The gateway experience

Hey guys!

I'm almost done with the Gateway Experience series by the Monroe Institute. It's been a wild ride and I'm really excited about the last part of the series, Odyssey.

I've been using hemi-synch technology for the last year and I realized I could have made more progress in less time if only I had had more information about what to expect and "feel".

For example: In the first part of the series one learns to relax the body and get into a state of mind called "Focus 10" where the mind is awake and the body asleep.

I had to listen to a track called "Advanced focus 10" countless times before I was certain I really had accomplished the goal of the exercise, even though I had experienced the state of mind desired many times.
I think this is, or at least it seems to me that way, that the "manual" that comes with the audio tracks is at times a bit vague.

So, would you be interested in a thorough review of the complete series along with some "tricks" to make the exercises easier and enhance the effects? (no drugs or anything like that :P)

Also, I'm sorry if you think it's inappropriate that I made the same post in two forums (I've posted in the Deep Dreaming sub-forum as well), I just want to reach out to as many as possible. :)

I would very much like as much information on this as you would be willing to provide!
- DreamBliss

Glad to hear you are interested! :) I'll start working right away and I expect to be done within the next moth. I'll post my work in this thread.
Take care!

Hey.
Ive just started with it. So would love to hear your thoughts on it!!
Can you give a quick review of what you thought about it, and some general tips and tricks now that I've just started.

Thanks!

Is this the one with a ridiculously over the top price tag? Last time i looked anyway.

Just a few hundred bucks -- cheap by today's retail nirvana standards!

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Sageous

Just a few hundred bucks -- cheap by today's retail nirvana standards!

---

Still a bit steep for me anyway, would you recommend it?

@mrbambocha The gateway experience has helped me in so many ways, not only with going out of the body (which by the way is only a small part of the series) but with coming to understand and explore myself more and to easily reach different states of awareness. Having said that I would recommend the series to anyone curious about themselves, what they are, where they come from and the possibilities of the human mind.

You have probably realized that you can't rush through the series and expect good results, most of the exercises needs do be done several times before one can move on. However, as written in the manual, you don't have to feel that you have to "master" one track before you can continue.
The biggest obstacle for me, so far, has been to understand what mindawake/body asleep feels like. Can a person in F10 feel the body or generally be aware of the surroundings? After some time I realized the answer is both yes and no. Focus 10 has different layers, in a light F10 most people have reduced sensory perception while in a deep F10 it can be pretty tough to know if your arm is bent or if it's straight, or if it's on your stomach. Everyone doesn't experience the "layers" the same way though, even if they share some characteristics.

There's a great article here Articles - Out of Body Experiences, Lucid Dreams and Altered States that I recommend reading if you just started out.

Which track are you working with now by the way? Anything in particular I can help you with?


I usually work out before I use hemi-sync to help myself relax my body more. I often have a problem of relaxing my face and my mouth completely and for that I found a simple but great relaxing technique, where you press your eyebrows together and bite your teeth down as hard as you can until you feel tired in your muscles, then relax for about 10 seconds. I repeat this exercise about 5-10 times before I get down to gateway business.
Also, I think it's important to be curious and excited about whatever you intend to do, whether you want to use hemi-sync, have a lucid dream or to go out of your body, but at the same time to not have any expectations. Just go with it! :)

Anyway, I hope I could help you in some way. :) Take care!

@ShadowOfSelf I agree with you completely! I can't understand why they don't sell all the CD's digitally though, they could lower the price considerably that way. I think I'll e-mail them and ask what that's about.. Anyway, I could "lend" you a track or two if you want to try it out ;)

@Chaps

I see thanks for the info. I've always wanted to try it, if you could lend me a track to test that would be great, if its as good as people say it is I would definetly invest.

Quote:

---

The gateway experience has helped me in so many ways, not only with going out of the body (which by the way is only a small part of the series) but with coming to understand and explore myself more and to easily reach different states of awareness. Having said that I would recommend the series to anyone curious about themselves, what they are, where they come from and the possibilities of the human mind.

---

Sounds promising. Can you give some specific examples? Will def continue with it..

Quote:

---

You have probably realized that you can't rush through the series and expect good results, most of the exercises needs do be done several times before one can move on. However, as written in the manual, you don't have to feel that you have to "master" one track before you can continue.

