Effects of Long-Term Participation in TMI Programs, Phase 1

Originally published as, “The Benefits of Long-Term Participation in TMI Programs.”

by Cam Danielson, MA
Spring 2008

Cam is a partner at MESA Research Group. His work focuses on assisting leaders and management teams to revision future direction and opportunity amid the turbulence of personal, organizational, and societal change. His research has appeared in the Academy of Management Executive, Human Resource Development Quarterly, Business Horizons, and the American Benedictine Review. He has designed or conducted executive development programs for companies such as 3M, AT&T, BP, Bristol-Myers Squibb, Crédit Agricole, Dow Chemical, EDS, ExxonMobil, Ingersoll-Rand, Lucent Technologies, Mahindra & Mahindra, Manitowoc, NASA, The Nature Conservancy, Philips Electronics, Prudential (London), Rolls-Royce, Saudi Aramco, Shell International (London), Sara Lee, SUEZ, Whirlpool, and Xerox.

Cam’s background includes twenty years of leading the office of executive education at the Kelley School of Business, Indiana University. He also was a speechwriter for the president of Indiana University and a member of the faculty at the U.S. Air Force Academy. Cam received a BA in classical studies from the University of Kansas and a medieval studies certificate and an MA in English literature from Indiana University. He is an alumnus of The Monroe Institute’s GATEWAY VOYAGE®, GUIDELINES®, LIFELINE™, and EXPLORATION 27® programs (1994 through 2006). Cam attended both the VOYAGE and GUIDELINES twice. He also participated in the American Center for International Leadership U.S.-USSR Exchange Program (1985).

This Phase 1 study was originally published in The Journal as, “The Benefits of Long-Term Participation in TMI Programs.” Subsequently, Cam has completed Phase 2 of the study, which may be seen HERE.

The Monroe Institute (TMI), through its patented sound technology, has demonstrated changes in focused states of consciousness for thousands of individuals over the last thirty years. While ongoing research at the Institute on the nature of different states of consciousness is yielding rich insights into human development, a continuing challenge for the leadership of TMI is to understand how repeated exposure to Hemi-Sync® technology in controlled workshop environments affects the quality of individual lives. Does it have any bearing on the degree of self-efficacy, life satisfaction, and job and career satisfaction? In other words, does repeated exposure to TMI programs increase the capacity of the participants to deal with the demands of their lives in terms of doing meaningful work, developing and supporting mutually rewarding relationships, and acquiring skills and attitudes that provoke continual growth and development?

To address these questions, a study was undertaken to look at the long-term benefits of participation in TMI programs. The study looked at two groups of individuals:

• Those who have attended only the GATEWAY VOYAGE program
• Those who have attended three or more programs

The population for this study was taken from the TMI database, which was automated in 2000. Participants were all found in the automated version, which means they had taken at least one program since 2000. Those with attendance at three or more programs included 75 percent who had taken four or more programs (some dating back to the late 1970s).

An online survey was developed on the following dimensions:

• Demographics (6 items) – gender, age, employment, education, income, race, etc.
• Psychographics (19 items) – job status and transition, family status and transition, number of programs attended, personal objectives for attendance, support or resistance to attendance from family members and/or friends, continuing contact with TMI alumni and facilitators, memorable moments from the program(s), etc.
• Program Effects (37 items) – decision-making effectiveness, outlook on life, interaction with others, job and career satisfaction, stress management, alignment of actions with personal values, work-life balance, ongoing personal development, etc.
• Keirsey-Bates Temperament Sorter (optional – 70 items) – assessing personality characteristics

More than 350 participants from the GATEWAY Only group completed the 132-item questionnaire and more than 330 participants from the Multiple Program group completed the questionnaire.

Findings

Demographics & Psychographics Analysis

Demographic data noted some statistically significant differences between the two groups. A summary of the differences is noted in the graph below:

From a psychographic standpoint, a characteristic of the Multiple Program respondents is their higher degree of curiosity and desire for self-knowledge. This is evident in their reasons for attending TMI, illustrated in the table below. From among the list of choices, respondents were instructed to indicate all that applied to them. The two choices that clearly indicated a difference between the two groups were “curiosity” and “understanding myself better” (together with “learn new skills,” which was marginally higher in that group).

The combination of a higher curiosity and self-development mind-set is a theme I will return to in the conclusion.

Psychological Typology Analysis

The Keirsey-Bates Temperament Sorter (KBTS) is one of several instruments used to measure personality type preference. Modeled after the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI), the KBTS provides a framework for determining predispositions toward favored or natural tendencies in human behavior. Both instruments seek to determine how people consciously prefer to attend to the world, how they choose to perceive that to which they attend, and how judgments are made about those perceptions.

