Episode 78 – Kelly Howell – Brain Sync

[00:00:02] 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.

[00:00:14] As we approach our ascent, please make sure your frontal, temporal and occipital lobes are in their full upright position.

[00:00:21] As you take your seat of consciousness, relax your senses and allow us to take you on a journey.

[00:00:26] We are the intimate strangers. Thank you for listening.

[00:00:56] medical professionals out of places like Harvard. She is a six-time national best-selling audio

[00:01:04] author. She's been in this industry for at least three decades. So by all means, she has the

[00:01:12] credential for the conversation you're about to hear. This was a phenomenal episode with Kelly

[00:01:17] where we discussed the genesis of BrainSync. So I think you guys will really enjoy this one.

[00:01:23] 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.

[00:01:52] the human experience is synchronizing your brainwaves as we welcome my guest

[00:01:57] mrs kelly howell to the program kelly it's an honor welcome to hxp uh it's an honor to be here

[00:02:05] xavier thank you so much for inviting me kelly you're you're known as a brainwave whisperer

[00:02:14] You're considered a pioneer in the field of brainwave technology.

[00:02:18] Where did you start this journey?

[00:02:21] Where did this journey begin for you?

[00:02:23] Because you've been doing this for a while.

[00:02:25] Yeah, I started in the mid-80s, 1980s, the last century.

[00:02:32] And it began for me in meditation.

[00:02:37] I had a time in my life where things just, everything fell apart.

[00:02:44] and I started searching for alternative ways to get my head on straight.

[00:02:52] I had been in a car accident and had a lot of personal problems,

[00:02:59] death of my mother, grandmother, divorce, all of that stuff.

[00:03:03] It was a big pile up.

[00:03:05] And I sought out a meditation teacher because I had no idea what to do.

[00:03:14] I just said, I have to, you know, I need help.

[00:03:16] So meditation seemed like the right thing to do.

[00:03:21] There weren't a lot of options back then.

[00:03:24] It was kind of a bizarre choice.

[00:03:28] Probably my friends thought I was really just crazy.

[00:03:32] But I did get a meditation teacher, and she had me sit and meditate every day for an hour, which was really, really hard.

[00:03:43] No help.

[00:03:47] and I grew to love meditation.

[00:03:50] It just became, in the beginning, I hated it.

[00:03:53] I thought it was terrible.

[00:03:54] I used to call her and complain

[00:03:57] and within a few months, six months or so,

[00:04:00] if I missed my meditation practice,

[00:04:03] I started feeling, I could feel it.

[00:04:06] I didn't feel right.

[00:04:07] My creativity was off.

[00:04:08] I just didn't feel right.

[00:04:10] I was sitting in meditation, praying,

[00:04:14] I did my hour-long meditation, and then I would end the meditation with my prayers.

[00:04:20] And I asked for about two weeks, every day in meditation, what is my path?

[00:04:27] What is my purpose?

[00:04:28] Show me.

[00:04:29] I know I have a mission.

[00:04:30] I know I have a purpose.

[00:04:33] And show me the way.

[00:04:35] Just show me.

[00:04:35] I don't care what it is.

[00:04:37] Just show me what to do.

[00:04:38] Honestly, the last thing on my mind was that I would start making audio programs.

[00:04:44] to help people or teach people how to meditate.

[00:04:46] It was just, it was so, this was the 1980s.

[00:04:50] I was in the film production business.

[00:04:52] It was completely off the charts for me to even imagine something like that.

[00:04:58] And this ball of light appeared above my head, a golden ball of light.

[00:05:04] And it just, you know, like the Times Square, you know, ball on New Year's Eve, it just

[00:05:10] slowly descended and it came down into my head and it exploded into a million sparks and it just

[00:05:19] showered me with light and it just it practically knocked me off the sofa and I was just electrified

[00:05:29] and this energy came in and there was a voice and it said you're going to make tapes and I'm like

[00:05:36] tapes. And then suddenly, you know, it wasn't just words, it was imagery, it was a plan,

[00:05:42] it was a vision, it was a knowing, it was absolute knowing that this was my path and purpose in life.

[00:05:50] And so that was the inception point for, you know, the work that I've been doing for the last 30

[00:05:58] years and it's been unfolding for me ever since. I've had a lot of grace and ease and support,

[00:06:08] universal support. I immediately got a partner. I immediately was given a lot of money to start

[00:06:17] making audio programs, which I had never done professionally.

[00:06:23] and within a few months they had a giant contract with Bantam.

[00:06:28] They were starting their audio division

[00:06:30] and they started it with me and my partner at the time, Allison.

