The Gateway Experience tapes are a set of guided meditations that you can do on your own, from your home. If you’re a beginner standing at the threshold of this fascinating consciousness exploration technique, you’re in for a ride.
Did you know that even the CIA once studied these methods, concluding they could “add to the understanding of human consciousness and possibly improve man/machine communications”? (CIA’s Analysis and Assessment of Gateway Process, 1983). While that might sound intense, thousands of everyday people have found the Gateway Experience to be a transformative tool for personal growth and self-discovery. In this guide, we’ll walk you through essential advice to help you start your journey on the right foot.
Understanding the Basics: What is the Gateway Experience?
We won’t go much in detail about the Gateway Experience as we’ve done that here, but let’s review some of the core features.
Gateway Experience was developed by Robert Monroe as a way to foster meditative practices and enable OBE – Out of Body Experiences. He found that by combining certain tunes you get a frequency that your brain finds calming.
In other words, the Gateway Experience is a form of binaural beats meditation – it uses sounds to create the brain hemisphere synchronization (Hemi-Sync). The analytical part of the brain and the instinctive one find a better alignment when exposed to certain combinations of sounds. This can make the transition to altered states of consciousness more seamless.
About the tracks
And this is what the tracks are for. What I like about the Gateway Experience is that it gives you mental tools that you can use and develop on your own. It’s not suggestive and it does not presuppose any belief system. You can use it strictly for your own personal development, day-to-day mundane activities.
These techniques are what we will discuss further on. I’ll provide my own examples and suggestions, precisely because instructions can be a bit vague.
The core idea is that by using Hemi-Sync you reach a deeper meditative state. In doing so you expand your consciousness by entering different Focus Levels. In these Focus Levels, you will be able to visualize, feel and get comfortable with various mental images.
You will also be able to use these mental tools to explore yourself, investigate your issues and work on them for your own benefit. And again – this part is not guided. No one is telling you this is wrong or right – you explore these issues on your own and find the answers that are correct to you and you only. I think that is the biggest green flag for these meditation tapes.
Preparing Your Mind and Environment
Advice number 1: Find time and space to do these practices
For some it might be most convenient in the morning, or at night before sleep, or in an afternoon rest or just whenever you have some time for yourself. You need a darkened room, a bed and some interruption free environment – a place where you feel comfortable.
And you will need headphones. Journal is a plus – it will allow you to monitor any development or dissatisfaction. It will give you nice tool to express yourself more clearly, to visualize more clearly and to remember the important stuff.
Advice number 2: Be open to new experiences
Whatever happens, explore it. Even if you get impatient, nervous, this is a practice. You are training a muscle – your brain; your brain power and your brain flexibility. As some studies show, the ability of a brain to un-learn stored data hugely improves the flexibility of the brain. Don’t be stiff, or even if you are, try a few times to let it go.
Advice number 3: Patience is a virtue
Nothing magical will happen, or at least, not over night. Don’t just rush from tape to tape, spend some time exploring the Focus 10 before proceeding. Start to get comfortable in this new practice, revise some of the beginners tape if needed as well.
Starting Your Practice
Advice number 4: Don’t skip the “boring” parts.
First three tracks explain the fundamentals of this whole Experience. Don’t feel like it’s unnecessary to revise it if needed, even if you have done the Free Flow Focus 10 multiple times. Repetition is the mother of knowledge, and building a strong foundation on the most basic stuff will make a lot of more advanced techniques a lot more understandable.
Advice number 5: Do not be afraid
I know this is something you’ll have to experience to understand and in general to let yourself go in this direction.
A lot of people really soon notice “twitching” of the body, sudden body movements or a sense they were forcefully woken up. This is a natural, everyday occurrence. When our body is without the external stimulus, in a relaxed state, tension from the muscles tends to leave. This would happen in a similar relaxed environment, it’s nothing out of the ordinary, or at least not necessarily. The phenomena is also know as hypnic jerk.
But these twitches or sudden jerks of movement can be intense. From my experience they can also feel intended, purposeful. Do remember the following: you are always in control. If you do not yet feel comfortable to lose control you can always, always retain it.
If you start to notice certain parts of the body reacting more strongly and more often than the others – explore that part. Put your consciousness there during the meditation, visualize fresh energy empowering it and stale energy leaving.
For me, this “stale energy leaving” was visualized as draining the dirty water from a rug. The rug, tho strained, is left with a new opportunity to soak in fresh water.
Common challenges for newcomers
Advice number 6: You have the tools for overcoming fear and uncertainty in new states of consciousness
This is related to the previous point: just like physical movement, you might feel other sensations rising within you. This is where REBAL – resonant energy balloon – comes especially in handy: even if you are not here for spiritual interpretation, creating an image of protection in your mind will keep the potentially overwhelming emotions at bay.
