Until shortly before he died, Bob Monroe had kept the expansion of the Hemi-Sync technology under strict control. Focus 21, the edge of here-now, was ultima thule. No one knew what perils might lie beyond this level. However, much to the amazement of most of the Institute staff, with the Lifeline and Going Home programs the boundary was crossed. The Park in Focus 27 became familiar territory to those who had qualified as Gateway graduates and hence were able to explore it. The last program Bob authorized, Exploration 27, extended the territory still farther. Now it was possible for others to venture into, explore, and return safely from areas that Monroe himself, as he described in Ultimate Journey, had only recently discovered.
All this, of course, is metaphor. We talk of boundaries and territories, but what we are experiencing are states of consciousness that most of us seldom, if ever, encounter in our daily lives. When under Monroe's guidance we venture into these states, we are given signposts, so that not only may we safely return but we also now have the ability to recognize and reconnect with them whenever we are moved to do so.
Yet that is not the whole story. The books, the programs, the power of the audio technology make us face the massive question that humankind has sought to find an answer to from the dawn of recorded history. What happens to us after we die? Monroe took this question away from the teachings of religion and placed it squarely before us. Convinced that human consciousness is not extinguished by physical death, he used his own experiences in the out-of-body state to create a multidimensional map of the afterlife. This map has several editions. As his inhibitions and fears fell away, he was able to revise and extend this supernatural cartography until in the expeditions recorded in his final book he seems to have reached the very edge.
In Far Journeys Monroe bravely—or some would say rashly—sought to portray what he calls “the itinerary of human experience” in the form of a flow sheet “of where the action is in which all of us are involved.” This, he wrote, “is a summary based upon several hundred individual explorations, most of which are beyond literal translation.” The flow sheet demonstrates both the strengths and the weaknesses of Monroe's attempts at the time to convey the lessons of his personal experiences in the out-of-body state. He felt he was under an obligation to share his discoveries with the world at large, as far as that was possible. But at this stage in his life he did not have the equipment to enable him to do this. While his straightforward recounting of his experiences carry conviction, his attempts in Far Journeys to draw conclusions from them, sometimes expressed as if those conclusions are absolute, do not have the same force.
By the time he began to write Ultimate Journey, however, Monroe had arrived at a simplicity of expression that enabled him to carry his readers with him throughout the book. Three short paragraphs towards the end of the first chapter bring readers and writer very close together.
The highways and byways of out-of-body adventures and exploration are broad and varied, for the most part beyond ordinary time-space concepts. We can understand only that portion which relates directly to the Earth Life System. We may attempt to report the rest of it—and it seems limitless—but we have no acceptable or comparable baseline of knowledge and experience to do this accurately. The problem lies in trying to understand it and to translate what you find—to bring it back. Never be surprised when you return to the physical to find tears running down your cheeks.
What has happened is that you have gone off the edge of the Known map, and have returned with some previous important Unknowns now converted to Knowns. You may or may not convince others of this reality. Most do not try; the individual knowledge is enough.
Think how such knowledge—not belief or faith—would affect your own life pattern; the knowledge that you are indeed more than your physical body, that you do indeed survive physical death. These two Unknowns converted to Knowns, with no conditions or contingencies—what a difference this would make!
“One can acquire a belief in the possibility of life after death through either faith or experience.” So said Peter and Elizabeth Fenwick in Past Lives, their study of reincarnation memories.1 With Monroe, that experience came from his out-of-body explorations—no faith was involved. Once described as a bold explorer rather than a spiritual practitioner, he was untrammeled by any religious or New Age spiritual belief systems. Through his experiences in the second half of his life he came to accept that physical death was not a terminus but simply a kind of way-station. He does not talk about an immortal soul, but uses the term mind-consciousness for the element that continues after the physical body has died. He does not discuss regression into past lives, although in his reports of his own out-of-body experiences there are several instances where he appears to be reliving episodes from previous existences. In many of these episodes these previous existences appear to be those of his ancestors from remote periods of time. There are instances where he identifies specific past selves, such as the architect-builder responsible for the original Foulis Castle tower. “I was I after all!” he declares. There is also what he describes as “the deep sadness, amounting to physical illness” that he felt when, following the publication of Far Journeys, he and Nancy were visiting cathedrals in England and France. He ascribes this to the same previous personality who was beheaded after protesting against the lack of safety precautions during the building of a cathedral on which he was working.
