489 - Take Control of Your Mind & Manifest Your Dreams with Dr. Joe Dispenza

25:34and she had her thyroid completely removed. They cut the thing out and then she was taking her medication and she was getting sick and she went to the doctor. All our values were normal. All our thyroid hormones were normal. They imaged her throat and she had a thyroid there. And I was bothered by that. I said I want to see the scans. I don't believe it. And I have to change my belief. I mean, how far down the rabbit hole do you want to go? I am not going to argue with people any longer about whether this works or not. I already know it does. I just want to give people the opportunity to experience it.

26:14That's all.

26:16Marie Forleo:So I think one of the other things that is a challenge, and it can be a challenge for people like us who care deeply about the integrity of our work, whatever our craft is, whatever we're focused on. And we also care deeply about the success of the mission and how that kind of comes to life in the business itself and growing a team and leading. So I'm curious, Dr. Joe, if at various points in your journey, have you ever experienced challenges in the time it takes to keep pushing and discovering the new aspects of the craft because you're always evolving and having the team evolve and grow and having the mission get out there?

26:54Marie Forleo:And if you could speak to any of the ways that you've navigated those? Gosh, now I'm speaking from my present state of ignorance. I just want to say that. I think it's trial and error. I'm not a type of person that's afraid to fail. I really don't even see it as failure. I just see it as an opportunity to do it again, do it better. What do I need to change about myself to produce a different outcome? I think leadership and leading a team, it takes great effort and great work. And you are all so mission-driven, and mission motivation is the highest form of motivation. It's been studied. People who are duty-motivated or mission-motivated or have a purpose, a vision that's bigger than them, that is the reason they get up in the morning.

27:37And for me, it's always been that. I want to be a part of transformation. I want to witness that. I stood next to a woman who opened her eyes on the beach in Cancun, and she was able to see for the first time. I wanted to be there for that. I wanted to be there for that moment. I wanted to remember what's possible. So the mission is the highest form of motivation. The next form of motivation is called personal conviction motivation. People who are personally convicted are the ones that say, I'm going to do this because I say that I'm going to do it. It's a high form of motivation, but it's not the highest form.

28:10People who have a mission naturally have personal conviction. The next form is called ethics or morality motivation. It's a little bit polarized. If you're good and bad, right and wrong. If you're bad, you want to be good. If you're good, you want to be bad. You know that game. It's not a very high form of motivation, but people can function that way in polarity. But people who truly have a mission, have personal conviction, will naturally have a sense of ethics and morality. The next form of motivation is self-aggrandizement motivation. Hey, look at me. I'm famous. I'm popular or whatever. Not a very high form of motivation.

28:44People spend their whole life looking for that moment. But if you have the mission, if you have personal conviction and you stay with it and you have a sense of morality and ethics, you will get the attention and the recognition that you need. By the way, the lowest form of motivation is money motivation. But if you follow the sequence, money always comes as a side effect. The most selfless are the most selfish. And so I have to remind myself every day of what my mission is. And it is to transform individuals in order to transform the world or transform the culture. and I have to make a lot of hard decisions every single day about 2024.

29:19I've got to make a lot of hard decisions about which direction we're going to go, how we're going to do the science. I have to make a lot of hard decisions all the time, and I can't do any of this without my team. How do you build a great team? For me, they have to share the same mission. They have to share the same vision. They've got to share the same passion. But what are the components that keeps them moving in that direction? like the mission of going in a certain direction. What keeps them in that direction is just really two simple things, and one is called competence. You've got to be really badass good at what you do, so good at what you do that you own it, that you've mastered it.

29:58If you have that level of competence with accountability, like you say you're going to do something and you do it, or you're asked to do something and you do it because you say you're going to do it, If you put those three things together, the mission, competence, and accountability, I think that you have excellence in an individual. And you have trust amongst the culture. In other words, I don't have to look to see what you're doing because I know you're doing your job really well. Now, the person who can't balance those three things will be outstanding. They'll stand out and someone will have to stop doing what they're doing and all of a sudden have to help that person.

