In the past I rejected his work, “Oh he just does NLP and Hypnotherapy” I thought, and as I already did many trainings in those, I thought it’s just the same thing, with fancy marketing and a big following.
I tried listening to a few guided meditations, even bought audios years ago though couldn’t get past 30 seconds.
“How can people relax if he shouts …R E L A X!”
Using Ericksonian style of hypnosis professionally with NLP, I'm used to a more gentle, soothing approach.
Looking back, I can see at some level I wasn’t ready, I was judging his way of working and holding onto my pride as an NLP Trainer. Since diving into his work deeper I can see why – my Ego was resisting change.
Last year, focusing on my health and wellbeing even more, hearing testimonials online I decided to give it another shot. How can I judge without fully trying it?
I started listening to his audios again, pushed past my Ego that resisted his way of doing things.
That’s the thing, there are many different types of Hypnotherapy. One of the most common by Milton Erickson, known as the Godfather of Hypnotherapy uses more vague language, metaphors, encourages creative thinking - this is what I use more. Though many years ago on my training I also learnt other types including the work of Dave Elman (more direct, authoritative and quick) - which reminds me of some of Joe Dispenza’s audios where he shouts “R E L A X!”.
Listening to the audios everyday I started to feel more motivated, energised and uplifted. It still wasn’t my favourite type of meditation though noticing a benefit I kept going.
Doing this work requires you to change.
I started listening to his audios again, pushed past my Ego that resisted his way of doing things.
That’s the thing, there are many different types of Hypnotherapy. One of the most common by Milton Erickson, known as the Godfather of Hypnotherapy uses more vague language, metaphors, encourages creative thinking - this is what I use more. Though many years ago on my training I also learnt other types including the work of Dave Elman (more direct, authoritative and quick) - which reminds me of some of Joe Dispenza’s audios where he shouts “R E L A X!”.
Listening to the audios everyday I started to feel more motivated, energised and uplifted. It still wasn’t my favourite type of meditation though noticing a benefit I kept going.
Doing this work requires you to change.
To take an honest look at yourself, your patterns, your personality traits that keep you stuck and addicted to emotions like anger, jealousy, sadness and fear. Doesn't mean we can't feel them, though often we are stuck in habitual patterns to keep creating scenarios in our life so we continue feeling them.
I had no idea how much I complained and judged until I started doing this work. You cannot continue with this work whilst being the victim. I’ve had deep realisations on what’s been holding me back, what needs to change and what lies underneath health issues. I’ve also started to really enjoy meditating (which I avoided for many years) …some days over an hour at a time, bringing greater peace.
So, I decided to dive in even deeper, booking his 3-day Progressive Retreat.
I had no idea how much I complained and judged until I started doing this work. You cannot continue with this work whilst being the victim. I’ve had deep realisations on what’s been holding me back, what needs to change and what lies underneath health issues. I’ve also started to really enjoy meditating (which I avoided for many years) …some days over an hour at a time, bringing greater peace.
So, I decided to dive in even deeper, booking his 3-day Progressive Retreat.
8,100 people in one room, the energy was intense, people were so excited you could feel it in the air. Loud music to dance to before every session, flashing lights - a sensory overload!
Before teaching, he would come on stage to do his little side step, hand clap dance as the 8,100 danced too. In NLP terms this is to uplift the emotional state of those attending “motion is emotion” as Tony Robbins says. Get people moving and then they’ll stay awake and positive for the teachings and feel more motivated and inspired.
What Joe Dispenza does really well is to explain the science behind different practices that have been around for a long time…
All of this is done to create one universal language that is based on science so people can easily grasp these ancient practices. Despite what people think, the vast majority of practices he teaches are not new. He’s just very good at putting it all together and explaining it from a scientific perspective with many up-to-date studies.
Before teaching, he would come on stage to do his little side step, hand clap dance as the 8,100 danced too. In NLP terms this is to uplift the emotional state of those attending “motion is emotion” as Tony Robbins says. Get people moving and then they’ll stay awake and positive for the teachings and feel more motivated and inspired.
What Joe Dispenza does really well is to explain the science behind different practices that have been around for a long time…
- MEDITATIONS: He talks more about meditation (than hypnosis) though essentially all his “meditations” are to create a hypnotic trance like state, where from there you can connect to the Quantum field and manifest. It’s hypnosis not meditation.
- GAMMA WAVES: He talks about Gamma waves in the brain (rather than Kundalini energy rising) though the breathwork he teaches is to activate the Kundalini. More about this later!
