Robert A. Monroe - Miscellaneous GATEWAY Transcripts

what we normally think of as waking consciousness. As physical awareness lessened, other forms of perception began to emerge. A psychologist associ- ate at the time described it as "conscious dreaming.'' The subject began often to see, eyes open or closed in a darkened booth, brilliant colors in various moving patterns. He would "hear" sound, voices, music which were not a part of the signal he was receiving through headphones. As he learned to move more deeply into sleep, pictures both moving and still, appeared in his mental vision, nearly all of them traceable to memories of physical act- ivity during the previous 24 hour period. Even during occasional lapses into sleep, which were then controlled, the subject believed that he was awake and conscious throughout the experiment. When he did sleep momentarily, he had no memory of the drop-out. To him, there was no gap in his consciousness. A question just before the onset of sleep would be answered instantly several minutes later, when he was "recalled" via the FFR signal. Mr. Monroe tells briefly of the decade of the "sixties", when he moved to Virginia, and the gradual reestablishment of a research facility there. It was during this decade that he worked intensely at a personal level to understand and develop control of his "wild talent", the out of body state (OBE). It wasn't until 1972 that he finally put his research program into full operation again in a facility west of Charlottesville, Virginia. A key group was formed with relative ease to participate in testing and experimentation. Among the volunteer members were several electronic engineers, a physicist, two medical practitioners, two psychologists, several executives plus various subjects from typical social and economic levels. Again, funding was provided by Mr. Monroe's private firm. The first major development came early in the period, when the FFR sound process was modified to produce a binaural "beat", or phased sound approach to obtain effective frequency levels common to those found in the electrical brain wave activity. In place of amplitude modulation, differential signals between each ear were used, thus enabling the brain to "hear" a third signal of the desired useful frequency. For example, by inserting a 100 hertz signal in one ear and a 106 hertz signal in the other, the differential signal of 6 hertz was generated between the headphones, i.e., within the head of the listener-subject. The use of binarual beats was not original with the Monroe group, but this applica- tion of the FFR sound concept was indeed a new prospect. It brought increases in response as high as 150% over any previous methods and techniques. Moreover, when properly utilized, coherent electrical patterns of the signal were replicated in both brain hemispheres, narrow banded and as much as 50% greater in amplitude than previous experiments. In his talk, Mr. Monroe reports the profound changes that took place in their research effort as a result of the audio hemispheric syn- chronization as a means to alter consciousness in a controlled manner, He cites the development of specific states of consciousness that offered access to other levels of personality, ideal for use in psycho- analysis, for control of body signals such as pain, for accelerated learning, and from his personal viewpoint, a direct pathway to willful and controlled out-of-body states. Thus 80% of his test subject group became familiar and proficient in working in the phenomenology of OBE's. Mr. Monroe details much of the experiences of the group during his presentation. Mr. Monroe also discloses the most recent work in the Institute laboratory which has brough forth a unique means to indicate and measure various forms of consciousness. It is a system of metering body DC voltage whereby with changes in perception, such voltage reaches a null point, and a shift in polarity occurs. With such shift, a noticeable change in consciousness is reported by the subject. Further, the greater the body voltage in such reversed polarity, the broader the possibilities this different state of consciousness appears to offer. Coupled with the Hemi-Sync methods and techniques and other non-invasive methods now available, a prospect of exploration of human ability appears unlimited. It is this prospect which Mr. Monroe addresses as the main theme of his talk. As an individual uncommitted to any specific dis- cipline with its incumbent rigidity of acceptability, he proposes that a new overview be struck as to the nature and potentials of human con- sciousness. He believes this indeed is the ultimate or final frontier that man must explore, for therein may lie the treasure trove of knowledge and understanding that provide ready answers to enigma that have haunted and pre-occupied man for thousands of years. He holds that within con- temporary Western civilization, there exists the means to conduct such exploration on a scale never before contemplated by man. It must be a unified effort, with no avenue of information or experience discarded simply because it cannot fit a known category or measured by inapplicable standards. Conversely, all present scientific theory and practice must be included, yet bearing in mind that virtually all such methods and concepts are matter-related and therefore at best may be inaccurate. Analyze smoke and the fire is understood. Radiation from a distant star brings information to a remarkable degree when pro- cessed through appropriate instruments. The best we can say relative to human consciousness in terms of measurement is that we are only able to measure its effect upon matter and behavior patterns relative thereto. At present, the only possible tool available to measure and understand human consciousness is another consciousness, human or otherwise. Perhaps our dog knows and understands us better than any human, for he is not nearly so filled with bias, prejudice, emotional sets, preconceptions and other factors that are inescapably incorporated into the human observer-