People & places · 11 MIN READ · 8 SOURCE QUOTES
Whistlefield, Roberts Mountain and the New Land
The Monroe story has two home grounds in the Blue Ridge foothills of central Virginia. The first was Whistlefield, the farm where Bob and Nancy Penn Monroe lived in the 1970s and where Monroe turned a modular house into Whistlefield Research Labs: three isolation booths, a control room and a couple of offices. Tom Campbell and Dennis Mennerich built the first binaural-beat tapes there, family and friends served as the first test subjects, and the early Explorer sessions began. Skip Atwater, who met Monroe in 1977, places it about ten miles from today's campus.
The second is the New Land, a large tract in Nelson County that Monroe acquired in the late 1970s. Campbell says he got it in a land swap, sight unseen, and that Monroe later sold Whistlefield. A 1978 newsletter announced construction of research facilities, a healing center, an organic farm and homes for staff and members on some 740 acres, with cabins planned in hidden valleys and atop Robert's Mountain. The Institute moved its programs and laboratory to the New Land, and its address became Roberts Mountain Road, Faber.
Today the campus centers on the Nancy Penn Center, where Gateway Voyage participants sleep and listen in private CHEC units, with David Francis Hall for evening talks, a research laboratory, a lake, a labyrinth and walking roads. Up the mountain is Roberts Mountain Retreat, built around the Monroes' former home and the cabin where Bob wrote his books. Participants describe the grounds as a quiet, special place, and the Institute treats the setting as part of the program.
Monroe's work moved from a farm lab at Whistlefield to the New Land below Roberts Mountain, now the Institute's campus in Faber, Virginia.
Key points
Whistlefield: the farm and its lab
Nancy McMoneagle, Monroe's stepdaughter, says Monroe had started a modular home company, built a house at Whistlefield and turned it into the lab: three isolation booths, a control room and offices, with the living room as the meeting room. She notes it was always Whistlefield Research Labs, plural. A 1983 Institute proposal in the Army's files places the facilities and laboratories of the Monroe Institute of Applied Sciences at Afton, Virginia, and Monroe told a 1978 audience the work had ended up in Afton, between Charlottesville and Waynesboro. Skip Atwater remembers it in 1977 as one man, a laboratory, a few cassette programs and the occasional weekend workshop.
What happened there
Whistlefield is where the early sound work happened. Campbell and Mennerich built the first binaural tapes and worked in the booths; family members were the first guinea pigs and learned to report aloud from deep states; visitors such as Elisabeth Kübler-Ross tried sessions in the booth; and the Explorer sessions began. In a 2018 conversation with Campbell, Nancy McMoneagle recalls the lab's three booths in the days when the organization was called the Monroe Institute of Applied Sciences.
The New Land: a swap and a sale
Campbell says Monroe got the new property in a land swap offered by someone on one of his courses, went to see it, found it beautiful, and drove out with him in a Jeep to look it over. Campbell places Monroe's sale of Whistlefield in the same period. The name stuck: the 1978 newsletter says "New Land" was the name that "attached itself naturally" to the planned installation.
The 1978 plan
The Explorer newsletter of 1978 announced ground-breaking for July 3 that year. The plan called for research buildings with isolation chambers, control of electromagnetic fields and atmosphere, a Lilly-type tank and live-in facilities for long experiments; a healing center under the New Community Church; an organic agricultural station on the Findhorn model; energy-efficient, fireproof homes heated by solar, methane and wood; a community center for the archives and meditation rooms; and retreat cabins on Robert's Mountain.
Roberts Mountain and its acreage
In an October 1983 Gateway talk, the transcript has Monroe saying the New Land and Roberts Mountain together made some 800 acres, with the mountain's forest meant to supply firewood for the community's homes. Some program graduates did settle there: Suzanne Evans Morris, a Professional Division member, describes moving from Wisconsin to her home on the New Land. Research director Rita Warren moved to the New Land around 1985 and ran the Institute's laboratory there.
The Nancy Penn Center
The main program building carries the name of Bob's wife, Nancy Penn Monroe. Professional Seminars met there from at least 1993. It holds the CHEC units, the private sleeping and listening chambers used in residential programs; a debriefing room; a dining room; and the conference room nicknamed the "white-carpet room." David Francis Hall, next door, is the lecture hall for evening presentations. The Institute says the center sits at the base of the mountain and houses up to 24 guests.
