You Are the Placebo: Making Your Mind Matter

“Is it possible that Sam Londe died from thought alone? Is it possible that thought is that powerful? And if so, is this case unique?”

This quote is the first of many rhetorical questions Dispenza asks of the reader, usually as conclusions to his arguments. This rhetorical strategy allows Dispenza to make a statement without actually making it, eliding alternatives to his interpretation of events. For instance, he does not follow up these questions by asking whether there were other mitigating factors, like the emotional toll of the death of Londe’s wife, medical malpractice, or even just his advanced age that could account for the death. Questions that naturally lead the reader towards Dispenza’s idea of the placebo effect are the only ones presented.

“Although each of the early explorers of suggestibility had a slightly different focus and technique, they were all able to help hundreds and hundreds of people heal a wide variety of physical and mental problems by changing their minds about their maladies and about how those illnesses were expressed in their bodies.”

This quote exemplifies Dispenza’s technique of distilling complicated information into straightforward narratives. He uses this engaging style to lead the reader towards his own conclusions, presenting his interpretation of events as common sense and uncontroversial.

“Conditioning creates subconscious internal changes in the body by associating past memories with the expectation of internal effects (what we call associative memory) until those expected or anticipated end results automatically occur. The stronger the conditioning, the less conscious control we have over these processes, and the more automatic the subconscious programming becomes.”

This quote displays Dispenza’s facility with using scientific language to describe his theories. He allows the reader to understand more intimidating concepts like neurobiology by simplifying it to its essential principles. This is useful for readers who have less experience with scientific writing.

“If the truth be told, our bodies are indeed capable of creating a host of biological chemicals that can heal, protect us from pain, help us sleep deeply, enhance our immune systems, make us feel pleasure, and even encourage us to fall in love.”

Dispenza draws on existing scientific knowledge as a foundation for speculative claims. The human brain is known to create a host of psychoactive chemicals that have significant positive and negative effects on our lived experience. The leap into speculation comes when Dispenza claims that it must be possible for a person to consciously instruct their brain to dispense the desired chemical, a claim not supported by available medical research.

“Considering that the latest scientific research in psychology estimates that about 70 percent of our thoughts are negative and redundant, the number of unconsciously created nocebo-like illnesses might be impressive indeed—certainly much higher than we realize.”

Dispenza draws a causal link between “negative and redundant” thoughts and psychosomatic illness, implying that many illnesses that manifest in the body may have their origins in the mind. He does not cite a source for the 70% figure, and such unsourced statistics, found throughout the book, should be treated with caution.

“We are creatures of habit. We think somewhere between 60,000 to 70,000 thoughts in one day, and 90 percent of those thoughts are exactly the same ones we had the day before.”

This statistic about the number of thoughts is a pervasive myth, oft-cited in popular science articles, seeming to originate from an article published in 2005 which is no longer available online or in-person. This quote nonetheless tends to show up in self-help books and articles to promote the importance of positive thinking and self-talk. Here, these dubiously sourced statistics are used to support Dispenza’s larger claim about Empowerment Through Self-Awareness and Mental Practices.

“Each nerve cell resembles a leafless but elastic oak tree, with wiggly branches and root systems that connect and disconnect to other nerve cells.”

This quote showcases Dispenza’s technique of using vivid imagery to make complex biological processes accessible to the reader. This simile allows the reader to visualize the basic structure of a neuron and understand its actions better than if it were presented as an abstract concept.

“Filling your brain with new knowledge and creating more enriched experiences biologically adds the raw materials for you to think, act, and feel in new ways.”

Dispenza follows up scientific explanations with actionable self-help conclusions. The idea that new experiences and knowledge help the brain grow is supported by neuroplasticity research, and Dispenza here suggests that individuals can deliberately encourage this mental growth.

“Once we understand that crossing the river of change and feeling that discomfort is actually the biological, neurological, chemical, and even genetic death of the old self, we have power over change and we can set our sights on the other side of the river.”

Dispenza uses an extended metaphor, comparing change to a river one must cross to reach the happier prospects on the other side. This imagery presents the experience of human consciousness as an exciting adventure, which allows the reader to engage with otherwise intimidating concepts on a more personal, positive level.

“If our experience is what activates a good number of our genes, then our nature is influenced by nurturing. So why not harness the power of these ideas so that we can do everything possible to maximize our health and minimize our dependence on the prescription pad?”

Dispenza draws on the recent science of epigenetics to explain The Mind-Body Connection and Its Impact on Health. Though his claim that intentional changes in thought processes can meaningfully alter gene expression lacks scientific support, he uses it to bolster the less controversial claim that emotions and beliefs have an impact on physical health.

“Just as an architect gets all the information that’s necessary to build a structure from a blueprint, the body gets all the instructions it needs to create complex molecules that keep us alive and operating from the chromosomes of our DNA.”

This quote showcases the use of imagery and metaphor which helps the more casual reader understand the complexities of gene structure. This type of simplification is helpful to the reader, distilling information into a vivid image that helps the reader visualize.

“The reality is that you do indeed have some degree of control over your own genetic engineering—by way of your thoughts, choices, behaviors, experiences, and emotions. Like Dorothy in The Wizard of Oz, who had the power all along but didn’t know it, you also possess a power that you may not have previously realized was yours—the keys that can set you free of being chained to the limitations of your own genetic expression.”

Dispenza’s theory presents a very complex and unresolved scientific question as a simple, established fact. While epigenetics is a promising field and new discoveries are made at a rapid rate, the idea that people can therefore consciously control their gene expression via meditation and visualization is not supported by current epigenetic research.

“Is it possible—based on your perceptions and beliefs—to program the gene ahead of the actual environment?”

