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How is it possible that you can give someone a sugar pill,
a saline injection, or perform some false surgery
or treatment, and a certain percentage of those people will
accept, believe, and surrender to the thought without
analyzing it that they're getting the real substance
or treatment?
And they begin to program their autonomic nervous system
to produce the exact pharmacy of chemicals
equal to the substance that they think they're taking.
Is it the inert substance that's doing the healing,
or is it the body's innate capacity to heal?
I'm your host, Dr. Joe Dispenza, and in the previous episode,
we went into depth on the understanding of epigenetics
and how you have the ability to change your gene expression.
In this episode, we're going to discover
the power of suggestibility.
This will help you understand that your nervous system can be
the greatest pharmacist of all.
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What is the placebo?
The word placebo comes from the word to please.
And all throughout antiquity in ancient folklore,
there have been numerous examples for thousands of years
where people were reporting significant changes
in their health, whether they were associating
that change with some place, some symbol, some apparition,
or some ritual.
But in some way, there was an instantaneous change
in the person's health.
There was an American physician during one
of the wars who was doing surgery on wounded soldiers,
and the doctor ran out of morphine.
And he had to come up with a way to continue
doing the surgeries.
Instead of using morphine, he used a simple saline injection.
And when he gave the soldiers a saline injection,
he noticed that he was able to perform those surgeries
with very little response or pain from the subjects
that he was doing surgery on.
And this began the study of placebos.
Now, in most scientific studies that
are being done on drugs to this day,
no research experiment is done without
a double blind or triple blind placebo study.
In other words, every single drug
has to be measured against the placebo,
because in most scientific studies,
there are changes in a person's health
that range between 10% of the time to 100% of the time
when they're given a placebo.
And the subject doesn't even know
if they're getting the real substance
or they're getting the placebo.
And in fact, in triple blind studies,
the doctors or the researchers don't even
know who's getting the placebo and who's
getting the real substance.
So now most studies always consider the mind
to be an important element in how
it affects the person's body.
So how are placebos effective?
Well, think about it.
You have pain, you have a symptom.
Someone gives you a pill, and you swallow that pill,
and within an hour, you start noticing a change in your pain
levels.
So then the next day, you have pain again.
You're given that pill.
You look at the pill.
You swallow it again.
You notice that your pain levels diminish.
You start noticing a change in your internal state,
and you begin to think about what causes it,
and you start to associate the change in your inner state
with something outside of you.
Keep doing it again the next day, doing it again
the next day, do it again the next day,
and then the day after, give someone
a pill that looks just like that previous pill--
but there's no drug in it.
It's just simple starch or sugar.
The person takes the pill, and by association,
by conditioning, they start to notice the pain going away.
So the first element of the efficacy of placebos
is based on conditioning.
And in this current model of the way we view health,
so much of health has to do with taking something outside of you
to change your state inside of you.
And in fact, we've all been conditioned
into believing that's the case.
So now, certain color pills work better than other pills.
If you name a drug that sounds really, really effective
or has a name you can't pronounce,
it will work better for people, because they'll
give their power to it.
If you name a drug that rhymes with what it does,
it will work more effectively because it'll subconsciously
begin to cue certain beliefs and conditions.
If you charge more for a drug, it
will work better, even if you're giving the placebo.
And by the same means, if the doctor
is enthusiastic about the placebo or the study,
it will work even better.
Now, the second element that makes placebos effective
is expectation.
So the person gets that pill, and the doctor tells them,
this is a new drug.
This drug is highly effective.
Think of that pill as a symbol of possibility.
And when they grab that pill and they're about ready to take it,
before they take it, they begin, in their mind,
to begin to believe or accept, or begin
to think about that that could possibly change their health.
And all of a sudden, they start getting optimistic.
They start looking forward to the change.
They start believing that there could
be a change in their health.
And when they're combining that clear intention
with the elevated emotion of gratitude, or optimism,
or excitement, or inspiration, in a sense,
they're changing their state of being.
And so if conditioning, then, is based on the past,
expectation is based on the future.
And there's so many great studies
on the power of expectation.
In fact, the nocebo is when you're given an inert substance
and you begin to experience the side effects of that drug,
but you're not even getting the drug.
So now, for the person whose glass is half empty
and they're given a placebo, and they
begin to experience the side effects of that placebo,
thinking they're getting the drug,
and it's producing those elements where
they start feeling bad, wow.
It must mean then they're expecting some outcome
subconsciously.
In one study that was done with patients that were about
ready to go into chemotherapy, the doctors
told them that there was a high probability
they would get nauseous after they were administered
the chemotherapy.
