuster and call it “YOUR OWN” wisdom shared with the world, and expensive seminars that add nothing to what you read in his books. Add that grain of salt on top and call it …. wait.. QUANTUM whatever this whatever that. QUANTUM…. holy doughnut does life taste good….
There is a catch to it. Just like the ancient monuments from thousands of years ago stood and still stay strong compared with “high-tech concrete Skyscrapers ready to collapse quicker than hoped for in comparison to the Great Pyramid of Egypt” likewise with knowledge from the past. The NEWER the writings the more crap they are. Read the old books and try to get hold of them before they stop selling them.
True, “Think and Grow Rich” spawned a wave of copycats with the law of attraction and later branched out into health as well.
I agree with you, the sprinkling of (made-up) science here makes it only sound more snake-oily.