“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
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Gateway Voyage
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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
A graduate on a podcast recalled getting a few sheets of grounding tips at the end, such as swimming, eating well and spending time outdoors, and being told to hold off on life decisions for three weeks. That is one participant's account. How to read the research Masluk's findings are self-reports from volunteers with no comparison group, so they describe what participants say happened, not what caused it. The Institute has also studied the Voyage with random number generators running around the clock during the program; a paper by Dean Radin and Skip Atwater in the Journal of Scientific Exploration reported exploratory correlations between entrained mental coherence and random physical systems. Exploratory means preliminary; neither study shows how the Voyage compares with other retreats. What actually happens during the Gateway Voyage? For about a week you live at the Institute's Virginia campus and follow a repeating cycle. The trainers brief the group, everyone goes to a private CHEC unit and listens to a Hemi-Sync exercise guided by Monroe's recorded voice, and the group then meets to talk through what happened. The exercises climb from Focus 10, mind awake and body asleep, through Focus 12 (expanded awareness) and Focus 15 (no time) to Focus 21, the bridge, and end with a long tape that links them. In Felser's account the trainers collect wristwatches on the first night. What is a CHEC unit?