30:36Now, that happens, you know, sometimes, but usually people can evolve and self-correct. And so for me personally, we have gone through so many stages of growth. I mean, we interact with hundreds of different countries around the world. Now, we have thousands and thousands and thousands of people in community, and it's not easy to be able to integrate and interact with the world in the proper way. And so for us, we have to keep learning. If you're in emergency, if you're in stress, you're in survival, you can't learn. It's not a time to learn. No new information can enter the nervous system that isn't equal or relevant to the emotion that the person is experiencing.

31:19You've got to be able to teach your team how to shorten the refractory period of their own emotional reactions. If they can't self-regulate and control their emotions, there'll always be a gap in perception between the way things appear and the way things really are. And so many times you have this period of growth and you don't have the systems in place, the infrastructure to be able to handle that growth, and there's a breakdown that takes place. Me personally, I've never seen that as bad. I've just seen it as a blind spot. And so for me, we just keep hiring more people. and we hire experts, people that are really good at what they do that get the message and are able to represent it.

32:00But along the way in making those hard decisions, I have listened to attorneys, I've listened to consultants, I've listened to experts, and a lot of times I just look at them and I say, no. I'm not going to compromise myself. I will never do that. I don't know what I'm going to do, but I'm not going to do that. And I usually say, surely there's a potential in the quantum field where this can change. And that to me becomes the experiment. I like the experiment to see if I can produce an effect in my life by changing something about myself. And so if you are mission-driven and you have something that you really have that is of value to people, you will never have to sell it.

32:49I have been at enough business conferences where I've heard people talk on backstage and I walk out and I go, God, I'm really sorry. I'm going to tell you to do the exact opposite because I don't believe in any of those gimmicks. I really don't believe in any of that. I think that if you're real, you tell people the truth and you have evidence-based stuff that can change people's lives and you can have them remember to make better choices in their life. The research shows once you start making good choices, you'll keep making more good choices. It's keeping people in that place takes an enormous amount of energy and information.

33:21And the model that we're developing in terms of health care should never end because health is an ongoing process. Certainly, my own personal experience of what I understand health to be is very different than it was just a year ago. So knowledge and information to evolve our experience all the time, it's the precursor to the experience. So if I had dark nights of the soul in running my company, absolutely. Have I had people that we've had to let go of because of all kinds of reasons? Absolutely. But I'm not afraid to lose. I'm not afraid to fail. I just don't want to lose a lesson in the process.

33:56So it's a constant process of engagement. And I have to spend time alone to be able to answer those questions. I'm not going to rely on other people to do that. For me, it's important for me to get very clear on it. And sometimes it's a lonely process.

34:10Marie Forleo:I think it's so important, too, because in the world that we're in, and I've certainly experienced this myself, where you can kind of consult with experts, whether it's an attorney, it's someone who says, I am the best in the world at this, and they start giving you a piece of advice, and your gut just helps, like, absolutely frigging not. Like, no way in hell. And I think it's so important for all of us to support each other in that, because we are creating into the unknown, and to do something super unique like what you've built, and so incredibly transformational to be able to keep turning inside to hear that voice.

34:40Marie Forleo:It's critical. Thank you. So, yes, you can clap for that. That's a good one. So slightly on the more technical side, but I love this, is there was a point in your web presence where it was not necessarily anymore about the Dr. Joe show. All of the branding, it was about the community. And it was about the shift into the stories and the people. and I'm curious if you noticed any impact, whether it was for yourself or your team or just how it felt when you made that shift. Yeah. So when the pandemic happened, I was going, I was traveling 300 days out of the year. I mean, I was on the road quite a bit and we had such momentum, both with the scientific discoveries that we were uncovering and the human testimony, just the testimonial.

