States of awareness · 12 MIN READ · 7 SOURCE QUOTES
Focus 23 and retrieval accounts
Focus 23 is the level Robert Monroe placed right after physical death. In the description the Monroe Institute's overview quotes from Bruce Moen, its inhabitants are people who have died but are stuck: confused about what happened or unaware of it, clinging to familiar people and places, alone and cut off from other humans, with very little ability to choose their way out. Moen says these are the ones we call ghosts.
Retrieval is the work of finding such a person and helping them move on. In Lifeline, the Institute's graduate program, participants learn to enter Focus 23, make contact, often by talking with the person about what they believe is happening, and bring in a helper who can lead them onward, usually to the Park in Focus 27. Monroe told Art Bell that roughly 400 participants had each made five such runs in about three years, a documented total of 2,000. Wave VII (Voyager) of the Gateway Experience, based on Lifeline, includes Intro to Focus 23 and Retrieval exercises.
Monroe worked this way before Lifeline existed. In a 1989 interview he described taking the hand of a person who would not believe he was dead, and Lifeline grew out of his wish to be able to find his wife Nancy after she became ill. Two retrieval stories come from Moen: a Japanese pilot still reliving his final dive on an American ship decades later, and a woman who waited at a bus stop for about sixty years. They are reports, and Monroe himself said that checking retrieval reports is difficult.
Focus 23 is where Monroe placed people who died confused or alone; Lifeline trains participants to find them, help them and guide them to Focus 27.
Key points
Focus 23 is the level of the stuck
The Institute's overview quotes Moen on what keeps Focus 23 inhabitants where they are: they cannot leave through their own resources, their free will choices are extremely narrow, and they are typically alone, isolated from communication with other humans. The cause can be the circumstances of the death or habitual patterns of thinking before it. Monroe called Focus 23 the level right after physical death. Focus 22, just below it, is described as holding people who are unconscious, dreaming or deranged, some of them perhaps still physically alive.
Some do not know they have died
In a 1989 interview Monroe said there are people who simply do not believe they are dead, and that no argument works until something forces the point, such as a hand passing through an object. Moen tells of a woman hit by a car while waiting for a bus. She died so quickly she did not realize it, her non-physical body looked and felt the same, and by his account she stayed at the stop for about sixty Earth years.
What a retrieval looks like
In Moen's bus-stop story, a workshop participant approached the woman in a way she could perceive, started a conversation, and learned her name, her city and what she thought she was doing. Next one of the helpers came into the scene and the retriever introduced the woman to him; he posed as someone from the bus company sent with a car to take her wherever she wanted to go. Moen says people like her stay stuck until someone is there to provide assistance.
Monroe helped the dead before Lifeline existed
In his 1989 interview with Neville Drury, about two years before the first Lifeline, which A.J. Honeycutt believes was in June 1991, Monroe described taking the hand of a person after death and said the hand felt physical to him. He said he learned the method the hard way. Lifeline turned that individual practice into a program, after his wife Nancy developed breast cancer and he wanted a way to be sure he could find her.
Monroe's numbers: 400 people, 2,000 runs
On Art Bell's show Monroe said that in roughly three years about 400 people had taken Lifeline, and that each had made five runs retrieving a bewildered person out of Focus 23 and escorting them to the Park, where they could cool off. He put the documented total at 2,000. He also said a post-graduate study was trying to verify the data of the people retrieved, which he called quite difficult because it is out of time.
Helpers do the heavy lifting
In Moen's accounts, helpers who live in Focus 27 and assist new arrivals often step in once a retriever has made contact. A man who died in a fire, in his telling, was brought to a health and rejuvenation center, accepted an injection that took away the last of his pain, and woke there on a table. A Monroe Institute guest on a 2013 radio show added that stuck people are often so focused on earth that they miss the beings waiting to help them.
Claimed checks: a name, a village and a genealogist
A woman at a Moen workshop in Japan encountered a Japanese fighter pilot killed late in World War II, still repeating his final dive on an American ship off Okinawa, as he had been, Moen said, since probably early 1945. She obtained his name, birthplace and other details she says she had no way of knowing, and later confirmed them online. A guest on a 2013 radio show said a television production brought in a genealogist who found the two people involved.
