Following the Bread Crumbs
Greetings, Everyone!
It’s funny about life paths. Through a process of careful planning, serendipity, and intuitive leaps we move seemingly forward along our three dimensional routes. Our futures fade into mist, unformed and uncertain, as exponential options unfold in front of us.
However, looking back, we can see how one choice led to another, how a lifetime of connections brought us to the present moment. By following the “breadcrumbs” we can gain clarity about our life purposes.
Lately, I was examining the breadcrumbs marking TMI’s path, noting that each crumb could represent a node in what has become a timeline of
The Monroe Institute. Together, these nodes form the whole.
Without putting too fine a point on it, one could say the first crumb was Bob Monroe’s initial OBE in 1958, arousing his fear and then inspiring his curiosity. His subsequent search for answers (another crumb) drew the attention of engineers, physicists, psychologists, psychiatrists and others. A major crumb was the publication of Journeys Out of the Body, which galvanized a population into exploring the out-of-body state and to “find out for yourselves.”
This is a familiar story to many, so, fast-forwarding a few years, Bob constructed the Whistlefield lab and launched the Explorer Program. A huge crumb represents contact with intelligent nonhuman life. From Far Journeys—
Like most humans, we were possessed with the idea or hope that there had to be intelligent life somewhere among the billions of stars that we could perceive physically. So in our play we took to sending our Explorers out beyond the solar system at what appeared a near-instantaneous change of locale. The instruction was to keep going until he or she perceived something worthwhile. They passed by the other suns, found other planets, but no intelligent life. It seemed to us a sterile universe. The change came in 1974. It took place in all of our Explorers within several weeks. Some had never met one another, so there was no cross-communication. In looking back to examine the reason for this massive change, the only thing that we could find was: we had inserted the affirmation developed for the Gateway Program at the beginning of each experimental session in the lab.
My own breadcrumbs began merging with Bob’s when I was about fourteen years old. The daughter of a Christian mystic/psychic mother, and a deeply Methodist father, I was brought up within a strong religious dynamic. The convergence of religion, spirituality, and metaphysics sparked in me a passion for the esoteric.
Crumb: As his present to me, Bob guides me through an exceptional human experience on my fifteenth birthday. Crumb: Esalen Institute invites Bob to give a program using the newly developed Hemi-Sync®, that launched the M-5000 program, precursor to the GATEWAY VOYAGE. Crumb: the purchase of land and construction of the Institute. Crumb: the publication of Far Journeys. And on and on.
Looking back over that so-far relatively short but amazingly rich timeline, I am charged with excitement about the future of TMI. The breadcrumbs to be are like beautifully wrapped gifts, sparkling with anticipation and secret promise. In the weeks ahead we will reveal some of them to you, so be on the lookout!
Thank you for your good company on our mutual path. In appreciation for all that has brought us where we are today, I dedicate this issue of the newsletter to Breadcrumbs!
To your greatest future,
Nancy H. McMoneagle
Executive Director and President