Dr. Joe Dispenza was one of the first researchers to study the effect of consciousness on reality from a scientific point of view. His theory on the relationship between matter and consciousness brought him worldwide fame after the release of a documentary.
A key claim by Dispenza is that the brain does not distinguish physical from emotional experiences. Roughly speaking, your brain cells do not distinguish between the real and the imaginary!
Joe Dispenza’s story
Few people know that the doctor’s research into neuroscience and consciousness began with a tragic experience. After Joe Dispenza was struck by a car, his doctors offered to rebuild his damaged vertebrae with the help of implants which subsequently could lead to life-long pain.
This was the only way he would ever walk again, said the doctors. But Dispenza decided to skip the expediency of traditional medicine and regain his health through the power of will. After only 9 months of therapy, Dispenza was able to walk again. This was his impetus for exploring the possibilities of consciousness.
The first step in his research into the effect of consciousness on reality was interacting with people who had experienced “spontaneous remission”. These were people who were spontaneously, and impossibly from the point of view of doctors, healed from serious illness without the use of traditional treatments.
Through his research, Dispenza found that all of the people who went through a similar experience were convinced that their mind was stronger than matter and could cure any disease.
Neural networks
Dr. Dispenza’s theory argues that every time we experience something, we “activate” a huge number of neurons in our brain, which in turn affect our physical condition.
It is the remarkable power of consciousness, due to its ability to focus, which creates the synaptic connections between neurons. Repeated experiences (situations, thoughts, feelings) create stable synaptic connections, called neural networks. Each network is, in fact, a specific memory, which our body references when it reacts to similar objects and situations.
According to Dispenza, our past is “recorded” in the neural networks of the brain which shape the way we perceive and experience the world as a whole and define its activities.
Thus, we just think that our reactions are spontaneous. In fact, most of them are programmed stable neural bonds. Each object (stimulus) activates a particular neural network, which in turn causes a certain set of chemical reactions in the body.
These chemical reactions cause us to act or feel a certain way – to flee or freeze in place, to be happy or upset, excited, or to fall into depression, etc. All of our emotional responses are no more than the result of chemical processes caused by these established neural networks, which are based on our past experiences.
In other words, in 99% of cases, we do not perceive reality as it really is we simply interpret it on the basis of existing images from the past.
The basic rule of neurophysiology is: neurons that are used together unite.
This means that the neural networks are formed through the repetition and retention of activities. If the experience is not repeated for a long time, then the neural connections begin to decay.
Thus, habits are formed by regularly “pressing” the buttons of the same neural network. This is how automatic reactions and reflexes are formed – situations where you may not have time to think and realize what is happening but your body is already reacting in a certain way.
The power of attention
Think about it: our character, our habits, our personalities are just a set of stable neural networks which we may at any time weaken or strengthen through the awareness of our perception of reality! Focusing deliberately and selectively on what we want to achieve, we can create new neural networks.
Previously, scientists believed that the human brain was static, but neuroscientific research shows that every single experience creates thousands and millions of neural changes that affect the body as a whole.
In his book “Evolve Your Brain: The Science of Changing Your Mind”, Joe Dispenza asks the logical question: if we think about a negative physical state often enough, won’t this state eventually become a reality?
Dispenza conducted a special experiment to demonstrate the effect of consciousness on reality. People from one group were told to click on the springy mechanism with the same finger for an hour every day. People of another group only imagined clicking the mechanism. The result was that the fingers of the first group of people strengthened by 30%, and those of the second by 22%.
This effect of purely mental practice on physical parameters was the result of neural networks. Dispenza’s research demonstrated that to the neurons of the brain, there was no difference between a real and a hypothetical experience.
So, if we pay attention to our negative thoughts, our brain perceives them as reality and causes corresponding changes in the body. For example, illness, anxiety, depression, aggression, etc. So given the effect of consciousness on reality, use the power of your mind wisely and focus on positive thoughts instead!
How do we know Dispenza’s second group, the group who only imagined, would not have improved by about 22% anyway? He should have had a group who clicked nothing and imagined nothing.