States of awareness · 12 MIN READ · 8 SOURCE QUOTES
Focus 15: the experience of no time
Focus 15 is the state Robert Monroe called no time. In a radio interview he described it as an interim, nice state and was careful about the name: it is no time, not no space. People arrive with great expectations, he said, and the interesting part is that nothing is there until you start something. It has to be a self-instigating state, and you can lie around in no time forever unless you take thought steps in a given direction. In a 1988 Gateway Voyage talk he put the basic idea simply: for you and your consciousness, time does not exist.
In that talk Monroe also gave a picture to hold. Imagine your awareness at the hub of a wheel, having entered through one of the spokes, with time laid out along the rim. He stressed that you do this willfully, with full consciousness, and hinted that a proficient practitioner could go out along a different spoke. The 1983 Army assessment of Gateway describes a similar wheel image, calls Focus 15 a very advanced state and estimates that fewer than five percent of participants fully reach it during the week of training. The Gateway Experience home albums introduce it on Wave V, Exploring.
Reports are quieter than the label suggests: weightlessness, floating, a black void, fragmentary images that dissolve when you try to hold them, or a scene that seems to arrive from nowhere. Monitors in the lab described it to Explorers as a place of no time and no space, a place only of experience. A 2012 TMI Web Resources overview calls it a level of consciousness offering vast opportunities for self-exploration beyond the constraints of time and place. What anyone finds there varies, and Monroe's point was that the state gives you room but supplies nothing by itself.
Monroe's state of no time: not no space, but no time, a quiet place where nothing happens until you start something.
Key points
No time, not no space
Monroe made the distinction in a radio interview with Bruce Stephen Holmes: Focus 15 is the state of no time, not no space. He called it an interim, nice state and said it is fun because people arrive with great expectations, when in fact nothing is there waiting for them. The 2012 TMI Web Resources overview lists it as the state of no time and says it opens avenues of the mind for self-exploration beyond the constraints of time and place.
A self-instigating state
Monroe's practical point was that Focus 15 supplies no content of its own. Nothing happens unless you make it happen, and you can lie around in no time forever unless you take thought steps in some direction. Practitioners repeat the advice. A podcast host says that in 15 you usually have to instigate something with a thought, and that anyone who feels stuck in the black void can simply think of something to set off a chain reaction.
The wheel: awareness at the hub, time along the rim
In his Saturday-night talk to a 1988 Gateway Voyage group, Monroe asked listeners to picture Focus 15 as the hub of a wheel. You enter by one of the spokes, willfully and with full consciousness, and time lies along the rim. He hinted that, once proficient, you could alter the entry slightly and go out along a spoke to the rim, then said he would say no more. The 1983 Army report describes a similar image in the tape instructions: time as a huge wheel whose spokes each give access to a different part of the participant's past.
How the tapes and the lab take you there
The count passes through the earlier states. In a 1974 session Monroe told an Explorer he would count from one to 15, with Focus 10, complete relaxation, and Focus 12, fully expanded awareness, along the way. Joseph Felser wrote that on the Gateway tapes Bob's voice takes the group from Focus 12 to 15 after almost no briefing; the idea was to go experience it for yourself. In Explorer sessions a monitor takes the Explorer slowly up to 15, then asks them to experience the sense of no time. The 1983 report adds that extra layers of sound are used beyond those for Focus 12.
Wave V, Exploring, is the home-study course
The publisher's guide describes Wave V (Gate 5) as starting from Focus 12 and introducing Focus 15, the no time state, as a way to connect with the source of your intuition. Its exercises are Advanced Focus 12, Discovering Intuition, Exploring Intuition, Intro to Focus 15, Mission 15 Creation and Manifestation and Exploring Focus 15. A.J. Honeycutt voices Waves V through VIII; Monroe voices Waves I through IV. The albums are meant to be used in order.
The Army assessment: very advanced, rarely reached in a week
Lt. Col. Wayne McDonnell's 1983 Army assessment titles its Focus 15 section Travel into the Past and calls the state very advanced and extremely difficult. He estimates that fewer than five percent of participants fully reach it in about seven days of training, adds that Institute trainers affirm practice can get you there, and says trainers describe access to both your own past and other parts of the past. That is the report's framing and an officer's estimate, not program data; the 2012 overview's one-line description says nothing about time travel.
