Remote viewing · 13 MIN READ · 8 SOURCE QUOTES
The Army and Hemi-Sync
The Army's interest in Robert Monroe is documented in declassified papers the Monroe Institute later gathered on the Internet Archive as The Monroe Institute and the Army. They show two tracks. One was ordinary training research: in 1982 Army agencies planned a Sleep Discipline evaluation built on what a proposal called the Monroe method, and tested a set of Hemi-Sync tapes, called FAST, with 21 students in a broadcasters course at the Defense Information School. The other was intelligence: the remote-viewing unit at Fort Meade, known in turn as Grill Flame, Center Lane and Sun Streak, used Monroe's Discovery tapes, the Gateway program and one-on-one sessions with Monroe himself to train its viewers, whom the papers call sources.
People made the link. Skip Atwater, the unit's operations and training officer, says he met Monroe in 1977 while looking for ways to teach remote viewing. Maj. Gen. Albert Stubblebine, commander of the Army Intelligence and Security Command (INSCOM), briefed senior officials on Hemi-Sync, handed out sleep tapes, and in 1983 attended an Institute course with two soldiers from Field Station Augsburg. In July 1983 the Army signed a contract with Monroe for one-on-one training of a Center Lane operative.
The records are modest. They are plans, proposals, timelines, procedure guides and one evaluation that a later summary calls not wholly conclusive. They describe Hemi-Sync as a tool for sleep, stress, concentration and the controlled mental states remote viewers wanted. They do not describe super soldiers, time travel or a CIA Gateway program. The CIA label comes from the reading room where many of the papers were released.
Army files show Hemi-Sync tested for sleep, stress and training, and Gateway used to prepare remote viewers. They do not show super soldiers.
Key points
Before the contract: "Monroe Institute not cleared"
The Army's first look came under Gondola Wish in 1977 and 1978. An August 1978 Gondola Wish assessment concluded that Monroe would at least be a valuable person to talk to. A 25 September 1978 memo from Fort Meade then records that the Gondola Wish concept was cancelled, notes "Monroe Institute not cleared," and says any training contract involving experiments with the mind had to be cleared through an office at HEW. In 1979 the Army General Counsel ruled that Grill Flame activities involved testing on human subjects, so human-use review shadowed the program from then on.
Sleep Discipline, 1982
An Independent Evaluation Plan dated 14 February 1982 describes a Soldier Support Center effort, coordinated with the Army Research Institute, to sustain soldiers in continuous operations, combat that runs around the clock. It proposes Army Rapid Acquisition Training (ARAT): pre-recorded exercises using sound to put both brain hemispheres into an identical wave form, so that sleep becomes a learned state that can be called up at will. An unsolicited proposal in the same file promises that a short induced sleep could return a soldier to work with the benefit of four or more hours of rest. The file holds the plan and the proposal, not results.
FAST at the Defense Information School
The FAST executive summary describes an auditory guidance system of eight Hemi-Sync tapes with minimal voice instruction, played on a small tape player through a stereo headset. The tapes moved students through performance cues, sleep, relaxation, attention, concentration, peak learning and "on-the-air" preparation. The test ran in broadcasters course 1-83, from 4 October to 16 December 1982, with 21 students. Its first objective was simply whether the Hemi-Sync state and technique were acceptable in the course. The Army Research Institute warned the testers to understand the technique and to guard against simple reinforcement effects.
What the FAST evaluation found
A 1991 Hemi-Sync Journal article reviewing Army applications says the test students showed a number of positive differences in stress reactions and performance compared with a stress control group and a course-performance control group. It also says the 1982 evaluation was not wholly conclusive and that further study was recommended. The same article reports another test in the Public Affairs Officer Course and interest in Hemi-Sync from an Army Science Board report of July 1983. This summary appeared in the Institute's own professional journal, not an Army publication.
Remote viewers trained with Gateway
A 1983 briefing on Center Lane for the Secretary of the Army says the unit began an advanced training program using Monroe's hemispheric synchronization process by the end of 1980, and reminds him that Stubblebine had briefed him on it and given him sleep tapes. The 1984 Center Lane procedures describe four phases: the Discovery tapes at Fort Meade to screen personnel, the Gateway program at the Institute, one-on-one sessions with Monroe to customize techniques, and specially designed Hemi-Sync environments during applications training back at Fort Meade. Only sources of proven performance and maturity received it.
The 1983 build-up
A Center Lane timeline prepared for the Director of the Defense Intelligence Agency shows how fast things moved in 1983. On 13 June Stubblebine briefed Secretary of the Army John Marsh; on 15 June Center Lane became a Special Access Program; on 7 July Atwater became acting project manager; on 19 July a contract was signed with Monroe for one-on-one training of a Center Lane operative. The sessions began on 31 October, and a program called RAPT was established on 10 November. McDonnell's 9 June assessment of Gateway was written for INSCOM personnel required to take the training.
