From struggle to breakthrough: my Dr Joe Dispenza retreat

August 5, 2025

Last week I shared one of my biggest insights from my 7-day Advanced Retreat with Dr Joe Dispenza. As promised, today I’m sharing the second insight that attending this intense and powerful retreat has brought me.

I’ve been meditating for two decades—the vast majority of times just by myself. On occasion I’ve meditated with one or two other people. During my workshops and online programs, I’ve led many participants through guided meditations that flowed through me—and that has come the closest to the experience I had meditating with 2000 other people.

Together is better

The very first two-hour meditation in Denver was the hardest of my life. I really had to overcome myself. My mind tried to make me think about all sorts of things—none conducive to the task at hand. In addition, I was feeling intense pain in my body that made it extremely hard to relax and stay focused on the meditation. But I stuck with it and kept bringing my focus back.

After that initial meditation I was slightly worried about having to meditate for another 33 hours that week. But I reminded myself of something Dr Joe said “There’s no such thing as a bad meditation.”

To my surprise and relief, the next meditations were wonderful. It’s like I had dredged up all the junk in that very first one—clearing the way (aka my mind) for more relaxing and enjoyable meditations.

I discovered that meditating with so many other people—focused on the same thing—made going deep much easier. You’re literally carried by the energy and intentions of everyone. I was able to slow my brainwaves down and quiet the chatter of my mind so much faster than at home by myself.

The picture above shows us at the start of one of the walking meditations.

I’m sure the immersion and being able to focus solely on the retreat helped. But what stood out was the power of the group. And that was reinforced when they shared research about the actual biological changes that happen to participants during a weeklong event.

Your biology changes

When participants were recovering from chronic and life-threatening health conditions thanks to the retreat, they decided to do more research to understand how that was possible. I’ve heard personal accounts of people that healed themselves from severe conditions and hearing their story—as well as their struggles along the way—was astounding and inspiring. We can do so much more than we think. We just need to know and believe that it’s possible.

But what spoke to the power of the group (to get back to my original point) was that during this retreat many people start to express the same genes and make the same proteins!

“We did one study where 84% of the people that were advanced meditators had the same effect on mitochondrial function. That’s more than 8 out of 10 people, that’s 4 out of 5 people that are somehow producing this anticarcinogenic chemical. Take the information from the blood and put it in the presence of an Alzheimer’s gene and it downregulates the gene for Alzheimer. There’s pro-life pro-growth in there.

Take the plasma of advanced meditators at the end of 7 days and look at their gene expressions. Now everybody in the 2000 people at a weeklong event has their own genotype. Yours is different than mine. When you’re a different race it’s different. Everybody has their own genotype. But at the end of 7 days 77% of the population is expressing the same genes and making the same proteins. In other words: the flock, the herd, the tribe, the school, the collective. There’s an emergent consciousness when people behave the same way that’s evolving their biology collectively for the better, for the good.” — Dr Joe Dispenza

That’s almost unbelievable. As Dr Joe tends to say “Common people are doing the uncommon.” During the retreat Dr Hemal Patel from the University of California, San Diego (UCSD) shared many findings from the research they’ve been doing over the years that will be published soon. In fact, there were 7 different research studies happening in Denver that week.

Their research showed other profound changes as well. Pain levels go down because you produce your own opioids. Your microbiome changes in 7 days (which normally takes months). Thousands of metabolites change. In short: you upregulate the genes for health and downregulate the genes for disease. (For more results, feel free to dive into their research papers 😉 )

I believe meditation is medicine. One that’s free and has no side-effects. All it takes is time and effort. And yes, I know sometimes that’s hard and inconvenient. All change is.

Now it’s probably not news to you that doing things together makes most activities or tasks easier and more enjoyable. There’s power in numbers. The accountability may help, too.

On Friday morning we started at 4 am. That’s the day I was most scary excited about beforehand. That morning I woke up naturally at 3 am and I was curious how the 5-hour meditation would go. My biggest concern was having to use the restroom because you weren’t allowed back in once you left. (Because part of the meditation we were lying on the floor and they didn’t want you stepping on people.) Of course, the lying down parts were the trickiest because it would be easier to fall asleep. I have to admit I heard some people snore 😉

But I’m grateful to say that I was able to finish the entire meditation. Which turned out to be a record 5,5 hours! That felt like quite an accomplishment and it certainly stretched my belief of what’s possible.

But if I’m honest, the chances of me doing a five-and-a half-hour meditation all by myself are slim to none. I would have to gather some friends to do that.

My takeaway isn’t just the powerful reminder that together is better for most things—and that meditation is great for your health. But that now that I’ve stretched myself into really long meditations, it’s become much easier and logical to do at least a one-hour meditation daily. Where before I went to the retreat, that would have seemed like a long meditation. 🙂

Who can support you?

So what is something that you could use the power of a group for? Is there something in your personal or professional life that you’d like to try or perhaps need to accomplish? Which friends, family members or colleagues might support you with that?

And if you already meditate for e.g. 10 minutes a day, perhaps you can try a 15-minute meditation on the weekend? The benefits of meditation for your (mental) health and well-being are so profound that it’s a powerful investment in yourself.

What was interesting is that when you’re fully present, time behaves differently. Those 5,5 hours felt more like 3 hours—still long but much more manageable than I had anticipated.

I’m grateful I gave myself the gift of that retreat. My job now is to stay aware and to keep meditating daily—even when I don’t feel like it, even when I’m busy, even when it feels hard. Because I know I’ll feel better afterwards and I’m investing in my health and well-being. And I’m remembering that some of life’s most powerful transformations happen when we’re not trying to do everything alone.

What about you? Where in your life could you use the power of ‘together is better’?

Need support navigating your life? Iris van Ooyen is your guide to hope when life feels uncertain. In the moments when you feel lost and don’t know where to turn, Iris offers clarity, support, and a path forward. She’s the author of Radiant: How to Have All the Energy You Need to Live a Life You Love. Contact Iris to help you navigate life’s pivotal crossroads with confidence and purpose.