Hemi-Sync® Journal 2001-1 (Winter)

--- PAGE 1 (OCR) --- Journa Vol. XIX A Research and Educational Publication of The Monroe Institute HEMI-SYNC® JOURNAL BEYOND FOCUS 27: WELLSPRINGS OF CREATIVITY Winter 200 lat IN THIS ISSUE BEYOND FOCUS 27: WELLSPRINGS OF CREATIVITY. Artist/teacher Susan Taylor describes how she taps into Focus 35 energies and deftly blends the magical and the mundane, in ways that enrich her own life and the lives of her students. VIBROACOUSTIC TECHNOLOGY AND TRANSFORMATION: PARSING THE MUSICAL SYNTAX OF HEALING. KEYWORDS FOR RESEARCHERS....iv by Susan Taylor, MA Lo Following a magical childhood amongst the bills, lakes, and forests of southern Indiana, Susan Taylor obtained a BA in art education from California State University at Fresno and an MA in humanities “from California State University at Dominguez Hills, For the past twenty years she has taught art, photography, pottery, and 3D computer graphics/animation in high school and community college educational systems. Susan is an accredited Monroe Institute OUTREACH Trainer and recently joined the Professional Division. Readers can visit hetp://www.home.earthlink.net/~oobe fo view her artwork in glorious color. A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to Focus 35 I love people’s stories about how they discovered The Monroe Institute. I, like many others, happened upon Robert Monroe’s work when Journeys Out of the Body just sort of fell off the shelf when I needed it. Soon thereafter I read Far Journeys, but I didn't learn about the Institute and begin using Hemi-Sync tapes and participating in residential programs until 1996. I attended the GATEWAY VOYAGE and subsequently completed GUIDELINES, LIFELINE, EXPLO- RATION 27, and the TRAINER DEVELOPMENT AND ASSESS- MENT PROGRAM. Asan art teacher, I quickly recognized Hemi-Sync’s potential in the classroom and gave a lot of thought to introducing my adolescent scholars to both the technology and the creative exercises. But the perceived problem of parental disapproval (every teacher's night- mare) seemed to be an insurmountable hurdle. I hemmed and hawed and even declared the task to be impossible over the next couple of years, but the idea persisted. Not until Td attended EXPLORATION 27 did a solution present itself. Of course, it was so obvious and sim- ple that I laughed at my inability to see it earlier. EXPLORATION 27 was a real treat. More than half of the par- ticipants were good friends from previous programs, and I anticipat- ed the great adventure of experiencing what Bob had called “The Gathering” in Focus 35. Immediately upon my arrival in Focus 35, vo personalities greeted me. They were so totally alien that if I had encountered them outside the security of my CHEC unit with trust- ed friends and trainers nearby, they would have been utterly terrify- © 2001 The Monroe Institute 62 Roberts Mountain Road, Faber, VA 22938 804/361-1252 ideas, not things, and translating ideas into visual images that were meaningful to others was very challenging. So I majored in pottery, the ultimate cop-out. After all, a pot’s a pot. Since my initial ventures into the Focus levels, a wealth of expe- riences have accumulated that beg to be depicted. However, those experiences are usually not visual. They are more like a “knowing.” My residential program and personal meditation journals are full of sctibbled imagery that vividly evokes the experience but is absolute~ ly no help in re-creating it to share. The gift from Focus 35 changed that. Now I need only remember the experience with the intent of translating it visually and a picture appears through the “doorway.” As time permits, 1 am producing the images that are “given” to me, and a few examples accompany this article. The response from fellow adventurers who resonate with the images suggests that I may have the problem licked—with a little help from my friends! j VIBROACOUSTIC TECHNOLOGY AND TRANSFORMATION: PARSING THE MUSICAL SYNTAX OF HEALING Jennifer Schloming, MA, described this thesis—a portion of her requirements for a master of arts in liberal studies at Reed College— as “an investigation into music-medicine, in particular its conceptual underpinnings as well as the singular workings of the technology examined more closely in this paper—vibroacoustic technology,” i.e., vibrotacticle therapy using a “soundtable” or “soundbed,” Schloming argues for a “broadened and redefined metaphysic of science.” She looks at “neuro-immunological field effects arising both outside and within the nervous system’ and considers them as possible “sources of physical-emotional transformation and healing.” The author briefly defines the recent history and practice of music therapy and reviews research in the United States and Europe on the uses of vibroacoustic technology. She then presents the results of a three-month self- experiment using vibroacoustics and a justification of the experi- ment'’s validity, concluding with a recommendation that Reed College consider acquiring vibroacoustic equipment for the use of stressed and anxious students. Schloming devotes several pages to a discussion of brain-wave states and the nature of binaural beats, including (by permission) Patricia Peters’s illustrations of the path- ways through which binaural beats affect consciousness. HEMI- SYNC JOURNAL articles and other binaural-beat studies are refer- enced in both the main text and bibliography, and the Institute's assistance is acknowledged in the dedication. @ Season’s Greetings and Special Thanks for Your Research Contributions. KEYWORD LIST Students and other researchers may have difficulty finding general information and independent studies on Hemi-Syne in medical, univer- sity, and periodical databases. ‘I addressing that problem. It will be added to the research section of our website and will be updated regularly. Amplitude; arousal levels; Atkins, A. (Mount Sinai School of Medicine); auditory localization; auditory