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She turned to me the other morning and said “You heard of The Gateway?” It didn’t register in the moment. She continued, “It’s blowing up on TikTok”. Later on, she elaborated. It was not in fact the ill-fated 90s computer hardware company kids were freaking out about. No, they’ve gone further back in time, to find a true treasure of functional media. The intrigue revolves around a classified CIA report on a technique used to achieve astral projection. The documents have since been declassified and are available to view. What’s noticeably unavailable is a simplified account of the report that breaks it all down in one place. So this is that. A comprehensive excavation of The Gateway Process report.
The first section here provides a timeline of the key developments. The second section is a review of the The Gateway Process report. It begins with a tremendous amount of necessary context, which should be viewed as an arduous but necessary theoretical stumbling block to get over. The last section details the actual Gateway Technique. Let’s go.
THE TIMELINE
• 1950s - Robert Monroe, a radio broadcasting executive, begins producing evidence that specific sound patterns have identifiable effects on human capabilities. These include alertness, sleepiness and expanded states of consciousness.
• 1956 - Monroe forms and R&D division inside his radio program production corporation RAM Enterprises. The goal is to study sound’s effect on human consciousness. He was obsessed with “sleep-learning“.
• 1958 - While experimenting with Sleep Learning, Monroe discovers an unusual phenomenon. He describes it as sensations of paralysis and vibration accompanied by bright light. It allegedly happens nine times over the proceeding six weeks. It culminates in an out-of-body experience (OBE).
• 1971: Monroe publishes Journeys Out of the Body. It’s credited with popularizing the term “out-of-body experience.”
• 1972 - A classified report circulates in the U.S. military and intelligence communities. It claims that the Soviet Union is pouring money into research involving ESP and psychokinesis for espionage purposes
• 1975 - Monroe registers the first of several patents concerning audio techniques designed to stimulate brain functions until the left and right hemispheres become synchronized. Monroe dubs the state Hemi-Sync (hemispherical synchronization), and claims it could be used to promote mental well-being or to trigger an altered state of consciousness.
• 1978 to 1984 - Army veteran Joseph McMoneagle greeenlights 450 remote viewing missions. This is kind of a whole other story.
• June 9th, 1983 - Analysis and Assessment of The Gateway Process circulates within the CIA. It uses a series of exercises to produce states of expanded human consciousness like astral projection, out-of-body experiments, and other altered states of mind.
• 1989 - Remote viewer Angela Dellafiora Ford helps track down a former customs agent who has gone on the run. She is able to pinpoint his location as “Lowell, Wyoming”. U.S. Customs apprehend him 100 miles west of a Wyoming town called Lovell.
• 2003 - CIA approves declassification of the Gateway Process report.
• 2017 - The CIA declassifies 12 million pages of records revealing previously unknown details about the program, which would eventually become known as Project Star Gate.
THE REPORT
Personnel
The author of the report is Lieutenant Colonel Wayne M McDonnell, herby referred to simply as Wayne. There isn’t a tremendous amount of information available on the man, nor a photograph anywhere on the web. In 1983, Wayne was tasked by the Commander of the US Army Operational Group with figuring out how The Gateway Experience works. Wayne partnered with a bunch of different folks in the CIA, most notably Itzhak Bentov, a very Googleable American-Israeli scientist who helped pioneer the biomedical engineering industry.
A Scientific Approach
From the outset of the report, Wayne makes clear his intent to employ objective scientific method in order to understand the Gateway process. The various scientific avenues he takes include:
• A Biomedical inquiry to understand the physical aspects of the process.
• Information on Quantum Mechanics to describe the nature and functioning of human consciousness.
• Theoretical Physics to explain the time-space dimension and means by which expanded human consciousness transcends it.
• Physics to bring the whole phenomenon of out-of-body states into the language of physical science (and remove the stigma of an occult connotation).
Methodological Frames of Reference
Before diving into The Gateway Experience (or hemisphere synchronization (or “Hemi-Sync”)), Wayne develops a frame of reference by breaking down three consciousness altering methodologies. He’s basically saying, there’s no way you’re going to get through The Gateway without a solid grounding in the techniques that came before it.
