What's so special about the Gateway Voyage program? This "participant's-eye-view" unerringly picks out the components that make the VOYAGE so much more than the sum of its parts.

Dear Helen,

Thank you so much for the postcard following up on my Gateway Voyage of this past August. I wanted to get back to you sooner, but I've been so busy with so many good opportunities that have come my way since Gateway. I did want to let you know my thoughts on the program and how my life has changed since then. First of all, before coming to Gateway, I had done Waves I through III of the Gateway Experience tapes at home. I enjoyed doing the home tapes and received some benefits from them. However, I always knew that I'd take the leap and do a Gateway at TMI someday. This year, (1994) NJ and I finally made the commitment and are ever so glad that we did!

The Gateway program at TMI is nothing like doing the home tapes. It is a uniquely growing experience all by itself. Though the home tapes are beneficial for quieting the mind and relaxing, they cannot compare to the intensity and personal growth of going through the Gateway Voyage at TMI. After much thought and careful reflection, I have broken down Gateway into five components. These components are powerful by themselves and contribute to the total experience. In addition, their synergy is really what makes Gateway so special. No one component is more important than the others, nor can they really be separated. They are as follows.

1. The Setting.
Being in the Blue Ridge Mountains among the beauty, peacefulness, harmony, and quiet was incredible. Not only were we in this grand environment with nature's sounds all around us, but being isolated from the rest of the world helped me focus on myself and not the "out there." The lush greenness was especially healing. There was also the architectural beauty of the Center itself, making me feel like I was home. The design of the CHEC units was perfectly thought out and nothing I have at home could reproduce that environment.

2. Being Taken Care of.
I have never felt so inconspicuously taken care of in my life! It was wonderful! Every little detail was handled, and the program was so well organized, it ran without a glitch. There was never a worry about what we were doing next or where we had to be--everything from meals to when to go to the bathroom. Not only did this help me to focus on why I was at TMI, but it was very nurturing. I also feel that TMI didn't skimp on anything.

3. The Group.
I am so grateful to have experienced this part of the program. In some ways, it was the hardest part of the program, and it was also the most rewarding and moving. I've never been with a group of people before who have changed so much in six days, who I've learned so many lessons from, and who I've learned to love so much. All that group energy coming together increased the energy exponentially, making it that much easier to go to different levels of consciousness.

4. The Transcendence.
This was so transforming and so personal for me. I experienced things that I never came close to experiencing in doing the home tapes. Messages came to me easily and clearly. The expansion of my consciousness showed such a different and bigger perception of life, death, and reality, that it's a perception I hope to keep with me always.

5. The Trainers.
Our trainers were John Cahill and Ann Martin. They were the glue and the catalysts of the group at the same time. In the nuts-and-bolts scheme of things, they kept everything on schedule, taking care of the many details involved in moving twenty-four people to where they needed to be. I'm speaking in the physical world, of course. On other levels, they were subtle and effective guides into ourselves and other worlds. And when some group members went through emotional crises, Ann and John really showed their skills in gently guiding the person through the crisis and to a better place. It was always comforting knowing they were there. Not only did they help deepen the whole experience of GATEWAY, they showed us how to have a lot of fun doing it.

All five components build on each other and interconnect like a spider's web. Break one strand and the whole web is weaker. But together, you've got one helluva design.

As for my life after Gateway, it's changed in many ways. I am a much happier person, much more at peace with myself, and have a different perspective on everything. Both NJ and I continue to use the tapes and skills we have learned to go to the different Focuses. I continue to use the tools of problem solving and one-month patterning, as well as many of the other exercises.

The Institute is a magical place. I love that TMI keeps a low profile because I always want it to be accessible and unspoiled. I also believe that whoever is meant to discover TMI will find it. Thank you for helping to make my experience at TMI such a special one. I will be back!

Hemi-Sync® is a registered trademark of Interstate Industries, Inc.
© 1995 by The Monroe Institute

My vocabulary and motor skills have escaped me, and I am only left with the tingle of one of the most lovely things that has ever happened to me. I felt something today that has been described to me my whole life and still, even the most eloquent words could not describe the space I’m in right now. Externally, the sun is preparing to sleep, the grass is ripe with its own color, and the afternoon is settling into twilight, which gives the mountains and homes a surreal light and energy. The world and environment have complied with my one wish for this magical moment, and have become completely placid and serene. ~ Journal entry, Tuesday, Teen Gateway

How does one describe experience? Is there a way to categorize a true experience that rattles one’s heart and provides a gateway to Who You Are? Two months ago, my parents dropped me off at The Monroe Institute® on a rainy Saturday with their blessings and a kiss and gave me one of the wildest, most enriching experiences in my life thus far. I could write this very dryly and just describe the course of events that took place in that one week out of a million, but to describe what happened to me, I have to abandon conventional writing and resort to the language of the heart. When my parents asked me to go to the Teen Gateway, I was skeptical, excited, and had absolutely no idea what to expect. I showed up with everyone else, hoping to be able to accomplish whatever it was that we had all come to do. Later in the week and in the months since, I learned that I am still doing what I came to the Institute to do, and there doesn’t seem to be any word for that task other than "living."

Something happens when people are placed in a safe, extremely open environment. Somewhere in between "no-time," breakfast, and tapes, we found ourselves being honest, aware, and having absolutely the most wholesome fun ever. All of our words, our bad jokes, our tears, our insecurities, our morning breath--all the stuff that comes with living with people for a week--fell on receptive ears. There was nothing we could say to one another that was not heard, although it sometimes took us a while to understand the intention or truer nature of the comment, and all of us stuck with our issues until we were able to offer each other some help, or at least a laugh. Truly, the most amazing aspect of the program was that fourteen complete strangers, aged thirteen to seventeen, all found each other to be absolutely delightful human beings. There was no pressure to be or to feel more or less than we were during each second of our six days together. It was exactly perfect to be ourselves and to remind each other to speak our truths, to listen, and-above all else--to care.

The most challenging aspect of the Gateway was leaving! In talking to each other afterward, the thing that most of us regretted was our inability to tell our peers what had happened to us during the week. We returned to our "normal" lives with tools to access an amazing part of life, and other than to our parents, there was no real way to communicate what had happened. It is difficult when an experience’s two biggest lessons are learning to communicate what is happening inside and also learning that sometimes communication is unnecessary. We all gained from the program exactly what we took from it; from each other, we gained fourteen friends who truly understood. in August.

Amelia Uffelman is seventeen years old and a senior at Tandem Friends School in Charlottesville, Virginia. She has been deeply involved in theater arts throughout her scholastic career and has appeared in numerous plays. Amelia’s most memorable role was as Beatrice in "The Effect of Gamma Rays on Man-in-the-Moon Marigolds." She plans to attend Warren Wilson College after graduation.

Hemi-Sync® is a registered trademark of Interstate Industries, Inc.
© 1999 by The Monroe Institute

Today the energy and the routine of our activity shifted into reverse. The morning started out in David Francis Hall, where we usually end up in the evening. Our Gateway group was in the lecture hall to see the film Powers of Ten. The first scene showed a couple lying on a picnic blanket in a Chicago park. Then the camera zoomed back in increments of 10 percent, all the way out to the edge of the known physical universe. At that point, it reversed direction and-keeping the same momentum-zoomed in on the man’s hand and continued inward, down to the level of an atom inside the skin.

I was fascinated. We live our lives focused primarily in an extremely small slice of physical space spanning the surface of our skins. As infinitely large as the physical universe seems to be, however, there is an infinitely larger nonphysical universe surrounding it-both outward and inward-into which we can expand our consciousness. Through that shift in perspective, I realized that Powers of Ten was a metaphor for Robert Monroe’s lifework and the mission of the Institute that is his legacy.

The film was a fitting prelude to the first of the three tapes scheduled for that Wednesday morning: a tape designed to send us into the silence of self. I didn’t know if I could stand three successive sessions, so I told Karen Malik, our trainer, that I might take a solo break at the lake after session one. In Focus 21 we were asked to expand our consciousness to the edge of the physical universe and beyond. I found myself holding the entire physical universe in my hand! That image, and the associated expansion of consciousness, didn’t bother me as much as an intense feeling that the entire universe was now within my body. My ego and body panicked together. All of my cells felt as if they were being stretched in every direction at once on a medieval torture rack, and my whole body seemed to be flailing around in explosive paroxysms. “You call this deep relaxation?” I thought to myself.

My frightening, jolting movement through a psychedelic starfield resembled the trip that Jodie Foster took in Contact. Another scene was analogous to Flatliners, in which the researcher took himself to the edge of death to get a glimpse into the realms beyond, while hoping that his compadres would slap the defibrillator onto his chest before the point of no return. My personal defibrillator arrived in the nick of time in the form of a voice, that of my friend and soulmate, Bob Monroe, who gently brought me back down to Focus 10. I finally relaxed with the thought that I had once again defied the death and destruction of my body.

Tears started to flow just before Bob rescued me. How could I ever get through the levels beyond Focus 21 intact? It felt as though I’d almost had a heart attack or a stroke. So, immediately after leaving my CHEC unit I took my blood pressure. It was 122/81 with a pulse rate of 72. Either the racing heart was all in my mind or else the energy had been released by that earlier volcanic eruption! Even so, I still couldn’t stop crying.

Then it struck me that my cataclysmic experience was connected to the dream that had awakened me earlier that morning-a dream that had played itself out backward just like the day’s routine. The dream had “clicked” from a scene with practically the whole state of Maryland on fire . . . to a whole residential neighborhood in flames . . . to a house engulfed . . . to a child in the house with a little black and white dog (just before the dog accidently started the fire) . . . to the contractor building the house (knowing how the story was going to turn out and trying to change the course of events by making the house fireproof). I was mirrored in every element of the dream. What symbology: fire of passion and anger and violent cleansing; house as the physical container for the soul; child and dog as innocence, spontaneity, creativity, and playfulness; and the creator of the entire reality trying to rewrite the story. The dream also resonated with the last tape exercise on Tuesday evening. We were to pull our greatest fear out of the Energy Conversion Box, identify and feel the attendant emotions, and rewrite whatever frightening story had shut down our souls.

A couple of hours later, I sat under the maple trees and looked out over Lake Miranon. The crying had finally stopped, and I felt soothed, nurtured, and surrounded by peacefulness and love. Two dogs wandered by, sniffing their way around, and fully enjoying each moment in the eternal Here/Now. After that pleasant little diversion, I refocused on my own situation. Just sitting by the lake with an opportunity to regroup represented a major change in a pattern going back to early childhood. My supersensitive soul had been devastated countless times by some event that threatened to kill my body. Yet either my peers, or authority figures, or the rule of form over function forced me to stay with the routine and to minimize or ignore the attack. Tears welled up again as I grieved for the panic-stricken child within beseeching somebody-anybody, please, oh please!-to protect its battered soul.

Today, I stated my intention to care for myself and put my need for sanctuary in nature ahead of the morning agenda. Miraculously, I was supported (even blessed) by both trainers to go and to report back after processing. A major fear--that of disapproval--had been released from my Energy Conversion Box. I saw the many past occasions when brutal violation had been the price for daring to honor my own needs over accepted protocol. By honoring myself today and being supported in that choice, I learned that it was safe and acceptable to put myself first.

This story has a truly happy ending. By leaving the scene of the trauma for a few hours of restoration in nature, my first exposure to Focus 21 ultimately served as a cosmic and psychic roto-rooter. It cleared out the “gunk” in my energetic plumbing so higher energy frequencies could run through me more smoothly later that afternoon. When I mustered up the courage to climb back into my CHEC unit and revisit Focus 21, I quickly discovered that the energy of 21 could be used to speed manifestation of my desires in the outer physical world. Thus, while Focus 21 originally left a bitter aftertaste, it eventually became an acquired taste. Perhaps “No pain, no gain,” really is true. In any event--to quote the indigenous peoples--“That’s a healing story.”

Professional Member Harriet Carter is a full-time attorney specializing in tax law and a part-time researcher in after-death communications and altered states of consciousness. Guided Tour to the Afterlife, her firsthand account of her friend’s death and the adventures that followed, is now available in bookstores. Her intense Gateway Voyage® experiences in August 1999, described here in the edited version of her journal entries, almost convinced her that an NDE was imminent.

Hemi-Sync® is a registered trademark of Interstate Industries, Inc.
© 2000 by The Monroe Institute

I'm Adam Tilson and I live in Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan, and I'm sixteen years old. My Dad was always interested in meditation, consciousness expansion, and the Monroe system, but I never really was. He took several Monroe courses and then became a GATEWAY OUTREACH trainer. He had been putting on OUTREACH workshops for several years, when I decided that I should give it a try in May of 2003. I was a bit disappointed. I had assumed that if Hemi-Sync® was working you should have an immediate profound change. But my experiences were much subtler. As the tapes progressed, instead of making myself open to the subtle experiences I began to feel like I was having troubles. I became somewhat annoyed and that didn't help at all. Finally, I realized that I should just let go and let whatever happened happen. Then I began seeing things that I knew were not just my imagination. That had been happening all along but I was too wrapped up in my expectations to notice.

My father and I always traveled every other February during my school's winter break. This year he came up with the suggestion to go to TMI for a GATEWAY VOYAGE®. I wasn't really sure because of how I'd felt about the workshop. In the end it must have been fate. I packed my bags and prepared for what turned out to be the ride of my life. I tried to enter the GATEWAY VOYAGE® with no expectations whatsoever and just let the experiences--no matter how unimportant seeming--come along. Near the end of the week I had met some amazing people but as far as the tape sessions, as much as I tried to have no expectations, they were still there. Fearing that this might be the workshop all over again, I kept an open mind. I'm sure glad that I did because, during one of the last tapes I experienced an amazing enlightening moment. I got the impression that the moment was waiting for me all along, and only showed up when I finally started to trust and enjoy the process. The GATEWAY VOYAGE® gave me a new outlook on my spirituality and a new outlook on life in general. I left it feeling completely fulfilled but at the same time wanting more. It was as if a whole lifetime had passed in that week, yet it was the fastest week of my life.

I'm Richard Tilson and I am honored to be Adam's Dad. I've been interested in The Monroe Institute® since reading Robert A. Monroe's first book Journeys Out of the Body in 1980. Finally in February of 1997, after seventeen years of intent, I made it down to Virginia for my first GATEWAY VOYAGE®. Next to having my kids this was the most wonderful experience I'd ever had. I've tried to take a course about once per year as a special gift to myself.

On one of my trips I discovered a course called TDAP (Trainer Development and Assessment Program). It teaches how to put on a weekend workshop using the Hemi-Sync® technology. So I took TDAP in June of 2000. TDAP graduates must put on two workshops with a mentor in order to become an accredited OUTREACH Facilitator.

I am always telling people that one of the most intimate, romantic things they can do with their partner is to go to The Monroe Institute® together. But, in my opinion the closest thing to unconditional love that most people encounter in this reality is their interaction with their kids. Going to TMI with your son or daughter is one of the fullest experiences that a parent can have. I was glad that Adam could not decide on a destination in February and was open to attending the GATEWAY VOYAGE®. He has a profoundly deep spiritual nature and a conscious understanding of reality that is definitely not mainstream. It was a pleasure to see how readily the warm and courteous, yet diverse, participants and trainers at our GATEWAY VOYAGE® accepted Adam--regardless of his youth. This kind of interaction with fellow participants makes the Monroe experience overwhelmingly enjoyable. I would often hear comments like "Oh I hope I can come here with my son or daughter one day." Everyone seemed to enjoy Adam and I was thrilled to share the wonderment of The VOYAGE with him. Adam's comment, "How can a week be so full and yet pass so quickly?" was true for me as well. Adam is hooked and wants to know when we're going back again!

Richard Tilson was born in a small Ontario town near the Minnesota border and migrated west with his parents to the prairie town of Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan. He is a businessman and a farmer. As well as being involved in a channeling group, Rick enjoys leading EXCURSION workshops as time permits. His son, Adam, was born in Moose Jaw and is currently in the eleventh grade. An honor student, Adam likes computers and has a talent for understanding technological devices. He is attracted to a career in engineering but at this point his favorite class is law. Adam's giving heart leads him to view everyone as a friend and activities like attending the GATEWAY VOYAGE® with his father nurture his reserved and philosophical nature.

Hemi-Sync® is a registered trademark of Interstate Industries, Inc.
© 2003 by The Monroe Institute

When Laurie Monroe sent a notice that The Monroe Institute was offering a significant tuition reduction for both a returnee and for a friend attending the GATEWAY VOYAGE®, I was intrigued. What would it be like to take this introductory program a second time? Would it be like going to kindergarten again? Or might it reopen channels that seemed to have been clogged of late, sort of like a rotor-rooter? Determined to go, I invited four friends I thought might be interested in exploring altered states of consciousness. Two accepted the challenge to attend.

Participants included the usual exciting mix of people from all over the United States, and also from India, Australia, and the Netherlands. We were twenty-three voyagers led by two brilliant trainers, Penny Holmes and John Kortum.

This definitely was not kindergarten. For me, this second GATEWAY VOYAGE was every bit as powerful as any of the TMI programs I have been privileged to attend. It did, indeed, restore my ability to meditate, my ability to "see beyond" the ordinary. While listening to tapes in my CHEC unit, I witnessed some awe inspiring scenes: wild horses leaping chasms, a mountain pool wherein swam a dolphin, puzzling over how he could have come from the ocean to a mountain pool. At one time I saw a large eye closing slowly in a wink and later white puffy clouds superimposed over a starry, cobalt blue, midnight sky. It was exciting to contemplate the message of these visions.

Before we began our journeys at The Monroe Institute, we had been asked to refrain from conducting business or sending or receiving telephone messages except in emergencies. The day before The VOYAGE ended, Ross, a farmer from Australia, received an emergency telephone message from his wife. Their only source of water, a large cistern, was empty. There were no clouds in the sky presaging rain; there was no wind to power the windmill. What should she do? We decided that our group could concentrate on manifesting wind. We formed a circle and sang three powerful rounds of OM. The next morning at breakfast, Ross reported that his wife had called again. A wind had come up, the windmill had pumped water from a deep aquifer, and the cistern was three-quarters full. Coincidence?

Having "volunteered" to write about this new Bring-a-friend Gateway Voyage, I decided to ask fellow participants to send me an account of their own experiences if they felt so inclined. Here are a few of their responses:

Jayne recollected the program this way: It was all astounding to just relax for six days and be with like-minded people, to have all decisions made for me. I didn't even have to decide what to eat, not to mention cook. The feeling of joy and love amongst our group was so special. I am definitely not a groupie or workshop junkie, yet I felt so relaxed and comfortable. It was as if I found myself there. It all went by too quickly.

Alice said: The highlight of my experience at The Monroe Institute is to really appreciate, on a very deep level, that indeed I am much more than my physical body. And how this has translated on the emotional level is that it has allowed me to shed my "emotional baggage," thereby liberating me from the self-doubt associated with it. The experience has instilled in me more confidence to pursue more of my "dreams," because I also realize that my dreams are on a level of consciousness truly reflecting my soul's longings and soul's attitudes.

This last contribution is from Barb: The night before our Gateway group would disband, Penny said, "The trouble with you guys is that you think you are normal." We all laughed. I laughed pretty hard myself. After all, I had just watched Welcome Back Norman. It took me a little under forty-eight hours to get "Normanized". Grocery lines were always at a standstill and I was always in a hurry. Other drivers were too slow, too stupid. Instead of thinking about Focus™ 21 and the way each of us is bound to the other in the folds of a loving universe, I found myself thinking the word moron a lot.