35:33of people telling their stories. I was completely blown away. And my biggest concern when we couldn't run events is we were going to lose momentum. We had some really serious momentum. And all of a sudden, we went to a halt. And so I had been so busy up until that point that I really never looked at my website.

35:53Marie Forleo:How many people have experienced that? You just got your head down for so long, and you're like, what? I didn't even look at it. I didn't even know it didn't matter to me. I thought it was all handled. I got on the website and I was like, oh, my God. This is horrible. And then I started asking the question. You know when you ask the question, who did this? You're like, who is responsible? And you don't hear any. It's crickets. Nobody's throwing anybody under the bus. And I realized it's everybody. And so when I looked at my website and I started, look, I never do this. I just never do this. I'm always in the process.

36:32So I started looking at my website, and it's pictures of me, and I started looking at other people's website. This is not about me. I want to make it about community, that community is the future. I just remember saying we've got to change everything. We have to change everything where people thought I was crazy. And, of course, I had to give them a little tequila. We had Zoom calls with tequila just to loosen them up a little bit. But really, the truth is that if you witness, as you're witnessing just in this room, a sense of community, a sense of connection. When I was watching what was happening in our week-long retreats, in seven days these people were transformed to such a degree, and how much love was in the room and how much there was care and kindness and everybody excited and free and transformation looked really wonderful.

37:26I started remembering that that's what it really is about, that it's collective networks of observers that really determine reality and we have to invest in community. We have to invest in that whole model of people actually being formed in the right way. And so for me, it was a simple choice to make because I love us. I love people who are actually questioning the nature of reality and stretching their mind into another experience. And the people that actually do it, they prove to themselves how powerful they really are. So I never wanted it to be about me. I always wanted it to be about the community.

38:07And I love when people stand on the stage and tell their story. I love it. I love seeing someone with ALS come to an event and then walk from the back of the room onto the stage and they're telling their story and they're not talking about anything else but change. The more I changed, the more I healed. And I loved seeing people's faces when the four-minute mile is standing on the stage. I'm looking at the audience of 2 ,000 people and everybody's leaning in. There's truth right in front of them. That person is speaking the truth and there's nothing like a good story. so it's not about me it's about us and what i love about our community is that we do the work we do the work not like oh geez i gotta go create my future this morning i'm really tired don't expect anything to happen because you're going to get up as the same person who sat down but the people who do this work and they see the novelty of coincidences and synchronicities and opportunities start showing up in their life you bet they're going to jump out of bed in the morning, can't wait to do it again to see if the experiment continues.

39:21And when that starts to occur, you can't wipe the smile off your face. And your friends think you switched medications or got a facelift or something happened to you. Something's weird about you. God forbid you're happy without them. You know, like, all of a sudden, what's going on with you? And the people in our community are doers. And I love that because the experiment always continues. It's not like, well, how come I'm not healed? I can't say that anymore. You just can't say that any longer. I've seen the sickest people with 50 brain tumors, tumors all through their spine. I've seen them with all kinds of stage four cancers and all kinds of paralysis, blindness, deafness.

40:05I've seen crazy stuff. they had every reason in the morning to say i don't feel like doing it they could have surrendered to that feeling that they couldn't think greater than how they feel but they showed up and did the work anyway and they overcame their body a little bit more there were days they were riddled with fear because the doctors told them they were stupid and they're going to die and that that moment was such a defining moment for them they could have said, I can't do my meditation today. There's too much fear. They could have surrendered to fear, but instead they chose themselves, showed up, and overcame their fear a little bit more that day and surrendered to love.

40:47There were days that they had a lot of doubt because their values were getting worse. Their family was worried about them. They didn't feel good. They were getting sicker. They had every reason to not do their meditation, to do the work, but nothing else was working. and the only belief they still had was in themselves. They showed up anyway and overcame their doubt a little bit more. There were days where they could have shelved the whole thing and said, I'm too busy. I got kids. I got appointments. I got dinners. I got social things to do. I don't have time to do the work. They made the time to do the work, and it's the overcoming process that is the becoming process.

