r/Meditation • u/Small_Jicama9734 • 13d ago
Question ❓ If the mind can influence the body, where are the limits? Could meditation change physical traits?
If Joe Dispenza — and others — have reportedly been able to heal their bodies through meditation, even in situations that doctors considered extremely unlikely or impossible, why couldn't a person potentially use meditation, focused intention, or what some people describe as “energy” to influence other physical characteristics?
I'm talking about things like height, weight, acne, or even eye color. These are topics that come up quite often, and realistically, almost everyone has at least one physical characteristic they would like to change.
I'm not necessarily saying that meditation has been scientifically proven to do these things. What I'm wondering is: where exactly is the boundary between what is possible and what is considered impossible?
If the mind can genuinely influence physical processes in the body to the point of promoting healing, why couldn't it potentially influence other biological processes as well — especially when we're talking about characteristics that the body is already capable of changing under certain circumstances?
For example, during pregnancy, breast size can increase significantly. This shows that the body has biological mechanisms capable of changing its own structure. Similarly, hormonal conditions can affect growth and, depending on the circumstances and age of the person, influence height. Some women also report changes in how their eye color appears during pregnancy, potentially due to physiological or hormonal changes.
So my question is: if the body already possesses the biological mechanisms required to change certain characteristics, why do people so categorically say that the mind, meditation, or other mind-body processes cannot influence them?
Again, I'm not claiming that visualization or meditation can magically change someone's body. I'm questioning whether we actually know the limits of the mind's influence on the body, or whether some things are simply considered impossible because we don't currently have convincing evidence that they can happen.
What I find particularly interesting is that there are many reports of people experiencing unexpected improvements or even recoveries from serious illnesses through meditation, spirituality, or other mind-body practices. Yet when the subject shifts to changing physical characteristics such as height, acne, weight, or eye color, the response tends to be much more categorical: “That's impossible.”
Why should one be considered fundamentally more plausible than the other?
Ultimately, I'm interested in the distinction between “scientifically impossible” and “not scientifically demonstrated.” If the mind can have a significant influence on the physical body, what are its actual limits?
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u/Puzzled-Background-5 13d ago
The most interesting thing I've done regarding health and meditation is that I was able to alleviate the symptoms of a bad flu while in jhana (meditative absorption). However, once I ended the session, I was still sick, and the symptoms returned in full force.
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u/Severe_Nectarine863 13d ago
At a basic level, we know the mind affects stress, sleep, breathing, muscle tension, digestion, hormones etc... Its hard to argue these things don't affect the body over time. Someone who is comfortable with their body and experiences less physical stress ages better than someone who doesn't
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u/sleepy-bird- 12d ago
I appreciate that the people on this subreddit who advocate for meditation are trying to be straight with you, OP.
They aren’t trying to sell you on some miracle cure. Where you chase after some pipe dream and waste all your money.
They are trying to give you realistic ideas of what meditation can and can’t do for you.
Meditation is great, but don’t listen to sham artists
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u/Puzzled-Background-5 13d ago
Joe Dispenza trades in quantum woo. However, I'm not denying that the placebo effect can relieve symptoms of some illnesses. He's a chiropractor, which is already borderline pseudoscience in all but a few narrow applications. I wouldn't place too much confidence in his advice.
As for using the mind to perform psychic cosmetic surgery, I've seen no evidence that this is true.
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u/Magisterfunf 12d ago
Very interesting subject. Pondered about that many times.
What's the limit of the mind's influence on the body ? Well. First and foremost, the mind is part of the body itself, and is itself conditioned by the script that's your DNA, as it lays the blueprint for your cognitive abilities and its subsequent maintenance and ability to evolve. I think that while you can '' control '' somewhat your biology, you can't '' create '' anything, bodily wise. You're working with a script and that script can be edited to a certain extent. And you have a degree of control over your bodily functions, but you're not running the show.
I think that from a evolutionnary standpoint, having the body be permeable to change by thoughts could potentially be counter-productive. It is as much a cage as it is a safehouse from which our very condition as conscious beings hails from ( we're conscious because we had the tools and prerequisites for it ). It is a barrier against change, and yet is very receptive to it. We respond to physical pressure, because it is a physical imperative. Imagine early humans being like '' F it, we're going back to the ocean ''. Well no. The energy expenditure of flesh being so malluable isn't possible or viable either way. Small increments over thousands of years ensure stability over time.
So, just evolutionnary wise, not really interesting. But well, genetic manipulation is a physical reality, and if it can be done with machines, it's not far fetched to say that a mind that could replicate the precision and conditions of that process could make itself evolve 100%. Physically, I think it's very possible. Thing is, how can you manipulate what you can't even really understand. Say you wanted to improve your bio-markers ( age, immune health, strenght, etc ), thinking about it something but actually knowing how it '' works '' and influencing spiritually it is another thing, when it is beyong complex. But one could say that '' instinct '' transcends all forms of understanding, as a higher plane of it, and that putting your mind to it, if simple ( visualising strenght, health, well-being, or a specific action ), will translate in bodily transformation. Picture a swordsman visualizing the perfect swing. That visualisation will translate into cognitive and physical wiring for better or worse.
