Byte: Dr. Kate ~ Experiencing Samadhi And Timelessness!

Dr. Kate tells a story about herself, and in it she admits that she has always been a very linear thinker. She's a high achiever, someone who likes to get things done, but she's always willing to learn new things. So it was to her surprise, at a retreat in the middle of nowhere, that she experienced something so far outside of the realm of her knowledge, it shook her to the core!

Transcript

Hello everyone.

I think those of you that know me,

But especially have been listening to this podcast for a while,

Know that I absolutely love having guests that are in the sciences who are willing to talk about things that are ineffable.

And Dr.

Kate Raines Goldie is exactly that.

She's a PhD trained business and cultural anthropologist,

AI keynote speaker,

TEDx speaker coach,

Business news tech and innovation columnist,

And is the creator of Super Connect,

Which is a proven tool to foster human connection,

Boost psychological safety,

Ignite curiosity,

And most of all,

Enable better conversations about difficult things.

But mostly what she and I talk about in this conversation,

You know,

Besides for the magical miraculous part,

Is play.

And when I was interviewing her,

Behind her on the shelf,

Well,

There were all these Lego heads,

Giant Lego heads.

And so it was pretty charming to be looking at her and talking about these things while seeing these hilarious funny heads behind her.

Now,

Dr.

Kate shares a story of something that's really mysterious and really beautiful.

And essentially,

Well,

I don't want to spoil it.

But I wanted to give you a little background about her miracle and just how not only mysterious these states of mind are,

But how probably with enough practice,

Most of us can attain them and specifically,

What she talks about is entering this period of timelessness,

Or,

As it's known,

Samadhi.

And so what Samadhi is,

Is a state of deep absorption,

Focus,

And stillness and meditation,

Often considered a peak experience of spiritual training.

And it's a state of consciousness where the mind is unified,

Calm and non reactive,

Leading to a sense of bliss and enlightenment.

It's a Sanskrit word,

Meaning concentration,

Absorption,

Or to bring together and people who often experience this have have this sense of timelessness,

Like they've gone beyond time,

Or time does not exist,

Or it falls away.

And it's really this,

I mean,

Some people might call it flow,

Some people might call it,

Well,

Samadhi.

And it's really this mysterious place.

It's almost beyond words to explain.

So we talked about this in this episode.

And once again,

It reminded me that not only the world,

But our very own internal workings,

Our brains,

Our minds,

Our hearts,

And how they all come together.

Well,

It's all incredibly mysterious.

So without further ado,

Here's my conversation with the absolutely fabulous Dr.

Kate Raines Goldie.

She invited me to come to one.

And I didn't really know what it was.

But I just said,

Okay,

I'll come.

And so we get there.

And I think it was just shortly before I,

I think I was packing and I was reading the materials.

And then I realized that it's,

There's no eating.

So it's like four days of fasting.

So I was like,

Okay.

Because then you're like,

How are we going to eat?

Like for what we're doing?

How is this going to happen?

How are we going to get food?

I was like,

Okay,

Well,

That answers that question.

So I was like,

Okay,

This is fine.

I've never done that before.

Even though I do a lot of work in play,

And you know,

Have a PhD in like,

Very like research evidence based science,

All that stuff.

The other side of me that I that I bring in,

And I've only started really telling,

Like,

I'll tell certain people if I know that they're,

You know,

Ready to hear it,

But you kind of the general general consumption has been more recent.

But I've also for 20 years been practicing Qi Gong and Reiki and nearly completed a year long energy healing certification.

So I've done all the coursework,

But just need to finish my,

My practical.

But that's like bringing shamanism together with biocranial sacral massage.

And so all of these kind of esoteric practices,

But really powerful when you bring them together with facilitation.

So I spend a lot of time doing interesting things,

Let's say.

And so one of the interesting things was a few years ago,

I had a friend who she does these nature retreats.

And she invited me to come to one.

And I didn't really know what it was.

But I just said,

Okay,

I'll come.

And so we get there.

And I think it was just shortly before I,

I think I was packing and I was reading the materials.

And then I realized that it's,

There's no eating.

So it's like four days of fasting.

So I was like,

Okay,

How are we going to eat?

Like for what we're doing?

How is this going to happen?

How are we going to get food?

I was like,

Okay,

Well,

That answers that question.

So I was like,

Okay,

This is fine.

I've never done that before.

But it was a basically,

We would go out to this amazing land.

And that was how I met my friends who have the property in the wheat belt,

This off grid property.

So that was that was the one connection was meeting them and and getting to hang out with them.

And you were talking about every,

You know,

Everything having a spirit.

So there's this amazing rock there that anyway,

That's a whole other thing.

But there's just this amazing magical land where magical things happen.

So we go there and the it's called nature quest.

I think it's a it's a methodology methodology that she uses that involves nature is kind of like meditation and healing practice.

So it involves basically being by yourself not eating for three or four days.

So you're out secluded in the wilderness,

Basically sitting on a rock.

