Gateway and Hemi-Sync
Now that we have briefly profiled the basic mechanics of the principal techniques for altering or expanding consciousness which share some of the objectives and/or methods employed in the Gateway Experience, we may proceed to focus on what that technique actually involves. Fundamentally, the Gateway Experience is 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, moving it outside the physical sphere so as to ultimately escape even the restrictions of time and space. The participant then gains access to the various levels of intuitive knowledge which the universe offers. What differentiates the Gateway Experience from forms of meditation is its use of the Hemi-Sync technique which is defined in a monograph by Monroe Institute trainer Melissa Jager as, “a state of consciousness defined when the EEG patterns of both hemispheres are simultaneously equal in amplitude and frequency.”
Although Hemi-Sync seems to be rather rare and of only short duration in ordinary human consciousness, Melissa Jager states that: “Audio techniques developed by Bob Monroe can induce and sustain Hemi-Sync with the Institute’s basic Focus 3 tapes….” She also notes that:
Studies conducted by Elmer and Alyce Greene at the Menninger Foundation have shown that a subject with 20 years of training in Zen meditation could consistently establish Hemi-Sync at will, sustaining it for over 15 minutes.
Dr. Stuart Twemlow, a psychiatrist and a research associate of the Monroe Institute, reports that:
In our studies of the effect of the Monroe tape system on brainwaves, we have found that the tapes encourage the focusing of brain energy(it can be measured as with a lightbulb, in watts) into a narrower and narrower ‘frequency band’. This focusing of energy is not unlike the yoga concept of one pointedness, which we may translate in western terms as a single-mindedness.
Dr. Twemlow goes on to observe that as the individual gets into the tapes beyond Focus 3, “…there is a gradual increase in brainwave size which is a measure of brain energy or power.”
Biofeedback
The third consciousness altering methodology which will be briefly described is biofeedback. Biofeedback is somewhat unique in that it actually employs the self-cognitive powers of the left hemisphere to gain access to such areas of the right brain as the lower cerebral, motor and sensory cortices and assorted pain or pleasure centers. Instead of suppressing the left hemisphere as is done in hypnosis, or largely bypassing and ignoring it as is done in transcendental meditation, biofeedback teaches the left hemisphere first to visualize the desired result and then to recognize the feelings associated with the experience of successful right hemisphere access to the specific lower cerebral, cortex, pain or pleasure or other areas in the manner needed to produce the desired result. Special self-monitoring devices such as the digital thermometer are used to inform the left brain when it succeeds in keying the right hemisphere into accessing the appropriate area. Once this is done, the left brain can then repeatedly instruct the right brain to reestablish the pathways involved so as to produce the same external, objective measures of success. In this way, the pathways are strengthened and emphasized to such an extent that left brain consciousness is enabled to access appropriate areas in the right brain using a conscious, demand mode.
Lamp vs Laser
Melissa Jager uses a metaphor to help clarify the process involved in the use of Hemi-Sync in the Gateway Experience. She points out that the human mind in its natural state may be likened to an ordinary lamp which expends energy in the form of both heat and light but in a chaotic, incoherent way which diffuses its energy over a wide area of rather limited depth.