States of awareness · 12 MIN READ · 7 SOURCE QUOTES
Focus 12
Focus 12 is the state Robert Monroe called expanded awareness. Focus 10 asks the body to fall asleep while the mind stays awake; Focus 12 is what the awake mind can do next. In a 1988 talk to a Gateway Voyage group, Monroe explained that when the flood of physical sensory data is turned down, a mass of other signals that it normally overwhelms begins to surface. He described Focus 12 as a space where you perceive by other means, and as the edge of a nonverbal way of communicating and knowing, because words cannot carry it.
On the Gateway Experience home albums, Focus 12 belongs to Wave II, Threshold, which Monroe voices himself. It opens with Intro Focus 12 and then puts the state to work in five exercises: Problem Solving, One Month Patterning, Color Breathing, the Energy Bar Tool and the Living Body Map. The 1983 Army assessment of Gateway describes these tools, plus a remote viewing technique, as the advanced techniques that open up once Focus 12 is reached, and notes that extra layers of pink and white noise join the Hemi-Sync tones at this stage.
Reports of Focus 12 vary: colors and abstract shapes, brief scenes or symbols, a rushing of energy through the body, or the simple impression that attention has widened and the body matters less. A 2012 TMI Web Resources overview adds that the Gateway-level states usually do not involve going anywhere; the expansion happens in the same location. Like Focus 10, the state is meant to become familiar through repetition, and it is the base from which the Focus 15 material begins.
Expanded awareness: the Gateway state where physical input fades, other ways of perceiving surface, and the Threshold tools do their work.
Key points
Monroe's own label: a state of expanded awareness
Short descriptions of the main Gateway states, which a 2012 TMI Web Resources overview traces to Monroe's 1994 book, list Focus 10 as mind awake, body asleep and Focus 12 as a state of expanded awareness. The overview elaborates: conscious awareness extends beyond the limits of the physical body, and the state has many facets, including exploring nonphysical realities, decision making, problem solving and enhanced creative expression.
Physical input fades, and other signals surface
Monroe's explanation, given to a 1988 Gateway Voyage group, was close to mechanical. Waking life is dominated by heavy physical sensory data. When that input is lowered, signals that were always present but overwhelmed begin to surface. He described Focus 12 as another beacon, or guidepost, set up for this, and said that in it you begin to appreciate a nonphysical, nonverbal kind of communication: a way of perceiving and knowing that words cannot do.
Wave II, Threshold, is the Focus 12 course
According to the publisher's program guide, Threshold builds on the Focus 10 mental tools and leads to Focus 12, aiming to open new perceptual channels and develop creative insights. Its six exercises are Intro Focus 12, Problem Solving, One Month Patterning, Color Breathing, Energy Bar Tool and Living Body Map. Monroe voices Waves I through IV. The guide numbers the same albums as Gates, so Threshold appears there as Gate 2.
Problem Solving: pose the problem, then let the answer arrive
The 1983 Army assessment describes Problem Solving as identifying the problems you want solved, filling your expanded awareness with them and projecting them out into the universe. It says this enlists what the Institute calls the higher self to retrieve the information needed. Answers may arrive as a sudden, complete knowing or as visual symbols to interpret afterward. The mechanism is the report author's theory; the exercise itself is a clear question, projected outward, followed by careful notes.
Patterning: aim intention at a result as if it were already done
In the 1983 report's description, patterning means concentrating on a desired objective while in Focus 12, extending your perception of it through your whole expanded awareness and projecting it with the intention that it is already achieved. The albums stretch it over time: One Month Patterning on Threshold and One Year Patterning on Wave IV, Adventure.
Color Breathing, the Energy Bar Tool and the Living Body Map
These three exercises use imagery to work with the body's energy. The 1983 report describes Color Breathing as imagining colors vividly to activate the body's own energies; the Energy Bar Tool as picturing a pulsing dot of light, charging it and extending it into a cylinder you can direct; and the Living Body Map as picturing the body's systems in color and applying the bar to them. It calls these healing and revitalizing techniques, and adds that the bar can serve as a doorway into a remote viewing technique.
