Sense of Soul - Finding Your True Self in Times of Transition

Starting point is 00:00:00 Welcome to the Sense of Soul podcast. We are your hosts, Shanna and Mandy. Grab your coffee, open your mind, heart and soul. It's time to awaken. Today we have with us Dr. Reverend Patricia Keel. She is a unity minister, a teacher of metaphysics and spiritual growth, and her passion is to help support people on their spiritual journey. Today, she's here with us to tell us about her amazing experiences that she's had on her deep and transformational journey. Hi, Shanna. I'm Patricia. Great to meet you. Nice to meet you. Hi, I'm Mandy. Hey, Mandy. Hi. Hi. Well, we're so excited to have you on. I'm just curious about you. That was the word that kept popping in my mind.

Starting point is 00:00:48 Did you find the book? It's not my book. I did a chapter in this book. It was bestseller. It's called The Ultimate Guide of Self-Healing, Volume 5. I wrote chapter 10, which was called Divine Discontent, Finding Your True Self in Times of Transition. And each person who wrote a chapter had to do a little tool. We had to do sort of a story of our life and then a little tool

Starting point is 00:01:14 that would help people in their self-healing. So since I first emailed you, that happened. And so tell us about this chapter that you did. Well, it was kind of a story about my life in a way about how I had been trying to manage. And then it was through my second divorce. I had this awareness because of something my daughter was doing and her kindergarten teacher had taught her. I had this awareness that what I'd been doing was not getting me where I wanted to go. You know, the old AA thing, you know, keep doing what, what you've been doing. You're going to get what you've already got. And I was in recovery and, you know, I went to an AA meeting and I met somebody and I found unity.

Starting point is 00:01:54 It sort of launched me on my spiritual path basically. And so the, that's kind of what the story is about this idea of divine. There's a divine discontent. I was just like, you know, we have this, something's not right. And for me, it was my marriage because I was just divorcing. And then how I was going to deal with my kids, you know, joint custody. And then I didn't like my work. I was a real estate broker and I was like, this isn't really me.

Starting point is 00:02:19 So it was that transition time of really being in that field of like, Oh, who am I? Where am I going? Who are my, who's my team? Who's my tribe. Yeah. And that's when I launched, I became a teacher and then a minister. And then, you know, now all these other stuff I do. So if we can just step back for a moment, can you tell our listeners a little bit what your bottom looked like that got you through the door of AA? Yeah, I can. Sure. Yeah. Just like, what your bottom looked like that got you through the door of AA? Yeah, I can. Sure. Yeah. Just like, what did that look like for you? Because everyone's is different. And I think sometimes when people are struggling with an addiction of some sort, they compare theirs to others and you never want to do that. You always want to look for similarities, not differences is what I've been told.

Starting point is 00:03:07 Okay. Well, my bottom was a little, I drove the babysitter home and I didn't remember the next day. Yeah. Been there. Yeah. And my, my therapist had told me about this man who in his drunkenness got on an airplane and ended up in Australia. And that was what

Starting point is 00:03:29 awakened me to the fact that I was a blackout drinker. You know, I blacked out. I didn't know that I had, you know, I didn't know what I didn't know because there was no tape in the scene, in the machine. So somebody told me the next day that I had driven the babysitter home. And I'm like, oh, that was it for me. And when you walked into those rooms, you saw the posters on the wall that I'm sure are in every room and saw the steps that talk about finding a higher power. At that point, what did that mean to you? Because I remember when I walked into the rooms, I was really confused when they said it could even be a doorknob if I wanted it to be.

Starting point is 00:04:11 When I actually finally got to AA, it was a couple of years after I stopped drinking. I was a dry drunk for a couple of years. When I finally got to AA, I went with a woman, somebody, I don't, I don't even know how I got there. I used to just sit in the corner and cry all the time. I mean, I was just like a mess. So self-centered. It was all about me. I hated my mom. I hated everyone. I divorced my husband. You know, I mean, I listened to the steps, but it took me forever to get a sponsor because I was all about me. I can do this, you know? So yeah. Isn't it funny how we think we're so selfless when we get in there to those rooms, because we're like, Oh, I do everything for everyone. Look at me. And then you get in there, and they really humble you slowly. But you start to realize that

Starting point is 00:04:57 holy crap, everything I was doing with it was intention just to make it look like I was doing okay. And realistically, these things that I thought were selfless were actually selfish. It was just managing what was going on my kind of managing my suffering. Yeah. What did the divine look like? Or what did you call your higher power? I didn't, I'm just trying to think I was going to church then. But I remember, I remember one day, my husband was Catholic, and I was not Catholic. And I was going to this Presbyterian church, and I kind of had a crush on the minister. I mean, you know, I mean, so I used to have crushes on ministers, too, because I was like,

Starting point is 00:05:36 oh, they're handsome. And he was handsome. He was really smart. We would go out for coffee. So I think there was a little not good stuff going on with him. But anyway, I remember going one day and I had such a hangover. I had to get up out of the pew and I went downstairs into one of the Sunday school rooms and I'm like on the floor. And this old guy who was a deacon or something came over.

