The Guru
Dr. Joe Dispenza is a renowned author, researcher, and expert in the fields of neuroscience, epigenetics, and quantum physics. He has lectured in over 33 countries and the best-selling Joe Dispenza books have helped countless people improve their well-being.
He holds a Doctor of Chiropractic egress and has postgraduate training in neuroscience, biochemistry, and brain function. He rose to international prominence when he appeared in the best-selling documentary, What the Bleep do we Know? in which he discussed the role of quantum physics in our understanding of consciousness and reality.
The Background
Dispenza has been studying the human mind for decades. His interest in the topic mainly dates to 1986, when as a 23-year-old he was in a serious bicycle accident that left him with multiple broken vertebrae. Doctors told Dispenza he needed surgery and would probably spend the rest of his life in a wheelchair.
Instead, Dispenza chose to heal his body through the power of his mind and began studying the mind-body connection, using various visualization techniques to speed up his recovery. Ever since, Dispenza has dedicated his life to furthering his understanding of the human mind and using this knowledge to help others.
Best Joe Dispenza Books
Becoming Supernatural
Superhuman Potential
To call the best Joe Dispenza books self-help books would be doing them a disservice. This is true for Becoming Supernatural, the latest book by Joe Dispenza. The book’s advice on self-help and personal development is intertwined with musings on spirituality, psychology, science, and neuroscience.
It’s easy to see why this is one of the most popular Joe Dispenza books. Its rather heady themes are divided into three, much easier-to-digest chunks, with each chunk building on the previous one to produce a cohesive whole. By the end of the three sections the reader should be ready to unlock their superhuman potential.
The Science
The first part of the book deals with the science behind “Becoming Supernatural”. As someone who can be a little bit of a skeptic when it comes to spirituality and self-help overall, this section really helped ease my mind that I wasn’t just reading some new-age mumbo jumbo.
Dispenza details the scientific connection between the mind and body and how our thoughts and emotions can have a direct effect on our physical health and well-being. Dispenza backs up his claims with a detailed explanation of how our brains work and how our beliefs and perceptions shape our individual realities.
Cultivation
Once prepped with the science the second part focuses on the techniques and exercises we can use to cultivate our potential. There’s nothing overly ground-breaking here and the techniques include things like meditation, visualization, breathwork and other mindfulness practices, but with Dispenza’s explanations, I can see their value. I also appreciated how Dispenza makes sure to enforce the idea that this book isn’t an easy win. He says repeatedly that for these exercises to work, they require regular practice and persistence.
The third and final part of the book is all about results. Like the best books by Joe Dispenza, he gives real-world examples of how his techniques can help people. There are several inspiring stories of individuals who have used the techniques entombed within to overcome physical and emotional challenges. For anyone lacking the motivation to do their exercises every day, this section of the book is invaluable.
Life Changing
I found Becoming Supernatural completely compelling. Dispenza takes intimidating scientific disciplines like neuroscience and quantum physics and boils them down into easily understandable language, making them accessible to those of us without PHDs. He then gives us practical everyday exercises we can use to harness the power of these heady topics.
Overall I have no problem dubbing this one of the best Joe Dispenza books. It’s a great choice for anyone looking to dip their toes into self and personal development. For those of us who enjoy a heavy dose of science with our spiritualism, it could be life changing.
You Are the Placebo
Real Science
I can remember being sat in a high school biology class many years ago when I first heard of the placebo effect, I’ve been fascinated by it ever since. For anyone unfamiliar, the placebo effect is when a person’s physical or mental health appears to improve after taking a placebo (a dummy treatment). Tell someone a sugar pill is a pain killer and watch their pain ease. In extreme cases, tell them it’s a cancer treatment and watch their tumor shrink.
It’s real-life, scientifically documented evidence of a connection between the body and mind. For the most part, science sees it as an interesting quirk of the human body that causes serious problems during clinical trials, creating the need for double blind testing. But in this book, Joe Dispenza asks the question, what if we learned to use the placebo effect?
Clinical Evidence
Dispenza begins by taking us through the science. He gives us a detailed explanation of the placebo effect and provides plenty of scientific evidence that it exists. This includes a clinical trial where people allergic to poison ivy were exposed to it after being told they were not allergic, and 80-year-olds who convinced themselves they were 60 and saw a reduction in chronic conditions like arthritis.
It isn’t all sunshine and rainbows, however. This is one of the best books by Joe Dispenza because it details the dark side of this strange effect too. Alongside stories of imaginary knee operations that worked better than real ones, he explains how people have gotten sick or even died after believing they were the victims of hexes and voodoo curses. If these sound a little unlikely, he gives more common real-world examples, like otherwise healthy people who have become ill after being misdiagnosed.
Harness the Placebo
After explaining the placebo effect and how it can be both beneficial and detrimental to us, Dispenza then begins detailing how we can harness it for ourselves. Using the kind of exercises that will be familiar to anyone who has read Dispenza before we are taught to utilize the placebo effect through heightened states of emotion via meditation. It is these emotions which trick the brain and body into making it real.
