The Institute calls the central practice soul retrieval or soul rescue. Some people who have died, including those who had a real or near-death experience, may not realize it and may feel confused. Participants learn to make contact and gently guide them toward the Light. Bruce Moen, an author who teaches retrieval workshops, describes escorts who come to offer a better place, and rescues of people killed so abruptly that they never noticed: a woman struck by a car after stepping off a curb, a pilot who, since probably early 1945, was still in his mind diving on an American ship. Retrieving lost parts of yourself The Institute adds that retrievals can include reclaiming lost aspects or fragments of yourself. A Hemi-Sync Journal contributor in 2002 described Lifeline advancing to Focus 23 and 25 and culminating in the retrieval of a part of the self constrained in Focus 23, after which older limiting questions began to dissolve. Moen tells of a psychotherapist who, during an ordinary retrieval exercise, was guided by her helper to bring back the childhood innocence she had spun off. The Park: a way station, designed without dogma
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Lifeline and helping others
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Monroe described the Park as a way station where people cool off from the trauma of dying and decide what to do next. In a Monroe Institute video he said it looked like a park created by human minds before recorded history, and that it is not religiously based at all, simply a place of rest and recuperation. Honeycutt says these environments were designed to be comfortable, without dogma or judgment, so everyone can create their own space within them. Service to the dying: from Lifeline to Going Home A 1994 Hemi-Sync Journal contributor took Lifeline a few months after their mother's death and learned to help those who had left the physical find their way to a parklike reception center in Focus 27. They then gathered a circle of Lifeline graduates, modeled loosely on the Institute's Dolphin Energy Club, willing to help from a distance when people request assistance near the end of life. During that same Lifeline week Monroe unveiled plans for special Hemi-Sync tapes for dying persons and their families, now the Going Home series. The home version: Voyager, based on Lifeline
The Gateway Experience album Voyager covers service to others and the states associated with the afterlife, Focus 23 through 27, according to its publisher. Its exercises include guided work with people who have died, guiding them to a reception center, and opportunities to send and receive messages. The publisher states that the album is based on the Monroe Institute's Lifeline program. The residential week adds trainers, a group, and a full daily schedule of morning, afternoon and evening exercises. Robert Monroe: “Anyway, it's from that, and researching that, and also with the areas of people who I knew had already died, we set up a program called Lifeline … which in essence is one to, in turn, help [you] get totally familiar with the process of moving from Focus 23, which is right after physical death, up to what we call Focus 27.” (Art Bell, Dr. Robert Monroe & Skip Atwater - Out of Body Experience - Black Screen - Interview Only, 2025-07-15) Robert Monroe: “Lifeline is [an] exploration into these other energy systems beyond physical death, and in our exploration we found … what looked like a park that had been created by human minds in some era prior to our recorded history, which is a place where humans after they die can go and [recreate] long enough to decide what they want to do next. And it is not a [religiously] based thing at all. It's simply a place of rest and recuperation.” (Bob Monroe on Visiting the Afterlife)