[00:06:36] And we did 20 some odd audio programs with them

[00:06:41] and the first one we ever did with them was their best-selling audio of all time.

[00:06:46] So, you know, it just, that's how it started.

[00:06:51] a lot of success for you in the very early stages?

[00:06:54] From the very beginning. Because it came from my

[00:06:59] path and purpose, I guess. There aren't really

[00:07:03] words to describe what happened, but it did change me.

[00:07:07] And it's an amazing experience to suddenly

[00:07:12] feel like you have a new brain.

[00:07:16] That suddenly you know things you didn't know before.

[00:07:19] Yeah. That's interesting. Interesting. So, okay. So let's, we can dig further into this a bit more

[00:07:26] later, but so for, for anyone who doesn't know what is going on when you're synchronizing,

[00:07:32] I mean, I've been listening to the tapes for, I don't know, at least a decade and I mean,

[00:07:38] I love it. So, so what is happening when you're synchronizing the hemispheres in your brain and,

[00:07:44] and doing the guided meditation? What's, what's happening there?

[00:07:46] 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.

[00:08:05] 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.

[00:08:20] And so that set me off on research on binaural beat frequencies.

[00:08:25] 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.

[00:08:35] So I came across this research on binaural beat frequencies by biophysicist Gerald Oster at Mount Sinai.

[00:08:45] And he was working with sound and studying brain waves.

[00:08:49] So what happens is the two different, you know about binaural beats.

[00:08:56] So it's two different signals.

[00:08:59] Two different tones.

[00:09:00] One tone sent in one ear, another tone sent in the other ear,

[00:09:03] and then your brain kind of interprets it as a single tone.

[00:09:07] A beat.

[00:09:08] It sounds like a beat.

[00:09:09] And what it is is the differential.

[00:09:12] And you can relate the beat to certain brainwave frequencies.

[00:09:16] So theta, which is the deepest state of meditation, which is around four hertz, four cycles per second.

[00:09:22] We couldn't just deliver that tone to your ear.

[00:09:27] You wouldn't hear it because we don't hear in that range.

[00:09:31] So but we do hear a beat.

[00:09:33] So you do 100 hertz in the left ear, 104 hertz in the right ear.

[00:09:38] In the middle of the brain, your brain ends up kind of making up the difference.

[00:09:44] You hear a beat.

[00:09:46] Four cycles per second.

[00:09:48] And what happens is your brain cells begin to resonate with the beat.

[00:09:51] And it creates a whole brain synchronization.

[00:10:00] the right and left hemispheres are operating in synchrony. You get coherent brainwave activity as opposed to incoherent, which would be more static, out of sync, out of phase.

[00:10:13] So when you are in whole brain thinking or in deep meditation, your brainwaves are moving synchronously.

[00:10:22] So you have more access to your brain power, you know, to other levels of thought and vision and creativity, intelligence.

[00:10:31] It just it just turns your brain on to a higher level.

[00:10:36] But there were other people doing the brainwave thing, but you had kind of a different style with it.

[00:10:44] You were doing specifically guided meditations, right?

[00:10:48] Yeah, I started off with subliminal.

[00:10:51] The only other person at the time, there was Brother Charles.

[00:10:54] I don't know what happened to him.

[00:10:57] And there was Robert Monroe.

[00:10:59] Robert Monroe, yeah.

[00:11:00] And that was it pretty much that I knew of.

[00:11:03] Dick Sutphin as well has been doing it for a while.

[00:11:06] He was doing more hypnosis.

[00:11:09] Okay.

[00:11:09] I don't think he was doing binaural beats at the time.

[00:11:13] He might have been, but I'm not sure.

[00:11:16] Okay.

[00:11:17] But yeah, Robert Monroe was kind of the grandfather.

[00:11:21] Yeah.

[00:11:23] But he was doing it more from a more of a technical level in a way, I guess you could say, whereas I approached it more combining guided meditation, affirmation.

[00:11:36] emotions, um, hypnotic induction, you know, so kind of just putting other modalities together.

[00:11:44] Yeah, I would, I, I found myself switching between kind of listening to the hemi-sync

[00:11:50] tapes, Robert Monroe, and then switching to yours. Like I would go back and forth when I wanted to

[00:11:55] hear sort of the guided stuff, I would listen to your tapes. And when I didn't, I would listen to,

[00:12:02] the Robert Monroe tapes. So, I mean, what was a guided meditation that, I don't know,

[00:12:09] was the best selling for you or kind of reached the most people?

[00:12:14] I've had a number of bestsellers over the years. The very first binaural beat guided meditation

[00:12:20] program that was on the bestseller list was called guided meditation. Of course, this was in the 90s

[00:12:29] and there weren't a lot of guided meditation programs then.