Then came Jacquelyn's request. I thought I might read through the journal I kept while at TMI and find a section I could draw from. Each entry was like an old photograph. Focus Levels and other worlds seemed more like a recent dream, fogged over from days of forgetting.

Then I remembered the hamsters. During one TMI exercise, Ross and I worked as a pair. Ross had given me his psychic answer to my unvoiced question regarding whether or not to get a new pet for my daughter. My daughter had been begging to get a miniature pig or a hamster. Ross, not knowing my question, envisioned some "furry round things behind black stripes." We now are the proud owners of not one, but two hamsters.

As my week at TMI progressed, I remember feeling awed at the loveliness emerging in each person. It was as if all things superimposed and untrue began to fall away, revealing more and more of the true beings of love that we are. The gift I treasure most is the memory of watching each person's face unfold, more beautiful than the day before, until at last we were no longer twenty-five social presentations of people, but instead one exquisite jewel with twenty-five radiant facets.

In the course of her eighty-six years in Earth-school, Jacquelyn Phillips has pursued a variety of professions. Commercial art was her first career. She was a riveter for Douglas Aircraft and later a draftsman for the Women's Army Corps during World War II. After the war, Jackie married and raised a family, then worked as a real estate broker and agent. In recent years she has attended the GATEWAY VOYAGE®, GUIDELINES®, LIFELINE, EXPLORATION 27®, and MC2, and participated in the Dolphin Energy Club. She is certified at the highest level as a Healing Touch Practitioner. Before moving to Iowa City in 2001, she was the founding director of the Center for Healing Intervention (CHI), which opened in 1997. It was the first integrative medicine center on Virginia's Eastern Shore. Now she is bringing that same missionary spirit to Iowa City and is coordinating training for other Healing Touch practitioners as well as bringing TMI to Iowa in the form of an EXCURSION workshop led by OUTREACH Trainers Robert and Marinda Holbrook.

Hemi-Sync® is a registered trademark of Interstate Industries, Inc.
© 2004 by The Monroe Institute

Like many people who are drawn to The Monroe Institute, I've had several other-than-ordinary experiences over the years. I grew up in a small rural town in the midwestern United States, and there was nothing in that environment that helped me put those experiences into some kind of meaningful context. I hid these odd happenings, and as a result I felt other than normal, not a very good thing to be as a child in a small farming community. Long after I had left home, I continued to lock away a vital part of myself. The walls I built inside me were reflected outwardly in the distance I felt in my relationships with others.

The residential programs at The Monroe Institute have turned out to be the key that has released the magical part of me I had hidden for decades. I became interested in the Institute as a means to cultivate any remote viewing skills I might have. I was focused solely on how the programs could benefit me. What I didn't realize was that this path that appeared to lead into myself would actually take me outward, demolishing not only the walls inside but those outside as well.

When I returned from my GATEWAY VOYAGE®, I saw the town where I live with new eyes. Everywhere I looked, there were opportunities to nurture the part of my life I'd locked away. Shaaron Honeycutt's morning yoga sessions had left me thirsting for more. I was amazed to discover a yoga center just a block from work. I signed up for a class over my lunch hour. I'd become curious about energy healing. A bit further down the street was a massage school that offered Reiki attunements and courses in energy healing. I began registering for classes. I'd been working with dreams all of my life, but never face-to-face with others. I learned about some people who were doing dream work, and soon, we were sharing our dreams. Before long, I was part of a community of like-hearted people whom I'd never known existed.

GUIDELINES® took this a step further. As in all the programs I've been to, the tape exercises were wonderful. The most striking occurrence at GUIDELINES, however, involved another participant. While we were doing a paired intuitive questioning exercise, his inner self-helper (ISH) communicated very energetically with me. The energy of that encounter continued to work on me throughout the night. The program taught me that we are all guides for each other. Mirroring the community I'd discovered at home, I began to find another community among the participants in the programs. No matter how many people I know going into a program, I now make it a point to try to get to know everyone.

And that even includes the people who annoy me. I now know that my irritation is often telling me something important. I try to ask, what is it about myself that is trying to distance me from this person? The answer can be profound. At one program I realized that a couple of women really irked me. Sitting quietly with my discomfort, it dawned on me that my lifelong distrust of aspects of the archetypal Mother was being projected onto them. With that realization a lot of new ground for personal growth opened up for me.

The trainers at each program have always emphasized taking our program experiences back into daily life. My own experiences have shown me that any distance between myself and others is related to distance between aspects of myself. Any judgment about others that cuts me away from them will also cut me away from parts of myself. By serving others, I serve myself. I've tried to bring this lesson into my daily life, into my relationships with family and friends and with people I meet at work-especially at work. I'm a computer systems administrator, and the culture of systems administration is very dehumanizing. The language says it all: people are users, or more often, clueless users. Lately, I've been consciously trying to look at the people I help as human beings and to see my job as an act of service. The steps I've taken in that direction have helped me feel better about myself and the job I do.

Last February, I took one more step to bring Monroe home. I helped a friend, Jackie Phillips, coordinate a GATEWAY EXCURSION weekend with Bob and Marinda Holbrook. I was excited about sharing Monroe insights with my friends. As the program began, I was consciously struggling with a set of fears: "What if my friends don't like the program? Will they still like me?" I felt exposed and vulnerable. It was great! I realized that this was another opportunity to tear down more of the walls within myself, and outside myself. My friends all loved the program, and I took another step toward living my life without boundaries.

I frequently think back to Joshua in a Box, the video we saw at the GATEWAY VOYAGE about a man living inside a box. I'd been doling my life out among a set of boxes. The Monroe Institute has helped me begin to toss out these boxes and live more openly, freely, and joyfully.

Karl Boyken is a computer systems administrator for the University of Iowa. He has been attending residential programs at The Monroe Institute® for four years and is a Dolphin Energy Club member. Karl is also a hospice volunteer and a student of yoga.

Hemi-Sync® is a registered trademark of Interstate Industries, Inc.
© 2004 by The Monroe Institute

In April 2006, I had a double spinal fusion on my lower back. The surgery was a major success, as was my rehabilitation. I swam and walked the beach every day, ate healthily, and drank lots of water. The best part was being able to walk upright again, no longer dragging my knuckles on the ground like my Cro-Magnon ancestors of ages past. The surgery was a result of a horrible fall in 2003 that pinched the nerves in my lower back, legs, and feet and fractured my L5 vertebra. The neurosurgical genius who pieced me back together explained that I would experience major numbness in my back, legs, calves, feet, and toes, but in six to eight months I might be able to function normally again, for the most part. Wow! Three years of suffering would finally come to an end. I don’t take pills. They mess with my brain, body, and digestive system and even worse, shut me off from receiving the incredible flow from our omnipotent creator. That alone is the true reason I avoid them.

Three months post-op, I decided to go to an actual physical therapy center, trusting that they could take me to the next level. I had no conception of the month of torture I was about to undergo. It led to horrible stabbing pains in my hips and spontaneous cramping in my legs, feet, and toes both day and night. I had worked so hard and had come so far. Why was this happening? A CAT scan revealed that the surgical sites were healing above average and everything looked great, but a static picture couldn’t explain the “why” of my horrifically random pain. It was agonizing.

The next morning I woke up in a very dark funk, feeling hopeless about my recovery and feeling like I didn’t have it in me to carry on anymore. Not in a suicidal kind of way but in a way that’s hard to explain. So I asked God for help. I begged, I cried, I said: “Please, God. Please guide me to a nurturing place––somewhere I can ground and heal myself with the innate intelligence you’ve bestowed on all of us. Show me the way back to your light.”

Lying in bed, I thought about Robert Monroe and The Monroe Institute. I had called weeks earlier to see if there were any openings in the GATEWAY VOYAGE, but it was full. I spoke out to Bob and said, “Hey, Bob . . . can you make a space for me?” The adage “Be careful what you ask for” couldn’t have held more truth. Within the hour, Karen Viar called to let me know that a space was available and I was welcome to participate. It was so much of a sign from God (and Bob) that I decided to take the leap of faith and make it happen for myself.

The TMI experience was incredible and provided me with an array of tools and information to use in my future. The trainers, the participants, the guest speakers and the environment all came together to magnify my experience. Most amazing was that my refreshed perspective didn’t occur until after I left the program and was thrust back into society. Then some extraordinary miracles occurred, which can best be described as the revelation of my own purpose and destiny in Technicolor. The people I met and connected with, the naturally beautiful places I saw, and the internal reflection all enabled me to have an epiphany––one that would help me recharge, reconnect, and forge ahead just like I did before my accident. What epiphany, you ask? Well, in a nutshell, I was allowed to no longer see or feel my yesterdays. My perspective changed so I could move forward unhindered by past regrets, losses, and misunderstandings.

On my return home, I called my mom from the airport. I told her that despite the times we haven’t spoken because of anger, resentment, misunderstanding, and frustration, it is all good. Everything happened the way it was supposed to happen, and she is the greatest mother on the planet. No longer would I fret over not feeling more loved, nurtured, and understood and of all things, that our bond wasn’t stronger over the years. There were no regrets. It happened the right way. Despite the many times she might have felt sad or guilty about not being a better giving, loving, and nurturing parent, she did it all the right way. If she hadn’t done everything exactly as she did, I would quite possibly never have arrived at this moment of complete awareness, because I wouldn’t have needed to search for the truth myself. I told her, “I love you so much, Mom, and thank you for being you and doing it just the way you did.”

My mother was virtually speechless, and everyone who knows my mother would know this was most likely the first day in her existence when that had happened. As she thanked me, I could hear in her voice the tears welling in her eyes. For the first time in a long time, they were happy tears. Could I give her a better gift? Yeah, maybe a hug and kiss, which I promptly delivered on arriving home.

I asked Mom to go to Dad, wrap her arms around him, and tell him the exact thing I’d just told her. And to tell him that despite the years he was gone from our lives while flying presidents, saving people’s lives, and fighting for his country, that he did it all the right way––that I couldn’t be prouder to have a father who gave so much to everyone and that none of it was a loss to me any longer. “Please tell him how sorry I am for the times we didn’t speak because of different beliefs or misunderstandings,” I said. “And tell him how much I love him for all the ways he loves his family, and the tremendous sense of self that he has given all of us as a result of doing it all right.”

I imagined my mom putting her arms around my dad and how for one moment in their lives, they could stop, stand in solitude as the ONE they are and feel the jubilation of knowing their number-one son had finally reconnected to the incredible loving grace of God. What a gift for them and for me!

Sure, eliminating my physical pain would be a wonderful gift. But somehow knowing that everything is complete between my family and me means that much more. Sometimes pain doesn’t hurt so much when you know that the people around you truly love you and would do anything for you in your time of need. That in itself is one of the greatest gifts I know.

Mark Shelton is a Southern California native and actively pursues his interests in digital photography, 3-D animation, DVD and video production, film and television, commercials, music (guitar, bass, and keyboards), stand-up comedy and improv, and last, but not least, traveling God’s beautiful Earth, taking pictures along the way. Mark attended the GATEWAY VOYAGE® in September 2006.

Copyright © by Mark W. Shelton

Hemi-Sync® is a registered trademark of Interstate Industries, Inc.
© 2006 by The Monroe Institute

<strong>by Viola Johnson
Winter/Spring 2009</strong>

[caption id="attachment_1431" align="alignnone" width="182" caption="Viola Johnson"]<a href="http://former.monroeinstitute.org/focus/files/2009/07/f-ws-09violajoohnson.png"><img class="size-medium wp-image-1431" title="f-ws-09violajoohnson" src="http://former.monroeinstitute.org/focus/files/2009/07/f-ws-09violajoohnson.png" alt="Viola Johnson" width="182" height="223" /></a>[/caption]

Viola Johnson says she was the child of a spiritually enlightened, psychic mother who encouraged her to seek the path less traveled. By the time she was thirteen, she was meditating regularly, learning the basics of nature, and exploring the inner workings of her mind.

College brought her first “sensory deprivation tank” experience. In the 1970s she continued to “tank out” at Tranquility Tanks in New York City and at Altered States in Los Angeles. In LA she first learned about the work of Robert Monroe after hearing Hemi-Sync® through the sound system of the tank. The Hemi-Sync “wave” produced one of her most exciting meditations. Viola continued to experiment but seemed to gravitate to Hemi-Sync more than any other tool for enlightenment. After reading the chapter on The Monroe Institute® in Megabrain, she knew that at some time in her life she would make a pilgrimage to the mountain to take her own voyage.

Family genealogical research brought Viola to Nelson County for a series of trips. On the first trip she stopped at the Institute to feel its vibration and to plant her feet on the soil, encouraging fate to allow her to return. In 2005—thanks to her family—her dream came true. She packed her laptop, Luca (the hide of the wolf who is her dream companion and guide), and almost twenty-five years of excitement to embark on a personal voyage of discovery, which she shares with us in this lyrical journal.

Saturday

I have arrived at the first step of this spiritual journey. I always find the trip down Route 29 relaxing. It has been at least three years since I’ve been in Nelson County. I had forgotten just how beautiful the Blue Ridge Mountains are.

I stopped at the Nelson Memorial Library and dropped off the Braddock and Johnson genealogy reports and charts. The librarian was amazed and gratified at the gift. Mine is the first African-American genealogy in the library’s county genealogical department. I hope the reports are utilized by other Blacks in Nelson County, who just might be amazed that someone cared to add their family history.

I arrived on the mountain at 2 P.M. and was unpacked by 3 P.M. I realized that the old familiar vibration was beginning, so Luca (the wolf) and I climbed into my controlled holistic environmental chamber (CHEC) and had the first of what I know will be many meditations.

There are twenty-five of us in our GATEWAY VOYAGE® class. Our instructors are Karen Malik and Bob Holbrook. The group is international, with three people here from Japan, three from Canada, a mother and son team from Mexico, one person from Denmark, one from Britain, a charming young woman from Romania, and the rest from all parts of the United States. My roommate is a delightful woman. We have a lot in common. I think we will enjoy each other. A man came up to me and started a conversation because his now-deceased mentor—a Black woman—had instructed him to find the Black woman at the VOYAGE and say “Hello.” He was crying as he relayed this message. He misses her very much.

After an introductory film by and about Robert Monroe, we listened to our first Hemi-Sync exercise.

The evening meditation is now over. I am going to wrap myself in Luca’s skin, sit on the roof for a while and enjoy the bright red-orange crescent moon. My mother would have called it a “blood-burning moon.”

Sunday

The wake-up music was gentle but insistent. I showered, had a cup of tea, and went to yoga then breakfast.

The first exercise was a meditation on Focus 10 consciousness and the second was on building and learning to control protective energy balloons, or REBALS. I have always had a problem with this exercise at home. It’s the same here. Perhaps because my protective energy comes from a different place and manifests in such a different way, this particular exercise feels almost conflicting. Who knows? I will have plenty of time over the next week to practice.

Now that lunch is over, I have called home. Luca’s pelt will wrap me in warmth while I meditate down by the crystal.

One exercise this afternoon was very difficult for me. It involved creating or visualizing tools of energy that would allow focusing to heal. The mechanics I understood, but creating the visualization proved almost impossible. My mind would not hold the images for more than a few seconds before trying to go on to other planes. The final afternoon meditation was a Free Flow that allowed us to go where we needed to without verbal cues. In the meditation Luca, my wolf, and I walked to the crystal and enjoyed its vibrations. After that we lay down together and slept in its energy.

We watched a film of Robert Monroe made about a year before he died. His conviction and strength were astounding. The interviewer also talked with his daughter Laurie. Our last meditation for the night was to teach us to tap into our own energy fields, as well as the energy fields of those around us, and be consciously aware of the sensations. Part of the exercise was to help us recognize friendly, troublesome, and potentially troublesome energy. I am better at the first one than the last two.

Monday

This morning has begun with the voice of Robert Monroe waking us to a positive affirmation of this new day, and of ourselves. The mountains are not visible this early. The mist that covers them reflects the gray blue of the morning sky. It does not hover in mystery but simply erases nature’s grandeur. In and of itself, this mist is a natural miracle. My cup of liquid heat and I will watch the Creator unwrap the mountains from their covering. This morning, the mountains are more important than yoga. I cannot help but think that this new day will also find a layer of psychic mist being lifted from my mind as well.

Our first exercise in Focus 12 consciousness is over. If nothing else happened for the next three days, the trip would have been worth it. I watched as a hole was melted in the ceiling of my CHEC unit. I could see through the hole to the trees and sky outside. I had no peripheral vision. Rather it was like looking through a telescope. Slowly the vision turned until I was looking back at the tower of the Nancy Penn Center. I started to walk back toward the center when I became consciously aware of motion.

In an instant I was moving down the road, not so fast as to be frightening or so slow as to be walking. In just a few seconds I had traveled down the mountain and was moving along some familiar streets in Shipman, then on to streets I had never seen. I viewed a man trimming his hedges, a mother scolding her child. My psychic vision kept traveling on, moving through small areas and over what I believe to be local farmlands. A voice through my headphones abruptly brought me back to the reality of my CHEC unit. I’ve had out-of-body experiences (astral projection, if you will) before; this was different. One of my classmates—a specialist in remote viewing—talked to me about my experience. That may be what I had just done.

After the class debriefing we were readied for our next meditation, an exercise in problem solving in Focus 12. Our assignment was to formulate a question with Desire, Clarity, Intensity, and Gratitude, then turn it over to a higher force and wait for an answer. In an effort to make my question simple but encompassing, I asked, “What do you want me to know? What do you want to show me?” The answer came in the form of hundreds and hundreds of images passing before my eyes at amazing speed. Each image had an opposing image with it. By the time the experience ended I understood the answer to my question: Choices, it’s about choices.

We had guided meditations this afternoon. The second one—a free-flow meditation in Focus 12—was the most gratifying. I opened myself to Focus 12 and just relaxed. I cannot remember the images or thoughts save one; parts of my affirmation ran through my mind.

The evening program was on remote viewing. We were given the coordinates of a location and asked to go into a meditation and record our first impression in real time. The concepts of remote viewing have never been something of interest to me. Yet my first attempts met with some success. I can often see those I love. I always thought that connection depended on emotional ties. Now I wonder if remote viewing plays a part.

Tuesday

This morning the mountains are unveiled. Small pockets of mist float here and there in ethereal splendor, perfect accents to the green and blue of nature’s morning palette. I went outside to salute the mountains and allow my body to move in its own way, without the formal structure of the yoga class.

Our first exercise of the day was a free Focus 10. Its purpose was to get us to move or elevate, even slightly, from our physical bodies. Bob Monroe’s voice kept trying to get us to roll out. For me and my roommate, it was much easier to just lift out of our physical housing. The exercise was very refreshing.

The answer came in the form of hundreds and hundreds of images passing before my eyes at amazing speed.

