During a Sufi heart-rhythm meditation, Karen Newell encountered an existential loneliness so complete that she was inconsolable. Rather than resisting it, she allowed herself to fully experience the loneliness. What emerged was what she calls a “reservoir of support”—an unfailing love that has never left her.
Karen is the co-founder of Sacred Acoustics and co-author with Dr. Eben Alexander of Living in a Mindful Universe. In this conversation, we explore healing from “baby wounds,” generating and radiating love, the HeartMath research on the heart’s field, and using binaural beats to explore expanded states of consciousness. Drawing on decades of inner exploration, Karen reflects on suffering, the purpose of life, and what it means to be the love that you are.
Karen’s work: sacredacoustics.com and innersanctumcenter.com.Timestamps:
00:00 Existential Loneliness: An Inner Experience in Meditation
04:56 The Baby Wound: A Divorce and a Seven-Year-Old's Decision
09:18 Puppies Under the Bed: Using "Reference Points" to Generate Love
14:01 Wounds That Come Before Words: Eben Alexander's Adoption
19:28 The Reservoir of Support: Meeting "the Council"
23:07 Love Makes Life Worth Living
27:46 Radiating Love : HeartMath and the Heart's Field
32:12 One Mind: Triggers, Resonance, and Responsibility
39:17 Meeting Eben Alexander: "The Brain Doesn't Create Consciousness"
43:53 When Classical Meditation Failed: Binaural Beats and Sacred Acoustics
55:35 The Inner Observer and Allowing the Emotions to Be Experienced
01:02:41 Using Sound Meditation for Guidance
01:10:42 The Flying Carpet, the Council, and The Fifth Element
01:18:32 "We really are the same at a fundamental level, and that sameness is made of love."
01:22:42 Suffering is an Engine for Our Growth
01:24:31 Purpose of Life: "Be the Love That You Are"
01:26:52 One Mind and the God-Force
Intro and Outro music by Benjamin Bigelow
