The Human Experience · Episode

Episode 78 – Kelly Howell – Brain Sync

A conversation with Kelly Howell

Kelly Howell is the world’s leading pioneer in guided meditation and binaural beat frequency audio technology. She’s a 6-time National Bestselling Audio Author of the most advanced brainwave audio programs…

Published
November 12, 2016
Runtime
47:12
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Episode 78 – Kelly Howell – Brain Sync

Episode field notes

Show notes

Kelly Howell is the world’s leading pioneer in guided meditation and binaural beat frequency audio technology. She’s a 6-time National Bestselling Audio Author of the most advanced brainwave audio programs available in the world today. Some of her highly acclaimed best-selling programs include, The Secret Universal Mind Meditation, Guided Meditation, Attract Wealth, Healing Meditation and The Secret to Attracting Love. She brings more than thirty years experience to her work in personal transformation and mind expansion technology.

Kelly has taught meditation to thousands of individuals worldwide, at Fortune 500 Companies, and legendary retreat centers such as Esalen. She is author of Brain Power, Improve Your Mind As You Age, recommended by the Mayo Clinic and hailed by Daniel Amen as “A blueprint to optimize your life.”  Her visionary healing techniques provide an elegant way to recalibrate brain patterns and reap the benefits of biofeedback training and long-term meditation. Kelly’s healing voice and groundbreaking brainwave music have inspired millions of people to achieve goals, heal their bodies and transform their lives. Read her article published in the Robb Report on the profound benefits of meditation in just 20 minutes a day.

The Evolution of Brain Sync

In the 1980’s Kelly began making personalized positive mental programing audio tapes for friends and clients. She went on to create a wildly successful series of Personal Development audio programs published by Bantam Books, and The SuperMind series through Random House.  1987 Kelly co-founded Neuro-Technologies Research Institute in San Francisco, a non-profit organization that studied the effects of brain technologies. Her work with researchers led to the creation of a series of clinical programs for medical professionals such as Harvard trained Neurosurgeon, Norman Shealy, M.D. Ph.D and Edward A. Taub, M.D. Their phenomenal success prompted her to launch Brain Sync in 1991.  Kelly has worked with eminent scientists to develop meditation and brain optimization programs used in hospitals, biofeedback clinics and by hundreds of thousands of individuals worldwide. Over the years, many of Kelly’s legendary self help classics have appeared on top of Publishers Weekly’s national bestseller lists.

brainsync

Brainwave entrainment is a colloquialism for ‘neural entrainment’, which denotes how the aggregate oscillation frequency, resulting from synchronous electrical activity among ensembles of cortical neurons, can adjust to synchronize with the periodic vibration of an external stimulus, such as a sustained acoustic frequency perceived as pitch, a regularly repeating pattern of intermittent sounds perceived as rhythm, or a regularly intermittent flashing light.

In this episode we spoke to Kelly Howell on guided meditation and brainwave synchronization, it’s benefits and much more.  

You will love this Episode!

Find Kelly and her work Visit brainsync.com.

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About the guest

Kelly Howell

Kelly Howell is the world’s leading pioneer in guided meditation and binaural beat frequency audio technology. She’s a 6-time National Bestselling Audio Author of the most advanced brainwave audio programs available in the world today. Some of her highly acclaimed best-selling programs include, The Secret Universal Mind Meditation, Guided Meditation, Attract Wealth, Healing Meditation and The Secret to Attracting Love. She brings more than thirty years experience to her work in personal transformation and mind expansion technology.

The complete conversation

Transcript

554 timestamped passages · Speaker-labelled from local voice analysis

Speaker labels were identified locally using Xavier’s verified voice reference and episode-specific acoustic comparison. Mixed turns are labelled with both speakers. Automated transcripts and speaker identification may contain occasional errors. Select a timestamp to check the original conversation.

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  1. HXP Announcer

    Welcome to the Human Experience Podcast. The only podcast designed to fuse your left and right brain hemispheres and feed it the most entertaining and mentally engaging topics on the planet.

  2. HXP Announcer

    As we approach our ascent, please make sure your frontal, temporal and occipital lobes are in their full upright position.

  3. HXP Announcer

    As you take your seat of consciousness, relax your senses and allow us to take you on a journey.

  4. Xavier / HXP Announcer

    We are the intimate strangers. Thank you for listening.

  5. Xavier

    medical professionals out of places like Harvard. She is a six-time national best-selling audio

  6. Xavier

    author. She's been in this industry for at least three decades. So by all means, she has the

  7. Xavier

    credential for the conversation you're about to hear. This was a phenomenal episode with Kelly

  8. Xavier

    where we discussed the genesis of BrainSync. So I think you guys will really enjoy this one.

  9. Xavier

    As always, guys, we survive on your support. If you enjoy the content we put out on a regular basis, get to thehumanexp.com slash donate and buy us a coffee, lunch, dinner. Otherwise, please find us on Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube, all at The Human XP. Thank you guys so much for listening.

  10. Xavier

    the human experience is synchronizing your brainwaves as we welcome my guest

  11. Xavier

    mrs kelly howell to the program kelly it's an honor welcome to hxp uh it's an honor to be here

  12. Xavier / Kelly Howell

    xavier thank you so much for inviting me kelly you're you're known as a brainwave whisperer

  13. Xavier

    You're considered a pioneer in the field of brainwave technology.

  14. Xavier

    Where did you start this journey?

  15. Xavier

    Where did this journey begin for you?

  16. Xavier

    Because you've been doing this for a while.

  17. Kelly Howell

    Yeah, I started in the mid-80s, 1980s, the last century.

  18. Kelly Howell

    And it began for me in meditation.

  19. Kelly Howell

    I had a time in my life where things just, everything fell apart.

  20. Kelly Howell

    and I started searching for alternative ways to get my head on straight.

  21. Kelly Howell

    I had been in a car accident and had a lot of personal problems,

  22. Kelly Howell

    death of my mother, grandmother, divorce, all of that stuff.

  23. Kelly Howell

    It was a big pile up.

  24. Kelly Howell

    And I sought out a meditation teacher because I had no idea what to do.