Remember that everything you see at first is a part of you. Any uncanny sensation or something not welcomed by you will not be effective. If you start to feel vulnerable – fall back to REBAL.
Later on you will create tools (Energy Bar) that will assist you to visualize offensive actions against your negative emotions. But for now, it’s important to know you’re safe.
Advice number 7: Accept that you will fall asleep during sessions….
These meditations are so relaxing that you will, at some point, fall asleep. Keep in mind that firstly, this is not a deep sleep most of the time and for the most part your brain will be more active than you think. Over time, you will develop the ability not to fall asleep.
It’s also not just about falling asleep. Sometimes no mater how much you try you will not be able to visualize something. And that’s ok, over time, another idea, sound, touch or image will come to your mind, but accept that sometimes it won’t go as easy as you’d like.
Specific technique advice and examples
Advice number 8: Energy Conversion Box
I had a lot of trouble imagining the box. For some it might come naturally, but for me it was a process. How to imagine something that will retain my thoughts for a while at least? It looked like big task.
Energy Conversion Box is a visualization of a place where, for a short period, you will put away whatever preoccupies your mind. At base level – it’s just a focus increasing technique, but if you want something more profound, it can also be a way to initiate transfer from profane to sacred space.
(and if you’re maybe interested in another perspective on sacred spaces today, check our article)
After much deliberation my first Energy conversion box was here – a wooden box for toys that I had when I was 5 years old and I haven’t thought of in more than 25 years and it held no special value for me.
- After I felt more comfortable with the Gateway tools and the meditations in general, this image started to change. The box became a huge stone coffer, an ancient grave, with a heavy, heavy stone lid with which I cover my emotions with. Putting “everything I don’t need for the meditation” in the coffer was almost ceremonial, and as Conan pushed the wheel, so have I pushed the lid.
- After some more time the image changed again. The box became an elegant black box with a slide lid enclosed on five sides. It could fit in the palm of my hand, and the lid would come off with a thumb. The space in the box however was vast and anything could fit in it.
- Finally, that image faded as well. What I was left with is an electricity box, a power box, outside of a house.
Create, imagine and use the box as you want – you want to trust its purpose. This is something that will come naturally to you.
Advice number 9: Resonant tuning
The advice here is not to skip this part. It has a physical impact on your sinuses and skull, and it’s an enjoyable activity if you can do it freely.
It might be awkward at start, you might want to tone down not to upset everyone in the house with your out-of-pocket sounds, but do it regardless. You will feel more relaxed and with a tingling feeling above your nose. It adds to the relaxation and prepares you for the meditation.
Advice number 10: Resonant Energy Balloon
Regardless of how you approach this practice, I think it’s a really important one. While imagining protective aura might not be something out of the ordinary for spiritual people, functionality of it might be under a question mark for skeptical people.
Resonant Energy Balloon is visualization of an energy shield around you. Psychologically, it creates a sense of ease and comfort, while its spiritual function is unverifiable of course, but its intended purpose is to protect you from spiritual harm.
Creating a sentiment that you’re protected in your own meditative state is pro-active and ensuring. You’re dealing with yourself, just like negative thoughts can affect you negatively, this provides a conscious effort for making positive thoughts affect you positively.
For me, a sudden realization on how to do this was when I was passing by a fountain that was dry. Suddenly, it popped-up with water coming from several ways. From then on I could imagine this practice easily.
Advice number 11: Focus 10
Focus 10 is a state where your body is sleeping, while your mind is awake. You can tune in with yourself more easily this way.
The focus here is to navigate the consciousness within your own body. After some time of practice, especially if you dwell on some topic in the track Free Flow 10, you will start to see random associations and moving images. Learn to what are they corresponding, how to relax that part of the body. Check what happens when you focus all your concentration to one part of the body, how you feel it.
Focus 10 is also great for following your thought process until you realize it happens before you without your input. Remain with the Focus 10 Free Flow for a while if you are a beginner, there’s plenty to draw out from it and from within yourself.
Conclusion: Interpreting and Integrating Your Experiences
The most important thing is that you enjoy and learn from these tapes. You can also freely advance to Wave 2 just to see what’s in store for you.
You can keep a journal for easier tracking of re-occurring themes, but you will regardless come back to the same issues. If you do not know something at the moment, that’s ok, keep practicing and advance. You can revisit the tapes later with the new findings.
As a beginner, remember that everyone’s path is unique. Some might have vivid out-of-body experiences right away, while others might notice subtle yet profound changes in their daily lives. The key is to approach your practice with an open mind, patience, and a spirit of curiosity.
Remember, the Gateway Experience isn’t just about achieving altered states; it’s about bringing the insights and expanded awareness back into your everyday life.
With or without any advices, your mind is the ultimate frontier – and you’ve just taken the first step towards charting its vast, mysterious territories. I wish you good luck.