Reincarnation is a term he seldom uses but it is clear from his books that his out-of-body experiences have revealed to him that some kind of reincarnation does occur, and that it may take very many visits to this corporeal world before an individual is ready to make the final journey as part of the cluster of lives that Monroe calls “I There,” a journey that he suggests will take place in the thirty-fifth century. Heaven and Hell are not part of Monroe's postphysical life structure, but belong in what he describes as the belief system territories where those wholly committed to a particular belief or faith receive whatever reward or penalty is appropriate.
Fear is not evident in Monroe's vision of the afterlife. One of the goals of the Lifeline program was “to release all fears related to the physical death process.” It is as if by accepting the message of the program you are assured that on cessation of physical life your mind-consciousness will shift without interruption to another form of existence. Lifeline presents a model that participants in the program may find helpful in their journeys into nonphysical realms. Their reports have similarities to the reports of those who have undergone a near-death experience, who almost with one voice declare that death no longer has any fears for them. Monroe's vision is, on the whole, gentle: there is no mention of sin or judgment, but only of enrichment of experience. There is, however, an exception, as those who are unable to recognize and accept that they are no longer in physical existence, or, to use his own words, “are unable to free themselves from the ties of the Earth Life System,” find themselves stuck in a kind of limbo, unable to move on until the nature of their situation becomes clear to them.
Reports from the tens of thousands who have attended his residential programs, and the hundreds of thousands more who have participated in Outreach courses and workshops or made use of the materials in their own homes, provide evidence of Hemi-Sync's effectiveness in enabling access to nonordinary states of consciousness. But did Monroe ever foresee the many different practical ways in which his audio technology would be applied? This has proved to be an ongoing process. With every passing year, new applications for his audio technology have been discovered, tried, and tested. Some of the areas in which this technology has proved its usefulness include autism, Asperger's syndrome and other learning difficulties in adults and children, pediatric physical therapy, improving sleep patterns, helping children with feeding problems and their parents also, psychiatric practice, education and business seminars, stroke recovery, psycho-oncology, strengthening the immune system, and ameliorating the side effects of chemotherapy and radiotherapy. Additionally, Hemi-Sync signals have been shown to have a calming effect on certain animals, notably dogs recovering from illness or injury and nervous or high-strung horses.2
During Monroe's lifetime, almost all research took place in-house, following a policy that he framed himself:
All research conducted by The Monroe Institute is directed solely toward the development of methods and techniques that will aid others in the evolution and growth of human consciousness and perception. The Institute uses conventional scientific procedures whenever feasible but does not limit itself to such processes.
Thus much of our research has not been designed to conduct studies in form and protocol that will insure acceptance by orthodox segments of our culture. The Institute has recognized long ago that such efforts may not be possible within the area of investigation covered in our work.
Conversely, when we do find data that may be of interest to conventional research groups, we are happy to release such information in the hope and expectation that it will be of help or interest to others in their particular area of endeavor. We also encourage other organizations to conduct studies that may offer additional or extended verification of our own work.
Since Monroe's death, however, the direction of research as conducted in-house has changed. Director of Research Skip Atwater expresses it thus: “No longer will the Institute's research interest be on proving whether or not Hemi-Sync works or alters brainwave states, but on the far-reaching implications of the evolution of human consciousness that have been at the core of our work all along.” He continues: “What is it that will define humanity itself as the discovery of boundless consciousness emerges? The answer surely must be in the understanding of first-person subjective experience and the apparent interrelation with the corporeal quantum.” The emphasis, says Atwater, is shifting from quantitative research, based on measurement, cause and effect, and reductionism, towards qualitative research, based on hermeneutics and phenomenology (concerned with the experiences of the self). He states the reasons for this shift of emphasis:
Exposing people to various conditions, even in the name of quantitative science, may undermine their self-respect, their psychological integrity, their sense of self-determination, or even their physical health and the very first-person experience they are seeking with the Hemi-Sync process. In such studies it is the reliance on measurement that is disturbing. While reducing everything to numbers may be justified in the physical sciences, doing the same to human experience seems to dismiss the other, non-quantitative dimensions of that experience. How do you quantify meaning, for example, of love, or anger, or confusion? You can describe the Grand Canyon using only numbers—but somehow that wouldn't capture the essence of it.
