Did you ever wonder why you keep thinking you want change—yet your life keeps snapping back to the same old patterns? Becoming Supernatural helped me see (sometimes uncomfortably) how often my body was “living in the past” even when my mind said it wanted the future.

Becoming Supernatural says Change happens when you train your attention, emotions, and body to live as if your future is already real—until the new state becomes your default.

Becoming Supernatural is a good read for people who like guided practices (not just theory) and want a meditation-based transformation plan (Part II is basically a training manual; see the “Meditations” section in the contents). Readers who enjoy big, motivating frameworks connecting neuroscience + habit change + mindfulness + emotional regulation. Anyone who wants a “whole-life” approach: thoughts, feelings, identity, body, and daily behavior—tied together.

But Not for readers who need strictly conventional science and will bounce when the book leans into quantum field language, “energy centers,” or “supernatural” experiences, and anyone in a fragile mental-health season who could be destabilized by intense practices.

Even mainstream integrative-health sources note meditation is usually low-risk but that harms can occur and safety evidence is incomplete. People who want a short book. It’s a full system.

1. Introduction

Becoming Supernatural: How Common People Are Doing the Uncommon is by Dr. Joe Dispenza, published by Hay House (the copyright page identifies Hay House and includes a medical disclaimer). The book’s “1st edition was published in October 2017.”

The book’s author Dispenza is “a doctor of chiropractic” and his teaching focus on people “rewiring their brains” and “reconditioning their bodies.”

Genre-wise, this is nonfiction / spiritual self-help / meditation training, written in a voice that tries to blend:

• habit change and neuroplasticity,
• emotional regulation and heart/brain coherence,
• and a metaphysical framing of reality as an “invisible field” you can interact with.

Purpose of Becoming Supernatural

The title itself is the thesis: ordinary people can do uncommon things. But the operational thesis is that transformation is trainable—especially by shifting attention and emotion.

One of the most quoted “north star” lines in the book is: “If where you place your attention…” (I’m keeping the quote short to respect copyright, but the point is unmistakable: attention and energy are linked in his model.)

And he gives a practical instruction that becomes a recurring theme: move attention “off of matter” and onto “space.”

2. Background

It’s hard to separate the popularity of Becoming Supernatural from the cultural moment: anxiety, burnout, chronic stress, and a hunger for practices that feel empowering.

Even mainstream public-health and medical organizations acknowledge stress-related burden and the growing interest in mind-body tools. For example, the CDC estimates heart disease costs the U.S. hundreds of billions annually (their figures vary by method and timeframe).

And mindfulness has become normalized in public conversation (even in mainstream educational content). BBC Learning English, for instance, frames mindfulness as learning to be “in the present moment,” and notes it’s widely discussed.

So Dispenza’s promise—train your inner state, and reality follows—hits a nerve. Whether a reader experiences it as liberation or overreach depends on what they do with the book’s claims.

3. Becoming Supernatural summary

Important note (health + safety): the book itself states it is not a substitute for professional health care and advises consulting a qualified provider.
I’m summarizing ideas, not prescribing treatment.

The spine of Becoming Supernatural : two halves

The contents lay out the architecture clearly:

• Part I: The Science of You (identity, habit, neurochemistry, energy)
• Part II: The Way to the Supernatural (practice: heart, brain, walking meditation, pineal gland, coherence healing)
• Then a “how-to” section of guided meditations: Tuning In to New Potentials, Blessing of the Energy Centers, Changing Boxes, and more.

Below is the full “so you don’t need to go back” walkthrough—what he’s arguing, how he supports it, and the practices he wants you to do.

Part I : The Science of You (the “why you’re stuck” half)

1. The identity loop: personality → personal reality

Dispenza starts from a classic self-change problem: we say we want a new life, but our habits keep reenacting the old one. In his framing, your personality (how you think/feel/act) generates your personal reality—and your body becomes the unconscious driver.

He repeatedly argues that knowledge isn’t enough; repetition and emotional intensity are what condition the body. When your internal state becomes automatic, it’s basically your “self.”

2. Attention as the steering wheel

Here’s where the book’s engine really kicks in: attention is treated as a biological and energetic “signal.” The short, famous line—“If where you place your attention…”—is presented as a rule of reality in his model.

This becomes practical: if you keep placing attention on the same problems, same triggers, same identity story, you keep reinforcing the same emotional chemistry and the same future.

3. The present moment as your “power point”

Dispenza’s prescription is to cut the past-future loop by dropping into the present—especially during meditation.

A key method he uses is the “dissolving of the self” idea: becoming “no body, no one, no thing, no where, in no time.”

The point is not poetic—it’s tactical: if your identity is anchored to body + environment + timeline, you’ll keep producing the same “known” life.

4. Energy centers, stress, and the body as memory

He then maps emotions onto the body through the lens of “energy centers” (his version of a chakra-like system). Regardless of how a reader interprets “energy,” the psychological claim is relatable: stress and emotion lodge in the body as patterns.

