States of awareness · 10 MIN READ · 5 SOURCE QUOTES
Focus 22: outside ordinary waking awareness
Focus 22 is one of the numbered signposts beyond the Gateway states. A 2012 focus-levels overview in the Monroe Institute Archives takes its entries for Focus 1 through 21 from Institute literature, then turns to what it calls the traditional view, drawn from Monroe's work and from Bruce Moen's Afterlife Knowledge website. In Moen's words, Focus 22 is where explorers often find those perhaps still physically alive who are in an unconscious state: people in comas, in drug-induced states, people who are dreaming, and people described as insane or deranged. He calls it a very chaotic level.
The line it draws is the useful part. Focus 22 belongs to the living, and Focus 23, in the same overview, belongs to people who are no longer physically alive and have become stuck. On Art Bell's radio show, Monroe weighed in briefly: asked about the bright light of near-death accounts, he said that what the Institute calls Focus 22 is that tunnel. In a lecture he also compared the deep stillness of Gateway participants to a coma, though without naming Focus 22.
Unlike Focus 10 and Focus 12, Focus 22 is described mainly by who explorers say they find there, not as a state a listener is trained to enter. The Institute's Lifeline page describes exploring Focus Levels 23 through 27, and the overview presents the Gateway Experience as a platform for exploring further on your own. Everything here is a report from explorers' maps, not a medical or diagnostic category, and the overview itself cautions that the higher levels are far less easily identified than people assume.
In Bruce Moen's description, Focus 22 is where explorers meet people perhaps still alive but unconscious, like dreamers and the comatose. Not a medical term.
Key points
Where Focus 22 sits on the map
The 2012 overview lists the levels in order. Focus 21 is the edge of time and space, where it is possible to contact other energy systems. Focus 22 follows as the level of living people in unconscious states, Focus 23 as the level of people who have died and become stuck, Focus 24 through 26 as the belief system territories, and Focus 27 as the afterlife area of greatest free will choice. The overview adds that there is no Focus 14 or Focus 16, and that the numbers are arbitrary signposts for states of consciousness.
Whose description it is
The overview says its descriptions for Focus 1 through 21 are taken from Monroe Institute literature. For Focus 22 and above it turns to what it calls the traditional view, on the basis of Monroe's and Bruce Moen's work, and the entries are quoted from Moen's Afterlife Knowledge website. The Focus 22 wording is therefore Moen's. That matters because the file blends Institute descriptions, an account by a contributor credited to The Astral Pulse of moving from Focus 12 toward Focus 21, and Moen's material in one document.
Who is found there
Moen says explorers often find people in comas, in drug-induced states, who are dreaming, and who are insane or deranged, and he calls it a very chaotic level. He hedges the central claim: these are people perhaps still physically alive. The wording is historical and informal. It reports what an explorer says he met, not a condition anyone could confirm, diagnose or use to describe a real person.
The boundary with Focus 23
Moen sorts the two levels by whether the body is alive. Focus 23 holds people no longer physically alive who have become stuck, often confused about or unaware of their death and trying to keep contact with familiar people or places. These are the ones he calls ghosts. They are typically alone and isolated from communication with other humans, with a very narrow range of free-will choices. Focus 22, by contrast, concerns the living in altered or unconscious conditions.
Monroe on Art Bell: the tunnel
Asked about near-death experiences, and about doctors who say the bright light with surrounding darkness is a product of dying synapses, Monroe answered that this was as good a definition as any and that what the Institute calls Focus 22 is that tunnel. He added that this is how they commonly identify it. He then turned to a new series for residences, hospitals and hospices called Going Home, designed for a person with a terminal illness or injury and for their families and caregivers.
Monroe on coma and anesthesia in general
In a lecture, Monroe recalled earlier Gateway groups laid out on mats in conference rooms, where people past Focus 15 lay in absolute immobility yet were still responding, a depth he called very similar to a coma. In the same talk he discussed anesthesia and dying as neighboring points in his picture of awareness separating from the body. He did not name Focus 22 in that passage.