Starting point is 00:05:56 Are you all right? And I'm like, oh, yeah, I'm just sick. But I mean, it was just like, shit, I have a hangover that's so bad and I'm in church and I can't move. I think I'm going to throw up. Anyway, I haven't thought about that in like lots of years. You know, I've been, I love how memories come back because sometimes, sometimes I'm like,

Starting point is 00:06:19 I don't want this memory, but I was just earlier. So our listeners know I was showing you guys the crosses on my wall that I've collected over the years. And I have this memory of a friend of ours. He had gone to Jerusalem and he had one of the crosses and this little bottle of, I think it was Sambuca, like blessed on this rock where Jesus apparently was. And I, I was so, oh my God, I was so desperate one time for alcohol. I drank it. Oh yeah. Oh yeah. I did not know that. I, it was sitting like in the corner of my window next to the cross. And it was like, like, you should have seen my husband's face. He was like, how could you? That was blessed on the rock. Jesus was on in Jerusalem. And I'm like, no, I'm blessed. Oh yeah. I can remember giving dinner parties and people would leave wine in

Starting point is 00:07:20 the bottom of their glass and I'd be in the kitchen. I'm like, how, why would you ever leave? This is really good wine. And I just, you know, drink up everything so that everything be easy to get in the dishwasher. Yeah. It's bad when you're bad. Wow. You guys are a lot alike. We're terrible, but yeah. Well, and I can't even remember how long I've been sober. I think I got sober in 1988. Were you born? Yes. Good for you. Yeah. Good for you because there's still days it's hard. And I will say, I don't keep track as much as I used to. Like I used to count every second, every minute, every day. I had the little app on my phone. And if you asked me today, I probably couldn't even really tell you I used to have it

Starting point is 00:08:11 down to the seconds, because I just I wonder why, because a lot of people that I know that are that started in the program don't really as they get past like 10, they just quit counting. Yeah. I just remember the day, you know, because the night before it was my husband's birthday and my stepson and his best friend dressed in drag and came to the bar where we were meeting and with, you know, they were wearing my clothes and my stepson had like stockings. My girlfriend did makeup for them. They were in high school and they had wigs. I mean, it was hysterical. And so we were in this restaurant that we went to all the time and drank and they were

Starting point is 00:08:54 parading around and drag and people were buying us drinks because it was his birthday. And then I had to drive the babysitter home. So that I just remember that, you know, and my, that husband is long gone. I divorced him and then he's passed away as well, but we had a lot of drinking together. So it's not, it's hard to remember the date and all, but the story is very alive. Yeah. Well, the reason I brought up the spirituality piece was because a lot of people get really scared when they walk into the rooms when they see that. And so it's always, I always try telling them, it's not a religious program. They're just saying

Starting point is 00:09:31 you need to believe in something higher than you. And it starts that way for everyone. It can be as simple as believing that my brother who passed away was my higher power at first. And then it evolves as you as you get sober. And that poison leaves your mind, which takes, you know, it took like a year for me to start kind of evolving, and it continues to evolve. And so where, where, what is your divine today? How would you describe your you know, I've been through a lot because I went, I became a minister. I became a spiritual teacher. And then one day I heard a woman minister speaking and I was in Kansas city and, and I just had this little thing. I could do that. I think I could do that, you know? And so then I went to get more clarity about what that would look like. And ultimately I,

Starting point is 00:10:24 before I became a minister, I started a church in Berkeley, a unity church. So, you know, my experience of connecting with what was in Sunday school and singing in the choir in the congregational church, something really abstract to the higher power part of sobriety and really connect, knowing that it wasn't me, that there was something else out there, something greater than myself, really became very almost intellectual in a way, because my community is unity and unity is metaphysics. I don't know if you are familiar with it at all, but it's very much about, you know, the Bible is the story of my journey and your journey of evolution as a soul. It's the evolution of your soul. So the metaphysical idea of a divine presence was a big part of how I kind of ran my life, really thinking about, you know, what am I doing? And what is this out here?

Starting point is 00:11:26 And how does this impact the journey of my soul? And from that sort of intellectual concept, using affirmations, you know, kind of anchoring into a lot of books about how thoughts are, you know, the thing, what I think about comes about my life thoughts or things, knowing that there's this huge divine presence and that the activity of the divine is also who I am as like a, you know, drop in the ocean of the fullness of, of life. But then now, since I've been going to India, which started in 2006, so I've been going a long time and also taking people there. I've been to basically 20 times to this one particular incredible place. And I've taken groups of people for years. I took a group of ministers and key leaders in 19, I don't know, was it 2013?

