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I-There and the Total Self
The I-There is Robert Monroe's name for the larger self behind an ordinary life. The everyday personality that wakes, works and sleeps he called the I-Here. The I-There is the whole that personality belongs to: a non-physical structure holding every life that self has lived, which Monroe came to picture as a cluster of life personalities rather than a single soul. He also called it the total self and said he did not like the word soul because it did not seem to fit. In a Gateway Voyage talk he pointed out that if you take the hyphen out of I-There, it becomes the it of me, the it of which I am.
Monroe reached the idea in stages. His out-of-body experiments had turned repetitive, and he decided to stop steering and let his total self choose where to go. Far Journeys dates that decision to the spring of 1972; in a 1990 talk he remembered it as a desperate three o'clock in the morning. Years later he turned to look at who had been driving. Ultimate Journey reports the result: sessions inside his own I-There, a dome of light beams that were distinct lives with their own memories, and a conclusion he called the basic, which was to gather the scattered parts of his I-There and of the wider cluster bonded to it so the whole group could leave the Earth life system together.
The idea matters because it answers who is doing the exploring. Monroe's answer was that the ordinary, time-bound self is a small craft launched from something much larger. In a 1987 magazine article Monroe described Gateway as a system for exploring your own total self, and Gateway Voyage graduates write about connecting with their total self and their guidance.
The I-There is Monroe's larger self, a cluster of many lives he learned to let steer his explorations and said will one day leave Earth together.
Key points
Two ends of one self: I-Here and I-There
In Ultimate Journey Monroe calls the present, physical-life personality the I-Here and the larger self it comes from the I-There. The I-There sits outside time-space, and he writes that it is made entirely of M-field energy, the medium he describes as carrying thought (see The M Band). He uses several names for the same territory across his books and talks: total self most often and higher self occasionally, while saying in one interview that he disliked soul because it did not seem to fit. Cluster is used loosely: sometimes for the lives gathered inside one I-There, sometimes for the larger group of I-Theres bonded to one another.
A cluster of life personalities, not one soul
In a Gateway Voyage talk Monroe said his own I-There holds somewhere above two thousand lives, and added that nobody bothers to count. In Ultimate Journey the same structure appears as a dome of light beams, each one a conscious personality with its own mind and memory, and speaking with them was easy because, as he puts it, he was talking with himself. In the talk he also described something like an executive committee that selects a number of these life personalities to form a new one and send it into a physical life.
Handing over the controls in 1972
Monroe's early out-of-body trips were driven by his everyday mind, which kept choosing tests and destinations. Far Journeys dates his change of method to the spring of 1972: he would detach as usual, then leave the decision about what to do to his entire self. In the 1990 talk he described reaching that point in desperation at three in the morning, after asking how many more times he could cross the country for a test.
Looking under the hood
For years Monroe let the total self drive and never inspected it. In the 1990 talk he said a big aha came about four years earlier: he had never looked under the hood and did not know who was driving or navigating. So he began to look. Ultimate Journey describes many sessions spread over a year, a layer holding every moment of his present life and, deeper in, the life personalities themselves. Afterward, he writes, reaching the I-There in waking hours took little more than a thought, through what he calls his XCOM.
Bonded clusters, retrieval and the belief systems
Ultimate Journey ties the I-There to Monroe's retrieval work. During sleep he and his XCOM helped people through death, taking whatever form the newcomer expected. People outside his own cluster tended to slip away into belief system territories, and he is told that a representative of a lost person's own I-There eventually retrieves them, sometimes lifetimes later. Clusters, he says, are bonded by ties formed during physical lifetimes, such as deep love, an M-field imprint that continues in any state of consciousness.
The basic: reunite the parts, then leave together
Ultimate Journey's central conclusion is the basic, the thing Monroe says he had been missing. It was not fame, fortune or the insight of any single life. It is the collection and unification of the parts of the I-There, including lost and errant ones, and of the whole cluster bonded to it, which he guesses may number thousands or hundreds of thousands. Once whole, the group can pass together through an aperture out of the Earth life system. What follows, he writes, is unknown.