1) He begins with hypnosis. The language is extremely dense. But the basic gist is as follows. The left side of the brain screens incoming stimuli, categorizing, assessing and assigning meaning to everything through self-cognitive, verbal and linear reasoning. The left hemisphere then dishes the carefully prepared data to the non-critical, holistic, pattern-oriented right hemisphere, which accepts everything without question. Hypnosis works by putting the left side to sleep, or at least distracts it long enough to allow incoming data direct unchallenged entry to the right hemisphere. There, stimuli can reach the sensor and motor cortices of the right brain - the homunculus - which corresponds to points in the body. Suggestions then can send electrical signals from the homunculus to certain parts of the body. Directing these signals appropriately can produce reactions ranging from from left leg numbness to feelings of happiness. Same goes for increased powers of concentration.
2) Wayne continues with a snapshot of transcendental meditation. He distinguishes it from hypnotism. Through concentration the subject draws energy up the spinal cord, resulting in acoustical waves that run through the cerebral ventricles, to the right hemisphere, where they stimulate the cerebral cortex, run along the homunculus and then to the body. The waves are the altered rhythm of heart sounds, which create sympathetic vibrations in the walls of the fluid-filled cavities of the brain’s ventricles. He observed that the symptoms begin in the left side of the body, confirming the right brain’s culpability. Bentov also states that the same effect might be achieved by prolonged exposure to 4 - 7 Hertz/second acoustical vibrations. He suggests standing by an air conditioning duct might do the trick.
3) Biofeedback on the other hand uses the left hemisphere to gain access to the right brain’s lower cerebral, motor and sensor cortices. Whereas hypnosis suppresses one side of the brain, and TM bypasses that side altogether, biofeedback teaches the left hemisphere to visualize the desired result, recognize the feelings associated with right hemisphere access, and ultimately achieve the result again. With repetition, the left brain can reliably key into the right brain, and strengthen the pathways so that that it can be accessed during a conscious demand mode. A digital thermometer is then placed on a target part of the body. When its temperature increases, objective affirmation is recognized and the state is reinforced. Achieving biofeedback can block pain, enhance feeling, and even suppress tumors, according to the report.
The Gateway Mechanics
With that, Wayne takes a first stab at the Gateway and Hemi-Sync technique. He classifies it as a “training system designed to bring enhanced strength, focus and coherence to the amplitude and frequency of brainwave output between the left and right hemispheres so as to alter consciousness.”
It’s big differentiator from hypnosis, TM and biofeedback is that it’s defined as a state of consciousness in which the EEG patterns of both hemispheres are equal in amplitude and frequency. Lamentably, and perhaps conveniently, we cannot as humans achieve this state on our own. The audio techniques developed by Bob Monroe and his Institute (which encompass 3 tapes), can induce and sustain Hemi-Sync.
Here, the document shifts to the usage of quotes and other reports to describe the powers of Hemi-Sync. The main source is Melissa Jager, who employs the analogy of a Lamp verses a Laser. The human mind, she contends, expends energy like a lamp, in a chaotic and incoherent way, achieving lots of diffusion but relatively little depth. Under Hemi-Sync though, the mind produces a “disciplined stream of light.” So, once the frequency and amplitude of the brain are rendered coherent it can then synchronize with the rarified energy levels of the universe. With this connection intact, the brain begins to receive symbols and display astonishing flashes of holistic intuition.
The Hemi-Sync technique takes advantage of a Frequency Following Response (FFR). An external frequency emulating a recognized one will cause the brain to mimic it. So if a subject hears a frequency at the Theta level, it will shift from its resting Beta level. To achieve these unnatural levels, Hemi-Sync puts single frequency in the left ear and a contrasting frequency in the right. The brain then experiences the delta, also known as the beat frequency. It’s more familiarly referred to these days as Binaural Beats. With the FFR and beat frequency phenomena firmly in place, The Gateway Process introduces a series of frequencies at marginally audible, subliminal levels. With the left brain relaxed and body in a virtual sleep state, the conditions are ideal to promote brainwave outputs of higher and higher amplitude and frequency. Alongside subliminal suggestions by Bob Monroe (naturally), the subject can then alter their consciousness.