[00:12:32] So, you know, it was like one of those silly, stupid titles,

[00:12:35] but it was, we sold many, many, many of those.

[00:12:41] And then in recent years, the Secret Universal Mind Meditation.

[00:12:47] That's a great meditation, yeah.

[00:12:49] Yeah, and that sold millions and millions.

[00:12:52] And it's modeled after the very first audio program I made for myself that I listened to when I was going through the hardest time of my life when my mother died and I was in a car crash and all of that.

[00:13:08] So I contacted the publisher.

[00:13:13] The author of those meditations had passed, but I contacted the author and said, hey, could I buy the rights to record these meditations and update them a little?

[00:13:25] And that's what I did.

[00:13:26] And what do you think is happening?

[00:13:30] Because, I mean, like you like you just said, in the in the 90s, no one was really talking about meditation.

[00:13:39] almost trendy. Oh, it's totally trendy. It's really amazing. This summer, I was teaching

[00:13:46] the Rob Report. You know, the Rob Report, they do the best of best of everything.

[00:13:51] Well, they're now doing these health and wellness summits. And they asked

[00:13:55] me to come and teach meditation. And they had very high-heeled people there. It was a wonderful

[00:14:02] group of people, you know, doctors, scientists, researchers, people that make wine and, you know,

[00:14:11] like cars and just a wide range of people. And what struck me is that everyone is very confused

[00:14:20] about meditation because there are so many choices right now. It's like, oh, should I do mindfulness?

[00:14:26] Should I do this? Should I do that? 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.

[00:14:39] when I began meditating there weren't that many options I just found a meditation teacher and I

[00:14:45] just did what she told me to do it wasn't like I had like a whole Chinese menu of different types

[00:14:51] I'm sure they were out there but it it was pre-internet we didn't have you know we didn't

[00:14:57] have a zillion teachers and and we didn't have um the widespread uh no no one was talking about

[00:15:06] this. And when I would tell them about it, they thought it was crazy. And now they're all using

[00:15:11] it. Oh, yeah. I mean, you could do mantra meditations and meditation, mindfulness,

[00:15:16] I mean, there's so and now there are, I don't know how many companies are doing

[00:15:22] binaural beat frequency programs. So, you know, there is a lot to choose from. So I think it's

[00:15:29] actually harder to choose what kind of meditation you want to do. When you have so many choices,

[00:15:36] okay, well, I'll try mantra meditation for months, and then maybe I'll try mindfulness.

[00:15:42] Maybe I'll try, you know what I mean?

[00:15:43] It's kind of like, wow.

[00:15:46] So what I tell people is to try different types of meditation and see what resonates for you.

[00:15:54] Right.

[00:15:54] This question kind of goes in line with the question that I just asked.

[00:15:58] You know, what were some of the core affirmations that you found people, you know, connecting with the most?

[00:16:06] that you resonated with?

[00:16:10] What was something that you were saying that people were resonating with?

[00:16:13] Oh, gee, I don't know.

[00:16:14] I mean, I have 50 programs, so I'm not, I don't know.

[00:16:20] A lot of the programs that I've made are metaphorical.

[00:16:26] So I think people really resonate with that,

[00:16:29] like Retrieve Your Destiny takes you on a journey.

[00:16:33] I don't even know if the word destiny is used in the program, but it's a metaphor for finding your destiny.

[00:16:42] You know, I would say people that listen to my audio programs would be better to answer that.

[00:16:47] I do get little emails going, oh, I love that line.

[00:16:49] I love, you know, but I don't.

[00:16:51] You know, I kind of do what I do and then I move on to the next thing.

[00:16:56] So I don't, you know what I mean?

[00:17:01] so you said you said that you know this all came this all was birthed sort of through the

[00:17:07] the problems that you were having and you know the death of your mother the passing of your mother and

[00:17:12] the things that you were going through right yeah grandmother dying a car accident I broke my neck

[00:17:19] um so you wanted you wanted to create something that uh you know would help people as much as it

[00:17:27] helped you? Yeah, I mean, the initial impetus or ambition I had was to help myself. Basically,

[00:17:36] I was a wreck. So I was not at the point of wanting to help anybody. I was very depressed and

[00:17:44] very, very, very deeply depressed and thinking about killing myself. And so I was not thinking

[00:17:52] about helping other people when I started on my spiritual path.

[00:17:56] I just really needed help myself.

[00:18:01] And, you know, it took maybe about a year of practice.

[00:18:06] And, you know, and then I started helping friends, actually.