  25. Kelly Howell

    I just said, I have to, you know, I need help.

  26. Kelly Howell

    So meditation seemed like the right thing to do.

  27. Kelly Howell

    There weren't a lot of options back then.

  28. Kelly Howell

    It was kind of a bizarre choice.

  29. Xavier

    Probably my friends thought I was really just crazy.

  30. Kelly Howell

    But I did get a meditation teacher, and she had me sit and meditate every day for an hour, which was really, really hard.

  31. Kelly Howell

    No help.

  32. Xavier

    and I grew to love meditation.

  33. Kelly Howell

    It just became, in the beginning, I hated it.

  34. Kelly Howell

    I thought it was terrible.

  35. Kelly Howell

    I used to call her and complain

  36. Kelly Howell

    and within a few months, six months or so,

  37. Kelly Howell

    if I missed my meditation practice,

  38. Xavier

    I started feeling, I could feel it.

  39. Kelly Howell

    I didn't feel right.

  40. Kelly Howell

    My creativity was off.

  41. Kelly Howell

    I just didn't feel right.

  42. Kelly Howell

    I was sitting in meditation, praying,

  43. Kelly Howell

    I did my hour-long meditation, and then I would end the meditation with my prayers.

  44. Kelly Howell

    And I asked for about two weeks, every day in meditation, what is my path?

  45. Kelly Howell

    What is my purpose?

  46. Xavier

    Show me.

  47. Kelly Howell

    I know I have a mission.

  48. Xavier

    I know I have a purpose.

  49. Kelly Howell

    And show me the way.

  50. Kelly Howell

    Just show me.

  51. Kelly Howell

    I don't care what it is.

  52. Xavier

    Just show me what to do.

  53. Kelly Howell

    Honestly, the last thing on my mind was that I would start making audio programs.

  54. Kelly Howell

    to help people or teach people how to meditate.

  55. Kelly Howell

    It was just, it was so, this was the 1980s.

  56. Kelly Howell

    I was in the film production business.

  57. Kelly Howell

    It was completely off the charts for me to even imagine something like that.

  58. Kelly Howell

    And this ball of light appeared above my head, a golden ball of light.

  59. Kelly Howell

    And it just, you know, like the Times Square, you know, ball on New Year's Eve, it just

  60. Kelly Howell

    slowly descended and it came down into my head and it exploded into a million sparks and it just

  61. Kelly Howell

    showered me with light and it just it practically knocked me off the sofa and I was just electrified

  62. Kelly Howell

    and this energy came in and there was a voice and it said you're going to make tapes and I'm like

  63. Kelly Howell

    tapes. And then suddenly, you know, it wasn't just words, it was imagery, it was a plan,

  64. Kelly Howell

    it was a vision, it was a knowing, it was absolute knowing that this was my path and purpose in life.

  65. Kelly Howell

    And so that was the inception point for, you know, the work that I've been doing for the last 30

  66. Kelly Howell

    years and it's been unfolding for me ever since. I've had a lot of grace and ease and support,

  67. Kelly Howell

    universal support. I immediately got a partner. I immediately was given a lot of money to start

  68. Kelly Howell

    making audio programs, which I had never done professionally.

  69. Kelly Howell

    and within a few months they had a giant contract with Bantam.

  70. Kelly Howell

    They were starting their audio division

  71. Kelly Howell

    and they started it with me and my partner at the time, Allison.

  72. Kelly Howell

    And we did 20 some odd audio programs with them

  73. Kelly Howell

    and the first one we ever did with them was their best-selling audio of all time.

  74. Kelly Howell

    So, you know, it just, that's how it started.

  75. Xavier

    a lot of success for you in the very early stages?

  76. Kelly Howell

    From the very beginning. Because it came from my

  77. Kelly Howell

    path and purpose, I guess. There aren't really

  78. Kelly Howell

    words to describe what happened, but it did change me.

  79. Kelly Howell

    And it's an amazing experience to suddenly

  80. Kelly Howell

    feel like you have a new brain.

  81. Kelly Howell

    That suddenly you know things you didn't know before.

  82. Xavier

    Yeah. That's interesting. Interesting. So, okay. So let's, we can dig further into this a bit more

  83. Xavier

    later, but so for, for anyone who doesn't know what is going on when you're synchronizing,

  84. Xavier

    I mean, I've been listening to the tapes for, I don't know, at least a decade and I mean,

  85. Xavier

    I love it. So, so what is happening when you're synchronizing the hemispheres in your brain and,

  86. Xavier

    and doing the guided meditation? What's, what's happening there?

  87. Kelly Howell

    Okay, that's a great question. So, you know, meditation, if you do it, I call going bareback, you know, with no help, is it takes time, you know, everyone's like, what am I thinking? I'm thinking, you know, your mind runs away with you, all of that.

  88. Kelly Howell

    I got into working with binaural beat frequencies because I knew from that meditation experience that there was going to be an easier way to learn how to meditate and I was going to find it.

  89. Kelly Howell

    And so that set me off on research on binaural beat frequencies.

  90. Kelly Howell

    I didn't know what they were called then, but I kept researching, you know, everywhere I could, you know, how can we make meditation easy for people.

  91. Kelly Howell

    So I came across this research on binaural beat frequencies by biophysicist Gerald Oster at Mount Sinai.

  92. Kelly Howell

    And he was working with sound and studying brain waves.

  93. Kelly Howell

    So what happens is the two different, you know about binaural beats.

  94. Kelly Howell

    So it's two different signals.

  95. Kelly Howell

    Two different tones.

  96. Xavier

    One tone sent in one ear, another tone sent in the other ear,

  97. Xavier

    and then your brain kind of interprets it as a single tone.

  98. Xavier

    A beat.

  99. Xavier

    It sounds like a beat.

  100. Kelly Howell

    And what it is is the differential.

  101. Kelly Howell

    And you can relate the beat to certain brainwave frequencies.

  102. Kelly Howell

    So theta, which is the deepest state of meditation, which is around four hertz, four cycles per second.

  103. Kelly Howell

    We couldn't just deliver that tone to your ear.