Overall, the two groups are similar in terms of personality on a per-dimension basis. The Multiple Program group is marginally higher on extroversion. Below is a table illustrating the distribution of Dominant Function within the KBTS results compared with global norms. Dominant Function describes the “favorite” process allocated by type. This indicates whether the favorite preference is a perception or judgment function (sensing/intuition vs. thinking/feeling). The Auxiliary Function is the secondary preference. In personality typology language, both are needed for dealing effectively with the world. One takes the lead—a perception function (sensing or intuiting) or a judgment function (thinking or feeling)—and the other balances this orientation.

Extroverts tend to direct their dominant function toward the external world and use their auxiliary function dealing with their internal world. Introverts tend to direct their dominant function toward their internal world and use their auxiliary function dealing with the external world.

Implications for this study are as follows:

TMI graduates as a group are primarily different from global norms in terms of how they like to acquire information. They strongly depend on intuition as the means of discovery and meaning-making, for both their favorite and auxiliary function. One consequence of this orientation is the value placed on imagination and inspiration, which means that TMI graduates tend to be more idealistic and less tolerant of “the way things are.” To reference Robert Pirsig’s Metaphysics of Quality, TMI graduates strongly gravitate toward Dynamic Quality, “the pre-intellectual cutting edge of reality, the source of all things, completely simple and always new.”

Further, given their higher extroversion as a group than the general population, this intolerance is more often directed to the outside world. The resulting friction is the impetus for what Carl Jung described as the transcendent function, “a tension charged with energy that creates a movement out of the suspension between opposites, a living birth that leads to a new level of being.” TMI graduates have a predilection for transformational growth—the radical, vertical leaps in being as opposed to the less risky, more pragmatic, horizontal extensions of being.

A challenge of this orientation is finding effective means for managing the tension between what is and what could be. To look too closely for too long at the limitations in “the way things are,” particularly when tolerance is low to begin with, can create bruised sensitivities, alienation, and despair (symptoms made famous by the Romantic poets). In effect, why would people with this orientation find much to be happy about? It is a question to be returned to in the conclusion.

Program Effects Analysis

Program effects were measured in terms of life satisfaction, job/career satisfaction, quality of life, and overall well-being. A factor analysis of the items in this section of the survey was undertaken to group questions together into subscales based on common response patterns. The analysis determined there were four factors that demonstrated better loading patterns than three-factor or five-factor solutions.

The four factors and their accompanying items are:

1. Personal efficacy

• I am a more effective decision maker.
• I have a more expansive vision of how the parts of my life relate to a whole.
• I am more able to surface issues that others are reluctant to talk about.
• I am more actively involved in my own personal development.
• I have a clear sense of further development I need to accomplish.
• I am more composed under pressure.
• I take actions that are more true to my sense of self.
• I have more balance among my work, my family, and my community.
• I am more able to listen nondefensively to criticism.
• I am able to handle stress more effectively.
• I act on my values more consistently.
• I have interest in new things.
• I have a more open communication with my family.
• I am more productive at work.
• I have developed new friends.
• I have been able to resolve an important issue or challenge in my life.
• I am more confident in my interaction with others.
• I have a clearer sense of purpose in my life.

2. Life satisfaction

• The conditions of my life are excellent.
• The conditions of my life are excellent.
• I am satisfied with my life.
• So far I have gotten the important things in my life.
• In most ways, my life is close to ideal.

3. Job satisfaction

• Most days I am enthusiastic about my work.
• I like my job better than the average worker does.
• I find real enjoyment in my work.
• I am fairly well satisfied with my present job.

4. Career performance

• At work I am viewed by my supervisor as an exceptional performer.
• Compared to other people my age and who are involved in the same occupation or types of work I do, I feel that I am very successful.
• The people I work with would say that I am very successful.
• I feel that my career is progressing very well compared with my peers.

Scale scores were generated averaging the responses that loaded highest on each factor. Each subscale demonstrated high internal reliability (note: alphas greater than 0.7 indicate reliable measures):

1. Personal efficacy – alpha = 0.95
2. Life satisfaction – alpha = 0.9
3. Job satisfaction – alpha = 0.91
4. Career performance – alpha = 0.83

Regression analysis determined the effect of participation in multiple TMI programs on the derived factors, controlling for demographic and personality typology variables. Since the four factors highly correlated with each other, multivariate regression (which controls for the factors’ common variance) was used. Two models were developed due to the fact that the KBTS was optional and there were significant differences between participants who completed these questions in the survey and those who did not. Model 1 (Table 1 in the appendix) excludes personality data and Model 2 (Table 2 in the appendix) includes it.