The second meditation was our first time venturing to Focus 15. Based on my reading, a part of me has been both eager for and dreading Focus 15. My venture into Focus 15 started like all of my meditations. Then at Focus 12 the wavelengths started to change. I could hear as well as feel the frequencies change in my earphones. In a few seconds my personal frequencies began to shift with the incoming sounds. The lights and images so natural to my meditations slowly faded into a comforting womb-like blackness. The stillness, like the last blackness before creation, engulfed me. At that moment the temperature began dropping, and then plunged. A walk-in freezer would have been sauna-like compared to the temperatures I was experiencing. The meditation ended and I bolted out of my CHEC unit, climbed into clothes plus sweats and ran out into the sun. I would not have been surprised if I had seen my breath. All during the class debriefing I sat under two blankets, shivering. My teeth chattered for the first twenty minutes. I have scheduled a private discussion with Karen to talk about what happened. We are about to go into another Focus 15 exercise. I’m not thrilled …

Our next Focus 15 was friendlier. I moved on through other times and lives. Some seemed to pass in little more than the blink of an eye. There were more than I can remember here. Male, female, and even animal (at least twice) have been added to my story. This Focus 15 was amazing. Now I am eager to go to Focus 21.

I had a massage after lunch. One solid hour of being rubbed, stroked, and pampered could make for a very spoiled me. I’m going back on Thursday.

The afternoon brought the first unguided exercise. We were all sent to our units with pleasant music and instructed to reach a deep meditative state without the Hemi-Sync wave to rely on. It felt like someone took the training wheels off my bicycle. Don’t know if I really like riding alone. The feeling of the wave within me is quite pleasant. It’s a lot like smoking or coffee: I may not need it, but I really do like it!

The last Focus 15 of the afternoon was a heavily guided exercise. I liked the imagery and guiding in the beginning, but found the voice intrusive in short order. My spirit wanted to go other places than those mandated. My mind drifted off to family and friends. Perhaps I shall try and reach out to them tonight.

The evening class was an audiotape of a soul retrieval that was carried out here by Monroe in the early eighties. Since the first tape was made, many more retrievals have been performed by LIFELINE™ graduates who rescue souls bound to earthly consciousness by their own fears and death traumas.

When the tape finished Karen talked about the Energy Conversion Box that we’ve worked with at the beginning of each exercise. Tonight we are to take all that we have consciously stashed away—as well as things that may be locked within because of unspoken physical, emotional, or spiritual trauma—and release those problems and concerns to the Universe. In return we are to allow the Universe to separate whatever good is in each item/situation and return that to us. I’ve got a lot of crap stuffed in my box, probably more than I know or realize. It’s time to empty or at least lighten the “box.”

Wednesday

THE FACE OF G-D, Day 5
Like smoke rising from a dying fire,
the fog lifts its veil to show the mountains’ face.
They reveal themselves to me at their leisure,
for time has no meaning to this ancient stone.
A thousand years … a heartbeat
to Gaia who made the mountains rise.
Ten thousand years …
the span between her blinks.
Eternal wisdom, ancient strength
rise from the mountains in equal measure,
their gift to me, admirer, disciple
and patient, learning pupil.

This is to be a morning of silence. Eagerly have I awaited this day of introspection and self-evaluation. The awakenings and revelations of yesterday called for some time without cramped social interaction. Our three morning exercises are all meant to turn us inward for a more intimate relationship with the self.

THE EXERCISES

We did the three exercises back-to-back. The purpose of the first was to experience a new level of consciousness. The second instructed us to go back to that level, ask the Universe five questions, and wait for the answers. The goal of the third was to expand yet again and listen to the vibrations of the world around us. In my experiences with these three exercises. I was allowed to reach out and touch the face of G-d.

Exercise 1: My consciousness has expanded. Like the ever-extending force of the Universe, a part of me has drifted as particles of dust on cosmic wind to the end reaches of All. There We sat, forming a membrane around the everything of Everything. In timed timelessness we joined each to the other until we were called home.

Exercise 2: Send me a promise substanced in creation that I may take measure in its meaning. Send me a promise wrapped in Buddha’s lotus, perfect in its purity and beauty. Send me a promise made from my own essence that I might become one with my reflection. Send me a promise made from cosmic consciousness that I might marry it unto myself. I now seek the promise, and its open message, sweet voyager and voyage, we are one.

Exercise 3: Nature plays its melody in perfect harmony with its own majesty. The galaxy sings a rhapsody designed to make it one with sister stars. The Universe hums one note, one perfect cosmic tone, the vibrating e-string that gives birth to our own creation.

We GATEWAY travelers have been brought to the realm of Focus 21. Guided by verbal instruction, we drifted through the wave spectrum to the white light of this new level. Perfect white light swirled around me. I swam, like a young guppy, through the living patterns of this wavelength. Layer after layer of brightness unfolded before my eyes, caressed my very essence. I have touched the part of me where the Creator resides.

Tomorrow is the last full day of classes. Friday quickly approaches. Part of me does not want to leave this place of spiritual magic and majesty. Here I have found a new level of enlightenment and rejuvenation for my weary spirit. I have called to the mountains and they have answered. I have walked again the place of my grandfather’s birth. I have awakened to nature unveiling her splendor without interruption or the rude whinings of civilization’s symbols. Here I am at peace.

Thursday

I watched the mountains disrobe from the morning mist as I walked the labyrinth in quiet contemplation. I entered slowly and with reverence, noting the colors of the blocks that defined the labyrinth and the green of the grass under my feet. In the center I stopped to pray and thank the Universe for all that has been given to me. On the pathway out I chose to remind myself to not take for granted those I love. That was my affirmation for this new day.

“Go placidly amid the noise and haste, and remember what peace there may be in silence.” We were sent on a walk this morning. We were to experience meditative states while out in nature, to see our surroundings through new unhurried eyes. A sour gum leaf that fell at my feet accompanied me, and we walked together. Before I came back into the center, the leaf was placed back under the tree it fell from.

The walk was the introduction to a super meditation. My entry to the familiarity of Focus 10 was smooth and uneventful. I greeted my totems Luca and Lilly, the black panther, and we walked together. At the appropriate time we were guided to Focus 15 and the vibrations of the Hemi-Sync wave began to change. The feelings of cold that I have so come to dread began again. I sent out a conscious request to go on to a higher level and found my personal vibratory rate begin to shift upward, ultimately halting in Focus 21. The experience was so wonderful I could have stayed there for hours. I watched stars twinkle in a private light show all my own.

I have seen angels.
That part of me where Creation resides
has united me with my Creator.
We have walked hand in hand through Eden.

We are now GATEWAY graduates. Laurie Monroe spent the last evening session with us, just as her father used to do. It was fun being able to ask questions about her childhood and what it must have been like being Bob Monroe’s daughter. In the closing circle we shared our feelings about the week and each other. Though I do not want to, I know that I must leave Eden.

Friday

Farewell to the Mountains

The gentle affirmations of previous mornings have been replaced with the blare of Harry Belafonte’s “Banana Boat Song.” It’s a good thing that I was already awake or the powers that be would probably have been peeling me off the walls of my CHEC unit. Most people don’t want to hear “DAAAYYY-O” at 6 A.M.

Our watches were returned to us last night. I almost didn’t recognize my own piece of jewelry. Having this dimensional anchor around my wrist is the most vivid reminder that I must leave this Elysium and venture forth. I will not be a stranger to this magic mountain.

Hemi-Sync® is a registered trademark of Interstate Industries, Inc.
© 2009 by The Monroe Institute

From September 28 to October 4, 2002, twenty-three explorers participated in the first REMOTE VIEWING PRACTICUM to be held at The Monroe Institute. This is a different sort of program than the others at Monroe, yet its aim remains the same, at least in part: to prove to us that we are more than our physical bodies. Remote viewing (RV) is what might be called task-oriented psychic functioning. At the end of the week, Skip Atwater, our leader, calculated that our success rate in the "for the record" trials was such that there was only a one in a thousand chance of repeating it in another session. Skip pointed out that in baseball, if you get a hit 30 percent of the time, you can make a lot of money. This astonishing result will become part of an ongoing statistical study to determine what we had seemed to prove-Hemi-Sync® enhances remote viewing. When Joseph McMoneagle was developing his skills, Robert Monroe created special tapes to help him go into "remote-viewing mode."

Remote viewing is seemingly sending your perception away from your resting body to a "target" location or person, and reporting on what you can see, hear, sense, experience, or know about that target. During the 1970s of the last century, it was proven beyond doubt that remote viewing was within the range of human behaviors for some-and perhaps all-people. In response to Soviet experiments behind the Iron Curtain, our government began funding and training remote viewers and using remote-viewing programs, with a success rate ranging from 50 to 80 percent accuracy. The disparity in accuracy reflected differing judging and scoring systems. Hemi-Sync at the levels of RV 10, 12, 15, and 21 enabled us, the participants, to psychically connect time after time with our assigned targets. In RV 10 energy, you realize that you are more than physical. In RV 12 energy, information seems to flow in from wherever you aim your attention. In RV 15, time and space cease to be limitations. We know this after attending the GATEWAY VOYAGE® and other programs at The Monroe Institute, but these states of awareness take on new and very specific meanings in remote viewing.

There were tapes each day, usually one or two. The rest of the time was devoted to learning to acquire and describe distant targets-while scrupulously documenting our success according to a seven-point system. In remote viewing, there are at least three participants: the viewer, the monitor, and the judge. We practiced being all three, thus learning the problems inherent in each role and how to overcome them. We put in long days, amid much joy, discussion, argument, good food, and congenial companionship. The five steps in the remote-viewing process: turning inward, relaxing, listening, becoming aware, and reporting were also practiced. Time after time, we demonstrated to our delight that we could all seemingly travel to distant targets successfully.

At week's end, I believe not one of us left The Monroe Institute doubting that human beings have the ability to "go" to targets without leaving their bodies and to return with accurate information. Skip Atwater spent many years as an operations and training officer for the U.S. Army Intelligence remote-viewing surveillance program. Watching videotapes from remote-viewing conventions each evening enhanced our work as remote viewers. Our "housemother" was Carol Sabick, whose calmly humorous demeanor and psychic sensitivity added greatly to our experiences.

Perhaps I am overly analytical, but I am still working to overcome my own residual doubt about psychic functioning, despite spending twenty weeks over the last eleven years at The Monroe Institute doing every program offered. More than any other program (and I've done LIFELINE™ five times!) the REMOTE VIEWING PRACTICUM served to convince me that my "hits" could not have been guesses; that I do indeed share with others the ability to transcend space and time and my body. For what it's worth, here is how I would "explain" remote viewing. We are all-knowing, all-the-time, but that knowing of everything-past, present, and future-is kept firmly below the conscious level as we navigate through our earthly lives. Remote viewing is a dipping below the line of consciousness into that infinite pool of information and pulling up into conscious thought whatever it is that we are seeking.

Katie Letcher Lyle is the author of fifteen books, and her short fiction has appeared in many magazines. A writer, teacher, folksinger, and speaker, she taught for twenty-five years at Southern Seminary College. Since 1983, she has taught more than 120 Elderhostels at several Virginia colleges. Katie has been active in organizations that serve the handicapped and currently serves as a board member and a volunteer for the Rockbridge Area Hospice. For eleven years, she has actively explored psychic functioning by participating in Monroe Institute residential programs. Her latest adventure is described above.

Hemi-Sync® is a registered trademark of Interstate Industries, Inc.
© 2003 by The Monroe Institute

I arrived a couple of days early to acclimatize and to visit downtown Charlottesville and take a drive along the Blue Ridge Parkway with its ever-changing weather, pristine beauty, and serenity. I checked in my car at the airport and sat down to wait for my ride. Before long, there were eight of us, and we were driven in a comfortable van to The Monroe Institute for the GATEWAY VOYAGE. About twenty people arrived within the space of four hours, and no time was lost in making introductions and figuring out who was who.

When the REMOTE VIEWING PRACTICUM started, any doubts that the subject matter would fill the allotted time soon disappeared. I saw that we were going to have difficulty covering all the subject categories, never mind going into them in depth. It also rapidly became clear that we were here to learn the ground rules-not to become remote viewers. We were informed that it took one of the world's outstanding remote viewers, Joseph McMoneagle, three years to achieve a 50 percent success rate. Joe revealed an unexpected side when he said that the ego must be controlled via meditation. He told us he does three Zen mediations per day plus three remote viewings per day, "even though I do not need to."

Among many interesting topics of discussion were the difference between remote viewing (RV) and out-of-body experiences (OBEs), the importance of breathing and relaxation, and how intention controls perception. Hemi-Sync® tapes were used throughout the week to educe the correct mind-set-shifting awareness from the left to the right brain. We learned that two million people have listened to the Monroe tapes, and I was amused to see a sticker on the flip-chart board that read, "Think cosmically; act personally."

We heard how the term "remote viewing" had been developed and the five disciplines needed to satisfy the RV protocol. Three people are required: the viewer, the monitor, and a judge who does not participate in the RV experiment and does not meet the other parties prior to judging. We participated in exercises that taught us to tease out the facts of the matter and to distinguish remote-viewed images from the left-brain constructions our minds create to "fill in the conceptual gaps." We also learned to give ourselves permission to obtain information in a random and untidy fashion. Intuition does not work to order!

On Wednesday, we engaged in our major double-blind study for the week. We divided into groups of three and went off to various private corners to take turns being the viewer, monitor, and judge. Although a 9:00 A.M. to 10:30 P.M. day sounds long, it is difficult to see how the requisite quantity of information could have been conveyed in any shorter time. The last evening was spent watching a videotape of Joe McMoneagle's remote viewing exploits in Japan, where his success has made him a national star. No wonder James Randi-a magician who specializes in debunking paranormal abilities--avoids him!

In conclusion, here are some of the comments made by participants:

"An enlightening experience, wonderful gift, good teachers. I received much more than I expected. I feel relaxed and on track." -Brenda from Brooklyn, New York

"It is fascinating how I can get on the background of my eyes the indications of an object independent of its location in the universe and in time that I have chosen through my mind." -René from Switzerland

"To use remote viewing for the first time was so easy that it was scary. Then I discovered how much more complex and nontrivial it is, and how many subtle control dials should be properly aligned. What I really liked is that I did not have to drop everything I was doing before just to learn it. I could just take many elements I was taught by Skip, select ones that work for me the best, and then integrate them with my own methods. I will continue working and improving remote viewing for the rest of my life. I will use it for problem resolution, to plan and implement changes, and to get better control of my life events." -Edwin from New Jersey

"I have attended six other TMI classes over the past seven years, and the remote viewing class taught by Skip Atwater and Carol Sabick was one of the best classes I have attended. The discussions regarding our concept of time and space were fantastic, and the various remote viewing sessions we did were amazing. Strongly recommend this course for those of you who are ready to take it to the next level. Buckle your seatbelts and get ready for one heck of a ride." -Martin from New Mexico

[I have invited Skip Atwater to come to London to spread the word and give a day-long seminar in early 2004. It's about time England heard more about what is going on.]

Brian Snellgrove, from London, England, has authored two books on the aura and the chakras. He works as a counselor and healer and does his own version of remote viewing for commercial ventures. He attended the June 2003 REMOTE VIEWING PRACTICUM, back-to-back with the GATEWAY VOYAGE®, on the recommendation of a friend whom he had "happened" to meet in Cyprus only two weeks earlier. The registrar warned him that the only space available was downstairs "below the kitchen where you can hear people's feet." Undaunted, Brian came anyway and wrote this account of his visit.

Hemi-Sync® is a registered trademark of Interstate Industries, Inc.
© 2003 by The Monroe Institute

It was blissfully warm and sunny when I arrived at The Monroe Institute for my TIMELINE program in March 2004--a far cry from the harsh Minnesota winter I'd left behind. The mild weather was some consolation as I had arrived with a persistent headache. I was determined, however, to make the most of my time at TMI.

The TIMELINE program was different in tone and overall feel than my October 2003 GATEWAY VOYAGE®. GATEWAY had been a very high-energy program with lots of laughs and fun. TIMELINE was the same whenever we gathered as a group but when there was work to be done the tone was often more somber. I realized that TIMELINE would not be anything like GATEWAY. That was fortunate because I would soon come to find that I was stepping into my "grandma space." Although I had an idea of what I hoped to accomplish and gain from the experience, I knew better than to hold too tightly to expectations. Life may well have other plans, and that was definitely the case this time around!

On my second full day things really started bubbling up to the surface. The headache persisted and was accompanied by a bit of nausea and a vague sense of fear--for no apparent reason. These symptoms grew in intensity as the day wore on until the pressure felt unbearable. I finally sat down on the couch in the Fox Den with trainer Lee Stone to discuss my feelings. Lee mentioned that at times, when we delve into our past lives we may confront some dark images. He reminded me that we can maintain a safe distance from such images.

Instead of feeling comforted, I felt even more agitated after our talk. It wasn't what Lee had said; it was me. Even having a massage later on didn't help much. My agitation increased until I felt ready to jump right out of my skin! When I finally got back to my CHEC unit for the first of the afternoon's exercises, I was tired of the pain, tired of the nausea, and tired of being afraid. I knew that the only way out was to go through it. Lying in my CHEC unit I spoke out loud, to no one in particular, "Alright, let's get this over with . . . bring it on!!"

The first lifetime I was drawn to took place during the time of the Roman Empire. I was a soldier in battle, and I saw myself lying on the battlefield bleeding to death. I had taken a number of men down before I got skewered in the stomach myself, and I remembered how that felt. I was tired of the carnage, tired of war, sick of the fact that I had been dragged into it yet again. Perhaps I let myself be killed in order to finally be done with it. Coming to grips with this suddenly relieved my nausea.

The second lifetime I was drawn to was every bit as emotionally charged as the last one, if not more so. I was in a house on an island off the coast of Greece. It was light and airy inside, a beautiful house that I shared with my sister. My name was Olara and my sister and I were always arguing. The event I witnessed was apparently a pivotal one for the evolution of our relationship. We had ALWAYS argued. We were both steadfastly entrenched in our positions and very ego oriented. This day was no different than any other in that respect . . . or was it?

As we argued I finally realized there was no way for either of us to ever win . . . ever! I would have to be the first to let it go, so I disengaged and refused to participate any further. This ticked my sister off even more. She stomped around the house, shouting things she hoped would push my buttons and get me going again. I sat in the living room hoping to wait it out. She stormed back into the room; I never saw the knife. In one rapid motion she cut my throat. I sat there in utter shock and disbelief. Even in my wildest dreams I never believed her capable of that and curiously, didn't blame her now. I moved quickly into forgiveness, never stopped loving her, and as my life ebbed away I left that scene.

Part of this exercise had been to ask some important questions, like "what did you learn from this experience?" I laughingly answered, "Do not engage the Borg!" Humorous perhaps, but an important point. I was never going to win and neither was she; I had simply been the first to realize it. I then asked, "Who was she to me in my current life?" There was a moment of hesitation as I heard my guide ask someone else, "Do you think she's ready to know?" Then came the answer: "Your grandmother."

That response blew me away! It also answered some nagging questions about my relationship with my grandmother. We had always argued about anything and everything--stupid, pointless little things. I got really tired of it in later years. I had never done this with anyone else in my life. It also struck me as odd that she had always felt eclipsed by Grandpa. I dearly loved him from babyhood. She felt that meant I loved her less and nothing could convince her otherwise. Then I was called back to California during the last two years of her life. I cared for her right up until the end, despite difficulties, and she finally understood that I loved her. Our relationship was finally healed and seeing it from a past life perspective, I truly comprehended the magnitude of that healing.

Just in case this wasn't quite spectacular enough, there was yet more to come--a reward for all my pain beyond the healing I had already been given. The exercise was to go and speak with my future self. This older me had lived my full life and, now near death, would give me some insight into my future. The first image showed me standing in my daughter and son-in-law's house. She had just given birth to a beautiful baby boy. As I stood there holding my grandson, my son-in-law leaned over the bed talking to my daughter lovingly. The baby was warm in my arms. I turned away from them and presented my new grandson to our ancestors--those I have known and those I have never known but am bound to by love. I lifted the child up and told them "Look what my baby girl has done for us today!" It doesn't get any better than this!!