  104. Kelly Howell

    You wouldn't hear it because we don't hear in that range.

  105. Kelly Howell

    So but we do hear a beat.

  106. Kelly Howell

    So you do 100 hertz in the left ear, 104 hertz in the right ear.

  107. Kelly Howell

    In the middle of the brain, your brain ends up kind of making up the difference.

  108. Kelly Howell

    You hear a beat.

  109. Xavier

    Four cycles per second.

  110. Kelly Howell

    And what happens is your brain cells begin to resonate with the beat and it creates a whole brain synchronization.

  111. Kelly Howell

    So

  112. Kelly Howell

    So the right and left hemispheres are operating in synchrony,

  113. Kelly Howell

    you get coherent brainwave activity as opposed to incoherent, which would be more,

  114. Kelly Howell

    you know, static, kind of, you know, out of sync, out of phase. So when you are in whole brain

  115. Kelly Howell

    thinking or in deep meditation, your brainwaves are moving synchronously. So you have more access

  116. Kelly Howell

    your brain power, you know, to other levels of thought and vision and creativity, intelligence.

  117. Kelly Howell

    It just turns your brain on to a higher level.

  118. Xavier

    But there were, you know, there were other people doing the brainwave thing, but you

  119. Xavier

    had kind of a different style with it.

  120. Xavier

    You were doing specifically guided meditations, right?

  121. Kelly Howell

    Yeah, I started off with subliminal.

  122. Kelly Howell

    The only other person at the time, there was Brother Charles.

  123. Kelly Howell

    I don't know what happened to him.

  124. Kelly Howell

    And there was Robert Monroe.

  125. Xavier

    Robert Monroe, yeah.

  126. Xavier

    And that was it pretty much that I knew of.

  127. Xavier

    Dick Sutphin as well has been doing it for a while.

  128. HXP Announcer

    He was doing more hypnosis.

  129. Xavier

    Okay.

  130. Kelly Howell

    I don't think he was doing binaural beats at the time.

  131. Kelly Howell

    He might have been, but I'm not sure.

  132. Kelly Howell

    Okay.

  133. Kelly Howell

    But yeah, Robert Monroe was kind of the grandfather.

  134. Kelly Howell

    But he was doing it more of a technical level in a way, I guess you could say.

  135. Kelly Howell

    Whereas I approached it more combining guided meditation, affirmations, hypnotic induction.

  136. Kelly Howell

    So kind of just putting other modalities together.

  137. Xavier

    Yeah, I found myself switching between kind of listening to the Hemisync tapes, Robert Monroe, and then switching to yours. Like I would go back and forth. When I wanted to hear sort of the guided stuff, I would listen to your tapes. And when I didn't, I would listen to the Robert Monroe tapes.

  138. Xavier

    So, I mean, what was a guided meditation that, I don't know, was the best selling for you or kind of reached the most people?

  139. Kelly Howell

    I've had a number of bestsellers over the years.

  140. Kelly Howell

    The very first binaural beat guided meditation program that was on the bestseller list was called Guided Meditation.

  141. Kelly Howell

    Of course, this was in the 90s and there weren't a lot of guided meditation programs then.

  142. Kelly Howell

    those silly, stupid titles, but it was, we sold many, many, many of those. And then

  143. Kelly Howell

    in recent years, the secret universal mind meditation.

  144. Kelly Howell

    That's a great meditation, yeah.

  145. Kelly Howell

    Yeah, and that sold millions and millions. And it's just, and it's modeled after the very first

  146. Kelly Howell

    audio program I made for myself that I listened to when I was going through the hardest time of

  147. Kelly Howell

    my life when my mother died and I was in a car crash and all of that. So I contacted the publisher,

  148. Kelly Howell

    the author of those meditations had passed, but I contacted the author and said, hey,

  149. Kelly Howell

    could I buy the rights to record these meditations and update them a little? And

  150. Xavier

    So what do you think is happening? Because I mean, like you, like you just said, in the in the 90s, no one was really talking about meditation. Now it seems almost trendy.

  151. Kelly Howell

    Oh, it's totally trendy. It's really amazing. This summer I was teaching the Rob Report. You know, the Rob Report, they do the best of best of everything. Well, they're now doing these health and wellness summits and they asked me to come and teach meditation.

  152. Kelly Howell

    and they had very high-heeled people there.

  153. Kelly Howell

    It was a wonderful group of people,

  154. Kelly Howell

    doctors, scientists, researchers,

  155. Kelly Howell

    people that make wine and cars

  156. Kelly Howell

    and just a wide range of people.

  157. Kelly Howell

    And what struck me is that

  158. Kelly Howell

    everyone is very confused about meditation

  159. Kelly Howell

    because there are so many choices right now.

  160. Kelly Howell

    It's like, oh, should I do mindfulness?

  161. HXP Announcer

    Should I do this?

  162. Kelly Howell

    Should I do that?

  163. Kelly Howell

    So it is trendy and people have a lot of options and there's still a lot of confusion around, you know, what kind of path to take with meditation.

  164. Kelly Howell

    When I began meditating, there weren't that many options.

  165. Kelly Howell

    I just found a meditation teacher and I just did what she told me to do.

  166. Kelly Howell

    It wasn't like I had like a whole Chinese menu of different types.

  167. Kelly Howell

    I'm sure they were out there, but it was pre-internet.

  168. Kelly Howell

    We didn't have a zillion teachers and we didn't have the widespread knowledge.

  169. Xavier

    No, no one was talking about this.

  170. Xavier

    And when I would tell them about it, they thought it was crazy.

  171. Xavier

    And now they're all using it.

  172. Xavier

    Oh, yeah.

  173. Kelly Howell

    I mean, you could do mantra meditation, Zen meditation, mindfulness meditation.

  174. Kelly Howell

    And now there are, I don't know how many companies are doing binaural beat frequency programs.

