This post is all about how I came across Dr. Joe Dispenza, and how he changed the way I think – mystical experiences, high energy and science-meets-the-supernatural – if you haven’t heard of him you should absolutely check it out.

In 2015 I was driving home from work when I had a download; ‘go to the Hierophant, there is something there for you’. By this point, I was following all my hunches – they had never let me down.

I turned the car around and headed back the 10-minute drive towards the shop to find whatever it was that was waiting for me

The Hierophant is a small holistic health shop in my city with herbs, teas, homeopathic remedies, crystals, jewellery and tonnes of books on health and healing. I wandered through the shop, checking the shelves for anything that stood out. Nothing.

I went to leave the shop, but as I reached the door that voice came again; ‘there is something here for you’. I had one more look, and on the top shelf across the room was as white book I had missed before – ‘You are the Placebo’, by Dr. Joe Dispenza. I purchased the book and read it cover to cover in one weekend.

Joe Dispenza’s work is all about scientific proof that we can heal ourselves. He healed his back with his thoughts when he was younger and ended up dedicating his whole life to the art of meditation and using meditation and neuroscience to show us how we can heal ourselves, if we can just get ‘out of the way’, or, as Dr. Joe calls it ‘pull the mind out of the body’. He also explores ‘other’ realms – offering up mystical experiences, supernatural encounters and synchronicity.

A few months later, I was planning a trip to North America, as I had signed up for a 16-week course with Dr. Lissa Rankin’s Whole Health Medicine Institute. Dr. Joe came to mind again as pondered my travel, and as I searched his website I came across a ‘progressive 3-day workshop’, only 10-days before my San Diego trip – I booked it in, and 9 months later I was off to Seattle for some Dr. Joe time.

I thought it would be a small retreat, but when I arrived, I realised I was one of 700+ people! I didn’t realise how big of a name he was until I experienced it in person.

Over three days, Dr. Joe would give a lecture on his model of healing, so we could get beyond ourselves rewire our nervous systems in a healthier way. At this point in my journey I struggled to meditate – his meditations were up to 4 hours long.

On day 2, we were introduced to his signature breathing method, where you pull energy up from your perineum (bottom of your pelvis), up your spinal cord and into the top of your head – a technique he uses to trigger the pineal gland to release DMT. I found myself ‘somewhere else’, waving my arms our in front of me at what I thought was a fairy, only to look down and see huge, hairy brown feet!

I panicked, popping straight out of the meditation and back into the room, and despite trying really hard I couldn’t get back there again.

I remember thinking, what the fuck!? How did I find this guy!?

Of course, I was a little sceptical about how ‘pulling the mind out of the body’ or how seeing fairies and becoming Bigfoot was going to help me heal, but with the scientific proof he presents and the belief of all his followers, it’s hard not to get excited about it. After all, this prospect is much better than the ‘would you like to take an antidepressant, or lithium?’ that my local doctor had recommended. I much prefer the idea of the mystical.

The following morning, we were asked to arrive at 4am. This meditation was timed when the pineal gland is most easily accessed, and our task was to try to ‘astral travel’ – specifically, see if we could energetically get our bodies through a hoop high up on the ceiling.

I tried for 4 hours and failed; in fact, I think I got close back once again panicked when I felt the shift in my body. When it was over, I came out of the meditation to find I had stolen someone else’s pillow and fallen asleep on it.

After that retreat, it was hard for me to go back to my old ways of thinking. A new world opened for me. I truly believed I could heal myself, and that it was just a matter of time. I purchased Joe Dispenza’s fancy meditation eye mask, his first book ‘Breaking the Habit of Being Yourself’, and went on to do his meditations every day.

It’s an experience I would recommend for anyone.