[00:18:10] I was like, you know, I started making tapes for people,

[00:18:15] personalized audio programs to help them with whatever they wanted to achieve

[00:18:21] in their lives.

[00:18:22] I was having great success that way. But again, it was not something I ever imagined would be a

[00:18:30] career. It was more like a hobby. I'd say, hey, why don't we make a tape for you?

[00:18:37] Yeah. At what point did you feel like, okay, this is something I'm moving into a career with,

[00:18:45] and I'm going to do this for the masses and people?

[00:18:49] Oh, after the meditation, immediately. In that moment, I knew it was going to be for the masses, for millions of people. And I had no doubt in my mind. And that experience of having absolutely no doubt is very unusual. I mean, it's, you know, we always have like another voice in our heads. I had no other voice. It was just, this is what I'm doing. I have no doubt. It was like, I know this is going to happen.

[00:19:19] an absolute for me. So that was the point where it all began. And it was almost like the universe

[00:19:28] was conspiring with me from that point to make it all happen. I was in New York doing the subliminal

[00:19:38] programs and affirmations with Bantam. And then when I wanted to go into binaural beats, excuse me,

[00:19:46] they thought it was crazy they thought I was out of my mind they couldn't figure out how to sell it

[00:19:52] market it whatever so I went out to California and uh and that was like in the late 80s

[00:19:59] 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.

[00:20:11] And we had quite a nonprofit going there in San Francisco.

[00:20:16] We had all these scientists coming in with amazing technology and brain machines.

[00:20:21] I mean, this was like goggles and beds and float tanks and everything.

[00:20:28] And biofeedback therapy.

[00:20:30] And so we got to start testing the effectiveness of different techniques.

[00:20:37] 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.

[00:20:49] That's why it's very hard to meditate.

[00:20:51] It's a very hard, difficult state of consciousness to enter into without practice.

[00:20:58] it's tough because it borders right, it's right between waking and sleep and people will either

[00:21:04] drift off to sleep or they can't even get to that state, you know. So, it's a very finely

[00:21:11] balanced brain state. And so, their agenda was what can get people into the theta state

[00:21:20] the most quickly, effectively.

[00:21:23] And so we had a PhD biofeedback therapist.

[00:21:28] We had 24 electrode machine.

[00:21:32] We had, you know, people, subjects that signed up to be part of the study.

[00:21:38] I think we had like 100 people and tried everything like hypnosis,

[00:21:45] different audio programs, all the different, you know,

[00:21:49] everybody. And my first binaural B program, which was then called High Coherence, was also thrown

[00:21:58] in the mix. And that one came out the best. And like 87% of people were able to get into the

[00:22:06] theta state who had never meditated before. So that's when, you know, at that point, I started

[00:22:13] making programs for doctors and researchers and biofeedback therapists. I made programs for

[00:22:21] Norman Shealy. I don't know if you know him. He's a scientist. And, you know, so I was sort of

[00:22:28] working behind the scenes making programs. And then I, after that research study came out,

[00:22:33] I just thought, you know, I should just make this available to people, to everybody.

[00:22:38] yeah so that's that was sort of the second uh generation of what i was doing and i started

[00:22:45] brain sync um my own publishing company at that point yeah so um well you definitely have the

[00:22:53] voice for it i mean oh well thank you you have a good voice you have a great voice thank you

[00:22:59] and you seem you sound way too young to be listening to audio tape i appreciate that

[00:23:04] Okay, so Kelly, it's amazing because you talk, you know, in the tapes you talk about, you know, consciousness and what was the goal for you?

[00:23:14] Were you simply accelerating?

[00:23:16] Was it just to get people into this sort of theta state or accelerate human performance or was it a spiritual journey as well?

[00:23:28] I mean, because it seems like it was a fusion of both of those things.

[00:23:31] I love your questions. They're just great. Thank you. You know, I think my inspiration and drive to do this work has changed as I've grown and evolved. In the very beginning, my main core of inspiration and need, actual need to do this work was to help other people and to help other people that were suffering.

[00:24:01] my very first line of audio programs with Bantam was called subliminal self-help. So I was very

[00:24:09] committed to helping people through their suffering. And, you know, you can't do that

[00:24:16] until you've had your own suffering. And I think that that crisis point that I went through, it

[00:24:22] just, it was the first time in my life that I had experienced real suffering. And it's, you know,

[00:24:31] Nobody was there with me.

[00:24:33] I was alone in it.

[00:24:34] And it was a dark, dark, dark place.

[00:24:38] And so for me, that is one level of it, you know, a real need to help people out of those dark places.

[00:24:47] Very important, you know.

[00:24:49] So that's where it began.