Postscript:

Headache or no headache, I had found myself acting very uncharacteristically during the program. I kept telling silly, pointless stories. Anyone in the group who would stand still for three minutes got quite an earful! Near the end of our week together, I finally realized what was happening. I had indeed stepped into my "grandma space" and had become my grandmother!

Cassie Zievers is a lifelong spiritual adventurer. She dreamed about going to The Monroe Institute® for twenty-nine years before finally attending a GATEWAY VOYAGE® program in October of 2003. When asked for a comment she stated, "It was bloody well about time!" She has three grown children and is starting a business as a meditation teacher and hypnotherapist in Minnesota. Cassie has also written about her GATEWAY VOYAGE® experiences on the Love Blobs website.

Hemi-Sync® is a registered trademark of Interstate Industries, Inc.
© 2004 by The Monroe Institute

Every program I've done at The Monroe Institute® has been wonderful. That's what we all say, and we all say it because it's true.

I did my first GATEWAY VOYAGE® twenty years ago, and every program since has been fun, surprising, enlightening, expanding, enriching, button pushing, growth producing, and deeply felt. Each one took me somewhere I didn't know it was possible to go. Each one taught me something about who I am. Each one opened another crack in the wall between me and wholeness. Each one was a unique and powerful experience.

Then I did TIMELINE.
Oh, mama!

I thought I'd had powerful experiences before. In TIMELINE, I didn't just stick my finger in the wall socket. I stuck it in the generator. (That laughter in the background is the rest of my group cracking up as they read this. "Power" was my word for the week. They heard it so much, they probably wished I would move on to enlightenment or world peace instead.)

TIMELINE was an order of magnitude beyond every other TMI program I've ever done. I don't say that lightly. Every program has been and still is very important to me, and I look forward to doing them again. I recognize that I got what I did from TIMELINE because of what I'd learned over the last two years from LIFELINE, HEARTLINE, and the REMOTE VIEWING PRACTICUM. They laid the conduit, made the connections, and installed the junction boxes. Then TIMELINE flipped the switch.

It built on the reintegration of self from LIFELINE. It expanded the healing and acceptance of HEARTLINE. It took the exploration of time from the REMOTE VIEWING PRACTICUM to a whole new level. It offered new avenues to guidance, opening doors unveiled in GUIDELINES®--all without going beyond Focus™ 15.

In LIFELINE, the trainers said that the mere passage of a conscious human through Focus 23 could awaken souls that were "stuck" there, that there was something about our energy that could make us uniquely effective in retrievals. Bob Monroe talked about why souls want to incarnate, what they achieve in doing so. During TIMELINE, in Focus 15, I got a taste of what Bob and the LIFELINE trainers meant. It's the core, the pure essence of human existence. It's who you become when you stop depending on answers and start living the questions.

TIMELINE encouraged us to explore the powerful stillness of Focus 15, a place many of us have perceived as the Void-a great emptiness where nothing much happens. "Sublime stillness" might be a more accurate description. When you truly embrace the emptiness even for a heartbeat . . . well, each one's experience is unique.

In TIMELINE, I passed another milestone in the journey toward accepting my experience as it is, rather than judging it against someone else's. I began opening to receive information kinesthetically. That may be more challenging than receiving visually because it's harder to talk about, but it may also lead to deeper experience. I learned more about grounding and how important it is when we want to work with higher energies.

And it wasn't just me.

Every one of the twenty-one participants took the bounty that TIMELINE offered and ran with it. The energy shifts began early in the week and kept building. Shells cracked all over the place, some gently, some dramatically. We defined ourselves not as a group but as a tribe. And as a tribe within a tribe. We recognized that the whole encompasses all those in other programs-all those who have explored this territory before us, in parallel, in other times and places, and in times yet to come.

The experiences of power I was having were not about me alone. It was clear that everyone else was equally powerful, and our combined effort was off the charts. Our group included an unusually high number of healers, declared and undeclared. Perhaps their willingness to open to the energy amplified the currents that were both set in motion and ably grounded by facilitators Lee Stone and Charleene Nicely. Each participant functioned fully as a node on the grid, passing the energy through, clarifying, augmenting, and grounding as needed. A comment or suggestion from one often opened a gate for another. An issue confronted by two became a learning exercise for two more. And we laughed-a lot.

Adding to the ambience was the amazing lightSOURCE software, which displays a series of endlessly evolving designs based on sacred geometry in tandem with a Hemi-Sync® soundtrack. Several times during the week, lightSOURCE was projected on the large screen in David Francis Hall. We could meditate on the mesmerizing kaleidoscope, or stand in front of the screen and bathe in the light. There is something unexpectedly poignant in seeing those images playing over and around a human form. Standing in the light was equally moving.

The exercises in TIMELINE include tools for identifying and clearing limiting beliefs, in this life and in other lives. Some exercises are about experiencing physical death and making transitions. (How else do you get from one life to another?) What did you learn from a given life? How has it enriched your being? Whether you approach other lives literally or figuratively, they provide an effective vehicle for expanding your perception and transforming your awareness of who you are.

TIMELINE is one powerful experience you do not want to miss.

As the managing editor for a New York City company that develops medical record software, Allison Moore is responsible (in theory) for anything having to do with words. She writes everything from help systems to marketing materials, and publishes most of it in-house. Growing up with a minister father who was involved in psychic research, Allison was always aware that there was more to being than the physical universe. Ordained in the meditation tradition she's practiced for thirty years, Allison has explored metaphysical tools throughout her life and was one of the original GATEWAY OUTREACH Trainers.

Hemi-Sync® is a registered trademark of Interstate Industries, Inc.
©2004 by The Monroe Institute

I don't remember exactly when I became a stargazer. I suppose it was long before my experience in this embodiment. I do recall, however, that one of my first spiritual "epiphanies" this time around came from reflecting on the night skies in California when I was about five years old. I had accompanied my mother to services at Blessed Sacrament Catholic Church. As was customary, the children were separated into their own classes for "catechism," a series of standard questions and answers which every Catholic schoolchild memorized in those days. That night's lesson was: "Where is God?" Answer: "God is everywhere."

Upon leaving class, I was pondering that lesson. I looked into the skies and thought to myself, "If God is everywhere, then God is not only in all the people I meet, and in all the air I breathe and the food I eat, but also in all the stars I see, and all the space in between, and . . . and God is very, very big. How could this be? Then I got it. Obviously all the earth and the people on it and the sun, the moon, and all the stars and sky and all I could perceive . . . was the inside of God's stomach! I live inside of God! Wow! And just like I could hear my stomach growl if I was hungry, God could hear me!" While this was a child's conceptualization, it has been a model that has worked for me throughout my life-providing comfort, affirming connection, and negating even the possibility of separation.

I'm sure that you have your own story of how you've been inspired by the stars and other celestial bodies. Reflecting on the size, activity, and composition of the universe is naturally consciousness-expanding. Throughout time, humans have looked to the heavens to know God, to know themselves, to know their relationship to their Creator and their place in Creation.

Beginning in October 2003, The Monroe Institute will offer an unprecedented opportunity for you to explore these questions, and more, through our newest residential program, STARLINES. I am calling this event "unprecedented" because the program will incorporate hundreds of images from the various space telescopes, sound translations of the emanations of many celestial bodies, and information from the leading edge of astronomy and astrophysics. These components have only become available to humans within the past few years. The power of Hemi-Sync®, the consciousness maps provided by Bob Monroe, and the knowledge and experience base of our advanced explorers make STARLINES a program with incomparable potential.

STARLINES is for graduates of EXPLORATION 27 who possess a burning passion for exploration and Self-discovery, an unquenchable curiosity, and an enduring love and respect for the Life Force in all of its expressions. Using FOCUS™ 34/35 as our launchpad, we will explore the mystery and majesty of energy systems throughout our Milky Way galaxy and beyond and move gradually into new states of awareness, being, and perception through Focus 49. Aided by hundreds of cosmic images and the true Music of the Spheres, we will collectively journey into interdimensional frontiers-seeking, asking, observing-awakening past and future memories associated with these distant energy systems, and thereby reclaiming more of our Total Self. There are numerous parallels between outer space exploration and inner space exploration: much as EXPLORATION 27 explored the ancient Hermetic principle, "As above, so below," STARLINES will explore a new octave of that principle, "As within, so without; as without, so within." In so doing, we will move into even greater awareness of our I-There, our I-There Cluster, and the bonded relationships with other I-There Clusters-experiencing the love, joy, and freedom of wholeness, the empowerment of purpose, and the transcendent peace of the Perfect Plan.

As we explore, we will be forging and strengthening pathways for others to follow, and expanding connections between our beloved planet and the energetic sources which nurture her. As a representative delegation of earth human consciousness now, we will traverse time and space, beginning our new roles as "Galactic Ambassadors." From this "different overview," we will also bring back to earth the patterns, perceptions, and visions that will allow humanity, and all earth life, to more easily attune to life-affirming futures. Along the way, we will explore the energetic black hole/stargate of the Galactic Core and the possibility that it may aid us in "warp-speed" transformation.

I started receiving guidance and instructions to develop this program in May 2002. Putting the intention into form has been an exciting time for me personally-filled with revelations and energetic infusions. I am thrilled with the way my guidance team has worked with me to bring STARLINES through, and very grateful to be able to share this opportunity with you.

So if you are a "trekkie" at heart, STARLINES is your program. Bring your sense of adventure and any star charts, books, etc., that you would like to have handy. I look forward to journeying with you.

Franceen King has been a Monroe Institute residential trainer since 1986. She lives in Florida where she is a licensed mental health counselor, rebirther, transpersonal therapist, and ordained minister. She has been actively exploring consciousness and paranormal phenomena for over thirty years and has contributed her insights to The Monroe Institute in a variety of ways, including the design and development of EXPLORATION 27™ and the TRAINER DEVELOPMENT AND ASSESSMENT PROGRAM. She can be reached at FranceenK [@] aol.com.

Hemi-Sync® is a registered trademark of Interstate Industries, Inc.
© 2003 by The Monroe Institute

What is STARLINES?

STARLINES is promoted as “a program for graduates of EXPLORATION 27® who possess a burning passion for exploration and self-discovery …” My experience proved this to be no idle promise. During STARLINES, a program born from the creativity and spirit of Franceen King, we “learned to travel the wave” into true Kosmic Consciousness, and what a ride it was!

STARLINES, the Program

On October 20, 2007, a small, intimate group of fourteen fellow travelers descended on the Nancy Penn Center to start a unique journey. A number of us had previously taken STARLINES. As with most TMI programs, STARLINES begins with briefing and orientation. Afterward we began our journey into expanded and deeper Focus levels. The latest scientific information from astronomy and astrophysics was presented to us in a multimedia format. The data from different types of telescopes (including the Hubble) and satellites primed the pump of our imaginations. Yet this was only a veneer overlaying something much more profound: an exploration, discovery, and recovery of Self.

The group moved in a parallel process from the Earth to the solar system to traveling the Milky Way. We dove into our galaxy cluster, touring superclusters of galaxies and finally venturing through the galactic core/star gate to what scientists now believe was the source of our Universe: The Great Attractor. Both our awareness of Focus levels and our I-There expanded. Earth Core-27 energy catapulted us from Focus 34/35—the Dimensional Octave of the I-There—to Focus 42, the energy of our I-There Cluster. The tidal wave of awareness raced through Focus 49, the Sea of Bonded I-There Clusters, and finally through the galactic core and gateway to The Great Emitter (perhaps Focus ??).

While before The Great Emitter, we were asked a question: “What do you, as a human, have to offer?” Mirroring Bob Monroe’s experience as described in Ultimate Journey, our answers led to some of us graduating from the human-only Earth Life System (ELS) to the status of Galactic Citizen. This is a new way of being, with new responsibilities and customs, i.e., When in Rome … or When traveling the galaxy … It was a surprising pleasure to learn that ELS graduates—with Earth Core-27 energy, feelings, and astral bodies—are held in high regard in the Universe. We in the ELS really are in this world but not of it.

STARLINES Delivers

Through the STARLINES process, we came to a profound understanding of the aphorism “As above, so below.” We also discovered the truth of the beginning of the EXPLORATION 27 affirmation (also used in STARLINES), “I am much more than my physical body…” and human energy. STARLINES delivers as a path to liberation and a portal opening into true Kosmic Consciousness. A member of our group expressed these realizations succinctly while we were discussing encountering extraterrestrials and connecting with their energy at The Gathering, “Aren’t we all ETs? Who isn’t?” Now that’s graduation into galactic citizenship!

As above, so below.
A heart cluster in the stars,
Opening to love.

Dr. Gary D. Chaikin is a practicing psychiatrist in La Crosse, Wisconsin, and specializes in clinical audio-entrainment techniques to create altered states of consciousness. In addition to private practice he assists veterans in adjusting to their military experiences. He attended the GATEWAY VOYAGE in October 1999 and joined the Professional Division at that time. Dr. Chaikin has a special interest in the applications of an integral psychology and is assisting clients to handle difficulties in their lives and evolve their awareness through a biopsychosocial model. In this article he shares his experiences at the October 20–26, 2007, STARLINES program.

Hemi-Sync® is a registered trademark of Interstate Industries, Inc.
© 2007 by The Monroe Institute

Being the youngest participant at eighteen years old, I thought I would have a hard time fitting in among an older group of peers. This turned out to be quite untrue. They were completely open to me and were willing to see past my age and see me for who I am. I met some incredible people at MC², each with their own beliefs and wisdom that they were willing to share. Since the program is about manifestation, we worked together to help manifest our goals. This proved to be very inspirational, and a push toward creating myself as the person I want to be.

As I reflect on my experience during MC², I think of connection. What I received most was connection with the group around me, and most importantly, with myself. The goal, as I see it, was to bring our personal power into our everyday lives and know the abundance of the source from which this power comes. One of the first things we did was to let go of any guilt or ideas of things we lacked. Through the week this turned into a realization that all I had thought I lacked was really there for me. In a sense, I learned to be open to what the universe is providing for me and not to judge it.

I came into the program intending to manifest some pretty specific goals. One of them was to trust my future and to send positive energy toward getting into the college of my choice, Sarah Lawrence. I am a high school senior, and at the time I participated in MC² my future was defined by the possibilities I had created by applying to colleges. This was a threatening time, because I felt as though I was stepping into a void where nothing was certain and all possibilities-good and bad-were available.

The hardest thing for me to do, during the program exercises and in my life in general, was to let go of the doubt I was carrying about the things I wanted to create. MC² taught me an extremely valuable lesson: that what we focus our energy most strongly on we end up creating. To give a simple example, if I really wanted to find a quarter on the street somewhere, yet I kept thinking about how impossible the task would be, I would trap myself into that mind-set and be much less open to actually finding one. Joe Gallenberger and Penny Holmes, our trainers, did an excellent job of teaching us that when we want something it is best to set the intention but to also let go of any expected outcomes. If we expect things too much, we tend to be quite disappointed when they do not turn out the way we wanted.

Participating in MC² reaffirmed my belief that the energy I am putting out into the world will attract the same kind of energy back to me. If I concentrate on the positive aspects of my life, I notice that more positive things happen to me; however, this holds true with negative thinking as well. Also, the higher one’s energy is, no matter what kind, the more one can manifest, and the same kind of energy will be returned. We spent a lot of time learning how to bring our higher states of being to Earth, and how to function in this world as openly as we do in other states of consciousness.

I have been accepted at Sarah Lawrence since MC², and I now have a better understanding of what it means to trust the universe. I know, because I have seen, that what I truly set my mind on ends up coming to me in one form or another. I have begun applying this knowledge to my life, and as long as I let go of self-doubt, and listen to my intuition, I have no reason to distrust my ability to bring what I choose into my life. I feel fortunate to have been a part of MC², and all the experiences that it has afforded me. When I remember that week at the Institute I think of the fun, the connections I made with other participants, and the excitement I had in just being my highest potential, and learning how to experience that potential throughout my life.

Felicia attended the first Teen Gateway Voyage. She enjoyed its effects so much that she returned for our newest program, MC² (manifestation and creation squared). MC² teaches enhanced manifestation skills, expanded intuition abilities, and the power of group energy to effect healing on all levels.

Felicia Potter is a senior at Westtown School, a Quaker boarding school in Westtown, Pennsylvania. One of her major interests is theater, an interest she will continue to pursue as a freshman at Sarah Lawrence College.

Hemi-Sync® is a registered trademark of Interstate Industries, Inc.
© 2001 by The Monroe Institute

MC² was my fourth program at TMI. With twenty-one other participants and two facilitators who also participated in the group and tape exercises, we embarked on an adventure into the realm of psychokinesis (PK) and physical manifestation of internal desires. One of Bob Monroe's dearest dreams was to eliminate at least one source of human struggle. He envisioned that through development of our natural potential we might one day achieve the miracle of manifesting nourishing food at will, directly into the palm of our hand. That ability would end forever the needless suffering caused by lack of this most basic need. Bob crossed over in 1995 before realizing that vision, but others have carried on his dream. Joe Gallenberger, TMI Residential and OUTREACH Trainer, conceived the MC² program with Bob's vision in mind. Joe's unique talents, background, and experiences with manifestation guided him to develop and facilitate this program. Thanks to Joe's devotion, we're making progress!

When I say that part of my MC² experience involved tapping into psychic power to perform healings, control dice throwing, bend spoons, light up a light bulb, and germinate seeds spontaneously in the palm of my hand, you may have various reactions: astonishment, disbelief, awe, curiosity, doubt, or judgment. If I further explain that spoon bending and bulb lighting utilize transference of my body's electromagnetic energy to produce heat in the case of spoon bending and some form of electricity in the case of bulb lighting, your response would be modified: "I knew there was a trick involved. There's nothing psycho-anything about it." After doing these things I had some of the same reactions. My final attitude was a combination of awe, joy, and profound gladness and gratitude for the opportunity to share this awakening, living dream.

Spoon bending is a purely psychokinetic transfer of energy into the spoon. The phenomenon is well studied and documented. This was a great exercise for our group as we explored "PK power." Participants' ability to perform this task varied from complete frustration to near mastery. All but one or two were successful. After meditative preparation, we were instructed to gently rub the spoon while focusing on directing energy into it through the heart and arm. Having previously spent two years on one spoon without results, I had to work through that block. Some of my fellow participants had almost instant success. Spoons that curled with the least amount of physical effort (stroking or assisting) bent first and spurred us into higher energy states and more rapid successes. I still held my spoon, stroking and channeling the energy. Someone described how their spoon had become slippery or oily, just before turning very clay-like and bending and twisting with minimal assistance. Suddenly I felt that oiliness. Belief in my ability began to rise. Others shouted encouragement to me and to my fellow late bloomers, "You just do it!" "Oh!" I exclaimed. I had given no assistance. Now I gently, easily curled the spoon up! The results were quite impressive for a group of first-timers. Once we had evidence that true PK was factoring in, it was easy to light the circular fluorescent bulbs. A spectrum of PK ability was obvious in this task as well.