Field Station Augsburg
At Stubblebine's request, two members of Field Station Augsburg in West Germany attended the Institute from 25 August to 2 September 1983, and the general attended too. He told them to write papers on using Hemi-Sync at their station. The resulting unclassified paper lists mission uses, such as language study, memorizing for skill tests and handling heavy workloads, and personal uses, such as weight control and managing emotions with tapes the chaplain would already hold. It adds that the station's mission comes first and Hemi-Sync could be used only if it fit around other projects.
The Institute's proposals
A Monroe Institute of Applied Sciences proposal for research dated 12 October 1983 is filed among the Army papers. Its cover names the client only as a private client and lists Monroe as the contact for technical and contractual matters. It estimates 12 months of work, promises informed consent under Department of Health and Human Services guidelines, and includes a security section listing cleared Institute staff. By early 1984 the Army had limits too: the Director of the Army Staff directed cancellation of RAPT as a screening tool for Center Lane personnel.
Still in the rules under Sun Streak
The December 1985 Sun Streak training procedures keep the Hemi-Sync clauses almost word for word. Selected personnel may use the Hemi-Sync environment during applications and training, sources may be watched with non-intrusive biological monitoring, sessions are capped at ten applications and twenty training sessions a week, and the procedures state that no drugs or harmful circumstances are involved. The INSCOM staff psychologist supported the project, with Kimbrough Army Hospital at Fort Meade available if needed.
In their own words
Quotes are checked word for word against the recordings and documents they come from. Bracketed words correct transcription errors; “…” marks an omission.
“Sleep discipline is a combat requirement. Combat in continuous operations requires a schedule for sleep or restoration. For the unit commanders, sleep discipline is analogous to resource management. For the individual soldier, sleep discipline is a problem. Sleep can be scheduled, and yet sleep may not come, especially under conditions of overstimulation, worry, and stress. Sleep discipline requires that sleep be under control. Sleep must be willed.”
“Further study and use of Hemi-Sync were recommended in the area of accelerated training, although the 1982 evaluation was not wholly conclusive.”
“By the end of 1980, we began an advanced training program using the hemispheric synchronization process developed by Robert A. Monroe and used at the Monroe Institute of Applied [Sciences] in Virginia. As you recall, General Stubblebine briefed you on the [Hemi-Sync] process and provided you with sleep tapes. This training enables source personnel (RVers) to achieve states conducive to psychoenergetic awareness.”
“Training is accomplished in four essential phases: (1) application of the [Monroe] "Discovery" series done at Fort Meade to screen personnel and prepare for phase two; (2) attendance at the [MIAS] Gateway program for qualified personnel, conducted in a seminar atmosphere; (3) one-on-one training sessions with Robert A. Monroe at MIAS, which are designed to "customize" individual techniques for specific individual needs; (4) use of [specially] designed [hemi-sync] environments during applications training done at Fort Meade.”
“General Stubblebine instructed each of us at the school to write a report on the uses of the HEMISYNC process, and its uses at our work site. I don't know whether this or any similar process is used in your work, but thought you might like a complementary copy.”
“To teach people how to do remote viewing, because we were teaching soldiers and officers, female, male, civilian employees of the government, teaching them how to do this remote viewing. One of the methods I investigated was the Hemi-Sync technology at the Monroe Institute. So in 1977 I met Bob Monroe. Now, at that time this was all deeply classified, not declassified until 1995.”
“When I first got to Fort Meade, I was assigned to what was called US Army Operations Group. … And its focus was human intelligence. They conducted … pretty much all of the Army's human intelligence operations around the … world.”
“So, the Army back then wasn't just the Army. They, they took on this role that, like, basically the CIA plays now. They were very high up in the military intelligence. I mean, they were doing a lot of the stuff back then that the CIA does now. So, when we talk about the Army, you can kind of just pretend we're talking about the CIA, cuz it's kind of the same thing back then.”
Important things to consider
Army papers, CIA stamps
The Gateway training records are Army records: INSCOM tasked them, Army officers wrote them, and Army secretaries approved the programs. Many carry the stamp Approved For Release with a CIA-RDP document number because they were released through the CIA's reading room. The CIA was briefed on Center Lane and had funded earlier remote-viewing work, but treating the Army and the CIA as interchangeable, as some videos do, blurs who actually did what.
The scale was small
The records count people in ones and twos: a Center Lane operative in one-on-one training with Monroe, two soldiers from Augsburg, 21 students in one broadcasting course. Gateway was a training aid for a handful of selected sources and a subject of test proposals. Nothing in these files describes an Army-wide program or the mass training of combat troops.
Proposals are not results
Much of the file is aspiration. The Sleep Discipline proposal promises four or more hours of rest from a short induced sleep; the Augsburg paper lists ways tapes might help; the Institute's 1983 proposal estimates a year of research. None of these documents reports that the promised effect was achieved. Read them as plans and pitches.