[00:24:51] And then, of course, as I continue to grow and evolve and learn and study, you know, that stays there as a foundation.

[00:25:02] But it's also, oh, you know, how about we learn about prayer and the power of the mind?

[00:25:10] And, you know, what can you accomplish and create through using your mental powers and manifestation?

[00:25:17] manifestation and, you know, to me to be able to manifest and the way we are so capable of

[00:25:26] manifesting and we don't even know it, that became a big impetus for me. So it was like, okay,

[00:25:32] we have to do that now. The really amazing thing is that it was clinically proven and the research

[00:25:39] was backing up everything that you were doing. I mean, it was, you guys were doing the research

[00:25:44] as well as putting out these tapes.

[00:25:46] It wasn't just like, here's a tape with some audio in it, enjoy.

[00:25:50] You know, you guys were bringing in scientists and researchers

[00:25:53] to back up your claims and your statements.

[00:25:57] Yeah, well, nobody would believe me otherwise.

[00:25:59] You know, it was very important at the time.

[00:26:01] That's why, in a way, it was like being a trailblazer.

[00:26:04] Now there's a lot of research.

[00:26:05] Now people know what binaural beats are.

[00:26:10] Scientists accept it as, you know, a viable way.

[00:26:15] You know, biofeedback therapists accept it and know it works because they can see what happens to the brain.

[00:26:23] So, but, you know, 25 years ago, it was a new technology.

[00:26:31] People, we had to prove, we had to prove that it actually worked.

[00:26:37] Yeah.

[00:26:37] So, yeah.

[00:26:39] So how, so then what did you find out about the power of self-affirmation?

[00:26:45] How, how powerful is it?

[00:26:48] I think, oh, that was another part back to your other question, which leads into this

[00:26:52] question, you know, like what drives me or what, you know, what, you know, what's the

[00:26:56] main purpose of doing what I do?

[00:26:59] I also, as I, the very first audio program I made was for me and it was this secret universal

[00:27:09] rough recording on a little Sony, you know, like tape recorder that I made that I listened to every

[00:27:16] night going to sleep. I never heard the end of it. So it was a tape that you made for yourself and

[00:27:22] yeah, and I listened to it. Yeah, I recorded it on a little tape recorder, listened to it at night

[00:27:28] before I went to sleep. Never heard the end of it because it would just knock me out. And within a

[00:27:34] couple of weeks, all the things that I needed in my life, this is like right after my mother died,

[00:27:41] my grandmother died, you know, trying to get better with the car accident, the whole bit,

[00:27:46] everything I needed came to me. And I thought, gee, I wonder if this is a tape. You know,

[00:27:53] this is really weird. You know, it's wonderful, but it's weird. Like, somebody called me and said,

[00:27:59] Hey, you know, I know you've gone through a lot.

[00:28:02] And I have a friend who has an apartment in Hollywood Hills.

[00:28:07] It's a really sweet place.

[00:28:08] And she wants somebody to house sit for her.

[00:28:10] I didn't have a job at the time because I couldn't work.

[00:28:15] And anyway, all the things that I needed came to me.

[00:28:18] And I kept thinking, gosh, could this be the tape?

[00:28:23] And I went back.

[00:28:25] Yeah, right?

[00:28:25] Could this be the tape?

[00:28:26] And so I went back.

[00:28:29] 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.

[00:28:41] I went back to her.

[00:28:42] I was like, you got to teach me.

[00:28:44] How does this work?

[00:28:45] What do I?

[00:28:46] I don't I didn't know anything about it.

[00:28:49] And she started giving me books.

[00:28:51] She was the one who taught me to meditate.

[00:28:53] And I would go meet with her once a week and, you know, sit for an hour.

[00:28:59] holler during the week and complain, saying nothing's happening.

[00:29:02] This is boring.

[00:29:03] My mind won't stop thinking, you know.

[00:29:09] But she got me going.

[00:29:12] And it was, so the whole idea that you could like listen to things while you're sleeping

[00:29:19] and have your life change just opened up a whole new world of possibility for me.

[00:29:26] Like what is really possible here?

[00:29:29] We can really create our own reality and we don't have to work hard at it.

[00:29:34] It's absolutely fascinating.

[00:29:36] I love the, I love the origin story.

[00:29:38] I love how you, you kind of just, you know, things weren't working out for you or you

[00:29:43] were.

[00:29:43] So you're just like, I'm going to go to San Francisco and everything just kind of just

[00:29:46] lined up for you.

[00:29:48] And it was almost as if there was something kind of pulling you, pushing you into that

[00:29:53] direction.

[00:29:53] and I mean was there was there a point at which you were just kind of you stepped back and

[00:30:00] you were like, you know, what the F is going on? Or were you just kind of accepting of it the whole time?