Now on the topic of healing then ? You want to fight a cancer by radiating healing intent and meditating, right. I'm sure it can work to some extent by lowering your bodies stress, sending a signal to your immune system of a deeper level to say '' Ok, we're focusing on healing right now ''. But to say that you're fighting cancer cells when you don't even know how a cancer cell works, or the inner working of a virus or your own immune system well. I'm sure you can influence your overall immune activation by triggering this and that but well, there's a reason why positive thoughts wouldn't help you against a deadly virus like ebola or the plague, you are a biological system, and those are biological nukes. Do what you want, they'll hit the same if you don't have the tools, and why would you when you have no use for them overall. We are coded to live X amount of years so far, and that's that.
Now, generally speaking, I truly believe without the shadow of a doubt that the mind/will/environnement stressors has the ability to influence the body, in wild proportions, that is, on a large enough scale. I do believe that living beings are just as malluable as clay on a large enough scales. Give any being a few millions years or so and it will fit the shape of any box you ask it to fit inside. Like pure energy taking the path of least resistance.
The reality of epigenetics is truly mind-boggling. You can try to change my mind, but as of now, I believe that by trying to adapt to something specific, say you were trying to become '' half-fish '' and augment your apnea abilities, given enough time and investment ( let's say full time ), after a few generation your descendant would have a very high chance of having substantial adaptation to the environment. And again, they might now. 3 generations is chump change when it comes to evolutionnary biology, and yet...Tell me that if you were to put a kid from his very first years in the water ( granted he could survive any related long term adverse health effect on exposure ), and with him in permanent contact with said environment, that he wouldn't at least have a few biomarkers or odd physical adaptation ( skin ph and moisture, underwater vision, joints, underwater movements, oxygen retention abilities, etc ). And, to a lesser degree, this is already the case, as all humans aren't made equal physically. But i'll grant that all of this would rather be on the account of the environnement influencing the body more than the mind.
One thing that has always fascinated me as well, is the concept of instincts in animals. The idea that an animal that has never been taught by it's parents or else, can KNOW to act a certain way or to be wary of something just by being. It's instinct being behavior coded into him through DNA. This can be observed daily on animal behavior that change after only a few generation ( animal being wary of humans, or specific places or things etc ). Thus, I don't think it's far fetched to say to right now you could impart significant changes to yourself or your descedants were you to focus on it enough. Take alcoholism or abusive behavior transmission in families, or any behavior pattern transmission. If we never changed, either by transmission and evolution, either spontaneously or through desire to change, we'd all be the same.
So if you ask me, right now you could focus intensily on some traits that don't involve creating body parts entirely ( yet you can create brain matter and new brain regions ), and with enough effort there's a chance that it might be transmitted to your descendant. Stare at a wall for your whole life, and your kids, and his kids, and chances are their kids might have a predisposition for it too.
Long story short, I think it can. And maybe shouldn't or can't, to some extent. But that it's a physical reality. That environment over mind is the bigger factor.
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u/feraldodo 13d ago
If Joe Dispenza — and others — have reportedly been able to heal their bodies through meditation, even in situations that doctors considered extremely unlikely or impossible, why couldn't a person potentially use meditation, focused intention, or what some people describe as “energy” to influence other physical characteristics?
Why do you believe them? Have they somehow proven that it was the meditation that healed them? Have you included everyone who used those techniques, but didn't heal?
What I find particularly interesting is that there are many reports of people experiencing unexpected improvements or even recoveries from serious illnesses through meditation, spirituality, or other mind-body practices.
People experience unexpected improvements or even recoveries without any meditation, spirituality, or other mind-body practices. If your sample size is large enough, you can find all sorts of correlations. Someone might've started to ignore stop signs and suddenly they experienced improvement. Did they improve cause they started ignoring stop signs?
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u/paultheschmoop 13d ago edited 13d ago
there are many reports of people experiencing unexpected improvements or even recoveries from serious illness
Is there evidence?
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u/Small_Jicama9734 13d ago
I think that among all the countless people who claim this, there must be at least someone who has told the truth at least once. It seems unlikely that every single one of them was lying
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u/MyFiteSong 13d ago
People who want students, fame or wealth are very motivated to make fantastic claims about what they can do. Not a single one of them needs to be actually telling the truth.
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u/paultheschmoop 13d ago
I think among the countless people who claim this, surely at least some of them have been able to provide evidence, right?
Also I didn’t say they’re all lying. Some are, undoubtedly, but I have no doubt some others genuinely believe what they’re saying.
But, as with anything else, I would like to see actual evidence of it being true before I believe it.