  175. Kelly Howell

    you know, there is a lot to choose from. So I think it's actually harder to choose

  176. Kelly Howell

    what kind of meditation you want to do. When you have so many choices, it's kind of like, boy,

  177. Kelly Howell

    okay, well, try mantra meditation for months. And then maybe I'll try mindfulness. Maybe I'll try,

  178. Kelly Howell

    you know what I mean? It's kind of like, wow. So what I tell people is to try different types of

  179. Kelly Howell

    meditation and see what resonates for you. Right. This question kind of goes in line with

  180. Xavier

    the question that I just asked. What were some of the core affirmations that you've found people

  181. Xavier

    connecting with the most? What was something that you resonated with? What was something that you

  182. Kelly Howell

    were saying that people were resonating with? Oh, gee, I don't know. I mean, I have 50 programs,

  183. Kelly Howell

    So I'm not, I don't know.

  184. Kelly Howell

    A lot of the programs that I've made are metaphorical.

  185. Kelly Howell

    So I think people really resonate with that.

  186. Kelly Howell

    Like retrieve your destiny takes you on a journey.

  187. Kelly Howell

    I don't even know if the word destiny is used in the program, but it's a metaphor for finding your destiny.

  188. Kelly Howell

    You know, I would say people that listen to my audio programs would be better to answer that. I do get little emails going, oh, I love that line. I love, you know, but I don't, I, you know, I kind of do what I do and then I move on to the next thing. So, um, I don't, you know what I mean?

  189. Xavier

    so you said you said that you know this all came this all was birthed sort of through the

  190. Xavier

    the problems that you were having and you know the death of your mother the passing of your mother and

  191. Kelly Howell

    the things that you were going through right yeah grandmother dying a car accident I broke my neck

  192. Xavier / Kelly Howell

    so you wanted you wanted to create something that uh would help people as much as it it helped you

  193. Kelly Howell

    initial impetus or ambition I had was to help myself. Basically, I was a wreck. So I was not

  194. Kelly Howell

    at the point of wanting to help anybody. I was very depressed and very, very, very deeply depressed

  195. Kelly Howell

    and thinking about killing myself. And so I was not thinking about helping other people when I

  196. Kelly Howell

    started on my spiritual path. I just really needed help myself. And, you know, it took maybe about a

  197. Kelly Howell

    year of practice. And, you know, and then I started helping friends, actually, I was like, you know,

  198. Kelly Howell

    let me I started making tapes for people, personalized audio programs to help them with

  199. Kelly Howell

    whatever they wanted to achieve in their lives. And I was having great success that way. But again,

  200. Kelly Howell

    it was not something I ever imagined would be a career. You know, it was more like a hobby.

  201. Kelly Howell

    Like I'd say, hey, you know, why don't we make a tape for you?

  202. Xavier

    Yeah. At what point did it, did you feel like, okay, this is, you know, this is something I'm

  203. Xavier

    moving into a career with and I'm going to do this for the masses and people?

  204. Kelly Howell

    Oh, after the meditation, immediately. In that moment, I knew it was going to be for the masses,

  205. Kelly Howell

    for millions of people. And I had no doubt in my mind. And that experience of having absolutely

  206. Kelly Howell

    no doubt is very unusual. I mean, it's, you know, we always have like another voice in our heads.

  207. Kelly Howell

    I had no other voice.

  208. Kelly Howell

    It was just, this is what I'm doing.

  209. Kelly Howell

    I have no doubt.

  210. Kelly Howell

    It was like, I know this is going to happen.

  211. Xavier

    It was an absolute for me.

  212. Kelly Howell

    So that was the point where it all began.

  213. Kelly Howell

    And it was almost like the universe was conspiring with me from that point to make it all happen.

  214. Kelly Howell

    I was in New York doing the subliminal programs and affirmations with Bantam.

  215. Kelly Howell

    And then when I wanted to go into binaural beats, excuse me, they thought it was crazy.

  216. Kelly Howell

    They thought I was out of my mind.

  217. Kelly Howell

    They couldn't figure out how to sell it, market it, whatever.

  218. Kelly Howell

    So I went out to California and that was like in the late 80s

  219. Kelly Howell

    to San Francisco and started a nonprofit research foundation with Michael Hutchison, who was the author of Mega Brain, New Tools and Techniques for Brain Growth and Mind Expansion.

  220. Kelly Howell

    And we had quite a nonprofit going there in San Francisco. We had all these scientists coming in with amazing technology and brain machines.

  221. Kelly Howell

    I mean, this was like goggles and beds and float tanks and everything and biofeedback therapy.

  222. Kelly Howell

    And so we got to start testing the effectiveness of different techniques.

  223. Kelly Howell

    And one company called The Other 90% was really intrigued with what would get people into the theta state, which is pretty much the heart.

  224. Kelly Howell

    It's a very hard, difficult state of consciousness to enter into without practice.

  225. Xavier

    It takes discipline.

  226. Kelly Howell

    It's tough because it borders right.

  227. Kelly Howell

    It's right between waking and sleep, and people will either drift off to sleep or they can't even get to that state.

  228. Kelly Howell

    So it's a very finely balanced brain state.

  229. Kelly Howell

    And so their agenda was what can get people into the theta state the most quickly, effectively.

  230. Kelly Howell

    And so we had a PhD biofeedback therapist.

  231. Kelly Howell

    We had 24 electrode machine.

  232. Kelly Howell

    We had people, subjects that signed up to be part of the study.

  233. Kelly Howell

    I think we had like 100 people and tried everything.

  234. Kelly Howell

    hypnosis, different audio programs, all the different, you know, Robert Monroe, blah,

  235. Kelly Howell

    blah, everybody. And my first binaural beat program, which was then called High Coherence,

  236. Kelly Howell

    was also thrown in the mix. And that one came out the best. And like 87% of people were able to get

  237. Kelly Howell

    to the theta state who had never meditated before.

  238. Kelly Howell

    So that's when, you know, at that point, I started making programs for doctors and researchers

  239. Kelly Howell

    and biofeedback therapists.

  240. Kelly Howell

    I made programs for Norman Shealy.

  241. Kelly Howell

    I don't know if you know him.

  242. Xavier

    He's a scientist.

  243. Kelly Howell

    And, you know, so I was sort of working behind the scenes making programs.

  244. Kelly Howell

    And then after that research study came out, I just thought, you know, I should just make this available to people, to everybody.