[00:30:06] I loved every moment of it. I just, you know.

[00:30:09] So you were in the moment?

[00:30:11] 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. And I can embody different states of being and change my life that way.

[00:30:28] life becomes totally different. Your life becomes an adventure. It's like, wow, you don't know what's

[00:30:33] going to happen next. I mean, things come out of the blue, mostly good things. Of course, not

[00:30:38] everything is perfect. I mean, we all have our challenges. But yeah, no, I was just

[00:30:46] enjoying the ride. So Kelly, you know, who were the people that influenced you, you know, with

[00:30:53] with all this work. I mean, you're, you've been doing this for decades now. I mean,

[00:30:57] you're considered a pioneer and was there, was there a mentor in your life or someone that?

[00:31:03] Yeah, I had a few, I had a few mentors. Um, I had, um, Marcy who was my meditation teacher.

[00:31:12] She was my first kind of spiritual mentor. And, uh, then I connected up actually Michael

[00:31:20] Hutchison was writing his book, Mega Brain. I don't know if you're familiar with it.

[00:31:27] Are you familiar with that book? Anyway, it was like the Bible. It's an old title and it was the

[00:31:34] Bible. I mean, back then in 1980, whatever, he was saying the brain is like a muscle and you can,

[00:31:41] you know, grow it and build it and make it stronger and better. And so he was the pioneer

[00:31:47] of brain machines. And so he interviewed me and Allison Daniels, who was my partner in audio

[00:31:55] activation, which was our first, you know, my first foray into audio. And, and so we connected

[00:32:03] and it was with him that we went, you know, out to San Francisco and started the nonprofit. And

[00:32:09] And he was quite the leader in the field at the time.

[00:32:15] He really opened up the doors for a lot of research and experimentation.

[00:32:22] And he was way ahead of his time in terms of neuroplasticity.

[00:32:26] That was not a word back then.

[00:32:29] And that's all the book was about.

[00:32:31] And so that was my excitement and inspiration.

[00:32:35] and we had a lot of really amazing scientists involved

[00:32:40] and it was fun.

[00:32:42] It was really fun.

[00:32:43] And then I've had different,

[00:32:47] I had a spiritual teacher for a while

[00:32:50] here in Santa Fe, New Mexico that I studied with

[00:32:54] and energy work and chakras

[00:32:57] and consciousness on higher levels.

[00:33:00] It was very esoteric and far out

[00:33:03] but I liked it because it was just, you know, it's kind of changed, kind of grounded everything

[00:33:10] for me in a spiritual sense. And yeah, just different. I love doing my podcast, Theater of

[00:33:20] the Mind, because I get to talk to people. I read their books. I love their books. And then I get to

[00:33:25] call them and have a conversation with them like you do. Yeah, you can definitely plug that. Where,

[00:33:33] of shamanic experience that happened for you at all?

[00:33:36] I mean, or was it just strictly the tapes?

[00:33:39] What do you mean shamanic?

[00:33:40] Shamanic, I mean drugs, psychedelics.

[00:33:43] Oh, have I done psychedelics?

[00:33:45] I used to, yeah, like I experimented a little bit

[00:33:51] with ecstasy when it was medicinal.

[00:33:57] And we did it, this was after, you know,

[00:34:03] I had, you know, began making audio and meditating and everything.

[00:34:10] So I experimented with ecstasy as a means of transformation.

[00:34:18] So we would do it, you know, with one person not doing the ecstasy and the other person on it.

[00:34:25] and we'd record it and ask inquisitive leading questions

[00:34:31] to work through emotional issues.

[00:34:35] So that was the way I approached doing ecstasy, did that a little bit.

[00:34:39] But actually one of the biggest things I think that changed my life

[00:34:44] besides meditation is breath work.

[00:34:48] I did a lot of breath work and I moved through because I believe that

[00:34:55] my personal experience that we hold trauma in our cells. So the breathing, holotropic breathing,

[00:35:05] rebirthing, there are many names for the kind of breath work that I did. You move through the

[00:35:11] trauma that's trapped in your body, in your cells. So I had a lot of trauma to move through. I had no

[00:35:17] idea how much was there and uh i think that has been a godsend yeah doing that kind of work have

[00:35:27] you ever done that breathwork polytrophic yeah um that was stan groff right yeah and um yeah i've

[00:35:35] definitely tried that very interesting uh we just had uh wim hoff and when we released this episode

[00:35:43] Wim Hof will be before this one. So we just had Wim Hof on. He has a really interesting breathing

[00:35:50] mechanism, methodology. So yeah, I agree. Breathing is definitely in line with hearing sound.

