Visit to The Monroe Institute

[dougdi]

Robert Monroe is as important to me as Seth, here's my recollection of visiting the Monroe Institute in Virginia. I'm open to questions, I may be leaving out something important somewhere!


It was in 1994 I decided to take the Gateway Voyage course at The Monroe Institute. I read his first book Journeys Out Of the Body just a year or two after it was first published in the early '70s and boy did I want to experience leaving my body! Hard as I tried nothing was happening. As time went on I found his second book Far Journeys and was still intrigued especially when he mentioned his experimentation at his Institute.

After re-reading Far Journeys 20 years later I decided to find out if the Institute still existed and when I did I asked for their information and got a fancy color brochure about the programs going on. Luckily I was able to afford the expensive week long seminar in 1994 and drove down in April.

I arrived at the main building on a Saturday afternoon and was warmly greeted by a few of the facilitators. There were about 20 of us and we each shared a room (two to a room) in the same building that also contained the dining room, meeting room, exercise room and shared baths. The dorm rooms each had 2 single beds that were built in to the wall (I think) and had a black curtain to cover the single opening. Each bunk had a box to plug in the supplied headphones, a speaker for communication and I don't recall what else. They're called CHEC units, I'm too lazy to look up what it stands for!

I don't recall the exact schedule but each day would start with a group meeting after breakfast to discuss the next exercise. Each exercise consisted of laying in your bunk with the curtain closed and headphones on (lights out of course) where we listened to Monroe's voice instructing us to relax, do a little chanting, spiritual protection (no religious overtones here) and guiding us as the famous Hemisync tones played in the background. Some had no voice guidance and one even dropped out the tones entirely (to teach you that you don't need the tones). The use of sound was meant to be training wheels for the process of accessing different states not the required tool. Once you learn you can achieve those states by thinking and feeling your way there.

When we arrived we each had a private talk with one of the 3 leaders to discuss our expectations and goals. Most do want to have an OBE but we are warned not to expect it to happen, not everyone does, and let things occur as they should. I, sadly, did not have a classic experience but several did.

Next, all of our watches were collected so we were never aware of the time. There was only a payphone for emergencies and this was 1994 before we all had cell phones, so there was a nice sense of warm isolation, the countryside and views were gorgeous and everybody I met was fascinating, from various walks of life and professions and overall around 30-75 years of age.

I did learn how to enter Focus 10, or mind-awake body-asleep, which is the stepping stone to going deeper into (or out of) yourself. Quite a few times I'd lay there and hear myself snoring as I floated in new head spaces. At the end of the week I was meditating without learning how, it's similar at least, using the Focus 10 method. I remember the day we traveled to Focus 15 which is a state of no time, was a real highlight! Focus 21 and beyond get into areas where we go after physical life, there are advanced courses. One is called Lifeline where you learn to help rescue lost souls or the newly departed.

There were 4-6 sessions a day usually ending by dinner. After meeting we'd all go to our booth/beds to listen to the tape and then we'd meet again to discuss our experiences. I remember one man there, in his 70's, with a hearing aid for each ear. There was some questioning as to whether the special Hemisync would work for him since it required listening with headphones but it did work alright. After one session he returned to the meeting room in tears for he had just met with 3 long dead war buddies, he swore they were there as plain as you or me, he was pretty speechless.

Evenings were special. One night Joe McMoneagle gave a long talk on remote viewing (he was one of the leading rv's for the military) and showed us how "easy" it is. I actually had a good hit on the first try. The best night Robert Monroe himself appeared for a fun talk. He was hovering around all week, one morning having breakfast with us and autographing his final book Ultimate Journeys. We had a chat at one point and I told him about my professional work doing sound recording and mixing and he as pretty interested. At the end of the conversation he said "I've got an idea for you, give me a call", unfortunately I was not let through to him when I tried. But I visited the small recording studio there and became friendly with Mark Certo who was the current audio guy working with Monroe and F. Skip Atwater (also involved in the RV project) making the tapes and experimenting in the lab room next door.

They have a booth that is completely isolated physically, electrically (surrounded by a Faraday cage) light, sound, probably even pointed North. It contained the same listening setup as the CHEC units with the addition of a water bed. This was used in special lab sessions to play with new Hemisync tones with a group of volunteers. There was also a microphone in there so Skip in the studio could play the tones in your headphones and then you could talk (while you were in whatever state) to feedback what was happening. I didn't think that was possible to talk without losing your state but there are many recorded sessions to prove it. The booth used to be available with an operator for hourly sessions but I don't think that's available anymore.