Starting point is 00:12:16 I took 53. And we had a special class. The evolution of my connection with this God life, energy life has evolved because of the connection with the Indian teachings and really anchoring in understanding the body mind connection with the chakras and the koshas, understanding what the panchakarmas are and doing pujas, doing all these sort of Indian things has really brought me into an awareness of literally feeling the presence of the divine inside me and so anchored in my heart. And so the whole idea of it being a person where sometimes I can do that. In fact, I used to say I had a posse, you know, it was Jesus because I

Starting point is 00:13:02 love Jesus, you know, be guided by Jesus. I love my Amma Bhagwan and how they talked about the field of oneness and grace. Yeah. I really love that sense of oneness. And and the Buddha and you know, I've got Kwan Yen over here, she's over there, say, but then now it's more just like, there's just like this, this indwelling, upwelling experience that rests inside my heart. And I can talk, talk to it and feel the guidance of it. And I talked too long about it just right now. But no, you didn't. No, no, you so beautifully explained it. And in the end, oh my god, that almost made me want to cry the way you said it's how you just feel it in your heart. And so is that something that you can teach people? Is that feeling in that heart? You know, it's a journey. And one of the things that's been really beautiful about my teachings from India was originally Oneness University. Now it's called

Starting point is 00:13:59 AKAM, E-K-A-M, which means one. It means we are one. They do a lot of processes. And so as a minister, I'm still, I don't have my church anymore, but I do speak at churches on Zoom right now, which I love. But as a minister now, I'm really understanding how much more important it is for people to have an experience of the divine than to have us talk about it. That's why in my book, I've got this process that I give people and I call it ABC where it's you bring your awareness and your attention because awareness is the key thing. You bring your awareness to your breathing and your breath then focuses on a particular area in the body. What I like to do with people is activate three points, the heart. So the heart chakra, the third eye and the crown. And so doing a really simple practice with people

Starting point is 00:14:53 where they begin to use the breath and take what they call in India, a conscious breath, where you're inhaling through your nose and your exhalation is longer than your inhalation. And as you're doing that, you're focusing on one area of the body. So, I mean, I could take you through one right now, if you want to do that, we'll just do the heart and then, you know, you can move and do it with the third eye and then with the crown. Okay. Do you want to do it? Yes. Cool. So I've got a little link on my website that people can learn how to do it too, but I just like this ABC process. Okay. So, so don't do this if you're driving, especially if you're driving, especially if you're driving

Starting point is 00:15:37 home, the babysitter, there you go. That could be. Okay. So you want to just gently close your eyes and we're going to be inhaling deeply through the nose and slowly exhaling one, two, three, and again, a nice, deep inhalation, bringing the air all the way down into the belly, inhaling, and slowly exhaling, one, two, three. And now as you inhale, inhaling deeply, as you exhale, focus your attention on your heart. One, two, three. Next, inhale, one, two, three. Next, inhale one, two, three. As you exhale, see the air coming out in front of your heart. Exhaling one, two, three. Inhale one, two, three. Slowly exhale to the heart, two, three. Inhale, one, two, three. And exhaling from the heart, two, three. And again, inhale, one, two, three. Exhaling from the heart, two, three. Exhaling from the heart.

Starting point is 00:17:07 Two, three. And simply relax for a moment. Holding your attention at the presence in the body of the heart and feeling that deep connection that you have with the heart. And slowly and gently as you choose to open your eyes. So to really do the fullness of this practice, you would then move to breath and focus on the third eye, and then finally focusing on the crown. And the idea is that each time you bring your attention

Starting point is 00:18:07 and awareness through the breath to one particular area of your body, you connect in with that area of the body. And if you choose to, for instance, with the heart, you might connect into somebody that you deeply love. You might take that connection as you're breathing out from the heart to send that energy out to someone you love. You might take that connection as you're breathing out from the heart to send that energy out to someone you love. Third eye, you could be looking for insight. You could be asking

Starting point is 00:18:33 for insight from the presence. When you're breathing out through the crown, you always want to just be open and receptive. You're creating that opening and receptivity to all there is, and really quieting the mind in that way. So anyway, thanks for playing with me for a minute. My gosh, no, thank you. That was so very relaxing. It's just really relaxing. It's not even three minutes. The other day, I wasn't feeling well. And it was having like this throat pain. I was like, oh my god, it's so bad. And all of a sudden, my partner's like, like this throat pain. I was like, Oh my God, it's so bad. And all of a sudden my partner's like, are you breathing? And I was like, Oh no, he's like,

Starting point is 00:19:18 breathe. And I was like, you're right. And that breathing then turned into me humming, turned into chanting. And then, you know what, honestly, I think it's gone. Well, it is gone, but it was even maybe gone in that moment. You know, it had gone when we are so present with ourselves, especially our pain that, you know, we realized that we are in control. Well, you know, the, the, the Buddhist practice of Vipassana where you're simply breathing and being aware you take your attention. If there's pain in the body, they have you sit like we do this in India, sometimes where you're sitting for hours and hours and you're not supposed to move. So of course that little tweaky thing is going to happen, but they just say, send your attention there. And just as you say, you put your attention there and you're doing your breath work. You eventually are not, it's not running in your monkey mind. No. So I have to ask, is this, is this a place you go to? Yes. Oh my God. It is it. When I saw it,