Controlling the roll of dice relied exclusively on PK. We learned to recognize the high state of joy, oneness, and certainty that produced the best results. And, while not necessary, frenetic energy in the surrounding environment was a plus. Spirited music, a sense of playfulness, and cheerleading encouragement all provided a boost. I have always felt favored to roll sixes, so I stated my intent to roll a twelve (double sixes) on each throw. Although I did not roll double sixes in my ten attempts, every roll contained a six. Joe computed the chances of rolling a six in each throw as 310 or 59,049 to 1! Belief in my PK ability became a solid truth.

I found the PK experiment with seeds the most impressive and rewarding. We used wheat berry seeds that had to be soaked overnight in order to germinate. Some of the soaked seeds had already begun to show signs of sprouting. Each of us took a small pinch of seeds, held them in a closed hand, and all together focused on projecting love and light into them. Drawing energy from the earth and the heavens, I felt the seeds jump and pop inside my hand. After several minutes of projecting energy to our seeds, we placed them inside a paper towel in a plastic bowl and watered them with bottled water into which we had also projected nurturing, healing light, and love. After three days of caring for our seeds, we concluded the exercise. Several control groups of seeds from the same batch had been placed around the building and did not receive any positive energy. There was a fantastic difference between our "blessed" seeds and the nearly unchanged controls. Some gifted growers' sprouts were nearly leafing. The same range of PK abilities seen in the two previous exercises was present. PK seemed to favor those who were practiced in psychic skills, such as healers and meditators. The exercises effectively bridged the gap between understanding PK as a reality and knowing it, internally, through personal experience.

I have only touched the surface of my experiences in this completely fulfilling program. PK's effect on our concept of physical reality is more than entertaining reading. The most rewarding gifts I took home with me were memories of participating in unforgettable healing circles and making new connections with other explorers. Most precious of all was the time of knowing pure human spirit--adventurous, free of heavy layers, open, and compassionate.

MC² made me acutely aware that I was responding to something that had been pushing to the surface of my being for a long time. I felt it as a restlessness, a kind of red flag that subtly but persistently implied a need for reconnecting with inner sources. At some time in our history I believe we "civilized out" a part of ourselves that once maintained a dialogue with a greater knowing. We stopped using whatever it was that connected us with all of creation and now we seem to be outside the circle of life, aliens on our own planet. We have been so out of touch that we're now burdened with the task of trying to undo all the damage we've caused to our ecosystem. We live uncertain of the extent of that damage, hoping it's not too late or too bad. We seem so immature a consciousness. Within us, I believe, we each hold the key to participating fully in the design and creation of our existence. Playing around with PK has reminded me of this truth: we are cocreators.

Postscript: Imagine me, a week after returning home and back in the flow of living. I'm engaged in a quick game of "Clue" with my ten-year-old son, Sean. We are toward the end of the game. We both know the culprit, weapon, and room, but we have to move our tokens to the farthest corner of the board to reach the correct room first. We're racing with each roll of the die. Sean already has the lead, and I'm rolling low. Then it hits! I hear within, "Use what you know!" Ah, ha! Now my sixes come, one after the other. Sean catches on and exclaims, "Hey! You're cheating. You're using the power!" I grin and say in a certain voice, "Using what you know isn't cheating."

[Note: The purpose of MC² PK tasks is to empower and confirm the belief-set and energy needed to manifest or create what one desires in all areas of life. MC² is open to all who have attended the GATEWAY VOYAGE. Joe Gallenberger is also the originator of Vegas Adventures and the SyncCreation Home Study Manifestation Course. For more information visit www.RainbowVentures.net]

I have lived in Raleigh, North Carolina, for much of my life. My quest for a deep understanding of unseen worlds, intelligences, and forces interacting with and shaping all of life led me to find the winding path up Roberts Mountain Road nearly ten years ago for my first residential program, the GATEWAY VOYAGE®. The VOYAGE and each of three subsequent programs I've attended at TMI have provided some of the most magical memories of my life. Simply by recalling my first day in GATEWAY, I feel warm vibrations expanding from the core of my being and raising my spirit higher-"Finally, I am home." This awakening in my soul cemented my bond with TMI and my desire to maintain this crucial connection through their programs and the Dolphin Energy Club.

I would like to share an incident that occurred to me after attending the June 1993 Lifeline program at The Monroe Institute.

The incident began on Tuesday morning, July 6, 1993. While listening to the Metamusic tape Downstream, I was attempting to regress myself to an earlier lifetime in which I perceived I was a radio operator on a World War II bomber. My main purpose for attempting the regression was to gather information about my "World War II self" that could possibly be verified.

With what seemed about five minutes of tape remaining, the name "Bob McC." came into my head. When the tape finished, I pondered the experience and what sort of information it might provide me. My intuition guided me to the local telephone book and I found listings for R. J. McC. and R. J. McC., Jr. The odds seemed good that "R" might stand for Robert. Since my current physical life cycle began in 1948, I thought I might have some connection with R. J. McC., Sr. I decided to first call R. J. McC., Jr., the intent being to ask him about his father. There was no answer.

Next I called R. J. McC., Sr. An elderly woman answered. I identified myself and said that I was doing research on World War II. I told her that I'd come across the name "Bob McC." And needed some information about Bob. The woman said he was in the other room and asked if I would like to talk to him. I was elated that at least I had located a person matching the name that came to me! When Bob came to the phone, I again identified myself and stated my purpose. Bob said he'd be glad to answer my questions. He indicated that he had been in the Air Force during World War II for three and one-half years and had remained stateside. I thanked him for the information and ended the conversation. In retrospect, I regretted not asking Bob more questions. I did not plan the phone call nor the line of questioning very well. But at least I had gleaned a few facts about Bob McC.

I phoned two friends that night to report the incident. For the next few days I tried to decide whether to proceed with this investigation and if so, how. On Friday, July 9, 1993, a new twist developed. I was reading the obituaries in the local newspaper and learned that Bob McC., Jr., had died. He had committed suicide on the Tuesday that I called his father. Bob Jr. was an Air Force veteran of the Vietnam War.

The new information confused me. I opened the lines of communication to my spirit guides to ask what message was being delivered. Their reply was: "The message is simple. You've just attended a program that helped you learn to retrieve and assist people who have departed the physical. Your job is to help Bob McC. to Focus 27." That night, using the techniques from the Lifeline program, I found Bob Jr. in Focus 23 in a very agitated state. After calming him, we easily moved to Focus 27, where he is now resting until he decides his next direction.

I'm certain that I did not know either of the McCs in this lifetime. Prior to this incident, I can recall only one exposure to the surname "McC." When I was a boy, there was a grocery store in our neighborhood bearing that name. I have verified with two family members that the grocery store owner was named Thomas McC.

Several questions still remain: What is my connection, if any, to Bob McC, Sr.? Is it significant that the name was given to me approximately nine hours before the suicide? Did the elder McCs remember my phone call or associate it in any way with their son's suicide?

Lifeline participant Jack Auman didn't anticipate applying his new skills when he settled in for some personal exploration. Then the unexpected happened. Jack included a list with the date and time of each event referred to in this account and a parallel listing of his actions in those time frames. The obituary from the local newspaper and the coroner's report were also attached. The family surname is abbreviated to preserve privacy. What information becomes available to us when we open ourselves to it and to service? Jack is still considering the implications of his experience.

Hemi-Sync® is a registered trademark of Interstate Industries, Inc.
© 1994 by The Monroe Institute

TMI residential programs--especially the graduate programs--do not end with physical departure on Friday. New knowledge must be assimilated and the attendant responsibilities must be integrated. In this letter to Director of Programs Darlene Miller, Micki Hawes shares her discovery that LIFELINE service is a cooperative, interactive venture.

You trained my first Lifeline. The following happenings are a most surprising extension of that program (with sequels), and living through these events has been an incredible learning experience.

That Lifeline ended on April 30, 1993, and I returned to Cincinnati on Saturday, May 1. I checked my telephone's Caller Identification box. The date a call arrived, the time it came in, and the number and area code were documented. I recognized most of the phone numbers except the last one--a "681" exchange. The last call had been recorded on Friday, April 30, 1993, at 12:53 P.M. My exchange is "231." At that time, the Cincinnati area did not have the caller's name capacity. There had been a tremendous amount of contact and retrieval activity during the week at The Monroe Institute, and I felt satisfying exhaustion. It was time to put the past week in perspective, knowing the program had been a total success for me. The results of the week needed to be integrated into my life. Contacts with the deceased were not new. Accepting, sharing, and developing--which I had the privilege of exploring at The Monroe Institute--were new. In the past, contacts had usually been spontaneous communications related to relatives and friends. Now others were making contact. It felt fulfilling to have opened to this transmitting partnership.

At first I dismissed the last phone number as a telemarketing call. Then a gnawing feeling that I should call this number persisted. I dialed. A woman answered. I told her a call had been received from her number, when it had been received, and that I wondered who had been trying to contact me. After a moment or so of polite conversation, we concluded it had been a wrong number. I apologized for calling and was about to hang up. Then the woman said she was the one who needed to apologize because the day before she had been very distraught. Her niece had been killed in an automobile accident. She told me the name of her niece, who I will call Helen J. Helen was her actual first name. I learned how old she was, the color of her car, where it happened, how many children she had, where she worked, and the depth of shock and grief to the family. The woman asked me if I had seen the newscast on television. I explained about just returning from Virginia. After a moment of "so sorry," condolences, and extending prayers, she thanked me for listening to her and explained that sometimes talking to a stranger in a time of grief was comforting. I agreed.

Although exhausted, I knew what I had to do. This contact had been no accident. At that moment I knew contact and retrieval work would continue. I decided to use Open Exercise, my favorite tape from the Gateway Voyage. When Bob Monroe's voice said I could do what I had planned to do, I would try to contact Helen J. As the process began I felt nausea and ached all over. My head felt as if it might explode, and I prepared to take off the earphones and rush to the bathroom. What was happening? Instantly I felt calm, relaxed, and as if I was floating. I was not alone. Possibly I had just experienced Helen J.'s transition on impact.

We began a thought communication. Lifeline had taught me to ask questions, get information, and take notes (even if I had to sit up in my CHEC unit). I had to know the best way to volunteer help. Helen J. said she needed to stay near the physical plane for awhile. This was another of my lessons in retrieval work. On the physical level I often assume a control position. Here, there are choices and decisions to be made by the entity and it is totally a partnership. The other's position must be respected. I asked Helen J. if she knew she had died. She said she did know. She told me she was not ready to go on because she had to stay and help those grieving. Since then, other contact and retrieval situations have shown that this is not unusual.

Through thought communication I again offered to help her go on. She said she appreciated it, but she was not ready yet. Feeling dispensable, I asked how to tell when she was ready. Choices beyond this life were a new lesson. I was informed that there would be another phone call. After the tape ended and I pondered it all, the notion of receiving another phone call was preposterous. I went on to other things--in gratitude that the phone number had connected me with Helen J.--vowing to myself to try to stay open. There are so many unanticipated surprises, aren't there?

At 11:13 A.M. on Thursday, May 27, 1993, the phone rang. I was in the family room, away from the Caller I.D. unit. I answered immediately and heard a distance sound. Since many of my calls are from Ireland, there is often a delay between my answering hello and the caller's greeting. After about five "Hello's," there was still no reply or hang up. I waited and thought perhaps another salutation would convince the caller my answering machine was not on. "Good Morning! This is me, not the answering machine." Nothing! Reluctantly, I hung up. Later that day another call was received. I looked at the previous phone number and it was vaguely familiar. The exchange was "681." Yes, I had received another phone call! Let me add that the last four digits of that phone number have no resemblance to my own number. They are totally different. I made contact with Helen J. She was ready to go on. By thought communication during the tape she said she could have gone on by herself. Now I certainly felt dispensable. At the same time, I realized integrity had prevailed. Helen J. promised she would contact. She did! Amazing!

In this sensitive nonverbal communication time (and I am not sure where the following information came from), I learned that for myself all contact had to be a mutual cooperative endeavor. I was finding out that each contact was totally unique. No additional phone calls came in between May 1993 and January 1996. I felt satisfaction with the closure. This was the end. I was wrong. There was more to come.

On Sunday, January 28, 1996, just as I was dozing off in preparation for a good night's sleep, four faces flashed in front of me--the face of a childhood friend, my beloved deceased grandmother Anna, Aunt Sarah who I so miss, and the face of an unfamiliar woman. I asked, "Who are you?" The answer came back, "Helen J." The faces disappeared. In that fleeting moment of communication, I understood that once contact is made it may be forever. That first Lifeline sparked a new level of interchange and a new acquaintanceship tier. The second Lifeline was a totally different but equally powerful and effective learning expansion. Contact and retrieval work continues. I had to tell you.

Hemi-Sync® is a registered trademark of Interstate Industries, Inc.
© 1997 by The Monroe Institute

On the Wednesday afternoon of my Lifeline adventure, we were given an exercise in which we were instructed to move to Focus 27 and look for people that we knew or had known. It seemed simple enough and I was game, so we went without delay.

I like to start with a conscious passage through the various levels, beginning with Focus 10. The ritual is both calming and reassuring and enables me to put everything else aside to truly "be" There. Moving on to Focus 15, I found myself in a dark midnight-blue environment reminiscent of what I would imagine deep space to be...but more comfortable. From the blue of 15, I went through the colors, feeling as though I was passing up through filters--each stripping off that which would limit me--before moving on to the next, while experiencing each level as having certain characteristics associated with it.

By Focus 21, I emerged as a light being and donned what I call my "spiritual warrioress" garb. It's a little hokey, but I had a breastplate with a glowing heart pulsing with life energy, a white cape, an arcane symbol emblazoned on my forehead, and my energy bar tool slung over my shoulder like a protective purse. Thus appareled, I was ready to go adventuring around the cosmos and kick some cosmic keister (if need be) for the good of all. Well, in any event, at least I felt safe.

The next move was up to 25. I stopped in a tiny, rustic chapel or temple and knelt down to offer gratitude to the life I lead and ask for guidance as I proceed on my spiritual quest. While I meditated, panels opened up in the right and left sides of the roof to let in bright shafts of light. These shafts intersected each other to form a prism of energy which concentrated on my forehead. I knew it to be"God Energy" (WOW!) and my body glowed golden from that point on.

Pressing on to 27, I surveyed the landscape for the object of our exercise...someone I knew. It wasn't long before I spotted a couple strolling over the closest hillside as if out for a Sunday afternoon walk in the park. Yes, of course, it was Bob and Nancy. Both of them smiled in welcome as they approached. Nancy looked like something from sculpture, an angel as described by authors of old, with swept-back white hair and a flowing white robe. She exuded well-being and love--a reassurance completed by a broad smile. Bob sauntered next to her as only he can do. The epitome of the country gentleman, he wore a tweed blazer with those leather patches, along with the trademark driving cap sitting askew on his head. He had a mischievous grin, a knowing glint in his eye and a weathered cane in hand, just for show. In his impish but wise way he was an encouraging yet daunting figure. This guy can look right through me to the core. This is my sense of both Bob and Nancy as archetypal patriarch and matriarch. I returned their greeting. Nancy expressed how wonderful the love is that I experience with A.J., how truly glad she was for us both, and that many are not privileged to have such love in their lifetimes. She also intimated that I was on the right path (my fundamental goal for the week revolved around professional goals) and that our time would come, so relax and enjoy the ride. Everything would be okay, BUT part of the adventure was to find your own way. I asked for a little hint and we all laughed. Bob reiterated Nancy's assurances and called me "sweetie," while giving me the proverbial pat on the back. He told me that the love and light force was strong within me and that I had the ability to "go forth and prosper" on many levels. Of course I wanted to ask more of them but, as usually happens for me, the tape beckoned us back to C-1 and the reality of the CHEC unit.

I came out of the experience with something words cannot define. Perhaps it is a Bob and Nancy energy blanket. I wear it with me. It is confident, reassuring, and calm--a lovely gift from a walk in the Park.

Shaaron S. Honeycutt, wife of TMI Operations Director A.J. Honeycutt, writes copious notes in her journal while taking Institute programs. When asked about material regarding Nancy and Bob, she sheepishly provided the following account of an experience during her January 1997 Lifeline. Shaaron is an audio/video sales representative for Crutchfield Corporation and also grows and markets specialty foods grown in her magic garden, Terre Vibrant.

Hemi-Sync® is a registered trademark of Interstate Industries, Inc.
© 1997 by The Monroe Institute

Lifeline, why would I want to take that program? I have been a hospice volunteer for twenty years; I know as much as I want to know about that sort of thing. How about Exploration 27? That sounds exciting. However, a couple of friends suggested that I should experience Lifeline. So I did.

Arriving at the warmly familiar and welcoming Nancy Penn Center, I checked in. There was the usual sense of excitement, an anticipatory joy in being there again; knowing I would meet people who spoke the same language-fellow travelers, so to speak. That there was fun ahead for us is a given at TMI. I dropped my luggage in the room assigned to me. Was it mere chance that I got the only single available, or does age have special privileges? It is difficult for me to believe that I am actually eighty-three years old, because at heart I feel thirty-eight.

Our introductory meeting in David Francis Hall connected us in a way that was just short of magical. We were a “group” immediately. Then, back in my CHEC unit for the first tape, I set my intent to be of service to some poor soul. Perhaps someone was wandering around, lost and lonely. I would be their rescuer.

Did I get an awakening! I found this skinny little freckled-faced eight-year-old child, who looked so pitifully helpless. She was a part of me that I’d lost without even being aware of it. I took her hand; she melded into me, yet kept her own identity. I felt so complete, so just right. We went to the Park in Focus 27 and built our house together, one that I have dreamed of for a lifetime. It has a roof that rolls back on a starry night at the flick of a switch, smooth and easy. I look up and live with the stars. The house is mostly glass and looks out into the woods on three sides. On the fourth side is THE Ocean, Pacific of course. Now this house of my own design is there to visit or to live in whenever I want. I can change whatever I wish at any time. There’s no contractor to argue with, and construction is immediate. What a glorious gift TMI has given to me through this program called Lifeline.

In the course of her eighty-three years in Earth-school, Jacquelyn Phillips has pursued a variety of professions and interests. Commercial art was her first career. She was a riveter for Douglas Aircraft and later a draftsman for the Women’s Army Auxiliary Corps during World War II. After the war, Jackie married and raised a family, then worked as a real estate broker and agent. In recent years, she has attended the Gateway Voyage and Guidelines and participated in the Dolphin Energy Club. She is certified at the highest level as a Healing Touch Practitioner. Jackie is the founding director of the Center for Healing Intervention (CHI), which opened in 1997. It was the first--and is still the only--center for integrative medicine on Virginia’s Eastern Shore. Jackie is truly young at heart. At Lifeline, she reached back into the past and reclaimed an aspect of herself who joined her in creating a gift for Now.

Hemi-Sync® is a registered trademark of Interstate Industries, Inc.
© 2001 by The Monroe Institute

Shortly after the World Trade Center was destroyed and the Pentagon was attacked, many of us felt called to do what we could for those who perished that day. The TMI Lifeline members began doing individual and group retrievals. The Guideliners soon joined in, and both continued making retrievals over the next several days.

My initial impressions mirrored those of many others. Immediately after the disaster, the scene was surreal. The dust and chaos were overwhelming. There was so much death. And yet, there was also amazing order. Groups of people were helping others out of the mangled buildings. A column of light rose above the crumpled towers. There were just so many people working together! It was extremely hard at times to tell the living from the dead. Members of our groups reported trying to retrieve victims, only to be rebuffed because they were actually rescuers. Many who had just crossed over were acting as guides. Incredibly, they were returning immediately to help their friends and neighbors to find their way.