The Institute's everyday word: total self
Total self is the Institute's working version of the idea. Monroe's 1987 article defines Gateway as a way to explore your own total self, and Human Plus exercises from the late 1980s, such as Wake/Know, invite the total self to work on a question during sleep. Gateway Voyage graduates write about connecting with aspects of the Total Self and a guidance team.
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.
“And then I found out much more about what I now call the I-There of me. And take the hyphen out and it becomes the “it” of me, and the “it” of which I am. And it is, I, is indeed composed of, literally—and nobody really bothers to count it—in my “it” cluster, how many lives I, we, have lived. But it's somewhere above 2,000, and that's that, I figure, is enough.”
“From my perspective, I still don't know whether I'm a finger of a hand of a body of a total self that's doing this, or there are a group of us, because it's quite apparent there's another finger next to me that I'm coordinating with, that has [an] energy system not quite like mine that is also needed to perform this function, just as your thumb performs a different function than your forefinger. But they are somehow connected.”
“I will let my total self make this decision. So about five or six years ago I made this decision, and now when I go into the out-of-body state, fundamentally, and it's been going on for these 5 years, and an amazing change took place as a result: I simply roll pleasantly out of the body and I say, “All right, let's go. What is the menu for today, or what's the itinerary?” And with that, this time-space consciousness sort of goes along for the ride, or as an objective observer.”
“And I said, “You know, I have been riding around in this total self vehicle all these years, all these years, and I've never looked under the hood.” You understand why? I don't know who's doing the driving. I don't know. I don't know who's doing the navigating. And I've been happily doing so. I decided to do that, [which] is to look under the hood of this I, and I give this to you tonight, because I think it's so important.”
“I know the reason for the termination of any future life experience is because I, and all of this I that's so multiple, and a cluster of others around me, we wink out and we go. That's why there are no more lives. We take off willfully, deliberately, and we have all these options that—what we can do—and I don't know which option it's going to be yet. And one of the options is to go back to the creator.”
“Now in its 12th year, Gateway is a system of learning whereby any individual can explore and understand without limitation his own total self. No expectation or critical restraints hamper the process. The results range from simple physical and mental three R’s — rest, relaxation, recharge — to deep personal insights and life-changing macro internal events.”
“But I never had a relationship with my own guidance before Gateway Voyage. Taking Gateway allowed me to become familiar with my guidance team. I was quickly able to connect with aspects of my Total Self that allowed me to access and understand the guidance I was receiving much more easily. Learning to work with my guidance in my daily life is a task I am trying to improve upon now, but I have a much better handle on it after taking Gateway Voyage.”
Important things to consider
Two different uses of the phrase
In Journeys Out of the Body (1971), I There is the name Monroe gives a man in a parallel world whose body he briefly displaced during the Locale III intrusions. The larger-self meaning belongs to Ultimate Journey (1994), and Monroe was already using it in his 1990 Gateway talks. If a search returns the Locale III story, that is the earlier, unrelated usage.
Monroe's words and commentators' additions
Video commentary often extends the idea: that the I-There has no agency of its own, that the present self is the cutting edge of the whole, or exact counts of lives and missing pieces. Those are the commentators' constructions. Monroe stayed tentative where it matters: he said he did not know whether he was one finger or one of a group, and that the number of lives was never counted.
What is and is not established
The I-There, the cluster and its departure are Monroe's reports of what he met in non-physical states, often in conversation with contacts he could not independently check. Nothing here is externally verified. Monroe did not ask for belief. He told Gateway groups to find out for themselves, and said of his out-of-body work that conviction came from one verification piled on another, not from a single great event.
Let the analytical mind in
Handing the controls to the total self did not mean switching off questions. In a recorded conversation Monroe said everything he had done was the product of his left brain getting into the act, analyzing and assessing the experience. His own sequence was to let go, observe, then investigate, which is why the talk about looking under the hood exists at all.
A spiritual framework, not a treatment
The total self is an experiential and spiritual idea, not a therapy. Practitioners have used Gateway tapes with clients, and the Institute's journals carry case reports, but those are practitioners' accounts. If thoughts about past lives, contacts or departure become distressing, talk with a qualified professional.
Common questions
What is the I-There?