Going Home passes through Focus 22
A practitioner's 2002 report on working with the Going Home series describes a guided journey that comes back from Focus 27 through Focus 22 to ordinary waking awareness, which the Institute calls C1. In that account Focus 22 is a waypoint on the return, not a destination. It is a practitioner's description of the series, not Institute documentation of what each stage contains.
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.
“Within Focus 22 we often find those perhaps still physically alive who are in an unconscious state. These include people in comas, in drug-induced states, who are dreaming, who are insane or deranged. This is a very chaotic level.”
“That's—that's as good a definition as any. What we call Focus 22 is that—is that tunnel.”
“When people were in past Focus 15, it was nothing so much [as] like walking through a morgue, because there was no breathing that you can detect. Absolute immobility. … This is the weird thing, is that they are responding even in that particular deep, deep state, very similar to a coma, for example.”
“In fact, these levels are far less easily identifiable than you may assume, nor is it [an] area of a purely shared reality between inhabitants, and it is possible to meet various aspects of your own consciousness.”
“In Focus 23, the human inhabitants tend to be those no longer physically alive who have become "stuck" for one reason or another. Often, they are confused about or unaware of their death.”
Important things to consider
Treat the wording as historical, not clinical
Moen's list includes drug-induced states and people described as insane or deranged. That is an explorer's shorthand inside a spiritual map, not diagnostic vocabulary, and it says nothing about what is happening to any actual person. Do not use focus numbers to label someone's medical condition or to guess at their awareness.
If someone you know is unconscious or seriously ill
The focus map offers one tradition's language and no information about your person. Questions about their condition, awareness or care belong with their clinical team. The Institute's Lifeline page tells anyone with a history of seizures, auditory disorders or adverse mental health conditions to consult a physician before listening to its audio.
Keep the numbering systems apart
Compiled Explorer-series transcripts include a communicating entity's own numbered levels, with plants, animals and humans on successive ranges. In that scheme Levels 22 through 28 are called a bridge entered at death, and Level 22 is described as a time when the purposes of a life are brought out. Those descriptions differ from the 2012 overview, so do not read them as a second definition of Focus 22.
Check which levels a program actually covers
The Institute's Lifeline page describes exploring Focus Levels 23 through 27 and does not mention 22, and the overview calls the Gateway Experience a platform for exploring further on your own. A speaker on a paranormal radio show, recalling a television documentary on the Institute's Lifeline program, lists Focus 22 through 25 as the places participants visit, so popular retellings fold 22 in with the afterlife levels. Read a program's own description before assuming which levels it covers.
What is and is not established
Focus 22 is a label built from explorers' reports. The overview itself says the higher levels are far less easily identifiable than people assume, are not an area of purely shared reality, and can involve meeting various aspects of your own consciousness. Monroe's tunnel remark is a single answer on a call-in show, and the fuller description in the overview is Moen's. Nothing here independently confirms who or what an explorer meets.
Common questions
What is Focus 22?
In the map used by the Monroe Institute's explorers, Focus 22 is the level where people who are still physically alive but unconscious or in altered conditions are said to be met. Bruce Moen's description, quoted in a 2012 focus-levels overview, lists people in comas, in drug-induced states, who are dreaming, and who are insane or deranged, and calls it a very chaotic level. It sits between Focus 21, the edge of time and space, and Focus 23, where people who have died and become stuck are said to be found. Unlike Focus 10 or Focus 12, it is described mainly by who explorers say they find there, not as a state a listener is trained to enter.
Are the people in Focus 22 alive or dead?
Alive, in Moen's description, though he hedges with the word perhaps: those perhaps still physically alive who are in an unconscious state. That is exactly what separates Focus 22 from Focus 23. The same overview describes Focus 23's inhabitants as people no longer physically alive who have become stuck, often confused about or unaware of their death and typically isolated from other people. Moen's Focus 22 group is defined by unconsciousness, whether from a coma, drugs or dreaming, rather than by death. The overview adds that the higher levels are far less easily identifiable than people assume.
What did Monroe say about Focus 22?
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?
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.
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