---

Did you go more on feeling? Is there any special series that is more difficult then other? Btw, just started 2 days ago. The first time I did the 1.1 and 1.2 it went really good, could really feel a deep trance but still awake. The second and third time I felt asleep after the breathing exercise.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by ShadowOfSelf

Still a bit steep for me anyway, would you recommend it?

---

No. And this is without ever trying this particular product. Here's why:

Over the years -- mostly about 2 decades ago when I hit a wall in my LDing development, and was desperate for something to give me a kick in the right direction -- I have bought many of these CD's,machines, books, etc; hell, I even went to three of Stephen LeBerge's Dream Camps. I spent an enormous amount of money, all told, and sure, some of this stuff helped.

But in the end I realized that I would have made the exact same amount of progress if I had simply worked at developing my self awareness. This can be done, literally, in your spare time by sitting quietly and thinking about who you are, and how your presence effects reality. For free.

Sure, the books give helpful information, but think about it: how many techniques are there, really, to get lucid (or out of body, or on an AP, etc)? Yes, there might be variations, but in the end all these techniques are versions of the same simple awareness delivery system -- your mind is already dreaming; you are not creating some new physiological event, only attaching your waking awareness to an existing one. All you are doing is waking up in a dream! For instance, the hardest dream-induction technique out there is WILD, but its basic rule is stupid simple: hold still, calm your thoughts, set your intention, and wait for sleep. All it takes for success is a lot of practice. You don’t need machines or recordings of instructions from a well-spoken entrepreneur telling you how to do exactly what you could have done just by sitting quietly in a dark room -- or anywhere else, as your self-awareness grows. MILD and DILD are easier to do, and, though they require more waking life time spent practicing reality checks and doing memory exercises, they are not complex operations to learn: all of their mechanisms are explained simply, quickly and clearly in one or two cheap books and on free websites. The hard part is doing it, not knowing how to do it. The same, I imagine, holds for OBE's and AP's.

Bottom line: there is no secret knowledge, and there is no one yet who can put you in a lucid dream, or in an OBE, or on an AP, or in a shared dream. You have to do it yourself.

All these CD’s, programs, machines, drugs, sounds, vibrations (whatever they are), et al are just slightly helpful window dressing, and will have utterly no effect on you if you are without self-awareness, intention, attention, and will. Indeed, some of this stuff can do damage by misleading you or tricking you into thinking things are happening that are not (especially the drugs and hypnosis recordings). Bottom line: it’s up to you; you really can’t buy mental and spiritual development. There are no shortcuts.

In fact, I would soundly bet that the people this stuff works on does so because they want it to work. Had they the confidence to seek the answers on their own, they likely would have gotten them. He may not be aware of it, but I am sure that Chaps would have had just as much success on his own, because he wanted it.

One other totally opinion-based warning: I have a feeling a lot of these Higher-Consciousness-Distribution firms are practicing a sort of hypnosis. Their products, and their programs, work once or twice simply by the power of suggestion: you just spent a lot of money, you’re real excited, your expectations are high, so you get great results. Later, when your expectations ebb, you’re right back where you started, less one pocketful of cash.

The gateway is yours alone to pass through; don't let anyone else tell you otherwise...

@Sageous

Thanks for the reply I expected an insightful post. I can agree, I believe a lot of these companies work on the power of suggestion/placebo, though i'm always open to ideas. I practise being aware, during the day and through meditation, but lately feel like i'm not making much progress.. do you have any suggestions, any books or insight that could help?

@Sageous You're right of course, I completely agree with you. I've only tried the gateway experience series but I assume other companies also use the same hemi-sync/hypnosis techniques. Looking back when I first purchased the series, I had just finished reading Monroe's book and I was really excited and my only goal was to have an OOBE. I was at first disappointed, to say the least. The purpose of the series isn't to make the customer have an OOBE even though they provide some techniques for that, instead the audio tracks works like "training wheels" to get into different states of awareness.