The audio route: Wave VII
Wave VII, Voyager, is based on Lifeline and, according to the publisher, goes to Focus 21 and on to the afterlife states, Focus 23 through 27. Its six exercises are Explore Total Self, Intro to Focus 23, Intro to Focus 25, Intro to Focus 27, Retrieval and Messages From Beyond. A.J. Honeycutt, Monroe's stepson, voices it, and the albums must be used in order, so the earlier waves come first.
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.
“No matter how much you try to convince them that they're dead, they don't think they're dead. And then suddenly, part of that left-brain logic hits when his hand goes through the rim and he's trying to fumble, and keeps on going. Then he says, 'There's certainly something wrong,' and we say, 'Well, Betty, you're dead.' 'Oh! So that's what happened.' And then he asks, if he's gotten to that point of beautiful logic, he says, 'Now what do I do?' And you say, 'Well, come on, I'll show you.' So you take his hand and off you go.”
“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. Many here attempt to maintain contact with the physical world around familiar people or places. These are the ones we call ghosts. Focus 23 inhabitants are stuck because they are unable to leave through their own resources. The range of their free-will choices is extremely narrow. They are typically alone and completely isolated from communication with other humans. This can occur through the circumstances of their death or habitual patterns of thinking prior to death.”
“But anyway, we've had, we as of now, we've had three years, roughly 400 people have participated in this particular program. And they have made, during the program only. And during the program, each of those 400 people have made five runs retrieving someone out of Focus 23 who were bewildered in shock and escorting them up to this way station Park, where they can cool off. Each has done it five times.”
“And there is a, we have a post-graduate study on that going where we are verifying the, the data of the person who, who had just died, and try to get the, trying to get information that can be verified. It's quite difficult because it's out of time, if you understand what I mean.”
“She was able to get his name and the city, the village he was born in, and where he lived and grew up, and details of information that she had absolutely no other way of knowing, that she later was able to verify using this wonderful [modern] tool called Google, where she did a Google search on the man's name and found him and found that all the information she had received was accurate.”
“But essentially at that point one of the helpers came into the scene and the retriever introduced the woman who had died to the helper, and the helper used a [ruse]. He pretended to be someone from the bus company who had been sent with a car [to] take her wherever she wanted to go.”
“A lot of times the help is just helping them realize that they're dead. Other times it's kind of showing them a bit of loving kindness or something to help them move along.”
Important things to consider
Read the numbers and stories as reports
The 2,000 runs are Monroe's own count from a radio interview, and he said the follow-up study he mentioned was difficult because the information is out of time. Moen's Japan story and the television genealogist are individual claims relayed by a workshop leader and a guest, and the underlying records are not in these sources. They name details that could be checked, but the whole body of retrieval accounts remains reported experience.
Retrieval means different things elsewhere
In the Lifeline sense, retrieval means helping a person who has died. Shamanic soul retrieval, which some Hemi-Sync Journal authors blend with Focus 10 to 15, is a separate practice aimed at a living person's lost vitality, and crash retrieval in UFO lore is something else again. Searching the word alone will mix all three.
Some read what they find as part of themselves
Moen says a trained retriever may meet what seems a whole person but is really a fragment of someone, and use retrieval skills to bring that fragment back to its source. An essayist in the 2002 Hemi-Sync Journal describes a Lifeline retrieval of a part of the writer's own self constrained in Focus 23. These readings sit alongside the standard one, in which the person is someone else who has died.
Not everyone wants to move
A Monroe Institute guest on a 2013 radio show said that sometimes the person is not ready or is waiting for a spouse or other loved one, and that this is fine: retrievers are there to help if help is needed. Moen describes the helpers of Focus 27 the same way, as people who never impose their will.
Work up to it, and go gently
Retrieval exercises assume the skills of the earlier Gateway waves: the publisher requires the albums to be used in order, Lifeline asks for the Gateway Voyage first, and the host of Hemi-Sync's Q&A with A.J. Honeycutt says not to jump into Wave VII without the prerequisites. The stories involve sudden death, fire, war and accidents, so come rested and give yourself time afterward. The exercises are explorations of awareness, not grief counseling or therapy.
