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?
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Gateway Voyage
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CHEC stands for Controlled Holistic Environmental Chamber, and it is the private booth where you listen to the Hemi-Sync exercises and sleep. Participants describe a bed behind a blackout curtain, lighting you control, headphones or speakers, and a button or light that tells the control room you are ready. An Institute guide explains that the curtain serves privacy and total darkness. Felser notes that the units have been described as a Pullman berth. The units sit together in a shared room, so the group is close by while your experience stays private. Will I have an out-of-body experience at the Gateway Voyage? Not necessarily. Monroe told Voyage groups in his welcome talk that Gateway does not guarantee an out-of-body experience: the opportunity, the possibility and the tools are there, but no guarantee. By his own estimate, about 15 percent of participants had one during the program. The Institute's current page says the exercises lead to expanded states including the state of no time and the out-of-body state, and many reports are broader than leaving the body. Others report nothing of the kind and still value the week. How is the Gateway Voyage different from doing the Gateway Experience tapes at home?
The Gateway Experience albums are a home-study program; the Voyage is the residential course. At the Institute you work inside a CHEC unit, in a group, with trainers who brief you before each exercise and discuss it afterward, and the days are organized around the exercises. The Institute's FAQ for its 2015 Gateway Experience online course makes a related point about groups: doing the exercises as part of a group is often more beneficial, because you can ask questions of the trainer and other participants and feel more supported than working alone with the Wave I album. What if nothing happens, or the week brings up strong emotions? Both happen. A speaker in an Institute video recalls a couple of people who left saying nothing had happened and that they never got out of their left brain, yet who later reported feeling calmer and happier. At the other end, Felser sobbed uncontrollably before one tape and felt cleansed afterward, and Masluk described a participant in grief who cried throughout the week, found it cathartic and said the trainers helped her work through it. The Voyage is a training program, not a treatment, and the Institute advises consulting a physician beforehand if you have a history of seizures, auditory disorders or adverse mental-health conditions. Do I need the Gateway Voyage before other Monroe Institute programs?