Roberts Mountain Retreat
The Monroes' former home, more than a mile from the program buildings, became Roberts Mountain Retreat. Professional members broke ground in 1997 and dedicated it in 1998. Bob Monroe's cabin, where he wrote his books, stands there; a 2000 seminar broke ground for a Millennium Booth beside it, and a 2004 study placed a random number generator in the cabin as a distant control site. The Institute says the main house sleeps seven, with an annex for 13 more and a pool.
The grounds today
As of 2026 the Institute describes more than 300 rolling acres in Nelson County, about 45 minutes from Charlottesville and three hours from Washington, with gravel walking roads, decks with mountain views, a labyrinth, a lake, and two six-ton rose quartz crystals. The lake is Lake Miranon, which seminar participants walked or jogged to in 2004. A 1999 journal describes a seven-cycle labyrinth that Professional Division members and staff dedicated with Laurie Monroe in 1998.
How participants describe it
People who spend time there tend to describe the campus as part of the experience. A Professional Division member wrote of the luxury of returning to a familiar CHEC unit with a sleep tape playing through the night. A.J. Honeycutt called the Nancy Penn Center the Institute's most important theater, a sanctuary and a special place. Atwater ran studies asking whether group sessions in the Nancy Penn Center affected random number generators there compared with the remote cabin.
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.
“Now, in 1977, when I first met Bob Monroe, the buildings that we're sitting in didn't exist. This was just farmland. And Bob Monroe lived in a place called Whistlefield, which was in [an estate] about 10 miles from here in rural Virginia. And he had a laboratory there in which he was doing further research into this audio technology, but it was not a [widespread] thing as it is now. It was just Bob Monroe in his laboratory, and he had a few programs recorded on cassette tapes, and you could sign up to do a weekend workshop.”
“[Whistlefield] Research Labs. And it was in a modular home that he had built. Being the entrepreneur he was, he had also started a modular home building company called Process Builders. And so he built this house, or had it built, and he turned it into our lab. We had three isolation booths, a control room, a couple of offices. The living room was our meeting room, loft, kitchen, bathroom.”
“Years later he sold [Whistlefield] and picked up some new land, and he actually got that new land in a … land swap, sight unseen. He picked up that land in a … land swap. He was in a course where they swapped land, and some other guy had his land and was [coming] forward and said, "I'll swap you this for that." And he went to see it, and it was beautiful. He loved it.”
“New Land is to be located on some 740 acres in Nelson County, Virginia. It will house new research facilities for the Institute, a holistic health and healing center under the auspices of the New Community Church, an agricultural research station in the Findhorn model, and residences for staff, members, and other participants.”
“Many of those attending this year’s seminar broke ground for Roberts Mountain Retreat in 1997. Therefore, the highlight of the week was the retreat’s dedication and a beautiful reception at the former home of Robert and Nancy Penn Monroe, which sits at its heart.”
“One device is placed in close proximity to a primary group meeting area, referred to as the conference room or “white-carpet room” in the Nancy Penn Center (NPC). Another device is placed in an adjacent building, David Francis Hall (DFH), a lecture hall used in the evenings for presentations and speakers. And a third device is placed in Bob Monroe's cabin at Roberts Mountain Retreat (RMR), a site more than a mile away from the program locale.”
“It was wonderful to be back in the luxury of a familiar CHEC unit in the Nancy Penn Center with a Hemi-Sync sleep tape playing softly through the night.”
“TMI needs to get some new plays in their most important theater, the Nancy Penn Center. It is a sanctuary [and] a special place and deserves to be filled with wonderment and exploration.”
Important things to consider
Whistlefield is history, not a destination
Whistlefield was the Monroes' private farm, and the sources describe it only as it was in the 1970s. It is not part of the Institute's campus, and nothing here suggests it is open to visitors. Treat it as a chapter in the story, not a place to go looking for.
Acreage figures differ
The 1978 newsletter planned on some 740 acres; the 1983 talk transcript gives about 800 acres for the New Land and Roberts Mountain together; the Institute's website now describes more than 300 acres. The sources do not explain the difference, so this page does not guess at it. Use the Institute's current figure for the campus today.
