by Joe Dispenza
Next, take a look at Figure 8F. Those plus and minus signs represent how the developing child’s mind learns from positive and negative identifications and associations that give rise to habits and behaviors.
Here’s an example of a positive identification: When an infant is hungry or uncomfortable, she cries out, making an effort to communicate in order to get her mother’s attention. As the nurturing parent responds by feeding the child or changing her diaper, the infant makes an important connection between her inner and outer worlds. It only takes a few repetitions before she learns to associate crying out with being fed or becoming comfortable. It becomes a behavior.
A good example of a negative association is when a two-year-old puts his finger on a hot stove. He learns very quickly to identify the object he sees externally—the stove—with the pain he is feeling internally, and after a few tries, he learns a valuable lesson.
Figure 8F. In time, we begin to learn by association through different interactions between our inner world and our outer world, through our senses.
In both examples, we could say that the moment the child notices an internal chemical change in the body, the brain perks up and pays attention to whatever it was in the outer environment that caused this alteration, be it pleasure or pain. These types of identifications and associations begin to slowly develop many habits, skills, and behaviors.
As you learned, somewhere around the age of six or seven, as brain waves change into Alpha, the child begins to develop the analytical or critical mind. For most children, the analytical mind usually finishes developing between ages 7 and 12.
Meditation Takes Us Beyond Analytical
Mind and into the Subconscious
In Figure 8G, the line that runs across the top of the circle is the analytical mind, which acts as a barrier to separate the conscious from the subconscious mind. In adults, this critical mind loves to reason, evaluate, anticipate, forecast, compare what it knows to what it’s learning, or contrast knowns and unknowns. For the most part, when adults are conscious, their analytical minds are always working, and thus they are functioning in some realm of Beta waves.
Figure 8G. Between the ages of six and seven, the analytical mind begins to form. It acts as a barrier to separate the conscious mind from the subconscious mind, and it usually finishes developing somewhere between 7 and 12 years old.
Now take a look at Figure 8H. Above that line representing the analytical mind is the conscious mind, which is 5 percent of the total mind. This is the seat of logic and reasoning, which contributes to our will, our faith, our intentions, and our creative abilities.
The subconscious mind, which makes up about 95 percent of who we are, consists of those positive and negative identifications and associations that give rise to habits and behaviors.
Figure 8H. The total mind is made up of 5 percent conscious mind and 95 percent subconscious mind. The conscious mind primarily operates using logic and reasoning, which gives rise to our will, faith, creative abilities, and intentions. The subconscious mind comprises our myriad positive and negative identifications, which give rise to habits, behaviors, skills, beliefs, and perceptions.
Figure 8I illustrates the most fundamental purpose of meditation (represented by the arrow): to get beyond the analytical mind. When we are in this mind, we cannot truly change. We can analyze our old self, but we cannot uninstall the old programs and install new ones.
Meditation opens the door between the conscious and subconscious minds. We meditate to enter the operating system of the subconscious, where all of those unwanted habits and behaviors reside, and change them to more productive modes to support us in our lives.
Figure 8I. One of the main purposes of meditation is to go beyond the conscious mind and enter the subconscious mind, in order to change self-destructive habits, behaviors, beliefs, emotional reactions, attitudes, and unconscious states of being.
Meditation Takes Us from Beta into
Alpha and Theta Brain-Wave States
Let’s examine how you can learn to change gears and access other brain-wave states so you can go beyond your association with the body, the environment, and time. You can naturally slow down the high-speed vigilance of the brain and body into a more relaxed, orderly, systemized pattern of brain waves.
Thus, it is quite possible to consciously alter your brain waves from that high-frequency Beta state into Alpha and Theta (you can train yourself to move up and down the scale of brain waves). As you do, you will open doors to true personal change. You trespass beyond the common type of thinking that is fueled by reactions to being in survival mode; you are entering the realm of the subconscious mind.
During meditation, you transcend the feelings of the body, are no longer at the mercy of the environment, and lose track of time. You forget about you as an identity. As you close your eyes, the input from the outside world is reduced, and your neocortex has less to think about and analyze. As a result, the analytical mind begins to become subdued, and electrical activity in the neocortex quiets down.
Then when you restfully pay attention, concentrate, and focus in a relaxed manner, you automatically activate the frontal lobe, which reduces synaptic firing in the rest of the neocortex. Therefore, you lower the volume to the circuits in the brain that process time and space. This allows your brain waves to naturally slow down to Alpha. Now you are moving from a state of survival into a more creative state, and your brain naturally recalibrates itself to a more orderly, coherent brain-wave pattern.
One of the later steps of meditation, if you keep practicing, is to move into the Theta-wave frequency, when your body is asleep but your mind is awake. This is a magical land. You are now in a deeper system of the subconscious and able to immediately change those negative associations to more positive ones.