  245. Kelly Howell

    So that was sort of the second generation of what I was doing.

  246. Kelly Howell

    And I started BrainSync, my own publishing company at that point.

  247. Xavier

    Well, you definitely have the voice for it.

  248. Kelly Howell

    Oh, well, thank you.

  249. Kelly Howell

    You have a good voice.

  250. Kelly Howell

    You have a great voice.

  251. Kelly Howell

    Thank you.

  252. Xavier

    way too young to be listening to audio tape. I appreciate that. Okay. So Kelly, it's amazing

  253. Xavier

    because you talk, you know, you talk in your, in the tapes, you talk about, um, you know,

  254. Xavier

    consciousness and what was, what was the goal for you? Were you simply accelerating? Was it just to

  255. Xavier

    get people into this sort of theta state or accelerate human performance? Or was it,

  256. Xavier

    Oh, I love your question. A spiritual journey as well. I mean, cause it seems like it was a

  257. Kelly Howell

    both of those things? I love your questions. They're just great. Thank you. You know, I think

  258. Kelly Howell

    my inspiration and drive to do this work has changed as I've grown and evolved.

  259. Kelly Howell

    In the very beginning, the very beginning, my main core of inspiration and need,

  260. Kelly Howell

    actual need to do this work was to help other people and to help other people that were suffering.

  261. Kelly Howell

    So my very first line of audio programs with Bantam was called Subliminal Self-Help.

  262. Kelly Howell

    So I was very committed to helping people through their suffering.

  263. Kelly Howell

    And, you know, you can't do that until you've had your own suffering.

  264. Kelly Howell

    And I think that that crisis point that I went through, it was the first time in my life that I had experienced real suffering.

  265. HXP Announcer

    And it's, you know, you're alone.

  266. Kelly Howell

    Nobody was there with me.

  267. Kelly Howell

    I was alone in it, and it was a dark, dark, dark place.

  268. Kelly Howell

    And so for me, that is one level of it, you know, a real need to help people out of those dark places.

  269. Xavier

    Very important, you know.

  270. Kelly Howell

    So that's where it began.

  271. Kelly Howell

    And then, of course, as I continue to grow and evolve and learn and study, you know, that stays there as a foundation.

  272. Kelly Howell

    But it's also, oh, you know, how about we learn about prayer and the power of the mind?

  273. Kelly Howell

    And, you know, what can you accomplish and create through using your mental powers and manifestation?

  274. Kelly Howell

    manifestation and, you know, to me to be able to manifest and the way we are so capable of

  275. Kelly Howell

    manifesting and we don't even know it, that became a big impetus for me. So it was like, okay,

  276. Xavier / Kelly Howell

    we have to do that now. The really amazing thing is that it was clinically proven and the research

  277. Xavier

    was backing up everything that you were doing. I mean, it was, you guys were doing the research

  278. Xavier

    as well as putting out these tapes.

  279. Xavier

    It wasn't just like, here's a tape with some audio in it, enjoy.

  280. Xavier

    You know, you guys were bringing in scientists and researchers

  281. Xavier

    to back up your claims and your statements.

  282. HXP Announcer

    Yeah, well, nobody would believe me otherwise.

  283. Kelly Howell

    You know, it was very important at the time.

  284. Kelly Howell

    That's why, in a way, it was like being a trailblazer.

  285. Kelly Howell

    Now there's a lot of research.

  286. Kelly Howell

    Now people know what binaural beats are.

  287. Kelly Howell

    Scientists accept it as, you know, a viable way.

  288. Kelly Howell

    You know, biofeedback therapists accept it and know it works because they can see what happens to the brain.

  289. Kelly Howell

    So, but, you know, 25 years ago, it was a new technology.

  290. Kelly Howell

    People, we had to prove, we had to prove that it actually worked.

  291. Kelly Howell

    Yeah.

  292. Xavier

    So, yeah.

  293. Xavier

    So how, so then what did you find out about the power of self-affirmation?

  294. Xavier

    How, how powerful is it?

  295. Kelly Howell

    I think, oh, that was another part back to your other question, which leads into this

  296. Kelly Howell

    question, you know, like what drives me or what, you know, what, you know, what's the

  297. Kelly Howell

    main purpose of doing what I do?

  298. Kelly Howell

    I also, as I, the very first audio program I made was for me and it was this secret universal

  299. Kelly Howell

    rough recording on a little Sony, you know, like tape recorder that I made that I listened to every

  300. Kelly Howell

    night going to sleep. I never heard the end of it. So it was a tape that you made for yourself and

  301. Kelly Howell

    yeah, and I listened to it. Yeah, I recorded it on a little tape recorder, listened to it at night

  302. Kelly Howell

    before I went to sleep. Never heard the end of it because it would just knock me out. And within a

  303. Kelly Howell

    couple of weeks, all the things that I needed in my life, this is like right after my mother died,

  304. Kelly Howell

    my grandmother died, you know, trying to get better with the car accident, the whole bit,

  305. Kelly Howell

    everything I needed came to me. And I thought, gee, I wonder if this is a tape. You know,

  306. Kelly Howell

    this is really weird. You know, it's wonderful, but it's weird. Like, somebody called me and said,

  307. Kelly Howell

    Hey, you know, I know you've gone through a lot.

  308. Kelly Howell

    And I have a friend who has an apartment in Hollywood Hills.

  309. Kelly Howell

    It's a really sweet place.

  310. Kelly Howell

    And she wants somebody to house sit for her.

  311. Kelly Howell

    I didn't have a job at the time because I couldn't work.

  312. Kelly Howell

    And anyway, all the things that I needed came to me.

  313. Kelly Howell

    And I kept thinking, gosh, could this be the tape?

  314. Kelly Howell

    And I went back.

  315. Kelly Howell

    Yeah, right?

  316. Kelly Howell

    Could this be the tape?

  317. Kelly Howell

    And so I went back.

  318. Kelly Howell

    It was like I went back to the psychic clairvoyant meditation teacher who had told me I need to listen to a tape because my subconscious is a mess.

  319. Xavier

    I went back to her.