Research involving the practical applications of Hemi-Sync and binaural beat frequencies has moved into the hands of members of the Professional Division and their colleagues, who are able to make use of the extensive facilities available in universities, hospitals, and other institutions in several countries, including the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, Norway, Italy, and Denmark. Results from their completed projects are published in a variety of professional journals, and thus the applications of Hemi-Sync may be extended farther.3 Accounts of these projects and of work in progress are reported at the Professional Seminars, which have attracted a number of notable keynote speakers, including Elisabeth Kübler-Ross; Dr. Beverly Rubik, founder and president of the Institute for Frontier Science; Edgar Mitchell of Apollo 14, the sixth man to walk on the Moon and the founder of the Institute for Noetic Sciences; the futurist and author Peter Russell; and Jeffrey Mishlove, author of The Roots of Consciousness and holder of the first PhD in parapsychology awarded by a major American university. An increasing number of colleges are prepared to accept projects involving Hemi-Sync as elements in courses leading to the award of degrees. While Bob Monroe occasionally claimed that what he was doing in his work was merely satisfying his own curiosity, his stated belief that he was providing those who attended courses or made use of Hemi-Sync materials with “something of value” has been justified time and again.
It is not only in research that Monroe's Hemi-Sync has proved its value but also in the everyday lives of those who have used it. This is clearly expressed by author Michael Hutchison, founder of the Neurotechnologies Research Institute in San Francisco, in summarizing his response to the Gateway program:
The goal was not only to experience quite distinct domains of consciousness, but to learn how to enter them at will, and to use them in everyday life, accessing specific mental realms for purposes ranging from enhanced creativity to accelerated learning to self-healing to tapping intuitive powers.
In this regard, the impact that Hemi-Sync has had on individual lives cannot be overstated. To take just two examples:
Suzanne Morris, PhD, a speech-language pathologist internationally known for her work with children who have significant feeding problems due to sensorimotor disorders such as cerebral palsy and autism, took her first Gateway program in 1981. She repeated the program twice more, after which time she moved to live on the New Land. For five years she trained Gateway programs herself. She bought an adjoining property and converted it into a residential clinic where families could stay while she was working with their children. She integrated Metamusic into her work, finding that, to use her own words, “it opened the door to learning for many children with developmental disabilities.” Suzanne has published two authoritative books on her work and has contributed papers to several professional journals and collections of papers. During the past twenty years, she has incorporated information and videotaped examples of her use of Hemi-Sync in over a hundred continuing education workshops attended by some ten thousand professionals throughout the world, thus bringing the value of Monroe's audio technology to the notice of the wider therapeutic community.
Hemi-Sync had a marked effect on Suzanne's personal life also. Using it, she says, brought home to her that she was more than her physical body and also relieved her of her fear of death. She found that she could move into Focus 10 or Focus 12 on a thought, thus enabling her to access information on whatever she was involved with. It demonstrated to her that, while we shift consciousness all the time, we can do so intentionally and efficiently and for long periods. By so doing our lives become more focused—we become more of whom we really are. “I can pilot the ship of consciousness,” she once said. “I am more in tune—more connected.”
In contrast, there is the experience of Gail Blanchette. Gail grew up in a family “plagued by addictions, violence, and acutely dysfunctional behavior,” and her childhood and youth were “a living nightmare.” For many years she was haunted by her traumatic experiences in her early years. Seeking to change her life, she searched books on self-help and personal growth and attended seminars and workshops, but found no answers. She kept falling back “into old traps and dysfunctional behavior patterns.”
Gail's serious self-discovery work began in her late thirties, when she consulted a clinical psychologist specializing in the problems she encountered. She had lost her ability to cry and was unable to speak or write about her deeper thoughts and feelings. “It was as if a part of me were frozen solid, like an iceberg,” she said. Her sessions continued for nearly ten years, but she was still unable to escape from the haunting of her past.