It was an amazing week, met many wonderful and interesting people. I didn't leave my body but it didn't matter. I could enter some pretty cool places now and even left with some great tapes to use at home.

I became friendly with great guy from Denmark who returned for many other more advanced weeks and the following year he invited me down to Virginia where he was staying at a home with new friends about 1/2 mile from TMI. So I used this opportunity to book a couple of private sessions in the lab booth. I wore a sensor helmet thing and my other vitals and skin resistance were monitored so Skip Atwater could see how I was responding in the studio as he was manually controlling the Hemisync sounds. I had some very amazing things happen, still no leaving the body. At least not the way we all read about.

By the time I had arrived Monroe had died just months before, so I was not to meet him again - physically at least.

It seemed that everybody down in this beautiful valley where TMI was had a story, they were all connected somehow. I think Monroe bought up all this property and sold a lot to friends and compatriots. I met the caretaker/maintenance man and his wife, I visited them to help with their PC. I was told beforehand how he had been electrocuted from a power line years before and now he unexplainably had the power to hands-on heal. His hands would get hot and he had the compelling urge to touch and heal people he never met. The great story was how he burst into the center in the middle of the night during a seminar week to touch the stomach of someone in his room sleeping who had some ailment and cured the unsuspecting person who was awakened. When I left their home to drive back up the road is when I heard Monroe's voice loud and clear saying "He's full of shit - but he's right about me" referring to this man's tales about Monroe. It was jarring for sure, but it was loud and clear sounded like he was right next to me. I was told I was not the first to hear Bob.

The hosts had a huge house and a llama farm, with about 25-30 beautiful creatures. They were amazingly friendly and sweet! And 5 cats roaming happily. They mentioned there was a ghost in the house and he had a tendency to open and close doors at night while they were sleeping. I thought that would be cool if it happened to me. I remember reading before I turned out the light that night in the room I slept in. Sometime after the light was turned off I felt (at least I believe I did) the bottom of the bed shake strongly, as if it was picked up and dropped. I quickly pulled the covers over my head and wasn't so sure I wanted to know what or who did it. In the morning the owner of the house said that "oh yeah, he does that too sometime"! He apparently was a Revolutionary solider, someone saw him in the basement!

There's a long thread here on synchronicities and Monroe had a real doozy, the story is told in his final book. He talked about the main building, the Nancy Penn Center (named after his wife) and it's design. It has a distinctive steeple that you can climb and sit in and meditate looking out at the valley. To make a long story short, after the building was finished his brother visited Scotland and a place called Munro Fields and it's Foulis Castle. After returning and seeing photos of the building his brother Emmet was flabbergasted - it was the spitting image of the design Robert Monroe came up with. There was no way that Bob knew about it and had never visited Scotland. And it was built, according to Munro family history, by Donald Munro and his brother Robert - in the mid twelfth century!

One of the great things about TMI is there is no religious tone or references, it's scientific and fact based. No mumbo jumbo, but the floor is open to whatever you have to say. It's not a cult, there's no crazy stuff going on down there. It's true there was connection with the government up to the mid-90's with Skip Atwater (Monroe's son in law) leading the remote viewing. There's a movie called "Third Eye Spies" about the program and half way through he's interviewed. Good movie, a little padded out, but fascinating.

To this day I'm still baffled about Bob's inscription in my copy of his final book. Everyone else had "See you in 21!" written on the first page along with his autograph. But in mine he wrote "Project! Mind driven direct computer! Wow! I have some ideas about what he meant, but what was his thought? Was it a project? Did it have to do with projection (I think not) Was this what he wanted to talk to me about? I asked some of the people around him and they had no idea. Maybe one day I'll be in contact with him and learn.

I'm sure there's more I'm leaving out, if it comes to me I'll add it in another post. Sorry if this was too long @jbseth, but you asked!

[Deb]

@dougdi thank you SO much for this wonderful post! You've gotten me excited about TMI again. I have another milestone birthday coming up in two years and I've decided to treat myself with a week there. Huh, that would be in 2021. I want to go TODAY!

