From dyslexic dropout to top human behavior expert, Dr. Demartini’s journey proves it’s never too late to shine.
“I tell people give yourself permission to shine and be your unique self. That’s how you make a difference,” says Dr John Demartini. “You don’t make a difference fitting in. You make a difference standing out.”
It’s fair to say Demartini has made a difference by standing out. The American world‑renowned human behaviour specialist, writer, researcher and speaker is the author of more than 40 self‑development books, the most popular of which have been translated into 36 languages, and hosts an array of online personal development courses.
Demartini’s key teachings are on how to live a more inspired life. He shares insights on his podcast The Demartini Show and has been featured in documentaries including The Secret, the 2006 film that propelled the “law of attraction” — the idea that positive thinking can manifest positive outcomes in one’s life — into the mainstream.
At 70 years old, Demartini is a highly in‑demand speaker. He delivers up to 400 presentations each year and has addressed audiences of up to 11,000 people. The Breakthrough Experience, his two‑day seminar program which focuses on breaking through limitations to reach your goals, has been delivered to more than 150,000 students globally.
The class dunce
Demartini’s early years are not what you’d expect for someone as successful as he is now. Born in Texas, Demartini had leg and hand deformities and wore braces on his legs as a child. He struggled at school due to having a speech impediment and dyslexia and was unable to read properly until he was 18 years old.
“I only made it through elementary school by asking the smartest kids questions,” Demartini recalls. At a time when learning difficulties were not as widely understood as they are now, Demartini was put into the lowest reading groups and eventually his first‑grade teacher gave him the humiliation of wearing the “dunce” cap — a hat used as a form of punishment or humiliation in schools.
“She finally had my parents come to the class and said, ‘I’m afraid your son is not going to be able to read or write properly,’” says Demartini. “‘And I’m afraid he’s not going to amount to anything or go very far in life and will not be able to speak properly.’”
Wave of change
Internalising his teacher’s words, Demartini eventually dropped out of school at 14. Seeking the surfer lifestyle, he hitchhiked to California, before heading to Hawaii alone at 15, expecting a nomadic life of making surfboards and picking up odd jobs for a living.
It was a near‑death experience that led him to meet the person who would inspire him to turn his life around — nutritionist and health‑food store pioneer Paul Bragg.
Demartini got strychnine and cyanide poisoning at age 17 from the plants he was consuming in Hawaii. “I was surfing on a big wave and my diaphragm stopped. I luckily got some air and survived it, but I was pretty well unconscious for three days,” says Demartini. As part of his recovery, Demartini became a regular at a nearby health‑food store, where Bragg was hosting a guest lecture.
Bragg led the group through a guided meditation where Demartini saw a vision of the life he wanted. “I saw myself walking through an archway and onto a balcony about 40 feet up in front of a giant square with a million people in it, and I was speaking. It was just a mental image, but I got tears in my eyes … I just thought, this is what I want to do. I want to be able to be heard. I want to be able to communicate. I want to be able to say something intelligent, something that would mean something to somebody, and that somebody would be benefited by that.”
Bragg’s words opened Demartini’s mind to new possibilities. “He said, ‘What you think about, what you visualise, what you affirm, what you feel, what you write, what you take actions on becomes your life,’” recalls Demartini.
This newfound mindset, that he did have control over his future, motivated him to go back to school in Texas. “Everything I was told I would never be able to do became the thing that I wanted to excel at,” says Demartini.
The power of reading
After returning to school, Demartini recalls passing his GED (high school exams) by simply guessing the answers. But he wasn’t so lucky when he took exams at a junior college. He was devastated to discover that his marks were not only a failure but bottom of the class by a huge margin.
“I almost burst into tears. I ran to my car, and I kind of sunk in my car, and I just cried,” he says. “I heard my first‑grade teacher talking. ‘I’m afraid your son will never be able to read or write or communicate, never amount to a thing, never go very far in life. You better put him into sports or something.’”
When he got home, his mother comforted him and told him that whatever he would become in life — a teacher, a philosopher, a surfer or a panhandler — she would love him no matter what. This gave him a burst of inspiration to make changes.
“My hand went into a determined fist, I saw the [meditation] vision in my mind and I said to myself — I’m going to master this thing called reading and studying and learning,” says Demartini. “I’m going to master this thing called teaching, healing and philosophy, and I’m going to do whatever it takes.”
With focus and determination, Demartini opened a dictionary and started learning 30 new words a day. His mum tested him on spelling and understanding. “I grew my vocabulary by 20,000 words over the next two years, and I went from the bottom of the class to the top of the class,” says Demartini. “I read eight complete sets of encyclopaedias, anything to grow my vocabulary, anything to grow my knowledge, to catch up with the other kids.”
After spending his early school years asking the smart kids questions to get by, Demartini had transformed into the one that others were coming to with questions. “By the time I went to the University of Houston a couple years later, I had 150, sometimes 400, students under the trees every day asking questions and I was teaching.”
“I was reading four to seven books a day, and I was devouring that and then sharing whatever I was reading on many topics. It wasn’t only about health. It was on philosophy. It was on the mastery of life and how to grow your business, how to grow your wealth and how to stabilise relationships.”
Today, Demartini says he has read more than 31,000 books. When asked if he could recommend just one book, he doesn’t hesitate — A Syntopicon: An Index to The Great Ideas, a two‑volume set by Mortimer Adler. “It covers the most significant questions that the gre