Starting point is 00:20:17 like I was stunned. It is so beautiful. It's an incredible place. It's like one of the wonders of the world. It's been designed to simply to enlighten people. It's got nine spires that represent the nine planets and the energy it's designed. If you look from the top, the pattern is the Surya Yantra, which is the Yantra that like mandala, the design of the sun. And how that design happened was when monks were in the forest, and they would chant the mantra for the sun, the sand and the ground would vibrate into this pattern. And that becomes a Yantra. So Akam,

Starting point is 00:21:00 this beautiful meditation center is designed as a Yantra from above. And every day, then the sun comes and clears the energy of it. So anything that happens in there, like when they chant, when they do pujas, when we have classes that they bring from there, it's bringing this incredible, just massive vibration. So it's, it's, wow. It's a powerhouse how old is it it's totally intentional i'm trying to think when i i've been going there 2006 they were still building it so i think it completed maybe like 2018 17 the son of shriyama bhagwan krishnaji who he and his wife preachiji are now doing they're now doing the work of Acom because Bhagwan is my age and he's given it off to his son.

Starting point is 00:21:48 But he was the one who designed and built it for enlightenment because that was the vision his father had that the humanity in this time, we need 74,000 people, 0.11% of people who are enlightened, who are not living in the dense energy, who literally are not in monkey mind. And so that is their whole purpose is to bring people into enlightenment. And they have classes that are online classes. I do meditations every morning,

Starting point is 00:22:18 Monday through Friday, anybody can join. And then people can go to India. They do, they're doing events now. They're called tapas, which are very, very intense. And you come back with a, you know, enlightened in enlightened States. So, you know, I've been there and had awakening experiences there. And this place is called the one, is it one oneness field? It's called Akam, E-K-A-M. If you type in AKAM.org, you'll find out all about all the things they do there. It was, the oneness field is just the way they explain. It's a field of energy for oneness, but it's called AKAM.

Starting point is 00:22:56 Yeah. When I saw it, I was just like, I could feel it. When I first started my journey years ago, I used to, well, I was in these mindfulness classes, my therapist made me take, and I was like, Oh, I can't do this. But I end up trying to figure out like tools I could use. And I had made a mala because back then they didn't sell them like they do now everywhere. And I was at the time crocheting rugs. And so it would take me hours to do them. and I would get like really lost in doing it and I would listen to this mantra and the only reason why I picked this mantra

Starting point is 00:23:30 is in English it said love is God God is love and so I would just listen to it and I loved it I didn't know what it was saying but that is actually what cracked my egg open and I didn't even know what it was and what I was doing. It was pretty amazing. Even my kids knew the song because I would just play it over and over the whole time I would do my rug. I had no idea what I was doing, but my soul knew this language. You probably know, I was going to play it for you, probably know exactly which one it is. It's one of the oldest ones. Yeah. Yeah. Called a CD mantra. And it's one of the most powerful mantras. And we have a mantra, the Aka mantra, which is

Starting point is 00:24:15 a practice right now that people who are part of my community, we're chanting it every morning, 108 times. So part of my hour long meditation is, well, you could do it all day. They said you could do it 108, or you could do it 1000 or eight, or some people are doing a 10000 and eight. But it's a big practice because they are hosting World Oneness day globally. People over a hundred countries come and last year they had it for the first time. And we're doing this major transmission called Dikshu, which is this powerful energy transmission, and they'll be chanting this. We've been chanting it every day to prepare to do this big world oneness day experience. Are you pulling it up?

Starting point is 00:25:05 Did you find it? Tell me if you know what this is. Yeah, that's the Gayatri Mantra. I went to an ashram in northern India in like I don't know 2000 something 2012 or 13 and they did that every morning that whole ashram with like a thousand people they would have these little fire ceremonies yagas and they would chant the mantra every single morning like four o'clock, you got up and it was so amazing. It's a beautiful mantra. So obviously, I had found the right one to help me. It's one of very few that's like, like the main mantra. David Permal does a beautiful Gayatri mantra. If you like David up her mouth. It's really great.

Starting point is 00:26:06 I often will play it. Yeah. Have you ever heard Tina Turner's? Yeah. I absolutely love all of her. So after her son died, who he had found mantras. And after he died, she had taken the mantras and connected with them prior to that. I just love the story, but it is powerful as you can imagine, Tina Turner. Well, and she got the word out, you know? Yeah. Amazing. Love it. You know, on Sense of Soul, we also talk a lot about turning pain

Starting point is 00:26:37 into purpose. And I know we touched base on your sobriety. But I also wanted to ask you, as a mother having to see your child have cancer. Oh, wow. You know, my daughter was 13. She was just losing weight, you know, and actually, I think people were thinking that she was bulimic, and they were blaming me or something like that. But anyway, we got her to the doctor and found out she had lymphoma. But it was luckily it was early, it was stage one. So she had the treatment, she had chemo, and she had lymphoma. But it was luckily it was early, it was stage one. So she had the treatment, she had chemo, and she had radiation. And unfortunately, during the third round of chemo, she became psychotic, which was like the doctor said to me, this is way worse than having cancer to have a child who's psychotic. She became paranoid, it was really, really, really hard.