Then a friend lent her several Hemi-Sync tapes. These helped in creating a calmer state of mind, but they did not effect the kind of change she was seeking. However, using them encouraged her to attend a Gateway program. Here, feeling safe and secure, Gail began to experience emotions and responses that were hitherto unknown. She found that she was able to cry for the first time in many years and could review the appalling experiences of her past without being overwhelmed by them. She added, “There was a new sense of emotional freedom and well-being I had never experienced before.”
Returning to her psychologist, Gail found that unlocking the past and understanding how its negativity had affected her present life had opened the path to change. Yet she was still not at peace with herself and was troubled by terrifying nightmares and negative emotions. It was as though she had traveled far in her search for self-discovery but had arrived at a plateau whence she could go no farther.
Gail returned to the Institute two years later to take the Heartline program. During the week she discovered that she had disowned parts of herself from her earlier years. She had, she says, “rejected the severely traumatized and raped three-year-old…and disowned the awkward and demoralized sixteen-year-old who had no friends.” She had not understood how to reconnect with those parts of herself as she was not aware they existed. Her experiences during the program, she said, “were life-altering and profoundly healing.” Since then Gail has made many changes in her life and enjoys a sense of freedom and serenity unknown to her before. She uses Hemi-Sync in her professional work as a business coach and trainer and has written and published a book about her life and how she learned to grow and change.4
The affirmation at the commencement of many Hemi-Sync exercises begins with the words “I am more than my physical body.” That to most people is simply stating the obvious. Then the affirmation continues: “Because I am more than physical matter, I can perceive that which is greater than the physical world.” This is really the starting point. Working with this audio technology enables the individual to explore the whole spectrum of consciousness. But it is important to realize that once you are familiar with the Hemi-Sync process you no longer need to listen to the sound signals to move from one state or phase of consciousness to another. It becomes second nature; on a thought or on a breath you may shift from ordinary everyday consciousness to a state of expanded awareness, a deep meditative state of complete attunement with all that is or a state where time does not exist. Throughout you are in control: the “monkey mind” is closed down and you are free to explore. Your life, if you so wish, is transformed.
There is another legacy for which many people are grateful to Bob Monroe. His books, especially Journeys Out of the Body, did much to relieve the fears and anxieties of those—often estimated at approaching 20 percent of the population of the United States—who have experienced the out-of-body phenomenon, many of whom wondered if they were on the point of death themselves or were going mad. The calm, unemotional way he described his own experiences, together with the supporting material included in the book, assured them that there was nothing wrong with their health or sanity and that they were by no means alone in what was happening to them.
An example of this is the experience of a young Scottish woman, Angela, who for several years was tormented by the sensation of being pulled out of her body, sometimes finding herself looking down on it as she lay in bed. She sought help from doctors, psychologists, and psychiatrists, was examined, scanned, and brain-mapped, but to no avail. Then a friend happened to mention the phrase “astral travel.” This caught Angela's attention, and she visited Scotland's largest library to see if there were any books on this subject. After some delay a copy of Journeys Out of the Body was produced—and there she read a description of experiences similar to her own. She soon learned how to control these experiences and within a year was part of a project studying the out-of-body experience under the direction of an eminent professor.5
Yet more significant is the effect of Monroe's work on humankind's greatest apprehension—the fear of dying. Joseph Campbell, talking of the hero's journey, defined the hero as “someone who has given his or her life to something bigger than oneself.” Monroe's hero's journey lasted for nearly forty years, almost half his lifetime, from that very first, very tentative out-of-body exploration in 1958 until his culminating experience recorded in Ultimate Journey. The message he brought back is encapsulated in his Lifeline and Going Home programs. It is expressed not in words but in the experiences he made available to others, experiences that do much to take away the fears and anxieties associated with death and dying. No matter what faiths or beliefs the participants in these programs may acknowledge, almost without exception they find that they can accept and, if they so wish, adapt Monroe's depiction of the postphysical death territories that he describes so vividly. Yet, as we have recognized, what he is really describing are not territories at all; they are metaphors for states or phases of consciousness into which you are guided and where you have the freedom to explore, both before and after the death of the physical body.
