Text No. 3
Welcome! This is the 24th and final tape in the “Explorer” series. In the future, we will continue when construction of our new research laboratory is complete and we can combine a new group of explorers with our longtime participants. In this concluding overview, we decided to do several things.
First of all, to describe the conditions in our laboratory—the environment from which the “Explorer” materials emerged. The first step is to choose a location sufficiently removed from large concentrations of people, such as a city. We cannot prove that some kind of “interference” factor really operates in such concentrations of human mental conflict (there are too many variables), but all our subjects show much better results in suburban or rural surroundings. Perhaps it is due to the relaxing effect of proximity to nature and fresh air, but the difference proved so significant that we located both the laboratory and the entire Institute in the countryside.
Our building usually contains several chambers with adjustable environmental parameters. They serve several purposes:
- To eliminate as many potential stimuli for the subject as possible. By removing them and then reintroducing them one at a time, we determine which factors actually affect the thought process and the state of “beingness.”
- We control the five basic senses: light, sound, air, temperature, humidity… and, finally, touch. For tactile experiments, we used soft waterbeds and even a local anesthetic for the entire body. However, once the “Explorer mode” was reached, most of these measures became irrelevant.
- We significantly reduced incoming radio and magnetic radiation by shielding the chambers. This also had a noticeable effect. The reverse experiment—introducing RF fields not found in nature—was similarly intriguing. Both avenues deserve further study.
Near the chambers is our “control room,” connected to them by numerous wires and cables. It contains all the sensitive equipment needed for:
- receiving data and information from the Explorer in the chamber;
- introducing various signals into the chamber as needed.
From the very beginning, we sought to obtain an EEG recording—that is, electrical recordings of the subject’s brain activity—as well as monitor the body’s basic parameters (heartbeat, breathing, temperature, blood pressure, etc.). Sometimes it took an hour just to connect all the sensors. Over time, we found that most of the information we needed about the state of consciousness was well reflected in the body’s overall voltage—even tiny changes, much subtler than the galvanic skin response. So we retained this method, which required only 2–3 electrodes, saving both time and the operators’ energy.
Explorers.
The first volunteers were selected from whoever was available and willing: from clinical psychologists and physicists to secretaries and farmers. Later, we began using special tests to select those who seemed most potentially suitable, although the accuracy of these methods is debatable. The prevailing view now is that anyone can become an “Explorer” if they are prepared to approach the self-regulation of values seriously—something that requires time and great patience, qualities few people possess.
The session process.
Each session was scheduled by appointment, so there was usually only one “Explorer” in the laboratory at a time. There was almost no social contact, and the participants did not know one another, so the risk of informational “cross-contamination” was low. An interesting case involved one female explorer who usually came on Wednesdays at five o’clock and, as always, arrived with her four assistants. One day she suddenly canceled her session, and we forgot about her. That evening, another woman psychologist came in, asked for a tour, and we let her into the booth “just to try it.” Ten minutes later, a question came through her microphone: “Isn’t someone supposed to be here with me?” “No,” we replied. “That’s strange,” she said. “There are four people here with me, and two of them are arguing about whether to pull me out of my body.” And then it dawned on me: it was five past five—we had forgotten about the actual explorer’s session and her four assistants! This kind of “replica” reminded us that the assistants really do perceive time; otherwise, why would they have appeared during those particular few minutes…
As you know, the “Explorer tapes” are merely an audio track of dialogues between the Explorer in the isolation chamber and the operator. Biological indicators were recorded in parallel for subsequent analysis. No drugs or medications were used in any of the sessions. Most of each session consisted of ordinary research—tedious and difficult. For the audio release, we selected only fragments that were:
- interesting in general (not too personal),
- long enough to establish a topic,
- clear in sound and free of interference.
An example of a technical experiment with TC.
— “I suggest alternating a lower tone with a higher one in binaural rhythms, making 4-Hz ‘oscillations’ up and down to create a peculiar ‘warbling’ sound”… We discussed which ‘waveform’ (sine, square, sawtooth) would be best and decided that the frequency itself was less important than the speed of traversing the range—4 Hz; then resonance would create the desired experience. Now we do something similar with amplitude, whereas back then we did it with frequency. Once the subject’s stable “theta range” has been established, additional modulation does not destroy the primary theta mode, but opens up new sublevels and “substates” within it.
The “tapes” also contain short, unrelated excerpts, but they show that talking about the mind means talking about circuits, the brain’s “boards,” formed by endless energetic “bombardments” of one another, from which the mind emerges “circuit by circuit.”
A final visit with Miranon.
— “I have moved to another level… Now you can potentially harmonize all the physical forces that have caused you suffering. Remember: you are carried by a continuous pulse, and it is important to feel both of its polarities…”
— “Words are not enough… But I feel clarity about what I must do… I sense a greater harmony among the consciousnesses that make up my ‘self.’ I began this even before the ‘transition,’ but I did not understand the full scale of the task… A certain gentle sadness arose at saying goodbye to the body, but I know that in time I will grow accustomed to the changes… My world is completely different now; I barely have a body and feel very light… Everything around me vibrates in gentle, beautiful shades…”
— “Is it difficult for you to return?”
— “Very… Lanna is also on the threshold of change; she still has to resolve her inner conflict, and the value of contact for her depends on it. And I feel peaceful here and am glad that I can share this with both of you…”
An irrefutable conclusion:
We are witnessing the product of science, technology, training, and knowledge—a technology for leaving the body and interacting with other levels of reality, so far beyond our current understanding that it inspires both awe and bewilderment.
All the “Explorers” are alive and well, and of course such an experience has changed their lives forever. We are firmly convinced that anyone can become an “Explorer” who is prepared to shift their consciousness and accept at least the possibility that they are not merely a physical body, but also energy in systems extending beyond time, space, and matter. That they can reach and communicate with other levels of intelligence—the Higher “Self,” the soul, Guides, Angels, non-classical friends, loved ones, or God.
Let each person determine their own highest truth. And do not forget: I, Robert Monroe, am always glad to meet again. See you!