Write down specifics at once
The Japan example stood out because it produced specifics that could be checked afterward. Monroe likewise said the follow-up study aimed at information that could be verified. Whatever you receive in an exercise, write down names, dates, places and the person's own words immediately, before you look anything up.
Common questions
What is Focus 23?
Focus 23 is the Focus level Robert Monroe associated with the time right after physical death. The Institute's overview, quoting Bruce Moen, describes its inhabitants as people who have died but become stuck: confused about or unaware of their death, trying to keep contact with familiar people and places, typically alone and cut off from other humans, and unable to leave through their own resources. Their free will choices are described as extremely narrow, and the cause is the circumstances of the death or habitual patterns of thinking beforehand. It is the starting point of Lifeline retrievals.
What is a retrieval in the Monroe Institute's Lifeline program?
A retrieval is an exercise in which a participant, guided by Hemi-Sync audio, goes to Focus 23, finds a person who has died and is stuck, makes contact and helps them move on, usually to the Park in Focus 27. Monroe told Art Bell that in about three years roughly 400 participants had each made five such runs, a documented total of 2,000. According to a Monroe Institute guest, the help is often just letting the person realize they have died, or a little loving kindness. A helper often joins the scene to lead the person onward.
Do people in Focus 23 know they are dead?
Often they do not. Monroe said in a 1989 interview that there are people who simply do not believe they are dead and that no argument convinces them, until something forces the point, such as a hand passing through an object they try to grasp. Moen's bus-stop story has the same shape: a woman killed by a car did not realize it because her non-physical body looked and felt as before, and she waited at the stop for what he puts at about sixty years. The overview's wording is that inhabitants are often confused about or unaware of their death.
How does a retrieval actually go, step by step?
Moen's bus-stop story shows the sequence. The retriever makes herself perceivable to the woman, by appearing at the bus stop, and starts a conversation without announcing that she has died. She learns the woman's name, her city and what she thinks she is doing. Then one of the helpers comes into the scene and the retriever introduces the woman to him. The helper, in this telling, posed as someone from the bus company sent with a car to take her wherever she wanted to go, and by the end of the story the woman was meeting her grandparents, who had died long before. Monroe's own method in 1989 was simpler: once the person accepted they had died, he said come on, I'll show you, and took their hand.
Has a Focus 23 retrieval ever been verified?
Participants and Institute guests claim some checks, but these sources contain no independently documented case. Moen reports that a woman in a Japan workshop obtained a Japanese pilot's name, birthplace and other details she says she had no way of knowing, and confirmed them with an online search. A guest on a 2013 radio show said a television production brought in a genealogist who found the two people involved. Monroe told Art Bell that a post-graduate study was trying to verify the data of the people retrieved, and called it quite difficult because the information is out of time.
Are the people in Focus 23 ghosts?
The Institute's overview, quoting Moen, says that Focus 23 inhabitants who try to keep contact with the physical world around familiar people or places are the ones we call ghosts. That is Moen's interpretation, not a claim that every ghost report fits. The description is of a state of awareness in which a person remains attached to the last places and habits they knew, and a retrieval is the attempt to help that person move on.
Which Gateway exercises cover Focus 23 and retrieval?
Wave VII (Voyager) of the Gateway Experience. The publisher describes it as based on Lifeline, journeying to Focus 21 and on to Focus 23 through 27. Its exercises include Intro to Focus 23, Intro to Focus 25, Intro to Focus 27, Retrieval and Messages From Beyond. A.J. Honeycutt voices the album, and a guidance manual is included. The albums must be used in order. The residential version is Lifeline, a graduate program that follows the Gateway Voyage.
In Monroe’s books
Summarized in our own words; the books are not reproduced on this site.
Ultimate Journey. Monroe's last book reports on the early Lifeline sessions and outlines the Focus levels. In its account of the retrieval process, people helped out of the stuck state are escorted toward the reception center in Focus 27, though some slip away into the belief system territories first. Honeycutt recommends it as a companion to Wave VII.
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