The Gateway system only works when the audio, which is introduced through headphones, is accompanied by a physical quietude comparable to TM, Zen et al. This increases the subject’s internal resonance to the body’s sound frequencies - eg the heart. This eliminates the “bifurcation echo”, in which the heartbeat moves up and down the body seven times a second. By placing the body in a sleep-like state, The Gateway Tapes, like meditation, lessen the force and frequency of the heartbeat pushing blood into the aorta. The result is a rhythmic sinewave that in turn amplifies the sound volume of the heart x 3. This in turn amplifies the frequency of brainwave output. The film surrounding the brain - the dura - and fluid between that film and the skull, eventually begin to move up and down, with a .0005 and .010 millimeter travel.
The body then, based on its own micro-motions, functions as a tuned vibrational system. The entire body eventually transfers energy at between 6.8 and 7.5 Hertz which matches Earth’s own energy which resonates at 7 - 7.5 Hertz. The resulting wavelengths are long, about 40,000 Km, which also happens to be the perimeter of the planet. According to Bentov, the signal can move around the world’s electrostatic field in 1/7th of a second.
To recap, the Gateway Process goes like this: Induced state of calm —> blood pressure lowers —> circulatory system, skeleton and other organ systems begin to vibrate at 7 - 7.5 cycles per second —> increased resonance is achieved —> the resulting sound waves matches the electrostatic field of the earth —> the body and earth and other similarly tuned minds become a single energy continuum.
Oh! We got ahead of ourselves there. Back to the drawing board.
A Psycho-Quantum Level Deeper
Wayne then turns to the very nature of matter and energy. More materially (or less if you will), solid matter in the strict construction of the term, doesn’t exist. The atomic structure is composed of oscillating energy grids surrounded by other oscillating energy grids at tremendous speeds. These oscillation rates vary - the nucleus of an atom vibrates at 10 to the power of 22, a molecule vibrates at 10 to the power of 9, a human cell vibrates at 10 to the power of 3. Point is the entire universe is one complex system of energy fields. States of matter then are merely variations in the state of energy.
The result of all these moving energies, bouncing off of energy at rest, projects a 3d mode, a pattern, called a hologram, aka our reality as we experience it. Best to think of it as a 3d photograph. There's a whole rabbit hole to go down here. Suffice it to say, the hologram that is our experience is incredibly good at depicting and recording all the various energies bouncing around creating matter. So good in fact that we buy into it hook line and sinker, going so far as to call it our life.
Consciousness then can be envisaged as a 3d grid system superimposed over all energy patterns. Using mathematics, each plain of the grid system can then reduce the data to a 2d form. Our binary (go/no go) minds can then process the data and compare it to other historical data saved in our memory. Our reality is then formed by comparisons. The right hemisphere of the brain acts as the primary matrix or receptor for this holographic input. The left hemisphere then compares it to other data, reducing it to its 2d form.
In keeping our with our species' commitment to exceptionalism, as far as we know humans are uniquely capable of achieving this level of consciousness. Simply, humans not only know, but we know that we know. This bestows upon us the ability to duplicate aspects of our own hologram, project them out, perceive that projection, run it through a comparison with our own memory of the hologram, measure the differences using 3d geometry, then run it through our binary go/no go system to yield verbal cognition of the self.
The Click-Out Phase
Wayne then shows his cards as a true sadist, issuing, "Up to this point our discussion of the Gateway process has been relatively simple and easy to follow. Now the fun begins". Shots fired Wayne. What he's preparing the Commander for is the reveal - how we can use the Gateway to transcend the dimension of time-space.
Firstly time-space: Time is a measurement of energy or force in motion; it is a measurement of change. This is really important. For energy to be classified as in motion, it must be confined within a vibratory pattern that can contain its motion, keeping it still. Energy not contained like this is boundary-less, and moves without limit or dimension, to infinity. This disqualifies boundary-less energy from the dimension of time because it has no rate of change. Energy in infinity also called The Absolute state, is completely at rest because nothing is accelerating or decelerating it - again, no change. It therefore does not contribute to our hologram, our physical experience. We cannot perceive it.