Starting point is 00:27:20 That was the most difficult. But you know, at the time I had my connection, I at the time was working for a church and I was doing a sabbatical for the minister called healing myth, magic and miracle. And I had all these like Joan Borosinko, Bernie Siegel, I had Jean Actaberg, I had all these amazing teachers that were coming to the church in Palo Alto. It's a big Unity church in Palo Alto to talk about healing. And here's my daughter has cancer. So I was, I called Bernie Siegel, you know, like, you know, what, what should I do? But the thing for me that was so great was that I had a huge posse of people in the Unity community who knew the story of Myrtle Fillmore, who's one of the founders

Starting point is 00:28:06 of unity who had, she had tuberculosis when she was 35. And she was a young mother. And in those days, it's like in the late 1800s, it was a death sentence. You know, if you had TB, you were just, you know, you got wet, and you were going to die, but she heard that you are a child of God. Therefore you do not inherit sickness. It's not the nature. That's not the nature of the divine. It's not broken, you know? And so that message that she had where she prayed to her body and she healed her body and lived to be in her late eighties, you know, when she died, didn't, wasn't sick. That message was the foundation of unity. So I had all these people, like who, who imbued that with me, you know, that this is not your daughter's nature. And the people that surrounded her were

Starting point is 00:28:56 just holding the health and vitality of my daughter. And that was the key really, for me to be a mother that could not live in fear. I wasn't living in fear. I was living in the wholeness of who she was. Dealing with it was, yes, hard because it was a divorce and like her dad wouldn't come in my house. He would, you know, sit on the, I mean, it was that all that was kind of just drama, but it was a part of time that really anchored my spiritual life, I think in a big way.

Starting point is 00:29:24 She's 39. She's very healthy. She's a Deeksha giver. She's very involved in her spiritual life. And, but it was my spiritual life that totally saved me and having people around me. Like, you know, you, you know, that man, do you need to have support when you're dealing with, whether it's your sobriety or you're dealing with a child that has issues, You need people who are going to tell you the truth about that particular situation and not let you go into the monkey mind that is going to pull you out into collective consciousness. Ain't it awful stuff. Thank you for sharing that. I, it's every mom's worst nightmare, right? I think that one thing that I heard a lot that I love is

Starting point is 00:30:02 worry is a sign of being spiritually disconnected. Because when you're really plugged in and connected, you have no reason to worry, because you can just surrender to it. So it sounds like you had a community of people that helped you to do just that. But then it was like, you know, the power of prayer, but it sounds like you guys took it to even a higher level. You know, the other thing is to know that worry is another kind of prayer, because what you worry about, you're going to to know that worry is another kind of prayer, because what you worry about, you're going to get when we hold whatever we hold in consciousness is going to

Starting point is 00:30:29 out picture in the world for us. And so for those people who are worry warts, they worry, and then they get what they worry about, and then they worry more, you know, and so worry is another kind of prayer that I think people need to become aware of it's about getting, having more and more clarity in, in our consciousness and lot, not letting the mind and the outer run the show for us. You know, that's what enlightenment is about is losing these monkey mind thoughts. And, you know, can I just tell you a little bit about my experience of that? Because I'm passionate about this. So in 2012, I already had been initiated to as called a oneness meditator. And that was to give this transmission through my eyes. And I would travel around the

Starting point is 00:31:13 country. And I would do this transmission and people would have experiences. When they would look in my eyes, I did it online and for a while. And they finally called me to come to India. And they told me that my awakening date was 12, 12, 12, which is quite an auspicious date. So I flew to India, and they put me in a room for three days that was completely dark. And I was all by myself in the room. And they would bring me like, I had like a juice kind of thing. It was a lot of fasting, but it was a juice. So I wasn't, you know, I wasn't like starving or anything. They would come in the morning and come in the evening and just bring me this juice. And I, they brought, they brought me

Starting point is 00:31:55 in early in the morning the day before. So on the 11th, 12, 11, and sometime during 12, 12, 12, because it was dark. So, and I didn't have a clock, you know, I had this experience of, of sitting, I was sitting on a yoga mat and I had this experience as if somebody had taken a laser light beam and just zipped around the top of my head and taken off the top of my head. And I saw, I kind of had, I don't know whether I was a witness or what, but all of a sudden, I was looking inside my head, trying to see if there were any thoughts there, because it was just totally empty in there. And I'm looking down like there's nothing there. So that was sometime on 12, 12, 12. And I was still in there for the rest of 12, 12, 12, and all 12, 13, just all by myself dealing with what the who was that,

Starting point is 00:32:53 you know, and going, was that my awakening? And then just being really, I don't remember any of it after that. So and then I went back, they picked me up at the end of the day on 12, 13. And they want to know what happened. I said, Well, everything stopped. And I stopped having thoughts. That was 10 years ago, basically, it was December 12, 1212. So you know, not 11 years ago. And since that time, this experience of not having a lot of what people call monkey mind, or, you know, there's sort of busy thoughts that just run you that has, it's gotten less and less and less. And so today in my life, I hardly have anything going on up there. I'm like, I'm so present to you.

