(TMI-Army Files) 1983 - MIAS Proposals

TV network programs in the ensuing twenty year period. In addition to directing and writing, he composed all of the orchestral music for his programs, much of which is still in use in television and motion pictures. After an early sojourn at Donohue and Coe, Advertising, he formed Robert Monroe Productions, which at its peak operation, was producing as many as 28 network shows weekly. He later became Vice President of Programs and director of Mutual Broadcasting System, Inc., a position he held until mid 1956. He then became President of Laury Associates, which brought him into ownership and operation of radio stations in North Carolina and Virginia. He also formed Jefferson Cable Corporation, which as President, he guided in the construction and operation of cable-TV systems in Charlottesville and Waynesboro, Virginia - a position he held until April, 1976. Mr. Monroe's major avocation in recent years has been exploration and research into practical methods of accelerated learning through expanded forms of consciousness. To augment such activity, he founded the Monroe Institute of Applied Sciences in 1973, with facilities and laboratories at Afton, Virginia. With his long and varied experience in sound, it was natural that he utilized this medium for investigation. One of the results of his work was a method and technique of inducing relaxation and sleep, which was granted a generic patent in 1975. The technique employs a system of audio pulses which create a frequency following response in the human brain. By this method, it is now possible to hold and maintain specific stages of sleep for any depth and duration in the average person. A later development at the Institute has utilized the same method and technique in a form of “binaural beats" to create syncronization of both left and right hemispheres in the human brain. This discovery also permits external control of the 11 --- PAGE 14 (OCR) --- degree of activity in either right or left brain. These two patterns, when employed in an ordered sequence to achieve specific effects, offer a significant gateway to new understanding and application of human thought and endeavor. Along with others, the Monroe Institute is exploring the potentials of such methods in all areas of individual and cultural activity. Mr. Monroe has most recently been involved in development of Fast Acquisition Skills Training (FAST) in support of Broadcasters Training at the Defense Information School (DINFOS). Mr. Monroe, as Executive Director of the Institute he founded, still plays a direct and active part in this educational-research organization. He also is author of the book, "JOURNEYS OUT OF THE BODY" (Doubleday), which has been published in five languages world-wide. With his family, he lives on his farm in Nelson County, Viriginia, near the Institute Headquarters. 13 --- PAGE 15 (OCR) --- ‘Afionroe Institute of Applied Sciences ¥ 3 ° Rt. 1 Box 175 { Faber, VA 22938 : (804) 361-1252 (Phone) The Institute haa its beginning in the Research and Development Division of Monroe Indust¢ies, Inc., which at the time (1958) was investigating methods and techniques of accelerated learning through practical environmental changes. As a result of certain findings, the decision was made to broaden the base of such investigations and to alter the purpose of any such research effort. In 1971, the Insti- tute was created to conform with and expand this different approach. Stated simply, the Institute holds to the concept that (1): Con- sciousness ana the focusing thereof contain any and all solutions to the life processes that man desires or encounters. (2): Greater understanding and appreciation of such consciousness can be achieved only through inter-disciplinary approaches and co-ordination; (3): The results of related research effort are meaningful only if reduced to practical application, to "Something of Value” within the context of the contemporary culture or éra. HISTORY Two points of reference need to be clarified in this, the opening portion. First, the following report is not presented within the re- strictive confines .f a single avenue of study or practice. It is an attempt to place in broadly comprehensive terms the basic developments at the Institute so that each individual may relate it to his own area of interest without need for "translation". Second, the summary of study and research contained herein is not conventional in its approach. There are no statistical tables, graphs, or references to the works of others in the field.. The efforts of the Institute have ‘fnot been designed or performed with the intent of offering proof or documentation to the scientific community or the world at large, although much of orthodox scientific method has been utilized. Instead, such can well be the goal of other organizations and individuals who may take the basic findings of the Iristitute to prove and present them in other forms, in other areas of specialization. The Institute welcomes this participation. As stated above, the early goals were defined as the development of learning methods and techniques through practical environmental changes i.e., changes at could be put into use simply and easily under typical societal conditions: This immediately precluded any exotic approaches ~ such as chemical, drug, or dietary stimulation. Also, to be widely accept: able, the use of sophisticated and expensive instrumentation could not be of vital necessity. Moreover,, the need became apparent to go beyond the current modes and theofies of learning to reach a baseline that might be all-encompassing. The purpose was to produce something effective in a new form, rather than an extension:or expansion of traditional practices that were declining steadily in accéptable results each year. 1 } { ; ' --- PAGE 16 (OCR) --- Type I Learning - Utilizing a freedom from conventionality, studies were made into all fprms