Now back to frequencies. Wave oscillation occurs because a wave is bouncing between two rigid points of rest. It's like a game of electromagnetic hot potato (the potato being the wave and the participants' hands being the boundaries of the wave). Without these limits, there would be no oscillation. When a wave hits one of those points of rest, just for a very brief instant, it "clicks out" of time-space and joins infinity. For this to occur the speed of the oscillation has to drop below 10 the power of -33 centimeters per second. For a moment, the wave enters into a new world (the potato simply disappears into a dimension we cannot perceive).
Theoretically speaking, if the human consciousness wave pattern reaches a high enough frequency, the “click-outs” can reach continuity. Put another way, if the human consciousness can below 10 to the power of 33 centimeters per second but above a state of total rest it can transcend space-time. The Gateway experience and associated Hemi-Synch technique is designed for humans to achieve that state and establish a coherent pattern of perception in those new dimensions.
Passport to The Hologram
Ostensibly, we can achieve the above at any time. The entire process though is enhanced if we can separate the consciousness from our body. Basic idea here is that the click-out of a consciousness already separated from its body starts much closer to, and has more time to dialogue with, other dimensions.
OK this is where things get a little slippery; hold on as best you can. The universe is in on the whole hologram thing too. This super hologram is called a Torus because it takes the shape of a fuck-off massive self-contained spiral. Like this:
Give yourself a moment to let the above motion sink in...
This pattern of the universe mirrors the patterns of electrons around the nucleus of an atom. Galaxies north of our own are moving away from us faster than the galaxies to the south; galaxies to the east and west of us are more distant. The jet of matter that shot into our universe, and that we presently enjoy, will turn back in on itself. Its trajectory is ovoid, also known as the cosmic egg. As it curls back on itself it enters a black hole, goes through a densely packed energy nucleus then gets spat out the other side of a white hole and begins the process again. Springtime in cosmos, baby.
The entire universe hologram - Torus - represents all the phases of time - the past, present and future. It would hold water then that human consciousness brought to a sufficiently altered (focused) state could obtain information about the past, present and future since they all live in the universal hologram simultaneously. It then also stands to reason that our all-reaching consciousness eventually participates in an all-knowing infinite continuum. Long after we depart the space-time dimension and the hologram each one of us perceives is snuffed out, our consciousness continues. Reassuring in a way.
And that is the context in which the Gateway Experience sits.
[Deep breaths]
The Gateway Technique
The following is an outline of the key steps to reach focus levels necessary for defying the space-time dimension. If you’re in a rush, you can apparently listen to enough Monroe Institute Gateway Tapes in 7 days to get there.
The Energy Conversion Box - The Gateway Process begins by teaching the subject to isolate any extraneous concerns using a visualization process called “the energy conversion box.”
Resonant Humming - The individual is introduced to resonant humming. Through the utterance of a protracted single tone, alongside a chorus on the tapes, the mind and body achieve a state of resonance.
The Gateway Affirmation - The participant is exposed to The Gateway Affirmation and encouraged to repeat it to themselves. This basically says I am merely a a physical body and deeply desire to expand my consciousness.
Hemi-Sync - The individual is exposed to the Hemi-Sync sound frequencies, and encouraged to develop a relationship with the feelings that emerge.
Additional Noise - Physical relaxation techniques occur while the Hemi-Sync frequencies are expanded to include “pink and white” noise. This puts the body in a state of virtual sleep, while calming the left hemisphere and raising the attentiveness of the right hemisphere.
The Energy Ballon - The individual is then encouraged to visualize the creation of an “energy balloon” beginning at the top of the head, extending down in all directions to the feet then back up again. There are a few reasons for this, the main one being, that this balloon will provide protection against conscious entities possessing lower energy levels he or she may encounter when in the out-of-body state.
Focus 12 - The practitioner then must work their way up to Focus Level 10. This means they have consistently achieved sufficient expanded awareness to begin interacting with dimensions beyond their physical reality. To achieve this state requires conscious efforts and more “pink and white noise” from the sound stream.
