Joseph Felser: “As is customary, the trainers provide some inspirational music in our CHEC unit speakers while we voyagers are attending to emptying our bladders and putting on our ready lights to indicate all systems go. The music, I realize, is the old spiritual, Going Home, which has numerous associations for me. The music itself and the thought of “home” trigger an overwhelming sense of nostalgia, loss, and sadness. Tears flow down my cheeks. I cannot stop sobbing.” (Magazine Article 2000 (EHE News) My Gateway Experience - Joseph M. Felser — Magazine Article 2000 (EHE News) My Gateway Experience - Joseph M. Felser.pdf, 2000) Skip Atwater: “In our four programs that we do here, the later days [in] the programs are about weaning you off of tapes. And we have this famous thing called the non tape exercise, where you go out to your check unit and you put your earphones on and we don't give you a tape to listen to. So that there's this idea that I am not dependent. My exercise isn't on the tape, it's in me. I've just learned with the tape how to get to this place.” (1993 Professional Seminar: F. Holmes ' Skip' Atwater — 1993 Professional Seminar- F. Holmes 'Skip' Atwater (Transcript).pdf, 1993)
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Gateway Voyage
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“So, people who really were coming to please someone else, some of them had dramatic experiences because they had no expectations. So, they were fully open to whatever occurred. And some, only two, I think, who left the end of the week and they said, you know, 'I never got out of my left brain. Nothing happened.' And with them, I checked with them later and found that even though they did not feel they had seen angels or touched God or had these incredible magnificent luminous experiences, they felt that their life was calmer, that they were happier.” (How the Gateway Voyage Can Transform You) Robert Monroe: “What we do in Gateway is we put a beacon, signpost, guideposts [there]; we call that Focus 10. We then, in turn, help [your] consciousness consciously, willfully move from here to Focus [10] and back and forth, back and forth, until going in, being in Focus 10 and returning is as well known as your path of getting up and getting out of bed or going to the bathroom in your own home. It's that simple, and that prosaic, and the boredom of that knowledge of getting from there to there, you feel tremendously safe.” (Robert A. Monroe GATEWAY VOYAGE Talks - Saturday Nights — 1988-09-17 Saturday Night GATEWAY Talk (Transcript).pdf) Expect a group process
Shared rooms, a bell-driven schedule and daily debriefs make the Voyage a group experience. Felser, who called himself not a group person, ended the week with what he described as an esprit de corps. If you picture a silent solo retreat, adjust your expectations. No result is guaranteed Monroe said plainly that the tools bring opportunity and possibility but no guarantee. An Institute speaker recalls that some people who came to please someone else, with no expectations, had dramatic experiences, while a couple of people who felt nothing happened later found life calmer. Dramatic imagery is not the measure of a good week. Strong emotion is common Felser sobbed uncontrollably before one tape and felt cleansed afterward. In a talk on his study, Masluk said the only two negative experiences involved a woman in grief who cried throughout the week and a man confronting guilt, and that both turned out well. The Voyage is an educational program, not a treatment, and it is wise to plan the week with that in mind. Health and suitability The Institute's page advises people with a history of seizures, auditory disorders or adverse mental-health conditions to consult a physician before using its sound technology, and admission requires an approved application. Nothing here is medical advice. If you are in treatment for any condition, talk with your clinician before enrolling. Allow time to land