of the learning process in daily life activities. In moving beyond the Skinnerian pattern, the key factor in learning ap- peared to be, first of all, the focusing of attention. Pain or pleasure focused attention to the experience, and the experience was then learned/ stored. Further, any factor of emotion focused attention, again causing the experience to be imprinted heavily. Any extreme physical experience also focused attention on the experience with similar results. The depth of learning (retention-recal]) appeared to be in direct relation to the intensity of experience. Conversely, the more shallow the experience, the lesser the attention seemed valid, which diminished greatly the learning process. Any other "“un-natural" learning such as willful focusing of attention without stimulus required a form of dedication and discipline generally unayailable to the average human mind. Attention flickers and fluctuates also in low-order repetitive experience, denigrating again learning that might take place. The premise: (Natural) learning is triggered by attention focused by experience which contains elements of emotion, pain-pleasure, physical action, newness in various combinations. Therefore: natural learning is experience: the greater the depth of the experience, the greater the imprint of learning. This is} labeled Type IT Learning. i A simple validation of the premise can be achieved by no more than sitting down and writing out a list of the ten most significant infor- mation events you have learned to date, in the order of the clarity of detail and your ability to recall. Having done this, note how many of the ten represent those items you have learned through formal training. The questiog was: how to put this natural learning process into a synthesis that ceguld be applied broadly and readily. Type IT Learning - Another learning process, the most conventional and widely in use, is indeed deliberate and willful, and approaches a Pavlovian conditioning pattern in its habituation, to be truly successful. The reading and re-reading of textbook, the physical co-ordination of an athlete, the skill of a contert pianist, all are forms of Type 11 Learning - and require a special pre-learned form of focus of attention (which may be triggered by a previous "natural" learning experience which may Or may not be in conscious recall). From this basic rote process, “un-natural", 4s it were, combinations thereof are assembled to form deductive simulations akin to! natural learning experience. type iit Learning - Another pattern which is present and affects the individual, yet for the most part is usually not within his conscious recall, lies in two (or more) areas of experience. The first takes place in non-conscious retention of experience which is perceived and stored during his waking physical life activity. All five physical senses perceive ‘information, only a small portion (less than 20%) of which is ordinarily available to the conscious mind. Yet such information is stored in memory in the most minute detail. It is nota --- PAGE 17 (OCR) --- part of the average consciousness because there is no focus of attention on the experience at that pauticular moment. This has been illustrated in many forms} such as the récall of the content of a conversation be- tween others while the focus af attention was in another direction, or the remembering of a musical selection while reading a book. The gecond form of learning is by the experience of the non-conscious self - thé dream experience which may or may not be in conscious recall. The dream material itself may be a new experience created out of the previously learned experiences, and in turn is treated by the learning process as a learning -experie be no less real or important than any other. An individual who previously has had no fear of Snakes, dreams that he is wading in a'creek, is bitten by a snake and becomes seriously ill. Thereafter, hej is afraid of snakes, and quite possibly is afraid of wading ‘in creeks seenpese the entire dream experience is not a part of his con- . scious memory.! . The important facet in Type IIT Learning is that such learning ex- perience is indeed a part of non-conscious memory, which does not have the basic ability to evaluate the experience within a relative context. Yet, it is experiential, often emotional learning, and thus acts upon the individual personality with the same strength as Type I Learning - without conscious awareness of the individual. It was herein, Type IIT Learning, that held the most hopeful promise of achievement of the original purpose. Prelimihhary Results - It.soon became obvious that experiments in Type Itt Learning were not at all an original approach. Much of it had taken place through the years under various labels - suggestion, hypnosis, psycho-synthesis, placebo effect, motivational research, plus several hundred philosophical variations. The problem thus was to sort out the catalytic factor in as many of these as possible, and apply them in some rational and repeatable scientific model. With this came an important change in identification of exactly what this was that had been under investigation. What attention was being focused? What was undergoing the experience? Unhappy with the term "human being” (the process might apply to animals also), personality or individualism being the result, and "awareness" offering insufficient connotation, we settled reluctantly upon Consciousness. Reluctance was there because it still seemed inadequate, vague, mis-used, and over-used but it was the best to be had at the time. ; With this hurdle cleared hopefully, and shortened to CS through im- patience, CS (Consciousness) became the target of intensive and unorthodox patterns of research. If CS could be extended into Type 11 learnin id focused therein, much might be achieved. yP ns --- PAGE 18 (OCR) --- By luck or intuition, thal project aimed immediately at the most