It’s important to remember that if you have conditioned the body to become the mind and your body is somewhat asleep while your mind is awake, you could say that there is no more resistance from the body-mind. In Theta, the body is no longer in control, and you are free to dream, change subconscious programs, and finally create from a totally unobstructed place.
Once the body is no longer running the mind, the servant is no longer the master and you are working in a realm of true power. You are like a child again, entering the kingdom of heaven.
To Sleep, Perchance to Go Down,
Then Up, the Ladder … Naturally
When you go to sleep, you pass though the spectrum of brain-wave states, from Beta to Alpha to Theta to Delta. Likewise, when you wake up in the morning, you naturally rise from Delta to Theta to Alpha to Beta, returning to conscious awareness. When you “come to your senses” from the netherworld, you remember who you are, the problems in your life, the person sleeping next to you, the house you own, where you live … and presto! By association, you’re back in Beta as the same you.
Some people fall very quickly through these levels like a steel ball dropping from the top of a building. Their bodies are so fatigued that the natural progression down the ladder to the subconscious states happens too rapidly.
Others cannot shift gears to naturally progress down the ladder into sleep; they are hyperfocused on the cues in their lives that reinforce their addictive mental and emotional states. They become insomniacs, and may take drugs to chemically alter the brain and sedate the body.
Either way, sleep problems may indicate that the brain and the mind are out of sync.
The Best Times to Meditate: Morning and Evening,
When the Door to the Subconscious Opens
As a result of normal daily changes in brain chemistry (alternately, the brain produces serotonin, primarily a daytime neurotransmitter that makes you alert; and melatonin, the nighttime neurotransmitter that begins to relax you for sleep), there are two times when the door to the subconscious mind opens—when you go to bed at night and when you wake up in the morning. So it is a good idea to meditate in the morning or evening, because it will be easier to slip into a
state of Alpha or Theta.
I like to wake up early to begin the process, because while I’m still a bit dreamy, I’m still in Alpha. I personally like to create from a clean slate.
Others prefer the late evening. They know that the body (which was in control during the day) is now too tired to “be” the mind. They can create without any effort by drawing out the Alpha phase, and even entering into Theta, while they are still awake.
Meditation during the middle of the day might be difficult, especially if you work in a busy office, manage a houseful of kids who demand your undivided attention, or are involved in activities that require heightened concentration. At such times you might be in middle to high Beta, and it may take more effort to slip through the door.
Figure 8J. This diagram shows how our brain-wave functions move from the highest and fastest state of activity (Beta) to the lowest and slowest (Delta). Please take note that Alpha serves as the bridge between the conscious mind and the subconscious mind. The lower/slower the brain waves, the more we are in the subconscious mind; the higher/faster the brain waves, the more we are in the conscious mind.
Taking Control of the Progression into Meditation
Inward contemplative practices retrain the mind, body, and brain to become present, instead of being stressed in anticipation of some future event you are obsessing about. Meditation also lifts the anchor of the body-mind out of the past and frees you from the emotions that keep you hooked to the same familiar life.
The object in meditation is to fall like a feather down from the top of a building, slowly and steadily. You first train yourself to let your body initially relax, but keep your mind focused. Once you begin to master the skill, the ultimate goal is to let your body fall asleep while your mind stays awake or active.
Here is the progression. If waking consciousness is Beta (from low to high, depending on your levels of stress), once you sit up straight to keep your spine erect, close your eyes, take a series of conscious breaths, and go inward, you will naturally switch from the sympathetic nervous system to the parasympathetic nervous system. You will change your physiology from the emergency protection system (fight/fright/flight) to the internal protection system for long-term building projects (growth and repair). As the body relaxes, your brain-wave patterns will naturally begin to move to Alpha.
If done properly, meditation will shift your brain to a more coherent and orderly wave pattern. You will go from focusing on the Big Three to becoming no body, no thing, and no time. Now you begin to feel connected, whole, and balanced; and you experience healthier, elevated emotions of trust, joy, and inspiration.
Orchestrating for Coherence
If our definition of mind is the brain in action or the brain’s activity when it processes different streams of consciousness, then meditation naturally produces more synchronized, coherent states of mind.4
On the other hand, when the brain is stressed, its electrical activity will be like an entire orchestra of musical instruments playing badly. The mind will be out of rhythm, out of balance, and out of tune.
Your job is to play a masterpiece. If you persist with this band of disorderly, egocentric, self-important members who think that their individual musical instruments need to be heard above all others—and if you insist that they work together and follow your lead—there will come a moment when they will surrender to you as their leader and will act as a team.
This is the moment when brain waves become more synchronized, moving from Beta into Alpha and Theta. More individual circuits start communicating in an orderly fashion and process a more coherent mind. Your awareness shifts from narrow-minded, over-focused, obsessive, compartmentalized, survival thinking to thoughts that are more open, relaxed, holistic, present, orderly, creative, and simple. This is the natural state of being we are supposed to live by.
Take a look at coherence or what is also called synchrony, the state when the brain is working in harmony.
