#1 Neurosurgeon: How to Manifest Anything You Want & Unlock the Unlimited Power of Your Mind

with manifestation or that terminology

there's a lot of woowoo and pseudo

science actually the ability to manifest

is fundamentally based in Neuroscience

there is no woowoo there's no magic

there's no law of attraction what people

don't appreciate is you can't wait for

somebody to magically take care of

everything the reality is you have the

power within yourself to change your

circumstance so many people in our

society they think somehow if you get

this stuff that's going to fill the void

all of us have and of course it doesn't

you're manifesting all the time what

people don't realize though is that many

of the decisions they make in their

lives the relationships the jobs they

have are actually based on the baggage

that they carry and that is The

Narrative of their story when you start

there anything is possible what you just

said

fundamentally addresses the issue of how

people create a prison for themselves by

this negative selft talk every time they

make a negative statement it's as if

they're laying down a brick and the

walls get higher and it gets darker yet

all of us have the key in our pocket to

let yourself out of the prison that you

created so many people make judgments

about

[Music]

people and they don't

recognize the path or the the problems

or the adversities they faced in those

situations ations you know you think

there's no

hope

but hey it's your friend Mel I am so

excited that you're here it's always

such an honor to spend time with you and

to be together if you're brand new

welcome to the Mel Robins podcast family

thank you for choosing to listen to this

podcast and for hitting play on this

particular episode because it tells me

that you're the type of person that sees

bigger possibilities for yourself and

you're interested in learning how you

can use neuroscience and the science of

manifestation to help you achieve it I

love that I want to know all about that

too which is why I am beyond thrilled to

introduce you to someone who is truly

extraordinary Dr Jim Dodie is here from

California he's in our Boston Studios he

is a Stanford neurosurgeon he's a

world-renowned neuroscientist and New

York Times best-selling author a

philanthropist he's the founder and

director of the Stanford center for

compassion altruism research and educ a

he has done so much more than just that

but to name a few he's a military

veteran he has founded massive medical

device companies he's one of the world's

leading experts in minimally invasive

spinal surgery and he was the former

chairman of the dolly Lama foundation

and he is here to teach you the science

of manifesting and visualization why it

works and how to do it properly

according to the science you you and I

are going to leave this conversation

knowing exactly how to leverage Dr

Dodd's extraordinary research and wisdom

so please help me welcome Dr Jim Dodie

to the Mel Robbins podcast it is a

pleasure and a joy to be with you I am

so thrilled that you are here and I

cannot wait for this conversation so

where I want to start is can you speak

directly to the person that's listening

to us and tell them how their life might

be different if they take to heart

absolutely everything that you are about

to teach and share with us

today of course and I think the

challenge for so many of us is that we

believe the negative selft talk we have

and as a result we create limited

beliefs that then limit our

possibilities and we believe this

ongoing narrative and the reality is we

have more power within ourselves

and it's understanding that

you control this there is no outside

force and as you know in my book uh uh

it says the universe doesn't give a [ __ ]

