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Welcome back to Coast to Coast. George Noory with you. Back with doctor James Dotie will take calls with him next hour here on Coast to Coast as we talk about mind magic, the neuroscience of manifestation and how it changes everything. James give us an example of manifesting.
Well, let me preface it by making a statement that traditional ways of manifesting, typically that's promoted or promoted from books like The Secret as an example, we're all self focused. I want to be a millionaire, I want a mansion, I want a car. And what happened to so many people who in fact manifested some of these things is they realized when everything was focused on them, it did not create happiness or at least any type of sustained happiness.
And also when you're self focused, oftentimes this in and of itself activates the sympathetic nervous system, which actually decreases the efficiency or shuts down certain cognitive brain networks. So it limits your ability also to manifest maximally. And so when you're in a calm state or engage your pair
sympathetic nervous system. That actually is when you're able to manifest its best because your cognitive brain networks function at their best and as a result, you're more efficiently able to if you will file your intention into your subconscious and have the bloodhound of your subconscious work day and night to manifest and this then results in the reality that what the subconscious seeks, the conscious finds.
Now finds it. How do you know you've accomplished it?
Well, of course there's different techniques to embed that into your intention are inter subconscious. But what you have to do is you have to use all of your sensory organs, if you will, as an example, you write it down, you read it silently, you read it aloud, you visualizing you in that position. And what happens is the more this repetition occurs, the more neural circuitry gets a stimulated. And this is why there's this saying that what fires together wires together.
How much of manifestation James is related to the brain or is outside of the brain.
Well, this is what I try to emphasize in the book. Now, if you're talking about looking to the universe, I think I commented on that, but really this is all occurring in the brain because so many people have limited beliefs, and as you know, once you say it is not possible, I cannot, I am not worthy, then by definition you
have answered the question. So one of the things you also have to do is to stop being hypercritical and give yourself also positive affirmations, because again, being hypercritical of yourself stimulates your sympathetic nervous system. The way we evolve as humans, though, is really to live with our parasympathetic system engaged, which allows not only our brain function to
maximize it, but also our physiology. And in fact, if you are able to focus through positive thoughts and efforts and looking at the world through the lens of being of service, generosity, kindness, this is how we were designed and this is when our brain networks function at their best.
Why can some people manifest and it works, other people try and it doesn't.
Well, there are a couple answers to that question. One is what a lot of people don't appreciate is and I even mentioned this earlier in my own experience. Our childhood often results in many people carrying baggage of those that childhood, and if the baggage is negative and people keep repeating it because they haven't paused to understand what they have been manifesting and actually how they've been doing
it wrong. As an example, I'm sure you've met people who will sit there and they'll say, geez, I don't understand it. My third marriage here, and I keep picking an alcoholic and an abuser, and it's oftentimes due to that trauma. So the first thing is you have to understand what you're manifesting today and gain insight into that and understand the baggage that is motivating those behaviors. But
also you have to clarify what your intention is. And as I said earlier and this happened to me, is I made my list of what I intended to manifest
and it was all about me. And this is the difference between what we call hedonic happiness or hedonism or seeking pleasure and avoiding pain, and this results in a very shallow, short lived happiness, while if you focus what you intend to be of service to others, this activates the cast how do the brain networks, and results in what we call udamannic happiness or purpose and meaning, and
this is long lasting sustained happiness. And while all of us are trying to manifest, oftentimes it's incorrect or leads us to the point to realize that what we thought we wanted isn't really what we need and doesn't make us happy. So you also have to reflect on that aspect of it. What will make you happy and what will happen to many people is when they change the
narrative from being self focused. And here's the difference in thinking I want to be a millionaire versus I want to live a life where I can support my family and be supportive of others to make their lives better. It's a completely different narrative and it actually activates your brain networks maximally. But manifestation number one takes work and two, it doesn't mean it's one hundred percent, and it does. It also mean that it works on a specific timeline.
I have some projects that if you will, I have been manifesting for well over a decade, but I believe that they ultimately will. But I don't control the time clock, and this is one of the problems. Also is that so many people have attachment, and with attachment or craving, this results in suffering for so many people, So you
also have to not be attached to the outcome. And oftentimes the greatest reward for people is actually to recognize that they are on a journey, and often with others, and oftentimes this is the greatest part of the goal setting. It's not always just obtaining the goal. And I'm sure you know many examples where people climb the mountain and there at the top of the mountain, but they're by themselves. They left carnage of disrupted or families or divorces or
unhappy people in their way. So what was the purpose of that journey?
I've always said, James, always all my life, and I've used this example, just like you've pointed out that if you get to the mountaintop alone, it's not fun.