41:25And the story that they tell, the allegory that they tell, naturally causes someone in the audience, as I said yesterday, who's facing the same rare genetic disorder that that person is facing, and they look at them and they say, she doesn't look any different than me. If she can do it, I can do it. And sometimes we have at our events four people with the same health condition. By the end of the week, four of them completely reversed because one person told the story on the stage. I don't know how that happens. All I know is that it's in the air on some level. And so community to me is where we really begin to make changes in consciousness because once you're aware of possibility, there's a change in consciousness.

42:08Marie Forleo:I've been to your events. I love them. I have so much fun. Told you that. Big fan. And one of the things that I was so struck by and it just made my heart explode was how different they are from so many other things that are in our industry. So, for example, there's no ascension model. Like you can't go do anything extra with Dr. Joe. It's just what it is. There's no VIP seating, for example. There's none of the things that many of us have just been exposed to. And I'm curious from a business how things operate point of view, if there's anything that you've discovered for yourself that you're like, here's some of the things we do differently.

42:46Marie Forleo:Because I love it. And again, it's really, really inspiring. I think we throw a really good party. I really think that when people come together they're nervous we require them to come prepared I tell them don't come don't come if you don't do the online course I'm not waiting for you I'm not waiting we got bodies to heal we got lives to change we have futures to create I'm very straight with our community very straight with them I'm going to give them numerous opportunities to overcome themselves numerous opportunities to connect I'm going to break it down. I'm going to say it as many ways as I can.

43:23I'm not going to stop believing in them. I'm not going to stop believing in possibility. And all we need is that one person to break through that one level of consciousness, to pierce that veil. Once that happens, then the rest is easy. Now, have I evolved? God, I hope so. My definition of surrender today is way different than it was just three months ago. I have a very strong sense for sound and music now. I know the words that I say. I know the words that I say that will change brainwave patterns. I know the rhythm now, how to say them. I know the sound of the music that enhances resonance and cross-frequency coupling in the brain.

44:02We've seen I know how to induce gamma by looking at the real-time scans. And so I want to make knowledge and information fun. And I don't want people to just listen to me. I'm going to challenge them, and then I've got to turn to somebody next to them and explain it. If you can't explain it, it's not wired in your brain, and you're going to doubt what you're doing. But if you can explain that what and why, the how gets easier. So it's a progression over time. And each day there's a model, and then the experience of that model, and then people begin to change. We evolve the experience of the model a little bit more.

44:37I'm never going to tell people a lie. I'm just not that type of person. I want to be really straight with them. I want to be really clear with them. I want to provide the sound science for them to understand. I want to give them examples. I want them to believe in themselves. I've discovered something really cool. This last year, I was watching this group of people. And it was a great group of people in Mexico. In Cancun, we were running this event on the beach. We did five walking meditations that week. They were just ready. And something amazing happened. I was watching all these people. and I realized that they were just super worthy.

45:18They kept showing up for themselves. If they stopped showing up for themselves, they would have never had that last moment. And it caused them to show up, continuously show up, and all of a sudden they just felt worthy to receive. They just were worthy to receive, and I think the universe only gives us what we think we're worthy of receiving. So I'm always challenging myself, challenging the model. I'm pushing the envelope a little bit more. We have advanced follow-ups now where people who have done the week-longs can come, and these are people that do the work. And so what we're looking at now is can we see the same changes in advanced meditators in three and a half days that we see in novice meditators?

45:57If you haven't seen the data on novice meditators, what happens in seven days is remarkable. So I really want learning to be fun. I want the experience of what people have to be fun. and then I want them to walk back in their lives renewed, refreshed, and connected to their future and believing in their future more than they believe in their past. And the only time you believe in your future more than your past is when you feel the emotions of your future. The moment you default to the familiar emotions, you can't see that future anymore and you disbelieve it. And that's why people do the work over and over again so they can believe and keep it alive in their minds and in their hearts.