Starting point is 00:33:45 Something will pop up. I don't worry about anything. I just, I mean, if a thought comes, like I'm doing a big event. My teacher is coming to San Francisco in a week and a half, her first visit here. And I'm putting together these events and it's huge. And then I'm like, oh,

Starting point is 00:34:08 okay, well, we'll just see how this is all going to flow. And then I think of, so this whole thing about all of that busyness, worry that we create, trying to control a situation that isn't here. And right now take the past and make it happen in the future. All of that has really disappeared for me. And that to me, that's the experience of awakening. I'm not, I'm not enlightened, you know, to be enlightened, you have more of an expanded experience. I have moments in my life when I have that fully expanded experience, it comes and it goes. But the thing about my life is right now, whatever is up for me, I pretty much say yes to everything. But also, I don't have any fear to step in and do anything. I didn't have any fear to meet with you guys. I was super excited.

Starting point is 00:35:00 If I'm doing a Sunday talk, I love to do my research. And then I just let her rip. You know, I don't write a thousand things in my old life. I'd have a stack of like 20 books of, you know, there was just like this need to rely on. So this awakening is the experience that we want for and ultimately enlightenment. We want this experience for 74,000 people on the planet. In the US, we only need 4,000 people because there are other countries. And then to live in the state, because what happens is people around you feel the energy that you have. And so it

Starting point is 00:35:40 becomes a bit contagious energetically. It's kind of a presence that you carry. It's why when you have a spiritual teacher, you can just be in their presence, and you get the juju that comes from them. So I'm just really excited about this. And I know that the people who are listening on your podcast are deeply spiritual, whether they know it or not, you know, and that this is the kind of thing that would transform their life, the more they can allow themselves to use the breath practices and to find, you know, find a teacher, find someone who can help them to move through those kind of difficult places in their life. It's totally possible. And right now, it's women like you who've made the commitment to

Starting point is 00:36:23 really get this work out in the world to millions of people. This is the transformation that's being called right now. And I'm, you know, I'm so grateful to be able to mentor women like you and to be supportive and to help the transition. That's really, really happening. Oh my God. I'm off my soapbox and my soapbox is actually a meditation cushion.

Starting point is 00:36:44 So that was a beautiful soapbox. I don't want you off of it. That was beautiful. You know, and my mind kept going back to probably because we talked about sobriety. But you know, they always say when you go to pick out a sponsor, it's like you find someone where you look at them and you go, I want what they have, who doesn't want what you have? Everyone wants that. Actually, you want to know what there are a few people that I could say would probably be scared of it. So I'm going to ask you this question. There's someone like my husband, who's like Mr. Corporate man, who's upstairs right now typing away. He's on conference calls all day.

Starting point is 00:37:19 A lot of people that are in that realm don't understand that if you have no thoughts, then how are you productive? Okay. So I would not even talk to them about having no thoughts because like they would think that's crazy because we do have thought, but we have thought that's directed and focused on the task at hand. You know, the mind, that's what the mind is designed for. It's a great analyzer. It does a really good job of that.

Starting point is 00:37:43 But if we have it analyzing everything that's coming in all the time, we're in the wopity wop. We're constantly in a divided state in consciousness. What I would say, and you know, this is a cool thing to be aware of, whether you're a parent, whether you're a corporate leader, whether you're a teacher, whether you're a mom, the key thing is, what is my state right now? Am I in a state of anger? Am I in a state of stress? Am I in a state of worry? Or am I in a state of peacefulness? Am I in a state of presence? Am I in a state of calm? If we can start to really help people become aware of what their inner state is. And for someone like your husband, you know, leaders need to have this awareness of from what state of consciousness am I leading? From what state of consciousness am I speaking to people?

Starting point is 00:38:41 If I'm speaking from a state of stress, we know what stress does in the body, all that cortisol, you know, we're in this anxiety when we're in a stressful state, doesn't matter what the name of the stress is, but we are divided internally and the mind is overactive and divided. So the energy that comes through us and, you know, the heart, if you look at heart math and you understand some of the energy of the Taurus fields around us, we have these electromagnetic fields that the state communicates the state of the decisions we make. But if we come from a place of centering and calm, and that's why your mantra was so great. You know, that's why I do my meditations every day. I mean, because it creates that place of centering. And it's like a resonant field, instead of being static, it's aligned. And so then your husband, when he's on those calls,

Starting point is 00:39:43 he's in a state of presence, he's aligned with what he wants. And he's aligned. And so then your husband, when he's on those calls, he's in a state of presence. He's aligned with what he wants and he's aligned with the people that he's called to connect with from a beautiful place. So this is what we're called to do. I mean, we have to talk, don't have to talk about, you know, the having no thoughts and all that, but like just a question of what's your state. And if it isn't used the breath, three breaths and it can shift, shift, shift your state. All right. So, so we're recruiting 4,000 people in the United States today. Absolutely. Have them sign up, have them, they don't have to go to India. We're doing, there's a whole program that's happening in the United States every Thursday night for people who want to get on board with coming.