about you because there is nothing out

there and I don't mean this in a

negative way but I mean you can't wait

for somebody to magically take care of

everything the reality is you have the

power within yourself to change your

circumstance and it's just believing it

and listen I will tell you as you know I

grew up in a challenging background my

father was an alcoholic my mother had

had a stroke when I was a child she was

partially paralyzed chronically

depressed attempted suicide we were

evicted we were on public

assistance and in those situations you

know you think there's no

hope but as I found and uh from my first

book into the magic shop I walked into a

magic shop and met a woman

who looked at me as a human

being and what I mean by that is so many

people make judgments about

people and they don't

recognize the path or the the problems

or the adversities they

faced

and everybody deserves to be listened

to so this woman in this magic shop she

was a radiant being she had a smile a

presence that made you feel safe and

this is a key psychological safety to

downregulate your stress response and

she made me feel okay she didn't look

down on me and I was 12 as a 12-year-old

she looked at me as an equal eye to eye

and uh that interaction with her changed

the trajectory of my life because it

changed how I saw the world you've

written about your past you've written

about this interaction with this woman

in the magic shop and

still it brings so much

emotion up in

you how

come

uh one I'm appreciative

two I mean uh having somebody take the

time to look at you see

you uh

appreciate what you are and uh taking

that interest it's very meaningful and I

try never to take that for granted and

even in I hope every

interaction you understand that

that uh a lot of people are suffering

they're carrying baggage from their past

and that baggage is limiting them and

often times

just listening to somebody can

profoundly change their lives because

that's what people want to be heard and

sometimes it's just hello sometimes it's

just a hug so I always tell people never

forget your own ability to change

somebody's life and also to recognize

that often times how somebody is

interacting with you has nothing to do

with what's going on it has to do with

the baggage they're carrying and so give

people a benefit of a doubt and so you

know if you grow up in a background like

mine typically they're two path one is

the path you become an alcoholic drug

abuser have mental health issues the

other is you overe Excel right

overachieve then the path of the

overachiever gets bifurcated there's a

one group who say nobody helped me I did

this all myself uh I'm not going to help

anybody

else then you have the other group which

I probably typified maybe

excessively uh

where uh I understand the pain people go

through uh and very

deeply so uh I'm very attuned to that

um I personally cry all the time for the

same reason and I don't think I've ever

heard anybody

explain

um why I feel so driven to do what I do

so thank you for that that was a real

gift to me to hear somebody explain why

tears come up all the time and why I end

this podcast every single time by

telling the person who's listen

listening that I love them because I

know for most people they actually don't

hear it said by anybody else no and

which is a very sad statement

because um and we can talk about this

but so many people live in a fear mode

all the time and of course it has all

sorts of dilus effects and being in a

love mode or a heart-c centered mode is

very difficult especially if you have

all sorts of challenges that distract

you from who you really are and I think

the gift you give people and hopefully I

try to give people is a sense of hope

and

possibilities I want to go back to the

moment in the magic shop that truly

shaped you forever and changed the

trajectory of your life and so the

person who's listening can really

perhaps see themselves or someone they

love in the story could you explain as a

12-year-old you're walking into this

magic shop first just kind of how you

felt emotionally at that point in your

life going through all of the heartache

and the hardship that you did that so

many people do and how this

interaction with an adult woman who you

had never met who just interacted with

you how that actually changed

well um what would happen in my

situation at home was Whenever there was

fighting or uh uh challenging events I

would get on my bike and ride as far and

as fast away as I could and I rode a

great distance far from my house and

ended up at a strip mall and I'd had an

interest in magic for a while I used to

have a a plastic thumb that I would do

tricks

with my son has one of those yes yes and

uh I lost it and so I was looking for a

plastic thumb but anyway I saw the magic

shop and I went in and what was

interesting was this woman was there and

who was in her m50s probably and I I

still remember her vividly because she

was wearing a blue and white Mumu

remember these outfits because she was a

larger lady and she had this flowing

gray hair and she had these glasses that

were at the tip of her nose and she had

a chain on them and she was reading this

paper backbook you you sound like you're

describing the potions professor and

Harry Potter and she may have actually

uh but uh uh anyway uh she looked up

from her classes and I started quering

her about magic and she said I'm just

here babysitting in the shop because uh

this is my son store and he's doing an

errand but this led to her and I having

a conversation and after about 20

minutes she said to me she said I really

like you she said I think I can help you

I'm here for another six weeks if you

show up every day I think you could

learn a lot and I had no clue what she

meant and this was before mindfulness or

uh neuroplasticity were in the sort of

common lexicon and I did show up every

day now I have to tell you it wasn't

because I had any insight or

self-awareness I was a poor 12-year-old

in despair with a feeling of

hopelessness but I did show up and the

reason I showed up was one I had

absolutely nothing else to do to

two uh two she was giving me chocolate

chip cookies so those were the two

drivers of uh my interaction with her

but to sort of understand what happened

is she apparently had some exposure to

Eastern uh meditation practices and she

taught me if you will what is now called

a mindfulness practice and what I never

realized was that as a child I was in a

war zone all the time a constant trauma

because you never know what's going to

happen it's chaos there's always

unexpected things you can't rely on

anyone or any

person and as a result your muscles are

always tight you're always looking

around you can't focus and of course to

learn you have to be able to attend if

you can't be present it's not possible

to learn so she recognized this and she

initially taught me a u relaxation

technique and then she taught me the

ability to focus or

attend and then probably the most

critical thing was she taught me that

the negative dialogue that was going on

in my head was not truth and often times

when we tell ourselves we're not good

enough we're not worthy we don't deserve

love we think there's some truth in that

yeah but we have as humans a negativity

bias where negative statements have a

tendency to stick with us and this leads

oftentimes to rumination and once you