This is another example of Dispenza’s use of questions as rhetorical strategy. He uses this question to lead the reader to believe that the answer is yes, without ever actually stating it. However, he proceeds with his arguments and narrative as though the answer were indeed yes, though no scientific research validates this claim.

“What all these individuals have in common is that they eliminated the external environment, got beyond their bodies, and transcended time so that they could make significant neurological changes within. When they presented themselves to the world, they were able to get their minds and bodies to work together, and they created in the material world what they’d first conceived in the mental realm.”

Dispenza uses anecdotes from the lives of several highly successful people to support his claim that visualization allows people to accomplish seemingly impossible feats. This passage supports the theme of empowerment through self-awareness and mental practices.

“Suggestibility combines three elements: acceptance, belief, and surrender. The more we accept, believe, and surrender to whatever we’re doing to change our internal state, the better the results we can create.”

This quote shows Dispenza’s technique of distilling complicated psychological phenomena into digestible aspects. This categorization of the pieces necessary for suggestibility helps the reader understand the basic building blocks of the state of mind.

“As your analytical mind is heightened, your suggestibility to new outcomes decreases. Why? Because an impending emergency isn’t the time to be open-minded: entertaining new possibilities and accepting new potentials.”

Dispenza claims that when a human brain is engaged in analytical behavior, it is not able to become an instrument of healing like it can when it is in a relaxed, suggestible state. This statement serves as a rhetorical strategy to undermine readerly skepticism: If a person is skeptical of his claims, they are using their analytical brain and therefore are unable to access their own healing power, explaining their failure to heal using his methods.

“Only Santiago, who remained greater than his physical environment in extreme conditions for an extended period of time while having dominion over his body, demonstrated the highest level of suggestibility. He was able not only to withstand the frigid ice bath, but also to be greater than his moral environment, by following the posthypnotic suggestion to shoot the ‘foreign dignitary’, despite the fact that his conscious personality was hardly one of a cold-blooded killer.”

Dispenza’s interpretation of this experiment—which was conducted for television by the Discovery Channel, a practice discouraged by the scientific community—showcases his understanding of Empowerment Through Self-Awareness and Moral Practices. Somewhat paradoxically, he frames Santiago’s apparent readiness to be hypnotized into committing a murder as a demonstration of personal agency, suggesting that Santiago has a uniquely high level of “dominion over his body” even as his body is literally controlled by others.

“This process, if we do it right, actually repatterns our brains and changes our biology; the new experience will reorganize the old programming, and in so doing, it will remove the neurological evidence of that past experience. (Think of how a bigger wave breaking farther up on the beach erases any sign of whatever shell, seaweed, sea foam, or sand pattern was there before.)”

Dispenza uses imagery drawn from nature to help readers visualize the mental processes he describes. In this metaphor, the wave washing away the sand on the beach symbolizes new experiences washing away the patterns of behavior and thought created by older, negative experiences.

 “Think what would happen if you had hundreds of fans in one enormous room, all working together and spinning in harmony, humming away in unison. That coherent humming would be like music to your ears, because it would be rhythmic and consistent. That’s what it’s like in our bodies when the signals between our atoms, molecules, and cells are strong and coherent.”

This quote further exemplifies Dispenza’s use imagery and metaphor. This metaphor of atoms, cells, and molecules all acting together and putting out the right frequency for healing aims to make a complex and abstract concept accessible by describing it in concrete language.

“Laurie, Candace, and Joann accomplished their dramatic remissions using no resources outside of themselves. They changed their health from the inside out—without the use of medication, surgery, therapy, or anything other than their own minds. They became their own placebos.”

This quote displays Dispenza’s tendency to reframe his own anecdotal data. In his own narratives, presented earlier in the chapter, he states that Laurie had surgery to treat her bone disorder, Candace took thyroid medication, and Joann used assistive devices like scooters and wheelchairs, and had a physical therapist. In this conclusion, however, he asserts that the women healed themselves without any such medical interventions. This apparent contradiction implies that The Physiological Effects of Belief succeeded where medical intervention failed. The short sentence that concludes this passage calls back to the book’s title, casting these women as living proof of the book’s central claim.

“In the classic placebo effect, our belief lies in something outside of us. We give our power away to the material world, where our senses define reality. But can the placebo work by creating from the immaterial world of thought and making that unknown possibility a new reality? That would be a more prudent use of the quantum model.”

This quote exemplifies Dispenza’s rhetorical strategy of distilling and presenting information in a clear, unintimidating way. He frames a simple neurological or medical concept in layman’s terms, then asks a question that leads the reader towards a very specific answer, usually “yes,” and in this case then states that his theory about quantum healing constitutes a “prudent” use of the model. Prudent, however, does not necessarily mean correct or even possible.

“In order to access the unlimited potential that’s waiting for you in the quantum field, you have to forget about the known (your body, your face, your gender, your race, your profession, and even your concept of what you have to do today) so that you can remain for a while in the unknown—where you are no body, no one, no thing, and in no place and no time.”

This quote shows the basis of Dispenza’s meditation scripts, which form the majority of the 11th and 12th chapters of this book. This repetitive framing is meant to draw the reader into a calm, meditative, suggestible state. Dispenza’s strengths as a descriptive writer are at their best in the meditation scripts, in which he directs the reader to visualize various things within their minds.

“So if you want to change a belief or perception, you have to first change your state of being. And changing your state of being means changing your energy, because in order for you to affect matter, you have to become more energy and less matter, more wave and less particle. That requires you to combine a clear intention and an elevated emotion—those are the two ingredients.”

This quote illustrates Dispenza’s tendency to use scientific language in service of claims that are more often associated with religious or new-age mysticism. His reference to quantum mechanics here (the idea that a person, like light, can be either a particle or a wave) is best understood as a metaphor—a way to present abstract mental processes in relatively concrete terms.