Overall, the results suggest that individuals who have attended multiple TMI programs experience statistically greater personal efficacy and life satisfaction than those who attended only the GATEWAY program. Although increased attendance at TMI programs appears to be also associated with greater job satisfaction and career performance (see Table 1 in the appendix), these relationships become nonsignificant and marginally significant when personality typology is included in the model (see Table 2 in the appendix). Since extroversion highly relates with all four factors (see Table 2 in the appendix) and multiple session participants tend to be higher in extroversion, the relationship between TMI attendance and job satisfaction and career performance is not clear.

It is interesting to note that on every one of the thirty-seven items loaded on one of the four factors, the percentage of those indicating “strongly agree” was higher for those who had attended three or more programs. To get into the details a bit more, I looked at those items loaded on personal efficacy and have listed those with the highest percentage difference between the two groups and those with the lowest percentage difference (see table below).

To offer an observation, the majority of items with the highest percentage difference are closely aligned with the objectives of TMI programs, whereas the items with the lowest percentage difference are not (to my knowledge) stated objectives of TMI’s educational mission. Therefore the areas with greatest evidence of long-term benefits are consistent with what would be expected.

The eight items with the highest difference are:

Qualitative Analysis and Conclusions

Survey respondents were given the opportunity to describe their most memorable experience at TMI. This open-ended question solicited quite a range of responses, for which I created four categories:

• Mystical Experience – reference to experiences of metanormal functioning
• Personal Learning and Development – reference to lessons learned, insights generated, personal growth/ healing
• Belonging – reference to the value of or connection to others in the program
• Gestalt – reference to the intangibles or indivisibility of the unique features of TMI

There were no restrictions in assignment of comments to categories, and therefore, individual responses could be represented in all four categories. The fact that a majority of comments were represented in more than one category is indicative of the length of responses.

Sample of Respondent Comments in the First Two Categories (in some cases these are merely excerpts)

1. Mystical Experience

GATEWAY Only:

• Finding there was a ghost in my room (seriously!)
• Meeting with a guide of mine
• Hearing the ground drink the rain that fell
• Being shown an image of my Higher Self by my deceased mother
• Seeing huge statues carved out of milk, with fine detail, floating in one area of far space and knowing they were The Dreamers.
• Contact with deceased parents and others
• Awakening a past life
• Having an implant removed by these beings I would never have imagined—and afterwards being pain-free for the first time in a long time
• The walk in the outdoors with trees, stones, animals, etc., “talking” to me
• Remembering how I went to/was the stars as I fell asleep as a child
• Connecting to other participants and facilitators through telepathy

Multiple Programs:

• A non-physical meeting with my family. Very healing.
• Meeting my grandmother for the first time and realizing that she is available to help me.
• In the closing circle we “fell” into a spontaneous silent meditation, an atmospheric Presence moved into the room that was sooooo powerful, tangible, and loving . . . no one said a word or stirred for over two hours.
• The sudden, acute awareness of off-planet entities communicating directly to me, which has caused an irreversible (I wouldn’t want it reversed) personal paradigm shift in my consciousness in how to approach life
• I had an interaction with my son who passed away at birth as a result of an auto accident. It was a beautiful, playful, and deeply emotional experience all at the same time.
• The most meaningful in an on-going way is my discovery of inner guides who regularly provide me with direction for both my inner and outer life.
• Being visited by Mother Mary, who presented me with a long-stemmed black rose and murmured, “I embrace my shadow, for it illuminates my light” (this was seminal, in that it taught me that I need not get rid of anything)
• When I found a piece of myself I didn’t even know was separate from me and desperately trying to get my attention and “come home”
• Being with Spirit/all that is/the divine oneness totally and in the state of bliss
• Having a vision of the woman I would eventually live with 8 years later

2. Personal Learning and Development

GATEWAY Only:

• I am no longer afraid of death and feel more connected to the universe and my fellow creatures and nature.
• I was able to accept my limitations and inner barriers and judgments, and forgive myself for it.
• Feeling myself being able to relax and quiet my mind
• A meeting having cried with oneself of the young time together
• Learning to trust myself and to know myself better
• Realizing how dumb I’ve been
• The first time I was actually aware of being OPEN to the messages that were there for me to hear
• The realization of another frontier of exploration
• The skills I learned to allow me to continue exploration within myself, which have made me a better person
• What I remember most about TMI is awaking to the concept that we, the human race, strongly affect each other with our energy, and that we are responsible for our own energy, as well as responsible for deflecting the energy of others when it is meant to harm.
• Discovering the clown chakra
• Realizing I am still alive