You know,

There's there's nothing,

You just have a sleeping bag,

A tent,

And that's it.

And I think by day three,

I just woke up one morning.

And I just was like lying on this rock.

And I just woke up and just sat up.

And I just stared at this tree in front of me.

And just times the time stopped existing.

And I could tell that the time had passed after maybe three hours,

Three or four hours because the sun had moved or the shadows had moved.

But it was just like there was the noise,

The talking in my head,

There's just complete silence.

It was like time,

Thoughts,

Nothing existed.

And I've never had that happen to me before since and it was just amazing.

It sounds like it.

Well,

I was just thinking that sounds like a vision quest.

They do those in the desert Southwest,

I mean,

Really all over the world where you go somewhere without food for three or four days,

And then something happens,

You encounter an animal or anything really,

And you have this kind of revelation,

But it sounds like you have this deep connection with this tree to where you lost your sense of self.

Would that be correct?

Um,

I think it was definitely losing my sense of self,

I don't know,

The tree was just a way for me to know that time had passed.

And it wasn't particularly.

Yeah,

But it was definitely there's,

Yeah,

That that my sense of self had stopped existing.

But I believe it is based on on vision quests.

That is where it's rooted in,

But it's not from Indigenous traditions.

I have been sent home one of those by my parents that was sort of a culturally appropriated version of it.

It was a bit problematic.

But that's a whole other story.

But I yeah,

So I am familiar with with those as well.

And this is,

I think,

More of a yes,

Similar aligned,

But different.

Okay,

Wait,

Your parents sent you on one?

When you were?

Yeah,

My parents had this thing about sending me off in the summers to random things that were not so great.

And I never had any choice in it.

Part of my life,

You know,

Let's play to to recover from this,

Because I was probably I think the first time they sent me off on something,

I was about 11.

But this is,

I think,

13.

And it was run,

I found out recently,

I was talking to my mom about it,

That it was the first time that they ran it.

And it was,

It was a non-Indigenous person running it.

So I think there is a lot of,

And this is back in like the early 90s,

When you know,

We would do things like that.

I mean,

I guess we still do,

But it was more permissible back then.

No one's gonna say,

Hey,

Wait a second.

This might be a bit problematic,

Like not just from cultural appropriation,

But I think also just from a,

You know,

Connection to like,

There's just so much energetically,

That is important as well.

And I just found the whole experience really traumatic.

Where's this nature quest one was actually really great.

My God,

I'm sorry.

I got sent to Girl Scout camp a couple of times,

Which,

You know,

Was pretty benign,

You know,

It wasn't like nothing weird happened.

I mean,

Yes,

Something weird did happen,

But I don't talk about it.

And then later on,

My father sent me to a horse camp up in Wisconsin for two weeks.

And yeah,

As a kid,

You don't really have a choice.

No one says,

Hey,

Do you want to do this?

They're just like,

Hey,

Go pack a bag because you're leaving tomorrow for a week,

Two weeks.

And it's sort of sometimes it's a good camp.

And sometimes it's you're like,

Well,

Who was what is happening here?

I like to think parenting has evolved a bit since then.

There's a bit more like,

You know,

Consent sometimes,

I hope.

I hope you appreciated this conversation and you got a sense of Samadhi,

A sense of timelessness.

It seems like it stole up upon Dr.

Kate somewhat unawares,

And she got lost in this time.

You know,

The old poets might call this period that Dr.

Kate experienced a reverie.

I think there are so many cultures all over the world.

And the words used to describe these experiences are all different.

But whatever you may call them,

Whether it's Samadhi,

Timelessness,

Or reverie,

It's all very mysterious.

And I think magical,

Because where do we go?

And in that place are all things possible.

I'm so grateful to Dr.

Kate for spending some time with me for sharing her stories for laughing along with me,

And explaining or sharing about an experience that no doubt,

Deeply changed her life.

You know me,

And I'm all for more play.

I'm all for more fun.

This world needs it.

And I think we all need it too.

In essence,

I think by listening to this podcast,

You are entering my playroom,

Where I'm encouraging us all to dream bigger,

Understand this world is far more grand than we can see with our regular eyes,

And that mystery and promise await for each and every one of us.

Thank you for listening.

And here's my one request.

Be like Dr.

Kate.

I mean,

You already know what I'm going to say.

Play,

Have fun,

Have curiosity,

Build the Death Star,

Or do whatever floats your boat,

As far as playing and being in this world.

And sometimes it's gonna mean we're gonna get off our tablets,

Our phones,

Our computers,

We're actually gonna go out into the other world,

Into the outer world and meet people,

Have real conversations,

Do silly things,

And maybe laugh so very much.

So be like Dr.

Kate,

Go out and play,

Build community and find others to play with,

And have fun,

And be silly.

And I suspect that within no time whatsoever,

You're gonna wake up every day,

And you're gonna think,

My gosh,

This world is so bright.

This world is so beautiful.

And I can't wait for the very next excuse to be silly and play and have fun.