[00:35:57] Yeah, but that was like, I would say some major shamanic experiences,

[00:36:02] the most really big from breathing breath work. Just amazing, you know, insights, revelations,

[00:36:09] uh, releases, you know, forgiveness, blessings, all those kind of like, wow, you know, kind

[00:36:19] of experiences I've had through breath work.

[00:36:22] If you don't mind, um, you know, I'd like to talk about consciousness and, you know,

[00:36:28] where sort of the planetary consciousness is and where humanity is.

[00:36:32] I mean, where, where do you see it being?

[00:36:35] 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.

[00:36:47] Where do you see the global consciousness headed today?

[00:36:53] I mean, where do you see it now?

[00:36:55] That is a good question.

[00:36:56] I would just say there's so much of everything.

[00:37:00] It's kind of hard for me to get a grip on.

[00:37:04] In many ways, I feel like I can connect, like plug into the consciousness of humanity.

[00:37:13] I've had that experience a lot in meditation where I can kind of tap into it.

[00:37:19] Like if you took all of humanity and you could just tap into it as one being.

[00:37:24] And I would say it just feels very chaotic right now in many ways.

[00:37:30] Like there's so much good and then there's so much chaos.

[00:37:35] And I feel like you're in a tipping point.

[00:37:40] And I don't know what way it's going to go.

[00:37:43] I'm not a doom and gloom person.

[00:37:46] I'm more accepting of the way things are going.

[00:37:51] There's the renaissance that I always hoped for back in the 80s.

[00:37:55] I mean, I see the true renaissance in consciousness happening and that people are opening up and expanding and it's accepted now.

[00:38:04] And I mean, everybody has a meditation practice or some kind of spiritual practice, yoga, something.

[00:38:09] I mean, everybody I know.

[00:38:11] That was not the case a long time ago.

[00:38:13] So this is wonderful.

[00:38:15] Consciousness is raising on so many levels.

[00:38:19] 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.

[00:38:33] 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.

[00:38:43] 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.

[00:38:50] I don't know.

[00:38:52] but that you know so it gets back to

[00:38:54] like basics like the serenity prayer

[00:38:59] where you know you just have to accept things you know the way they are

[00:39:05] I don't know what to do to change

[00:39:07] you know how you can change the way the world is right now I think social media

[00:39:11] is contributing a lot to the craziness

[00:39:16] people are just so connected

[00:39:18] and there's also a lot of anger

[00:39:22] and a lot of negativity being thrown around

[00:39:28] not just politically but on the internet.

[00:39:33] I'm so glad that you said what you said

[00:39:37] and not just some pat,

[00:39:39] oh, everything's great,

[00:39:41] the consciousness of the planet is increasing

[00:39:43] and we're all going to ascend or something like that.

[00:39:46] We could have a war.

[00:39:48] I don't know what's going to happen.

[00:39:51] You would think with the amount of people that are meditating

[00:39:56] and the amount of people that have raised their consciousness

[00:39:59] to a

[00:40:00] much higher level than 20 years ago that we would have a planet that looks better.

[00:40:06] I don't like the way it looks now.

[00:40:08] I mean, I love my life.

[00:40:10] I love where I live.

[00:40:12] I love my friends.

[00:40:13] I love my home, my family.

[00:40:15] 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.

[00:40:28] matrix again, because I'm beginning to think we might be in a matrix big time. And, you know,

[00:40:35] very much controlled and manipulated, especially with the internet. And I do think it's important

[00:40:41] to unplug and, you know, just connect with nature. And I just, I wonder how much people

[00:40:52] are being controlled. Okay. So that leads me into, you know, kind of my next question where

[00:40:59] we're starting to wrap up here, but, um, you know, what are, what are some tips that you could give

[00:41:05] people who are, you know, either not familiar with your tapes or just getting into meditation or,

[00:41:11] you know, some, some, something that you give to someone listening that, you know, isn't aware of

[00:41:16] your work? I would say I just came out with an app and it's called Meditate Me with Kelly Howell.

[00:41:26] And it has a couple of very short micro classes about meditation, how to get started. It has

[00:41:36] nine meditation tracks, 10, 20, and 30 minutes. So you can get guided or non-guided and it comes

[00:41:44] loaded with that. And then if you like things, you can, you know, go on the iTunes store, Google

[00:41:50] Play from the app, or the in app shop and go deeper into the material. But I think it's a

[00:41:56] really good way to start because it's simple, quick, easy. If you, you know, if you're just

[00:42:01] starting meditation, there are 10 minute meditations in there. Another place is on my

[00:42:07] website, Brainsync, B-R-A-I-N-S-Y-N-C dot com. You can sign up for free guided meditations and

[00:42:16] the emails kind of explain the way the technology works, you know, how to start your practice,

[00:42:24] you know, what's the difference between the alpha state, what are the benefits of the alpha state

[00:42:29] compared to the theta state or beta. So, on my website, there's a ton of information. If you go

[00:42:37] the brain lab, you can get educated on all the different brain states, what they're good for,

[00:42:43] what kind of programs would be good for you.