tell yourself it is not possible I

cannot that becomes truth yeah and so we

create our own Limited belief system and

so she taught me a technique

to respond with positive

self-affirmation but also to not respond

to those negative feelings uh and just

let them drift by but also to constantly

encourage positivity within yourself and

this led me to look at the world in a

different way and the reason I say that

is if you're hypercritical with yourself

you're hypercritical in your the lens

through which you see the world and

you're very judgmental

and what I tell people is

once I understood what was going on in

my own head it made me look at the world

through a different lens one of

kindness compassion and it also

dissipated the anger that I had towards

my

parents because what happens

is of course they're supposed to be the

caregivers but if they don't have the

tools to take care of their own pain

they can't help you

so that realization was very important

as the realization that people carry

baggage and uh their reactions often

time have nothing to do with you and so

having a much more thoughtful gentle

Kinder way to interact with people uh I

think is extraordinarily powerful you

went on to become a

neurosurgeon how and when did you start

m manifesting and can you talk about the

kind of overlap and connection between

being a

neurosurgeon and the interest in the

functioning and wiring of the Mind

itself well the other thing uh I didn't

mention was that at the end of this if

you will mindfulness type

practice um we had a discussion and the

discussion was about how to manifest or

visualization so she taught you how to

manifest and visualize at the age of 12

yes

wow so she asked me to make a list of 10

things that I wanted now I have to tell

you this is through the lens of a

12-year-old who's poor so uh in typical

fashion I said I wanted uh To Be A

Millionaire which in 1968 was a lot of

money it seemed like uh I wanted to have

a mansion I wanted to be a doctor and it

wasn't so much listen I was always kind

and thoughtful but I want to be a doctor

so people looked at me and said you're

okay uh I wanted a Porsche I wanted a

Rolex watch and all of these external uh

um material things that so many people

in our society think they

need they think somehow if you get this

stuff that's going to fill the void all

of us have and of course it doesn't

and uh but Society is oriented

unfortunately toward seeking external

affirmation with the belief that if you

fulfill the societal Narrative of

success which is money power position

that will then translate into happiness

and of course this is a story that's

been told over and over and over again

and it does not and I'm sure you know

many many extraordinarily quote unquote

successful people who are absolutely

miserable well you know one thing I want

to highlight as you're listening to Dr

DOD and I just am so blown away

by um your gift of explaining things and

how connected you are to why this is

important to you and it's important to I

think everybody to understand what

you're trying to teach

us is

that I think a lot of us

know that chasing the external stuff is

what what Society has been prioritizing

but you're going a layer

deeper which is it's not just about the

belief that you think those things will

make you happy it's that your lived

experience when you feel

invisible is that people that have those

things are

seen and that is an explanation that

cuts at a way deeper psychological

driver than happiness and that

experience of feeling like you don't

matter you're not seen you uh are not

treated with a level of dignity and care

that every human being deserves I

haven't heard anybody truly connect the

dots between the obsession with chasing

status and surface level items and

actually not

happiness but the

fundamental need that we human beings

have for

connection and the sense that somebody

actually cares about you and you think

that that's going to happen because of

the S shiny stuff that you acquire and

you're here to say that actually it

doesn't it doesn't uh at all and I think

uh that's a challenge for so many people

because uh they've been sold this

narrative and it's a narrative of

unhappiness and it's a narrative of fear

and I was saying earlier when you chase

lanks like that that's because of your

own insecurity and as a result that

activates your sympathetic nervous

system which of course is the flight

fight or freeze response and when that

happens actually that has a very

negative effect on how your brain

functions but also your peripheral

physiology and can lead to a lot of very

significant uh diseases and uh decrease

your life uh expect

versus if you shift that narrative if

you will to the love mode and what I

mean by that is all of us have the

ability to actually a shift from

engagement of our sympathetic nervous

system which is part of our autonomic

nervous system which arises in the brain

stem and is distributed throughout all

the organs in your body but especially

your heart to the parasympathetic

nervous system which is really how we

evolve to live uh as a species uh it's

not that we were stressed every second

we were stressed periodically and that

stress mode was meant to

activate in the face of threat and

respond and either you survived or

didn't survive but then you immediately

went back to engagement of your

parasympathetic nervous system if you

survived that is the system we were

designed to live in that is the system

in which you care which you're rewarded

for caring where you have the release of

oxytocin and these other

neurotransmitters that activate your

pleasure and reward centers when you

care for another especially your

Offspring but also within uh the context

of our common humanity and that is the

mode you want to be in especially if you

want to manifest because that is when

your cognitive brain networks your

peripheral physiology work at their best

and that is from the love mode if you

will I want to see if I can translate

back because those were a lot of big

words I realize that you are a

neurosurgeon and you teach these

Concepts all over the world but I want

you and I to put our arm around the

person that's listening and I want to

see if I can't shorthand all this

science so you keep using the word fear

mode and heart mode which I love you

also just beautifully explained if I'm

hearing you correctly that there are

two uh modes to our nervous system

sympathetic sympathetic rest calm and

love fight ORF flight and that as we

listen is it okay if every time you say

fear

mode we just go okay he's talking about

the sympathetic figh ORF flight nervous

system that a lot of us live in that

shuts you off to possibility connection

potential and love versus the heart mode

which which is your parasympathetic

nervous system and it is where the

connection and

manifestation and fulfillment and the

potential of your life exists is that a

way to think about this no no that's uh

the perfect way to think about it and uh

when you're in that mode everything

changes for the positive the heart mode

yes and the possibilities of having your

intention manifest are greatest when you

were in that mode okay got it so I want

to be in heart mode how did this amazing

woman in the magic shop teach you to

manifest when you were 12 well I have to

tell you and I don't want to mislead

people uh I thought it was a lot of

[ __ ]