46:34So we go at it as many ways as we can. can do. Seated meditation, standing walking meditations, laying down meditations. We're chasing the mystical. We're inducing trance. We're doing as much as we can. They're full days. Six in the morning till seven at night, four in the morning till eight at night. You ask those people if they're happier than heck. Well, where's all that energy coming from? Well, they're interacting with energy and frequency, and it's having an effect on their biology. And they're in a ballroom. You see all these changes to suggest that they're in a different environment. Now, I don't know about you, but I've been to enough ballrooms, they don't look really spectacular to me.

47:12The environment isn't that strong to signal so many biological changes, and yet the novice meditators in seven days look like they're in a completely different environment. That's how many genetic changes are taking place. Not one, not two, thousands. So, yes, they're in a different environment and they're in a ballroom. Well, where are all those changes coming from? They're changing their internal state, and the side effect of that is the body produces an endogenous set of pharmaceuticals. According to our research, it suggests that those pharmaceuticals work better than any pharmaceutical on the market.

47:47Marie Forleo:Amazing. Okay, so we only got a few minutes left. I've got two more questions. One, what has been the most challenging part for you and your mission so far, and what have you learned from it? hmm um i think i think i know i have to be honest with myself that i i run a lot of companies and i have to listen to a lot of people i have to be on a lot of zoom calls i'm like got to make decisions and that's kind of you know that's the routine linear stuff that i have to do and i have to be informed and i it's a lot and but i have to balance that with my creativity. Like I'm always interested in evolving our meditations.

48:29I'm always interested in evolving the message. I'm always interested in trying something new and working with different people. And so trying to balance, I think, my creative side with all of the linear stuff can be challenging at times. And sometimes I go from three Zoom calls to the sound studio and I got to get into a different part of my brain to be able to do a new meditation or whatever. So for me personally is trying to balance both my creative side with my linear side.

49:00Marie Forleo:How many people relate to that? Yeah, exactly. Because I just want to play. I mean, that's really what I want to do. And I can't be creative unless I'm playful. That's right. I saw, excuse me, I'm bad at it when I'm not playful. So, okay. Last question. As we wrap, we've talked a lot about mission. Is there anything that you're excited about that is driving you even more than the general mission these days to keep going? Because as I watch you and as I witness you and as I experience your work again, it's made such a huge difference in my life. It's really exciting because you are so playful. And I know there's always new frontier.

49:34Marie Forleo:So anything that you want to share about what's coming up for you or what's this next frontier that's really driving your mission? God, I'm just, again, And as I said yesterday, I am so hopeful for the first time in a long time about us as human beings. I'm really hopeful for us.

49:56I'm changing my belief on a daily basis. I watched people after our last event in Niagara Falls, the last healing that we did on those beautiful people. I watched them saunter up down the center aisle and drop their canes and crutches off. I never thought I would be seeing that in my lifetime. The scientists that we have on our scientific team were very skeptical. And now they see meditation as medicine. And I want to change that conversation in healthcare about self-regulation. I want to change that conversation to show people, really, that their involvement in their own personal health, in their own personal life matters.

50:42That they don't need anyone or anything outside of them to change their internal state. And if they do decide to take something outside of them, it will actually enhance the outcome. You can teach people how to do that. So the science that we're doing now, we're doing functional MRIs and PET scans. We're doing all kinds of sophisticated stuff with breath. we're looking at tears now everybody cries at our events there's there's a lot of information in those tears let's let's get as much information as we possibly can to have the model to be as complete as possible so that people actually when they sit down to do the work can assign meaning to it and have no doubt in the outcome and and i think you know with the science that we're doing now balanced with god so many amazing testimonials i have no idea uh what's going to happen next I really don't.

51:35Marie Forleo:Thank you so much for who you are and for who you've been to so many of us. And thank you for taking the time today. It's great. Thank you so much. Give this man a hand.