And 50% of those patients got nauseous on the drive
over to their first chemotherapy treatment.
Expectation means you begin to expect an outcome.
And when you begin to expect an outcome,
your body begins to physiologically change
in anticipation of that effect.
The third thing that makes a placebo effective
is what we call assigning meaning
based on learning information.
So if the doctor shows up and says,
this drug is going to enhance serotonin and the receptor
sites in your brain, and they take out a chart
and they show you how serotonin is
what begins to create neurotransmission,
and then, of course, when they see the pill,
they start to assign meaning behind what it does,
and it increases the efficacy of how the placebo works.
So those are the three elements that
begin to change a person's state of being.
So then that pill represents a symbol of hope--
a symbol of possibility.
And when a person begins to associate that pill
with the thought of being better,
they're selecting a new future subconsciously.
They're not even aware that they're doing that.
And if they begin to combine that clear intention
with an elevated emotion, they're
changing their state of being.
And when they change their state of being,
they're changing the way they think and feel, and in a sense,
now, they're moving their biology
from the past present reality into
the future present reality.
In depression studies where there
is a placebo that's being tested against the drug,
the research shows that four out of five people
respond as well to the placebo as they
do to the drug for depression.
They've done brain scans on people
before they're given the placebo or given the drug.
They meet with the doctors.
They take the pill.
Now the person doesn't know whether they're
getting the real substance or they're getting the placebo.
And after a period of time, the person
notices that they start to feel better.
When you look at their brain scans
after the end of the study, you see a significant change
in the way their brain is functioning.
That means that they are making their own pharmacy
of anti-depressants by thought alone.
The important point that I want you to remember
is that every single day that person took that pill,
it was a reminder of moving into a new state of being.
Every day they took the pill, they
remembered what the pill could do for them.
They start to get optimistic.
They start to look forward to the outcome.
They start to get inspired.
They start to feel grateful, combining that clear intention
with an elevated emotion, changing their state of being,
and they do that for eight weeks in the study.
Now the question is, do you need the sugar pill,
the saline injection, or some false surgery
to move into a new state of being?
Do you need some external substance
to convince you to move into a new state of being,
or can you move into a new state of being just by thought alone?
The answer, of course, is in the meditative process.
We teach people how to change their state of being when they
get beyond their analytical mind,
where they can begin to program their autonomic nervous system
to make their own pharmacy of chemicals.
Now take a look.
This is called the quantitative EEG, or qEEG.
And what it does is it measures the amount
of energy in your brain at different brainwave states.
If you see a lot of blue in the brain,
that means there's very little energy in the brain.
When you see a lot of red in the brain,
that means there's a lot of energy in the brain.
If you see green, green usually represents normal or average.
If you see shades of yellow or orange,
you're moving more energy towards red.
If you see a light blue and a mid-range blue,
you're moving closer to a low amount of energy.
And then this area right here, between 1 and 4 Hertz,
represents delta.
This area right here between 4 and 8 Hertz represents theta.
This is alpha here.
This is low-range beta, this is mid-range beta,
and this is high-range beta.
So we can determine the amount of energy
in the brain in different brainwave states.
Now, this is our first case history.
If you look at the bottom left-hand side there,
you'll see a lot of blue in the brain.
In mid-range beta, that represents
a person who has very little energy in their brain.
This person had a very significant amount
of depression.
Four days later, we scan the brain again.
Remember, green is normal.
You see a significant change in mid-range beta.
Now.
This is high beta up here.
See all that blue in the brain?
Take a look at three days later.
You see all that green?
It represents they changed their brain by thought alone.
In other words, it's not just in their mind.
It's in their brain.
Here's a second case study.
Same exact pattern.
A lot of blue in mid-range beta.
That represents, again, another person with depression.
Take a look at the post measurement
on the right-hand side.
You see all that green?
That represents normal.
Now, this is high beta.
Look at all that blue in the brain.
Person has no energy in their brain.
Three days later, after doing meditation twice a day,
take a look at that change.
All that green represents they changed their brain by thought
alone--
by moving into a new state of being.
They didn't need an external substance to do it.
They did it by thought alone.
Now, there's been numerous pain studies that
also have caught my attention-- dental studies where people
were given a placebo and were told
that they were given a very strong narcotic for pain.
And almost 50% of the people that were given the placebo
had absolutely no pain during the procedure.
Now, what they did was they found a substance that
would block morphine receptors.
And what they found is when they injected this substance,
all of the person's pain came back,
which means, then, that person was making their own pharmacy
of morphine-- their own pharmacy of anti-pain chemicals
by thought alone.