On October 6, I returned to Monroe for Beyond Exploration 27. One of my fellow participants had begun retrievals as soon as the towers collapsed. At first, she proceeded one by one or in small groups. She quickly realized that the sheer numbers of the deceased made that impractical. So, she addressed that problem by teaching those she retrieved how to do retrievals themselves.

On the evening after the disaster, I made my second trip to the World Trade Center site and found many still trapped there. I decided to employ a technique Bruce Moen used after the Oklahoma City bombing. I envisioned the area clear of dust and debris with a gentle slope to the surface. Then I simply “saw” the people whole and free of the buildings and began helping them to the surface. Guides received them there and shepherded them on to the light.

Others in the Lifeline group encountered very similar circumstances. The dead firefighters and policemen were among the hardest to help. They were so focused that many continued their efforts-totally unaware of their own deaths. Dan Dunlevy sought guidance on assisting the firefighters, and guidance responded by becoming victims for them to rescue. It worked! The airplane passengers were another matter entirely. I’ve intervened at many plane crashes. Usually the sites are crowded with traumatized souls. In these cases, the end came so suddenly that the passengers transitioned smoothly. They never doubted that they were dead.

Several members of TMI Lifeline and Guidelines agreed to describe their personal reactions and observations. They are quoted below.

“I cried out to the TV, ‘Oh no, no. The people, all those souls gone!’ A friend called just then, and we wept together. As we talked the second tower collapsed, and our hearts sank with helpless sadness and grief. My guidance brought a calm sense of peace over me then sent a surge of hope that I must help in the way I knew best, by retrieving those souls at the disaster sites.”

“When I tap into the energy of the masses of souls that have just left the planet, I’m getting a very strong feeling that they are all turning around and coming back to rescue us from our own terror and chaos and deep feelings of tragedy. They are saying that WE need the rescuing more than they, because they are in peace and light and love.”

“The emotional flow was much less as the helpers were really moving people along and the wailing was now only an occasional cry. It broke my heart. The firefighters and policemen, even knowing they had died, were still trying to help people. They would say, ‘Don’t worry. Someone will come to get us out,’ referring to their brothers on this side.”

“I was in the middle of the rubble. People could not find a way out; I pushed them up through a hole to the light and hands came down to take over. I went on to the Pentagon to see if I could help there. A lady in a pink dress suit was wandering around. She looked up at me and said, ‘I only went for coffee, I only went for coffee.’ I told her it was okay over and over again to get through to her and [asked her] to take my hand. She took my hand. We started up to a hole in the rubble and hands reached her. She was gone.”

“I asked spirit to put me wherever I was needed. I was sitting in a seat saying the Lord’s Prayer. I looked around and realized I was in a plane. I had a ‘moment’ of fear that I was going to be silenced. I said my prayer louder, especially ‘for thou art with me.’ I felt the love of God in my heart . . . peace, quiet. I drifted above. I found myself in a ‘grid’ of loving light. Thousands joined me. We were above New York City. We were like a carpet of peace, love, and light. There could have been angels of light with the people. It was so loving and bright.”

As horrible as these events were, the scene on the other side gave me amazing hope. Here, with so many hurt, all kinds of people-living and dead-were helping one another, joining together in a common cause. I extend my deepest thanks to TMILifeline and Guideliners members who worked so hard to help the victims. Our hearts go out to the families of those who were lost on September 11.

Dirk Dunning has attended the Gateway Voyage, Guidelines (twice), Lifeline (twice), Heartline, Exploration 27, and Beyond Exploration 27. Since August 23, 2000, Dirk has drawn on his extensive program background to moderate two of The Monroe Institute’s e-mail discussion groups. Seventy-two Lifeline graduates participate in TMI Lifeline, and fifty-three Guidelines graduates participate in Guideliners. The groups are forums for sharing experiences, asking questions, and discussing concepts and ideas among friends. Members also employ their TMI training in outreach activities. The value of their skills was especially apparent in the aftermath of September 11, 2001.

Hemi-Sync® is a registered trademark of Interstate Industries, Inc.
© 2002 by The Monroe Institute

At 9:30 A.M. EST, on February 1, 2003, Leslie took a phone call from our son Jonathon. He said that space shuttle Columbia had been lost during reentry over Texas. I had not paid any attention to this flight or to the space program in general for several years, but I immediately felt a compelling sense of urgency to work the LIFELINE process. Immediately I went to my bedroom, closed all doors, set the fan on medium, put on my headphones (connected to nothing), lay down, and began my cooldown period. An overwhelming sense of grief made this particularly difficult. Tears seeped from the corners of my eyes and slipped gently down my cheeks into my beard. All loss of life hits hard. However, loss of military personnel involved in high-profile national and international missions is the hardest for me to minister to and usually evokes intense emotion. Cooldown took about ten minutes. I followed standard LIFELINE procedures and finished at 10:00 A.M.

During the session, I coordinated with my guide, Thomas, who indicated there was work to be done. After proceeding to Focus™ 15, I rolled back the time sequence to just before the shuttle breakup and joined the crew in the main cabin--standing just behind the pilot. The windscreen was filled with the yellow-orange flame of reentry friction and the entire vehicle was buffeted roughly. [1]

I asked to "see" the issue that would cause the disaster and was instantly viewing gaseous fumes seeping out of an upright panel that appeared to be an equipment storage locker. I then asked, "What does this mean?" The answer came, "There has been a mistake made by a crew member; an experiment was not stowed properly and once the gas reaches a spark, it will explode. [2] This is a known issue but is considered to be of little significance."[3] (As always, the speaker is unidentified. It's my habit to go with the data and trust the process. I certainly know virtually nothing about space flight or the workings of a shuttle.)

At that moment there was a violent yaw to the left and then to the right. The yaw continued on into a complete roll to the right, and the shuttle came apart.[4] The bulk of the flaming wreckage continued down and away from us at a terrific speed, leaving the crew suspended in midair with a panoramic, beautiful view of the earth. Then it was suddenly quiet, absolutely quiet. I sensed one or maybe two females and perhaps six or seven males floating in a sitting position.[5] They appeared to be glassy-eyed and semidazed but remained in a tight formation.

I consciously approached the commander, a middle-aged man with an "R"-sounding name.[6] He was very distraught. He obviously grasped the magnitude of what had just transpired and was frantically reproaching himself for making an "error."[7] I spoke up and told him that he could not have prevented it. A small error got out of hand at an unfortunate juncture in the reentry sequence.

"Who are you?" he demanded in a distracted manner.

"I'm Colonel Black, USMC."

"I don't have a Marine Corps colonel on my crew," he replied with a pained and confused expression.

"You do now," I replied. "I'm here to help you move on to your next location if you want the help."

He gave me a penetrating stare, looked around at the others, and then turned back to me. "We're dead, aren't we?" he stated in resignation, but quietly, as though he didn't want to disturb the rest of the crew, who floated nearby but took no notice of our conversation.

"Dead is a highly overrated assessment, but, yes, your shuttle is gone and your bodies with it," I replied gently--keeping direct eye contact all the while.

"What is it you do?" he asked, as he struggled to comprehend the situation.

"I'm a volunteer who comes to events such as this and offers to provide some company as you travel to your next location."

"Are you dead, too?" he managed to ask.

"No, I'm not," I replied simply. He eyed me quizzically. Two and two were not adding up to four, but he seemed too fatigued and distracted to try to sort it all out.

At that moment four "family members" approached our location from above; they reached out and made contact with one of the women and another of the crew. (I did not get a strong enough impression to tell if the other crew member was a male or a female.) They shortly began to pull away from the tight little group. As they rose up and away the commander jolted himself to action. "Hey, where are they going with my crew?" "It's OK," I reassured him. "They are probably deceased family members who are familiar to those crew members. It's common for 'dead' people to be met by family members or dear friends. Because this was an unexpected event, it took them a while to get here. In many cases they are waiting at the bedside."

A look of vague understanding crossed his face; some things were starting to make sense.

"I see," he said pensively. "What about us?"

"That is where I come in, if you desire the help."

"Well, sure, I guess so," he replied.

"Fine," I said, "then join hands and follow me."

"Wait," he said, in a sudden burst of linear thought. "What about our families? We'll want to see them."

"Don't worry," I reassured him, "you can visit them whenever you like."

"How?" he demanded.

"By simply thinking of them," I replied. "Think of them and you'll be with them."

He relaxed, satisfied for the moment, as we all joined hands and turned our gaze upward. Then I noticed three bright yellow, teardrop-shaped figures approaching from below. Although traveling independently, they were definitely converging on our location. While studying this unusual event I heard the commander say,

"Those more of your folks?"

"Why do you say that?" I asked.

"They have on the same yellow space suit or covering," was his matter-of-fact reply. (This "yellow covering" was mentioned to me while dealing with the Russian submarine Kursk disaster. This may be how others perceive our Resonant Energy Balloons (REBALS). Also, the others felt like TMI folks.)

"Yes," I said, "those are some of my associates from Monroe, here to assist, too."

With the astronauts linked hand-in-hand and the newly arrived Monroe helpers on either side and in the rear, we got under way. Thomas suggested the central tunnel entrance to Focus 27."We are ready," he confirmed in a somber but confident tone. We moved rapidly and without incident up through all the Focus levels. They flew by at breakneck speed, and we soon emerged into the bright sunlight and brilliantly blue sky of Focus 27.

As we slowed and settled on the cloudy surface, several figures started toward us. I released my grip on the pilot's hand and receded to the background, standing to the right of Thomas. We watched quietly. The Columbia's crew haltingly walked toward the approaching group of perhaps three dozen people. Suddenly I recognized Alan Shepard in the silver space suit he wore for his first suborbital flight. Shepard stepped up with a big smile and gave the commander a hearty handshake and a reassuring pat on the back. His eyes were locked intently on the new arrival, almost as if he was "grounding" him. Also, Shepard looked about forty years old, in his prime. "Well done and welcome," he said in a firm voice.

Others from Shepard's group stepped forward, each warmly greeting one of the newcomers. It soon looked like two fighter squadrons meeting at the officer's club for a drink after a day of hard training. Some of the group wore the space suits of Russian cosmonauts. Talk became more and more animated and cries of recognition were heard as the newcomers became more aware and accustomed to their new environment.

Thomas and I watched with great fascination from the sidelines. "This is real nice," I managed, as waves of emotion rolled over me. To avoid loss of control I tried to focus on useful data collection. "What are the qualifications for the welcoming committee?" Thomas replied, "Volunteers, like most everywhere else, but they must have played a significant role in the space program in Time and Space. It's a real plus if they gave their life for the cause."

"I'm overwhelmed by the pure humanity of it. It's real nice," I repeated, as my voice failed me and tears streamed from my physical eyes. My thoughts turned to the countries that had lost astronauts in this accident. I sent waves of comforting love to the families and then to the nations of those brave souls. "These risky multinational endeavors dared on the part of all people have a real value in binding one nation to another," said Thomas. I'm certain he was trying to help me see the bigger picture.

References

1. Washington Post, August 24, 2003, "Columbia's 'Smoking Gun' Was Obscured," by Kathy Sawyer, p. A15. Reentry Begins: "McCool: 'It's going pretty good, now, Ilan. It's really neat, just a bright orange yellow out over the nose, all around the nose.'"

2. Ibid., p. A14. A Damaged Wing: "Investigators believe that during reentry, super-hot gases, called plasma, poured through the hole in the … leading edge [of the shuttle's left wing], eventually burning their way into the wheel well and breaking up the wing."

3. a. Washington Post, July 13, 2003, "Mistakes of NASA Toted Up," by R. Jeffrey Smith, p. A17. Longstanding Problems: Shuttles had been struck seven times by foam debris from the liquid propellant tank. "Five of these incidents had involved the Columbia." Foam appeared on lists of critical safety risks for every flight, but NASA minimized the danger.
b. Washington Post, August 24, 2003, "Columbia's 'Smoking Gun' Was Obscured," by Kathy Sawyer, p. A14. No "Safety of Flight" Issue: The mission management team met five days into the flight. After discussion of possible damage due to the foam strike, Linda Ham, head of the team, concluded, "And really, I don't think there is much we can do, so you know it's not really a factor during the flight." Engineers' concerns were brushed aside.

4. Ibid., p. A15. The Final Minutes: "8:59:26 A.M. EDT, Flight control system fires all four right yaw jets to compensate for the tremendous force acting to the left."

5. New York Times, February 2, 2003, "The Columbia Space Shuttle's Crew of 7;6 Americans and 1 Israeli," by Alan Feuer, p. 22. There were seven astronauts.

6. Ibid., p. 22, Columbia's commander, Colonel Rick D. Husband, USAF, was forty-five years old.

7. Washington Post, August 24, 2003, "Columbia's 'Smoking Gun' Was Obscured," by Kathy Sawyer, p. A15. I Am Not Believing This: "Husband or McCool apparently bumped the joystick." There was no evidence of an attempt to override the onboard computer, and the incident had no bearing on the subsequent disaster.

Colonel Douglas M. Black, USMC, retired, has worked in the commercial and defense information technology industries and has been a student of TMI methods for over a decade. He has attended four residential programs, including LIFELINE™. Doug is active in the Dolphin Energy Club, which supports healing, and recently joined the Professional Division. In his memoir, Finding My Way, Colonel Black highlights his personal journey of spiritual discovery through his training in and application of the Hemi-Sync technology. He and his wife, Leslie, currently live in Salisbury, North Carolina, where he writes.

Hemi-Sync® is a registered trademark of Interstate Industries, Inc.
© 2003 by The Monroe Institute

It is hard to imagine anything more jarring than to have returned from the August 25–September 1 LIFELINE at Roberts Mountain Retreat to witness the horrific events of September 11. I was working in my college office in Brooklyn when the terrorist attacks occurred. Acrid yellow-gray clouds of smoke rising from the wreckage of the World Trade Center filled the sky, burning our nostrils. It was, as many kept repeating, “surreal,” “unbelievable,” “like a movie.” The shock and grief seemed too much to bear. My first instinct was to go to Focus 23 to do what I could to help. But I was too upset even for that. Yet, through it all, I knew in my heart that the extraordinary harmony and lightness of spirit I’d experienced on the top of Roberts Mountain only days before represented a deeper insight into reality than the darkness that descended on the morning of 9/11.

Since then, I’ve been trying to make sense of these traumatic events like everyone else. After the initial shock wore off and I could think more clearly, it occurred to me that it was more urgent than ever to understand the inner workings of human consciousness. Almost half a century ago, Carl Jung issued a terse, but apt, warning. “The great danger is psyche,” he declared. In other words, to the extent that we remain ignorant of our own inner lives, we remain threats to ourselves and to the world at large. We abdicate our responsibility for self-awareness at our own individual and collective peril. Therefore, I think we must make a special effort to appreciate what Bob Monroe dubbed nonverbal communication (NVC): the exceedingly subtle feelings, images, and “knowings” that the deep self uses to transfer information.

This had been on my mind ever since the LIFELINE. Now, more than ever, it struck me that there is a real problem with NVC. On the one hand, we readily deal with nonverbal information—especially images—when it comes from the outside. Witness the ubiquitous advertisements, videos, and computer graphics that bombard us all the time. Thus, no one really had to explain in words that the terrorists were attacking not merely innocent people, but also buildings that symbolized our economic and military power. We all understood that on a visceral level.

On the other hand, when the sources of nonverbal data are our own inner states of consciousness, we are often mystified as to their meaning. In relation to our intimate imagery and landscapes, we are but strangers in a strange land. I feel this strongly in my own case. Despite having paid close attention to my dreams and inner states for years, I am still astonished by that source. Frequently I am surprised, and sometimes just plain befuddled, by what I encounter in some of my adventures in the Focus states.

An example from my LIFELINE illustrates this point. One of our final exercises on the last full day of the program was the Moment of Revelation tape from the GOING HOME series. As our trainers explained the tape during the briefing, I could feel a knot tighten in the pit of my stomach. “What if I don’t get a revelation?” I moaned inwardly. Talk about putting yourself under pressure! By the time I returned to my CHEC unit I had consciously resolved to just let it be. After all, I had had such a marvelous week, what did it matter even if I dozed off or clicked out on this one? In truth, however, the anxiety and worry remained. What if I didn’t get the prize?

The tape was well guided. I followed along with the instructions, relaxing into the experience of flowing beyond the known universe to that interface with the Great Unknown. I did feel “far out” but, beyond that, sensed only an empty blackness. Suddenly, however, I caught a glimpse of something. I had the impression of a huge auditorium, like an old-fashioned movie theater or playhouse. I was seated in the audience with perhaps a handful of other people. The house lights were dim, and the heavy red velvet drapes that covered the screen or stage were closed. Had the show just ended, I wondered, or was I too early and it hadn’t even begun? It was impossible to tell.

As the image vanished, I felt a rising tide of frustration and anger. “How utterly silly and meaningless,” I whined mentally. I journey to the edge of the known universe, and this is it? My Big Revelation? I returned to full waking consciousness feeling like I’d somehow been cheated. I would have preferred to experience nothing. I don’t know what I was expecting—perhaps a spectacular light show straight out of Kubrick’s 2001. But whatever it was, I was absolutely sure that I didn’t get it.

I sat up in my CHEC unit and began making notes in my journal. Then something totally unexpected happened. I began to chuckle out loud as I suddenly received the flash of an inner “knowing”—one of those handy thought-balls Bob Monroe called a ROTE. Absolutely brilliant! What a fool I’d been! As I excitedly unpacked the message of the ROTE and hastily translated it into words and a primitive sketch, the economy of expression and sense of humor displayed by this subtle intelligence amazed me. After all, I mused, how might we go about trying to explain the concept of infinity to, say, a monkey? Well, I had been the monkey. And the image had been a brilliant stroke.

The message of the symbol was now crystal clear. Was the show about to begin, or had it just concluded? Neither. Or, both. Paradoxically, it is always just beginning, always just ending; and yet, it never begins, it never ends. The “show,” of course, is the universe—thoroughly dynamic, always evolving, never resting. The ancient Greek philosopher and visionary Heraclitus described this infinite process as “the ever-living fire.” Later I was reminded of the poetic words that Bob Monroe translated from the ROTE he received during his voyage to the Emitter and described in Ultimate Journey:

There is no beginning, there is no end,
There is only change.
There is no teacher, there is no student,
There is only remembering.
There is no stasis, there is no entropy,
There is only motion.

When I shared my story with the rest of the group in the debriefing session, everyone had a good laugh (including yours truly). But I think there is a serious point here that everyone should consider. We owe it not merely to ourselves, but to each other, to pay attention to our psyche—the ancient Greek word for “soul.” We must learn to respect and understand the language of the psyche, even though (and perhaps especially because) that language is different from what we are used to and what feels most comfortable to us. This is our responsibility. If we wish to create a more harmonious world, we can’t forget that charity begins at home. That’s what I remembered at LIFELINE.

Joseph Felser is assistant professor of philosophy at Kingsborough Community College/CUNY in Brooklyn, New York. He has published numerous articles on parapsychology, religion, mythology, and related subjects in both academic and popular journals. Joe is presently working on a book that examines the future evolution of religion in the light of psychic experience. He made his initial GATEWAY VOYAGE in August 2000, and the power of that experience led him to attend LIFELINE exactly one year later.

