Building a Culture of the Heart
Susanna and Puran Bair, co-founders of iamHeart, a nonprofit organization dedicated to helping people access emotional, physical and spiritual wellbeing through the transformative practice of Heart Rhythm Meditation—or HRM.
Together, they’ve spent decades developing and teaching this heart-centered approach, which synchronizes breath and heartbeat to create coherence in body, mind and spirit. They both studied intensively for over four decades with, and now represent, Sufi master Pir Vilayat Inayat Khan.
Susanna and Puran have taught thousands of students worldwide, created the Breath & Heart app, which makes their accessible, life-enhancing practices available to people everywhere, and, they have authored four books including Living From the Heart and Energize Your Heart. Their shared mission is to awaken the power of the heart—not just as a metaphor for love, but as a real source of vitality, insight, healing, and transformation.
Susanna Bair
Co-Founder of iamHeart
Susanna Bair is a mystic and teacher of heart-centered meditation and co-founder of iamHeart, a nonprofit school dedicated to cultivating emotional, physical and spiritual wellbeing through Heart Rhythm Meditation (HRM).Â
Susanna is a pioneer in her focus on creating the Culture of the Heart, bringing about micro communities of open, emotionally vulnerable and safe spaces, that aim to shift the larger culture in that direction. As President, Susanna has directed the application of HRM to health, relationships, accomplishments and spiritual development. To that end, she directs the school’s mentoring program that serves hundreds of meditators with personalized and supervised spiritual training over three decades.
Susanna co-created the Breath & Heart mobile app, which makes her recordings of HRM accessible to people everywhere, guiding them to synchronize their heartbeat and breath to reveal the power and wisdom of their hearts. She also co-founded the University of the Heart (iamU), where students are trained in advanced meditations in a two-year program. Susanna co-authored the source books on HRM: Living from the Heart, Energize Your Heart, and Follow Your Heart.
Recognized as a master of meditation by her teacher, she serves as a successor to Pir Vilayat Inayat Khan, of the Universal Sufi tradition. She has taught widely in North America, Europe and East Asia, giving private retreats, group retreats, seminars and keynote conference presentations. Susanna holds a Master’s in Counseling Psychology and advanced degrees and clinical experience at the University of Vienna. Previously, she was a theater director in the State Theater of Basil, Switzerland.
Puran Bair
Co-Founder of iamHeart
Puran Khan Bair is an American mystic, author and co-founder of iamHeart, the school of Heart Rhythm Meditation (HRM). He developed HRM as a method of breathing and concentration that creates a coherent heart rhythm, based on an authentic method of Christian mysticism.
Puran was the lead author, with his partner Susanna, of the source books on HRM: Living from the Heart, Energize Your Heart, and Follow Your Heart. He has written extensively on the physiological benefits of synchronizing your breathing to your heartbeats and has collaborated with researchers to demonstrate the visible light emitted by the heart and the extraordinary stress resilience created by HRM. He is also the co-creator of the Breath & Heart app for iPhones, which measures one’s Vagal Tone of stress resilience as enhanced by Heart Rhythm Meditation.
With degrees in electrical engineering and computer science, Puran links the inner experience of mysticism to physics, biology, and principles of the nervous system and human development. He is a frequent speaker in spiritual, scientific and business conferences. Recognized as a master of meditation by his teacher, he serves as a successor to Pir Vilayat Inayat Khan, of the Universal Sufi tradition, with whom he worked closely for 33 years until Pir’s death, and 21 years afterwards.Â
Podcasts
Podcasts with Susanna & Puran
Our History
Heart Rhythm Meditation was developed by Puran and Susanna Bair in response to a charge from their teacher, Pir Vilayat Khan, to create a school of meditation that integrated the ancient teachings of his father’s Sufi lineage with insights gleaned from modern science. The enduring aim of iamHeart is to offer a practical method that individuals can apply to their challenges and thus gain a greater sense of purpose and harmony in their lives.
Puran and Susanna have devoted their lives to interpreting the mystical teachings of Hazrat Inayat Khan. They have worked with leading researchers to document the physiological changes that occur during meditation, demonstrating dramatic changes in metabolism, heart rate, brain waves, photon emission, and electromagnetism. Integrating Inayat Khan’s mystical teachings with current information on the benefits of conscious, rhythmic, heart-centered breathing, and drawing from their own wealth of extensive meditation experience and expertise, they have created a unique method of heart-centered meditation that is both practical and profound.
In 1989 Puran and Susanna founded iamHeart, teaching in-person and online classes, leading group and individual retreats, hosting seminars, and speaking at conferences. Together they have authored four books and trained thousands of practitioners, teachers, mentors, healers, and retreat guides around the world. In addition to its founders, iamHeart is supported by a diverse group of highly trained meditation instructors who can guide and assist you in improving your health, relationships and purposeful accomplishments, while unfolding the potentials of your heart.
Hazrat Inayat Khan Philosophy Study
Connect with others focused on the teachings of Hazrat Inayat Khan, Sufism, meditation, and mysticism.
- Hosted by Susanna & Puran
- Meetings Twice a Month
- $20 Monthly Subscription