Starting point is 00:40:27 Basically, it's in India, it's called a Jivam Mukta, which means everyday enlightenment. You're not like sitting under the Bodhi tree. You're not on your cushion. You're out in the world. You're living your life. You're an enlightened parent. You're an enlightened leader. You know, you're an enlightened partner.

Starting point is 00:40:44 You know, I find it so interesting how like the synchronicity of like me finding you know that mantra okay and like speaking of yantras you know Mandy had received and she can't tell you how or why the what was it called the surya yantra the sur Yantra. I have it on my carpet. I don't know if you could see it. Can you see that Yantra on my carpet? Oh, there it is. No, I'm sorry.

Starting point is 00:41:11 It was in the Epistophia. I don't know if you are familiar with the Gnostic Gospels. But it talks about how that Yantra is actually related to the Star of David, which I didn't know, but it's so amazing how everything is just so connected and just so divinely put in front of you in your path. You just have to be like you said, with the ABC, you have to be aware that it's all, what was the C for? Cause we never got connection. It's a conscious connection. It's a conscious connection. Yeah. So good. Patricia, do our listeners have to go lock themselves in darkness for three days? No, please don't. Oh, no, no, no, no, no, no. Now this was a very managed experience. No locking yourself. No, no, no, no, no. Do you want to know where my mind went? My mind went to when I went to the Harmony House in Estes Park.

Starting point is 00:42:07 It's a rehab for drugs and alcohol. I was we were put into what we call the Shake Shack. And the Shake Shack is where you detox. And for three days, I sat in the darkness and shaking and withdrawing. And they'd bring us like food to eat. But it was all like just people that had just gotten there but the reality of it was that was the beginning of my spiritual experience as well my first one well that's interesting because you know where it brought me it brought me to like what they used to do in the old testament how they would go in the caves to sit

Starting point is 00:42:42 for meditation and with the akasha wood burning until the smoke went out and they would go in the caves to sit for meditation and with the Akasha wood burning until the smoke went out and they would receive their wisdom, which became many of our scriptures. Yeah, absolutely. You know, I mean, so many kinds of like vision quests and things where you, you're going apart from your regular life. You're not engaged. In fact, the people that have been in the India process that they just had, they had no phones. They were allowed to use their phones once a week for half an hour. Otherwise it was no phones, you know, no makeup, no coffee, no, you know, all the stuff that we use to kind of like numb ourselves and distract ourselves. But please do not go into your house or into a room. I would have gone in my closet for three days.

Starting point is 00:43:27 Do not try this at home. I had, I had a guide. I had a DASA twice a day coming in and checking on me. So, you know, it's not, yeah, it's not a do it yourself enlightenment thing. We wouldn't suggest it, but they would be knocking on the door. That would never happen in my life. They would hunt me down. I'd be like, excuse me. You brought me a shake. I need donuts and Reese's pieces. You better bring me my coffee.

Starting point is 00:43:56 I tell you that much. That's my juice. For our listeners right now, I've had a couple of them reach out to me and say, as much as they're enjoying being curious in their spirituality, they do feel like they're missing the communities and the church. You know, I totally get that. I've been missing it like crazy. You know, I really miss my, I had my church in Berkeley and then I retired in 2013 to just travel and do all these different events and things. And then COVID too, you know, I, that's the reason that these small groups that I'm doing,

Starting point is 00:44:38 like my morning practice. I mean, we've got, we've been doing it for two years and people just pop, you know, they come when they can, but we're together for an hour and it's not people talking about their issues and problems because the experience is so deep that they're in an expanded consciousness when they leave. But we do support one another. If somebody needs prayer support or somebody's,

Starting point is 00:45:03 we do put a prayer in there. That's been a lifeline for me. And I know for all these people that are in the group, we have like 30 to 40 people that come every morning. And so that kind of thing I think is really important for us. And I really encourage people, start your own group, you know, start, like for now it might be Zoom until we can get ourselves back together again in person. We're just starting it right here in the Bay Area. I'm in just north of San Francisco, and they've just released the mask. I've had COVID and I've had all the vaccine and all that. I'm not so worried. But, you know, I'm still wear a mask when I go out. And when we do an event, we're doing these big events. Now, we're going to have masks, and we're going to be

Starting point is 00:45:44 outdoors for a lot of them. So I just think do if you're hungry for that, call three friends and have them come over and read a scripture or get a video online that you can watch. I mean, I've got tons of great videos that people can watch for my teachers. The other conversation I had with someone recently was that their idea of church is shifting as well. You know, when people see that you're the word minister and a church, some people that are going through this transition will be like, oh gosh, you know, cause cause part of Shannon and I's journey was unlearning a lot of the things that we were taught and then rediscovering a new belief system. A lot of them, like there was a stage where Shannon and I were angry at religion and church. So tell us a little bit about Unity Church and open up what that looks like as a

Starting point is 00:46:33 Unity minister. So, so as I, as I shared before, Unity, again, you're masculine, feminine. Unity was founded by the healing experience of Myrtle Fillmore and when she had this healing in her body she began to write letters to other people who were having physical challenges and and they were then had healings and she did it from that consciousness of you know I'm whole and healthy and I pray to the health of my body I I'm not saying bad knee. You know, I'm just going, hey, my niece, I see myself running and dancing, you know. And her husband was very, he was more intellectual. He also went to what he said, headquarters all the time. He was deep in the stillness and silence.