Hemi-Sync® is a registered trademark of Interstate Industries, Inc.
© 2002 by The Monroe Institute

I want to live! That’s what I felt after a week at The Monroe Institute attending the HEARTLINE program. Before HEARTLINE, I had been emotionally crushed over the death of my husband. I married for the first time four years ago at the age of forty-seven. My husband had terminal cancer when we married and died seven months later. The emotional high of finally finding “the love of my life” to the low of losing him couldn’t have been more extreme. I was a graduate of three other TMI programs and I was learning about Hemi-Sync, but never quite “got it” (by my definition). Still emotionally burdened by the heavy loss of my husband, Walter, and the powerful need to communicate with him, I had high expectations for each program. But HEARTLINE was different.

Previously, I had no interest in attending HEARTLINE because I hadn’t felt the need to focus on my heart, which was raw—having already taken enough of a pummeling in grieving the loss of my husband. Also, I assumed the program was probably “psycho-babble,” so those attending would be emotionally less mature. I am outgoing and express my feelings easily, so learning to open my heart did not resonate. However, my battered heart needed a lengthy and gentle massage, so I signed up for HEARTLINE. I also knew a week at TMI would provide the physical rest I needed and my mind could travel farther than any airplane could fly. Also, I knew the programs ALWAYS revealed something unexpected, so I arrived with an open mind.

HEARTLINE and the twenty-four hours after it ended, plus continuing conversations with fellow attendees and other TMI graduates, had my head popping with revelations from the enormous experience and how the week had changed my life. The tools gained will guide me into extraordinary future adventures in this life, and beyond. After numerous attempts to communicate with my inner guidance, I finally relaxed and “got it.” My inner communications are almost humorous now because I have “someone” to talk to at high speed, with rapid-fire questions and answers. Also, I have patience to wait for the answers now because I know they will come. And, my late husband and I definitely communicated, so I was able to release the emotional pain without losing the depth of my love for him.

I also communicated with my mentor-mother, still alive but recently diagnosed with Alzheimer’s. This was of enormous comfort to me because it had been so painful when she didn’t recognize me. I avoided contacting her for months because I felt we were not really communicating. Not so, I learned. She came to me in spirit and clearly communicated during one of the tape exercises. We even visited with her “children,” twelve cats now dispersed to separate homes. Now, when I speak with her in person I am comfortable since I know that we are communicating—even if she doesn’t recognize me. I know that we are hugging emotionally and sharing deep love for each other. Later that week I called my sister-in-law, who also has Alzheimer’s. Even though she got her facts mixed up, I was totally at ease knowing that at some level, she understood our conversation perfectly and was able to receive my love for her.

Since my HEARTLINE experience taught me how to communicate with someone physically alive but mentally off, I discovered that I could now communicate with people I don’t have chemistry with professionally or socially. I now talk with them through their higher energy levels, so my earthly resistance to their personalities or values does not darken my space.

Also, TMI attendees en masse attract and create a huge energy high—much more concentrated energy than any one person could attract or bask in. One realizes how high they have been when the program ends. The breadth of experiences among the group provides many new insights into ways of communicating with different energy levels as well as using the information practically and productively. The week was full of joy and laughter. We danced alone and together. The love and spirit of the individuals made that possible. This fullness of emotion and fun happens at every TMI program, but I clearly needed the laughter and joy for heart healing at HEARTLINE. The outside barriers and facades of our lives disappeared and we had a great time, while gaining tools and insight that would make our lives more fulfilling.

My transition from TMI to home brought another surprise. I unexpectedly adopted a dog named Bailey. I kept that name because at HEARTLINE I was reminded of Jimmy Stewart’s character in It’s a Wonderful Life. Named George Bailey, he, too, learned to want to live again. Bailey is my daily reminder that I want to live again.

Postscript

On Thanksgiving Day, after visiting with my late husband’s family, I boarded a train to New York. As I sat down, my wedding ring got caught on a metal piece attached to the chair seat, pulling so hard the gold ring split in two (without taking my finger off!). Was it another sign to let go of Walt and love again on this earth? No doubt. The conductor who told me to report it to Amtrak officials was named Mr. Bailey.

Before being catapulted into the world of subtle energies, Leslie Sorg Ramsay had plenty of earth adventures—through her work in public relations and marketing at the White House, with international cultural programs, and currently as an executive recruiter who helps people to improve their lives, not just change jobs. The foundations of her life crashed in 1997. That year she lost her mother and mentor-father, and at age forty-seven she also became a first-time bride and widow. Although she had driven by TMI numerous times when visiting a long-time family friend, it wasn’t until her husband’s death that Leslie asked, “What’s The Monroe Institute?” The answer immediately got her attention. She read Bob Monroe’s three books and signed up for the GATEWAY VOYAGE in 1998, then did GUIDELINES in 1999 and LIFELINE in 2000, followed by HEARTLINE and EXPLORATION 27 in 2001.

Hemi-Sync® is a registered trademark of Interstate Industries, Inc.
© 2002 by The Monroe Institute

I am prefacing this writing with some of the events that unfolded for me before HEARTLINE began. In preparation for HEARTLINE, I gifted myself by listening to the new Hemi-Sync® CD The Shaman’s Heart and then participated in LIFELINE™. Both of those “journeys” opened my heart to receive the never-ending events that unfolded during HEARTLINE. In addition, I bought and read a novel, The Shift, which also helped “set the stage” for subsequent gifts of pain and joy.

I was blessed with the presence of three other travelers—two men and one woman—from LIFELINE who joined me in HEARTLINE. Throughout our previous week together we had built a framework of trust, honesty, and sharing of unconditional love. These “gifts” were brought forward into our next journey to share with our new “family.”

HEARTLINE provided many wonderful journeys. The “lines” traveled into different dimensions and vibrations of energy. There were many mirrors that reflected past pains and traumas from childhood and over the span of my adult life. Other “lines” led to mirrors that reflected aspects of my true being and essence that had been hidden away because it was not safe to “let my life shine.” I allowed myself to reenergize my “light” and vowed never to hide again, from others or myself. The energetic vibrations of my heart space responded with appreciation and expansion. Aspects of my true essence, as well as an endless number of guides and assistants, grandly attended the concluding “welcome-home party.” Unconditional love and joy filled every cell of my body, and tears full of gratitude flowed. A beautiful calmness was omnipresent. The week, however, was just beginning.

Our group benefited from the awesome presence of ten men. Each brought with him a willingness to begin to challenge his beliefs—thought forms and programming received as a child and throughout adult life. These included what a male is supposed to be and do, such as not showing feelings and emotions. It was such a beautiful witnessing to be a part of the love energy circle that gave them permission to shed their armor. Their pain and fear began to melt away and their “Being” came forward. This willingness allowed a balance of male/female energies to flow forth: a beautiful gift to the whole group.

Six women were present, including the two female trainers. Each of us received as many loving gifts—from within and from each other—as we were willing to receive. I feel that many “love” seeds were planted. It will be exciting to learn how each of us tends to our garden. I speak more of the men because most of the workshops and trainings that I’ve previously attended have had a majority of females. This has also been true of professional meetings and workshops. It was heartwarming to witness men who have the courage of heart to be receptive to a high level of personal/spiritual processing.

Extraordinary shifts of consciousness and healing unfolded throughout the week. It was so wonderful to be walking our paths with men who wanted a fuller spiritual life, as well as expanded, ego-less personal lives. This also held true for us women. Our trainers—a.k.a. tour directors—were quite wonderful. I appreciated both their authenticity and their professionalism.

Through HEARTLINE and the synchronized presentation of METAMUSIC®, I traveled out into the Universe as well as into Mother Earth. At each location there were precious gifts to choose from, and afterward, I always came home to my Heart.

Reviewing what I’ve written about my “travels,” I see that they represent metaphors for my daily life and living. We all have internal road maps as well as those that help us navigate through the external world. When I went “out there” to assist others, I also found parts of myself that were calling for release and freedom. The tactile and “stretching” activities that are part of HEARTLINE helped me access deeper levels of integration on all levels: body, mind, and spirit. Some of those activities assisted unconscious aspects of my being to come forward, thus continuing the release and healing.

HEARTLINE is unique among TMI residential programs in that we were not to share with each other what we did professionally. That gave us the freedom to be, to explore, and to observe each other as human beings without defining ourselves by our work. At the end of the program, we were asked to share what we thought people’s professions were. That was fun in itself. After we disclosed our professions, one participant came to me and said, “Had I known what you did for a living, I probably wouldn’t have talked to you.” My response: “That would have been a loss for both of us.”

This week of “traveling” taught me again that the Greatest Gift we can give ourselves is Ourselves: teamwork between our body, mind, and spirit. The Greatest Gift we can give to others is the Authenticity of our True Selves. Sadly, this particular life adventure had to come to a close. For many, however, the journey had just begun.

For thirty-eight years Connie Callahan has been a licensed marriage and family therapist. She received a master’s degree in counseling from San Francisco State University and works with couples, individuals, and children. Children affected by traumatic experiences—including physical and sexual abuse—are of particular interest to her. During the past four years, she has been blessed with more men coming into her practice with a commitment to explore personally as well as spiritually. Connie believes, “You have to be people-oriented, empathetic, and willing to assist people in making life changes.” That perspective makes her especially qualified to assess the life-changing potential of HEARTLINE.

Hemi-Sync® is a registered trademark of Interstate Industries, Inc.
© 2007 by The Monroe Institute

“Wow, you look good! You really look good.”

My father’s words still ring in my ears. Yes, it had been almost a decade since I’d seen him, but the surprise in his voice haunts me. Did he expect me to look old and haggard, as he appears to me, or did he forget my being blessed with good looks? Another option that occurs to me now, as I reflect on the visit, is that I have changed. I’ve grown into a graceful, elegant woman, one who radiates a peaceful confidence that comes from a full heart. The suspicious voice in me, the one who felt the slight twist in the gut, wonders if his compliment had an ulterior motive. That reaction tells me I still don’t feel completely safe around this man, despite his gaunt body and thin white hair.

As I walked into his compact one-bedroom apartment next to the high-voltage electrical towers, I was immediately hit with the stench of cat urine. How is it possible he doesn’t notice this smell? I took one final breath of the hot North Hollywood afternoon and closed the door. The room looked much the way I would have expected, the tired and worn sofa an afterthought—does he even have guests?—as the room is primarily occupied by the fifty-inch TV and his oversized desk jam-packed with electronic gear ranging from copious ham radio equipment to a new Mac to items so old their plastic covers have yellowed. After the initial niceties—“Can I offer you something to drink?” “No, thank you, my water is fine”—he says, “I want you to look at this.”

He started pulling papers out of a file and presented me with his will and statements from two bank accounts. Wow! … I didn’t expect this, though honestly, I don’t know what I expected. If someone had told me even ten days ago that I’d be having an afternoon visit with my father, and that I had initiated it, I would have told them they were nuts. I had fully expected him to die without my ever seeing him again. This change of heart can be attributed, quite literally, to attending HEARTLINE at the Monroe Institute just the week before. It’s not like I flipped a switch and suddenly all is forgiven. Although much has been, the turnaround is really more about me coming to peace with many aspects of my being, including the incest and psychological abuse of my childhood.

As I looked over the brief and to-the-point legal documents, I felt a mixture of emotions. A part of me felt so sad for this lonely old man, while the flip side said, “Good, you got what you deserve.” When he tells me he’s got about $12,000 in his estate for my brother and me to split, I think, “Wow, he really is doing his best to make good by us; in his own way he’s trying to make restitution.” Yet again I hear the inner rumblings of the angry daughter who wants to lash out and attack. But the good daughter, the nice girl, simply says, “Thank you.” It is this aspect of self that knows the monetary amount is irrelevant, money is simply a form of energy, in this case energy that is also a form of peace offering.

Then he asks if he can pass along my contact information to a ham radio friend, the same friend I am to call when it comes time to clear out all his electronic gizmos. He points to the organ against the back wall, something I hadn’t even seen until that moment and says, “You can have the organ.” In retrospect I am struck by the irony, or play on words of that statement. Even as I write these words I feel the lingering energy imprint of his “organ” in my throat, the first of many inappropriate sexual encounters in my life. Yet again I realize that in the duality of this visit, the organ is one of his prized possessions. I’m reminded of mini-performances I sat through during past visits with him, visits where I felt more like the mother witnessing a child desperate for approval than a daughter attempting to make sense of her life.

I’m amazed that despite the memories of sexual abuse and trauma, I am able to open my heart to this man. During this visit I was actually able to look into his eyes and feel compassion, as well as see remnants of the sweet little boy aspect that had appeared to me in one of the HEARTLINE exercises just days before. Even more incredibly, when he confronted me with one of his sociopathic comments, I was able to speak up for myself in a calm, forthright manner.

We’d been fiddling around on his computer, where he showed me some of his favorite video clips. I held my breath as each new file opened, fearing I would be assaulted by porn, but surprisingly they were all lightly humorous, including one hilarious collection of cat antics. How liberating it was to sit and laugh with joy and innocence in this man’s presence. It was amazingly healing and at the same time evoked a deep chord of grief. On some level I believe our souls agreed to the path our lives have taken, and from that awareness I have profound honor and appreciation for this soul who brought me such dark lessons.

The sense that my visit was somehow a clearing for him, too, continued as he pulled out the old picture albums for me to take home: his prized collection of personalized, autographed head shots of actors he had worked with over the years, a few pictures of me and my brother growing up, and the most fascinating, pictures from his own childhood. The only pictures he didn’t pass along were those of me and my children—all close to twenty years old. A wave of guilt washed over me as I realized I’d stopped sharing images, so he had simply kept the circa 1980 ones prominently displayed. One of my first to do’s when I returned home was to gather some current family photos and pass them on.

As the afternoon wore on, my comfort level decreased. Despite breathing into my heart to find a place of inner peace, only so much fiddling to fill time is tolerable. I was gathering the willpower to say good-bye when he looked at me and said, “I’m sorry about what happened when we were on location.” I was stunned. To hear “I’m sorry” come out of his mouth, even if the occasion he chose to be sorry about was one of the lowest in my traumatic-life-event chronology, was a miracle. I had been more affected by the “incest is best” comment made by the logistics director back in 1974 as we checked into a shared hotel room than I was by walking in on him and some woman he had picked up during the movie shoot.

His apology was quickly negated, however. Directly after it came, “But you were in that drug thing.” Here I did the heretofore unimaginable. I didn’t shut down and pout, but I didn’t shift to victim status either. I very calmly said, “There wasn’t any drug thing. I have done drugs, but there wasn’t any drug thing.” My father’s reference was to a complete figment of his damaged imagination.

I was twenty-six when the incest memories cracked my world apart. At twenty-nine I confronted him via letter. His twisted way of accepting the accusations was to create a story: I was a drug addict who had concocted the whole abuse scenario to hurt him. Yet on the one occasion when I confronted him in person, he told me he knew his father had sexually abused his sisters, though only one of the two girls ever admitted it. The other died of cervical cancer, which to me speaks as loudly as words. Almost immediately after his admission of the family secret during that visit twenty-plus years ago, he shook from head to toe as though struck by lightening and instantaneously changed the subject. It was as though a time gap had opened and he had slipped midsentence into another conversation. To this day it remains one of the oddest moments I have ever witnessed. So to hear, “I’m sorry,” however buffered by his fantasy coping mechanism, is a miracle.

Will I see him again? Who knows! … He would certainly like that. In fact he called me twice in the twenty-four hours following my visit with seemingly insignificant questions. What I do know is that I have a new level of internal freedom when I look at the picture of the eleven-year-old boy I have placed on my altar. Even with the strain I see in his eyes, or perhaps as a result of it, I feel a deep love and connection beyond anything I would have imagined possible. The victim self that held tightly to the estrangement and justified resentment has loosened her hold and today I can truly feel love in my healing heart. I have come one step closer to feeling complete and at home within my soul and at peace with my life’s journey.

Debra Jean Hawley was first introduced to Hemi-Sync® in 1991 when she purchased a few HUMAN-PLUS® exercises from college professor Barbara Bullard, a TMI professional member. The effects were immediate. Doors opened and many changes took place, including a move from suburban Southern California to a small country town in northern California, where she still makes her home. Debra discovered the Institute in 1995 and immediately felt a sense of being home in the rural setting. The sense of home turned out to be more than just a level of comfort, as she recently discovered that her ancestors were among those who settled in Albemarle County, Virginia, in the early 1600s. Debra has attended the GATEWAY VOYAGE®, LIFELINE™, GUIDELINES®, EXPLORATION 27®, and most recently HEARTLINE in August 2007. She believes her continued work with Hemi-Sync and the wonderful facilitators at TMI are primarily responsible for the sense of peace she has come to in her life journey. Debra says, “It’s become clear to me that I chose the path of victim to journey to the core of my being. With the assistance, love, and acceptance I’ve found at TMI, I’ve been able to shift from victim to healer as I step fully into my continuing life adventure.”

© 2008 by Debra J. Hawley

Hemi-Sync® is a registered trademark of Interstate Industries, Inc.
© 2008 by The Monroe Institute

As an analytical person by nature and an engineer by trade, I tend to be intrigued by conceptual questions involving mathematics and physics. One topic that I have considered at length is dimensionality--specifically the nature of higher dimensions. For the most part, my efforts at solutions have produced little more than a spatial headache. However, while attending the Guidelines program in April some very surprising insights concerning this issue were revealed. In order to present a meaningful account of those insights I must, like any well-trained engineer, give some attention to setting up the problem.

Part I - Spaceland: The Place of Physical Constraint

The following explanation of dimensionality is abstracted from the second edition of the book Flatland, written by Edwin Abbot in 1884. Abbot’s construct is as follows:

* Pointland: a point has no or zero dimensions. It has no measurable features of length, width, or height.
* Lineland: if a point is moved along a straight path, then a line is formed. The line has one dimension. It has length.
* Flatland: if a line is moved horizontally along a straight path such that no point in the line passes through a point previously occupied by any point in the line, then a rectangle or square is formed. The square has two dimensions. It has length and width.
* Spaceland: if a square is then moved vertically along a straight path such that no point in the square passes through a point previously occupied by any point in the square, then a cube is formed. The cube has three dimensions. It has length, width, and height.

We exist physically in three-dimensional reality, which results in a dilemma. If a cube is moved directionally along a straight path, such that no point in the cube passes through a point previously occupied by any point in the cube, then . . . what? The resulting object would most surely be four-dimensional. But what is this dimension? What is the resulting object? In what direction must the cube be moved in order to realize this object? Once these questions have been resolved, the process can be reiterated to obtain a resulting object of five dimensions, and so on. So what is a linear, serial-processing mind to conclude? Prior to attending Guidelines, I had begun to suspect that actually determining the mathematical, geometric solution might not be the most significant function being tested by this problem.

Part II - Lightland: The Space of Limitless Love

The following experience occurred during a Guidelines tape exercise which instructs the listener to meet with an Inner Self Helper at Focus 21 and sequentially explore his/her physical, emotional, and energy selves. My sole intent during this exercise was to take the knowledge offered about each aspect of myself and to be open to receiving and considering it as the most productive information for me to have at that time.

My Guide met me at Focus 21, and we proceeded through the exercise according to the instructions. During the portion of the tape for exploring the energy self, I became aware of a cube nestled in the three standard spatial axes. What’s going on? I asked. Go ahead, move it, she replied. I’ve tried and I can’t; I need another axis, I hinted. There was no response. So, once again I tried to move the cube without passing it through any previously occupied points. Once again, I was unsuccessful.