There's a Parkinson's study that I found very fascinating.
Parkinson's disease is a deficiency
in dopamine in the brain.
And when there's not enough dopamine in the brain,
the upper motor neurons can't communicate well
with each other, and it causes involuntary tremors
or spastic paralysis in the body.
So in the placebo study, they told the subjects
that the placebo was a very strong drug that
would heal Parkinson's disease and their symptoms.
When they got the substance administered to them,
more than 50% of the people with the Parkinson's disease--
all of their symptoms went away.
And one researcher said, well, if they no longer
have any tremors, is it possible, then,
that their body's making their own pharmacy of dopamine?
So now they did this little study
where they injected a radioactive dye
into their bloodstream that competes for the receptor
sites for dopamine.
Now think about receptor sites in your brain
like parking spaces.
So if the person that was given the placebo
was making their own dopamine, dopamine
would get into the parking spaces first,
and when they injected this radioactive dye,
there would be no parking spaces for the dye.
So when they imaged the brain, they
wouldn't see any radioactive elements in any of the areas
where dopamine is absorbed.
And if they didn't make their own dopamine
when they injected the radioactive dye,
then dopamine would not be in the parking spaces
and the radioactive dye would get into the parking spaces,
and we would know then that they were not
making their own dopamine.
What they found was that these people
were making 200 times the amount of dopamine by thought alone.
Now, there's a caveat to this story,
because when those people returned back into their lives
and they sat in the same chair, they played chess
with their friends, they saw the same people,
they went to the same places, they did the same things,
all of their conditions returned.
And in other words, when they returned back to their life,
it was their external environment
that was controlling the way they were feeling
and the way they were thinking.
In a sense, they went back to the old self.
Now, if the environment is that strong
that it influences a person's feelings and thoughts,
their state of being to return back to the old self,
would it be a good idea every single day
to do a meditation to change your state of being
to be greater than your environment?
And if in the depression studies,
it took eight weeks for many people
to change their state of being by thought alone that
ultimately healed their depression,
do you think it would be a good idea for you, every single day,
to change your state of being for eight weeks before you
start seeing changes?
And it's important to understand this,
because some people do it once or do it twice,
and they expect the change to take place
in just one or two attempts.
And why does that not work?
Because either the person's getting up
after their meditation feeling the same way
they did as they started--
and if you get up from your meditation feeling
the same way, then in a sense nothing happened
neurologically, nothing happened neurochemically, nothing
happened hormonally, nothing happened genetically,
nothing happened energetically.
You're still the same person.
The second thing is is that some people
move into a new state of being.
They feel great, and then they open their eyes,
and they get back into their life,
and they return back to their old self again.
That's like eating a great breakfast-- organic meal--
and then spending the rest of your day eating junk food.
So the importance behind placebo is that it
may take a few attempts.
It may take some time--
every single day changing your state of being
to be greater than your environment.
It may take you a little time to change your biology.
So how can you then move into a new state of being
and change your body by thought alone?
Well, think about this.
How is it that the preacher in the deep south of the United
States can move into a state of religious ecstasy
and drink strychnine or poison and have no biological effects?
Or the snake charmer moving into an altered state of mind,
gets bit by a poisonous snake, and never has
any blood coagulation.
Or the tribes of the South Pacific
move into a state of trance and walk across a bed of hot coals
and never burn their feet.
In each one of these cases, every individual
made a decision with such firm intention
that the amplitude of that energy
caused their body to respond to a new mind--
that the choice that they made in that moment
changed their biology in that second.
And in that instant, they were immune to the conditions
in their environment.
And in a sense, then, it was energy
that began to affect their biology
and changed their state of being.
Now in order for you to change some health condition
or condition in your life, you're
going to have to make a decision with such firm intention
that the energy from that decision
is greater than the hardwired programs in your brain
and the emotional conditioning in your body,
and your body literally has to respond to a new mind--
that the choice that you make in that moment
becomes a memory or an experience
that you never forget.
And the stronger the emotion that you feel,
the more you will pay attention to the decision.
And in a sense, then, you are moving your body out
of the past into the future.
Well, how do most people make a decision to change?
They're sitting on the couch.
They have their computer over here.
They have their smart phone over here.
They have the big screen TV over here.
And they say, let me see.
I think I'll change tomorrow.
Now, the body's realizing it's not
getting any new information.
So in a sense, it knows you're not serious.
It knows that you haven't changed your state of being.
And in a sense, nothing's going to change.
But think about a time in your life
where you painted yourself into a corner
and you had no other choice but to change.