pathways; binaural auditory beats; binaural beating; binaural beats; brainwaves; Dove, H. W.; elec~ trocortical activity; evoked potential; extended reticular-thalamic acti- vating system (ERTAS); fentanyl requirement, frequency-following response; general anaesthesia; Groen, J. J Hedlum, J. M.; intra-opera- tive awareness; Jeffress, L. A.; Kleimpt, P, (intra-operative nociception control); Lehnhardt, E. Licklider, J. C. R. monaural; mood; nocicep- is keyword list is a first step toward tion; Oster, G. (auditory beats in the brain); peak experience; phrase dif- ference; phrase perception; reticular formation; Rosenzweig, M. R. (auditory localization); sine waves; sleep induction; Smith, J. C. (far- field recorded frequency-following responses); sound; states of con- sciousness; subthreshold sounds; superior olivary nucleus; thalamocorti- cal oscillations; Tobias, J. V5 vigilance performance; Webster, J. M5 white noise; and Wotherspoon, N. We are grateful to Paul Chelli, a participant in the July 2000 TDAP course, for asking the question that inspired this idea. or THE MONROE INSTITUTE BOARD OF ADVISORS Laurie A. Monroe, President James Beal, MS Wilson Bullard, PhD Gregory D. Carroll, PhD Virginia C. Colbum, JD Albert Dahlberg, MD, PhD Eleanor Friede Joseph Gallenberger, PhD Helene Guttman, PhD Fowler Jones, EdD Suzanne Evans Morris, PhD Joseph Chilton Pearce Jill Russell, LCSP- Peter Russell, MA, DCS. Ronald Russell, MA HEMI-SYNC? | urna Editor: Shirley Bliley Layout & Design: Grafton Blankinship ‘The HEMI-SYNC JOURNAL, a pubii- cation of The Monroe Institute, an Carol Sabick-Quinn, LLB, MBA Bill D. Schul, PhD David Stanley, MD Charles Tart, PhD, Emeritus Constance M, Townsend, MD Stanley J. Townsend, PhD Raymond O. Waldkoetter, EdD Marguerite Q. Warren, PhD educational and research organization dedicated to exploring and developing the uses and understanding of human ‘consciousness, offers current reporting ‘on research and application of the Hemi-Sync® technology in a variety of professional fields. The HEMI-SYNC JOURNAL is pub- lished four times annually by Monroe Institute, 62 Roberts Mout Road, Faber, VA 22938-9749, Telephone: (804) 361-1252. Membership rates from $50 to $150 per year. ©2001 The Monroe Institute. All rights reserved. No part may be reproduced without permission --- PAGE 2 (OCR) --- HEMI-SYNC® JOURNAL Winter 2001 ing. Safe in familiar surroundings, I approached them with curiosity and openness rather than fear. Heckle and Jekyll, as I irreverently named the pair, found me just as foreign. Over the next couple of days we developed a mutual sense of trust through playful interac- tion. On the last tape journey to Focus 35, one of them asked to merge with me to get a taste of physical existence. I consented, and the merge was incredible. While the tape instructions were guiding me back to C-1, I felt sad and uncertain. Would I be able to recon- nect with them at home? As my descent to mundane reality started, Heckle and Jekyll said I would receive a gift for granting their request. The gift turned out to be a constantly available doorway into Focus 35. This shimmering circle in the center of my field of vision is a small pinpoint when I'm focused in C-1 and overlays my whole visual field when my awareness is expanded. The portal is a direct line to the two gentle personalities residing at “The Gathering.” I Get By, with a Little Help from My Friends One might legitimately ponder the usefulness of a door leading to Focus 35. I considered that myself and also began to wonder about functioning normally with one foot constantly in a nonphysical dimension. My concern deepened upon discovering that Heckle and Jekyll could also open the door from their side—without knocking first. What if they dropped in to “chat” at an inappropriate time? Was this gift a Pandora's box? How does one return a nonphysical gift? I didn't have a nonphysical sale’s receipt! As I began to really question my sanity (as though having two Me: “Okay, close your eyes and think about the last time you felt really angry. Try to remember how it felt; then tell me WHAT got mad?” The student and class exchange bewildered looks. friends in another dimension behind a shimmering door visible) (©) Me (stomping my left foot wildly on the floor): “Did your left my physical eyes was normal), a comforting presence surrounded me. The presence delivered a ROTE whose core concept was “simple, unconditional trust.” The message was accompanied by a flood of memories from early childhood and the realization that my new nonphysical friends weren't really new at all. As a child Thad interacted with others like them in an atmosphere of “simple, unconditional trust.” The doorway had always been wide open. Somehow, in the process of growing up, I had shut and locked the door and had eventually forgotten that it had ever existed. Since that realization, I have had no problems living in two dimensions and have found ways to utilize the Focus 35 connection to enhance both my artwork and my teaching. My first intent was to successfully incorporate Hemi-Syne and the other TMI tools into my curriculum. I didn’t think about Sow to do it, I just did it, trusting that the right approach would manifest from the other side of the door. When I play Hemi-Syne tapes, lead the kids through guid- ed journeys into Focus 10/12, or prod them into discussions about consciousness and reality, the words/methods flow to me from the portal. When parents question me about these methods, the right responses emerge from my mouth. At first the kids just humored my crazy ideas, tapes, and exercises; now they insist on them. Our exercises depend on group dynamics and interaction. At the begin- ning of the second semes- ter of my photography class—after the students have a reasonable grasp of photographic technique and are accustomed to hearing METAMUSIC playing almost continuously—I stir things up a bit. Out of the blue, I begin a