Multiple Programs:

• My increased awareness of the omens in everyday life
• The feeling, presence of knowing that I am loved and have much great support
• Mostly it was the healings and personal lessons learned about myself that were so unexpected, but were so profound. I am a very different person, much more whole than before.
• The day that I found out that my life is nothing more than what I say it is, whatever beliefs I adopt is how life appears to me. And that physicality as I had understood it is an illusion. I wasn’t what I thought I was. Absolutely mind blowing!! I loved it and I am grateful every day.
• TMI helped me heal when I was VERY bruised. I will always be grateful.
• Finding my inner child and having confidence in myself to dance with others
• One part of our purpose here on Earth, or one way to look at it, is to enable God to experience the physical. In my case, hear and enjoy music.
• The subtle changes in me that always follow later
• I became more fully aware of how fear-based I have lived my life. I realized that I often failed to follow my guidance if I was afraid of possible consequences.
• How I learned to love and trust my self
• Letting go of shame
• The release of many unconscious fears
• Rediscovering how love unites all of us

I’ve provided a lengthy sampling in order to demonstrate the rich variety of personalities evoked by the individual responses. While there are many shared and common themes between the two groups, in the end, a distinct qualitative difference exists between the GATEWAY Only and the Multiple Program respondents.

To understand this difference it is important to illustrate the notion of an evolutionary arrow within the dynamic forces of life itself. Growth is a process of adaptation to increasingly higher levels of complexity. The resulting change, however, is not limited merely to an assimilation of new information within an existing frame of reference or state of mental functioning (an adaptation strategy resulting in less radical change is the default position when the degree of complexity in the environment has not increased beyond the means of an existing frame of reference to make sense of it).

When a more radical approach to adaptation is required, i.e., the accommodation of new frames of reference, self-transcendence will be the result if a person is successful in making the adjustment. In essence, the sense of self must emerge from a state of embeddedness in one orientation to acquire a new orientation that includes a degree of objectivity on self and others that had previously been experienced subjectively. For example, the mental framework for becoming a trusting and trustworthy individual is based on recognizing and valuing the needs of others. Identity becomes closely linked to addressing or responding in some way to the needs of those individuals who are valued (loved, admired, respected, etc.) that demonstrates trustworthiness. While this is a necessary step in becoming a healthy, functioning, and contributing member of society, a consequence is the degree of subjectivity regarding one’s sense of self that still exists. For at this stage of development, individuals are defined by their relationships. To transcend this state of being requires a degree of self-awareness that finds direction and guidance from within and not merely from the response of others.

It is important to note that both groups of respondents in this survey have had monumental shifts in how they perceive themselves and the world around them. If I were to try to describe the difference I observed between the GATEWAY Only and Multiple Program respondents, however, I would use words like depth of self-awareness, greater personal disclosure, range of metaphors or references for sharing their experiences, degree of experience with inner exploration, and appreciation for the gifts they have received. In the Personal Learning and Development category, the Multiple Program respondents related to personal healing, overcoming fears, trust in a higher self, and the experience of being loved to a much higher degree. The point is the degree to which the words they used expressed something more integrated into a sense of themselves (more affective in nature rather than merely abstract).

What does this mean? Based on the statistical analysis, which clearly indicates that respondents who have attended multiple programs have a higher degree of self-efficacy and life satisfaction, the answer to the question of how they can be happy, those who have an orientation largely at odds with the way things are in the world, is to say they are at a stage of ego development beyond self-authoring or what may be referred to as self-transforming (to use Robert Kegan’s terminology). Individuals at this stage of development recognize the limitations in any perspective and more willingly engage others for the challenge it poses to their worldview as the means for growing more expansive in their experiences—to consciously grow beyond where they are rather than merely having growth happen to them as a function of circumstances.

This is why so many of these individuals choose to return to TMI. They are more highly motivated by curiosity and self discovery, which was part of their initial experience at TMI and which now fuels further exploration and transformation as a way of making meaning and finding joy in their lives.

The implications are profound for TMI and those interested in playing on the boundaries of human growth and development. For TMI this data can be used to support a long-term development program for individuals who want to see positive change in their lives. The educational mission can become more expansive in terms of linking programs and adding other services—such as assessment and coaching—to support individual development needs.

While further research is necessary for understanding the nature and contributing elements of various stages in human development, the foundation has been laid with this study to create a long-term research agenda on the benefits of TMI programs in the lives of graduates.

Appendix

Download a PDF of the full study HERE.

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