- ENERGY CENTRES: And he talks about energy centres within the body (rather than chakras).
All of this is done to create one universal language that is based on science so people can easily grasp these ancient practices. Despite what people think, the vast majority of practices he teaches are not new. He’s just very good at putting it all together and explaining it from a scientific perspective with many up-to-date studies.
This is the exciting bit - it’s being proven time and time again with huge amounts of scientific data how our MIND creates our physical reality. He’s also really good at inspiring people to do the meditations daily, which is what then brings the results.
WHAT DID I LOVE?
1. Being with so many people hungry for change, who believe in change and are doing the work to create change. Really inspiring to see. Met some wonderful people who all are so motivated by this work.
2. I loved the feeling of meditating with so many people - POTENT and this feeling stayed with me for many days after the event. During the breathwork practice I could feel the energy strongly in the room, my body was shaking, vibrating.
3. Learning about the science. Many things I had heard before from other trainings, workshops and teachers though it’s always great to go over Quantum Physics and understand a little more each time how reality is formed and how we can create change.
4. Fun, new experiences ...dancing with 8,100 I’ll definitely never forget especially when they gave us all flashing wristbands that lit up the room with 8,100 lights and flashing rainbow 3 metre blow up balls to play with! They wanted to create a BIG experience that people would never forget and they certainly did that. Not necessary to do the work and sometimes felt a bit too much, though it was certainly fun and an experience to remember.
2. Some place him up on a pedal stool. This is always a risk when you’re in the teaching role (I’ve experienced this myself) and I could see some people starting to give their power away thinking that it was him and his work that cured them, they became “hypnotised mega fans”. Yes, he has helped many heal from disease and change their lives, though when you strip it back, he simply helps people to heal themselves. Sometimes people forget this - he’s not the healer; he’s reminding people of their own power to heal. He’s human like us all.
3. The long queues, early starts. In order to get a decent seat, we queued 2 hours before the event started. 7am dark, cold, wet mornings and when the doors opened people started pushing, shoving past other people running into the room to grab seats before others. It was total chaos. The security did their best to calm 8,100 people down though to see people run and push each other… only to then sit and meditate about peace and love didn’t make sense to me.
IN SUMMARY:
Does his work help people? Yes absolutely.
Is he a cult leader? Depends who you ask.
Was it worth it? For the 3-day Progressive Retreat yes, I’ll remember this experience for a long time and I’m so glad I went. It was worth it to have an in person experience with such a great group people as I’ve found benefit in the daily meditations and his teachings have helped me to understand the mind at a deeper level.
For the longer retreats I cannot comment as I haven’t been, and I’m not convinced to pay so much money for them (at the time of writing this up to $6,000 for a week!). Looking at the psychology… often when there is a high-ticket price people within their subconscious mind add high value to it, therefore believing even more it’s going to heal them. As I mentioned above, it’s the individuals and what they believe that does the healing. Many say the longer retreats are life changing, and I feel that all the NLP trainings, workshops and fire walk experiences I’ve done in the past were also incredible, powerful, life experiences with similar tools that I did for a fraction of the cost.
Is his work the only way to heal? No. There are many ways. His formula is effective, he inspires huge amounts of people around the world to connect to the Quantum field rather than solely relying on creating change through the material world. This work has helped many people heal health issues… AND it’s not the only way. You can work with the subconscious mind in many ways, and most won’t cost you so much money. Even if you just do the daily meditations you don’t need to spend much at all and that’s where the real healing lies - in the daily practice at home.
This is a very small snippet of my personal experience - so much more I could share! And other people may have different experiences too.
I encourage you, if you’re curious to do your own research, watch the videos, practice the meditations, experience things for yourself and form your own conclusion listening to your intuition. If you like it and find benefit… great!
It lies within YOU.
WHAT DID I LOVE?
1. Being with so many people hungry for change, who believe in change and are doing the work to create change. Really inspiring to see. Met some wonderful people who all are so motivated by this work.
2. I loved the feeling of meditating with so many people - POTENT and this feeling stayed with me for many days after the event. During the breathwork practice I could feel the energy strongly in the room, my body was shaking, vibrating.
3. Learning about the science. Many things I had heard before from other trainings, workshops and teachers though it’s always great to go over Quantum Physics and understand a little more each time how reality is formed and how we can create change.
4. Fun, new experiences ...dancing with 8,100 I’ll definitely never forget especially when they gave us all flashing wristbands that lit up the room with 8,100 lights and flashing rainbow 3 metre blow up balls to play with! They wanted to create a BIG experience that people would never forget and they certainly did that. Not necessary to do the work and sometimes felt a bit too much, though it was certainly fun and an experience to remember.