  320. Kelly Howell

    I was like, you got to teach me.

  321. Kelly Howell

    How does this work?

  322. Kelly Howell

    What do I?

  323. Kelly Howell

    I don't I didn't know anything about it.

  324. Kelly Howell

    And she started giving me books.

  325. Kelly Howell

    She was the one who taught me to meditate.

  326. Kelly Howell

    And I would go meet with her once a week and, you know, sit for an hour.

  327. Kelly Howell

    holler during the week and complain, saying nothing's happening.

  328. Kelly Howell

    This is boring.

  329. Kelly Howell

    My mind won't stop thinking, you know.

  330. Kelly Howell

    But she got me going.

  331. Kelly Howell

    And it was, so the whole idea that you could like listen to things while you're sleeping

  332. Kelly Howell

    and have your life change just opened up a whole new world of possibility for me.

  333. Xavier

    Like what is really possible here?

  334. Kelly Howell

    We can really create our own reality and we don't have to work hard at it.

  335. Xavier

    It's absolutely fascinating.

  336. Xavier

    I love the, I love the origin story.

  337. Xavier

    I love how you, you kind of just, you know, things weren't working out for you or you

  338. Xavier

    were.

  339. Xavier

    So you're just like, I'm going to go to San Francisco and everything just kind of just

  340. Xavier

    lined up for you.

  341. Xavier

    And it was almost as if there was something kind of pulling you, pushing you into that

  342. Xavier

    direction.

  343. Xavier

    and I mean was there was there a point at which you were just kind of you stepped back and

  344. Xavier

    you were like, you know, what the F is going on? Or were you just kind of accepting of it the whole time?

  345. Kelly Howell

    I loved every moment of it. I just, you know.

  346. Kelly Howell

    So you were in the moment.

  347. Kelly Howell

    It's like an adventure. Yeah, it's an adventure. When you suddenly get to the point where you go, hey, I can create my own reality. And my thoughts create my reality. And meditation is powerful.

  348. Kelly Howell

    and I can embody different states of being and change my life that way,

  349. Kelly Howell

    your life becomes totally different.

  350. Kelly Howell

    Your life becomes an adventure.

  351. Kelly Howell

    It's like, wow, you don't know what's going to happen next.

  352. Kelly Howell

    I mean, things come out of the blue, mostly good things.

  353. Kelly Howell

    Of course, not everything is perfect.

  354. Kelly Howell

    I mean, we all have our challenges.

  355. Kelly Howell

    But, yeah, no, I was just enjoying the ride, you know?

  356. Xavier

    So Kelly, you know, who were the people that influenced you, you know, with all this work?

  357. Xavier

    I mean, you've been doing this for decades now.

  358. Xavier

    I mean, you're considered a pioneer.

  359. Xavier

    And was there a mentor in your life or someone that?

  360. HXP Announcer

    Yeah, I had a few mentors.

  361. Kelly Howell

    I had Marcy, who was my meditation teacher.

  362. Kelly Howell

    She was my first kind of spiritual mentor.

  363. Kelly Howell

    and then I connected up.

  364. Kelly Howell

    Actually, Michael Hutchison was writing his book, Mega Brain.

  365. Kelly Howell

    I don't know if you're familiar with it.

  366. Xavier

    Are you familiar with that book?

  367. Xavier

    Anyway, it was like the Bible.

  368. Kelly Howell

    It's an old title and it was the Bible.

  369. Kelly Howell

    I mean, back then in 1980-whatever, he was saying the brain is like a muscle

  370. Kelly Howell

    and you can grow it and build it and make it stronger and better.

  371. Kelly Howell

    And so he was the pioneer of brain machines.

  372. Kelly Howell

    And so he interviewed me and Allison Daniels, who was my partner in audio activation, which was our first, you know, my first foray into audio.

  373. Kelly Howell

    And and so we connected and it was with him that we went, you know, out to San Francisco and started the nonprofit.

  374. Kelly Howell

    And he was quite the the leader in the field at the time.

  375. Kelly Howell

    opened up the doors for a lot of research and experimentation. And he was way ahead of his time

  376. Kelly Howell

    in terms of neuroplasticity. That was not a word back then. And that's all the book was about.

  377. Kelly Howell

    And so that was my excitement and inspiration. And, you know, we had a lot of really amazing

  378. Kelly Howell

    scientists involved. And it was fun. It was really fun. And then, you know, I've had different

  379. Kelly Howell

    Oh, I had a spiritual teacher for a while here in Santa Fe, New Mexico that I studied with.

  380. Kelly Howell

    And, you know, energy work and chakras and consciousness on higher levels.

  381. Kelly Howell

    It was very esoteric and far out, but I liked it because it was just, you know, it's kind of changed, kind of grounded everything for me in a spiritual sense.

  382. Kelly Howell

    and yeah just different I love doing my podcast theater of the mind because I get to talk to

  383. Kelly Howell

    people I read their books I love their books and then I get to call them and have a conversation

  384. Xavier

    with them like you do yeah you can definitely plug that where was there any sort of shamanic

  385. Xavier

    experience that happened for you at all I mean or was it just strictly the tapes

  386. Xavier

    What do you mean shamanic?

  387. Xavier

    Shamanic, I mean drugs, psychedelics.

  388. Kelly Howell

    Oh, have I done psychedelics?

  389. Kelly Howell

    I used to, yeah, like I experimented a little bit with ecstasy when it was medicinal.

  390. Kelly Howell

    and we did it, this was after, you know, a couple of years after I had, you know, began making audio and meditating and everything.

  391. Kelly Howell

    So I experimented with ecstasy as a means of transformation.

  392. Kelly Howell

    So we would do it, you know, with one person not doing the ecstasy and the other person on it.

  393. Kelly Howell

    and ask inquisitive leading questions

  394. Kelly Howell

    to work through emotional issues.

  395. Kelly Howell

    So that was the way I approached doing ecstasy,

  396. Xavier

    did that a little bit.

  397. Kelly Howell

    But actually, one of the biggest things

  398. Kelly Howell

    I think that changed my life besides meditation

  399. Xavier

    is breath work.

