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Marriage as the Path: Sacred Dance, Kundalini & Awakening | Brad & Pam Keene | BatGap Interview

2,510 views · Published 16 June 2011 · 1:33:03 · Indexed 26 October 2026

Channel: Buddha at the Gas Pump® · 2011 · People & Blogs

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Brad and Pam Keene live in Fairfield, Iowa, where they have built a shared spiritual life centered on their marriage of ten years. Pam has been a conscious seeker since the age of nineteen, drawing from a wide range of teachers and traditions. Brad was a practitioner of Transcendental Meditation for twenty-five years before stepping away in 1995. What followed was a turbulent period that ultimately gave way to a profound shift — one he describes not as an exalted state, but as something far simpler, more natural, and more intimate than he had ever expected. His core counsel to fellow seekers: lower your expectations.

In this conversation with Rick Archer, Brad and Pam explore what it means to use a sacred marriage as a spiritual path. Brad describes leaving formal practice behind and discovering that his daily life and his relationship with Pam had become his program. He considers her his guru, and it is her influence that has drawn him toward devotion to a personal God — what they describe as a personal Other that is Divine, beyond the impersonal silence that marks earlier stages of awakening.

Pam's own story is vivid. Her awakening came in December 2005, mid-dance, as a simultaneous implosion and explosion in the heart. A period of integration followed — what she calls her Alice in Wonderland phase — where she moved between feeling infinite and infinitesimal until the opposites were reconciled in the wholeness of Self. Her Kundalini completion arrived during a moment of intimacy with Brad, experienced as a coherent beam of light rising to the crown chakra, accompanied by visions of galaxies within her own being.

Together, Brad and Pam have developed Sharanalila, a form of sacred dance combining Sharana, the Sanskrit word for surrender, with Lila, meaning divine play. They speak openly about monogamy, sacred sexuality, and the path of radical surrender as a living, embodied practice. Pam's personal faith in a personal God, rooted in her childhood love of Jesus, serves as a counterpoint to the purely impersonal framings common in their Fairfield, Iowa community.

This episode is part of the Buddha at the Gas Pump interview series featuring ordinary people undergoing extraordinary inner transformation. 

Interview recorded February 10, 2010.

00:00:00 - Buddha at the Gas Pump Introduction
00:04:32 - Pam and Brad's Awakening Journey
00:08:54 - Letting go of Transcendental Meditation
00:12:43 - Alcohol, Drugs, and Awakening Journey
00:16:44 - Honeymoon period and drinking/drugs
00:20:19 - The Importance of a Guru in Spiritual Growth
00:23:21 - Dana's Spiritual Journey
00:27:29 - The Power of Desire and Individual Paths
00:30:36 - The Awakening Process and Embracing a Personal God
00:33:35 - The Progression of Awakening
00:36:07 - The Rheostat of Belief
00:39:11 - Holding all Expressions of the Divine in the Heart
00:42:53 - Reconciliation of Opposites in the Wholeness of Self
00:45:59 - The Awakening through Dance
00:48:47 - Kundalini Complete
00:52:11 - The Power of Sexual Experience and Spiritual Practice
00:54:58 - Exploring Different Varieties of Spiritual Practice
00:57:43 - The Experience of Universal Awareness
00:59:44 - Wholeness in the Midst of a Heart Attack
01:01:21 - Near-Death Experience and Divine Awareness
01:03:22 - Reflections on Death and Fear
01:05:38 - Pam's Journey with Dance
01:07:57 - The Healing Power of Dance
01:11:25 - The Evolution of Dance Groups
01:14:13 - Couples and the Mission of Enlightenment
01:17:04 - Sharanalila: The Surrendering Dance
01:19:30 - Contact Information for More Information on Sharanalila
01:21:52 - The Sacred Dance Journey
01:24:35 - Leaving People with Openness to Awakening
01:27:52 - The Misconception of Levitation
01:31:04 - Conclusion and Thank You

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