initially uh and the reason is is

because of course I had never been

exposed to anything like that I mean

being able to sit and and relax your

muscles with intention being able to

breathe a certain way to calm your

nervous system down were completely new

to me uh so it took a little while for

me to understand that but once I did

understand it I realized how powerful it

was because I didn't constantly have

this negative selft talk going on and

this fear constantly and so uh as you

know uh these types of mindfulness

practice which are very commonly

discussed today and have changed

millions of lives uh are readily

available to everyone and fundamentally

what she taught me was this type of a

technique a relaxation technique a focus

technique and uh dealing with the

negative selft talk looking at the world

through a lens of compassion and we

talked about visualization for you to

maximally visualize that means you have

to be relaxed you have to have calm you

have to not look at what I want and this

is the difference for a lot of people

because they have a vision of what they

want but not what they need as an

example we're talking about possessions

I want a Porsche I want a Rolex which

was what I did um and they think that if

I just get that I'll be

okay and the problem is that it won't

make you okay and when you're sitting

there self focus saying if I just have

that I need this versus as an example

saying I want to be a doctor now it's

not I want to be a doctor so everybody

looks at me and says how great I am

which is what I did it's I want to be a

doctor because I want to help people

those are completely two different

narratives one is I want to be of

service that is how we were designed as

human beings not I want for me and when

you change how you look at the world

with when you change what you want you

realize one a lot of what you think you

want is worthless versus what is

powerful what gives a person purpose and

meaning which of course activates every

aspect of your physiology both brain and

peripheral physiology to work at their

best is being of service being connected

caring for others and we know through

the work of Bob Butner and the blue

zones or the work of Robert waldinger

and the 85-year-old harv

study when you care for others when you

look through that lens everything in

your life improves and that is the place

where you also have the ability to

maximize the possibilities for your

intention to manifest you said that

human beings are wired for

service as a

neurosurgeon as a person that you know

you're you're here in Boston to go teach

about compassion you were the chairman

the dama Foundation yes so how are we

wired for service as human beings well

if you look at our Evolution as a

species unlike other species one we have

a small litter

size that's a very clinical way I think

if I were your wife and you said that

I'd smack you Dr Dodie a small litter

size well my wife has smacked me

multiple times believe me and uh our

Offspring do not run off into the jungle

or or the forest they have to be cared

for for well over a decade and why would

you expend the time the resources the

energy to care for your Offspring unless

you were

rewarded the way you're rewarded when

you care for your Offspring is the

release of different neurotransmitters

such as oxytocin or the love hormone and

when those are released your pleasure

and reward centers are activated your

physiology works at its test and you

look at the world through the lens of

love and caring because you want your

Offspring to survive as we evolved as a

species and you're probably aware of

that there's something called Dumars

number uh so up to 150 people which was

typically the size of a tribe again it

was important because you were in a

hostile environment that you cared for

the other or the group would not survive

so these are very deep seated genetic

imperatives uh that are with that allow

our species to survive we are not meant

to live chronically uh in the

sympathetic nervous system we are meant

as a species to live in our

parasympathetic nervous system where we

have openness generosity caring love the

problem is the nature of how capitalist

Society has been developed uh actually

for many many people activates their

sympathetic nervous system chronically

and they get distracted from their

purpose our purpose is to love one

another I love that and I love that

you've simplified it to you're either in

fear mode and heart mode and that you

are hardwired for heart mode your

purpose is to love yourself to love

other people to be in that mode can

you explain what manifesting is how do

you think about it or describe and teach

it to people around the world

so as you know with manifestation or

that terminology there's a lot of woowoo

and

pseudoscience and a lot of people take

it advantage of that and uh it turns

unfortunately into a a money-making

opportunity for some people the reality

is though that actually the ability to

manifest is fundamentally based in

Neuroscience there is no woow woo

there's no magic there's no law of

attraction based on the history of it

back in the first and second Cent the

hermetics came up with this idea and

it's been propagated through different

Prosperity gospels and all sorts of

other things as if if you have positive

energy and you put that energy out in

the world you will be able to manifest

the Porche the Ferrari the mansion and

uh but if it doesn't happen it's your

fault because you didn't care enough or

you didn't do it the right way or just

buy another book and I'll tell you the

real way to do it

uh but fun fundamentally it's based on

neuroscience and what I mean by that is

the way in which you manifest and I'll

Define manifestation is the ability to

take an intention and embed it into your

subconscious in a manner such that it

has the greatest likelihood to occur or

to

manifest and what I mean by that is what

people don't appreciate is every second

we have about 6 to 10 million bits of

information coming to us from our

sensory organs that's what makes us who

we are that creates our reality but on a

conscious level we can only deal with 50

to 100 because 99.9% go to maintain our

bodily function that 50 to 100 though

you have control over 50 to 100 bits of

information bits of information so how

do you deal with that well you take the

tools and what I mean by that is the

tools to EMB add something into your

subconscious okay the best way to do

that and I'm sure you've heard the term

what fires together wires together but

can you explain that for the person

listening what does that mean so if you

create habits this results in the

creation of neurop Pathways and if the

mere repetition of those habits actually

lays down the circuitry that then gets

embedded and then actually makes things

happen and I'll explain it as

follows when when you were able to use

all of your sensory organs or abilities

to embed that intention and do it

repeatedly that is when you're creating

these neural Pathways as an example if

you have an intention you take a pencil

you write it down you're actually doing

something physical

tactile then you read it

silently then you read it

aloud then you visualize that

and you do that over and over and over

again what that will do is then embed

that into your subconscious and then

these different cognitive brain networks

get activated now can we unpack that

just a minute sure because everyone that

listens to this loves to make sure that

they just got the instructions from you

Dr Dodie because I'm like hanging on

every word and so there were a couple

steps to that because you had the

physical pencil you had the act of

writing you had this moment where if

you're watching on YouTube you saw it

but if you're listening let me describe

it he he sat back in his chair he put

his hands kind of in prayer at his chest

closed his eyes and he started talking

about repeating the thought is that the

chain of events and that you do to

encode it in your mind yes absolutely so

we so what is we walk us through it one

more time yes so again what you want to

do is to use all of your sensory organs

as much as possible to embed that

intention so by writing it down by

reading it aloud by visualizing it that

creates the process where this gets

embedded and into your

subconscious and what happens is once

you get this

embedded it activates different parts of

your brain and without getting too

technical one is something called the

default mode network is that the same

thing as the reticular activating system

no okay but they're related okay so the

default mode Network yes so this is what

happens when your mind wonderers uh or

you're

daydreaming and it's