  400. Kelly Howell

    I did a lot of breath work

  401. Kelly Howell

    and I moved through because I believe that,

  402. Kelly Howell

    experience that we hold trauma in our cells. So the breathing, holotropic breathing,

  403. Kelly Howell

    rebirthing, there are many names for the kind of breath work that I did. You move through the

  404. Kelly Howell

    trauma that's trapped in your body, in your cells. So I had a lot of trauma to move through. I had

  405. Kelly Howell

    no idea how much was there. And I think that has been a godsend. Yeah. Doing that kind of work.

  406. Xavier / Kelly Howell

    Have you ever done that? Breathwork, Polytrophic, Breeding? Yeah. That was Stan Groff, right? Yeah.

  407. Xavier

    And yeah, I've definitely tried that. Very interesting. We just had Wim Hof. And when we

  408. Xavier

    released this episode, Wim Hof will be before this one. So we just had Wim Hof on, he has a

  409. Xavier

    really interesting breathing mechanism, methodology. So yeah, I agree. Breathing is

  410. Xavier

    definitely in line with hearing sound. Yeah, but that was like, I would say some

  411. Kelly Howell

    major shamanic experiences, really big from breathing, breath work. Just amazing. You know,

  412. Kelly Howell

    insights, revelations, releases, forgiveness, blessings, all those kind of like, wow,

  413. Kelly Howell

    kind of experiences I've had through breathwork.

  414. Xavier

    If you don't mind, I'd like to talk about consciousness and where sort of the planetary

  415. Xavier

    consciousness is and where humanity is.

  416. Xavier

    I mean, where do you see it being?

  417. Xavier

    I mean, there seems to be this sort of, you know, quote, awakening and people have started, they're more in tune with meditation, yoga, stuff like your work.

  418. Xavier

    Where do you see the global consciousness headed today?

  419. Xavier

    I mean, where do you see it now?

  420. Kelly Howell

    That is a good question.

  421. Kelly Howell

    I would just say there's so much of everything.

  422. Kelly Howell

    It's kind of hard for me to get a grip on.

  423. Kelly Howell

    In many ways, I feel like I can connect, like plug into the consciousness of humanity.

  424. Kelly Howell

    I've had that experience a lot in meditation where I can kind of tap into it.

  425. Kelly Howell

    Like if you took all of humanity and you could just tap into it as one being.

  426. Kelly Howell

    And I would say it just feels very chaotic right now in many ways.

  427. Kelly Howell

    Like there's so much good and then there's so much chaos.

  428. Kelly Howell

    And I feel like you're in a tipping point.

  429. Kelly Howell

    And I don't know what way it's going to go.

  430. Kelly Howell

    I'm not a doom and gloom person.

  431. Kelly Howell

    I'm more accepting of the way things are going.

  432. Kelly Howell

    There's the renaissance that I always hoped for back in the 80s.

  433. Kelly Howell

    I mean, I see the true renaissance in consciousness happening and that people are opening up and expanding and it's accepted now.

  434. Kelly Howell

    And I mean, everybody has a meditation practice or some kind of spiritual practice, yoga, something.

  435. Kelly Howell

    I mean, everybody I know.

  436. Kelly Howell

    That was not the case a long time ago.

  437. Kelly Howell

    So this is wonderful.

  438. Kelly Howell

    Consciousness is raising on so many levels.

  439. Xavier

    But like you said, yeah, there's a very strange, I mean, even the political climate is so bizarre and just looking at this sort of circus and doing your best not to kind of.

  440. Kelly Howell

    I find that we have to go to a deeper level of spiritual practice now just because of that, because we don't have any control.

  441. Kelly Howell

    I mean, if you wanted to use a political situation as an example, the only control you have is your vote, and that may not even count.

  442. Kelly Howell

    I don't know.

  443. Kelly Howell

    but that you know so it gets back to

  444. Kelly Howell

    like basics like the serenity prayer

  445. Kelly Howell

    where you know you just have to accept things you know the way they are

  446. Kelly Howell

    I don't know what to do to change

  447. Kelly Howell

    you know how you can change the way the world is right now I think social media

  448. Kelly Howell

    is contributing a lot to the craziness

  449. Xavier

    people are just so connected

  450. Kelly Howell

    and there's also a lot of anger

  451. Kelly Howell

    and a lot of negativity being thrown around

  452. Kelly Howell

    not just politically but on the internet.

  453. Xavier

    I'm so glad that you said what you said

  454. Xavier

    and not just some pat,

  455. Xavier

    oh, everything's great,

  456. Xavier

    the consciousness of the planet is increasing

  457. Xavier

    and we're all going to ascend or something like that.

  458. Kelly Howell

    We could have a war.

  459. Kelly Howell

    I don't know what's going to happen.

  460. Kelly Howell

    You would think with the amount of people that are meditating

  461. Kelly Howell

    and the amount of people that have raised their consciousness

  462. Xavier

    to a

  463. Kelly Howell

    much higher level than 20 years ago that we would have a planet that looks better.

  464. Xavier

    Yeah.

  465. Kelly Howell

    I don't like the way it looks now.

  466. Kelly Howell

    I mean, I love my life.

  467. Kelly Howell

    I love where I live.

  468. Kelly Howell

    I love my friends.

  469. Kelly Howell

    I love my home, my family.

  470. Kelly Howell

    Everything is great in my life, but when I look at the world, I don't know if it's because we're looking through it, you know, through the media or if we really are in a matrix.

  471. Kelly Howell

    I want to watch the matrix again because I'm beginning to think we might be in a matrix big time.

  472. Kelly Howell

    And, you know, very much controlled and manipulated, especially with the Internet.

  473. Kelly Howell

    Right.

  474. Kelly Howell

    And I do think it's important to unplug and, you know, just connect with nature.

  475. Kelly Howell

    And I just I wonder how how much people are being controlled.

  476. Xavier

    Okay, so that leads me into, you know, kind of my next question. We're, we're starting to wrap up here. But, you know, what are what are some tips that you could give people who are, you know, either not familiar with your tapes, or just getting into meditation, or, you know, some, something that you give to someone listening that, you know, isn't aware of your work?