So it seems even though you didn't have an OBE, you still felt the experience was worth it and it seems to have enriched your life way beyond that one week. Were you ever bored during your sessions? I'd probably fall asleep during them and then would not be able to sleep at night. It would take determination for sure. What did people do in the evenings?

I did look up CHEC unit, it's a Controlled Holistic Environment Chamber. Here's a YouTube video on the TMI site. At about 3:20 Rademacher talks about telling participants to look to the "guru within, the wisdom within." It's very well said.

Does Focus 10 feel like that 'twilight' sleep, half way between being awake and being asleep? I have 'seen' and heard some pretty interesting stuff during that time. Speaking of higher levels of Focus, I read an article yesterday on the TMI site titled "Going Home: A Real Life Story" which was very interesting to me. It's the account of a man's (medical doctor, psychiatrist) experience with his wife's death. He had taken the Gateway course and while his wife hadn't, he and his wife were able to communicate during her dying process, while she was in a coma, and beyond because of ability to go into the various Focus "areas".

From the article:

"Now I carry on actively in two lives, embracing the multidimensional like Jane Roberts, who channeled the Seth material. In Focus 27 and up, Randi is present, and in time/space physical reality, she is now absent. This phenom­enon occurs almost every morning during my direct and instantaneous phase-shift from C-1 to Focus 27."

Another aspect of TMI that I find very attractive is the small group size. I went to a few Joe Dispenza workshops and by the last one there were probably 500 people attending, which can be extremely distracting and needless to say, feels very commercial and not intimate like the TMI experience.

I loved the story of the tower, it was amazing and gave me chills. It also fits in with a topic that I'll be starting soon on our probable realities, inspiration, and the crossovers.

I'm attaching a few photos from my 2014 visit to TMI. Looking at these this morning, the tower has new meaning to me. Actually I didn't even remember the tower until I read your posts. I remember feeling exhilarated but also peaceful when I was there for that brief time, it was so green and alive and the location has a rich energy to it. I imagine spending any amount of time there would be healing, there is so much nature and clean air.

The inscription in your book is baffling, but I do think it's connected to what he wanted to talk with you about. It's too bad you couldn't get through on the phone. Mind driven direct computer seems to ring a bell--there have been articles lately about brain-computer interfacing (Elon Musk). There were also the Random Number Generators used to test esp. Monroe was certainly on top of things.

Thanks again, I really enjoyed your post.

[jbseth]

Hi Dougdi,

Thanks so much for this great post. It definitely wasn't too long for me. In fact, I was sorry to see it end.

I too think that what Robert Monroe said and did, was extremely important. He opened another avenue for people so that they could take a look at what reality is all about.  People, who wouldn't, for a moment, consider the work of Jane Roberts, would be open to work of Robert Monroe. 

I've read all 3 of his books at least twice now and I really enjoyed them. However, it's been awhile since I've done so but, as I recall, there were several focus levels, such as Focus 12, 15, 21 and 27 (and maybe 33). 

The thought has occurred to me that maybe when he told you to call him, he was talking about contacting him at a Focus Level, like maybe Focus 21. My thinking was that maybe you would need to be at a certain focus level, before you could work on this project.

I think the fact that he left that interesting message in your copy of his final book, indicates that he really did want to talk with you about this project. Especially given your background of working in sound recording and mixing.

Having a background in both electronic engineering and acoustics, I was always impressed with his engineering background. As I recall, he used to term "curl" to describe how some of the other beings, A-1 I think, would turn in on themselves and change realities.  In terms of calculus, a "curl" is a fairly advanced mathematical concept.

-jbseth

[dougdi]

Hi Jbseth,

Glad you enjoyed my report! Yes, I appreciate Bob's technical approach. I would love to know what TMI has discovered in its binaural beat research, there's some unique layering of tones throughout the taped sessions specifically meant to induce specific states of consciousness. It doesn't work for everyone but some people don't need the verbal guidance/suggestions that are in most sessions.

There have been a few more Focus levels established since the beginning.

My feeling is he was interested in simply having the mind control a computer in reverse to what Hemisync is doing. I wish I brought it up with Skip Atwater in my second visit to TMI.

I seriously thought back then about getting involved maybe move to Virginia but my career was anchored in NYC at the time. I'll dig up my photos I took, should be a few of the special booth in the lab, the llamas, I didn't get the ghost though!