[00:42:48] So is there an actual, I mean, like, outside of downloading your app and going to your website,

[00:42:54] which I recommend people do, but is there anything that you can give to someone who's

[00:42:59] listening right now? And, you know, just an affirmation to be more mindful to.

[00:43:04] Well, I would just say, I mean, yeah, I mean, I would say if you have that inclination and you feel like you need something in your life, there's so much there.

[00:43:16] I mean, there's just so much you can just, you know, practice different relaxation techniques, breathing techniques.

[00:43:23] you know I just tell people to to if you look if you say hey I want to learn to meditate or I want

[00:43:31] to learn how to reduce stress very quickly whatever you'll have a lot of choices in front of you it's

[00:43:38] just the way the mind works it's kind of like a homing pigeon it'll find you so begin asking

[00:43:46] for what you need.

[00:43:47] You know, articulate to yourself what you want,

[00:43:51] how you want to feel.

[00:43:53] Do you want to feel, you know,

[00:43:55] and then the answer will begin to come

[00:43:58] because it all starts with the right questions.

[00:44:00] So you have to start asking the right questions.

[00:44:04] But you said it.

[00:44:05] I mean, you said you need to know kind of what you want, right?

[00:44:09] So that's, I mean, that's the first goal because sometimes...

[00:44:12] You know, like you don't need to know the solution necessarily.

[00:44:15] You can just say, I need to feel more relaxed.

[00:44:20] What can I do?

[00:44:21] I need to feel more grounded.

[00:44:25] What can I do?

[00:44:26] You know, those kind of questions.

[00:44:28] Like when I didn't know what to do with my life, everything was in a shambles.

[00:44:33] I just asked, you know, show me what to do with my life.

[00:44:37] What's my path?

[00:44:38] I know I have a purpose.

[00:44:39] I know I have a path.

[00:44:40] Show me.

[00:44:42] do really believe in the higher power of our brains to give us those downloads, but we

[00:44:47] just have to ask the right questions.

[00:44:49] You don't need to know the answer.

[00:44:51] You just have to know what you want.

[00:44:53] You know, like, and usually the want comes from a need, like, you know, I'm needing more

[00:45:01] money or I'm needing more, whatever it is, you know, a relationship, whatever it is that

[00:45:07] you need or want, you have to start asking for it.

[00:45:12] relationship? What do I do to get into a relationship? You know, what would help me?

[00:45:18] So, you know, I really think that's where it all begins is asking. I'm a big believer in prayer.

[00:45:26] Doesn't matter who you're praying to. You know, you can pray to goddesses and gods. You can

[00:45:33] pray to higher power. You can, you know, pray to your higher self. But I do believe in

[00:45:38] and building a very strong connection with that,

[00:45:41] an inner dialogue with the higher aspects of consciousness within our own being.

[00:45:47] Yeah, I love that.

[00:45:49] So, Kelly, where can people find your work?

[00:45:52] Is it just brainsync.com?

[00:45:54] Brainsync.com and the app, you know, and the website, of course,

[00:45:58] you can go on there and there's tons of stuff.

[00:46:01] And Meditate Me with Kelly Howell is the app.

[00:46:04] so you can get like a nice sampling of material and not have to spend a lot of money and actually

[00:46:11] my audio programs are way less than a lot of people you know they're 995 instead of 49 or 400

[00:46:18] or whatever i i just i just don't think it's fair to charge that much money to help people

[00:46:25] yeah so yeah well kelly i really appreciate your presence on hxp thank you so much for being here

[00:46:32] I'd listened to your tapes for so long.

[00:46:34] Oh, yeah?

[00:46:35] Which ones have you listened to?

[00:46:38] The Secret Guide something to...

[00:46:41] The Secret Universal Mind Meditation.

[00:46:45] That was my favorite.

[00:46:46] That was my go-to for a long time.

[00:46:48] And I just listened to that meditation for a really long time.

[00:46:55] And so it's kind of cool to kind of go full circle and have you on the show.

[00:47:00] Thank you so much.

[00:47:02] appreciate you having me here. Guys, this is the human experience. We will see you guys

[00:47:07] next week. Thank you so much for listening.