  477. Kelly Howell

    I would say I just came out with an app and it's called Meditate Me with Kelly Howell.

  478. Kelly Howell

    And it has a couple of very short micro classes about meditation, how to get started.

  479. Kelly Howell

    It has nine meditation tracks, 10, 20 and 30 minutes.

  480. Kelly Howell

    So you can get guided or non-guided and it comes loaded with that.

  481. Kelly Howell

    You can go on the iTunes store, Google Play from the app or the in-app shop and go deeper into the material.

  482. Kelly Howell

    But I think it's a really good way to start because it's simple, quick, easy.

  483. Kelly Howell

    If you're just starting meditation, there are 10-minute meditations in there.

  484. Kelly Howell

    Another place is on my website, brainsync, B-R-A-I-N-S-Y-N-C dot com.

  485. Kelly Howell

    You can sign up for free guided meditations.

  486. Kelly Howell

    kind of explain the way the technology works, you know, how to start your practice, you know,

  487. Kelly Howell

    what's the difference between the alpha state, what are the benefits of the alpha state compared

  488. Kelly Howell

    to the theta state or beta. So, on my website, there's a ton of information. If you go to the

  489. Kelly Howell

    brain lab, you can get educated on all the different brain states, what they're good for,

  490. Kelly Howell

    what kind of programs would be good for you.

  491. Xavier

    But is there an actual, I mean, like outside of downloading your app

  492. Xavier

    and going to your website, which I recommend people do,

  493. Xavier

    but is there anything that you can give to someone who's listening right now

  494. Xavier

    and, you know, just an affirmation to be more mindful, to breathe more?

  495. HXP Announcer

    Well, I would just say, I mean, yeah, I mean, I would just say

  496. Kelly Howell

    if you have that inclination and you feel like you need something,

  497. Kelly Howell

    in your life. There's so much there. I mean, there's just so much you can just, you know,

  498. Kelly Howell

    practice different relaxation techniques, breathing techniques. You know, I just tell people to,

  499. Kelly Howell

    to, if you look, if you say, hey, I want to learn to meditate, or I want to learn how to reduce

  500. Kelly Howell

    stress, very quickly, whatever, you'll have a lot of choices in front of you. It's just the way the

  501. Kelly Howell

    mind works. It's kind of like a homing pigeon. It'll find you. So begin asking for what you need,

  502. Kelly Howell

    you know, articulate to yourself what you want, how you want to feel. Do you want to feel,

  503. Kelly Howell

    you know, and then the answer will begin to come because it all starts with the right questions.

  504. Xavier

    So you have to start asking the right questions. But you said it, I mean, you said you need to

  505. Kelly Howell

    Right. So that's I mean, that's the first goal, because sometimes, you know, like, you don't need to know the solution necessarily can just say, I need to feel more relaxed. What can I do? I need to feel more grounded. What can I do? You know, those kind of questions. Like when I didn't know what to do with my life, everything was in a shambles.

  506. Kelly Howell

    I just ask

  507. Kelly Howell

    show me what to do with my life

  508. Kelly Howell

    what's my path

  509. Kelly Howell

    I know I have a purpose

  510. Kelly Howell

    I know I have a path

  511. Kelly Howell

    show me

  512. Kelly Howell

    and I do really believe

  513. Kelly Howell

    in the higher power of our brains

  514. Kelly Howell

    to give us those downloads

  515. Kelly Howell

    but we just have to ask

  516. Kelly Howell

    the right questions

  517. Kelly Howell

    you don't need to know the answer

  518. Kelly Howell

    you just have to know

  519. Kelly Howell

    what you want

  520. Xavier

    you know like

  521. Kelly Howell

    and usually the want

  522. Kelly Howell

    comes from a need

  523. Kelly Howell

    like you know

  524. Kelly Howell

    I'm needing more money

  525. Kelly Howell

    or whatever it is, you know, a relationship.

  526. Kelly Howell

    Whatever it is that you need or want, you have to start asking for it.

  527. Kelly Howell

    You know, I need a relationship.

  528. Kelly Howell

    What do I do to get into a relationship?

  529. Kelly Howell

    You know, what would help me?

  530. Kelly Howell

    So, you know, I really think that's where it all begins, is asking.

  531. Xavier

    I'm a big believer in prayer.

  532. Kelly Howell

    Doesn't matter who you're praying to.

  533. Kelly Howell

    You know, you can pray to goddesses and gods.

  534. Kelly Howell

    You can pray to higher power.

  535. Kelly Howell

    You can pray to your higher self.

  536. Kelly Howell

    But I do believe in building a very strong connection with that,

  537. Kelly Howell

    an inner dialogue with the higher aspects of consciousness within our own being.

  538. Xavier

    Yeah, I love that.

  539. Xavier

    So, Kelly, where can people find your work?

  540. Xavier

    Is it just brainsync.com?

  541. Kelly Howell

    Brainsync.com and the app, you know, and the website, of course,

  542. Kelly Howell

    You can go on there and there's tons of stuff and meditate me with Kelly Howell as the app.

  543. Kelly Howell

    So you can get like a nice sampling of material and not have to spend a lot of money.

  544. Kelly Howell

    And actually, my audio programs are way less than a lot of people.

  545. Kelly Howell

    You know, they're $9.95 instead of $49 or $400 or whatever.

  546. Kelly Howell

    I just don't think it's fair to charge that much money to help people.

  547. Kelly Howell

    Yeah.

  548. Xavier

    yeah well kelly i really appreciate your presence on hxp thank you so much for being here i'd

  549. Xavier

    listened to your tapes for so long and oh yeah which ones did you which ones have you listened

  550. Xavier

    to the the secret guide something to the secret universal yeah the secret universal mind meditation

  551. Xavier

    that was my favorite that was my go-to for a long time and um i just i just listened to that

  552. Xavier

    meditation for a really long time. And so it's kind of cool to kind of go full circle and have

  553. Kelly Howell

    you on the show. Thank you so much. I really appreciate you having me here. Guys, this is

  554. Xavier

    the human experience. We will see you guys next week. Thank you so much for listening.

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