Markdown lines 986–1045 · Part 4 of 4
“One patient had noticed that a very few minutes of sleep in Focus
10 seemed equivalent to him, in terms of restfulness, to many hours of
sleep with his normal sleeping pattern. Sometimes problems can be
created by this. For example, one patient noted that he has had periods
of very high energy in which he finds he is creative, but which re- .
presents a change in his ordinary level of functioning to which other
people take some time to adjust. He has noticed, for example, that
he needs fewer hours of sleep at night and this is ready to start the
day's work a great deal earlier than most other people".
"A number of patients who have regularly practiced with the tapes
have found that they've become much more reflective, less physically
active, and more satisfied with quieter sorts of hobbies and day-to-day
activities. Becoming more inwardly turned is a characteristic of
people who learn to utilize sources of gratification within their own
heads rather than having to constantly turn to the outside world for
gratification".
--- PAGE 26 (OCR) ---
2 =ei2 = 7
The Gateway Program - In 1975, the Institute was invited to the
Esalen Center in Big Sur, California, to conduct a week-end workshop
which would incorporate some of the methods and techniques it had de-
veloped. In that week-end, and the one that followed at Esalen inv
San Francisco, the Institute inadvertently Opened a new aspect to its
experimental procedure. As additional requests for similar sessions
of exploration of consciousness came in, the decision was made to
present other week-end programs in a semi-public manner, i.e., the -—<
Selection of Participants would be on the basis of sincerity of in-
terest and inherent ability, with appropriate personality profiles.
Most important, such an on-going program would offer a far wider
consensus base than ever possible through experimental work inside the
Institute itself. Moreover, a feedback system could be employed,
whereby the participants themselves, in their reporting of effects,
would permit the evolution and modification of methods and techniques
-employed with each succeeding program.
With a few exceptions, the procedure has worked remarkably well.
In four years, over 1,500 participants have been through this training
and exploration in consciousness. Originally named the M-5000, it is
now called the Gateway Program. The present Gateway Session is a
distant cousin of the first, to say the least. Much of the primary
method-material has been validated through surveys of Gateway Participants.
Here - Now - Downstream: In a broad view, those closely associ-
ated with the Institute are deeply pre-occupied with the implications
inherent in the information gathered to date. Any introspection based
upon extended application of such new tools as now seem available usu-
ally brings confusion. It is not the donkey starving equidistant be-
tween only two hay stacks - there look to be five, ten, one-hundred or
more potentials, all equally important. The inevitable conclusion:
Assuming the validity of data gathered, that such methods and
techniques ane