I’d been hearing Dr. Joe Dispenza's name kicking around in the media for years. When a friend recommended Becoming Supernatural, I was curious enough to put it on hold at the library. The waitlist was so long, I had to wait months. Around the same time, I came across some negative press about him. But as they say, no publicity is bad publicity.

OG beauty YouTuber Michelle Phan had posted about attending one of Dr. Joe’s retreats, sharing a series of out-there IG stories, including one where she said she helped heal a man in a wheelchair and watched him dance with joy. I was amused, but the internet was not. People were quick to label her brainwashed, and even credible journalists joined the pile-on, calling it cult behavior.

Now I was really intrigued. If Dr. Joe was so cult-y, why were his books so popular and well-reviewed?

When I finally got my library copy last summer, I only had to read a chapter before deciding to buy my own. (As a bit of a minimalist, I don’t buy books unless I know I’ll reread them.) His teachings had resonated with me immediately.

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Why Dr. Joe Dispenza's Meditations Work

What struck me as I went deeper into the book was how much Dr. Joe’s teachings felt like a continuation of Neville Goddard’s work.

To simplify it, Neville teaches that we are the I AM, pure consciousness itself. Being in a body, with an identity shaped by gender, race, age, and so on, lets us experience life from a specific perspective. But it also limits us. When we want to return to our true nature, which is our creator essence, we can do so by reconnecting with the I AM state. As Neville puts it, “I AM is the only reality” and “whatever you identify yourself with, you become.” So whatever you place after I AM, whether it’s healthy, rich, or loved, becomes the state you occupy.

The story goes that Neville used to hold lessons for his advanced students, and while he didn’t teach formal meditation, they did something similar. He would have them put a blanket over their heads and chant “I AM” repeatedly until they transcended their current identity.

What Neville calls the I AM state (the awareness of being, the consciousness of God), Dr. Joe refers to as the Quantum Field. His meditations are designed to guide you into that state, where you can access healing, abundance, and new possibilities. To reach it, you need to move beyond your physical identity and everyday awareness, entering a state where you are “no body, no one, no thing, nowhere, in no time.” In other words, stripping away the limitations of our 3D reality to tap into something much greater.

With the sheer number of guided meditations available on his website, it can feel overwhelming at first. I’ve been practicing Dr. Joe’s meditations for almost a year now and have tried most of them. I don't recommend the ones on YouTube. Some are stitched together from different tracks, and many seem AI-generated. I bought the meditations directly from his website, and a friend AirDropped me a bunch too. Before this, I hadn’t meditated much, though I had done a lot of self-healing work. However, I started having mystical experiences almost right away doing Dr. Joe's meditations, which is what pushed me to keep going.

I highly, highly recommend reading Becoming Supernatural to get context for his meditations. Breaking the Habit of Being Yourself is good too, but Becoming Supernatural is key. Even if you have listened to him talk about his work on podcasts, read the book. The best of what he teaches is in that book, and you'll probably want to read it more than once.

Let’s talk about the voice. I know Dr. Joe's voice is polarizing. It’s loud, dramatic, and sounds like a satire of a galactic being trying to sound human. But over time, I stopped giggling and got used to it. Actually, now I love it. It does something to me. Between his voice and the music choices, the meditations put me into a trance almost immediately. If you stick with it, it can take you somewhere powerful.

We don't meditate to heal or get things. We do it to change into the person who already has or embodies these experiences. In other words, we meditate to jump into the reality where we are already healed or have what we desire. Dr. Joe calls it remembering the future. Again, it's similar to what Neville Goddard teaches about living in the end. This works because reality is created in the mind...but I'll get deeper with that in another post.

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Some Tips on Meditating

Find somewhere comfortable to sit, ideally with a backrest. When I first started meditating, my head would start to droop, nodding off to sleep. Until you train yourself to stop falling asleep during meditations, having back support helps keep you upright and alert.

I also recommend investing in a good eye mask. I used to use a regular sleep mask, which worked fine, but when I went to the retreat, I bought Dr. Joe’s eye mask, and it's a game-changer. You don't need to buy his, just one that blocks out all the light. Noise-canceling headphones also help. The goal is to block out sensory distractions so you can focus inward and become “no body, no one, no thing, nowhere, in no time.”

Dr. Joe recommends meditating in the morning after waking up or in the evenings before going to sleep, since that’s when your brain is naturally in alpha. But I don’t always have the energy to focus at those times. Sometimes I meditate in the afternoon when I’m more alert, and it still works well. His meditations tend to put me into a trance state anyway, and I drop into alpha and theta pretty quickly.

