Chapter 8 starts by discussing historical conceptions of reality. Matter and mind were considered to be two separate realms, one physical and one abstract. Matter was studied through the field of classical physics, which measures the mechanics of objects functioning in space and time. However, classical physics falls short in the study of atoms and energy, which requires its own field called quantum physics.

Dispenza claims that the quantum behavior of atoms indicates that they are almost entirely composed of energy and information. He then claims that the observer effect, or the possibility that an observer can change a phenomenon simply by observing it, means that matter can be consciously willed into existence. He claims that since the theory that subatomic particles can exist in two or more places simultaneously is proven, human beings must also exist in infinite places, times, and states simultaneously.

Dispenza returns to a former example of seemingly supernatural behavior: the preacher who handles venomous snakes and drinks strychnine without dying. He claims that this phenomenon is possible because “his level of energy […]  transcended the effects of matter” (190). Through intention, the preacher changes the quantum structure of his atoms and supersedes the laws of physics, according to Dispenza. He states that the preacher closes the cell receptors that would respond to poison through his thoughts alone.

Dispenza offers a metaphorical example to help visualize the effects of intention on quantum matter. He argues that atoms, molecules, and cells are like hundreds of fans all working and spinning at the same time. When they are running at the same speed and in the same direction, they are harmonious and powerful. When the fans are out of sync, some on, some off, and many blowing in different directions and at different speeds, then they form a cacophony. He argues that intention causes the fans of the different atomic structures to blow at the same speed and in the same direction. This, according to Dispenza, leads to positive health outcomes. 

Finally, he states that all of reality can be defined as an infinite field of intelligence that “loves you so much that it loves you into life” (197). He argues that our self-organizing autonomous nervous system forms the connection between the individual conscious human and the formless loving intelligence of reality.

In this chapter, Dispenza provides three examples of people who, in his words, reached their conscious energy into an immaterial world beyond the senses and embraced a possibility of healing until it manifested.

The first example is Laurie, who was diagnosed at 19 with a degenerative bone disease. The treatment plan involved surgeries and restricting movement to avoid fracturing bones.

Her abusive childhood, Dispenza argues, in which her father violently and unpredictably attacked her and her siblings and mother, exacerbated her autonomic nervous system’s response to stress, making her more physically fragile. After her diagnosis, Laurie found herself ironically protected by her illness, since her father no longer physically abused her for fear of sending her to the hospital.

Dispenza then states that her psychological identification with her sickness started to work for her, providing her with safety and sometimes preferential treatment. However, the limitations continued to build up, until at the age of 30, Laurie found herself mostly bedridden and hopeless.

After attending a seminar with Dispenza in 2009, Laurie began to meditate and visualize according to his instruction. Her fractures began to slowly heal, mystifying her doctors. She soon became able to engage in normal activities.

The second example is Candace, a woman in a toxic and volatile relationship that she was afraid to leave. Dispenza argues that she had become addicted to the heightened neurochemicals of a conflict-driven life. Later, while in the relationship, she was diagnosed with an autoimmune disorder that attacked her thyroid. According to Dispenza, she chose to reject this diagnosis, though she continued to take the medication that would help her thyroid. At this point, she attended one of Dispenza’s workshops. Through patience, hard work, and dedication to meditation, she completely changed her health and mental resilience, leaving her relationship and instead constructing a joy-filled life for herself through the power of thought. Though Candace’s experience with meditation was more rocky, since she had to overcome her dependence on adrenaline to function, she achieved the same health results as Laurie.

The final example is Joann. A mother of five and successful businesswoman, Joann lived an “intense, fast-paced, and busy” (223) life. However, at the age of 59, she collapsed in the elevator at her apartment building and was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis, a degenerative autoimmune disorder. Although she had lived a fast-paced and seemingly healthy life, Dispenza connects her need to achieve and succeed with her body’s eventual “crash,” stating that she had pushed herself too hard. Though she was bedridden, she read Dispenza’s books and started to work at manifesting a new reality. Though she couldn’t walk, she attended one of Dispenza’s workshops in a wheelchair and felt the mental benefits of meditation. Then, in a second workshop, she was able to stand up from her wheelchair and walk to the front of the room, purely through the power of meditation. Later, she was able to walk unassisted through a combination of meditation and physical therapy.

Dispenza uses these examples to show success stories of people who, in his words, changed themselves from the inside out “without the use of medication, surgery, therapy, or anything except their own minds” (231).

Chapter 10 begins by inviting the reader to contextualize the previous chapter’s examples in a different way. Instead of simply seeing the placebo effect as a way of creating a concrete response in the body from a concrete cue, like a pill or an injection, Dispenza claims that it is possible to create a concrete response from an abstract, immaterial cue, like thought alone. He argues that people naturally believe in themselves and the possibility to improve their lives. Because of this, it’s relatively easy to amplify that natural belief into an ability to consistently reach remarkable levels of mind-body performance.

Dispenza then presents examples of people who, in his view, successfully accomplished this act. He states that these changes happened in his advanced workshops, where he and his assistants use electroencephalograph (EEG) technology to measure neural activity. Dispenza set up “brain-scan stations” (240) to measure the brain activity of his participants before and after meditations. He claims that during meditation, the beta-waves he associates with the activity of an analytical mind quickly give way to alpha/theta-waves, which he argues indicate a balanced and unified brain. Chapter 10 includes an insert of color images of the EEG scans taken during Dispenza’s workshops. The scans can detect both hyper- and hypo-activity in the brain in order to show meditation’s effect on brain activity. Dispenza also states in this chapter that fewer wave cycles per second in the brain constitutes better, more suggestible and therefore more ideal brain function, a theory not supported by the neuroscience community. Theta and alpha waves, most experts agree, simply indicate relaxation, whereas beta waves indicate engagement, not necessarily distress.

The first example is Michelle, a workshop participant with Parkinson’s disease. Dispenza claims that meditation helped her immensely, though she had to intermittently stop and start due to outside circumstances. Dispenza interprets the scans as showing that meditation helps to mitigate her anxiety, which in turn controls her Parkinson’s symptoms. When she stops meditating, the anxiety returns and so do the involuntary motor symptoms, though to lesser degrees as she progresses through her meditation practice. John, Kathy, Bonnie, Genevieve and Maria—the other example cases—offer similar experiences to Michelle’s. Some, like John and Bonnie, suffered from physical conditions that meditation helped to mitigate. John survived a car accident that broke his neck and left him wheelchair bound. Dispenza claims that after four years of working with him, John was able to stand up from his chair purely from the placebo effect. Bonnie suffered from dysmenorrhea, or very heavy periods, due to fibroid tumors which Dispenza claims were healed by meditation. Others, like Kathy and Genevieve, used meditation to reach a self-perceived higher state of being and alleviate mental distress. Maria, meanwhile, claims to reach a state of “brain orgasm” via meditation, with her scans showing heightened brain wave activity during these times. She describes this state as ecstatic and spiritual. Dispenza claims that many students in his workshops experience brain orgasms, and points to them as part of the proof that his methods have meaningful effects on the brain.