The 1978 plan was a plan
The Explorer newsletter laid out an ambitious vision of research buildings, a farm, a healing center and a residential community. It shows what Monroe hoped for at the time, not a description of what was built. Today's campus is a program center with lodging, a lab, a lecture hall and a retreat house.
Explorer sessions about the New Land are reports
Several Explorer transcripts include nonphysical sources talking about the New Land, its future and its purpose. Those are records of what was said in the booth, not plans or predictions the Institute adopted. Read them as session reports.
Names and addresses shift
Documents from the 1970s say Afton; early-1990s journals give Route 1, Box 175, Faber; mid-1990s journals give 62 Roberts Mountain Road; and the 2008 journal gives 365 Roberts Mountain Road. "Robert's Mountain" and "Roberts Mountain" are the same place. Faber is the postal address in Nelson County.
Visiting means taking a program
The campus is where the Institute runs residential programs, and lodging at the Nancy Penn Center and Roberts Mountain Retreat goes with them. Check the Institute's website for programs, accommodation and any visiting arrangements before planning a trip.
The setting is part of the method
The quiet rural setting, the private CHEC units and the absence of daily distractions are part of how residential programs work. Participants often say the place itself matters. That is a reason the residential Gateway Voyage feels different from listening to the Gateway Experience at home, not evidence of anything special about the land.
This site is independent
Gateway Explorer is not affiliated with the Monroe Institute. Details of today's campus come from the Institute's website as of October 2026 and can change.
Common questions
Where is the Monroe Institute?
The Monroe Institute's campus is in the Blue Ridge foothills of Nelson County, Virginia, with a Faber postal address on Roberts Mountain Road. The Institute says it is about 45 minutes from Charlottesville and three hours from Washington, DC, on more than 300 rolling acres. The land was known in the Institute's early years as the New Land, and Monroe began building there in 1978 after years of working from his farm, Whistlefield, about ten miles away. The main buildings are the Nancy Penn Center, David Francis Hall and a research laboratory, with Roberts Mountain Retreat up the mountain.
What was Whistlefield?
Whistlefield was the farm where Robert and Nancy Penn Monroe lived in the 1970s, about ten miles from today's campus. Monroe built a modular house there and turned it into Whistlefield Research Labs, with three isolation booths, a control room and offices. Tom Campbell and Dennis Mennerich made the first binaural-beat tapes there, family and friends were the first test subjects, and the early Explorer sessions and weekend workshops began there. Skip Atwater, who met Monroe in 1977, remembers it as one man with a laboratory and a few cassette programs. Monroe later sold it, and the work moved to the New Land.
What is the New Land?
The New Land is the name used from the late 1970s for the property that became the Monroe Institute's campus. Tom Campbell says Monroe got it in a land swap, sight unseen, from someone on one of his courses, and loved it when he saw it. The Institute's 1978 newsletter announced construction on some 740 acres in Nelson County: research buildings with isolation chambers, a healing center, an organic farm, homes and retreat cabins on Robert's Mountain. The Institute's programs and laboratory moved there, and some graduates later made their homes on the New Land.
What is Roberts Mountain Retreat?
Roberts Mountain Retreat is the part of the campus built around the former home of Robert and Nancy Penn Monroe, up the mountain from the program buildings. Professional members broke ground for it in 1997 and dedicated it in 1998. Bob Monroe's cabin, where he wrote his books, is there. The Institute says the main house sleeps seven, with an annex for 13 more and a pool, and it is used for lodging and gatherings during programs and seminars.
What is the Nancy Penn Center like?
The Nancy Penn Center is the main program building, named after Bob Monroe's wife. It holds the CHEC units, private sleeping and listening chambers where residential participants lie with headphones during exercises and sleep at night; a debriefing room; a dining room; and a conference room known as the white-carpet room. David Francis Hall next door hosts evening talks. The Institute says the center houses up to 24 guests. Participants describe returning to a familiar CHEC unit as a luxury, and A.J. Honeycutt called the center a sanctuary.
Can you visit Whistlefield or the Monroe Institute?
Whistlefield was the Monroes' private farm, and nothing in the sources suggests it is open to visitors; it belongs to the history, not the campus. The Monroe Institute's campus is a program center. Most people come for a residential program such as the Gateway Voyage and stay at the Nancy Penn Center or Roberts Mountain Retreat. Check the Institute's website for current programs, lodging and any other visiting arrangements.
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