The programs that Monroe created and the tapes and compact discs that carry Hemi-Sync across the world have one distinctive feature in common—his voice. His wide experience in broadcasting and an instinctive sense of timing contribute strongly to the remarkable effects that are frequently reported. Sometimes peremptory—“Do this now!”—but mostly gently persuasive and always positive, his deep, mellow tones inspire confidence in his listeners, who have no qualms in following his guidance and instruction no matter where they might be led. You do not question what he says. This man, you accept, knows what he is talking about; he speaks from experience and you trust him. No matter where you come from or what your native language may be, he holds you close to him as you listen. The quality of his voice, however, has made him a difficult act to follow. Several of his recordings have been digitally remastered, but other voices have to be employed when new materials are produced. With the increasingly widespread use of Hemi-Sync and the growing number of participants from different nationalities that attend the programs, it is not an easy task to find voices that, like Bob Monroe's, have what could be described as a universal appeal.
Monroe once told of a dream, or it may have been a vision, when he saw from an out-of-body vantage point the world stretched out below him as if on a Mercator's projection. Looking down, he could see points of light—blue light—scattered everywhere, some in or near cities, some simply anywhere. These points of light, he recognized, marked the places where human consciousness was expanding, where a new understanding of life, on this planet and elsewhere, was beginning to dawn. As he watched, a few lights here and there flickered and went out, but more and more began to appear—in Canada, Australia, Japan, Eastern Europe, the Ukraine. This dream or vision may reflect the spread of his audio technology and his books across the world, with more and more translations of his work and more and more trainers working in countries in every continent, including Brazil, Mexico, Puerto Rico, Switzerland, Denmark, Poland, Slovakia, the Czech Republic, and Japan, as well as France, Spain, Germany, the United Kingdom, and Australia.
Towards the end of his life Monroe accepted that there was no longer any need to seek the approval of the outside world or to insist on the need for validation. In the early days Gateway participants tended to be regarded as subjects for research—how they responded, physiologically and psychologically, to the frequencies they were listening to. While Monroe had been willing to expose his scientific collaborators to a wide range of sound signals, he was very careful to use on his clientele only those frequencies that had been tried and tested for long periods of time. The Lifeline program broke the pattern, and from then on the emphasis shifted to the subjective experiences reported by the participants. This sent a clear message: that Hemi-Sync needed no further validation. It was securely established as a safe modality. Your experience might be elevating or emotionally distressing, but it was never harmful.
Old age was not kind to Robert Monroe. While he loved reading, especially the work of authors such as Ray Bradbury and Robert Ludlum, and enjoyed current news magazines, including Time, Newsweek, and Scientific American, his failing eyesight made it progressively more difficult and his refusal to wear glasses compounded the problem. He struggled to complete Ultimate Journey and was almost overwhelmed by the emotional turmoil aroused by Nancy's illness and death. He felt that his body was letting him down, and there were times when his frustration became obvious and curtailed his patience. But he never wavered in his assurance that what he had created would provide, to use his own words, “something of value” to humankind.
All this and more is the legacy of Robert Monroe. The courses he designed have proved life-changing for many of their participants, opening them up to the richness of life, to possibilities never before perceived, to depths within themselves they never knew existed. In the hands of others, his discoveries and developments in the field of sound have influenced the health and well-being of countless numbers of people within and beyond the United States. He never set himself up as a teacher—“Don't believe anything I say; go find out for yourself” was his standard response to those who sought enlightenment from him rather than seeking it within themselves. He made no claims to be someone exceptional—“I'm just a monkey who fell out of a tree” was a typical reply to questions about himself or his achievements. He was courageous, always independent, always insistent on being in control, resentful of criticism—at times interpreting suggestions as criticism without being aware of this—single-minded when he needed to be, and deeply emotional, although unwilling, or perhaps unable, to express this side of his nature. His judgment of others was not always secure and he may have misread the motives of some of those he rejected or mistreated, but with hardly an exception they never lost their affection or respect for him.
Monroe's journey was a hero's journey, a spiritual journey, although spiritual was a word he very seldom used. He fought his dragons, defeated them, and returned with gifts encapsulated in the programs he devised. On his death in 1995, his old friend Charles Tart, now emeritus professor of psychology at the University of California at Davis, summed up his legacy as he saw it then:
Bob devoted the last thirty years of his life to sharing what he had learned with others, while he kept experimenting and learning himself. The Monroe Institute and its training programs are as great a testament to his competence and kindness as could be given. Many people have had deep experiences which have markedly enhanced the spiritual aspects of their lives in these programs. His books have had, and continue to have, an even wider reach. These legacies are not just a great gift to knowledge, but a real service to people who are plagued by doubts and unfulfilled spiritual longings.