What the step from Focus 10 to 12 can look like
The 2012 overview says the move from 10 to 12 is often marked by abstract forms and colors, very quickly followed by a three-dimensional effect in the blackness around you. Joseph Felser's 2000 account of his first Focus 12 exercise fits: a trap door in his forehead opening into an inverted pyramid, images darting past his inner eye, a French door opening onto a darkened room. A YouTube host who spent a Gateway retreat in the state described a rushing of energy through the body, with things appearing in the mind's eye.
A widened awareness rather than a trip somewhere
The overview groups Focus 12 with the Gateway-level states that usually do not include being fully present at a particular astral location. They involve an expanded state of awareness while you remain, in effect, where you are. Explorer session transcripts show how the lab used it: a monitor asks the Explorer to reach Focus 12 slowly, then to report perceptions of any kind. What is perceived varies from person to person.
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.
“Once these physical sensory input signals have been put into a lower level of input, there appears [a] mass of signals that have been [supplanted] or overwhelmed by this heavy physical data, and these begin to surface. … We established Focus 12, which is a, loosely put, a space for expanded awareness where you perceive in other means, and they are a number of different means. And then [in] 12, you begin to appreciate something else, and that is that you are on the edge of another means of communication, and we call it non physical communication or nonverbal communication. Because words can't do it.”
“This is a state where conscious awareness is expanded beyond the limits of the physical body. Focus 12 has many different facets, including exploring nonphysical realities, decision making, problem solving and enhanced creative expression.”
“[The individual] suddenly finds that he simply knows the answer in all of its ramifications and completely in context, sometimes without even being able to put his newly found perception into words, at least initially. In some cases, the response may even arrive in the form of visual symbols which the individual will "see" with his mind while he is in the Focus 12 state, and which he will have to interpret after he returns to normal consciousness.”
“The trainers caution us that we are dealing with subtle energies that express themselves in subtle ways, and that we must therefore be alert to seemingly small and insignificant details of our experience. They also say that we may only recall some of the things we experience in these expanded states later on, after the exercise is over.”
“Focus 12 does feel somewhat different from Focus 10. In 12, [I] have the impression of a trap door located in my forehead, which is slowly opening to form a kind of inverted pyramid over my head. Several visual impressions dart past my inner eye (as they had in Focus 10), including the image of a French door (not unlike the one that divides my dining and family rooms at home) opening to reveal a darkened room. I can't make out what's inside.”
“Case in point, for me, when I want to go to Focus 12, it's a lily pad. So I envision this lily pad, plunk myself on it, and I'm now in Focus 12, the state of expanded awareness. And in this state, our physical sensations are turned way down.”
“All right, very good. Now in Focus 12, see what kinds of experiences you have there. … If you begin to have perceptions of any kind, let me know.”
Important things to consider
Settle Focus 10 before moving on
Threshold is designed to build on the Focus 10 tools, and the publisher says the albums are meant to be used in sequence. A workshop leader at a 1993 Institute professional seminar called the Intro to Focus 12 exercise crucial in her workshop, saying participants got less out of Color Breathing and the Living Body Map without getting into Focus 12. If Focus 10 sessions still end in sleep, more time there is usually better than skipping ahead.
Expect subtle signals, and some recall later
Trainers at Felser's Gateway program cautioned that the energies involved are subtle and express themselves in subtle ways, so small details matter, and that some impressions may only come back after the exercise is over. Treat a faint image, a word, a mood or a body sensation as worth noting, and hold your judgment about the session until it ends.
Separate the state from the tool
Problem Solving, Patterning and the others are jobs done in Focus 12. When a tool exercise feels flat, the cause is often the state rather than the technique. Go back to Intro Focus 12 and get comfortable with the state itself before bringing a task to it.
Choose the question before you start
The 1983 report's account of Problem Solving begins with identifying the problem you want solved, and the Institute's free Hemi-Sync guided meditation invites you to ask what is the most important thing you need to know and understand at this time. Decide the question beforehand, put it in one line, and be ready for an answer in pictures, sounds or feelings rather than words. Record impressions right away, including symbols you cannot yet interpret.
Be deliberate with patterning
At the same 1993 seminar, a workshop leader said she tells participants to be sure what they want to become before starting One Month Patterning, because the programming tends to take hold. The 1983 report adds that Institute trainers caution against forcing the pace of this work. Pick a goal you would be glad to live with, state it plainly, and give it time.