What people report
Joseph Felser, writing about a Gateway program in 2000, felt like an astronaut in space, weightless and gently rocking in slow motion, while images came and went: a section of a wooden dartboard, then three women in shawls entering a house of mourning that reminded him of the Three Fates. A podcast host describes a black void you can hang out in forever, and says some people find that unsettling.
Lucid dreaming as its cousin
On Art Bell's radio show, Robert Monroe and Skip Atwater were asked how lucid dreaming fits in. The answer was that lucid dreaming is the equivalent of Focus 15: the lucid dreamer can evaporate the dream and is then in what one of them called a nice place to play in terms of no time, because time can be moved around. The comparison is an Institute observation from years of lab work, not a measured finding.
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.
“[Focus 15] is an interim, nice state which we call the state of no time. And it is fun because people have great expectations of what [state] no time is. Not no space, but no time. And the interesting part about, of course, is that nothing is there if the people get into 15 and have all these things they expect of it. When it's really, it, it has to be a self-instigating place, state, yeah. Nothing will happen unless you make it happen. You can lie around in no time forever unless you take thought steps in order to move in any given direction.”
“[Focus 15] has some very fancy qualities if you can think of [15] as where your consciousness [slash] awareness is the center of a hub of a wheel. And that you have entered that state via one of the spokes of that wheel, and time is along the rim of that wheel. And bear in mind that you have done this willfully, with full consciousness.”
“I will count now from one to 15. And when I reached the count of 15, you will be in a state of no time where time does not exist for you. And along the way you'll reach Focus 10, which is a state of complete relaxation. Focus 12 will be the state where you have fully expanded your awareness.”
“Welcome Focus 15. Focus 15, a place of no time and no space, a place only of experience, a place in consciousness. Relax and enjoy Focus 15.”
“Focus 15 is a very advanced state and is extremely difficult to achieve. Probably less than five percent of all participants in any given Gateway Experience actually fully achieve the Focus 15 state during the course of the approximately seven days of training. Nonetheless, Monroe Institute trainers affirm that with enough practice, eventually Focus 15 can be achieved.”
“I feel myself momentarily pooling out in all directions as Bob's voice on the tape takes us from Focus 12 to 15. In 15, I feel like an astronaut in space; weightless, gently rocking from side to side in slow motion. One of the images I see looks like a section of a wooden dartboard, with triangular-shaped “slices” marked off in woods of different shades.”
“So, just a tip for people out there: when you're in 15, you usually have to instigate something with a thought. You can hang out in 15 in this black void forever because there's no time. And, and some people get a little freaked out. They're like, "Ah, like I'm still here in the void." And it's like, "Okay, well, if that ever happened, just think of something." And if you think of something, it sets off, like, a kind of a chain reaction.”
“These other expanded states, like a state of no time. What about no time and no space? What about going into other realities? You don't have to be out of your body to do that.”
Important things to consider
Bring a starting point
Because nothing happens unless you start it, enter with a simple intention: a question, a place you want to visit, or a theme from the album you are using. Wave V's titles, Discovering Intuition, Exploring Intuition and Mission 15 Creation and Manifestation, show the intended uses. If you find yourself in a void with nothing happening, practitioners suggest simply thinking of something and following where it goes.
A void is a common report, not a failure
Some people describe Focus 15 as a black void, and Monroe noted that people arrive with expectations the state does not meet. Judge a session by what you noticed, not by how much imagery appeared. Stillness, a sense of floating or a single faint image is a normal report.
Build on Focus 12 first
The tapes reach 15 by way of 10 and 12, Wave V opens with Advanced Focus 12, and the publisher says the albums are meant to be used in order. The 1983 report called Focus 15 extremely difficult and said it takes enough practice. Treat the first sessions as familiarization.
Sort memory, imagination and claims about other times
Reports of past or future scenes are accounts, and the wheel is a picture used to guide attention, not a demonstration. Write down checkable details such as names, dates and places, hold back from interpreting during the session, and compare with the facts later. That separates a vivid memory or an imagined scene from information you could not have known.
Sessions still run on the clock
No time describes the experience, not the session. Explorer monitors tracked minutes throughout; in a 1988 session the monitor noted that 23 minutes had passed on the way to Focus 15. Expect to return to ordinary time at the end of the count.