Figure 8K. In the first picture, the brain is balanced and highly integrated. Several different areas are synchronized, forming a more orderly, holistic community of neural networks working together. In the second picture, this brain is disorderly and imbalanced. Many diverse compartments are no longer working as a team, and thus the brain is “dis-eased” and disintegrated.
The Coherent Brain Sets the Stage for Healing
This orderly, new, synchronized signal to the body from the brain organizes all of the diverse systems into homeostasis—the cardiovascular system, digestive system, immune system, and so on all move into coherence as well. As the nervous system recalibrates itself, all of the enormous energy that was needed for survival can now be used for creation. The body begins to heal.
For example, Jose, a man at one of my lectures, told me about one of his first times doing a meditation back in his 20s. In those days, he’d had ten olive-sized warts on his left hand. He was so embarrassed by them that he often hid that hand in his pocket.
One day someone gave Jose a book on meditation. The book instructed him to simply focus on his breath and allow his mind to expand beyond the barriers of his body. One night before bed, he decided to try the process. In a matter of moments he went from an overfocused, contracted state to a more expanded, open, focused state. As he vacated his familiar personality and became something other than his typical thoughts and feelings, he went from the habitual random thought patterns driven by the familiar ego to a more expanded sense of self. When this occurred, something shifted.
The next morning when Jose woke up, all ten warts had completely vanished. Shocked and overjoyed, he looked under the sheets for evidence of them, but found nothing. He explained that he didn’t know where the warts went. I told him that they returned to the quantum field where they came from. I suggested to him that the universal intelligence that keeps order in his body naturally had done what it always does—create more order to reflect a more coherent mind. When his new subjective, coherent mind matched the objective, coherent higher mind, that greater power within did the healing for him.
All of this happened because when he got out of the way and became no body, no thing, outside time—when he forgot about himself—his focus went from sustained disorder to sustained order … survival to creation … contraction to expansion … incoherence to coherence. Then the unlimited consciousness restored order in his body, and he was healed.
Meditation Plus Action: One Woman’s Path Out of Lack
At my workshops, I frequently ask participants to share their surprising stories of life changes. Monique, a therapist from Montreal, Quebec, recently described her own remarkable experience.
For most of her adult life, Monique had lived unconsciously in a near-constant state of lack. Not enough money. Not enough energy. Not enough time to do the things she wanted. Now she was going through a particularly rough patch: her office rent had risen considerably (her house couldn’t accommodate an office), she and her husband couldn’t afford to send their son to the college of his choice, their washer needed replacing, and the shaky economy had forced several clients to stop seeing her.
One day, while doing the meditation you will learn in this book and pondering her life choices, Monique realized that she couldn’t keep doing what she normally did—hunker down and weather the storm with a pseudopositive, woe-is-me-but-things-could-be-worse mentality. She recognized that she’d always made decisions or sought solutions to problems from a perspective of lack—lack of time, of money, and of energy. She had memorized that state of being; lack became her personality. The epitome of inertia, she tended to “let the chips fall where they may.” Ironically, Monique had worked with her clients to overcome these very traits, and to be more proactive and less reactive.
With great resolve, she decided to change her personality. No longer would she let life trample her and allow things to just happen to her.
Next, Monique created a template of who she wanted to be, how she wanted to think, and what she wanted to feel. She imagined h
erself as a woman who made all of her choices with an abundance of energy, time, and money. Most important, her goal to become this person was as firm as her vision was precise. She knew who she no longer wanted to be; and she had definitive plans for how her new self would think, feel, and behave.
When we make a decision that strongly and have a clear intention for what our new reality will be like, the clarity and coherence of those thoughts produces corresponding emotions. As a result, our internal chemistry changes, our neurological makeup is altered (we prune old synaptic connections and sprout new ones), and we even express our genetic code differently.
Monique began to live her life from the perspective of someone who had plenty of money, who had abundant energy, and whose every need was met. She felt wonderful. Certainly, not all the problems from her catalog of worries went away, but she was becoming better at living from a different mind-set.
Several weeks after making that firm decision, Monique was working with her last client of the day. This woman, who had grown up in France, reminisced how every month, her parents had purchased a ticket in the French lottery, a tradition that she had continued.
As Monique drove home that evening, she wasn’t thinking about the lottery. She’d never played it, believing that with her limited financial resources, such an expenditure was frivolous. Stopping for gas, she went inside to pay, and there on the counter were lottery cards for various games. On impulse, recognizing that the new Monique who lived in abundance could afford to take a chance on winning, she purchased a ticket.
By the time Monique had stopped at a local pizzeria for a carryout dinner and arrived home, the lottery had slipped her mind. Grabbing the pizza, she discovered that some grease had soaked through the box, stuck to the lottery card, and stained the passenger seat. She set the box on the dining table, with the ticket alongside it. She told her family to start eating without her and that she’d be in the garage tending to the grease stain. While she was scrubbing away, her husband came running out.