self-referential because it's internally

focused but it's where you create The

Narrative of who you are or what you

want so if you have negative selft talk

if you ruminate if you are like I'm

never good enough uh nothing works out

for me things like that don't happen to

person like me I can never get it right

that is in the default netor absolutely

and that gets really activated and

results in rumination for some people

can I ask you another question because

one of the things that you said at the

very very beginning is you painted this

gorgeous picture of the ability to

Leverage The remarkable power of your

brain to help you get what you truly

desire in life to help you live in heart

mode and you said it's

just about believing

it and part of the reason why we have

trouble believing it is because of the

default mode Network and all of these

stories you've repeated over and over

and over again is that is that fair to

say no that's exactly uh correct and can

we can reprogram or we can lay down a

new track oh absolutely and it's

available uh 247 and it doesn't matter

what's happened to you before you know

so many people get fixated well I don't

deserve this because of we all deserve

it so once this gets embedded and you

create The Narrative of who you want to

be or how you see yourself what you're

doing is you're creating

salience okay what's that word mean it

means making it important okay once

something is important

this activates what we call our task

positive Network and the task positive

network has three parts it has the

salience network it has the attention

Network and then it has the executive

control

Network and once something is Salient

what you're basically saying is this

deserves my

attention and by doing it in a very

specific

way then that that becomes important to

you that gets embedded into your

subconscious as something to pay

attention to once that is defined as

something important to you then that

activates your attention Network so that

then you cognitively focus your

attention on whatever that intention is

okay once those are activated and uh I

use the analogy in the book it's as if

you've have a file cabinet and you put

this file into the file cabinet that

says important stuff and once that is

there then the attention network is

activated which is as an example a blood

hound that is says okay now there's

something there I need to track this

down and figure out what's going on here

then you activate the blood hound and

then that gets released and then once

that attention is focused then it starts

looking around through all the

possibilities in your environment

and as soon as it identifies one then

your executive control network is

activated which in some ways is the

thing that chases down what is in your

subconscious and uh uh this is how it

works there is no magic here this is

fundamentally basic neuroscience and

it's something that we all have the

ability to master by just doing these

techniques whereby you are able to embed

your intention you do it over and over

and it's not as if one and done and what

I mean by that is some people wake up

and this is like a New Year's resolution

I'm going to do this January first and

then January 1 comes and you already

fail the first day you have to not have

excessive expectations at first what I

mean by that is these are based on habit

what happens with habit you start small

you don't sit there and say I'm going to

lose a 100 pounds in the next month you

say I'm going to try to modify my diet

where I'm not drinking sod that's the

first little one and each of these

little winds strengthens you to actually

then do the big thing ultimately so you

don't start by running a marathon on day

one you start by getting up out of bed

and walking around the block I really

appreciate you especially as a

neuroscientist walking us through all

those four parts of the brain and

validating that based on the science

this is the mechanism through which you

can activate the ability to reprogram

your mind when we talk about forming new

habits through repetition I think most

of

us understand that if you want to let's

just take the example of stop drinking

soda there is a specific physical action

that I have to do every day whether I

like it or not and the consistency of

not drinking soda or probably better yet

just focusing on drinking water or a non

soda

beverage that repetition I get it I know

what I need to do where I see people

trip up is that when it comes to

negative selft talk it is so embedded in

the subconscious you've been thinking

this way for so long and because it's

there in the back of your mind unlike

learning to drink more water or learning

to

go for a walk every day it's not a

physical thing that you kind of see

outside yourself this is actually

programming deep within and so could you

help me and the person listening

understand let's say that you have for

your entire life had this narrative in

your mind we like I'm not good

enough how do I use these four parts of

the brain and the technique you just

described step by step to program a

completely different way of talking to

myself in my default mode Network and

pick whatever because you have you you

are the expert teaching people around

the world this technique so pick

whatever you believe is the most common

default negative selft talker belief and

then if you could walk us step by step

that what am I doing Dr Dodie every day

well I I think the first thing people

need to recognize

is the burden we carry as a human being

is negative selft talk it is not going

to go 100% away that's just the way it

is in fact uh I was you know I speak

about these things and I have I say to

people how many of you have negative

selft talk and usually 90% of people

raise their head and I say the other 10%

are lying and and I don't care in theory

I mean obvious viously you uh have

examined these areas I have examined

these areas I still have negative selft

talk the key is though in the face of

the negative selft talk you're

okay and understand what it is and not

let it overpower you where you sit there

and go oh God I'm horrible I'm and you

just ruminate over this recognize for

what it is and let it sit there you

don't have to do anything with it and

this is the fundament practice of

mindfulness meditation but the aspect

which I think is different and actually

what we teach at Stanford is to have

compassion for self and this is when you

give yourself these positive

affirmations and you say you're worthy

you're good enough you deserve and a lot

of the negative selft talk comes from

where it comes from the baggage that we

carry from our

childhoods and this is what a lot of

people don't

appreciate you're manifesting all the

time what people don't realize though is

that many of the decisions they make in

their lives the relationships the jobs

they have the decisions they make are

actually based on the baggage that they

carry and that is The Narrative of their

story and so one of the first things I

think you have to do is to sit back and

whether it's with a therapist or just

self-reflection where you're writing

things down and trying to understand how

you become you to have some awareness

what created this and once you have that

Insight then that allows you to not be

as affected or to believe it but

understand that it's the nature of how

humans are wired and it's okay that's

not going to change and in some ways

it's like also accepting your Shadow

Self right all of us have a part of us

that we're ashamed of we're embarrassed

about we've done actions that are

horrible sometimes and you can't push

your Shadow away you have to accept it

and integrate it into who you are and

the same is true of this so once you're

able to do that that lessens the power

of that inner critic so let me see if I

can just again translate this because

you've got a really big brain you

operate on brains and you are friends

with the biggest spiritual leaders of

our time and you teach

compassion manifestation visualization

all of this and I'm I just want to make

sure that I do my job and that as you're

listening that you truly are able to

take all of this extraordinary wisdom

and the gift of Dr Dodie and apply it

and so I heard you say that if you were

to take out a piece of paper and you

were to just start journaling around

what did my childhood make me believe

believe about myself that that first

step of seeing that in writing helps you

separate from it and see it for what it

is which is it is a story just like a

story in a book that is something you've

been telling yourself over and over and

just separating yourself from it is the

first step the thing I'm curious about