Health caution
Focus 15 is an awareness practice, not a treatment. If a session leaves you disoriented or anxious, return to ordinary awareness, rest, and have something to eat or drink. With a seizure disorder or a serious mental-health condition, check the publisher's guidance and speak with your clinician before using audio entrainment.
What is and is not established
Focus 15 is a described state, defined by what practitioners report. The 2012 overview acknowledges controversy about separating Focus 12, 15 and 21. The five-percent figure is an Army officer's estimate, and the comparison with lucid dreaming is an Institute remark. Participants report vivid scenes and insights; the material quoted here includes no controlled test showing that the state yields accurate information about past or future events.
Common questions
What is Focus 15?
Focus 15 is what Monroe called the state of no time. It comes after Focus 12 in the Gateway sequence, and he stressed that it is no time, not no space: nothing is there until you start something. He told a 1988 Gateway Voyage group to picture your awareness at the hub of a wheel with time along the rim, and to remember that you entered willfully with full consciousness. The home albums introduce it on Wave V, Exploring. The Army's 1983 assessment called it a very advanced state, and the 2012 overview describes it as a level of consciousness for self-exploration beyond the constraints of time and place.
Does Focus 15 mean time travel?
Not by definition. Monroe's definition is that for you and your consciousness time does not exist, and the 2012 overview speaks of self-exploration beyond the constraints of time and place. The idea of reaching other times comes from the wheel image, with spokes leading out to the rim, and from the 1983 Army assessment, which titled its section Travel into the Past and said trainers affirm that parts of the past can be accessed. Those are claims and reports. Monroe hinted that a proficient practitioner could go out along another spoke but said no more, so treat anything you see as an account to check, not as established fact.
What does Focus 15 feel like?
Joseph Felser described momentarily pooling out in all directions as the tape took him from Focus 12 to 15, then feeling like an astronaut in space, weightless and gently rocking in slow motion, with images that replaced one another, including three women in shawls entering a house of mourning. A podcast host describes a black void you can hang out in forever because there is no time, and says some people find that unsettling. The common thread is that the sense of ordinary time recedes.
Why do I just see blackness or nothing in Focus 15?
That is a common report and fits what Monroe said: the state supplies no content by itself. He told a radio audience that nothing happens unless you make it happen, and that you can lie around in no time forever unless you take thought steps in some direction. A podcast host gives the same advice: if you are in the void, think of something. Bring a question, an intention or a place to visit, and write down what comes.
Which Gateway tapes teach Focus 15?
On the Gateway Experience home albums, Wave V, Exploring (Gate 5 on the publisher's current guide), is the course: Advanced Focus 12, Discovering Intuition, Exploring Intuition, Intro to Focus 15, Mission 15 Creation and Manifestation and Exploring Focus 15. A.J. Honeycutt voices it. Because the albums are meant to be used in order, Focus 10 on Wave I and Focus 12 on Wave II come first. In Felser's Gateway program the state was introduced on the Tuesday.
Do I have to leave my body to reach Focus 15?
No. Nancy McMoneagle of the Monroe Institute has said you do not have to be out of your body to explore states like no time or to go into other realities, and that out-of-body experience is only one state among several. The 2012 overview says the Gateway-level states usually involve an expanded awareness while you remain in the same location. Felser did feel himself lifting out of his body for a moment on the way from Focus 12 to 15, the closest he had come to a conscious out-of-body experience while awake. Gateway does not require one.
Keep exploring
Prepared answers open instantly in the chat; anything else you ask gets a fresh answer.
Connected ideas
States of awareness
Focus 12
Expanded awareness: the Gateway state where physical input fades, other ways of perceiving surface, and the Threshold tools do their work.
Read the summary →12 min · 7 quotes · 6 answersStates of awareness
Focus 21
The bridge: Monroe's edge of time-space, where he said you can contact other energy systems, and the starting point for the afterlife levels.
Read the summary →12 min · 8 quotes · 6 answersGateway practices
Patterning
Patterning is the Gateway exercise of holding a chosen goal in Focus 12 as already achieved, then projecting it with intent for a stated time frame.
Read the summary →12 min · 7 quotes · 6 answersGateway practices
The Gateway waves
Gateway's home course is a sequence of albums called waves that leads from Focus 10 to Focus 27. Each wave builds on the tools of the one before.
Read the summary →12 min · 6 quotes · 6 answers