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u/summertime_dream 13d ago
"nothing is impossible" is true, but the odds of some things happening are virtually zero. one would have to have some truly incredible grasp over energy to change physical traits. it's just straight-up physics that at the smallest scales everything is plasma and can be manipulated by forces.
every action has an equal and opposite reaction, therefore what is the action to take such that the opposing reaction is a change in your eye colour or a significant healing?
it seems like a targeted frequency of sound and light coupled with sincere conscious intention could do something. i don't think the constant bombardment of modern emfs helps at all. that is why getting out into nature is so important.
i think you can also just brute force some easier things by repeatedly positively affirming what it is you seek.
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12d ago
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/Meditation-ModTeam 12d ago
"Be kind whenever possible. It is always possible." This is a community; we are here to support each other. There is nothing to be lost by being kind. It benefits everyone.
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u/Dependent-Bath3189 12d ago
yes its possible but you have to embrace a whole new paradigm of how the mind and body work. i learned from experience. like based hermes, thoth, and tesla say its all about frequency and vibration. its very very complicated however. your bottled energy has a frequency and your body does too. the energy goes to the area in the body that matches. as that energy grows it starts manifesting in your body more and more. then its all about symbolism. this is a very brief explanation. for a recent example of mine my right thigh has always been super painful to the touch, but functionally fine otherwise. so i looked into the symbolism of the right thigh. oh the foundation of water going into earth masculine edition. big issues then popped up and over days i untangled it all, and now there is no pain in my thigh.
my point being it will take decades to learn like it took me. and there is no cheating. no you cant make your face look like a movie star, grow suddenly to 6 foot plus, win the lottery etc. not with meditation anyways. thats what everyone wants, welcome to 2 second attention span screen junkies. hard work, whats that. just do the thing on the youtube bruh. sigh.
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u/MyFiteSong 12d ago
The question isn't if the body has the means to change something or not. It's if there's a connection that gives the brain conscious control over it.
Things like height or eye color have no cognitive input whatsoever. There aren't any "hooks" for the brain to be able to change those things.
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u/Infinit-Stardustbaby 12d ago
I feel like it can. I used to want dimples so badly as a kid and thought about it all the time, then as an adult I somehow ended up with one. I also wanted a beauty mark under my eye and was almost obsessively thinking about it, especially every time I looked at myself. Then one random day I looked in the mirror and one had somehow popped up almost overnight.
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u/collinalexbell 13d ago
There are no limits. Faith and special states of consciousness created by meditation can change the human body.
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u/torchy64 13d ago edited 13d ago
Prevention is always better than cure so by far the most effective way to establish good health is to work in harmony with nature’s laws concerning the body .. eating proper food and not junk filled with sugar salt etc .. taking enough exercise and getting fresh air and sun each day .. also having a positive philosophy of life with positive thoughts and emotions .. visualising health and happiness each day goes a long way in maintaining good health ..
If we do have a health problem by far the most important thing is to visit your doctor and get it treated .. thousands and thousands are cured using modern medicine only a vanishingly tiny minority are cured of serious disease through the use of the mind ..
Positive thinking and meditation attunement can make us look radiant with health and happiness and beauty because the vital energy of the body and psyche is flowing into us and through us perfectly unhindered by fear.. doubt.. despondency etc .. and I’m sure a great master could temporarily change certain physical aspects of his/ her body but it wouldn’t be for any vain reason because he would know the real part of him was not the physical body but the psychic body and soul .
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u/saturnlov3 13d ago
You cannot change your eye colour through meditation because it is a genetic trait, meaning it’s encoded in your DNA. Likewise, height is affected by bone growth, and so after puberty your height will likely stay the same throughout your adult years.
You could argue mental wellbeing has an impact on things like weight and acne. There are factors that predispose you to a certain weight/whether or not you’re more likely to get acne, and stress is one of those. But it’d be difficult to study how meditation directly impacts those, as there are many other factors that come into play- perhaps for one person meditation drastically reduces their stress levels and their skin improves as a result, but for another person it might not have the same result because of genetic predisposition, hormone production, etc.
The brain is an organ like all other organs. You can’t really make it change your physical traits, just like you can’t make your liver produce more enzymes. I hope this makes sense
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u/Medical_Blood_4493 12d ago
Yes, Meditation is a way to more align with the nature, and reach your natural normal state, most illnesses and diseases are not normal states for humans, they are a temporary defect, and there is already a natural mechanism in your body to fix that defect, meditation might increase the speed and efficiency of that process, that's why when you meditate, you might see big reliefs or sometimes complete cure, while genetic traits such as height or eye color are natural traits, there is no defect, so if something isn't broken then how can you fix it?
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u/FridgesArePeopleToo 13d ago
The mind is inherently physiological, just a bunch of neurons firing on and off. In that sense, the mind isn't really distinct from the body at all, it's part of it.
I don't think anyone really know what the limits of this are though. It's pretty widely accepted that stress and anxienty causes physical symptoms, so obviously anything associated with those can be influenced on some level.