though is how I start to learn a new

story because for example if we if we

were to bring in a

flute right and and and would you be

able to play a flute if I handed it to

you of course not yeah me either but if

I practiced it for a year I could

probably learn it and so I'm assuming

that there's a technique even once I

separate and go oh my childhood taught

me to think X about myself what is the

technique for for how you use the

science of manifestation and

visualization to start to write a new

story about yourself no I think that's

an excellent question and in fact the

first step is understanding what you've

already been manifesting which is the

negative yes and you've been manifesting

it because you've repeated it in your

subconscious and you've interacted with

those thoughts all day long since your

childhood and that is a form of

manifestation it proves works because

You' just repeated it over and over and

over well I'm sure you've met people who

go gosh I'm going through my third

divorce and it's like I married the same

person every time and you're like yes

you did yeah because you manifested it

because you think the same way over and

over and over again so we do have the

power to change that narrative okay and

then the next thing is which we

discussed a little bit is understanding

the difference between what you want or

think you want and what you need but Dr

Dodie I don't want to think about what I

need I want to think about what I want

you know what I mean like but I want the

but I want that thing but I want this

but I want that but I want the other

thing well you know it's funny you say

that because people say gez Jim you know

you you sort of lambas this idea about

materialism listen I don't at all I like

material things I drive a Porsche I live

in a very nice house see you manifested

all of this that is true but the

difference though is one they're

wonderful to have they're not necessary

what I mean by that that is if all of

these things were taken away from me it

has no impact on who I see myself as I

am not using them for external

validation I'm using them because I

enjoy them and those are different

things people who chase after stuff the

eye part who need external affirmation

that is their identity and that causes

suffering because they never get what

they want versus if you look through the

love or the heart mode and focused on a

image of you helping other people you

get all of these other things they're

available to you if you want them but

the way the greatest way to manifest is

to have yourself centered to be in a

calm mode to look through the S lens of

how can I be helpful and then that gives

you all the other stuff if you so desire

but focusing solely on that doesn't get

that you're not living a life of purpose

and meaning you're chasing PL

and avoiding pain and while that can

sort of cause some people to say I'm

happy if you actually look at the most

of these people may be happy on one

level but that happiness is transitory

and shallow versus if you chase purpose

and meaning that is deep and long

lasting um you just said something that

I want to make sure I take out my magic

highlighter and I call attention to

that if you were to remove all of the

material stuff do you

actually still feel good about who you

are absolutely and having those things

to enjoy them is one thing but needing

those things to Define your worth is a

completely separate issue that based on

Research you're saying leads to

unhappiness and and since we're talking

about material items though can you

explain how the science of visualization

or man are visualization and

manifestation the same things yes okay

so how does the science of

manifestation help you achieve goals or

help you get material things if that's

something that you would like to have in

your life well let me give you an

example I mean when I was 12 I had a

list of all material things m and I got

every one of them what was on the list I

become a neurosurgeon a professor at

Stanford uh I have all this material

success I'm a successful entrepreneur I

have millions and millions of dollars

I'm uh I have a a home overlooking the

bay in Newport Beach I have a villa in

Florence I have uh we're all starting to

hate you right now go yes uh uh and you

know I was single at the time and I was

dating all these attractive women and

all my friends said God your life is so

great man look at you yet I was never

more

miserable in my entire life because I

kept expecting okay I'm going to climb

this mountain and then I'm G to feel

good about myself then I'm G to climb

the next Mountain I'm GNA feel good

about myself and I never felt good about

myself none of that stuff made me feel

good about myself and in fact I I don't

you know I lost 80 million dollars

during the dot crash and as a result uh

of course that gets your attention

because I was $3 million in debt and I

had a $15 million loan and as a result I

had I went through a period of steep

self-reflection because I I wanted to

understand what mistake had I made in

this process because I had done

everything I thought and it was because

I was focused on look at me I did this

make me feel good about myself and

that's what I was chasing and it didn't

help me and so here I am having to deal

with this massive loss I'm selling all

of this you know I had a Ferrari a

Porsche a Range Rover BMW a Mercedes uh

I had a several million doll house

overlooking the bay I had to sell all of

this stuff and it was interesting uh

during that situation I had to deal with

my banker of course who wanted his money

and I had to deal with my lawyers

because I had set up a variety of

different trusts but I had set up a

charitable

trust and had put stock into it and on

honestly it was probably a tax avoidance

thing it wasn't because Jim doie was

super nice

right uh so uh I was dealing with my

lawyer and he said look Chim I have some

good news for you we actually never

completed the paperwork for that trust

so you don't have to give any of that

stock away you can just keep it and I

went through this period of of deep

reflection about this and uh

uh at the end of the day I told him to

go ahead and give the stock

was it Google no no but it was $30

million uh but what that $30 million did

was it changed everything I set up

health clinics around the world I set up

programs for adolescen who affected by

Aids HIV I set programs for the disabled

I funded research I set up endowed

chairs and in some ways though it was an

interesting trajectory because I went

truly from Rags to Riches literally to

rags again in

terms

of the spiritual mhm okay what I was

doing was not soothing my

soul and so when I gave everything away

being in the face of $3 million in the

whole that is when everything

changed this is where I started the

center at Stanford that studies

compassion I met his Holiness the Dal

Lama I developed these relationships

with all of these spiritual religious

leaders which has been incredibly

incredibly impactful in my life and so

it's a different Rags to Riches right

there are so many aspects of that story

I want to unpack because I have been in

a I've been in many moments of my life

where I had

nothing and

was on the verge of losing everything

that I cared about but if I had heard

somebody talking about Porsches and this

and that and the other thing and then

you lose it all and then you have a

spiritual waking I would still as I'm

listening go that's nice for you but I

am having trouble putting groceries on

the table and I still would love a

Porsche and I

know because I know some of your

background how

important it is for you to awaken

something inside of people about the

deeper meaning of life and the way to

use

manifestation and visualization and the

science of all this in a way to truly

unlock your

potential and how would you have

somebody who's listening who is really

struggling and never has achieved that

moment of riches that is surface level

truly grasp the power of what is

available to them to use these

tools of separating from your past story

and identifying what you want to believe

about yourself and then writing it and

believing it and repeating it and trying

to open up your heart and live in this

heart mode what is available to you if

we lean in and trust you

even when you're really struggling and

it seems like money is the solution no

no you're absolutely right and uh I

don't want to give anybody the

impression that look my worst day I was

a neurosurgeon making uh more than 99.9%

of people so even though uh I lost all

this money and was in the hole I

certainly had the ability uh to uh

recover and most people don't have that

so I certainly want to acknowledge that