Starting point is 00:47:19 So he would read the Bible and he would sit in the silence and he would try to understand how does this story relate to me as a human being? How does this relate to my family? And he would translate everything as a metaphysical metaphysical mean beyond the physicality of the story, translating it into an experience. He wrote the metaphysical dictionary, it's like this thick, any word in the Bible, you can see what is the, you know, what is the meaning of that in terms of your own inner state? Again, we're back to that inner state experience. So unity is very much about not a religious dogma. There's not dogma at all. And one of the things he said that I love was, I reserve the right to change my mind. Oh, my God. Oh, yes. Oh, yes.

Starting point is 00:48:10 And and so it's about this ongoing discovery. And I mean, for me, I've been in unity now for over 30 years. And even now, when I go to do a talk, I'm like, so excited. Oh, my gosh. It says this, it means this to me now. It's not, there's nothing static about the teachings or about what's in the Bible because it's a living, being creative experience for us. And because in unity, we, we're not, we're not saying you're either in unity or you're not. I mean, that doesn't make sense. It's like oneness is not two-ness, it's oneness. And so there's this experience of embracing people from all cultures, all traditions. And my church in Berkeley, I had amazing, you know, Guatemalan healers, people from all over, you know, Native Americans, Buddhists, people from Hindu temples. It's that experience of

Starting point is 00:49:03 oneness that is unity. And that is a universal journey that we're all on. And I think right now, to your point, Mandy, about people being hungry for community, I think that's the thing that we're, you know, I think we're almost called to to be that for people. You guys are part of that you have a community of people that listen and trust. They know, like, and trust you, right? You know, and more of us need to be willing to step out in the world and hold the space for people to have these powerful transformational experiences. Yeah. I think one of the most blessed things that's come out of our podcast that's been an extension

Starting point is 00:49:41 is we have SOS sacred circles. And you know what i took like this class and i was going to sign up for this thing to get certified through this like global circle and i was like this is so not me i was like screw this i'm gonna do it our way we're gonna do it our way and and it's just turned into a beautiful space. And I agree. And it's needed, right? It's really needed for people. Yeah. Well, and I think that you brought to the table, Patricia, that make it your own.

Starting point is 00:50:21 Call three friends and make it your own. There's no, you don't need someone who's taken professional classes. You don't need a minister. You don't need a counselor. You don't need someone who speaks at the local church. A community can start with just two people. Absolutely. That is it, right? There you go. And every two or more gathered, there you are. Presences flowing back and forth. You know, to take this conversation full circle, at the beginning, I was saying that when I was researching you, I felt like I was just grazing the tip of the iceberg. There's so much depth to you. There's a lot down there. There's just a lot. We've just been scratching, folks. Yes. And I really feel that. I feel like you are just an abundance of experiences and wisdom and knowledge. And by the way, I'm 46 years old and my brain can't even remember who I talked to yesterday. And you just rattle off people's names of like teachers and people you've met throughout your life. And I'm like,

Starting point is 00:51:30 I can't even remember my great grandfather's name. Like I'm impressed. My memory has been shot, but you just describe things very well. And, and again, like I said, I feel like we just, you know, scratch the surface with you. I would love to have you on again. Thank you so much for taking the time to talk to us. So much fun to be with you guys. I love how you do this with so we can see each other. Who wants a podcast while you're on the phone? I mean, I used to have podcasts and radio interviews, and it was all on my phone. And this is so juicy. Intimate, right? Yeah, I actually did my hair for you. Anyway, thank you guys so much. I'm going to send you a few things. And then anyway, I can

Starting point is 00:52:15 support you. Tell our listeners one more time where they can go to listen to the meditations daily. It's Monday through Friday, correct? Right. Yeah. It's 8am Pacific. So patriciakeel.com and then just go to events and you'll see daily meditations there. And now it's time for break that shit down. So break that shit down. I would say that now's the time for all of us to really claim the power that we came here with. We need to claim that power by connecting in from a deep, deep state of peace and calm.

Starting point is 00:52:55 We need to connect into who we are and what we really care about in the world. And to take the authentic action that is ours to take, to support other people to take their action and to bring this world back into alignment, into the place of peace and love, gratitude and presence that is our nature, and is the nature of the universe. Sounds about right. Beautiful. Is that what happens when we get the 74,000 people? They'll impact other people.

Starting point is 00:53:29 It's like the hundredth monkey only. It's people's state of consciousness. Yeah. Oh my gosh. You've been wonderful. Thank you guys so much. It's really lighting up my morning here in Colorado. You warmed it up.

Starting point is 00:53:39 Thank you. All right. You guys. Namaste. Thanks for being with us today. We hope you will come back next week if you like what you hear don't forget to rate like and subscribe thank you we rise to lift you up thanks for listening

Sense of Soul - Finding Your True Self in Times of Transition

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