True enough. The years since his death have seen remarkable developments in the use of his audio technology in so many ways and in so many countries across the world. And the picture is by no means complete.
After Monroe's death it came as something of a surprise to many of those connected to the Institute that his daughter Laurie was to take over control. For over three decades responsibility for the growth, development, and progress of what had become a highly successful, internationally known educational and research organization had lain in the hands of one man, assisted and sometimes advised by those he allowed to help give form to his vision. His personal experiences had brought it into being, his business skills had enabled it not just to survive but also, in a moderate fashion, to prosper, and his vision had enhanced the lives of the thousands upon thousands who came in contact with what he had created. And he possessed that extraordinary quality for which the only word is charisma. He was, in the well-worn phrase, a hard act to follow.
It says much for Laurie's courage that she was willing to accept her inheritance. To move from the world of real estate in Florida into the less defined areas of consciousness exploration is neither a logical nor an easy progression. Yet the expertise acquired in her business life was put to good use. It took several months for her to sort out her career and relationship issues; once that was done, she moved to live in the vicinity and to take control. Aware that the Institute was ready for expansion, she began to activate ideas for new buildings on the mountaintop. In 1997 work began on Roberts Mountain Retreat, incorporating the Gift House and a second purpose-built Residential Center close by. A control room was installed in the Gift House and comfortable accommodations in spacious units fitted with up-to-date audio equipment was provided in both buildings for a total of eighteen participants and two trainers. It was now possible to run two programs simultaneously, one at the foot and one at the top of the mountain. The reception rooms in the Gift House were retained and a swimming pool was created in the garden. Bob Monroe's log cabin, where so much of his work had been done, was made available for research, and an isolation unit was constructed for individual exploration. While Gateway, Guidelines, and Lifeline remained the staple fare on the syllabus, in subsequent years several new programs, designed by experienced trainers, have been added. These include inner exploration and personal development, remote-viewing, investigation of shamanic traditions, exploring the possibilities of mind over matter, practicing creativity, and developing new states of awareness. Other programs have been devised to take participants far beyond the bounds of Focus 27, enabling them to explore other energy systems.
Almost all the Metamusic compositions are now created and recorded by professional composers and musicians. In this area, one individual's contribution is outstanding. Barbara Bullard, until recently professor of speech at Orange Coast College, was deeply interested in the effects of music on learning, especially in children and adults with attention deficit disorder (ADD). After investigating current research on the impact of music on the brain, she collaborated with Robert Sornson, a director of special education services, on incorporating beta-harmonic sound patterns, which were shown to increase the level of awareness in youngsters with learning difficulties, with a super-learning musical format that she herself designed. A young composer, John Epperson, was then commissioned to create a piece to comply with requirements that Barbara formulated. Remembrance was issued in 1994 and has proved its value time and again. Several more compositions followed, including Einstein's Dream, based on Mozart's Sonata for Two Pianos and Epperson's Indigo for Quantum Focus and Illumination.
Another significant development in the use of Hemi-Sync has been in the field of medicine. Brian Dailey, MD, a specialist in emergency medicine at Rochester General Hospital, has been using Hemi-Sync with his patients, including the Surgical Support series and various Metamusic compositions, since the early 1990s. For the benefit of cancer patients he developed an exercise, Chemotherapy Companion, first issued in 2001, followed two years later by Radiation Companion. With the addition of Metamusic Sleeping through the Rain and an earlier exercise, Journey through the T-cells, the Cancer Support series, on tape or CD, has proved a valuable adjunct to traditional forms of cancer therapy during and after treatment.
Dr. Dailey also makes use of two more sets of exercises for specific purposes, the Surgical Support series, already referred to, and the Positive Immunity program. The latter was the brainchild of the late Jim Greene, a good friend of Monroe and a strong supporter of the Institute. The program was originally designed to help those coping with autoimmune disorders and was first issued in 1990, being piloted by groups whose members were diagnosed as HIV-positive. It has since proved to be a valuable support for improved health and general well-being.