"To walk through the door of unlimited possibility, we have to leave behind the story of our past" Dr Joe Dispenza
WHAT DID I DISLIKE?
1. Personally, I feel activating Kundalini energy has become a trend with many not using it with the respect it deserves. It’s not something to rush, and in a 3-day workshop some of the practices were too strong for newcomers to this work. This proved true for a woman in front of me at the event. After the breathwork and meditation on day 3 she let out a loud scream and completely passed out. Fully unconscious on the floor for at least 3-4 minutes. All was fine in the end, helpers and paramedics were immediately on hand, though rushing this type of work can bring experiences like that for some if they’re not careful.
1. Personally, I feel activating Kundalini energy has become a trend with many not using it with the respect it deserves. It’s not something to rush, and in a 3-day workshop some of the practices were too strong for newcomers to this work. This proved true for a woman in front of me at the event. After the breathwork and meditation on day 3 she let out a loud scream and completely passed out. Fully unconscious on the floor for at least 3-4 minutes. All was fine in the end, helpers and paramedics were immediately on hand, though rushing this type of work can bring experiences like that for some if they’re not careful.
Doing this work with such a large group of people is more challenging to give the level of care and attention to everyone that needs it. In the Telegram group after the event there were quite a few people commenting that they had PTSD triggered after hearing people scream in the audience during meditations. Due to the large group size there was not enough safeguarding and individual care that is so important for this type of work.
2. Some place him up on a pedal stool. This is always a risk when you’re in the teaching role (I’ve experienced this myself) and I could see some people starting to give their power away thinking that it was him and his work that cured them, they became “hypnotised mega fans”. Yes, he has helped many heal from disease and change their lives, though when you strip it back, he simply helps people to heal themselves. Sometimes people forget this - he’s not the healer; he’s reminding people of their own power to heal. He’s human like us all.
3. The long queues, early starts. In order to get a decent seat, we queued 2 hours before the event started. 7am dark, cold, wet mornings and when the doors opened people started pushing, shoving past other people running into the room to grab seats before others. It was total chaos. The security did their best to calm 8,100 people down though to see people run and push each other… only to then sit and meditate about peace and love didn’t make sense to me.
My Ego certainly had a great time judging everyone and thinking that they’re obviously not practicing what he’s teaching. With such a large group and following it’s easy for more hype to be created around him, and he certainly adds to it with all the NLP presentation skills, dancing, music and lights to get people hungry for more.
IN SUMMARY:
Does his work help people? Yes absolutely.
Is he a cult leader? Depends who you ask.
Was it worth it? For the 3-day Progressive Retreat yes, I’ll remember this experience for a long time and I’m so glad I went. It was worth it to have an in person experience with such a great group people as I’ve found benefit in the daily meditations and his teachings have helped me to understand the mind at a deeper level.
For the longer retreats I cannot comment as I haven’t been, and I’m not convinced to pay so much money for them (at the time of writing this up to $6,000 for a week!). Looking at the psychology… often when there is a high-ticket price people within their subconscious mind add high value to it, therefore believing even more it’s going to heal them. As I mentioned above, it’s the individuals and what they believe that does the healing. Many say the longer retreats are life changing, and I feel that all the NLP trainings, workshops and fire walk experiences I’ve done in the past were also incredible, powerful, life experiences with similar tools that I did for a fraction of the cost.
Is his work the only way to heal? No. There are many ways. His formula is effective, he inspires huge amounts of people around the world to connect to the Quantum field rather than solely relying on creating change through the material world. This work has helped many people heal health issues… AND it’s not the only way. You can work with the subconscious mind in many ways, and most won’t cost you so much money. Even if you just do the daily meditations you don’t need to spend much at all and that’s where the real healing lies - in the daily practice at home.
This is a very small snippet of my personal experience - so much more I could share! And other people may have different experiences too.
I encourage you, if you’re curious to do your own research, watch the videos, practice the meditations, experience things for yourself and form your own conclusion listening to your intuition. If you like it and find benefit… great!
Though remember ultimately, it’s YOU that is doing the work and creating the shift.
You are the one that holds the power.
You are the one that holds the power.
It lies within YOU.
Have you tried his meditations or gone to his events? Comment below, I'd love to hear.
Want more?
Full details on trainings, workshops, coaching, podcast and more on my website www.emmabradford.net