His language gets more metaphysical here, but the behavioral takeaway is consistent: if you don’t change the body-state, the body will keep dragging you back.

Part II — The Way to the Supernatural (the “how you train it” half)

5). Coherence: heart + brain as measurable state

In Part II he leans hard into the idea of coherence—a synchronized, efficient internal rhythm—especially involving heart and brain.

He describes stress as “incoherent” and elevated states as “coherent,” and he ties this to emotion (gratitude, love, compassion).
He also links coherence to cascades of bodily changes (immune response, chemistry, etc.).

Where this matters: the practice is to generate a heartfelt elevated emotion first (before trying to “create” outcomes), because the emotion is treated as the fuel.

6. The “field” and new potentials (creating a new future)

Dispenza frames reality as an “invisible field” of possibilities. Practically, he wants you to:

• detach from the familiar,
• connect to “space” (the unknown),
• and emotionally rehearse the future you want until it feels true.

This is where he uses a very specific instruction: move attention “off of matter” and onto “space.”
Then—crucially—don’t force outcomes. He reassures: you don’t have to “make anything happen.”
Your job is to become the person who matches the future.

7. Walking meditation: bringing the state into daily life

One of the most practical parts of the book is the Walking Meditation concept—training yourself to stay in the new identity with eyes open, in motion, in the real world. The contents flag it explicitly, and the meditation is described as an “eyes open” practice.

This matters because a lot of us can feel peaceful on a cushion, then lose it the second someone cuts us off in traffic. Walking meditation is his bridge from mystical experience to behavioral change.

8. Mind Movies: rehearsing the future with emotion

Dispenza introduces Mind Movies as a visualization tool—like a curated montage of the future self, watched repeatedly to condition the subconscious.

He even describes people getting “in a trance” watching their Mind Movie and describes it as “like a kaleidoscope.”
The idea is that repetition + emotion turns intention into automatic identity.

9. The pineal gland: “supernatural” experiences

Then the book moves into its most debated territory: the pineal gland as a gateway to mystical states, including claims about specific neurochemicals.

In the contents, there’s an entire chapter: “The Pineal Gland: Your Third Eye.”
And in the chapter itself, he explicitly mentions the pineal gland producing chemicals “like melatonin” and “DMT.”

He also describes a breathing technique (spinal fluid / moving energy upward) intended to “activate” this center. Some readers will experience this as deeply spiritual; skeptics will see it as speculative or unsafe if misapplied. Either way, it’s central to what the book means by “supernatural.”

10. Coherence healing & Project Coherence

Finally, Dispenza describes “coherence healing”—group intention / meditation aimed at healing outcomes.

He includes a section called Project Coherence in the contents.
And he reports specific numbers and outcomes, like a group of 550 focusing on healing and later scaling to 1,500, including claims about improvements occurring within 24 hours.

This is where the book becomes a blend of:

• personal transformation,
• group consciousness,
• and claims about measurable healing effects.

11. Case stories: “proof by testimony”

The narrative is strengthened (emotionally) by stories of people transforming their health or lives.

For example, Dispenza describes Anna with a timeline that includes March 21, 2008 (a catastrophic event), then later moments in January 2011 and September 2013 as the story develops.

He also shares “before-and-after” style data narratives. One example: a participant named Felicia, described as having severe eczema and later reporting dramatic change; Dispenza includes a striking brain-scan claim—“190 standard deviations above normal.”
(As a reader, I treat this as his reported interpretation unless independently replicated—still powerful as narrative, but not the same as broad clinical evidence.)

The meditations (what you actually do)

The book doesn’t just talk. It prescribes a practice stack. The contents list multiple meditations.

Here are the big ones in plain English:

A. Tuning In to New Potentials

Goal: stop rehearsing the past; mentally/emotionally tune to a new future.
Mechanism in his model: attention → space → possibility → elevated emotion.

B. Blessing of the Energy Centers

This is his signature meditation system. He instructs you to “bless” (bring attention + elevated emotion to) each center in sequence. The meditation opens with the prompt to “Begin,” and it’s written as step-by-step guidance.

C. Walking Meditation

Goal: keep the new identity “on” while moving through the day (practice coherence under real-world stress).

D. Mind Movies

Goal: condition the subconscious with repeated emotional rehearsal; he describes the “kaleidoscope” trance-like effect some people report.

E. Pineal gland practice

Goal: induce transcendent states; he explicitly ties it to melatonin and DMT language in the pineal section.

4. Becoming Supernatural analysis

Where the book is strongest

1. It treats change as training—not motivation

The most convincing part of Becoming Supernatural is the insistence that your body must learn the future. This aligns with behavior science broadly: repetition and cues shape automaticity. Dispenza’s framing is dramatic, but the psychological insight lands.

2. Emotion is treated as a biological lever

The coherence emphasis (gratitude, love, compassion) as a way to shift the nervous system feels psychologically sound as a practice direction, even if every mechanistic claim isn’t established.