and I'm not saying that my story is

everyone's story listen I started uh

from very very humble beginnings but the

fundamental aspect of the story is it

doesn't matter where you're at it's

matters what you

believe and when you have this negative

selft talk and you create these limited

belief systems that is the prison you're

creating for yourself and and the first

step though is to understand that yes

circumstances can be very horrible yes

circumstances can uh result in you not

even being able to feed your family and

I truly acknowledge that because I know

what it's like to be

hungry

but regardless

you have

possibilities when you're able to

interrupt that negative belief system

when you're able to look through the

lens of possibilities because when you

are negative when you say it's not

possible the world is against me

everybody hates me fundamentally you're

changing your

physiology and as you probably know uh

we have oscillation or vibrations that

come from our bodies and one of the

greatest ones is from your heart if you

have this negative selft talk if you

create this

negativity that goes out I mean the the

bioelectrical energy that comes from

your heart extends three to five uh feet

outside your body and I'm sure you've

experienced you were mentioning

something early gosh when you walked in

you made me feel good that is a gift all

of us have to give people and I'm sure

you've met people who as soon as you

meet them go I do not like that

person all of us have the ability to

become the former not the latter it's

change it's how you look at the world

and when you change how you look at the

world from that one of negativity

because you know your situation is

difficult to look at there are amazing

possibilities here because what I tell

people when I changed how I looked at

the world the world changed how it

looked at me because people reached out

to me because I was open to it I was

appreciative I was thankful I didn't sit

there and say the world hates me

nobody's going to do anything that

energy changes when you change how you

look at the world

and the energy you're talking about is

the ability to move yourself from a fear

mode absolutely into a heart mode and

there's also a lot of research and

science that you write about and how

being in that heart mode where you're

coming from a place of service where you

are actively manifesting and visualizing

positive beliefs about yourself I am

good I am worthy I am loved what are the

things that you say that help you drop

into heart mode and this may sound

strange but fundamentally the world we

create is one we create it is a delusion

that we have created for ourselves and

that delusion can either be one of the

world hates me everybody hates me the

world is against me versus saying wow

look at the sunshine I am here look at

all these amazing people around me look

at the possibilities and I'm not saying

this out of some uh Trope that is not

true it is true when you change how you

look at yourself now if you want to

manifest there's several techniques and

can you walk us through a couple sure

one of the first things you have to do

though is find a place a calm place

where you can shift from being in the

fear mode to the heart mode where you're

not distracted where it's not noisy

where you're not taking caffeinated

beverages or using mind alterate

substances where you can simply be

present and then you can begin a

breathing exercise the very nature of

that breathing exercise and this is a

mindfulness practice Get You Into the

Heart mode and then you start seeing the

world through a different lens and then

you start as an example talking about

what have I already manifested and you

sit there with that and you love

yourself in the sense of saying yes that

happened but number one and this is

oftentimes the case with children they

look at say it's my fault it's not your

fault you're okay and you're also okay

no matter what's happened in the past

you know all of us deserve a second

chance and sometimes a third

chance there most people uh are loving

kind people inside and they have been

battered by the forces often times that

make them think that's not the case of

that they don't deserve love everybody

deserves love everybody deserves dignity

and so when you can sit in that quiet

space and reflect on this and then think

about what it is you truly want what

would make you happy most people if they

actually sit there and do it they

realize the false Narrative of getting

the Porsche or the Ferrari if they sit

there and think about it what do they

really want they want security for their

family they want food on the table they

want shelter and if you look through

that list that is what am I doing to be

of service to help my family and my

environment which will ultimately help

me and so going through those

exercises understanding the power that

you have and also uh there's another

aspect which is related to attachment

one of the biggest things that causes

suffering is attachment and

craving and it's wonderful to have goals

it's wonderful to utilize these

techniques to manifest but there's

certain caveats to that one is sometimes

things don't manifest and it's not

necessarily because you did anything

wrong or uh the gods are looking down at

you badly uh sometimes your subconscious

may even know that it's not good for you

and it doesn't allow that to happen the

other is

that uh things don't happen always

exactly as we VIs visualized they may

approximate it but often times they're

not exactly and I have things I've been

trying to manifest for 10 or 15 years

and I firmly believe they will manifest

but you have to be patient you have to

do the work you have to do the

exercises and uh uh all of that is okay

because I'm not attached to the outcome

and that is a critical thing yes do I

want it to happen absolutely should it

happen absolutely will it happen maybe

maybe not and it's more likely that it

will yes because you are training your

mind using these techniques and putting

yourself in a heart mode to make it

happen you you wrote in your book your

brain can't tell the difference between

what is real and vividly imagined by

focusing on the feeling of success you

train your brain to expect it absolutely

and when you activate your subconscious

and I'm sure you probably experienced

this if you're at a party and it's very

noisy somebody says your name you

immediately turn even in the dent of all

this noise you are attuned to your name

because it's deeply embedded in you the

same is true and this is the nature of

synchronicities and coincidences because

your subconscious is always searching

for what is Salient I want

to expand on the power of learning how

to be in the heart mode and what you

just brought to the table this

dispositional optimism

and the belief that things can get

better the hope and the optimism that

things will turn out and feeling

grateful for that because when you're in

the heart mode you've talked a lot about

how we are naturally wired to be in that

mode calm connected open to service

openhearted can you explain how positive

emotions the emotions that you feel when

you're in the heart mode like Gra

attitude compassion love how do those

emotions communicate to your brain and

accelerate or make it stronger that what

you're thinking about when you're in

heart mode actually wires in a very

strong way based on the emotions of

heart mode you just said it oh I did how

do how do positive em how do positive

emotions like gratitude and compassion

and love

um create the ability to manifest or

like rewire your mind as we said or

discussed earlier these types of

positive belief systems make your

physiology work its best both your brain

and your peripheral physiology when all

your cognitive brain networks function

at their best that is the greatest

likelihood for you to manifest uh your

intention there's a lot of work that has

been done on gratitude showing that

simply sitting down down and writing

three things you're grateful for changes

everything it changes how you view the

world how you look not from the lens of

what I don't have but how grateful you

are as an example um half of the world's

population lives on less than $2.50 a

day I am extraordinarily blessed and so

I no matter how bad it is and uh again

and I'm not saying that I'm horribly

suffering but that being said I still

have ups and downs and have had

situations which are incredibly

demoralizing but at the end of the day I

sit back and I have gratitude even in

the face of these horrible things that

were not as I planned or nor wanted

happen and you just have to understand

that regardless of all of them you're