Tools - Once Focus 12 is achieve the subject can then employ a series of tools to obtain feedback from alternative dimensions.
Problem Solving - The individual identifies fundamental problems, fills his expanded awareness with them, and then projects them out into the universe. These can include personal difficulties, technical or practical problems.
Patterning - The ese of the consciousness to achieve desired objectives in the physical, emotional or intellectual sphere.
Color Breathing - A healing technique that revitalizes the body’s energy flows by imagining colors in a particularly vivid manner.
Energy Bar Tool - This technique involves imagining a small intensely pulsating dot of light that the participant charges up. He or she then uses the sparkling, vibrating cylinder of energy (formerly known as the dot) to channel force from the universe to heal and revitalize the body.
Remote Viewing - A follow-on technique of the energy bar tool where the dot is turned into a whirling vortex through which the individual sends their imagination in search of illuminating insights.
Living Body Map -A more organized use of the energy bar in which streams of different colors flow from the dot on to correspondingly colored bodily systems.
7 days of training have now occurred. Approximately 5% of participants get to this next level.
Focus 15 - Travel Into the Past - Additional sound on the Hemi-Sync tapes includes more of the same, plus some subliminal suggestions to further expand the consciousness. The instructions are highly symbolic - time is a huge wheel, in which different spokes give access to the participant’s past.
Focus 21 - The Future - This is the last and most advanced state. Like Focus 15, this is a movement out of time-space into the future.
Out-of-Body Movement - Only one tape of the many is devoted to out-of-body movement. This tape is devoted to making it easier to achieve an out-of-body state when the participant’s brain wave patterns and energy levels reach harmony with the surrounding electromagnetic environment. According to Bob Monroe, the participant has to be exposed to Beta signals of around 2877.3 cycles per second.
Conclusions
Wayne expresses concern about the fidelity of information brought back from out-of-body states using the Gateway techniques. Practical applications are of particular concern because of the potential for “information distortion.” The Monroe Institute too ran into a bunch of issues in which they had individuals travel from the west to the east coast of the US to read a series of numbers off of a computer screen. They never got them exactly right. Wayne chalks this up to the trouble of differentiating between physical entities and extra-time-space dimensions when in out-of-body state.
Wayne swings back to support mode though, lending credence to the physics foundation holding up the conception of The Absolute Universe and the energy therein. He cites multiple belief systems that have established identical findings. These include the Tibetan Shoug, the Hindu heaven of Indra, the Hebrew mystical philosophy, and the Christian concept of the Trinity. It seems as if he is more interested in hammering home the possibility of getting closer to the theoretical than the practical possibilities afforded by The Gateway Tapes.
Possibly with his audience in mind, Wayne then gives an A-type nod to Gateway for providing a faster, more efficient, less subservient, energy-saving route to expanded consciousness. This includes a recommendation to the CIA for exploitation of Gateway’s potential.
The Missing Page
One curious feature of The Gateway Report is that it seems to be missing page 25. It’s a real cliffhanger too - “And, the eternal thought or concept of self which results from this self-consciousness serves the,” and then the report drops off, picking back up on page 26 and 3 sections later. The gap has not gone unnoticed. Change.org has petitioned for its release. A Freedom of Information Act request attempted the same. In both cases, the CIA has said they never had the page to begin with.
One theory goes that that rascal Wayne M fricking McDonnell excluded it on purpose. The theory contends it was litmus test - if anyone truly achieved time-space dimensions, they’d certainly be able to locate page 25.
[Cosmic shrug]
The Declassified Report is here.
The Gateway Tapes I - VI can be purchased here.
You can subscribe to ExoGenesis here…
The Gateway Experience
Fascinating stuff! I’m a big fan of Robert Monroe’s books. I have The Gateway Experience CDs ripped to MP3, but I never got past Disc 2. I’m not that disciplined. But it’s cool to learn that the CIA was interested in this. I always wondered if they had looked into it like they did with remote viewing.
This also summarizes page 25, if you know how to read it. https://www.sacred-texts.com/alc/emerald.htm