Laurie Monroe's intention was for the Institute to remain a leading force for in-depth exploration and transformation so that participants in its work would be helped to experience, express, and explore their own true nature. In a statement, she added that the Institute would continue in perpetuity “through the support, dedication and love of those who have had the direct experience of how much more they truly are than their physical bodies.” Although at times he seemed to forget this, Monroe maintained that the one constant was change. Since his death, this constant has remained a guiding principle. Under Laurie's management the Hemi-Sync base widened and there are now far fewer restrictions upon its use. Exercises employing Focus levels beyond 21, as in the Going Home program, are now available to anyone who wishes to explore them whether they have attended residential courses or not. Among other new releases, a set of CDs entitled Hemi-Sync Support for Journeys Out of the Body, described as “a system of training in self-exploration and personal development,” was issued in 2004. Another introduction has been an occasional Gateway program for teenagers. One participant, coming straight from high school, commented that the program made her realize “that experience is very much dependent on perspective, and that there are no limits to the number of experiences and perspectives one can have.” She added, “We were able to strengthen our own states of being, which in turn strengthened the group as a whole because of the shared experience of exploring different states of consciousness.”6
With Laurie's guidance, in the past ten years eight additional week-long residential programs and four weekend seminars have been introduced, thus increasing the opportunities for further exploration of consciousness and providing incentives for Gateway graduates to return to extend their experience. As illustration of the ways in which Hemi-Sync use is extending, the schedule for the year 2006 included nineteen Gateway programs, three of them in Japanese, as well as twenty-four advanced programs and five weekend workshops. Outreach trainers have the freedom to develop programs to suit the background and culture of participants according to the countries in which they live. As well as Gateway, many advanced programs are available in Canada and France, and Excursion workshops are translated into foreign languages as required. Since 1995 the Annwin Institute in Slovakia has been conducting programs in which Hemi-Sync is an important component, and workshops have been held in Poland since 1996. In the following year, Psychognosia, a nonprofit center in Cyprus directed by Linda Leblanc and John Knowles, began offering frequent Hemi-Sync programs on the island with workshops, including Excursion, Advanced Excursion, and Going Home. There is a highly efficient European distribution center for Hemi-Sync materials in Denmark. An outstanding feature of the 2006 Professional Seminar was a presentation by trainers working in Spain, Japan, Puerto Rico, and Brazil, demonstrating the variety of methods of presenting Hemi-Sync and the enthusiastic responses of the participants.
From the beginning, Laurie sought collaboration with organizations and individuals whose missions and goals were broadly similar to those of The Monroe Institute although their methods and approaches were their own. She was delighted when the Institute of Noetic Sciences accepted The Monroe Institute as a strategic partner and offered Gateway programs on their campus in Petaluma, California. She persuaded Dr. Norman Sheeley to support and voice a series entitled Network of Light and Mark Macy of ITC to coproduce Bridge to Paradise. She also encouraged further development of Metamusic with ventures into a range of different traditions and styles.
Laurie's business experience proved exceptionally valuable in the difficult period following September 11. For a time, demands for courses fell away and the Institute's finances, like those of so many other organizations, slid into the red. She was ready and able to make the tough decisions needed to deal with the situation and restore the Institute to a solid financial position.
Above all, however, as Darlene Miller expresses it, it was “her personality, vitality, extraordinary generosity of spirit, and her enthusiasm and passion for the work of TMI that endeared her to staff and to the program participants with whom she interacted.” Darlene recalls Laurie's “fond and healthy relationship with her inner child, delighting in her impish qualities.” She was often heard encouraging someone to lighten up. At Halloween she would disguise herself in costume, usually as an alien, and glide silently through the dining room to see if course participants would recognize her. At Christmas she would dress up as Santa Claus to distribute presents to the staff, “ho-hoing” as she did so. She was, Darlene adds, “upbeat, inspirational, and brought out the best qualities in those around her, motivating them to try harder, to believe in themselves.”