The I-There is Robert Monroe's term for the larger, non-physical self behind a single human life. The personality you live now he called the I-Here; the I-There is the structure it comes from, outside time-space, holding every life that self has lived. Monroe described it as a cluster of life personalities rather than one soul, and said his own holds somewhere above two thousand lives. He also called it the total self, and sometimes the higher self, but said he did not like the word soul. The term is developed in Ultimate Journey (1994), where he reports entering his I-There in deep sessions and finding that each life inside it has its own mind and memory. Earlier, Far Journeys speaks of the total self.
How many lives are in an I-There cluster?
Monroe gave a number only for his own: somewhere above two thousand lives. He added that nobody really bothers to count and that you can go find out for yourself, so the figure is a rough sense of scale. He did not say what anyone else's holds. For the larger cluster of I-Theres bonded to his own, Ultimate Journey says he has no idea how many it contains, possibly thousands or hundreds of thousands. Some video commentary gives precise numbers for lives and missing pieces; those are the commentators' illustrations, not Monroe's.
How did Robert Monroe come to the I-There idea?
Through a change of method and then a long look at the result. His out-of-body trips had become repetitive tests, and in desperation he told his total self to take over; Far Journeys dates the decision to the spring of 1972, though in a 1992 interview he placed it somewhere in the 1960s. For years he let it navigate. About four years before a 1990 Gateway talk he realized he had never looked under the hood, and he began investigating who was doing the driving. Ultimate Journey describes a year of sessions, a layer holding every moment of his present life, a dome of light beams that were his past lives, and a passage in which his meeting place with the Inspec turns out to be a meeting with himself.
What did Monroe say will happen to the I-There cluster?
He said it will leave. In Ultimate Journey the basic is the reunification of every part of his I-There and of the wider cluster bonded to it, after which the whole group can wink out and pass through an aperture out of the Earth life system. He saw a future non-physical human civilization preparing to depart as one unit, and was told that other clusters will go with his. In a radio interview he said this is why there will be no more lives: the cluster leaves willfully, with options he could not yet name, one being to return to the creator. What lies beyond, he wrote, is unknown.
Can ordinary people contact their own I-There or total self?
Monroe thought so but promised nothing. His standard advice was to go find out for yourself, and the Institute presents exploring your own total self as Gateway's purpose. Voyage graduates describe connecting with aspects of their Total Self and a guidance team; these are subjective reports. The Institute's Wake/Know exercise gives a simple model: state a question, relax into sleep, and notice what you know on waking. Monroe himself ran years of out-of-body experiments before he handed over the controls.
How does the I-There connect to the Institute's later programs?
Monroe speculated in Ultimate Journey that the Institute's methods may carry a signal that alerted and attracted people bonded to his own cluster, and he wondered how many of the thousands who had taken the programs belonged to it, adding that there was no way to know. That is his speculation, not an Institute teaching. In practice the total self language runs through Gateway Voyage and the Human Plus exercises. Later programs such as Starlines, which go to Focus 34/35 and 49, and the Gathering at Focus 34 and 35 reach far beyond ordinary experience; see those pages for what participants describe.
In Monroe’s books
Summarized in our own words; the books are not reproduced on this site.
Far Journeys. Monroe dates his decision to let his total self direct his out-of-body travel to the spring of 1972, and describes the classroom-style episodes and steadier sense of being guided that followed.
Ultimate Journey. Over a year of sessions he enters his I-There and finds a store of every moment of his current life and a dome of light beams, each a distinct life personality he can talk with. He pictures himself as a small craft launched from a mothership.
Ultimate Journey. His central conclusion, the basic, is the collection and unification of the parts of his I-There and of the cluster bonded to it, so the group can leave together through an aperture. He calls what follows unknown.
Ultimate Journey. People outside his cluster drift into belief system territories until a representative of their own I-There retrieves them. He also speculates that the Institute's programs carry a signal that draws members of his cluster.
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Books & records
Ultimate Journey (1994)
Monroe's last book, from 1994: the I-There, the Park, retrievals and the after-death territories behind Lifeline and Exploration 27.
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The M Band
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The Gathering: Focus 34–35
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Starlines
Advanced Monroe Institute programs that take participants beyond Focus 27 to Focus 34/35 and 49 and explore contact with life beyond Earth.
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Loosh
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ROTE and nonverbal understanding
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