Asked about near-death experiences, and about doctors who say the bright light with surrounding darkness is a product of dying synapses, Monroe answered that this was as good a definition as any and that what the Institute calls Focus 22 is that tunnel. He added that this is how they commonly identify it. He then turned to a new series for residences, hospitals and hospices called Going Home, designed for a person with a terminal illness or injury and for their families and caregivers. Monroe on coma and anesthesia in general In a lecture, Monroe recalled earlier Gateway groups laid out on mats in conference rooms, where people past Focus 15 lay in absolute immobility yet were still responding, a depth he called very similar to a coma. In the same talk he discussed anesthesia and dying as neighboring points in his picture of awareness separating from the body. He did not name Focus 22 in that passage. Going Home passes through Focus 22 A practitioner's 2002 report on working with the Going Home series describes a guided journey that comes back from Focus 27 through Focus 22 to ordinary waking awareness, which the Institute calls C1. In that account Focus 22 is a waypoint on the return, not a destination. It is a practitioner's description of the series, not Institute documentation of what each stage contains.
SOURCE CONTEXT
Focus 22: outside ordinary waking awareness
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Bruce Moen: “Within Focus 22 we often find those perhaps still physically alive who are in an unconscious state. These include people in comas, in drug-induced states, who are dreaming, who are insane or deranged. This is a very chaotic level.” (TMI Web Resources 2012 - An Overview of Focus Levels — TMI Web Resources 2012 - An Overview of Focus Levels.pdf, 2012) Robert Monroe: “That's—that's as good a definition as any. What we call Focus 22 is that—is that tunnel.” (Art Bell, Dr. Robert Monroe & Skip Atwater - Out of Body Experience - Black Screen - Interview Only, 2025-07-15) Robert Monroe: “When people were in past Focus 15, it was nothing so much [as] like walking through a morgue, because there was no breathing that you can detect. Absolute immobility. … This is the weird thing, is that they are responding even in that particular deep, deep state, very similar to a coma, for example.” (Robert A. Monroe - Lecture Series — Lecture Series 1 & 2 (Raw footage from VHS) (Transcript).pdf) “In fact, these levels are far less easily identifiable than you may assume, nor is it [an] area of a purely shared reality between inhabitants, and it is possible to meet various aspects of your own consciousness.” (TMI Web Resources 2012 - An Overview of Focus Levels — TMI Web Resources 2012 - An Overview of Focus Levels.pdf, 2012)
Bruce Moen: “In Focus 23, the human inhabitants tend to be those no longer physically alive who have become "stuck" for one reason or another. Often, they are confused about or unaware of their death.” (TMI Web Resources 2012 - An Overview of Focus Levels — TMI Web Resources 2012 - An Overview of Focus Levels.pdf, 2012) Treat the wording as historical, not clinical Moen's list includes drug-induced states and people described as insane or deranged. That is an explorer's shorthand inside a spiritual map, not diagnostic vocabulary, and it says nothing about what is happening to any actual person. Do not use focus numbers to label someone's medical condition or to guess at their awareness. If someone you know is unconscious or seriously ill The focus map offers one tradition's language and no information about your person. Questions about their condition, awareness or care belong with their clinical team. The Institute's Lifeline page tells anyone with a history of seizures, auditory disorders or adverse mental health conditions to consult a physician before listening to its audio. Keep the numbering systems apart