This passed weekend I had the opportunity to attend an open house session at The Monroe Institute in Faber, Virginia. It truly was a wonderful experience.
If you haven’t heard of Robert A. Monroe or The Monroe Institute, you owe it to yourself to check out their website at https://www.monroeinstitute.org/. The Monroe Institute bills itself as “the world’s leading residential educational center for exploring expanded states of consciousness.”
The open house was a brief 6 hour introduction to Robert Monroe and the work and research of the Monroe Institute he founded. In addition, you are given the opportunity to experience first hand two different guided meditation exercises in one of their CHEC (Controlled Holistic Environmental Chamber) units.
As one who has spent much time in contemplation and prayer and meditation, both exercises were very rich and renewing for my soul to me. The first one was an introduction to Focus 10 — which is described as a state where your mind remains alert and awake while your body sleeps calmly and comfortably. Our instructor, Patty Ray Avalon, explained that the process is really about expanding your awareness while focusing your intention.
During the Focus 10 exercise, I quickly relaxed and had random “visions” or images come to mind. It started with an image of floating and going home down the highway to the interstate but missing my exit to get on the interstate. which changed rapidly to seeing myself from the perspective of being on a motor cycle zooming effortless further up US29 to Culpeper. Then seeing gorgeous mountain views and rapidly shifting to seeing the New England landscape and approaching the door of old friends I hadn’t seen nor heard from in over 20 years. The scene peacefully changed to returning to the CHEC unit and being brought back to waking awareness. The execise seemed like it was 15-20 minutes or so and we alter learned the full exercise was 46 minutes.
The second exercise was one on healing and used the motif of dolphin healing. Maybe it was because it was in that 2pm’ish time in the afternoon and just after lunch when I am often drowsy, but I quickly relaxed and followed the meditation. I felt a peaceful warmth and rest and wholeness. I can’t say that I received a healing after the exercise. I relaxed into the exercise with the intention of seeking healing for the pinched nerve in my neck which occasionally causes tingling and pain down my left arm to my index finger and middle finger. What I can say is that after the exercise, 90% of the time when the tingling kicks in, I can think “Dolphin Heal” — the phrase given to remember the state your brain was in when both hemispheres were stimulated during the exercise — and the tingling subsides within seconds. Much quicker than it lasted before going through the exercise.
Bob Monroe really stressed the non-religious, non-dogmatic, non-doctrinal approach to exploring expanded consciousness and binaural beats and the effects they have in helping stimulate both hemispheres of the brain. In my mind, he is one of those secular saints, seekers, stargazers and fellow pilgrim who should be recognized on this blog for his contribution to helping explore out of body experiences and expanded consciousness. The contributions he and the Monroe Institute continue to make exploring expanded consciousness can only enrich one’s journey — both spiritual, physical and non-physical — here on earth and rather than being contrary to one’s religious journey, can help enrich it more. Monroe passed on March 17, 1995.
In the Angels of the Nativity liturgical calendar, such a profound and dedicated seeker as Robert A. Monroe will be recognized in prayer, love and meditation on the same day as the world remembers St. Patrick. Just as St. Patrick helped conquer Ireland and rid it from snakes — as tradition tells us. Robert Monroe did so much to help humanity understand expanded consciousness and non-bodily consciousness when the world had no framework or words to describe such things.
I look forward to someday enrolling in the Monroe Institute’s Gateway Voyage program, a 6 day residential program, to explore more fully the advances Bob Monroe and the Monroe Institute have made in experiencing expanded consciousness “as a path to creating a life of personal freedom, meaning, insight, and happiness.’