Robert Monroe: “The interesting part is, is when you're moving along what I call this, and it's not this, but it's only a symbol, moving along this interstate, the exit ramps, there must be hundreds of thousands of them, but if I have no connection with them, I can't even see the exit ramps. And yet, if I have participated in this, their life cycle, but in a previous life cycle, in some belief system, that exit ramp would be pretty clear to me.” (Robert A. Monroe Talks - with Neville Drury (1989), 1989) Robert Monroe: “It looks upon human life as a, and the patterns thereof, as sort of local traffic, because this new consciousness is, goes interstate, as it were. It has the ability, growing more and more, to communicate with these other realities, because they're a natural part of this new consciousness.” (Robert A. Monroe Talks - New Frontiers of Consciousness (1978), 1978) Robert Monroe: “One of the things that we must begin to consider is that anything we humans can think about or conceive or pattern is what might be construed as local traffic. … I like to put the other pattern: once you get out on the Interstate, as it were, you can see the difference. What we believe as to be important is basically local traffic thought.” (A Rare Conversation with Bob Monroe | Exploring Expanded States of Consciousness | EOC (Ep. 3), 2023-08-02)
SOURCE CONTEXT
The Interstate: Monroe's map of Focus levels
The selected passage is highlighted. Adjacent passages preserve the surrounding source text.
Robert Monroe: “To discover what the graduate human, [the] being who graduates from this human system of learning, can be. And that's what I mean by when I say, go on the Interstate: the, the goals are so spectacular, so far beyond anything that we can even consider.” (Robert A. Monroe's OBE Paranormal Transformation of Human Consciousness (7 Videos) — Bob Monroe's OBE Paranormal Transformation of Human Consciousness 7 (Transcript).pdf) Nancy McMoneagle: “But also within that we had, pardon me, Interstate Industries. Y'all can imagine why it was called the Interstate Industries. Remember the whole thing about don't get involved [in] the local traffic, take the Interstate.” (2014 Professional Seminar: TMI Past, Present and Future (Nancy McMoneagle) — 07 2014 Professional Seminar- Past, Present and Future (Nancy McMoneagle) (Transcript).pdf, 2014) “Although the subjects received no clues as to what to expect, either from the operator or from the verbiage on the tape, their experiences replicated the essence of reports by individuals who had listened to the instructions on the tape and had also read the instructions for Going Home. They described moving through different colors (representing different Focus levels), then visualizing or hearing deceased relatives or "non-earthly beings."” (Hemi-Sync® Journal 2003-1&2 (Winter/Spring) — 3 Preparing to Use Binaural Beat Sound with Deaf Clients.pdf, 2003) Monroe called it a symbol
In the same breath as describing the exit ramps, Monroe said the Interstate was only a symbol. He used allegory because the experiences resisted ordinary description. Treat the road, the ramps and the Park as a way of organizing reports, not as a claim that the afterlife is literally laid out like a highway. The numbers are positions, not ranks Higher Focus numbers are further along the road, not better or more spiritual. Monroe said in a 1988 talk that it was easier for him to skip from 20 to 27 than to move to 22, and his own maps varied. Use the numbers to orient yourself and compare notes, not to measure progress. Build the early stretch first Lifeline and Exploration 27 assume Gateway Voyage or its equivalent. The later stops are reached from Focus 21, which depends on a reliable Focus 10, 12 and 15. Working through the Gateway stretch first gives the later stops something to build on. Belief system exits are a sensitive subject The idea that heavens and hells are human-made territories along a road can upset people with strong religious commitments. Monroe did not argue with them; in the 1989 interview he said where people went was their business, not his. If you share the map with others, present it as Monroe's model and leave room for their own beliefs. Afterlife material and grief