very fortunate as a renowned

neuroscientist and neurosurgeon what

does your daily manifestation routine

look like can you walk us through

it sure now you have to understand I've

been meditating for well over 50 years

so in some ways that becomes the Habit

right it is your mindset it is how you

look at the world it is how you walk in

the world and hopefully it's through the

love mode although not always and I will

assure you my wife will get mad at me

and she'll say they call you Mr

compassion but you're an [ __ ] uh so

it's good to know you're human yes I am

very human so let me start with the

morning first every morning I wake up

and I sit at the side of the bed and I

do a breathing exercise and the Very

nature of that breathing exercise shifts

me into the parasympathetic nervous

system and what is the breathing

exercise it's just slowly breathing in

through the nose holding it for four

seconds slowly letting it out and I do

this for a minute or two you can sit you

can lay down uh there's nothing that is

prescriptive and this is where people

get lost about mind fulness practices

they somehow think you have to sit like

a Buddha and do this and they get all

anxious about it there's no reason to be

anxious at all it's just to find a place

where you feel comfortable and then I go

through this breathing exercise of

slowly breathing in for four to six

seconds holding it for four to six

seconds slowly letting it out through

the mouth and then that shifts me into

the parasympathetic nervous system or

strengthens where I'm already at and

then I think of the joy and awe of being

in this

world and I just sit with that for a

minute or two and then literally I just

go through that

alphabet and uh uh and that centers me

uh for the day and if I'm centered

looking through that lens then that

actually creates the environment for me

to manifest because I am in the right

mindset I'm calm I'm thoughtful I'm

thinking about others I'm not

self-focused and the Very nature of that

allows me to manifest now I was going to

mention in the evening all of us have

goals all of us have intentions and you

can prioritize them from ones that are

mildly important moderately important

incredibly important and in the time

frames and uh and then you focus on them

and what I will do is I will again write

them down whatever the top three are and

then I'll go through the exact same

exercise I mentioned which is to write

them down to repeat it silently to

repeat it aloud to see it happening and

uh and over and over and over again all

of those things strengthen the power and

put you in the right mindset to have the

greatest likelihood of you manifesting

your

intention thank you for describing that

how

does

the uh Habit that you just said active

your brain's ability to help you act on

those goals well I think used a key term

which is authentic what makes somebody

authentic uh when they let their mask

down when they're able to show their's

emot their own emotions and how they

feel about things and the Very nature of

that puts you in the right mental state

where you don't feel you have to hide

yourself where you don't feel that you

have to put on a show for everybody

about how success uccessful you are and

we're ju you're just feeling comfortable

with who you are and accept yourself and

the hardest hardest part for so many

people is accepting themselves as they

are not be lost in how they want to be

or lost in what could have been and this

is also a thing that distracts you from

the energy you have to change things

because if you spend 80% of your time on

the past and a future that hasn't

happened lamenting then you can never be

present to actually make things happen

and this is the key you have to be

present you have to be authentic you

have to understand your past and you

have to understand that when you want

something to manifest yes it is a future

intention but it's not something to get

lost in it's something simply to sit

with instead of be pathologically

focused on as an example I'm sure you've

seen people who have sacrificed

everything to get to the top of the

mountain well they've sacrificed

everything to get to the top of the

mountain to stand there by themselves

well what was the purpose of that our

purpose in life is connection it's not

to so be focused that you don't have any

connections and you're walking alone

it's to connect with people I mean many

many of the aspects of what we're

talking about are the journey with

others not necessarily standing by

yourself you've given me a huge epiphany

because I've always thought about the

science of

manifesting

as something that is tied to what's

going to happen and in listening to you

I had this huge Epiphany where I thought

oh wait a

minute it's all about this daily

practice of sitting in the

present and dropping into the heart mode

and the starting line is acceptance of

self compassion and gratitude and love

towards self and getting yourself at

this almost like daily reset present

moment and from there I can decide what

I want to believe I can decide when I

align with the wiring of my body and my

soul I can decide what I want to believe

I can decide what's important to me and

practicing these tools both of dropping

into heart mode of being present with

self of tapping into this wiring for

service and compassion and love when you

start there and now you're repeating the

things that you want and why you want

these things from your heart and

anything is possible well and basically

you've just unlocked the key to the

prison that most people have created for

themselves what do you mean by that well

uh uh what you just said

fundamentally addresses the issue of how

people create a prison for themselves by

this negative selft talk every time they

make a negative statement it's as if

they're laying down a

brick to build a prison and the walls

get higher and it gets darker

yet all of us have the key in our

pocket which you just described to let

yourself out of the prison that you

created and I think this recognition is

what's really really critically

important and it's not woo woo it's not

looking to the universe to save you it's

understanding your own self

agency and not believing that there's

something out there now that being said

and as you know I the first sense of the

book says the universe doesn't give a

[ __ ] about you but at the end of the

book my statement is you are the

universe and that is your

gift what are your parting words Dr

Dodie

well often times uh as we've talked

about uh you know people look through

the lens of

negativity and uh and the real ity is

and you discussed it

also everyone wants to be

seen everyone wants to be

loved

and what I would say to everyone

listening is regardless of your

circumstance regardless of your

situation each of us has the ability to

improve the life of at least one person

every day

and whether it's a hug whether it's

saying hello whether it's sharing a meal

whatever it

is when you can actually look through

the world through that lens how can I

help at least one person every day that

is a habit that put you in the mindset

to not only be of service and to help

others but it also helps you and it

helps you because it then gives you the

power actually to see the world through

the different lens and then be able to

manifest whatever your intention is and

that is the power of our humanity and it

all relates fundamentally to connecting

with another with an open

heart well Dr Dodie um thank

you I I I don't even know what to say I

just feel kind of blown wide open by the

experience of getting to be together

with you that's kind of you thank you I

appreciate it well I appreciate

everything that you shared and all the

work that you're doing and thank you for

being here thank you and I want to thank

you for being here with me and Dr Dodie

and listening all the way to the end I

am sure that your heart is wide open and

I wanted to be certain that I told you

in case nobody else does that I love you

I believe in you I believe in your

ability to create a better life and I am

so excited about everything that you

just learned and I cannot wait to hear

how you put this to use in your own life

all right I'll see you in the next

episode and I want to thank you for

being here with me on YouTube making it

all the way to the end of the episode

didn't you freaking love that oh my gosh

I loved it I'm so thrilled you got to

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Dr Dodie mentioned him during the video

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life based on the lessons from an 85

yearlong study at Harvard on happiness

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