Alex Klein, founder of Heart of the World, has a long history of dedication to spiritual awakening. Her commitment to serve others began when she was eleven years old, and she has followed this path ever since. An acknowledged leader in consciousness, Alex has traveled throughout the United States and Europe studying, lecturing and teaching meditation, and bringing her unique gifts of healing to the world.

The deep awakening Alex experienced during her years with Jean Klein was a pivotal time of grace in her life. Jean treated her like a daughter, and she regarded him as her spiritual father. Because he was the only father she had ever known, she felt a call of the heart to take his last name as her own.

Living in service to Love in the world, Alex has committed her life to awakening the presence of love in the hearts of those she meets and works with.

At earlier times in her life, Alex has also been an actor, lead singer, speaker, television news anchor, successful business owner, and trainer of advanced teachers of meditation. 

She currently lives and works in Mount Shasta, California.

Alex’s Story

My childhood spanned the full repertoire of challenges faced by children of broken homes—abandoned by my father who did not want children, and unwittingly abandoned by my mother whose heart was broken by the loss of her husband. In spite of this, I was fortunate that my mother was humble, sincere, and deeply spiritual, with a compelling desire to know God. Brought up Catholic, attending parochial school through the eighth grade, I was steeped in the tenets of the religion, surrounded and educated by nuns and priests, and shaped by those values and views.

When I went away to college, I began to feel a longing for something more than I was experiencing through my religion. I was yearning to feel the living presence of God in my life, rather than an idea or concept of some far away Being. Since I wasn’t finding it in my church, I went looking elsewhere. I spent the next year and a half exploring different places of worship and organized forms of religion, and still didn’t find anything that gave me a sense of Divine Presence or a deeper reverence for life.

During this time of exploration, I took a summer job in San Francisco. Driving to work one morning, out of the corner of my eye, I caught a glimpse of the word “meditation” on a freeway billboard and immediately felt a visceral wave of peace wash over me. That night after work, I stopped at Pier 1 and bought a large pillow and a candle. I thought I had to sit on the floor and stare at a candle, and then meditation would just ‘happen.’ Sitting on the floor with no back support was really uncomfortable, and I didn’t find the experience peaceful or satisfying in any way. Meditation, I concluded, was not easy and only produced back pain, numb ankles, and a sore bottom. Not only did I not feel peaceful, I felt even more restless, mentally and physically. There was no sign of peace on the horizon in either my mind or body.

One day, an encounter with a college friend introduced me to the form of meditation called Transcendental Meditation. We had plans to meet for dinner. She arrived early to pick me up, and asked if I would mind if she meditated for twenty minutes before we left. I showed her to the living room and closed the doors.

When it was time to leave, I gently opened the doors and immediately noticed two things: she was sitting comfortably in a chair (with back support) and her face was radiant and peaceful. One look told me that her experience of meditation was very different than mine. As soon as she finished, I asked her what she’d been doing, and she told me about Transcendental Meditation (TM) as taught by Maharishi Mahesh Yogi. I asked how I could learn, and she told me about a upcoming course in Lake Tahoe. Without hesitation, I registered, and two weeks later there I was being taught to meditate.

TM was a revelation. The instructions were easy to follow, and it was simple to do. From the first few seconds of my first meditation, I felt the ease and peace I had seen radiating from my friend’s face in my living room. Within a few more seconds, I felt the peacefulness deepen and spread throughout my body and mind. It was a supremely relaxing and comfortable feeling. For the first time in my life, I had a glimpse of peace and that deeper something I had been craving for a very long time.

I was told to practice TM twice a day for twenty minutes each time. So I did. Meditation opened my mind, cleared and calmed my thinking, expanded my senses of perception, and eliminated my anxiety and self-consciousness. Suddenly, the colors in nature were richer and brighter, experiences and relationships were more vibrant and interesting, and life in general was far more enjoyable. Instead of struggling in school, I was finding it easy, even fun. Studying and learning were more rewarding, more satisfying, and good grades came easily for the first time. Through meditation, I was beginning to glimpse, and to feel, the reverence for life I had been looking for. Maharishi had said life would get better and better with regular meditation—and it did.

Then a dear friend gave me a book that would utterly alter the course of my life—Autobiography of a Yogi by Paramahansa Yogananda. It is the remarkable and true story of one man’s dedicated spiritual journey to know God, and of the saints and blessings that enlighten him on his path. It is an extraordinary and intimate portrait of Yogananda’s spiritual life, and is written in a conversational style that takes the reader along on his inspiring journey.

This book spoke to me in a way that no book ever had. Yogananda’s words and experiences came alive as I read them. Imprinted on my mind, heart and soul was a vision of an enlightened life and possibilities that I never knew existed. As a seeker, this was the Holy Grail I had been looking for in my spiritual quest.

Yogananda emphasized the importance of meditation as a fundamental practice for the spiritual seeker. Reading his book prepared me to grasp the power of meditation to lead me to the life I aspired to. It also gave me a deeper appreciation for the value of my TM practice. Since that first reading in 1968, I have re-read it many times.

Then, in 1990 my marriage fell apart, and my life along with it. Even TM, which had always been a refuge from the storms of life, didn’t seem to be working for me. So I let go of everything, all striving, all seeking, all practices, all expectations—and then all heaven fell in and life opened up in unexpected and wonderful ways.

Through a taped radio interview, I was introduced to the beloved spiritual teacher Jean Klein. The very sound of his voice was enough to cause my eyes to close, and my body and mind to take an immediate dive into the deep peace of meditation. The profound affect of his voice and his presence was unlike anything I had ever experienced. I knew with complete certainty that I had to meet him, and needed to know what it was he was teaching.

Shortly after, I heard that Jean was offering a five-day retreat nearby. For the first two days, I listened as he spoke and interacted with all of us. When I finally got the courage to ask a question, he turned and looked at me for what seemed a long time. There was so much light coming from his eyes, I could barely see the outline of his face. As he began to answer my question, I received an unmistakable spiritual transmission that completely stopped my thinking mind and opened into a boundless experience of Oneness and extraordinary grace.

From that moment on, I was a devoted student of Jean’s, traveling and studying with him until his death in 1998. Along with meditation, the blessing of our meeting and my friendship with Jean was the most profound gift of grace in my life.

There were many blessings and insights in studying and being with Jean, including the opportunity to live and work with someone who had absolutely no attachment to his 'story.’ Jean was not identified in any way with anything that he ever accomplished or that ever happened to him. Unlike most of us, no part of him was bound up or suffering from any past experience. Jean was completely in the present moment like no one I had ever met. He regularly encouraged us, “Pay attention to the facts.” of any given perception, experience or thought.

From that time on, I have been dedicated to this practice—paying attention to the facts. Jean’s suggestion took my meditative practice from twenty minutes twice a day, to a moment to moment experience … and it changed my life forever.