I'm positive though that with enough practice and effort one could get into these states without any audio-help/hypnosis. I can only speak for myself when I say that the gateway experience has helped me a great deal to reach these states and to be able to move between them quickly. However, it might be just as you say, that it's works because of the power of suggestion and placebo and then it's just a waste of money. But hey, as long as it works I'm a happy camper! :)

All in all, if the your main goal is to astral project or have a lucid dream these CD's are definitively not the answer. On the other hand, if you want to be able to reach deeper into yourself and explore, the gateway experience works great as training wheels. If you want it to work. ;)

@ShadowOfSelf The files are too big to email so if you have MSN or googletalk just PM me your address and I can send it to you there. :)

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by ShadowOfSelf

@Sageous

Thanks for the reply I expected an insightful post. I can agree, I believe a lot of these companies work on the power of suggestion/placebo, though i'm always open to ideas. I practise being aware, during the day and through meditation, but lately feel like i'm not making much progress.. do you have any suggestions, any books or insight that could help?

---

Suggestions:

In terms of books about technique: About the one thing that Stephen La Berge did give us is Exploring the World of Lucid Dreaming: read it, memorize it, and believe that the techniques he lists actually work, regardless of how kitschy they may seem. Stephen shot his lucidity wad with that book, written decades ago, and it might reflect more of others' input than his, but who cares? The fundamentals are there. In terms of the "rules" for LD'ing, not much else is necessary.

In terms of books on self-awareness, I got nothing; I've never found one that made sense or didn't fall into some dogmatic morass that I wasn't interested in. I guess that's because self-awareness, even sense of Self, can be explained in just a few words, so nobody's too interested in writing a whole book. Indeed, in a book I recently wrote I included a chapter on self-awareness, and after only about 800 words I was repeating myself.

In terms of sheer discipline, I have to recommend The Tibetan Yogas of Dream and Sleep, by Tenzin Rinpoche. There are are of course other books, probably better ones, but this is all I can think of off the top of my head.

In terms of general dreaming books (you must know the subject before you can explore it): For a global view of dreaming and its social/philosophical implications, I suggest James Hillman's The Dream and the Underworld. For real foundational insight into the whole deal, you should look at Dreams and Man and His Symbols, by C. G. Jung. For a genuine fugue of mathematically-oriented philosophy about perception, Self, and reality itself, carefully absorbing Godel, Escher, Bach by Hofstadter would be very valuable. Oh, and everyone should read Einstein's Dreams, by Alan Lightman, just because it's cool .Of course all these books will only increase your knowledge; how you use the knowledge is up to you.

In terms of other toys/ aides: About the only electronic device I have ever found value in is the state tester. La Berge was selling one for about a week call the PEST (Personal Electronic State Tester), and it's long gone, but lots of people sell devices that chirp, buss, light up, or whatever at random intervals to remind you to do reality checks and think for a moment about where you are standing, and why. Here's the only one I can put my hands on, built by the guy who made the original PEST. I owned a Dream Light once, and it, like the NovaDreamer and the machine advertized at the top of this page, all work fine(meaning they detect REM and make noise about it), but in the end they are very expensive ways for a dreamer to say,"Hey, what's that bright light over there?" without ever becoming lucid -- in other words, they are excellent devices, but they require the same mental prep that not using them does.

In terms of drugs, the only one I've found to effectively enhance LD's is gallantamine. But be careful, as it has a nasty habit of adding too much clarity and excitement to your dreams, and thus making the work required to become lucid not so interesting!. Vitamin B-6 does nothing for lucidity, but it truly does help improve dream recall.

In terms of all those high-priced CD's programs, Dream Camps, etc: I suggest staying away from them until after you have become reasonably adept at LD'ing (or OBE's, or AP). Then you can use their wherewithal and occasional wisdom as an assist to enter your dream state more quickly, or with more confidence. You really must learn to master the fundamentals first, though, whether you like it or not. Also, once your skills are sound, those Dream Camps are excellent places to meet with others who have done the same. And no, no matter what they advertise, the recorded programs will do nothing to build your self-awareness. About the only assist in that department you could ever get is to move to Tibet for, oh, seven years, and develop your self-awareness under the tutelage of an established llama. Of course, even those bad boys expect this process to take many years!

That's all I got right now. If I think of anything else, I'll share.

@Sageous

Thanks once again, you've given me the advice that I needed- to essentially have patience and learn more of the self, sometimes I try rush things and get dissatisfied with the results, forgetting where I want wrong. I'll be sure to take all your words into consideration. If you want to share anything else please do.