Mainstream sources also take a cautious, evidence-based stance: meditation may help with stress, anxiety, blood pressure, and more—but evidence quality varies, and it shouldn’t replace proven treatments.

3. The book is practical (a real program)

A lot of self-help books give ideas. This one gives a curriculum—Part II plus the meditation scripts.

If you’re the kind of reader who needs a clear “do this daily” pathway, that’s a huge strength.

Where the book is weakest (or, at least, most controversial)

1. “Quantum” language can blur into metaphor

The book uses quantum-field framing to argue that consciousness influences reality. That’s where many scientists and skeptical writers push back, arguing that quantum mechanics is often misapplied in pop-spiritual contexts.

A Skeptical Inquirer critique of the book frames Dispenza’s claims as misleading and unscientific (a viewpoint worth reading if you want balance).

2. Case studies aren’t the same as clinical proof

Stories like Anna’s timeline and Felicia’s reported transformation are compelling.
But even if every story is sincere, testimonials don’t automatically generalize. Without independent replication and controlled designs, the causal claim (“this meditation caused this healing”) remains uncertain.

3. Safety: intense practices aren’t universally neutral

Meditation is often safe, but harms are real for some people. The U.S. NCCIH notes that relatively few studies rigorously examine adverse effects, so definitive safety conclusions are hard; it cites a review suggesting about 8% reporting negative effects—similar to psychotherapy rates.

And other research lines (e.g., MBCT participant reports of adverse effects) underline the need for nuance and support structures for people who react strongly.

5. Strengths and weaknesses (my personal experience)

What I loved (pleasant experience)

• It gave me language for why I relapse into old habits. The “body as the unconscious mind” framing made me notice how often I was chemically addicted to stress.
• It made meditation feel purposeful. Instead of “sit and breathe,” it became “train attention + emotion + identity.”
• Walking Meditation was the most life-changing for me because it forced practice in real life, not just in a quiet room.

What I struggled with (unpleasant experience)

• Some passages felt like the book was mixing measurable physiology with metaphysical certainty too seamlessly.
• The pineal-gland / DMT language may inspire some readers, but for me it raised questions about evidence boundaries.
• The healing claims (especially rapid timelines and large-group effects) are emotionally powerful, but I found myself wanting more independent confirmation.

6. Comparison with similar works

• The Power of Now (Eckhart Tolle) is the closest “spiritual cousin”: it also pushes you into the present moment as the doorway out of suffering and overthinking, but it’s far less technical and doesn’t build a step-by-step “energy center / coherence” training system like Dispenza does.
• Full Catastrophe Living (Jon Kabat-Zinn) is the “clinical cousin”: it’s grounded in mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR) and focuses on practicing awareness with stress, pain, and illness—similar mind-body intent, but without Dispenza’s quantum-field/pineal claims.
• Atomic Habits (James Clear) is the “behavioral cousin”: it explains habit change via systems and repeatable rules (Four Laws), overlapping with Dispenza’s “break the old self” theme—but it stays in practical psychology rather than altered states and metaphysics.
• The Power of Habit (Charles Duhigg) is another habit-focused parallel: it popularizes the cue–routine–reward “habit loop,” which complements Dispenza’s idea that your body runs automated patterns—just with a more journalistic/science reporting frame.
• Breaking the Habit of Being Yourself (Joe Dispenza) is basically the “earlier draft” of the same mission: personal transformation through rewiring thoughts/emotions with meditation—Becoming Supernatural expands the framework toward coherence, energy centers, and “uncommon” experiences.

6. Conclusion — who should read it, really?

I’d recommend Becoming Supernatural if you want a structured meditation program aimed at identity change and you’re comfortable holding two truths at once:

1. The practices can be meaningful, stabilizing, and even life-changing as attention/emotion training.
2. Some of the book’s bigger claims (especially around quantum explanations and healing outcomes) are debated and not established as mainstream scientific consensus.

Who benefits most: readers who will actually practice, not just highlight.
Who should be cautious: anyone with significant trauma activation, dissociation, or mental-health instability—get support, go gently, and respect the book’s own reminder that it’s not medical care.

7. FAQ

Is Becoming Supernatural worth reading?

If you want a deep meditation-based change system, yes. If you need strictly conservative science and hate spiritual language, it may frustrate you.

What is the main message of Becoming Supernatural?

Train attention and emotion so thoroughly that the future self becomes automatic—Dispenza ties this to the rule that attention directs energy.

What are the key practices in the book?

Tuning into new potentials, Blessing of the Energy Centers, Walking Meditation, Mind Movies, and a pineal gland practice.

Does science support meditation helping health?

Evidence supports benefits for stress and some health markers, but quality varies and it shouldn’t replace standard treatment.

Can meditation be harmful?

Sometimes. NCCIH notes harms are understudied and cites evidence of negative effects in a minority of participants.