On Art Bell's radio show, Monroe was asked about near-death experiences and the claim that the bright light is a product of dying synapses. He said that was as good a definition as any, and that what the Institute calls Focus 22 is that tunnel, adding that this is how they commonly identify it. In a separate lecture he compared the deep stillness of people in Focus 15 and beyond to a coma, noting that they were still responding, but he did not name Focus 22 there. The fuller descriptions of the level in the overview are Bruce Moen's rather than Monroe's. How is Focus 22 different from Focus 21 and Focus 23? Focus 21 is, in the overview's wording (credited there to Monroe's 1994 book), the edge of time and space where it is possible to contact other energy systems, and the overview treats it as the ideal platform for reaching the other levels. Focus 22, in Moen's description, is where explorers find living people in unconscious states. Focus 23 is where explorers find people who have died but become stuck, often unaware of their death. The progression runs from an exploration state at 21, to living people outside ordinary waking awareness at 22, to the first level populated by people who have died at 23. Focus 23 has its own page. Can I reach Focus 22 with the Gateway Experience or Lifeline?
SOURCE CONTEXT
Focus 22: outside ordinary waking awareness
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Neither is described as targeting it. The overview calls the Gateway Experience a platform from which to explore further on your own, and the Institute's Lifeline page describes the retreat as exploring Focus Levels 23 through 27, the states associated with the afterlife experience, without mentioning 22. A practitioner's 2002 report on the Going Home series describes a guided journey that passes through Focus 22 on the way back to ordinary awareness. Read the current program description before assuming which levels an album or retreat covers, and note the Institute's advice to consult a physician first if you have a history of seizures, auditory disorders or adverse mental health conditions. Does Focus 22 say anything about people in a coma? No. Moen's description lists comas among the conditions of the people explorers say they meet, but it is an account of an explorer's perceptions, not information about any patient. Nothing in the map can tell you whether a particular person is aware, what they experience, or how they will recover. Monroe's own comparison of deep Gateway states to a coma was about how participants looked from outside, not about patients. Questions about a loved one's condition belong with their medical team. References: TMI Web Resources 2012 - An Overview of Focus Levels https://archive.org/details/tmi-web-2012-focus-levels; The Monroe Institute: Lifeline program page https://www.monroeinstitute.org/products/lifeline