Health caution
Color Breathing, the Energy Bar Tool and the Living Body Map are described in the 1983 report as healing and revitalizing techniques. They are imagery practices, not medical treatments, and nothing here replaces care. If you have a health condition, use them alongside your clinician's advice, and stop any exercise that feels unsettling. With a seizure disorder or a serious mental-health condition, read the publisher's guidance and speak with your clinician before using audio entrainment.
What is and is not established
Focus 12 is a described state, defined by what practitioners report. The 2012 overview itself acknowledges confusion and controversy about separating Focus 12, 15 and 21. The 1983 report's explanations of how the exercises work are its author's hypotheses. Practitioners report insights and decisions made in the state; the material quoted here contains no controlled tests showing that it provides information beyond ordinary imagination and intuition.
Common questions
What is Focus 12, and how is it different from Focus 10?
Focus 12 is Monroe's state of expanded awareness, the one that follows Focus 10. Focus 10 is defined by the body being asleep while the mind stays awake, and its job is to give you a calm, familiar base. Focus 12 builds on it, with further sound layers according to the 1983 Army report, and shifts the emphasis to what the awake mind perceives: with physical input turned down, as Monroe told a 1988 Gateway Voyage group, you perceive by other means. It is also where Gateway's working tools are used. The 2012 overview says the step from 10 to 12 is often marked by abstract forms and colors, then a three-dimensional effect in the surrounding blackness.
What does Focus 12 feel like?
Accounts differ. Joseph Felser wrote that in his first Focus 12 exercise he had the impression of a trap door in his forehead opening into an inverted pyramid, while images darted past his inner eye, including a French door opening onto a darkened room. A YouTube host who spent a Gateway retreat in the state described an energetic rushing through the body, with things appearing in the mind's eye. Scott Taylor said physical sensations are turned way down. Felser's trainers advised watching for small details, because the energies involved are subtle.
What can I do in Focus 12?
Focus 12 is a working state, and the Threshold album gives it five jobs. Problem Solving poses a question and waits for an answer, which the 1983 report says may come as a sudden knowing or as visual symbols. One Month Patterning aims intention at a result as if it were already done. Color Breathing, the Energy Bar Tool and the Living Body Map use color and light imagery to work with the body's energy. Free Flow 12 on Wave IV offers open time in the state. In the lab, Explorers used it to report perceptions to a monitor.
Is Focus 12 an out-of-body state?
Not by definition. The 2012 overview says the Gateway-level states usually do not include being fully present at a particular astral location; they involve an expanded awareness while you remain in the same location. Related sensations can turn up nearby, though. Felser wrote that while counting up from Focus 12 to Focus 15 he momentarily felt as if he were lifting out of his body, the closest he had come to a conscious out-of-body experience while awake. Gateway does not require one, and the Focus 12 exercises are about perceiving, asking and directing attention.
Can I get into Focus 12 without the tape?
That is the long-term aim of the training. Monroe described the focus levels as beacons or guideposts that you learn and then apply, and practitioners build their own shortcuts. Scott Taylor pictures a lily pad and places himself on it, one example of an anchor he said you can set so that you can return to an experience whenever you want. These are personal techniques rather than a standard method, and the sources give no timetable. A sensible route is to start with the Intro Focus 12 exercise and repeat it until the state is familiar.
Which Gateway albums use Focus 12?
Wave II, Threshold, is the main one, with Intro Focus 12, Problem Solving, One Month Patterning, Color Breathing, Energy Bar Tool and Living Body Map. The publisher's current guide calls it Gate 2. Wave III, Freedom, which the publisher describes as Focus 10 and Focus 12 exercises, adds Lift Off, Remote Viewing, Vectors, Five Questions, Energy Food and First Stage Separation. Wave IV, Adventure, includes One Year Patterning, Free Flow 12 and Compoint 12. Wave V, Exploring, begins with Advanced Focus 12 before introducing Focus 15. Monroe voices Waves I through IV, and A.J. Honeycutt voices the later ones. The publisher says the albums are meant to be used in order, so the Focus 10 work on Wave I comes first.
In Monroe’s books
Summarized in our own words; the books are not reproduced on this site.
Far Journeys. Monroe describes Focus 12 as the stage where physical input is switched off and awareness starts perceiving beyond the five senses. He says the real action begins here, as perspective changes and participants grasp they are more than the body, and that repeated runs between the Focus 10 and 12 guideposts make the ground familiar.
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