That said, I do enjoy meditating at night, especially when I can go right to sleep afterward. If you’re prone to falling asleep during meditations, don’t do them in bed at first, especially lying in bed, until you've really trained yourself to stay awake during lying down meditation. The funny thing is, if I'm ever having trouble falling asleep, I put on one of his meditations. It doesn't matter how loud his voice gets; I still fall asleep.

A quick note on Dr. Joe's walking meditations

I love them. They’re amazing. But I’m not going to include them in this list. Unless you have access to private land or secluded outdoor spaces, it’s hard to do them well in public spaces alone, especially as a woman.

A big part of the walking meditation involves keeping your eyes closed, and then lying down afterward. I did four walking meditations with 2,100 other people at his retreat in a private resort in Cancun, and I felt totally safe and immersed. But when I tried to do them here in downtown Toronto, it just wasn't the same. I need to be alert to my surroundings. Even when I'm dressed incognito, people still try to talk to me sometimes. I just stick to my own Mantra Walks, which, funny enough, was something I made up before I got into Dr. Joe's work. Walking simply helps you step into your new identity as you focus on that intention.

My Top 10 Joe Dispenza Meditations

He really has a lot of meditations to choose from, which is why I always recommend reading his books first. They give you the context for the meditations and help you get clear on your own reasons for meditating.

At the advanced retreat, Dr. Joe said something that stuck with me. It doesn’t really matter which meditation you choose. Just pick one, and when it starts to feel too familiar, try a different one to stay present. That advice was meant for advanced students, though. If you’re just starting, I recommend the shorter, beginner-friendly meditations.

I made the mistake of jumping straight into the longer, hour-plus tracks. They were powerful, but sometimes the energy was so intense I’d get headaches after. Looking back, I would have been better off easing myself in with the 15-20 minute meditations to expand my tolerance for the amount of energy I'd shift with his meditations.

Here’s a breakdown of the meditations I recommend, organized by beginner, intermediate, and advanced levels.

For Beginners

1. Morning / Evening Meditations
The new recordings are longer at 30 minutes each, but the older ones are 20 minutes. Whichever version you choose, these meditations are great to get into the habit of meditating for conscious creation. The morning meditation focuses on rehearsing your future, and the evening one helps you reflect and set intentions.

2. Generating Series
This is a collection of 15-minute meditations to upgrade your energy. Great if you’re short on time and want to feel good fast.

3. Changing Boxes — Short Version
This is a powerful one, and the shorter version is only 20 minutes. It helps you step into a new reality where your current problem or challenge doesn't exist. There is a longer version that is 52 minutes.

For Intermediate

4. Love Your Body
This one is done lying down and is deeply restorative. It guides you through focusing loving energy on the part of the body you want to heal.

5. Tuning into New Potentials
Probably my favorite meditation. The music is iconic. If you want to manifest something, this walks you through the process of imagining a future version of yourself and emotionally rehearsing that reality. The meditation set includes two versions: one with the breath technique and one without.

6. Changing Beliefs and Perceptions
Definitely an underrated meditation. I do belief work on myself almost daily, and whenever I come across a belief that is too stubborn to change, I use this meditation.

7. The Generous Present Moment
This meditation is about letting go of identity and time to become pure awareness. The first time I tried it, I went in intending to fully surrender my identity. I ended up seeing the quantum field. I won’t go into details, because how I interpreted what the quantum field looks like may be different from what you'd experience, but I'll just say it was pretty cool. This meditation is great to practice dissolving into the field to be in the Eternal Now.

For Advanced

8. Blessing of the Energy Centers
Often referred to as BOTEC for short, this is one of Dr. Joe’s most popular meditations. There are 12 levels in this meditation as of this writing, although not every one seems to be available for sale. BOTEC 12, the newest one, seems to be available only for advanced students for now. The meditation focuses on bringing elevated energy and coherence to each energy center (or chakra). The first one is beginner-friendly, and it gets more advanced throughout the series.

9. Synchronize Your Energy Series
These meditations align your energy to a focus: Abundance, Health, Love, Mystical experiences, or A New Life. Over an hour long, these are good for once you've had some practice meditating. There are advanced versions of these meditations available to advanced students only, which are essentially the same but include the breath technique.

10. Pineal Gland Meditation
I did this on my own once, and I didn't really like it, but I also didn't understand it at the time. When I went to the advanced retreat and Dr. Joe did this with us live at 4 am, I loved it. My mystical experiences got even crazier. One day, I'll have to do this on my own in the middle of the night.

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If I had to choose my faves, the ones I find indispensable, I'd go with Tuning Into New Potentials, BOTEC, and Changing Beliefs and Perceptions.

Next, read what I experienced in Cancun during Dr. Joe's advanced retreat!

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