And you said, this is it.
I don't care how I feel, body.
I don't care what's going on in my life or what people think,
environment.
And I don't care how long it's going to take time.
I'm going to do this.
And when you make that kind of decision,
and the hair on the back of your neck stands up,
that's a new signal that's making it to the body.
And in a sense, the body's literally
getting new information and now the body
is responding to a new mind.
It's that kind of energetic signal
that the body gets that begins to select and instruct
new genes.
And remember, genes make proteins,
and proteins are responsible for the structure
and the function of your body.
And the expression of proteins, then,
is the expression of life.
So then in order for you to literally move your body out
of the past into the present, you're
going to have to change your energy.
And I can tell you from doing this for so many years,
I now know that nobody changes until they change their energy.
And when they change their energy, they change their life.
So then how, then, do we get thought
to begin to influence our body?
Really simple.
You will only accept, believe, and surrender
to the thoughts equal to your emotional state,
and you will not accept, believe,
and surrender to any thoughts that are not
equal to your emotional state.
Here's an example.
A person gets a diagnosis.
The diagnosis is cancer.
The diagnosis is rheumatoid arthritis.
The diagnosis is multiple sclerosis.
The moment that person gets the diagnosis--
the moment they get the news and how the doctor delivers it--
you can agree with me they have some type of internal change.
They are feeling an emotion like fear.
They're feeling emotion like pain.
They're feeling an emotion like suffering.
And they feel that change in their internal state.
They remember that moment the doctor told them.
The brain takes a snapshot, and that
becomes a long-term memory.
And now, the person can say all they want--
I'm going to beat this condition--
but if they're still living by that emotion,
and they're saying, I'm getting stronger every day,
I'm getting stronger every day, and the body's feeling fear,
the body's feeling sadness or pain, the body's feeling
discouraged, that thought will never make it to the body--
never past the brain stem.
And they can say that affirmation over and over
again.
So then it makes sense, then, that if you
begin to change your emotional state,
and instead of surrendering to fear,
start surrendering to love or gratitude--
and think about the emotional signature of gratitude.
Something is happening to you or you are receiving something.
So this signature, emotionally, is the perfect state
of receiving.
So if a person is feeling fear, they cannot accept, believe,
and surrender to any thought that's not consistent with
the feeling of fear.
It never makes it to their body.
Change their state from fear to gratitude
and have that person open their heart,
and in spite of the news, begin to change their internal state.
If they're in a state of gratitude
and they're in a state of receiving,
they will accept, believe, and surrender
to the thoughts equal to that emotional state,
and they'll begin to program the autonomic nervous system
into a whole new destiny.
Here's an example.
We had a woman come to one of our follow-ups for the weekend.
And she was scheduled for surgery.
And she had a car accident.
And she could never get away from the debilitating pain.
And pain created the emotions of frustration, of anger, sadness.
Felt really, really limited and victimized by her condition.
And so she scheduled the surgery for the Thursday
after the event.
Now, in this event, she had to understand
that she had to trade those emotions for gratitude.
And by opening her heart and really
feeling gratitude in spite of her past, in spite of her pain,
in spite of what would be potentially happening
in her future, she literally got in the present moment
and opened her heart.
The moment she started doing that, she started
to notice a big change in the way she
was processing information.
In that moment, she felt a significant change
in the heat running down her spine.
And by the time that meditation was over,
she had absolutely no pain in her body.
Now, the way she came to that event
was she couldn't even sit up in the chair,
she was having such extreme spasms.
But by the time she changed her emotional state
and moved into a new state of being,
it was the right formula that began
to program her autonomic nervous system to begin
to do the healing for her.
If you ask her who did the healing, she'll tell you,
it wasn't me that did it.
It was some intelligence that's greater than me
that did the healing for me.
I just got out of the way.
And she moved from one state of being
into another state of being.
And just like those placebo studies, all of a sudden,
the symptoms began to change and her body
began to respond to a new mind.
Now that I've shown you the placebo effect
and how it works, how will you use this knowledge
to change your body?
Is it possible that your mind can
begin to produce similar effects in your life
as well as your body?
In order for us to answer that question,
we're going to have to learn about how the mind and how
matter are intimately related.
In the next episode, we're going to explore the wacky world
of quantum physics.
Once you understand that every thought produces
a frequency and that energy begins the condition
in objectifed space.
Is it possible that you can create the life of your dreams?
I'm your host, Dr. Joe Dispenza for Rewired,
and I hope to see you in the next episode, where
we go beyond the ordinary into the extraordinary.
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