For any naysayers Dispenza then backs up his techniques with scientific evidence, like brain scans taken from people at his workshops, to show that his exercises really do work. The book then ends with a how-to meditation to change our beliefs and perceptions that hold us back and stop our healing.
Not Disappointed
As someone who has actually read about (and is interested in) the placebo effect going into this book, I was excited to see what Dispenza was going to do with it. I wasn’t disappointed and can now easily see why this is one of the best-selling Joe Dispenza books.
Dispenza hasn’t just latched onto some scientific buzzword. This is a terrific book, and I particularly enjoyed the books on focus on improving physical health. It isn’t a miracle cure by any means, but this is the best Joe Dispenza book for anyone dealing with a chronic illness or pain whose conventional treatment has hit a roadblock.
Breaking The Habit of Being Yourself
Prisoners of Habit
In Breaking the Habit of Being Yourself, Joe Dispenza teaches us how to break out of the mental prisons we create for ourselves. Modern science has left people believing that we are hard-wired by our genes to behave a certain way for the rest of our lives. That to a considerable extent our fates are already decided. Dispenza disagrees.
As with any text in a Joe Dispenza book list, Breaking The Habit begins by outlining the science. Dispenza once again mentions various fields like quantum physics, biology, and genetics but this time also focuses on neuroplasticity. Neuroplasticity is our brain’s ability to change and constantly rewire itself. Dispenza argues that if we can learn to utilize this unique aspect of our brains we can break out of the kind of harmful thinking and thought loops that can trap us. Rewiring not just our brains, but our lives.
More Spiritualism
While Dispenza does back up most of his claims here with some basis in science, Breaking the Habit does feature a fair amount more spiritualism than the first two books in this list. In particular, he talks about how the universe responds to who we are being, not to what we want, and how the outer world is a reflection of our inner reality. This means this may not be the best Joe Dispenza book for those not willing to at least give spiritualism a chance.
Even if you don’t necessarily fully connect with the spiritual side of the book, the exercises within are still useful. Dispenza always gives clear and concise instructions on how to practice what he teaches and apply them in a practical way to our lives.
Feeling Trapped
Breaking the Habit is a great book for anyone who feels trapped, or stuck in a rut. It feels like thanks to the events of the last few years this could apply to quite a lot of us. People have spent a lot of time stuck at home doing the same thing, day in, day out.
In this book, Dispenza teaches us how to use the power of our minds to break free from these self-imposed restraints to become our best selves. It might be a little on the spiritual side for my liking, but I still highly recommend it.
Evolve Your Brain
An Introductory Lesson
In many ways Evolve Your Brain, one of the best-rated Joe Dispenza books, feels like a lengthy introduction to his later books, especially Breaking The Habit of Being Yourself. While many of Dispenza’s books combine self-help and science, Evolve Your Brain is primarily focused on the science.
Specifically, neuroscience and neuroplasticity. Dispenza breaks down everything you need to know about how our brain and its processes work in a way that is both engaging and feels educational. The science here is complicated but Dispenza manages to make it relatively digestible without feeling overly dumbed down or simplified.
Early Work
This being said, the book can feel a little dense in places. As one of his first books, Dispenza doesn’t always get the balance quite right. At times it feels more like a beginner’s textbook on neurobiology, rather than a self-help book. In fact, people coming to this book after reading Dispenza’s other works might be disappointed to find precious few practical exercises on how to “evolve your brain”.
If one were to attempt to read the Joe Dispenza books in any kind of order, I would definitely recommend starting with this one. It details much of the science he builds on in later books. It’s the best Joe Dispenza book for anyone looking to dip their toes into this specific niche of personal development and self-help.
A Taster
If you find yourself disinterested by the end of Evolve Your Brain, you’re unlikely to be impressed by Dispenza’s other works. On the other hand, if this book “clicks” with you, then you can safely pick up his other books and really start working on yourself.
Ultimately, Evolve Your Brain is a great gateway into the world of Joe Dispenza. While it feels like the book could have been a little shorter, and a little less repetitive, it does a great job of breaking down how brains work and how we can begin to help it evolve.
Final Thoughts
The top Joe Dispenza books all have one thing in common, they use a refreshing blend of science and spiritualism to help us understand how our bodies work and then use this knowledge to help ourselves. He always does an excellent job of breaking down the science and making it accessible to the average reader. Picking up a new Joe Dispenza book is always exciting.
Joe Dispenza book reviews can all sound a little similar since he tends to focus on one specific area of self-help, the mind-body connection. But in reality, each book focuses on using this connection in diverse ways, whether it be improving one’s health or general outlook on life. These books are great options for anyone looking to work on themselves, especially those who like some quantifiable science with their spiritualism.
Michael Englert
Michael is a graduate of cultural studies and history. He enjoys a good bottle of wine and (surprise, surprise) reading. As a small-town librarian, he is currently relishing the silence and peaceful atmosphere that is prevailing.