I have always been interested in the Gateway Experience. I read all of Bob's books a few years ago...but never bought the do it yourself kit. I always wanted to take a vacation to Virginia and do it in person in a workshop...It'd be so great. :)

I er... acquired some of these CDs from Brainwave Sync and others. I can't say with any certainty they did anything. I can say that one of them, one of those that is supposed to program you to have lucid dreams, helped me create my own little world (which I have not visited for a while now since finding a lady there and getting weirded out by a strange tendency to constantly ask questions of her, even after I have finished with the recoding and am back in waking life activities. Being a Christian I didn't know if I could trust her, and I was worried I might be loosing my mind.)

Anyhow the point being that some of these are good as an accompaniment to creating mental movies or spaces. They will remain vivid and real in your mind long after you have made them.

As usual I can't really say I agree with Sageous, but I also can't say I really disagree. I think he may have something here on self-awareness. I think I may have something on approaching this subject with neither attachment or aversion. In other words you shouldn't be attached to succeeding in your lucid dream/projection efforts, and you should be avoiding these experiences either. Ideally you are always open, always aware, always fully present in the moment, never judging anything with labels such as good or bad. Just accepting, flowing, letting things happen. Some things, like love and sand, can be lost the tighter you grab on to them. Perhaps lucid dreaming and astral projection are like that.

That said I think you should read as many books as you can, again without attachment or aversion, because you never know in what book you will find a piece of the puzzle you are constructing, whether your path leads to greater spiritual knowledge, self awareness, or something else.

This is a process of literally being mindful of what you eat, you are what you eat. If you eat spiritual books you will develop yourself spiritually. If you eat books on lucid dreaming you will become more aware of your dreams. If you read books on astral projection you will have OBEs. The more you eat the greater the potential for the subject to infiltrate and affect your life. Not referring to literal eating either. The ingestion is a process of reading, but not just reading, mindfully reading. You read, you think about what you have read, you apply and practice what you have read to your life, and without attachment or aversion, without judgement, you see what seems to fit in most naturally with your life. What flows best in other words.

Right now I have books by Wayne Dyer, Thich Nhat Hanh, Deepack Chroppa, Rinpoche's book as recommended by Sageus, and The Crazy Wisdom of Ganesh Baba all in my reading queue, along with something on the chakras and a Yogic text. I also have a wide selection of audio books including stuff by George Noory and Yogani. These materials are all having an effect on me. I do not know what the final outcome may be, but I have strong feeling that it will be beneficial. As a side effect I am having vivid dreams, patches of lucidity, some OBE experiences or at least something close to that, and some adventures with a (now silver) fox named Ayhussa in my chakra landscapes. At this point I am slowly letting go of all goals, all attachments, all aversions, and simply flowing, enjoying the ride, entering this new year with a sense of wonder, like a child at Christmas wondering what those presents under the tree might be.

Is this the best course for you? I can't say - only you can. Go with your own flow, follow your Life's Purpose, do those things that make you happiest, do not be attached to any lucid dreaming or astral projection outcome, and don't approach spiritual matters, no matter your religious beliefs, with fear and aversion. Keep your mind open, flow, be fully present in your life and your daily activities, and see what happens!
- DreamBliss

hi lucid charlie,
i have just purchased the whole gateway experience, and have been running into a few difficulties. I am only in wave one, and not sure how to feel when in focus 10, also finding it hard with the REBAL. I know what you mean about the instructions, i have read them over and over again, and still dont fully understand them. I just hope all the exercises are not this difficult, cause i am already feeling beaten before i begin. Any advice you could give? i would me most grateful.
thanks freeflyadam

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Freeflyadam

hi lucid charlie,
i have just purchased the whole gateway experience, and have been running into a few difficulties. I am only in wave one, and not sure how to feel when in focus 10, also finding it hard with the REBAL. I know what you mean about the instructions, i have read them over and over again, and still dont fully understand them. I just hope all the exercises are not this difficult, cause i am already feeling beaten before i begin. Any advice you could give? i would me most grateful.
thanks freeflyadam

---

Not sure you will get a reply from chaps. He has not been here in a few months. If I may suggest though, read posts by sageous in this thread. Good luck.