Exactly. And you know, I look at my own situation, as I mentioned, I grew up in poverty. Here not only was I able to go to college, to medical school, become a neurosurgeon, become a professor, become a successful entrepreneur. And I was and here I had a mansion a Newport Beach, I had a multiple car Ferrari's porsches. I had a pithouse in San France, Cisco. I had a villa in Florence. I was buying an island, a sixty
five hundred acre island in New Zealand. I was dating beautiful women and all my friends would tell me how great my life was. And I was never more unhappy at that time. Really, I wasn't ever worth no I.
Was Why were you unhappy?
Because it was all about me. Everything I focused on was about me. And when I got to the top of the mountain, yes I got external affirmation, but it didn't change how I felt about myself, the shame, the insecurity, the anxiety, because only you can give yourself happiness. If you seek happiness outside of yourself, you're going to be very, very unhappy. As we've talked about you, you only can give yourself happiness, and that actually is through mind training
and being not self critical. So many people are hyper critical of themselves, and that's how we evolved, unfortunately, what we call negativity bias, because as we evolved the course, the environment was very harsh, so things that were negative stuck to us or things that caused fear, and unfortunately, oftentimes that ends up resulting in being hypercritical of yourself. And if you're hypercritical of yourself, you're never going to
be happy. So you have to be able to change the dialogue from one of negativity to one of positivity. As I said earlier, statements such I am such as I am worthy, I deserve love, I deserve to be happy. Those things change the lens through which you see the world. And I would suggest to you that when you change that lens and become less hypercritical of yourself, you understand that others are suffering, that we are all part of a whole, and that when you are of service to
others and place your focus there, one, your needs change. Two. Many of the things that you may have looked at from a hedonic point of view you may get, but fundamentally the thing that makes you happy and whole and gets rid of that emptiness. So many of us feal is to care for others. And there's a whole lot of research such as the Blue Zones, which many people are familiar with, or the workout of Harvard, this eighty five year long study that often people call the Happiness
longevity study. When you activate the parasympathetic nervous system, where if you live there, you live longer, Your physiology works its best. You often have the release of hormones or neurotransmitters such as oxytocin or the love or ailiation hormone, and these things make you feel better about yourself about others, and they also result in you having your own self agency and empower yourself when you're in this state.
Do some people manifest better than others?
Well, that is true, and just like in life, there are people who have natural attributes and as a result, may But the other reality is it's like training for a marathon. You don't start out day one running twenty six miles. So you have to educate yourself or be educated about the processes that are necessary to maximize your ability to manifest. And one of these is also not
putting too much pressure on yourself. I mentioned you don't go out day one and so I'm going to wake up at six and run five miles, And I have a tendency to think that way, like I'm going to get out that I'm going to really push it. But the most important thing is what we call tiny habits or baby steps. And once you repeat and again I talked about this repetition when you do an action which you repeat over and over. It starts to create neuropathways.
So when you're able to get into the mood if you will by relaxing by breathing, which is outlined in the six week program in the book, this shifts you from this fear state which so many people have in modern society, this chronic low level activation of their sympathetic nervous system. It shifts you over into your parasympathetic nervous system, where you're open, you're thoughtful, you're connected, and all of your brain networks work at their best, and your physiology is working at its best.
Could you say, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that manifesting done properly is an amazing tool.
Absolutely. The problem is people don't understand the power that they have. And in some ways, what this book teaches you is how powerful your mind is. When you're able to overcome the beliefs that limit you, then you unleash this amazing power. And you'll see people who have done this.
And it may not necessarily be specifically about manifesting a thing if you will, but you look at some athletes or wim Hoff, the fellow who runs in shorts, everest or water exactly, or to bet monks who can control their body temperatures well and their heart rate. And even from my own practice, I have been able to change my heart rate twenty or thirty bats a minute just through relaxation techniques and mind training. And this is analogous to so many other aspects when you embed an intention,
because this is one of the hardest things. We have ten million bits of information coming to us through our century organs of which the vast, vast majority are associated with maintaining what we call homo homeostasis of our systems. But we are able on a conscious level to deal with about fifty tow one hundred bits of information. But it's done correctly through the practices outline and through repetition
and using the techniques I had mentioned earlier. What happens is the brain has limited capacity on a sub conscious level, and therefore it's selective. Once you're able to embed that, that activates certain brain networks. One of those is called the default mode network, and this is associated with mind wondering or dreaming, and it's very self referential and it also defines what we want. And once that system then connects to what we call the salient system. What is salient,
what is attractive to the unconscious. Then it focuses our attention through the attention network. Once that system is activated when you are in your parasympathetic mode. This part of our brain or network is called the executive control network, and that's in the frontal areas, and that is then what creates what is in your subconscious To bring it into
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