Toward the end of 2006 Laurie recommended to the board of directors that they consider appointing an executive director who would be able to take The Monroe Institute “to the next level.” It seems that she felt she had achieved as much as she could and was ready to withdraw from the decision-making process and administration. She believed that the time was approaching when the Institute needed to take a significant step forward, to become a major player in the understanding and exploration of human consciousness that was now becoming a central preoccupation in the scientific and philosophical worlds. In the meantime, she would stay on simply to oversee events and maintain a guiding role as chairman of the board.
But events dictated otherwise. A few weeks previously, Laurie had fractured a bone in her shoulder after tripping over her dog at home. She then developed pneumonia. She was treated, but the illness persisted. Then further examination in the University of Virginia Hospital revealed that she was suffering from non-small-cell lung cancer that had already advanced to Stage IV Chemotherapy treatment was started on November 21. As she was in pain, morphine was also prescribed.
Equipped with oxygen and a wheelchair, Laurie was able to return home. In a letter circulated to staff, advisors, and others associated with the Institute she wrote: “Now I ask for your help, your support, your love, your dedication and your prayers so that I may lean on you during these difficult times that I personally face.” It was now time, she added, to search actively for a new executive director; Skip Atwater would act as general manager until an appointment was made.
The end came quickly. On the night of Thursday, December 14, Laurie complained of chest pains. Maria, who was staying with her, called an ambulance as there was no way she could carry both Laurie and the oxygen cylinder to her car. She waited with her until a room was found. The second round of chemotherapy was due, but Laurie's physical condition was deteriorating and before long she ceased to eat or drink. Early in the morning of Monday, December 18, Maria, who had been visiting frequently, called Penny to tell her that Laurie had died around 3 A.M. Two days later, in accordance with her wishes, Laurie was cremated. She asked that her ashes be scattered in the ocean off the Florida Keys, where she had used to swim with the dolphins.
Laurie faced death with the same courage with which she had faced the prospect of following in the footsteps of her father, having been given the task of developing and expanding the work he had been engaged in for four decades. His confidence in her abilities proved well founded. Thanks to her leadership, The Monroe Institute not only continued to survive but flourished as well. She left it ready and prepared to move confidently into the future.
The direct Monroe connection with the Institute ended with Laurie's death, as her uncle Emmett had retired from the board of directors some months previously. The board elected Dr. Al Dahlberg, a longtime member of the advisory board and a good friend of the Monroe family, as its chairman, and Skip Atwater was appointed president of the Institute. The Monroe Institute is now ready to move into its own as a fully independent body.
Notes
1. Peter and Elizabeth Fenwick, Past Lives (Headline, 1999).
2. See Focusing the Whole Brain, edited by Ronald Russell (Hampton Roads, 2004). Cats, however, seem to create their own healing system, as their purring carries frequencies that are the best for bone growth, muscle and tendon repair, relief and the reduction of edema. These frequencies are 25 and 50 Hz.
3. Recent research projects involving the Hemi-Sync binaural beat technology have included the following topics: treatment for anxiety, relief of insomnia, improving memory recall, relieving postoperative pain, aiding hypnotic susceptibility, improving the functioning and life quality of brain trauma patients, reducing the required amount of anesthesia and intraoperative analgesia, ameliorating the side effects of radiation treatment and chemotherapy, assessing its effect on mood and attention, sharpening concentration and cognitive performance, helping children diagnosed with ADHD, and assisting children coping with severe and moderate behavior disability.
These projects have taken place or are in progress in eleven universities in the United States, and in hospitals in the United States, England, Norway, and Italy. To date, several have been published in professional journals while many more have been accepted in part fulfillment of degree requirements.
Among the journals recorded are the following: Anesthesia 54 (1999), Anesthesia & Analgesia 98 (2004), American Journal of Clinical Hypnosis 43 (2000), Alternative Therapies in Health & Medicine 7 (2001), Journal of the American Society for Psychical Research 92–93 (1998–99).
4. Harsh Lessons & Unexpected Gifts, by Gail Blanchette (Business Basics & More, 2001).
5. As a postscript to this, a few years later Angela was a witness in a court case that divided her family. Her father accused her of being unreliable, if not mad, as she “went out of her body.” The judge rejected this accusation on the grounds that the OBE was well documented and not at all abnormal and declared he was happy to accept Angela's evidence.
6. See Focusing the Whole Brain, edited by Ronald Russell (Hampton Roads, 2004).