The one evaluation is soft
FAST was designed mainly to test whether the Hemi-Sync technique was acceptable in a course, with 21 students and complex test conditions caused by class schedules and limited resources. The positive summary comes from the Institute's own journal, which also calls the evaluation not wholly conclusive. It is a reasonable pilot, not proof that the tapes accelerate learning.
The papers protect identities
Center Lane procedures required that sources be referred to by alpha-numeric designators and that materials revealing identity be coded. The timelines speak of "a Center Lane operative" without a name. Do not assume who received the one-on-one training with Monroe; the papers do not say.
Training is not the same as results
These records show that the Army used Hemi-Sync to help viewers reach the states it wanted. Whether remote viewing itself produced reliable intelligence is a separate question, argued over in the 1995 AIR evaluation that ended Star Gate. Successful training in relaxation or focus does not settle it either way.
Read the scans
The text layers of these files are rough: "Montoe" for Monroe, "hemi-syne" for Hemi-Sync, and in the Augsburg paper a return date printed by the OCR as 1993. Check dates and names against the page images before relying on them.
Health note
Sleep, relaxation and stress tapes are practices, not treatments, and the Army files are not medical evidence. If you have a seizure disorder or a serious mental-health condition, or are unsure about audio entrainment, check the publisher's guidance and talk to your clinician first.
Common questions
Did the US Army really use the Gateway Experience?
Yes, on a small scale. Declassified Army papers show the Fort Meade remote-viewing unit using Monroe's methods from about 1980. By 1984 its procedures set out four phases of advanced training: Monroe's Discovery tapes at Fort Meade to screen personnel, the Gateway program at the Monroe Institute, one-on-one sessions with Monroe, and Hemi-Sync environments during operational training. In July 1983 the Army signed a contract with Monroe for one-on-one training of a Center Lane operative. The same papers limit this training to a few experienced sources, and Lt. Col. Wayne M. McDonnell wrote his 1983 Gateway assessment as a guide for INSCOM personnel who were required to take it.
What was the Army's Sleep Discipline program?
It was a 1982 plan to help soldiers sleep on command during continuous operations, where combat runs around the clock. An Independent Evaluation Plan dated 14 February 1982, from the Soldier Support Center working with the Army Research Institute, proposed Army Rapid Acquisition Training: recorded exercises using sound to synchronize the brain's hemispheres so sleep becomes a learned state. An unsolicited proposal in the same file, built on what it calls the Monroe method, promised that a short induced sleep could give the benefit of four or more hours of rest. The file contains the plan and proposal but no results showing it worked.
What was FAST and did it work?
FAST was a 1982 test of eight Hemi-Sync tapes, with brief voice instruction, in a broadcasters course at the Defense Information School. Twenty-one students used a stereo headset and small tape player for exercises covering sleep, relaxation, attention, concentration, peak learning and on-air preparation, from 4 October to 16 December 1982. The main objective was whether the technique was acceptable in the course. A 1991 Hemi-Sync Journal summary says the students showed positive differences in stress and performance compared with control groups, recommends further study, and admits the evaluation was not wholly conclusive. Treat it as an encouraging pilot rather than proof.
Did the CIA use Hemi-Sync to create super soldiers?
Nothing in the records supports that. The Hemi-Sync and Gateway papers are Army documents: INSCOM at Fort Meade, the Soldier Support Center, the Defense Information School and Field Station Augsburg. They are called CIA documents because the CIA's reading room released many of them. What they describe is narrow: tapes for sleep, stress and study, a pilot with 21 students, and advanced training for a few remote-viewing sources. Some videos open with super-soldier framing or tell viewers to treat the Army and the CIA as the same thing. The files themselves are far more ordinary.
How did remote viewers at Fort Meade use Hemi-Sync?
As a way to reach and control the relaxed, focused states they worked in. A 1983 briefing for the Secretary of the Army says the unit had begun advanced training with Monroe's hemispheric synchronization process by the end of 1980, so that sources could reach states conducive to psychoenergetic awareness. Skip Atwater, the unit's operations and training officer, says he met Monroe in 1977 while looking for ways to teach remote viewing. Later procedures allowed selected personnel to work in specially designed Hemi-Sync environments during sessions at Fort Meade, with optional non-intrusive biological monitoring and caps on sessions per week.
What happened at Field Station Augsburg?
Field Station Augsburg was an Army intelligence post in West Germany. At the request of Maj. Gen. Albert Stubblebine, commander of INSCOM, two of its soldiers attended the Monroe Institute from 25 August to 2 September 1983, and Stubblebine attended as well. He told them to write papers on how Hemi-Sync could be used at their station. The surviving unclassified paper suggests uses for language study, memorizing for skill tests, heavy workloads, weight control and emotional stress, while noting that the station's mission came first. On 26 October 1983 one of the two, a sergeant first class, sent a copy to a lieutenant colonel at Fort Meade.
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