Don’t worry. . . . You can’t fully understand or comprehend this in your current form [while you are bound to being human], she explained. Keep looking at it. As I examined the cube further it appeared to expand. This expansion rushed through and around me in a rapid burst of light and energy that seemed to go everywhere instantaneously. I looked out, across the surrounding expanse, and could discern no edges. I looked in, to where the cube had been, and could see nothing but a brightly radiating point. The cube was everywhere yet nowhere.

It is love, she explained. It will be easier for you to think of this as limitless, unbounded, and unconstrained, but not as infinite. Why not infinite? I asked. Because infinity is too hard for you [humans]. . . . Try to think of it as NOT infinite, yet as still continuous. I took a moment to absorb this information. I took a longer moment to absorb the feelings of peace and vibrancy that were saturating me, almost overwhelming me. I wanted to remember it all.

It seems that the most revealing events are often the least expected. I am still not exactly sure what to make of this one. I realize that my Guide’s last statement is a mathematical paradox. Her advice on perspective seems to be related to the fact that continuous is a less intimidating word than infinite and that continuous in this context refers more to a homogeneous totality than to mathematics.

One of the messages here concerns not beating myself up over “solving” the problem-- it is simply beyond my current level of reasoning ability. Another message is that understanding dimensionality is primarily an energy problem rather than a physical problem and must be approached accordingly. Perhaps the most important message is that love (or love energy) is essential to the construct of any higher dimension--just as length, width, and height are fundamentals of the three dimensions in which we live. Thus, visualizing and comprehending the fourth dimension, as well as any beyond it, requires a full understanding of the expansive and unconditional nature of love.

In any case, I now realize where my attention should be focused.

Systems engineer Todd Phillips attended the Gateway Voyage in June 1997. Little did he imagine that the levels of consciousness he would encounter upon returning for Guidelines in April 1999 would illuminate a problem he had been wrestling with for years.

Hemi-Sync® is a registered trademark of Interstate Industries, Inc.
© 1999 by The Monroe Institute

My last four years were fully devoted to the integrative work of bringing lasting peace (presence) to my everyday life. Taking care of my elderly, disabled mother 24/7 is not just physically exhausting. The task also involves daily confrontations with behavioral patterns faithfully downloaded to us through the genetic line by our parents. Preserving one’s inner peace under such extreme circumstances is a formidable challenge. The pressure of such situations can trigger a “crash” and yet also presents ample opportunity for transcendence. Feeling that I was more likely to crash than to transcend, I signed up for EXPLORATION ESSENCE .

The TMI program setting of group energy focused on the same spiritual goal creates enormous uplifting power for transformation and transcendence. In particular, EXPLORATION ESSENCE’s design and goal are perfectly aimed at bringing inner presence into lives of daily turmoil, which are very common nowadays. Did the program meet my expectations? Way beyond!

I know that the Universe will bring me exactly what I need, nothing less. But EXPLORATION ESSENCE. brought me much more than I thought possible. To be truthful, I must admit that all the residential programs I have attended and all the Personal Resource Exploration Program (PREP) sessions I have experienced brought me unimaginable gifts. However, this time a profound shift occurred, allowing the essence to arise fully and opening a clear communication with my physical, emotional, and mental bodies.

Suitable descriptive words are hard to find because labeling distorts the reality of the experience. It is worthwhile to mention, however, that as the presence fully arises one is able to infuse words with essence and the truth comes through. Not all is lost in the translation from energy to words. Let the words then describe EXPLORATION ESSENCE.

After we all arrived on Saturday, I discovered that six of us were from the September 2004 TIMELINE and several others had taken different programs together. In an hour or two we were like one integrated energy ball. Our trainers, Karen Malik and Peter Russell, were closely aligned and at ease with each other. They joined in with us immediately. Then they took the lead and, boy, what masterful guidance!

Saturday night and all day Sunday exercises to reset Focus 10, 12, 15, and 18, as well as guided meditations, brought me peace—more and more peace and a lucid, alert mind. In Focus 18 I felt extensive pain in my right leg, injured in the past and not yet returned to full health. Still, profound peace was all-pervading and the sensation of pain was not disturbing. The latter was a new experience to me, like observing the pain and not owning it, just witnessing it without emotional baggage.

On Monday, Karen and Peter did live guided experiences of Focus 21, Free Flow, and Focus 27. Prior to listening, we discussed the descent of the spirit from an Absolute to physical reality and the ascent back to one’s Essence in the process of self-realization. Most of us know or have heard about the process of returning to the Source, but here we were being spoon-fed that knowledge in an irresistible fashion while retaining full freedom to accept it or not.

In Focus 21 I was in peace—profound peace and awareness of my right leg’s pain, though without attachment to the pain. Meditation brought me more peace. One starts wondering how much more peace one can experience! In Focus 27 I felt the ever-growing presence (peace) and, contained in it, love and compassion for my hip with gentle attention to the pain. I perceived my hip not as an obstacle to growth but as an opportunity for accelerating it by keeping me in touch with my essence—forcing me to stay in the here and now. For the first time, I sensed the sacredness of my pain and physical infirmity.

Tuesday we focused on deep meditative work. We were encouraged to ask such questions as “Who am I?” “Who has these ideas, these thoughts?” “Who or what is aware?” In Focus 15, Peter guided us in a live meditation that I was in profound peace all the way through. Given a vision of an owl catching a mouse and flying away with it, my peace remained unaffected. I was a nonattached witness of the event. During a guided meditation led by Karen, I again experienced deep peace.

A Focus 27 exercise was designed for exploring the essential qualities of love, compassion, kindness, joy, courage, strength, freedom, and peace. I knew those qualities without any accompanying emotion because of my state of profound peace. For example, when the quality of joy was presented I knew I was joy and immersed in joy but did not feel emotion. Instead, I perceived an increasing flow of energy, increasing peace, and the strength of my Being. The pain of my right hip disappeared completely for the exercise’s duration.

The evening meditation, guided by Peter, was remarkable in its focus on allowing curiosity to arise and work. Questions like “What else didn’t I notice within my body?” “What else is waiting to express itself?” were pondered. This meditation turned out to be an excellent means of communication with my body. The body responded to my curiosity by releasing all spasms and tension. Peter suggested that we also extend our curiosity toward mind. How were our minds feeling—clear, dull, busy, or tense? I observed my mind in profound peace and nonattachment, the state of full presence.

Wednesday was a day for addressing our emotions. We were to work with personality overlays created in response to life experiences and conditioning by the ego. As every TMI program participant knows, this is frequently the toughest task. But we had a most powerful ally at our side: our rising essence made the task less painful, much easier to carry on, and at the end quite fun. The first step was to list limiting thoughts brought in by our inner judge or superego in response to the hurts and injuries of physical existence. I felt anger mixed with despair in facing my mother’s “poor me” attitude. I condensed my complaints to a few lines: “I am helpless,” “Take care of me,” “Be good to me,” and “Your weakness is killing me.” We worked in pairs. My partner repeated those statements and I answered them until I felt peaceful and at ease with an issue. Then we switched roles. It was powerful work and released a lot of stored emotions. We remained in silence throughout the afternoon break, a practice that assisted me in building a new communication link with my subconscious mind.

A live exercise at 4:00 P.M. helped in our search for guidance aimed at discerning the sources of our inner voices. The inner voice may come from essence or from ego. Usually the voice of ego speaks about taking action. The voice of wisdom is quite different. It comes to us with shifting of our viewpoint and seeing reality from a different angle.

As I moved through the Focus 15 portion of a Focus 27 exercise, I had a vision of several military horses with blankets on their backs wandering among dead soldiers at dawn on a battlefield. There was no emotion, only witnessing. In Focus 27 I said to myself: “Take care of me. I am helpless.” Is there any other way of looking at this statement and situation? Immediately I knew it was my hip speaking, for I saw a fleeting vision of John and Paul (fellow participants) working on my hip earlier. With that realization, I started feeling overwhelming heat over my entire body.

The heat lasted for the remainder of the exercise. Knowing deep compassion for my hip was the core of that experience. I considered my mother’s rheumatoid arthritis that disables her right hip the most of all her joints and the similarity with my injured right hip. We expressed the same pattern of rebellion against outside authorities and were, of course, helpless in that endeavor. The egoic pattern we expressed proved to be too much of an obstacle for me to overcome without the assistance of my fully arisen essence.

On Thursday we discussed the qualities of personal essence and merging with ego to subordinate it to essence. The discussion was followed by a meditation guided by Karen. The main theme was “What are you experiencing now?” Peace was all-pervading. My body was sound asleep; it slumped in the chair. My mind was fully alert. I stated my issue again: “Take care of me. I am helpless.” Peace deepened even more. No emotions were expressed. I perceived presence and the alignment of my four bodies—spiritual, mental, emotional, and physical. Peter then read selected spiritual sayings from The Impersonal Life, written eighty years ago by an anonymous author. It was the perfect conclusion to a very satisfying session.

The rest of that morning was filled with a long exercise that stopped at Focus 12, Focus 15, and Focus 21 before ending in Focus 27. Karen and Peter took turns in guiding us through the tape. It was absolutely stunning! In Focus 12 I saw clay busts of many of my fellow participants. The finest and clearest bust was of Karen, looking very much alive and ready to move. Focus 15 and Focus 21 were suffused with profound peace. In Focus 27 my physical body started talking to me. Every fiber was vibrating, itching, twinkling, tingling, or moving in order to get my attention. My right leg became restless and painful. Then suddenly all was quiet and the pain was gone. My body tossed and turned in the CHEC unit while my mind rested in profound peace. I knew my body was releasing repressed emotions.

A PREP session with Skip on Thursday was the crowning event of the program for me. The session in the TMI isolation booth put me in touch with clear guidance, addressed my questions and doubts, and filled me with light. I feel compelled to provide some details. While expanding my heart in Focus 18, I felt scars in my physical heart dissolving while love and compassion poured in. Once again, only pure knowing was perceived, without emotion. After a while, the pain in my right hip intruded and then switched on and off. I asked why this was so and intuited that mother and I were aggravating each other’s pain. Skip instantly said he was taking me to Focus 21. Profound peace returned as soon as I arrived there.

I saw a very clear and colorful vision of the Gettysburg battlefield viewed from the ridge where Confederate batteries were located. The field below was illuminated by light from the noonday sun. Masses of dead soldiers covered the field. Zooming in like a camera, I saw a close-up of corn, grass, and soil. All was soaked in blood—literally dripping. At that moment the light over the field intensified. The light began to shimmer very fast and suddenly the whole mass of white-gold light moved toward me. It engulfed and filled me completely. I felt enormous power within and around me. Then knowing came: the sacrificial blood of all the fallen soldiers had transformed into light and engulfed me. It was as if I were literally feeding on light. In that instant Skip said, “Now you know you can live on light.” That had been my question for some time. I met someone who has lived on light for several years. I needed confirmation from Essence on whether I was ready for a shift from material nutrition to nutrition by light. Well, I received a clearer answer than I had expected.

The logistics and technical aspects of surrendering to light are not important at this time. I am confident that I will be guided step-by-step with perfect timing. The Universe will provide the opportunity for me to spend three weeks in seclusion in order to focus inward. Meanwhile, Skip took me to Focus 27 where I came to realize how sacred Gettysburg and other battlefields of the world are. They are temples of the transformation of flesh and blood to light. All those soldiers, masses of them, had not died wastefully. Their sacrifice transformed to light that feeds and sustains us. That’s why crowds visit those places. Whether the visitors realize it or not, they are nourished there. Now I can understand fully why in Poland, my motherland, places of sacrifice and martyrdom have always been considered worthy of care, honor, and homage. The more open and allowing we are, the more easily that gift of sacrifice can transform us into our true nature—essence arisen. We Beings of LIGHT are naturally sustained by LIGHT.

For me the battlefield sacrifice also makes reference to the redemption of humanity by the sacrifice of Jesus Christ. For the redeeming power of Christ comes from his body and blood transformed to light. That transformation is the basis of the Eucharist, the most holy sacrament of the Christian Church.

As examples of how the TMI experience lasts far beyond the programs, I cite two events. The first was a Metropolitan Opera performance of La Clemenza di Tito that I saw shortly after EXPLORATION ESSENCE. This is Mozart’s next-to-last work and for me it is musical perfection. The performance was choreographed, directed, and conducted superbly. The vocal and acting skill of the cast were equally impressive. Suddenly I saw the whole production in a totally different light, as an archetypal play of characters and roles in which everybody but Titus, emperor of Rome (endowed with arisen essence), wore the heavy masks of their outer image, hiding an inner turmoil of contradictory emotions. The opera magnified the EXPLORATION ESSENCE work on the overlays of personality and ego. Titus suffered the consequences of his court members’ immature games. He had to forgive one after another for their childish and destructive behavior. It was a stunningly clear allegory of the human condition. Mozart’s music reached the summit pointing to all the emotions and words—literally shouting out their meaning!

The second event was a phone call almost a week later from a friend in New Jersey. She had learned that I was seeking someone to help care for my mother. A friend of hers was looking for a permanent position as a live-in maid. It was exactly what I had been trying to arrange for several months.

I thank all members of the EXPLORATION ESSENCE group simply for being themselves and for renaming me Profound Peace, for it really means One With Essence, whereas Eve or Eva in the popular understanding depicts falling out of touch with Essence (Paradise Lost). Thanks to Karen and Peter for being who they are—All That Is.

Eva Lange is an endocrinologist, hypnotherapist, and bioenergy therapist and has received training in alternative medicine from Norman Shealy, MD, PhD. She practices the model of whole person caring. Paying attention to the spiritual aspects of healing and dying and creating a healing environment are for her the most important parts of the medical art. Eva has been a TMI Professional Member since 1995.

Hemi-Sync® is a registered trademark of Interstate Industries, Inc.
© 2005 by The Monroe Institute

Peter Russell a leading thinker on consciousness and contemporary spirituality. His books include The Global Brain, Waking Up in Time, and From Science to God. His work distills the essential wisdom on human consciousness found in the world’s various spiritual traditions, and disseminates their teachings on self-liberation in contemporary and compelling ways. Many of his writings and recordings are on his website: www.peterrussell.com.

The EXPLORATION ESSENCE and graduate EXPLORATION ESSENCE programs, run by Karen Malik and me, are now in their tenth year. The program’s popularity stems from several factors: It is the first TMI® program that directly explores spiritual awakening. It was the first TMI program to have an external trainer working alongside a TMI residential facilitator. It was also the first program to integrate meditation practices with Hemi-Sync®.

The seeds of EXPLORATION ESSENCE go back a long way. In the 1980s, Bob Monroe came across my video, The Global Brain, and began including it in some of his programs. Around the same time, I had become intrigued by Hemi-Sync® and had been listening to some of the early tapes. Bob and I exchanged several letters (this was long before email), and he extended an open invitation for me to come and present at TMI. But, sadly, he passed away before I was able to get there. Laurie Monroe took over the reins, and, following up on Bob’s interest, invited me to present at one of the then-annual professional seminars in the mid-1990s. During that visit she asked if I would be interested in conducting a program that integrated my own work with that of TMI. The development of non-ordinary states of consciousness had been an interest of mine since my college days, and had been a central part of my own work with meditation. I saw Hemi-Sync® as a natural complement to my approach, and so was definitely interested, but at that time was not sure how to incorporate my work within a TMI framework.

Soon after Laurie’s invitation, Karen Malik attended a local group I was running on the topic of consciousness. Many of you know Karen as one of the longest-serving TMI trainers; she worked closely with Bob in the very early days of the institute, running the first 10-day public programs. At the end of the program, Karen asked me, “Why don’t you and I do a program together at TMI?”

And so, with Laurie’s blessing, EXPLORATION ESSENCE was born.

The Nature of Essence

The word “Essence” in the title refers to our own inner essence. Some teachings call this “True Nature,” others the “True Self,” “Pure Consciousness,” “Spirit,” or, simply, “Being.” Whatever term they may use, they are all pointing to an unchanging quality of consciousness that lies behind our everyday experience. However, our true nature is not usually noticed because it is overshadowed by the many thoughts, feelings, images, sensory perceptions, and personality patterns that occupy our attention. To discover our essence, we must step behind the active thinking mind, behind our various personality patterns, to the core of our being. Spiritual teachers throughout the ages have repeatedly claimed that when we do open our awareness to this underlying ground of our own being, we discover a deep ease and inner freedom. We realize that this is what we have been seeking all along, but we have been looking for it outside ourselves, where only transitory pleasures exist, rather than looking within, to the core of our being.

My own path to exploring essence had been through meditation and Indian philosophy. Karen had been exploring essence through the teachings of A.H. Almaas and his Diamond Heart approach. Almaas integrated the wisdom of various spiritual teachings and developed a profound understanding of the human mind, especially the ways in which we get ourselves trapped, and the practices that can help us find inner freedom by bringing together each of our lifetime’s research in these fields and combining them with Hemi-Sync®, we saw the possibility of a radically different TMI program that would take participants into the area of spiritual awakening.

Bob Monroe was very much against his work being associated with anything “spiritual”—an attitude with which I fully empathize. In the 1970s I had been teaching meditation to corporate executives in Europe. They were interested in the health benefits of meditation and how it could help alleviate stress; they would have run a mile at the mention of anything that sounded spiritual. Indeed, one company made me promise never to tell anyone that I was teaching them to meditate. Likewise, Bob wanted his work to be accepted by the mainstream and quite rightly knew that any association with spirituality would have turned many people off. But times had changed since those pioneering days. Today, seeking a richer spiritual life has become respectable, corporations are proud to announce they had meditation rooms, and <em>Time</em> magazine has run cover stories on the subject. Karen felt that the time was right to take the institute in this direction, and so we created a more spiritually oriented program, one that takes participants deep into an exploration of their true nature.

A Unique Approach

One of the unique aspects of EXPLORATION ESSENCE is the live Hemi-Sync® sessions. We do use pre-recorded “tapes” at the start of the week in order to review the various focus levels, but from then on all the Hemi-Sync® sessions are live, with either Karen or me guiding the process. Being “live” allows us to design exercises that directly connect participants with the qualities of their inner essence, and open them to a fuller awareness of their true nature. In addition to the live Hemi-Sync® sessions, we also include meditation instruction as an integral aspect of the program. Meditation need not be difficult or mysterious. It is basically the skill of allowing the thinking mind to become quiet, so that we can become more aware of the present moment. It is in the present moment that we begin to connect with our essence.

As the week progresses and participants deepen their connection with essence, we begin to explore such questions as: What is it like to live more in the present moment? How can we listen better to the still quiet voice within? What helps open our hearts to the love and wisdom they hold? And how, by learning to recognize the qualities of essence, can we live more fulfilling and caring lives? In Karen’s words,

“We notice a softening and quieting of the group. As the authentic qualities of essence emerge—qualities such as joy, strength, confidence, kindness, compassion, and inner wisdom—it can be palpable and contagious…. fun and powerful. When people interact from a more genuine and authentic place in themselves, the group comes together at a soul level and that is very sweet. People become less invested in images of themselves, more authentic, more in touch with what is real for them.”

This is born out by the feedback from participants. One participant commented that, "It has brought my life together, bringing spirituality into my experience.” Another remarked that, “It has transformed my life, and the changes have stayed with me throughout the year.” A third said that, “I had a sense of calm and grounding, a stronger sense of inner strength, confidence, and peace.”

Hemi-Sync® is a registered trademark of Interstate Industries, Inc.
© 2011 by The Monroe Institute